• Lobby

  • New Hobby - Learn playing the guitar (Electric? Acoustic? Bass?)

Hey everyone. So here is what's going on: work - gym - food - sleep - and more work. The everyday routine is killing me slowly. I am trying my best to go out on weekends; no problem there, but weekdays are getting pretty boring. I got to spice up my life a bit, so I thought about beginning a new hobby. I thought about many new things to try and made up my mind to learn the guitar. I enjoy listening to electric guitar solos (classic blues), and a lot of people look at my fingers and tell me you should be a guitar player (and I look at them surprised).

Does anyone know a great professional guitar tutor? I am currently downloading video tutorials on how to play the guitar, but I think I still need a real instructor. Also, if I want to jam at my place, what sort of hardware is required? I am into the electric guitar type cause I like the kind of sound it makes (plus it is easier to handle digitally; meaning I can hook it up to my computer, listen from there, connect to Apple Garageband or Apple Logic Pro to record and apply amps and filters).

Bottom line: professional guitar instructor required, list of hardware needed to play the electric guitar, list of possible places that have what I need and can help me decide what to get.

Thank you all and wish me luck!

Cheers!

:D
instructor is highly recommended, i learned guitar by myself at first and i developped some bad habbits which took a lot of effort to undo them, now which instructor to choose really depends on your location, if in tripoly i recommend Salim zahra from solitaire.
Now you'll here many people advising you to buy a classical guitar first then go for electric, my advice is if you're really into electric just go for the electric, you wont enjoy the classic and will hate playing guitar fast.
The guitar you're going to buy and the amp to go with it really depends on your budget, but as a beginner you should get a fixed bridge guitar, a small amp will do fine, a tuner is a must and preferably a digital one that you can plug your guitar in directly, picks ( usually at first you'll use thin picks but you can experiment) and a metronome we'll help you alot.
if you have a specific budget i may point you to some possiblr choices, but your best shot is to check the store and ask them what they have within your budget and then share it with us, maybe we can help you out.
good luck with your guitar learning journey!
I know couple of professional tutors but it depends were you live because you go to them and playing on a PC is not recommended cause it want give you the sound your looking for.


You can t start learning acoustic guitar cause it is very difficult you must start either electric guitar (which is very fun) or classic guitar (have to learn the notes that is very boring process believe me). The bass in my opinion is boring.
electric guitars cost a fortune to get the right setup while the classic guitar its very easy to get.
You don't need any instructor.
Me and a friend of mine learned playing the drums all by ourselves using the internet.
I'ts WAY more fun to learn by yourself. You can watch YouTube tutorials. You will have much more fun learning to play by yourself and unlocking your capabilities. Furthermore, you won't have any pressure on you to practice everyday. It's self education and best of all it's all free.

Try this method first, if you can't seem to learn by your own , only then higher a tutor.

Good luck and have fun :D
I have been playing the piano for like 20 years. I learned it alone by ear, and then I learned -also alone- reading and playing score from like 7 years. Last year I took a piano lessons and the main problem was the same as Mettaloy's: "Bad Habit" In my case it was : " Finger positions ".

So I suggest you mix Avock's and Mettaloy's advices: Learn by yourself and meet a tutor from time to time to correct your work.
Don't buy anything now unless you want to learn by yourself. If you want to go with an instructor, wait till he recommends what type of guitar to start with. Many believe starting classical is important before going into electric.
Metalloy wroteinstructor is highly recommended, i learned guitar by myself at first and i developped some bad habbits which took a lot of effort to undo them
I totally agree with Metalloy in this matter, I learned the guitar by myself as well, and I'm pretty sure I got some bad habits that are dragging me back.
My 2 cents.

It depends on what you want to do. IMO, if you get proficient with an acoustic guitar, it will allow you to move on to the electric guitar without much problem. Going the opposite way takes a bit more of an adjustment. Whatever guitar you get, make sure you get it properly set up before you start playing it though. With an acoustic guitar, it will make allow to press down on the strings with less effort and make it easier to play.

Lessons help, but it is more fun if you can find friends who also play so you can learn from them. There are tons of tabs, lessons and info on music theory online and on videos so learning by yourself shouldn't be a big problem. Good luck and most importantly, have fun.
What do you want to play exactly?

