Easy introduction to music... (Guitars in general)

Member Name: zygnoth

Product:	Guitars in general
Date:	23/05/01 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice introduction to music

Disadvantages: Maybe a bad grounding for other instruments

Guitars have well become the most popular instruments due to the wide range of them available and their mobility. The latest bands are always taking the sounds from a guitar to new extremes (Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine always has a few tricks up his sleeve).

For a beginner who wants to learn electric, buy a cheap Squire Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Epiphone. These are readily available and spare parts would be easy to find. After progressing further, consider buying a guitar to suit your style in music. If your looking for a metal sound (and look) go for a flying V guitar but a Stratocaster is always an all-round guitar. With the range of pedals available these days, you could imitate almost any sound. Make sure you have played the guitar before or even bring a friend who knows his guitars well.

The best place to start to learn the guitar is to learn tablature notation. This consists of lines (for the six strings) and numbers (for the required fret). Through this system, chords can be learned. You might consider buying a guitar book to sort out strumming, picking or just basic rhythm (I didn't so I've ended picking every string with my thumb which is a very slow way to do it). You can get the tabs (short for tablature) for various new songs on http://www.freshtabs.com or you could find any old one on OLGA (OnLine Guitar Archive) at http://www.olga.net .

Guitar magazines like Total Guitar will keep you updated on the happenings in guitar music, review some guitars and help you along with your technique. They frequently have the latest guitar tabs in the back of them aswell.

Remember to follow your own style of music aswell. There is no point in somebody who wants to learn funk or reggae going off learning metal solos! Learn from the experts but improvise on your own style aswell.

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