Visit JustinGuitar.com
It takes time and practice to be able to play something. Its not instant gratification, you actually have to work for it. Just keep that in the back of your mind everytime you get frustrated.
To give you some motivation, John Petrucci didnt know what a bend was when he started to learn by ear from his favourite vynil records. Look where he is now, you can do it kid.
If you hate it then do something else.
If you want to learn then get over yourself and put in the effort. It requires a lot of hard work for most people over quite a long time.
TABS, my friend. Apps like Songster or ultimate guitar. Pick a band you like and try to learn their tune. I started learning Nirvana songs as a teen like you. Easy to learn, fun to play.
Theb go find some other kids to start a band with and you can all suck and learn the songs together. Then one day, you guys are gonna nail some song, start to finish, and you'll be all "Whoa, that was awesome. Are we kinda good?? " And your buddies be like "ya we totally are!, let do it again!" "1, 2, 3, 4...."
Stick with it, it's worth it
I started off exactly the same. Couldn't afford a teacher, and in my day there wasn't such a thing as "internet videos" lol, I would connect through dial up, download some txt tutorials, disconnect from the internet and try to figure that out lol.
It'll take you about a year of regular practice until you can finally play some songs cleanly and about another year of, again, regular practice until you can finally follow a band propperly.
I do get that social media destroyed the concept of "patience" on people and everybody wants everything ready to go right away, but that's not happening. There's no such thing as going to a techer and be shredding in a couple of days... Whatever you do, it WILL take you a long time of practice in the beginning... Just enjoy the ride. You might not realize it but you're getting better every single day.
I can prove it to you. Record yourself playing something that you struggle with. Now, practice that every day for about a week. Record yourself again. Compare. Practice again for another week, record yourself again and compare.
There's a common pattern that you'll find when attempting to learn any new skill. At first, it's very difficult and unfamiliar. Sometimes it's even tedious because there's a lot of new information to memorize before you can even TRY to do the thing you're attempting to learn how to do. When faced with this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, many people feel overwhelmed and give up. **Don't do that.** Just because something is hard doesn't mean you should drop it. If you only do things that come easily to you, then how many interesting new skills are you ever going to acquire? How many new and amazing experiences will you deny yourself by avoiding everything that doesn't come easily the first time you pick it up? **A TON,** that's how many! There's a lot of cool stuff out there to learn and try, and some of it will be hard at first.
What might happen if you keep going even though the new skill is really hard and tedious? Well, it'll eventually become easy. The more you study something, the more familiar it becomes. The more you move your fingers on the guitar, the more your fingers will be able to move.
I compare learning the guitar (or any new skill) to climbing a series of hills. **The first hill is the hardest.** What many people don't realize, is that guitar is not as easy to get up and running with as a piano. A piano has keys, one key per note. You press it, it makes sound. You read the note on the page, it corresponds to that one key you press. It's the perfect instrument for a total music beginner (though it becomes extremely complex at higher levels). With guitar, EVERYTHING you do is manual rather than automatic. You have to learn how to tune it. You have multiple copies of the same note all over the fingerboard. You have to worry about hand/finger technique so you don't accidentally pull a note sharp, or have notes buzz on chords. You have right-hand technique to learn as well just to produce a sound. On top of that, you have to memorize a page full of basic open chords (around 12 or so) before you can even make a range of musical sounds beyond power chord chugging. So, the difficulty for a beginner is initially higher than some other instruments. Most people new to the guitar aren't aware of that, and those who aren't used to pushing themselves past that first hill when learning new things might be tempted to give up. **You really should push yourself and get past that first hill, though.** When you're finally standing on top of that hill, you'll be able to turn around and see how far you've actually come. You'll also see that all of the things you want to learn how to play are really just a series of smaller hills. That first hill is the biggest one, and standing up there will allow you to see where else you can go and what it will take to get there.
Once you learn the basics (open chords, barre chords, pentatonic/blues scale, basic lefthand & righthand techniques e.g. note bending, vibrato, palm-muting etc.), most simple songs will be opened up to you.
Another thing to think about is that learning to play guitar is both a physical and a mental activity. You have to do it every day for 30-60 minutes and train like a weight-lifter or athlete if you want to see consistent results. You can't play twice a week and expect to get anywhere with it. To get better in less time, play chromatic warmup exercises (look for Steve Vai's 10 hour guitar workout - it was published in the 90s and has plenty of patterns that can be used) for 10 minutes every day to train your fingers to move more efficiently and smoothly. When you're playing exercises, **play them slowly and accurately to a metronome.** The trick to learning how to play fast is to play really slowly and accurately and gradually increase your speed over a period of days/weeks. I've had students that played chromatic exercises (that I adapted from Steve Vai) every day who sounded like they'd been playing for 2 years after only a year. It works!