If you choose an electric guitar, you'll need the guitar itself, a strap, some picks, and an amplifier (amp for short). Thing is, you can't buy a good guitar with a crappy amp and vice versa. For shops, the best would be mozart chahine (their main branch is in Antelias, but they have shops in Jeita and Sodeco as well), they have great customer service. There's Homsi at Zouk Mosbeh but they have a smaller selection than Mozart Chahine. There's also Instruments Garage (Achrafieh and Downtown), but they're really overpriced. Your best bet would be mozart chahine, they always have a couple of starters' package at 200-300$ with the guitar, the amp, a tuner, a strap and a bag for the guitar (don't expect a great sound, it'll cost much more for that, but at least with the package you won't have thrown away a great deal of money if you didn't like it). If you want to jam at your place, then you'll need a small amp (just tell them that you want to play in your house at the shop, and they'll give you the right one).
The electric will be by far the easiest to master when it comes to fingering, because the spaces between the strings and frets are smaller than the classical guitar. The bass has the biggest spaces and thickest strings, so it'll be really painful in the beginning :P The classical or acoustic guitar falls in the middle.
To plug your electric guitar into a laptop, you'll need a special plug that you can buy at Virgin's at 50$ (it comes with the application needed) but you can also buy it at Homsi's at 10$ I think (i'm not sure of that, i'll have to check again).

If you choose to buy a classical guitar, you can find a good beginner's guitar mostly anywhere, at about 120$ (a yamaha one, quite good). A lot of beginners buy some Cayenne guitars (50$) but I don't recommend it because frankly, they suck :P So Yamaha is good to start with, as well as Hohner (around 200$). A really good book to start with would be Joseph Ichkhanian's book that you can find in all music shops. An instructor is really important when it comes to classical guitar.
A sacrifice that students often don't do: you have to cut your left hand's nails, and let your right hand's grow, otherwise it'll be difficult to play the classical guitar, and you won't be playing it to its full potential (using a pick is impossible while playing classic tunes).
If you want something between the classical and the electric guitar, then get an acoustic. You can play it with your fingers or with a pick, has great sound and is really fun to learn.

If you want to play the bass, having a band is a must. It can get dull pretty fast, because the bass is a backup instrument. But if you join a band, I strongly recommend it: it's got great sound, really powerful, and makes a big difference in the overall tune. Unfortunately, there isn't a big bass selection in Lebanon, and most of them aren't cheap (min. 300$). Bass amps are also more expensive because they have to be more resistant: you can't plug a bass into an electrical guitar's amp, otherwise you'll fry the whole thing. When buying the bass, you'll have to consider what type of bass you want:

-passive or active: a passive bass won't amplify its signal so it'll be really dependent on the quality of the amp that you buy. It's got an "older" sound (more like the 70-80s rock) than the active bass. Active basses are more expensive, but they have a much greater diversity of tones. They use batteries (9V battery usually, that you'll have to change every few weeks depending on how much you play) so they can amplify their signal. I recommend you start with the passive at first.

-4 strings or 5 strings: usually the 4 strings bass will be more than sufficient to start (and live) with, but if you want to get into blues bass, then you'll have to buy a 5 strings bass eventually.

Halla2 about which instrument you should start with, it's mostly what you like. Although they have some points in common, playing on a classical or an electrical can vary. Some techniques are completely different and there's no set rule on what you should start with. For the classical guitar, learning notes is a must, seeing as there are rarely any tabs for it (which are quite frequent for the electric guitar). So just start with what you like, it'll be useless buying a classical guitar if you want to switch to an electric later. Just pick an instrument and concentrate on it.

For the instructor or personal teaching, one important advice: don't start at the Conservatoire, they'll take away any love you have or might have for the instrument. A personal instructor is great to start with the basics and taking away the bad habits. However, if you want to follow videos, you might pick up a few mistakes, but you'll really love what you're doing and won't be forced into anything you don't like. I learned the guitar with a teacher then conservatoire, bass and mandolin by myself, and to tell you the truth, learning the bass and mandolin was a much better experience (although I had a great guitar teacher). When it comes to instructors, a big part of loving the instrument will come from the instructor himself: if you get a bad teacher, you won't like it, but if you get a great teacher you'll quickly love the instrument.

