How to learn guitar without throwing it out the window (Gibson Acoustic Guitars)

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	Gibson Acoustic Guitars
Date:	22/01/03 (9422 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They look and sound cool, its very stress relieving after the initial pain and frustration, You can learn to play on your own easily

Disadvantages: Until you get your calluses it hurts like hell, Theyre fairly expensive, Learning to play is maddening

I am currently around the beginner-plus level of playing guitar. I know a fair amount of the major chord shapes and can tune by ear (although this is probably due more to my musical theory training than any particular prowess on guitar). I may not be equipped yet to write an op on learning how to play guitar, but I’m trying to provide a different perspective- that of a novice player. I decided to take a different approach than most of the other reviews in this section, by concentrating on how to choose a guitar and my thoughts on learning to play.

Why guitar?

Guitar is, apparently, the most popular instrument to learn. First of all, they look cool. Even your basic acoustic, or Fender Squier looks cool, while anyone who’s seen a genuine sunburst Les Paul (sorry to go on, but I adore these guitars), or a Gibson SG with its cool devil-horn look, will agree that some guitars are beautiful, stunning, downright sexy or of all of the above.

Another great thing about the guitar is its delightful sound. Be it the gentle strumming of an acoustic or the ominous roar of an effects laden Gibson, they sound fantastic. What’s more, their popularity in music is obvious, whether you love metal, indie, or eighties cheese rock; guitars will obviously play a massive part. Even if you like pop music. You poor bastard.

If you’ve decided guitar is the instrument for you, good on ya, you couldn’t pick a better one, although cellists, drummers (except me) flutists etc, may argue otherwise.

Picking a guitar

Most experts will tell you that it makes more sense to learn to play on an acoustic before getting acquainted with an electric. No one has ever bothered to tell me why, I just took their word for it. Perhaps its because an acoustic has a smaller financial outlay, all you need is the guitar, a few plectrums and a good tutor, or book, CD or video to learn, whereas an electric needs an amp, leads and so o

n.

Having said that, I find, because electrics tend to have a lighter string gauge, they can be softer on string virgin fingers. But its easy to remedy if you fancy an acoustic, just buy a pair of light strings- and spend the next three weeks trying to figure out how to change them.

Anyway, if you’ve decided to go with an acoustic guitar, your first consideration is whether to go for a steel string or a classical. On a steel string, the lower strings are bronze wound, and the upper are plain steel (perfect for cutting viciously into innocent little finger pads), on a classical, the upper strings are nylon. Obviously the type of music you wish to play will determine this.

The second consideration is the cost, and there are two schools of thought on this, the first usually coming from economical types and laymen. That is, that it doesn’t make sense to shell out a lot for a guitar until you know whether it is for you. This is a fair point, as most guitarists usually find one guitar isn’t enough, they want more and more.

The second school of thought is that if you’re going to buy one, you might as well get a good one. A well-made guitar is easier to play and sounds much better, so might encourage you to stick in and get really good. Also, an expensive guitar is a real investment, as they don’t lose value if they are well looked after, in fact it may well increase.

My own acoustic guitar is at the lower end of the Fender spectrum, it cost £150. At that amount you are probably shelling out for a decent and well-made guitar. You can get a full-size guitar for as little as £60, and top of the range models go well into the thousands. My advice for complete beginners is do not go over £300, or under £100. Also, avoid beginners “packs” of the type available in some non-specialist stores, such as Argos. I’ve found they tend to not be very sturdy, and don’t sound great. A thi
rd po
int, if you are going for a second-hand guitar, you REALLY need to get someone knowledgable to go with you.

Basic checks to perform on an acoustic guitar (new guitars should not have these problems, but check anyway)

First of all, novices should take a experienced player along with them, who will be able to determine whether to guitar sounds good, and whether there are any problems with action and so on.

The first check of your prospective guitar should be that the fretboard and body are warp-free; otherwise the intonation (how in tune the guitar is in general) will suck. To test this out, place your cheek against the body of the guitar and look along to see that the fretboard is flat. Check along the side of the neck too, it should be straight. This may not be instantly obvious, but the metal strings exert a great deal of pressure on the neck and can cause it to bow. Guitars have a truss rod inserted to prevent this from happening, but an ill-adjusted one will be useless (for this reason, if you ever move to a heavier string gauge, you should get your truss rod adjusted).

The wood on new guitars should be free of dings (ie, deep scratches or little holes) on the surface.

If you play a note on the 12th fret, it should be exactly one octave higher than a tuned open string. If you don’t have an ear for music yet, this is where your expert comes in handy.

Next, you should check the action (the height of the strings from the fretboard) is a good balance, another job for your expert. High action is very painful to play especially in acoustics, and low action creates fret buzz. Action is adjustable, but you should ask your shop to do this, for the time being.

Sustain is the length a note sounds until it fades away. Play every note on the fingerboard to ensure the sustain is broadly equal, or get your expert to do it. Short sustain is good for chordy playing long sustain is good for single-no
te soloing
. To begin with your better going for a guitar that sustains fairly well, unless you have no ambitions beyond being the next Grant Nicholas or Nick Valensi.

Lastly, try a few different guitar shapes until you find one that is comfortable. Big-bottomed guitars look and sound good, but can be terribly difficult for small people, and beginners to play. The shape of your guitar, however, is a totally individual choice, you need to find one you like the look and feel of.

You will also need

A dust cover, bag, or case. You can get soft, slip covers to place over the guitar, or a soft guitar bag will come in useful now and later in your guitar-playing career. Do not let your guitar get dusty, too hot, too cold or damp. If you will be travelling about a lot, or if you are planning on moving, a heavy-duty guitar case with a metal inside and a soft inside, or at least a hard plastic shell-case, is a must. Be warned, the former can cost up to as much as the guitar, and will destroy anything they come into contact with, but if you are travelling soon by boat or plane, they are essential because luggage people do not heed “fragile” signs and are likely to shove your beloved Takamine or Fender under piles of whatever else might happen to be on board.

