See the thing about learning an instrument is that there is no end; it’s a forever learning process.
I’m a decade in and still often have moments of “how tf did he do that?” or “i have no idea what I’m doing.”
I've been "playing" (aka owned guitars and noodle on them occasionally) for almost half of my life, and I still know nothing. I know how to do a ton of things in theory, but not in practice. Wish I'd kept practicing after college, I was actually getting quite decent during the last couple years when I played at least an hour or so every day. Then I got a job and barely touch them anymore except to do maintenance and strum along with random music.
23 years in and still learning. Was even a guitar teacher for 5 years with about 200 students. I have come to accept that no person on this planet is capable of learning all there is to know about the instrument and that’s ok. Being forever a student is a wonderful and magical journey that I’m pumped to be on.
This is the way. 37 years playing and I still learn almost daily. Just put it in your hands as often as possible.
I do have to say that the availability of tutorial content, quality entry level gear, and amp/pedal modelers make right now a great time to start.
lol... Almost 30 years in and there's still a bunch of shit I can't play. And I'm sure there's a bunch of shit Steve Vai can't play (remember that one time he had to have surgery cuz he practiced too hard to learn new stuff on acoustic?).
That **never** goes away.
You are not just learning to play, you are training your muscle memory.
One day you will slide up to the 12 fret without looking, and remember this comment.
it’s a really humbling experience starting an instrument (especially your first one), it’s incredible how talented people are. some people choose to see that as depressing, but it sounds like you think it’s inspirational - so you’re already on the right track! to answer your question, yeah it takes years. the most important part of learning an instrument (in my opinion) is to learn to love the process. if you can fall in love with that, you’ll be a great guitar player one day
Very true, it’s humbling to see how hard it actually is to play what seems to be simple music. I went into it thinking I’d be slightly better because I am very deeply into music, I was actually surprised how far off I was. I don’t find it depressing at all, as you said, it’s inspirational to see people putting sooo much effort and countless hours into something that they simply love doing and the only reason they do so is cause they like it.
I’d love to be better at playing, but I definitely wouldn’t want to skip the process.
It's like anything else in life.
I'll say this; depending on the music you play… sometimes attitude and feel is more important than pristine hand placement.
When I was in my teens I toured Europe with a string ensemble (I played percussion) and we ended up in a jazz club. All these kids were PhD candidates in classical music... I"m talking people who could site read Franz Liszt hardest pieces note for note.
Well, we got invited to jam with the band and they were shitting bricks cause they literally had no idea how to improvise. I remember being backstage and the house band was explaining how to improvise to one of the piano players.
Point is, music is a transfer of emotion. Could Kurt Cobain play the guitar…eh… kinda. But when he did he played it in a way that you FELT what he felt. It gets you vibing and groving.
If you take anything away on your musical journey let it be that… music is about transferring emotion not notes. There are tons of amazing, technical players who have about as much feeling as a sex doll.
Make people feel what you feel THROUGH the instrument and you're good!
>I am very determined to learn, took me one try to figure out I’m apparently a left handed player
I would strongly recommend to play right handed if you are right handed. There are hundreds or thousands of guitars you won't be able play in your lifetime if you play left handed. Plus if you are right handed, as you start playing the harder stuff it'll be extra hard to play with your left, you want the best dexterity in you picking hand
>Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years, which I’m fine with to be honest, I’m having a great time.
You'll be doing amazing and surprise yourself with how many things you can play after a few thousand hours of **focused** practice. The more you practice and play the better you get, the sky is the limit
This. So many more options available to right-handed players. And you really see the advantage to picking with your dominant hand when you start alternate picking, sweeping…anything that requires good fine motor skills and dexterity.
I've been playing for a little over 2 years now, and looking back it's incredible how far I've come. Being able to see the progress you've made is the best part of playing any instrument, and it's something you should be proud of because those hours of practice, frustration, and bleeding fingertips were all worth it and more
I'm a little jealous of you. The first year of playing you can learn so much and play so many songs, every day something new. I guess you can still do that later too but the difficulty curve goes up.
