My regards to the community. I already have a taste of music as I played Saxophone for 6 years and sang in choir for 5. I want to have my fingers going on an acoustic guitar. I already own 2. . I was wondering if anyone could tell me a good way to start out. What should I be doing, etc... That kind of stuff. Any advice would be great.

Thanks

timjac,

Welcome. More than anything else, learn where the notes are on your neck/fretboard.

6th (biggest string, standard tuning) = E
5th = A (440Hz, , standard tuning)
4th = D
3rd = G
2nd = B
1st (smallest string) = E (two octaves up from the open 6th string)

Each fret is a half step or semitone. The 12th fret is the octave of the open string.

Some private lessons, even one or two to get started, would do wonders for your skills in the short term.

I'd recommend learning some basic scales and a few open chords to start. Start with the Major scale and the minor or pentatonic minor and/or blues scale. Think of the Major scale as the "Do- a deer, ..." Julie Andrews number from The Sound of Music. Since you have some years of sax and vox under your belt you have a leg up on having some music knowledge working in your favor.

The one thing I'd recommend is to realize that while the sax and other instruments are fairly logical in their layout and function, the guitar is not. But, once you get the hang of chord positions and the relative positions of notes on the neck, you'll be able to feel more confident in your playing. The C-A-G-E-D system of learning chords and how they can tie the entire neck together is a cool way to learn relatively quickly how things lay out, but may not be for everyone.

Regardless of what you do, and I am sure you know this from your past music experience, the only real teacher is practice, practice, practice... And then practice some more.

peace.

If you're not put off by the title, "Little Kids Rock" are free guitar tutorials and notes worth checking out in itunes! I've been recommending them to my teenage students.

hmmm... I remember getting a 50 beatles hits songbook with chords.. it was difficult but knowing the music and attempting to play gave me a reference point instead of trying to play "Red River Valley" or some other pointless tune. So.. find the music that motivated you to start and go for it. Eventually, you will develop calluses and your fingers won't hurt so much. Also, get an electronic tuner and use it before you pick up your guitar to play.. then you will know it's you and not the guitar that sounds out of tune. Enjoy!!

My own past, then I started with the "Bouree by Johann Sebastian Bach", moved to Leo Brouwer, Ragtime,
Stride Piano and back to Manhattan Transfer, i.e, Joe Pass, Tuck Andress, Pat Metheny
Just follow your own melody

Thanks "Decaonblue", Very nice tips you have given, it's also useful for newbie to play "Acoustic Guitar"

This post has been edited by mischool: Thu 28 May 2009, 11:38

mischool,

Thanks for the kind words. Years of experience. Years of making mistakes in the process. If you don't learn something from it, then you're not paying enough attention.

And, I agree completely, start off on a good acoustic if you want to play electric.

peace.

Acoustic guitar lends itself to several types of playing; bare finger style including classical and flat picking. Flat picking includes basic strumming and more articulated picking. That's mostly the right hand, assuming you're playing right-handed.

With the left hand, you're working on chords, notes, fills or transitions between them.

Some keys are easier to play in than others because of the way the note lay out on the finger board. The keys of A, C, D, E and G are easiest.

Many people have some difficulty getting the F major chord because it requires that you hold all six strings down with the index finger in what is called a bar chord.

There are chord inversions. A first position G chord can be played two or three additional ways in different places up the neck. These additional ways of playing the chord are called inversions because the notes are played in a different order than the first position chord.

You can pretty much find the lyrics and chords on any song you want on the internet by googling the name and the word "chords." Find a few songs you really like put the hard ones aside and concentrate on learning the 3-4 chord songs until you get the hang of it and build on that.

Here's me doing some finger style stuff. http://www.vimeo.com/2334535

Regards,

Ty Ford

"The keys of A, C, D, E and G are easiest." Ty is correct in that these keys are the easiest. Bb's, F and Eb never seemed to give me that "folk acoustic" feel I was looking for and were difficult to achieve. However, songs written in these keys can be easily achieved using a device called a capo. A capo clamps on the neck and helps to transpose the key to either play along with the original or to play with other musicians who might only be able to play in a certain key(harmonica players).
La bamba, Hang on Sloopy etc, for example, are songs with three chords (C,F,G). You can play them in the first position using those foundation chords. But with a capo on the third fret, playing those same chords transpose or change the key to Eb, Ab, Bb.
For me, the Beatles songbook helped push me forward. My neighbor and I mangled the Beatles for years and as bad as it sounded, we knew that we could approximate where the song was going by following those chord diagrams. Find music you really like and that will motivate you to reach the end of that piece of sheet music. Good luck!
Mak