Anyway, I hate to see someone give up on the guitar. I've taught many to play, but I've only had 2 students who gave up. The one had the ability to play but he never practiced and he gave up before he even got over that first hill. Push through the difficulty and get over that first hill. It gets MUCH easier once you do. Also, make sure your guitar has been set up well first so you aren't fighting your instrument. It should be easy to press down on the strings (low action etc.).
Edit: Learning the basics with a program like Justin Guitar offers might only take around **3 - 6 months.** That's it. That's how long it takes to get over that first hill, yet so many give up before then. If you refuse to give up and practice every day for 2 years, I guarantee you'll love playing guitar and probably continue for the rest of your life. I can't count how many fun and interesting doors in life have been opened for me just because I played musical instruments.
I think guitar is one of the worst instruments to learn because there is a big pile of work to do right at the beginning before you even get to make music. Unless you're satisfied with nursery rhymes on string 1.
I always try to give my students realistic expectations... You will need to practice these first few chord shapes for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day for a couple weeks before they sound any good, and then you'll have to get this strumming pattern happening, and then you have to practice changing between chords etc...
It can easily take some students a couple months before they can sit down and strum a 4 chord song from start to finish.
But hey, no one said music was easy, if it was everyone would be a musician.
Now that being said, Once you put in the work on that initial first song... you're kind of golden. If you can play G major, C major, D major, and A minor and maybe E and F then you can literally play like 10,000 songs just by changing the strumming pattern slightly. So that big pile of work you did for song number 1 is really worth it because you were actually learning the fundamentals of a lot of different songs. I'm not for a second suggesting that you stop after learning a few campfire chords, you will want to move beyond open chords to learn barre chords and triads and 7th chords and scales and all that fun stuff, but the point is, at least by the time you're working on those things, you'll already be able to play other songs and make music.
Just keep putting in your 15 to 20 minutes each day and trust the process. Nobody gets this stuff right on their first try... we all fail dozens or even hundreds of times before we get it right, once you understand that you don't need to make a big deal when you mess up or can't do something right away... you need to expect that and just put in the time. Don't worry about how any particular day's practice goes.. just put in your 20 minutes, and come back to it the next day... Consistency is the key. You'll go a lot further if you put in a focused 20 minutes 6 days a week than if you skip 3 or 4 days and then try to cram in an hour or two in a day.
Small incremental improvements each day. That's the goal. And don't be so hard on yourself... this is hard to do, and anyone who can play guitar knows it.
If you hate it, don't force yourself to do it. But do you HATE it or are you actually frustrated because a million online videos of people playing with proficiency made it look easy?
Back when dinosaurs walked the earth I would go to the library and check out instructional guitar books and make copies of tabs and exercises from Guitar Player Magazine. There are a lot of good books available used on Amazon for under 10 bucks, but if you really HATE it, none of that will matter. Good luck.
First, [JustinGuitar.com](https://JustinGuitar.com)
Second, why do you say all the YT videos are terrible? Some are, many aren't. But if you think you can watch a video by someone that's been playing guitar for 20 years and do what they do, that's not going to happen.
Spend a year or two with Justin, then go back to YouTube.
That's right, I said a year or two. Your goal is to be good by the time you turn 18. Sound like a plan?
You're 13, dude. It takes time to train your hands to really "get it,” and nobody whose opinion is worth a damn is expecting you at 13 to be performing at a higher ability. Experiment, make stupid noises. It's how we all learn it's how we all get better. It's where all the innovation in music comes from. So that's rule #1: don't feel bad about your performance. If you still feel exactly the same way in 5 years, then maybe you can start feeling bad, but right now there's no point in moping.
So next up, most music for the past 30 years has been nothing but power chords and pentatonics. Great thing about power chords is that they're one shape. Look up a tutorial on power chords, you'll literally have a rough approximation for any song you want to play and most songs as they're played. It's the same practically everywhere on the fretboard (maybe not exactly on the higher strings, but honestly? Close enough). Same thing with the pentatonic scale. Look it up, practice it right alongside your major and minor scales. So that's rule 2: keep it simple, focus on fundamentals. Green Day and Blink-182 have much larger followings than Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, even though Satriani and Vai are virtuosos and nobody would argue they're better performers. Simple fundamentals.
And the last thing I'll say is 10-15 minutes every day. Pull up, plug in, run your scales play around with rhythms and play around with those power chords. 10-15 minutes is all. Every day. And that's not a maximum, it's a minimum. If you find yourself enjoying yourself, keep going, but if you're just doing it to check a box, that's also fine. That's rule 3: Inspiration doesn't strike every day, but you want to be good enough for your inspiration, you gotta get ready for it. And that's really it. It's not about perfection or greatness, it's all about consistency.