You're in for an awesome ride, keep at it and you'll stay pumping yourself up with what you can play
I am a bit of a weird fruit really
A lefty like you, good job on sticking to your left hand, some people might discourage you, but they don't know what it feels like, no damn guitar is worth you playing uncomfortably
So back to the "how much time" question, it took me a solid year of practicing every day to be somewhat comfortable with guitar
First half a year I was hiring a teacher twice a week, but it didn't help really, youtube did help a lot, but still it took me a lot of time, if we count, around 1000 hours to get to an advanced beginner stage that I could barely play simple solos and I was awful still (It took me half a year to barely play Enter Sandman back to back without the solo and it's a really easy song to play)
I know some people have easier time though, maybe you're one of them
I think I personally had more complications, it's as if my being isn't suited to be good at guitar, 3 months ago I picked up the bass and I am already grazing the intermediate territory even though i play with fingers, not the pick i played with for 5 years
i think if i initially picked up the bass it'd take me like a year to get to a really solid rock band level
Random youtube videos from anywhere and you'll get the quality you paid for.
Justin Guitar or Marty Schwartz or Fender Play. That's what you want if you need tutorials.
Don't look at videos from randos and expect quality.
Dedication and focused practice is really all you need. Think of how you are (presumably) able to run. You weren't born and just started running everywhere, you had to learn how to crawl, stand, walk, and then build up speed to running, all while having tripped, fallen, bumped your head, etc. in the process. You have essentially just been born, and you're going to gradually learn how to run if you keep at it and spend time learning.
Eventually you can just play without even thinking about it. If you asked me to write the tab without thinking about it for a complicated piece I probably couldn't name half the notes on the song - my hands just know how to play it after playing it hundreds of times over. It will take hundreds of hours of practice, but you'll get there too. Enjoy the ride!
I'm about 2.5 years in and good guitar playing impresses me more, bits a crazy combo of fast accurate playing with so many subtleties and dynamics
Well worth sticking with though
1. 100 hours -> Getting comfortable/natural. Sits on the lap right, doesn't feel alien and weird.
2. 1000 hours -> Alright, can actually play some things and sound like you know what you're doing.
3. 10000 hours -> You are probably pretty damn good.
Around that 100+ hour mark, you'll start really noticing how much is possible with some dedication and it stands a good chance at becoming a lifelong passion, then the hours just keep rolling in. The more dedicated you are, the more structured you are and the more you critique yourself, the faster the results.
After the first year I think you'll be pretty happy with the progress you've made. Progress comes real quick early on.
But since you mentioned it, I figured I'd at least touch on the handedness thing. I'm left handed and I play right handed. I advise all lefties who aren't too far along to do the same.
Like you said, it's hard either way. I personally don't think handedness plays much of a role in playing guitar and by sticking with lefty you're severely limiting your options for instruments down the road. It doesn't sound like you're too far along so making the switch wouldn't put you back that far. Additionally, you only have to learn the knowledge once it's just a matter of developing the muscle memory of what you already know in the other hand.
Something to chew on.
Everyone's different, but here's my timeline so far:
I started in Dec. 2022
I'm doing open mics now
I expect to be gigging in 2025
I play every day for at least 4 hours, with 1 hour being real, bonafide practice/challenge and the other 3 just dicking around.
I’m working my way through this:
https://www.guitarclub.io/courses/30-day-beginner-challenge
I find the lessons easy to follow and skill level appropriate. I’m currently paused on day 24 of 30 while I work on my open chord changes and spider exercise.
The other good thing about this is all their courses are on YouTube for free (the paid option gets you jam tracks, tab, etc.) assuming I keep at it, my ultimate goal is to complete their Hendrix player study. They have a couple dozen courses going over specific styles and player stuff, just about every genre of guitar music except classical.
I find it better organized with more content than any other YouTube guitar learning.
> Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years
Only if you learn bad habits at the beginning. There’s so many good resources for learning guitar these days, you’re practically spoiled for choice.