I taught the classical guitar for a couple of years, so if you need any advice about it, I'll be glad to give some to you (inbox me if you want). If you went with the electric guitar, I can still give you some advice, especially about the left hand. There are some common beginners' bad habits that have to be fixed early, otherwise they'll be hard to get rid of later.
I play the bass in a band as well, so if you have any questions hardware wise, just pass me the questions and I'll ask my bandmates.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope I answered your questions :P
If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, and good luck!
I have been playing the guitar for almost 10 years now, never took a lesson in my life. In all fairness, I did take extensive piano lessons from age 8 to 18. I've watched and helped quite a bit of my friends to learn and have witnessed them turn into full-blown awesome guitar players, some of them even becoming far better than I'll ever be. The following is the set of advice I give to everyone wanting to learn:

Learning the guitar is not difficult. It just takes time.

No matter what you do, or how much you train, a year from now you'll still think you suck at playing. I'm not going to sugar-coat it, to do awesome things, you'll have to put in the time. At many times you will feel that you are not progressing at all, this is perfectly normal. You are actually progressing far more than you realize. Keep in mind that every great guitarist you'll hear on your radio has taken years and years of practice to reach that level.

It's not difficult, but it takes a lot of practice

Much like any instrument of music, understanding what to do is not difficult. Watch a couple of videos, read a small text here and there, learn basic chords; this is really easy to understand. On the other hand playing is a lot about your fingers' muscle memory. Every time you see someone playing something great, you can be sure that they have repeated them over over and over again to the point where they finger know what to do faster and more precisely than the brain. Think about how your fingers act on a PC keyboard and you'll understand what I mean.

So there's no secret there: practice all the time, or else you'll stagnate. Practicing (almost) daily is not far-fetched. I do it and all the guitarists I know do it as well. Rumor has it that Hendrix used to sleep with his guitar in his arms. You don't have to be Hendrix, but you will get caught up in the same addiction. You say you work out a lot, so you understand how can a hobby become a borderline addiction. On the bright side, the more you do it, the better you become at it and the more you'll enjoy doing it.

There's no "right way"

This one is controversial. I strongly believe that there's no right way of learning the guitar. Every teacher will have their own sets of "rules" and "do's-and-dont's" but it all boils down to finding what suits you the most.

What I'm trying to say is "be experimental" and try everything. For instance, I used to correct a friend/student of mine because of a weird right hand position while fingerpicking (an awesome sounding acoustic guitar technique). He's stubborn and kept using his technique; today he does it better than I do. Would he have benefited from the "correct" position? Maybe. But he didn't like practicing the correct position, he liked practicing his. And that's what made his style.

So keep in mind there's no "correct" way. It doesn't matter if you start with an electric guitar or an acousitc one, if you use a pick or strum with your fingers, etc. All you will find are hints, tips and bits of advice from people who know how to play. All you have to do is look at them, analyze them and repeat them until your fingers bleed.

If you don't believe me, try telling these guys there is a "correct" way of playing and they're doing it "wrong":

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCKTeRW3OhQ
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDLvlicXBV8

Don't get a teacher
Another controversial one. The truth is, a good teacher is something extremely valuable, but is also something extremely rare. Average teachers are expensive and a waste of time. We live in the age of the WWW and Youtube. You can learn the basics pretty easily by a simple search online. If you don't know where to start, I suggest you take a look at the work of Marty Schwartz. He covers a wide aspect of riffs from rock to funk passing by reggae and a strong emphasis on blues. I like him because he doesn't focus on teaching you "songs" as much as teaching you how to think as a guitarist. Which brings me to my next tip.

Don't learn songs
This is particularly difficult when you're just starting, so think of it as a mid-term goal. Practicing songs is very rewarding in the beginning, especially when people around you recognize instantly what you're playing. But it is also extremely limiting. Tabs are an abomination. They do a terrible job at teaching you rhythm, let alone having a proper groove while playing.