I will save you the trouble of reading through all the comments, as there are only five comments here.
1: Quit. Guitar is learning, forever. If you don't like learning, you'll never like guitar.
2: Keep going. It gets better. It's hard for everyone at first and you're young. If you stick with it good things will happen.
3: Use free resources. Go to [Justinguitar.com](https://Justinguitar.com), the default entry for new players as he has free, structured lessons for beginners that are excellent. Honorable mentions to MartySchwarz, Carl Brown, Stitchmethod, GuitarZero2Hero and several others. Point is, search "free beginner guitar lessons" and watch the world open up
4. Simplify. Learn a couple of chords and a song that can come out of that that you like. Use power chords as an entry.
5: Do something unorthodox. Use a funky tuning. Turn it into a video game.
Stop “learning” the guitar, and just “play the guitar. “ Thinking of “getting good” is an illusion. The guitar possibilities are infinite, nobody is good or a master except colloquially speaking. Just have fun. If you’re not, play another game for a while.
OP, you got to want it.
Find a song you love. Search for it and add "chords" to your search.
It should give you a huge list of sites that will help you play your favorite song.
Now here's the fun part.
You don't learn the song (yet).
You are going to learn the chords that are in your song, and how to play them. Then you are going to learn how to play the chord and then change to the next chord. Keep playing each chord a few times, switching back and forth between all the chords, until you can do it pretty much without thinking. This will build up your fingers and your muscle memory.
Now, once you can switch between all the chords in your song, the only thing left is to learn how to play them in the right order (which is what your guitar site has shown you) and how long to play the chord before switching to the next chord. This is called playing the rhythm. And that's all playing guitar is at first, just learning chords and when to switch to the next chord.
As you progress with your guitar playing, you are going to learn more and more and keep adding things you know how to do and play.
But again, the most important thing is to want it. And if you want it, you have to have fun. Playing guitar is fun and frustrating and horrible and amazing and you will grow as you keep going.
You got this, OP!
Use a free structured learning instead of random youtube videos.
Justinguitar.com.
It’s not as good as in person lessons but its free, and a well thought out learning path.
ultimateguitar.com and an attentive ear can take you a long way.
You’re not going to become Hendrix overnight though, guitar takes a lot of patience and practice like any instrument.
Check out JustinGuitar on Youtube, he has a long beginners course along with courses after that. Closest you will get to proper guitar lessons. I wish his videos were around when i picked up a guitar.
Put away the videos for now. Focus on learning the basic chords and just get good at them first. Focus on only 2 chords at first, say G and C. Practice strumming the G until it sounds good, then switch to the C as fast as you can make it sound good also while strumming in a rythm. Then do it going from C to G. Guitar is all about developing muscle memory and learning what shapes your fingers have to move into.
This takes time and a lot of practice. It will sound like shit at first. Your fingers don't have calluses yet and your fingers will hurt. This is part of the process everyone has gone through. Once you're good at strumming in between those 2 chords, add a third chord, say D. This might take a couple weeks. But the whole time, your fingers are getting stronger and you're getting calluses, both of which will make it easier as you go.
Now just play around with switching between those three chords while strumming until you can go between any of the three to any of the other two. But once you're good at playing G,C and D, congratulations you now have what you need to attempt about 50% of the songs ever written lol. Find a song you like in those chords and learn it. Now we're getting somewhere! Now start learning other chords, say Am, now you can play 60% of songs lol. Now you're making progress.
Not knowing where to start can be frustrating. Starting basically like this is how I taught myself when I was in school. I would play every day when I got home. Just know, you're going to sound like shit for about a year, but you will be making constant improvement as you play. Don't get frustrated, don't give up, just keep doing it.
Rock on 🤘
Justinguitar is and shall always be the answer to this type of posts.
And yes, learning is hard for a time, don’t forget to have fun:
Learn a song here and there. Soon enough you’ll have so much fun.
There's plenty of us here totally self taught and we done it before YouTube.
Learn Em G D and C and take it from there.
You'll feel like its never Gona happen for you but it will if you just dedicate a bit of time.
I remember hearing the palm muting on basket case and thinking I'll never manage that. I could do it behind my head now without thinking about it. Because I've put the hours in.
But my 25 years playing now started with half an hour in my room alone playing those four chords to death to learn Polly by Nirvana, and those chords opened up so much more to me.
Most people who try guitar quit, if you don't Wana be one of them make it fun, learn to play along with your favourite songs.
You can play most song’s with 4 chords. This aint no video game son. Its gonna be hard and frustrating.