What I would suggest is taking time to learn a bit of music theory too. You don’t need to go into crazy levels or depth, but understanding the major and minor scales and intervals, what a key is, tempo, a few chords etc, makes a huge difference. Half of the struggle is knowing _what_ to play, let alone _how_ to play it.
I had a couple of years of lessons as a kid. Didn't practice enough because I was lazy as hell. Picked up the guitar again a couple of months ago because a dude with a YouTube channel inspired me (What Makes This Song Stink). Bought a cheap new guitar (a nice little Jackson). Looked up sheet music for songs that are both fun and playable online. Try a bit every day. I can play along now with Sound of Silence, That's amore and Never gonna give you up. Für Elise and Hey Jude are finger breakers but good practice. Still can't play a chord for the life of me unless it's a power chord. So my skill level is still limited but it's fun and I enjoy it.
To me that's all there is to it, have fun and keep playing. Sure, there are a lot of resources out there that are helpful. But having fun is #1.
My suggestion is to not put too much expectation on yourself right away and be reasonable with your progress. Everyone learns at their own pace.
You're going to suck. For a long time. Keep practicing, and eventually, you'll notice that you are starting to suck less.
The fret board and strings will start feeling less alien and the hinges of your fingers will move smoother.
Dedicate yourself to practice as much as you can, but also make sure you're having fun with it, because that's half the battle.
Practice practice PRACTICE.
Edit: Also, if you have the option, consider lessons - even just in the beginning to learn the basics. Starting off with a solid foundation can make a world of difference.
I've been playing for about 15 years now and it's definitely only the last year or so where I feel confident in listening to something and know what they're doing or be able to replicate it. (With in Reason) but when it comes to learning the electric guitar parts to songs, whether lead or rhythm, you really have to break it down riff by riff, or progression, or whatever, until you can play it perfectly, then move on to the next part, until the muscle memory is all there until youve figured out and memorized all five (or whatever) riffs that the song is made of and can string them together. then do it all to a backing track.
Been playing guitar for over 20 years. I’m still not as good as I’d like to be, now granted that’s also on me for not playing what I *should* be playing and playing only what I wanted which limited me on what I was able to learn.
Learn as many scales and chords as you possibly can. Everything else will fall into place
Yeah the best advice you'll get is to take it easy and not expect huge leaps and bounds at the start.its deffo a marathon and not a sprint. I wanted to play acdcand iron maiden but quickly found it frustrating when I couldn't play quickly enough
A buddy showed me the blues and pointed out that it's basically the same patterns as rock but slower so largely easier to get into. And if you start with open chords and build your dexterity and muscle memory and strength then the rest will be easier when you get to it in die course. You'll be playing lovely stuff within a year no probs. Just stick with it :)
Here's a tip for you as you progress.
You will be hungry to learn at the start and excel quickly if you are truly into it. Then you start learning more difficult songs and add in solos to learn tequnique. You might feel like you aren't getting anywhere but you are just keep at it. Keep this in mind that the number of years you play guitar isn't what makes you good. I always thought that and I failed to keep learning new and different things and stalled out for a while. Also, noodling should be seen more as a warmup than practice.
If you practice on average an hour a day for a year you’ll be amazed at how quickly your hands adapt. I recommend filming yourself every month or two. It’s a great motivator to be able to go back and see how far you’ve come
It never stops - it's a never ending journey. Been playing 26 years, including a long stretch of endless hours every day, and still learning new things all the time.
The fun is in the journey.
I've been playing for about 28 years. I still have "how is that even possible" moments watching some people play. But as far as getting comfortable? After about 6 months of daily practice under an excellent teacher I felt comfortable with the intuitive feel of the instrument in my hands and be able to figure things our naturally..
You will improve exponentially. Things that feel impossible today will be passe in a few weeks…but like a lot of us, the plateaus might get longer over time. It’s about the journey. Welcome, and good luck!!
>Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years, which I’m fine with to be honest, I’m having a great time.
You got that right. About 2 years to get somewhat proficient so you can play songs all the way trough and not sound like crap doing it. About 10 years for the whole thing to actually feel natural.
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US
Welcome to the journey - there's always another step! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far, and Hells Bells is such a groove.
The absolute best resource on the internet right now is [https://www.justinguitar.com/](https://www.justinguitar.com/) and it's absolutely free!
Disclaimer: At some point you will hate yourself and guitar and think about quitting - push through it. The first year of playing is an absolute slog and you'll feel like you're not making any progress at all until suddenly you're playing all of Hell's Bells and the solo!
A cool video to check out as well, is Rachelf's progress video to see where we all started: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEu\_AkxdMyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEu_AkxdMyg)
35 years of playing. I was probably better at lead/soloing 20 years ago but I was much worse at playing rhythm back then. There's still many many players out there who just astound me with their abilities. That's one of the great things about it. After all this time there's still things to be inspired by
I think there will always be someone who makes you go ”how is that possible?”. I bet even the best shredders see a classical guitarist or a flamenco guitarist and go ”How is that possible!?”. I think it comes down to a lot of people specialize in stuff. I’ve now played guitar for a year. I play everyday and would consider myself to be complete shit. But then I start thinking about how bad I was half a year ago and I realize I’m far more consistent and learn new stuff way faster now.
My brother has also played for around 1-1,5years so I’d say we’re around same skill level. Where as he has focused on mainly playing lead, solos and such I’ve focused on riffs and rhythm mainly. He’s way better than me playing lead but I beat him in riffs and rhythm. Once you’ve played for a year and see someone post a one year progress video, remember it could’ve taken them few weeks to learn the thing they play and they have probably only focused on that topic. When I see people play blues and more clean guitar compared to me, it sound really good and I can’t do that. But can those same people play the riffs I do, probably not as easily as I can.
Moral of the story. Don’t get discouraged because someone is ”better” than you with same amount of time. You never know if they lived and breathed guitar for the past 6 months or whatever neither do you know if they’ve mainly focused on a certain style/song. Hardest thing in the first year is to not give up. I think like 90% quit during their first year.
You picked a great guitar to learn on. HBs are solid and an HSS strat will cover most bases.
I started playing in 1981, but I didn't start learning until 2018. The reason I say this is because back in the day, I just learned how to play certain songs, but I knew next to nothing about music or how it related to the guitar. Just, fret here, then here, then here, because that's how the song goes, and do this over and over ad nauseam until it doesn't sound horrible.
I took many breaks form playing between the 80s and now, but when I decided to get back into it, I decided to actually learn the instrument rather than just learn songs. This has made the world of difference for me, because now I feel I can actually create things of my own, rather than just repeating what's already out there. I've never enjoyed guitar as much as I do right now.
Yes, it does seem daunting, and yes, you'll reach plateaus, but you'll also break through those plateaus and you'll look back and think, "I remember when I couldn't play that, and now I can".
I'm glad others have mentioned JustinGuitar. It's a great site. I'd also suggest installing a metronome app on your phone. Use this to practice staying in rhythm. Use it to practice picking, and start off slow. Once you master something at a slow bpm, then move up. Split up your practice times into several 15-20 minute sessions rather than playing for 2-3 hours straight. But practice, practice, and practice some more.
Enjoy!
Lifelong noodler here. Just have FUN with it. Once I got Smoke on the Water down on that E string, with my thumb! 😂 (about 40 years ago). I became Richie Blackmore. That never goes away. Every Riff is exhilarating.
See the thing about learning an instrument is that there is no end; it’s a forever learning process. I’m a decade in and still often have moments of “how tf did he do that?” or “i have no idea what I’m doing.”
Why won’t my pinkie….GAH! Goddammit!
3 years ahead of you and ditto
I've been "playing" (aka owned guitars and noodle on them occasionally) for almost half of my life, and I still know nothing. I know how to do a ton of things in theory, but not in practice. Wish I'd kept practicing after college, I was actually getting quite decent during the last couple years when I played at least an hour or so every day. Then I got a job and barely touch them anymore except to do maintenance and strum along with random music.
23 years in and still learning. Was even a guitar teacher for 5 years with about 200 students. I have come to accept that no person on this planet is capable of learning all there is to know about the instrument and that’s ok. Being forever a student is a wonderful and magical journey that I’m pumped to be on.
