Right now I am learning/re-learning how to play the guitar. I know most of the basic chords and a couple scales, but I decided to take a different route this time around.

I'm going to build up my finger strength playing bar chords. For most of the time I played guitar I tried to avoid them, but seeing as how there are a lot of nice sounding bar chords, I don't think that was a very good idea.

Starting again with bar chords not only broadens my horizon, but it also helps build up a lot of strength in my fingers. I can tell that I'm not used to them because my hand was left cramped up just switching from a B to a G#m.... For all you experts out there you are probably laughing at me! haha

How did you learn guitar, or for those of you who don't know, do you want to learn?

Started playing guitar when I was 15. Before that I had already been playing piano for some years so I already knew a bit about music.

The first things I did was to learn the basic chords, and then go over to some basic scales (pentatonic, major, minor, harmonic minor etc), and just mess around. If you get these down you can play most songs with basic melodies. Later I learned hammer-ons and pull-offs, alternate picking, tremolo picking and sweep picking bla bla. I never took lessons myself, so I'm pretty much entirely self-taught. I read a lot about guitar and music though, so I would avoid bad habits, and learn the techniques properly, so that I wouldn't mess up anything during my development as a guitarist.

Bar chords can be a pain in the beginning, especially since you have to develop some finger strength in order to pull them off properly. This will take time, but once you get it down you'll start to wonder why you never were able to do it earlier. Now it's the easiest thing ever.

Nowadays I play a whole lot of different genres: Rock, metal, jazz, folk, acoustic pieces. I play music from many genres and different decades. Focusing solely on one genre would get boring quickly.

I love music, both music theory and its history. I play guitar and piano (have a bass as well), and I just love playing them. I have no real musical ambitions, so I'm just a recreational musician. Through out the years I've grown to become quite the skilled musician though, but I only crave more knowledge. Music is definitely one of my favorite hobbies, and a big part of my life.

A dream would be to become a composer one day though. That's as far as musical ambition go.

I guess that is a very very quick summary of me story as a guitarist.

I started playing the guitar eight years ago. I started with Acoustic, then moved to Electric, now I play all three types (Electric, Acoustic, Classical).

I started out with simple melodies at that age, like "Jingle Bells", and then moved on to simple chords like "C" and "D". Power Chords with the electric guitar came later, then palm mutes, scales, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bar chords, complex chords, fast alternate picking, fastpicking (yes, there's a difference between these two), etc. Getting good at all of these steps can take anywhere from six months to a multiple years, depending on how naturally the instrument comes to you, and how much you practice. After that, you can use all of that knowledge and experience to play and/or write difficult songs, and after years of doing those things, you become a master at all of these techniques.

I've been playing Guitar for a little over a year now, been teaching myself along the way. Though I have been slacking off for a bit, and I don't see this becoming anything major in my life of course.

I started straight with Electric, and damn it was.. It was hard. I will admit I almost wanted to give up at many points but didnt, although now I'm really... Really slacking. My amp is broken.

The first song I learnt on guitar was Time of your Life by Greenday.

After a couple of strumming songs I learnt Classical Gas, which is a fun song, at 16 I learnt Cliffs of Dover. I'd list all the songs I know but I don't want to seem like some kind of ass.

I play with the clawhammer technique that Mark Knopfler uses, because I kept losing picks and Knopfler is my guitar idol.

I haven't really learnt any songs lately due to my electric guitar breaking. But I am definently going to get back into it once I save up enough to get an actual brand name guitar.
I tried starting a band and writing songs, but I can't sing to save myself and no-one in my area listened to the kind of music I was into.

I'd reccomend getting an acoustic. It strengthens your fingers a lot and is a lot more work to get a good sound out of. Nylon is a bit easier on the fret fingers than steel string acoustic and is good for finger picking technique. Also when you jump from acoustic to electric your playing ends up sounding way better without any work.

First of all wow... People who spend so much on guitar are very inspiring. I am a natural drummer and switching to guitar is very hard. I sometimes find myself spacing out while beating out a rhythm on the guitar. haha. It will take time, but I will get there.


I know a few people start out on electric because they wanted to go straight to shredding (some even saying they want to become a Hendrix overnight. psh.... ya). A couple older ones told me that they wish they started out on acoustic to get the basics down first. I don't know what your situation but have you ever thought about trying out an acoustic? I'm sorry about your amp... It is really annoying when those things break... I remember when my dad's broke. He wasn't very happy for awhile.