Students who learn songs are in a very short-sided mindset:
- "I can only do what has been done and hope to play [favorite song] as well as [favorite guitar player]". Instead you should focus on detecting what makes this guitar player great and add it to your own style.

- "There's only two kinds of playing: chords or solo." Rock songs particularly have this limited view. The guitarist is usually either playing boring chords or doing a very repetitive solo. This sucks. Playing the guitar has unlimited possibilities.

- "I am writing a song". Unless you become a professional guitarist, most of the times nobody cares about "songs" you will have. I mean they're good, and you'll probably end up writing a few of them once you're a good guitarist. But in the meanwhile, what musicians do most is "jamming". Instead of getting together and playing "Knocking on Heaven's door" or "Wish you were here" for the billionth time, musician just like to get together, come up with a few riffs and improvise playing on them. This is a lot easier than it sounds and if you know some guitarists, you'll end up doing this pretty often.

For all the above reasons, it is important that you don't get stuck in the "cover songs" mindset and instead keep a versatile mind where you are learning riffs, licks and cool tricks instead of limited boring songs that you're never going to play as well as the original anyway.

It's all in the right hand
As long as we're on some 'advanced' topics. The right hand, whether you're using a pick or your fingers, plays the most important role in how well you sound. Sure in the beginning, learn some chords, progressions (learn the 12-bar blues as fast as you can) and a few scales. But very quickly you need to focus on your right hand. Beginners often overlook this aspect of playing, focusing instead on what fret to put my left-hand finger on. (This comes from tabs being a completely broken system). Learning advanced right-hand techniques on stupid simple chords is a billion times better than approximating complicated solo with no right-hand precision.

Listen to music
All the time. All kinds of artists. Focus on the instruments they're playing and learn to listen to this. Appreciate details like a small guitar lick here, a cool drum roll there, listen to what the bass is doing or what instruments are doing the percussion. Turn off FM Radio for ever. Buy whole albums of your favorite artists and listen to them chronologically. Learn to appreciate artists for who they are, not for the songs they're "famous" for. Stay clear of best-ofs because they will taint your soul (they are compilations made by marketing people trying to suck money out of you. If you want to learn what stage Pink Floyd was in in 1972, don't just listen to Money once, go buy Dark Side of the Moon and live with it for a month or two).

Get a good sounding system and a good pair of head/ear-phones. Get rid of poor quality mp3 as much as possible. Respect your ears and the quality recording of great artists, if you want to understand what makes them great.
Really well said, especially about the practice and time parts. It'll take a lot of work and patience to be able to play well.
An equally important thing is to do exercises. Some may sound horrible, but they'll improve your technique drastically if you put your mind to it!
Wow! Thanks for the replies! That's some nice info in the posts guys. I can feel most of you are long time players; I am lucky to know your opinions.

Regarding my point of view, I can't stress enough that the sole purpose of this to have fun. I don't want to come home after work and feel obliged to continue the lessons; I want to have this feeling that I can't wait to get home so that I continue playing.

I think I'll go with the electric guitar cause I am not into classic guitar; I don't think it's my thing. I do believe that the electric guitar has more potential and more variations in sound which would be interesting to experiment with.

I don't mind paying 500-700$ for a guitar kit that would bring me joy; thats what matters (I also prefer good quality rather than cheapo quality whatever the item is). In addition, I think I want to take my time experimenting. I just love the trial and error method cause when I find the solution, I never forget it; that's something similar when I experiment and do things right, I will never forget how I did it. I think with the help of some high quality and professional video tutorials; I can pull it off. I'll probably suck for the first couple of months, but I want to enjoy it :P

I do have time to practice at least 1 hour per day, but my concern is the noise, aka "musical fusion", that I will create. Jamming at 10 PM with the amp on in my room is definitely a no go. Are there any silent solutions? I see many drumming kits with headsets that push the sound through the headset. If no such solution exists, then I might have to drop the whole idea. Even if the sound through the headset sounds a bit different than through the amp; it doesn't matter much (I guess).

I'm not planning to learn or play any songs, I just want to jam for joy.