Several plectrums. They cost next to nothing, so choose a large variety of shapes, sizes, materials and thicknesses. Most guitarists tend to favour heavy, thick plectrums, especially if they go in for single note soloing (due to the sharp sound), but I found a very soft, flexible plec easier to learn with as you can ensure you are striking all the strings without catching any too strongly (you can work on right hand technique later).

Spare strings. A good set by Fender, Gibson or another well-known company will set you back at least £6.00. You can buy them singly in some places but its good to have a few spare sets lying around. Stick to a medium or light gauge a
t first, they a
re easier on the fingers. If you buy them in bulk boxes you will save a good deal of money. As with the guitar keep them in a place that doesn’t get extremes of temperature or a lot of moisture or excessive sunlight.


Learning to play (or, the downside)

Learning to play guitar is the most infuriating thing in the world, with learning 4-way coordination on a drum kit coming a close second, and training an obstinate puppy coming third. While the last two don’t usually hurt unless you have a pet akita learning to play the guitar is likely to make you squeal with pain. Of course, the reason for that is the fretting of notes with the left hand. This is no exaggeration here, the pain can be blinding, so much that your fingers will pop reflexively away from the strings, your wrists and fingers will be stiff and achy, and your fingertips will probably fall off.

Naturally, your soft finger pads aren’t made to play guitar, and the most taxing job they usually have is typing or holding a pen. The indentations from the strings are likely to stay imprinted in your fingers for an hour or so after, and you will probably feel a tingling or burning sensation when using your fingers to type or write just after using them for fretting notes. While I was breaking my fingertips in, I found that they were insensitive, almost numb, for the entire duration of the weeks I had to go through (except when I played and they began to hurt again) until my calluses developed. The whole fingertip problem is aggravated in a few ways…

1.When playing chords, if you hear a string make a buzzing noise, or sound muted, you either have to move your fingertip (which makes your muscles scream with pain), or press EVEN HARDER until you get the right sound. This is likely to make your already protesting fingers go on strike.

2. The majority of people will learn to play right handed guitar, and to be honest, your weake
r left hand will not
be used to being put under that kind of strain. To me, it would make more sense for right-handed people to play left-hand guitars (although they’d be called right handed I suppose). Being left handed and using a regular right-hander, I found it a little easier and progressed quicker than a right-handed person might. So if you are left handed, try out right hand playing before you reverse it, you will probably find it easier, although some never get used to it- and famous left handed players have included Kurt Cobain and Hendrix, so you’re in fine company.

3. Not only will your finger pads hurt, your hand muscles will ache as well. Remember, do not play until you cannot bear the pain, its only going to put you off and might even damage your hand. If you feel tingling or numbness during playing, stop immediately. The only thing you should feel is pain, if that is any comfort; the tingling and numbness come after. Practising for ten or twenty minutes every day is better than playing once a week til your hands bleed, it will not make you better faster, it will only put you off and rust your strings (LOL), also, the 20-minutes a day approach will toughen your fingers up faster. By the time your calluses develop, you should be able to move smoothly between a few chords, and this will be made easier when you can’t feel pain anymore.

Quite apart from the pain, learning chords is infuriating. Your muscles will refuse to stay put, you will need to crane your neck to find the frets, counting from the nut of the guitar, and making the chords sound properly with no fret buzz is a nightmare at first. Every time you move from one chord shape to another you will need to pause and adjust your fingers until the chord sounds good. Besides this, you have the whole nightmare of remembering chord shapes, its really hard at first to remember what finger goes where, and which is the exact right spot to hit (this may sound famil
iar to many lads reading
this, if you know what I mean J).

Then, just when you think you’ve got it right, a string will snap (which is bloody dangerous by the way, I’ve nearly been blinding by marauding upper E strings many a time) and you’ll need to figure out how to attach a new one (another annoying, fiddly job).

What with the pain, your natural inner child screaming “I WANT E-FLAT DIMINISHED NINTH NOW!!!!!!!!!” Before you can play an A, your having to pause every two second and the obligatory whos-strangling-a-cat comments, the time will come many times in the first few months that you want to throw your guitar out of the window onto the nearest townie, and the time will come again in more advanced times when you are learning something more complicated, or when your breaking your pinkie finger into chord-playing (that’s a whole new threshold-crossing pain).

The great bits

The feeling you get when you finally master your first chords, your first song, or when your war wounds (calluses) arrive, is unbeatable. All the pain, frustration and the neighbour’s horror will be worth it when you’ve mastered the basics. And once you have got tough fingertips and you know your fretboard better, it all begins to come easier. Better still, if you’re guitar is wood (as opposed to laminate), the more you play it the better it sounds.

My advice is to stick in there, the time will come when you can playing your first three-chord trick tune without a single buzz or muted note, and you will be dancing for joy when it does come, because all that hard work has paid off. If, at that time, you decide that guitar playing is not for you, then fine, but I wouldn’t recommend you decide before this point, and in fact I’d recommend you learn to play a bit more before you put down that Fender forever.

Once you’ve mastered the basics you will probably turn int
o a guitar freak. You will be
out buying tab books, learning more about music theory and band dynamics, eyeing up an electric guitar in a music shop as opposed to the cute indie kid shop assistant, and eventually turning a thought to starting a band and playing live.

Guitar is a continuing process. There’s always more to learn, about notes, chords, history, models, and so on. When you start devising your own songs, even if you can’t put lyrics to them, you are creating a beautiful work of art that people will hopefully get the chance to appreciate.

And of course it makes you look soooooooooooooo cool.

Summary: