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guthmund · 07-20-2007, 08:42 AM

There's a lot of good advice here, but here's a couple of points I thought I should mention.

First, I'd have to disagree on the old crappy guitar advice. Not that you should spend a thousand dollars right out of the gate, but a decent pawnshop or music store purchase should do you good.

I had a crappy ass acoustic I got from a friend who wanted me to play and I absolutely hated the thing. Didn't want to play, wasn't interested in learning, it was a fucking disaster. However, in a pawnshop with the same friend, I picked up another acoustic and played a couple of runs and it was night and day. I played all the time, I picked up books, played with others, it was (and still is) pretty fantastic.

Which kind of brings me to my second and third points. Two, be sure and physically get your hands on the piece and play a bit before you buy. It's a make or break thing for me. I have to get a feel for it and ordering cold off the internet (or whatever). I'm going to bastardize a quote from Bernie Mac in Transformers and say the player don't choose the guitar, the guitar choose the player.

Thirdly, play with others. It's nice to learn on your own and, for the most part, I do, but it's nice to have people to play with as well as it has opened up whole new avenues for my playing. I can read and work my way through stuff until my fingers hurt terribly and my eyes are crossing and still not 'get it' the way I do when I watch someone else do it.

I don't know how much experience you have, but just keep plugging ahead. The theory and such will work itself out in the wash, right now, the important thing is to keep playing.

07-20-2007, 08:42 AM	#9 (permalink)
guthmund big damn hero	There's a lot of good advice here, but here's a couple of points I thought I should mention. First, I'd have to disagree on the old crappy guitar advice. Not that you should spend a thousand dollars right out of the gate, but a decent pawnshop or music store purchase should do you good. I had a crappy ass acoustic I got from a friend who wanted me to play and I absolutely hated the thing. Didn't want to play, wasn't interested in learning, it was a fucking disaster. However, in a pawnshop with the same friend, I picked up another acoustic and played a couple of runs and it was night and day. I played all the time, I picked up books, played with others, it was (and still is) pretty fantastic. Which kind of brings me to my second and third points. Two, be sure and physically get your hands on the piece and play a bit before you buy. It's a make or break thing for me. I have to get a feel for it and ordering cold off the internet (or whatever). I'm going to bastardize a quote from Bernie Mac in Transformers and say the player don't choose the guitar, the guitar choose the player. Thirdly, play with others. It's nice to learn on your own and, for the most part, I do, but it's nice to have people to play with as well as it has opened up whole new avenues for my playing. I can read and work my way through stuff until my fingers hurt terribly and my eyes are crossing and still not 'get it' the way I do when I watch someone else do it. I don't know how much experience you have, but just keep plugging ahead. The theory and such will work itself out in the wash, right now, the important thing is to keep playing. __________________ No signature. None. Seriously.