I checked Mozart Chahine's website; "under construction" -.-
Maybe I'll go check his place later.

Rahmu, thanks for sharing that video with that cool spoon trick, it sounded really good :)

Finally wanted to share a video of an awesome play that never gets old; really amazing!
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rANyZSHsLI

By the way, is being left handed considered a problem?
Being left handed isn't a problem at all. I don't know if there are any left handed guitars in Lebanon (strings are inverted, and the guitar's body is a bit different: you'll use the pick with the left hand and fingering with the left), but playing right hand guitars won't be a problem you'll get used to it (I'm left handed and i play the guitar like a right handed).
I guess you could buy some headphones for the guitar, but you'll definitely need an amp to amplify the sound (mozart chahine have some good headphones). Besides, you can easily play the amp at low volume and it won't bother anyone. But the headphones are a viable solution.
500-700$ can get you a good guitar and a good amp (Marshall ones are really good and durable). Depending on what you want to play, there are several guitar brands you can go with (epiphone and gibson are excellent but a bit on the expensive side). You could start with a Yamaha (really good sound).
I used to play the guitar for 4 years when I was younger (2 years acoustic-2 years electric). Believe me it needs a lot of patience because it will take a lot of time for you to be able to play real nice songs, I just gave up, but if you hold onto it it's gonna sound great ... I now play the saxophone and I am absolutely loving it and enjoying it much more, since it doesn't take as much work.
However, you can find good electric guitars for beginners for 300 dollars (try Stagg) and good amps for not more than 200 dollars. Good luck!
play like a right handed using right handed guitars, this way it is actually an advantage for you;)
most amps these days have a headphone output but playing with low volumes will be just fine, actually it can ve quiter then classical guitars.
Learning by yourself is fun dobt get me wrong, it is where i enjoyed learnibg guitar the most, but you will evantually hit a wall if no one is helping you ( a friend if not a tutor) and bad habits are easy to acquire.
I disagree with Rahmu on the learning songs point, learnings songs you like will help you on the long run to play the same style so it is beneficial to learn some songs, and really they are fune to learn and play, both alone or with your friends, but as he said you should also keep trying to learn new techniques and try to make your own music no matter how lame they are, ull enjoy them ;)
500$ is good, you can buy a washburn or a cort( giid value for money) and buy a small but decent amp ( i have a 100$ ' Crate' amp that really sounds good) and i am sure there are several good brands so ask around or do your research on the net.
GD luck
14 days later
I play classical guitar. I really like it because I can play almost all styles on it (soft rock, if it pleases you)
Plus, my tutor always tells me that starting with a classical guitar as a base is really important, before moving on to the other ones. There are plenty of good tutors, and they are DEFINITLY better than self-learning. The technicals are very important. The tutor depends on where do you live.
And as an advice, go buy your instrument from Abdallah Chahine, in Hamra and Gallery Sema'an. They are reay respectful, I asked for a guitar changing after a week, they didn't even ask me why, nor they took the 15$ price difference.. And they have good quality for cheap prices.
And also, try to learn music by NOTES and not by EAR. Because by notes, it's better and more professionel.
I want to learn playing the electric guitar.
@Hussein: i must disagree on 2 point:
1- if someone only wishes to play the electrical guitar, playing classical first could be a majir drawback, he may quickly hate playing guitar and just drop the whole thing down...the easiest comparision would be learning english, if you only want to learn english, then whats the point of learning french? if you want to know both languages then sure it 'll be easier with learning french then learn english, if you want only english, just learn english.
2-learning notes is not "better" then learning by ear, it is different has its own advantages, and also has its disadvantages if you just learn reading notes, it will just be real hard to play over a song instantly or to try and implement new licks, new rythms, try to improvise... dont get me wrong, learning notes is really important especially for classical music and for professional carreer, but if playing guitar is just for fun, then learning to read notes might be an unwanted tedious task.
@rolf: wish you good luck.
4 months later
Can anyone suggest the names of some classical guitar or acoustic guitar tutors in the Hamra area? How much is the going rate for a lesson or is it an hourly rate? Are there any clubs/gatherings/events that local guitar players go to that anyone is aware of?

Thanks