Guitar for beginners

notman

Hey, looking for some assistance here. I know several of you are guitar players, and I'm looking for some good beginners advice. We got our 10yr old daughter a guitar for Christmas and she's eager to get rockin.
I'm looking for any websites that may be good for beginners and free. I'm also willing to buy some books/DVDs if you know of any good ones.

I've googled up some sites that look promising, but I'm curious if there are any you may have experienced that you can know are good.

Thanks

Rick Stirling

Learn the open chords - E, A, D, C, G

Learn to be able to switch between them. There are hundreds of songs that can be played with those 5 chords, so she'll learn some basic mechanics and some songs.

After a while (still with those 5 chords) she'll be able to learn to play many songs by ear.

After that, learn the 2 styles of bar chords.

Rick Stirling

Oh, and get a tuner for her if you didn't already.

notman

Yeah, that's coming up after I get paid this week. That's something I realized afterwards, that it won't do any good if she isn't in tune. It's at that time that I'll probably pick up a book if anyone recommends one.

Rick Stirling

I had a quick look on Google, and found that the lessons on this site: http://www.guitarnoise.com/easy.php are very nice - they start with a few chords but you learn them in the context of a song. They even have MP3s

http://www.guitarnoise.com/easy.php

Slash

Get her some good rock 'n roll albums with relatively simple riffs, so she can start playing along. Thats the most fun, and having fun is the most important part when learning guitar. Its really easy to grow bored and frustrated. Motivation is key.

Smoke in the water, back in black, stairway to heaven.. you know..

Psyk0

Yeah basic chord patterns are a must, all these chords can be played in a barre style too.

The fastest way to get rockin' is to use dropped D tuning, it only requires 1 finger to block a fret and get a chord everytime, tune even lower for a metal sound, but i doubt she's into that!.

East

If you want to know which chords to learn, have a look/listen to this video. It's old, and many of you have seen it, but..

ElysiumGX

The easiest way to start rocking is to drop tune the guitar way down until the strings start buzzing, play one finger chords on the lowest frets, wear a mask, scream about cutting yourself, and sell millions of records. Or learn to play.

I agree the best advice for her is to learn the basic open chords. Quickly switch between them using different strumming and picking patterns. Learn the variations of those chords. I didn't start reading music and tabs until I was 12.

And NO STAIRWAY!

Hollowmind

It's going to be tough if nobody in your house knows how to play. It's best to at least be taught the basics in person (tuning, basic/common chords, strumming, finger placement, etc). If you had a friend or could hire her a tutor to at least get her started it would be best.

I salute you for trying to get her started on an instrument while she's young. I learned my first instrument (violin) when I was 9 and picked up guitar when I was 15. I still enjoy playing. It'll be very frustrating at first but if she sticks with it it can become one of the best and most rewarding things she ever learns.

pliang

Reading this has inspired me to pick up my guitar again...

notman

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I wanted to play guitar or drums as a kid, but the only support I got from my parents was to get a trombone for school. Dumbass schools use to do a hearing test to determine which instrument you should play and they felt my range was best for a horn. Then they looked at my height/reach and determined a trombone would be a good fit. I was anxious to play anything at the time, so I accepted, but the second year in, we had a shitty teacher with a HUGE temper, and I lost all interest.

Right now, I'm doing things on a trial basis. I know a little about music, because of my trombone history, but nothing relating to guitars. I'm not sure how much that will help, but basically, if she seems to really take off with this, I'll look into professional lessons. She's shown dedication in the past with smaller instruments at school and church.

The one thing that I've got to give credit to guitar hero, is the love for rock and playing guitar that it helped inject into my kids. It saved them from the Brittany Spears shit that I was constantly fighting previously. Her favorite band is now Aerosmith and Ozzy is a close second place.

ElysiumGX

[ QUOTE ]
The one thing that I've got to give credit to guitar hero, is the love for rock and playing guitar that it helped inject into my kids. It saved them from the Brittany Spears shit that I was constantly fighting previously. Her favorite band is now Aerosmith and Ozzy is a close second place.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're an awesome dad. I was raised on those two bands, and look how I turned out.

bounchfx

www.myguitarsolo.com

Hollowmind

Aerosmith before Ozzy? Sheesh, girls.

Seriously, though, if you know anyone with a passing knowledge of guitar that can take an hour or so and run her through some of the basics that'll make learning the rest a lot easier. Or learn along with her and try to help her with stuff she struggles with that was easier for you to understand. It can help to get through the early frustration. A lot of people when they first start an instrument get this "why am I not good already? argh!" feeling and give up too soon. Helps to have someone with you to ease you through that period.

notman

You're welcome to drive over into the Detroit area and show her the ropes I know a couple people, but unfortunately, they wouldn't have the time to show her anything. I hadn't thought about it though until you mentioned it, so I'll probably consult with them a bit also.

Jaco

I taught myself, http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ and http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa071200a.htm helped a lot, but watching other people play was definitely the most helpful. Good luck!

Mishra

UG does have a TON of tabs, and tabs really help build dexterity and stuff in the beginning, and i hate to say it but guitar pro helps a super lot, even with reading sheet music and bits of theory (it shows you scales and their construction, same for chords. guitar pro is about 60 bucks and can read lots of the tabs on ultimate-guitar.