Any tips or other places I should learn from or is over for me?
hey man, glad to hear you're interested in learning guitar. I'm high as hell and feelin nice so I'm gonna diarrhea up this thread for a minute meaning an hour and anyone gonna whine that I wrote a damn novella is warned
I've been really getting into it the past year or so. caveat that obviously ymmv, but I'm a doofy old guy who hangs out with doofy old guys, most of play and have guitars. and playing music with a buddy(s) is awesome, even if it's simple sht like the outline of a song you all know. and before I started typing this, I spent an hour getting lit and ripping out sick loud guitar scorches because I knew my neighbors weren't home. so playing solo is fun as hell too
the first thing I say is that it’s really hard to start out as a beginner on a cheap acoustic. the strings probably suck and the ‘action’ (which means the distance between the strings and the fingerboard) is gonna be murder because I’ll bet it’s high as hell. which means you’re having to press the strings down harder to get to the fingerboard which cuts into your baby’s bottom fingers and so they hurt. it’s just part of the battle, you endure butthurt fingertips the first couple weeks, there’s no getting around it, no solution, you just persevere if you want to
text exchange with my son
I don’t know how much you’re willing to spend or what budget is, but man it is so much easier to learn guitar on electric than acoustic. in my opinion, the immediate return on investment with electric is so much higher. they are easier to play, it is easier to play simple sht that still sounds good or good-ish. they’re usually smaller than the bulky woody acoustics, though that may not be a benefit depending on your size. I just find it so much easier to start on an electric. the action is going to be way lower, it’ll be easier to learn to play notes then chords then scales, and electrics hide weakness or flubs much better than acoustics where every bum note is dropping dong on the table
the downside is you also have to get and buy and have stuff. you’re probably more likely to throw your acoustic into the back seat than throw your electric, and your amp, and your cables, and your power connection, and your pedals (when you get there, and you will). acoustics are simple. see guitar, grab, play. electrics gotta be all set up and plugged in and cables running back and forth
but they bring the sickness because you can play acoustic-ish, you can get funky with some reverb, you can rock the crunch, and you can noise the MF out. starting out on an acoustic, you’re the indigo girls
I’m in a big city so I’m able to cruise craigslist music instruments every day and there’s hundreds of new great deals for epiphones or squiers, both very good guitars for low prices, so that’s great for me but may not be applicable to your area if its montana or some fool place. if you were willing to spend $500, you could get a quality electric, a perfectly fine amp, cable, strap, picks, you’re done (for now, LOL)
end of rant. but if you want to learn by yourself, doing so on a cheap acoustic will require a very high level of commitment with little reward for weeks if you’re playing daily, months if not that. I just think it’s gonna be hard. conversely, getting an electric can be fun as fukk within like 15 minutes of plugging in the first time
I thought this was a pretty good guide for finger injury
https://www.grokit-live.com/post/how-to-relieve-finger-pain-on-the-guitar-for-beginners
I thought I had a million other things to bellow about but I’ve either run out of content or out of gas and besides I need to re-up. I’ll probably come write follow-up thoughts because I don’t have a lot goin on right now lol