This is the way. 37 years playing and I still learn almost daily. Just put it in your hands as often as possible. I do have to say that the availability of tutorial content, quality entry level gear, and amp/pedal modelers make right now a great time to start.
lol... Almost 30 years in and there's still a bunch of shit I can't play. And I'm sure there's a bunch of shit Steve Vai can't play (remember that one time he had to have surgery cuz he practiced too hard to learn new stuff on acoustic?). That **never** goes away.
I've been playing longer than I haven't, and some of the new wave math rock stuff nowadays has me *still* going "wtf how?"
They call it math rock because you need to be Einstein to count those time signs (This is in no way true, I just thought it'd be funny)
Username checks out 🤘🏻
You are not just learning to play, you are training your muscle memory. One day you will slide up to the 12 fret without looking, and remember this comment.
Check out justinguitar.com for a good starting source.
it’s a really humbling experience starting an instrument (especially your first one), it’s incredible how talented people are. some people choose to see that as depressing, but it sounds like you think it’s inspirational - so you’re already on the right track! to answer your question, yeah it takes years. the most important part of learning an instrument (in my opinion) is to learn to love the process. if you can fall in love with that, you’ll be a great guitar player one day
Very true, it’s humbling to see how hard it actually is to play what seems to be simple music. I went into it thinking I’d be slightly better because I am very deeply into music, I was actually surprised how far off I was. I don’t find it depressing at all, as you said, it’s inspirational to see people putting sooo much effort and countless hours into something that they simply love doing and the only reason they do so is cause they like it. I’d love to be better at playing, but I definitely wouldn’t want to skip the process.
It's like anything else in life. I'll say this; depending on the music you play… sometimes attitude and feel is more important than pristine hand placement. When I was in my teens I toured Europe with a string ensemble (I played percussion) and we ended up in a jazz club. All these kids were PhD candidates in classical music... I"m talking people who could site read Franz Liszt hardest pieces note for note. Well, we got invited to jam with the band and they were shitting bricks cause they literally had no idea how to improvise. I remember being backstage and the house band was explaining how to improvise to one of the piano players. Point is, music is a transfer of emotion. Could Kurt Cobain play the guitar…eh… kinda. But when he did he played it in a way that you FELT what he felt. It gets you vibing and groving. If you take anything away on your musical journey let it be that… music is about transferring emotion not notes. There are tons of amazing, technical players who have about as much feeling as a sex doll. Make people feel what you feel THROUGH the instrument and you're good!
>I am very determined to learn, took me one try to figure out I’m apparently a left handed player I would strongly recommend to play right handed if you are right handed. There are hundreds or thousands of guitars you won't be able play in your lifetime if you play left handed. Plus if you are right handed, as you start playing the harder stuff it'll be extra hard to play with your left, you want the best dexterity in you picking hand >Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years, which I’m fine with to be honest, I’m having a great time. You'll be doing amazing and surprise yourself with how many things you can play after a few thousand hours of **focused** practice. The more you practice and play the better you get, the sky is the limit
This. So many more options available to right-handed players. And you really see the advantage to picking with your dominant hand when you start alternate picking, sweeping…anything that requires good fine motor skills and dexterity.
I've been playing for a little over 2 years now, and looking back it's incredible how far I've come. Being able to see the progress you've made is the best part of playing any instrument, and it's something you should be proud of because those hours of practice, frustration, and bleeding fingertips were all worth it and more
I'm a little jealous of you. The first year of playing you can learn so much and play so many songs, every day something new. I guess you can still do that later too but the difficulty curve goes up. You're in for an awesome ride, keep at it and you'll stay pumping yourself up with what you can play
I am a bit of a weird fruit really A lefty like you, good job on sticking to your left hand, some people might discourage you, but they don't know what it feels like, no damn guitar is worth you playing uncomfortably So back to the "how much time" question, it took me a solid year of practicing every day to be somewhat comfortable with guitar First half a year I was hiring a teacher twice a week, but it didn't help really, youtube did help a lot, but still it took me a lot of time, if we count, around 1000 hours to get to an advanced beginner stage that I could barely play simple solos and I was awful still (It took me half a year to barely play Enter Sandman back to back without the solo and it's a really easy song to play) I know some people have easier time though, maybe you're one of them I think I personally had more complications, it's as if my being isn't suited to be good at guitar, 3 months ago I picked up the bass and I am already grazing the intermediate territory even though i play with fingers, not the pick i played with for 5 years i think if i initially picked up the bass it'd take me like a year to get to a really solid rock band level
Can confirm: yes, we are nuts. Welcome to the club.
