I want to learn to play guitar!!

[NYRhockey23]

Ok so i want to learn to play acoustic guitar, real bad. I think it's the most awesome musical instrument. I dont know of any guitar lessons in my area, and even if i did, there's a good chance they'd be out of my budget since those seem to usually be expensive.

Can anyone recommend self-teaching books? I'm totally new to the guitar world. I took like 2 lessons when i was a kid, maybe 10 yrs old, but i quit because i'm lefty and they said i had to switch the strings upside down (meaning cord 1 goes where cord 6 is and so on), so i didnt continue. I remember the lady saying i'd have to learn backwards because im lefty? NOt sure if this will affect how easy i learn it.

Any helpful advice on how to learn is greatly appreciated.

[kuju]

couldn't one, technically, just string the guitar in the opposite way? Just turn the entire guitar around, and still string it so that the base strings are near the 'top' and so on? without the strings an accoustic guitar is (fairly) symmetrical, except for some detail work on some.

[Kuky]

Yeah don't worry about being a lefty, it happens to the best of us. The lefty crusades are long behind us, so you can come out of the closet, you won't be kicked out of the guitar shop :). You can probably get a guitar that's optimized for lefties (e.g. if you want one with a cut-away, you will want a lefty one, but I'm sure they exist, ask at a store or search online). Or you can just restring it, flipping the strings. The lady who told you to learn backwards is weird :lol:.

As for lessons, if you can't find any places, there are lots of free online resources you can start with:

http://guitar.zentao.com/

They have a forum, and a set of lessons that are relatively well-explained.

Of course, with the MPA having shoved the latest pineapple up their asses, many of the great tab sites out there are shutting down. But anyway, I recommend you download PowerTab, which is a tool that lets you write tablature. Many tab sites will provide their stuff in PT format, which means you can listen to them and determine whether they're accurate without having to try playing them yourself first :). It's a really useful tool in general (I use it as a metronome haha).

[AllHailTheThief]

I'm a lefty and I've learned to play right-handed.

As far as stringing it backwards I had a hard time cuz the little slots on the neck near the head don't accomodate strings that are different sizes.

[Crash Override]

You don't "have" to learn left-handed guitar if you don't want to. I'm left-handed, and I learned righty guitar simply because as a musician it makes things easier; you can pick up anybody else's guitar and just start playing it. With lefty guitars, you're restricted to pretty much your own guitar.
You can buy left-handed guitars if you really want to; generally I'd recommend against just restringing a righty guitar upside-down (especially with an acoustic) because there are parts of the guitar that also need to be flipped (bridge, etc), and that isn't nearly as easy to do on acoustic as it would be with electric.

http://guitar.about.com has some decent beginner lessons.

Generally I found that the most difficult thing about playing a regular guitar as a left-handed person was strumming with my right hand; it made the learning curve a little steeper for me in the beginning, but I think it was worth it in the end.

[NYRhockey23]

I doubt i'd be able to learn to play guitar righty. It just feels so awkward when i've held one. There's a guitar center near my house, so i want to go and look at guitars and ask about a lefty one.

Thanks for the replies, they've been very helpful.

[NYRhockey23]

Oh yea, another quick question: How long did it take you guys to learn to play guitar well?

I went to one of the links someone provided here and read the first lesson (havent bought a guitar yet) and it looks pretty hard.

[Lone_Raider]

Oh yea, another quick question: How long did it take you guys to learn to play guitar well?

I went to one of the links someone provided here and read the first lesson (havent bought a guitar yet) and it looks pretty hard.

To play well, meaning a few songs without fumbling all over looking for strings? Well I started playing 7 years ago and had a 3 year break in there so its tough to remember, but I think it was like 6 - 8 months or so before I could play a few songs well without a serious problem. It took much longer and a lot of practice before I could figure out songs on my own without looking up tabs, and it took longer for me to develop the dexterity to play more elaborate guitar solo's.

Really it depends how much you practice and how much commitment you have. It's real easy to play for a few months, still suck, then quit. Hell I even got kind of decent then quit because I hit a block in my progression and wasn't willing to practice or learn more to get better. Just stick with playing, and know that you WILL, get better.

And don't start by learning scales, or individual chords, start with a song you like that's easy as it will be more fun and you can pick up some chords. You can grab tabs anywhere on the net, I use this site (http://www.guitartabs.cc/). That way you have a tangible result, and you can learn more chords and scales later on.

[AllHailTheThief]

I'm telling you, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd should be everybody's starter song. It's the first song I learned to play and it's terribly easy.

But really there's lots of really simple songs that have no more than 3 chords in 'em. You can learn to play off the net really.

[Lone_Raider]

I'm telling you, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd should be everybody's starter song. It's the first song I learned to play and it's terribly easy.

I think the first song I ever learned back in 1998 when I started playing was either Hotel California by The Eagles (the basic chords, not the solo's) and then Self Esteem by The Offspring. They were close together, might have learned them at the same time? Then I went onto Nirvana, and when I learned the solo from Teen Spirit I thought I ruled lol. I remember cranking up my 30 watt amp really high and blasting out the solo for hours, yep, my neighbors and parents loved it! lol