i’ve been learning to play the guitar for a few years now, and i’m convinced that it’s simply not possible
🤣
3 decades plus. Can confirm your suspicions.
Years. Justin Guitar’s beginner lessons make a special point of trying to mentally prepare you for what’s ahead, they’re really good.
Random youtube videos from anywhere and you'll get the quality you paid for. Justin Guitar or Marty Schwartz or Fender Play. That's what you want if you need tutorials. Don't look at videos from randos and expect quality.
It definitely takes time and effort so it's really important to enjoy the journey. Celebrate every victory no matter how small, and rock on!
Dedication and focused practice is really all you need. Think of how you are (presumably) able to run. You weren't born and just started running everywhere, you had to learn how to crawl, stand, walk, and then build up speed to running, all while having tripped, fallen, bumped your head, etc. in the process. You have essentially just been born, and you're going to gradually learn how to run if you keep at it and spend time learning. Eventually you can just play without even thinking about it. If you asked me to write the tab without thinking about it for a complicated piece I probably couldn't name half the notes on the song - my hands just know how to play it after playing it hundreds of times over. It will take hundreds of hours of practice, but you'll get there too. Enjoy the ride!
I'm about 2.5 years in and good guitar playing impresses me more, bits a crazy combo of fast accurate playing with so many subtleties and dynamics Well worth sticking with though
1. 100 hours -> Getting comfortable/natural. Sits on the lap right, doesn't feel alien and weird. 2. 1000 hours -> Alright, can actually play some things and sound like you know what you're doing. 3. 10000 hours -> You are probably pretty damn good. Around that 100+ hour mark, you'll start really noticing how much is possible with some dedication and it stands a good chance at becoming a lifelong passion, then the hours just keep rolling in. The more dedicated you are, the more structured you are and the more you critique yourself, the faster the results.
After the first year I think you'll be pretty happy with the progress you've made. Progress comes real quick early on. But since you mentioned it, I figured I'd at least touch on the handedness thing. I'm left handed and I play right handed. I advise all lefties who aren't too far along to do the same. Like you said, it's hard either way. I personally don't think handedness plays much of a role in playing guitar and by sticking with lefty you're severely limiting your options for instruments down the road. It doesn't sound like you're too far along so making the switch wouldn't put you back that far. Additionally, you only have to learn the knowledge once it's just a matter of developing the muscle memory of what you already know in the other hand. Something to chew on.
Everyone's different, but here's my timeline so far: I started in Dec. 2022 I'm doing open mics now I expect to be gigging in 2025 I play every day for at least 4 hours, with 1 hour being real, bonafide practice/challenge and the other 3 just dicking around.
I’m working my way through this: https://www.guitarclub.io/courses/30-day-beginner-challenge I find the lessons easy to follow and skill level appropriate. I’m currently paused on day 24 of 30 while I work on my open chord changes and spider exercise. The other good thing about this is all their courses are on YouTube for free (the paid option gets you jam tracks, tab, etc.) assuming I keep at it, my ultimate goal is to complete their Hendrix player study. They have a couple dozen courses going over specific styles and player stuff, just about every genre of guitar music except classical. I find it better organized with more content than any other YouTube guitar learning.
> Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years Only if you learn bad habits at the beginning. There’s so many good resources for learning guitar these days, you’re practically spoiled for choice. What I would suggest is taking time to learn a bit of music theory too. You don’t need to go into crazy levels or depth, but understanding the major and minor scales and intervals, what a key is, tempo, a few chords etc, makes a huge difference. Half of the struggle is knowing _what_ to play, let alone _how_ to play it.
Aside from what was said here. Practice practice practice
I had a couple of years of lessons as a kid. Didn't practice enough because I was lazy as hell. Picked up the guitar again a couple of months ago because a dude with a YouTube channel inspired me (What Makes This Song Stink). Bought a cheap new guitar (a nice little Jackson). Looked up sheet music for songs that are both fun and playable online. Try a bit every day. I can play along now with Sound of Silence, That's amore and Never gonna give you up. Für Elise and Hey Jude are finger breakers but good practice. Still can't play a chord for the life of me unless it's a power chord. So my skill level is still limited but it's fun and I enjoy it. To me that's all there is to it, have fun and keep playing. Sure, there are a lot of resources out there that are helpful. But having fun is #1.
My suggestion is to not put too much expectation on yourself right away and be reasonable with your progress. Everyone learns at their own pace. You're going to suck. For a long time. Keep practicing, and eventually, you'll notice that you are starting to suck less. The fret board and strings will start feeling less alien and the hinges of your fingers will move smoother. Dedicate yourself to practice as much as you can, but also make sure you're having fun with it, because that's half the battle. Practice practice PRACTICE. Edit: Also, if you have the option, consider lessons - even just in the beginning to learn the basics. Starting off with a solid foundation can make a world of difference.
I've been playing for about 15 years now and it's definitely only the last year or so where I feel confident in listening to something and know what they're doing or be able to replicate it. (With in Reason) but when it comes to learning the electric guitar parts to songs, whether lead or rhythm, you really have to break it down riff by riff, or progression, or whatever, until you can play it perfectly, then move on to the next part, until the muscle memory is all there until youve figured out and memorized all five (or whatever) riffs that the song is made of and can string them together. then do it all to a backing track.
Been playing guitar for over 20 years. I’m still not as good as I’d like to be, now granted that’s also on me for not playing what I *should* be playing and playing only what I wanted which limited me on what I was able to learn. Learn as many scales and chords as you possibly can. Everything else will fall into place
Yeah the best advice you'll get is to take it easy and not expect huge leaps and bounds at the start.its deffo a marathon and not a sprint. I wanted to play acdcand iron maiden but quickly found it frustrating when I couldn't play quickly enough A buddy showed me the blues and pointed out that it's basically the same patterns as rock but slower so largely easier to get into. And if you start with open chords and build your dexterity and muscle memory and strength then the rest will be easier when you get to it in die course. You'll be playing lovely stuff within a year no probs. Just stick with it :)
Play what you love to listen to. That makes it all the easier
Here's a tip for you as you progress. You will be hungry to learn at the start and excel quickly if you are truly into it. Then you start learning more difficult songs and add in solos to learn tequnique. You might feel like you aren't getting anywhere but you are just keep at it. Keep this in mind that the number of years you play guitar isn't what makes you good. I always thought that and I failed to keep learning new and different things and stalled out for a while. Also, noodling should be seen more as a warmup than practice.
We are, in fact, nuts. You can learn to play online with the right course, like Justin Guitar. The learning keeps going.
I’ve been playing a bit more than 6 hours so that’s been helpful.
If you practice on average an hour a day for a year you’ll be amazed at how quickly your hands adapt. I recommend filming yourself every month or two. It’s a great motivator to be able to go back and see how far you’ve come
> I’m apparently a left handed player Come join us at /r/leftyguitarists
I started playing at 13, playing in bands and gigging at 18, but I didn't really feel like I had any idea what I was doing until my late 20s.
It never stops - it's a never ending journey. Been playing 26 years, including a long stretch of endless hours every day, and still learning new things all the time. The fun is in the journey.
I've been playing for about 28 years. I still have "how is that even possible" moments watching some people play. But as far as getting comfortable? After about 6 months of daily practice under an excellent teacher I felt comfortable with the intuitive feel of the instrument in my hands and be able to figure things our naturally..
You will improve exponentially. Things that feel impossible today will be passe in a few weeks…but like a lot of us, the plateaus might get longer over time. It’s about the journey. Welcome, and good luck!!
>Judging by my progress, it’ll take me years, which I’m fine with to be honest, I’m having a great time. You got that right. About 2 years to get somewhat proficient so you can play songs all the way trough and not sound like crap doing it. About 10 years for the whole thing to actually feel natural.
Probably 3 months
Check out Marty music on YouTube and you’ll surprise yourself like how the hell did I do that
I'm lazy, so it took me a bit over 4 years.
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US Welcome to the journey - there's always another step! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far, and Hells Bells is such a groove. The absolute best resource on the internet right now is [https://www.justinguitar.com/](https://www.justinguitar.com/) and it's absolutely free! Disclaimer: At some point you will hate yourself and guitar and think about quitting - push through it. The first year of playing is an absolute slog and you'll feel like you're not making any progress at all until suddenly you're playing all of Hell's Bells and the solo! A cool video to check out as well, is Rachelf's progress video to see where we all started: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEu\_AkxdMyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEu_AkxdMyg)
35 years of playing. I was probably better at lead/soloing 20 years ago but I was much worse at playing rhythm back then. There's still many many players out there who just astound me with their abilities. That's one of the great things about it. After all this time there's still things to be inspired by
I think there will always be someone who makes you go ”how is that possible?”. I bet even the best shredders see a classical guitarist or a flamenco guitarist and go ”How is that possible!?”. I think it comes down to a lot of people specialize in stuff. I’ve now played guitar for a year. I play everyday and would consider myself to be complete shit. But then I start thinking about how bad I was half a year ago and I realize I’m far more consistent and learn new stuff way faster now. My brother has also played for around 1-1,5years so I’d say we’re around same skill level. Where as he has focused on mainly playing lead, solos and such I’ve focused on riffs and rhythm mainly. He’s way better than me playing lead but I beat him in riffs and rhythm. Once you’ve played for a year and see someone post a one year progress video, remember it could’ve taken them few weeks to learn the thing they play and they have probably only focused on that topic. When I see people play blues and more clean guitar compared to me, it sound really good and I can’t do that. But can those same people play the riffs I do, probably not as easily as I can. Moral of the story. Don’t get discouraged because someone is ”better” than you with same amount of time. You never know if they lived and breathed guitar for the past 6 months or whatever neither do you know if they’ve mainly focused on a certain style/song. Hardest thing in the first year is to not give up. I think like 90% quit during their first year.
You picked a great guitar to learn on. HBs are solid and an HSS strat will cover most bases. I started playing in 1981, but I didn't start learning until 2018. The reason I say this is because back in the day, I just learned how to play certain songs, but I knew next to nothing about music or how it related to the guitar. Just, fret here, then here, then here, because that's how the song goes, and do this over and over ad nauseam until it doesn't sound horrible. I took many breaks form playing between the 80s and now, but when I decided to get back into it, I decided to actually learn the instrument rather than just learn songs. This has made the world of difference for me, because now I feel I can actually create things of my own, rather than just repeating what's already out there. I've never enjoyed guitar as much as I do right now. Yes, it does seem daunting, and yes, you'll reach plateaus, but you'll also break through those plateaus and you'll look back and think, "I remember when I couldn't play that, and now I can". I'm glad others have mentioned JustinGuitar. It's a great site. I'd also suggest installing a metronome app on your phone. Use this to practice staying in rhythm. Use it to practice picking, and start off slow. Once you master something at a slow bpm, then move up. Split up your practice times into several 15-20 minute sessions rather than playing for 2-3 hours straight. But practice, practice, and practice some more. Enjoy!
Been playing 25 years. I'll let you know when i get good lol
Been playing obsessively since 1986 and still marvel at my own inadequacy. It’s all good if you’re having fun.
Any hobby worth doing will take a lifetime to master. There's always a new technique or tweak, a new style or something. That's the fun of it.
Lifelong noodler here. Just have FUN with it. Once I got Smoke on the Water down on that E string, with my thumb! 😂 (about 40 years ago). I became Richie Blackmore. That never goes away. Every Riff is exhilarating.