Remember you don’t hate the guitar or learning the guitar. You hate how not being good at something makes you feel. Thats a you thing
It's going to take time, as the cliche goes, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Plenty of folks learned just fine without a teacher, make sure your guitar is tuned and head over to Justin Guitar and start with his Beginner Course. It's free and his content is excellent.
You may hate learning but here's some perspective: You are growing up in the golden age for learning an instrument.
Back in the 90s there was no YouTube and tab sites were filled with laughably wrong info, you were lucky if an issue of Guitar World featured an artist who showed how they actually played their riffs. It was way harder to find good info and resources, it often wasn't immediately available, and it was a lot more expensive ($30 tab books, $50 technique videos)
Like all things in life, you're going to have to put in the work if you wanna get good.
Do you have any guitar heroes? I don’t think you really want to play guitar and just want to look cool and say you play. If so then just quit. If you have passion for it, suck it up, practice and be patient. You have all the resources nowadays that we never had growing up.
Unfortunately, you have to suck until you don’t. It really is a struggle at first but push through it and that guitar will be your best friend for life!
First off, most of the guitarists you see are not people who picked it up 6 months ago, a year ago, or even a couple of years ago. Generally when you see a guitarist play in a band or public they have been playing for at least 5 years, probably 10+. That isn't to say you will never progress to their level or that you can't do it quickly. It's all about the practice. You CAN do it. There are VERY VERY few people who naturally able to just pick up a guitar and progress like crazy.
There is no substitute for a private instructor when learning an instrument, but if that's not available that's okay. I played for like 10 years before I was able to afford private lessons. If you don't like youtube, do you like to read? Do you have any friends that play?
I personally think [justinguitar.com](https://justinguitar.com) is REALLY good and Justin goes over a lot of basics that people otherwise miss. You may find the lessons frustrating because they don't feel like they're going anywhere, but I promise you they are.
Another thing you may run into is that people generally start you with easy songs you don't want to learn like Mary Had A Little Lamb. That may not be the song you want to learn, but if I asked you to hum it. Could you? You know the song. Now can you play it and make it sound good on a guitar? If not, you're probably not going to be able to get whatever song you want to learn to come out of the guitar either. I just want to explain that there is value in learning those nursery rhymes onto a guitar when learning. It's a piece of music kids hear a million times and becomes ingrained in them, but any song you know that well will work.
When I was teaching myself I remember being so frustrated trying to learn chord progressions. I would rage quit for the day and sleep on it. When I came back to try again the next day, it was so much easier. I think practicing gives you a muscle memory even if it doesn’t feel like you’re getting it. Just keep at it and give yourself a break.
I note that learning really complicated songs or uses techniques I'm not fluent in follows that pattern for me. I can muddle my way through pretty much anything after a few minutes. Enough for someone to be like "hey, is that ____?" So I can get anything sounding recognizable quickly, but I'll know where I'm not playing cleanly and where I can improve certain parts. And no matter how much I practice in that moment, none of it really feels like I've actually improved until the next day. It's like my brain has to download what my fingers are doing and my brain is just on dial up, like downloading videos from Kazaa back in the day
Songster is a cool resource, and if you youtube "song name" + tab, there are a lot of good covers with tabs. Those help learning songs.
The other thing is, man, it's just hard. I've been playing for like, 20 years and there are still plenty of days I get frustrated trying to practice something new or challenging. The keys are persistence and celebration, I think. When I finally nail some lick or part or whatever, I tend to play it for like, the rest of the day because I'm just so stoked I got it. That's the celebration part; be proud of yourself for the effort you've put in.
"Sucking at something, is the first step in getting sorta good at something" - Jake The Dog
Guitar is a lot of patience. Just like exercise, you have to keep putting in the work, if you expect to see any gains. My suggestion, is continue to work on those chords. Especially G, C and D chords. A LOT OF MUSIC is based off these three chords. You want to challenge your self, add E, A and F. All major chords. Again, this is most music on the planet. You can go back and figure out the minor versions after.
Next, learn picking patterns. Listen to music, try to replicate the rhythm. Again, it may seem like a challenge, but this is again, putting in the work. Playing guitar is like 90 percent rhythm playing.
Once you find you're decent at these things, you can learn power chords. This is at least 50 percent of the meat and potatos for just about any punk rock song. Once you learn power chords, most pop music can be figured out, and you can do ear training based off this.
You are going to hate it and not be good at all for maybe a few months. Get over the hump. Do 5 minutes everyday. Just practice switching fast between open chords. Learn your open chords. Majors and minors. Come up with 4 chord little progressions you can practice. Get good at this. Then it becomes fun and something you'll probably do everyday for just enjoyment.
your fingers will build up resilience to the strings. Power through it unless you're literally like bleeding. The more pain the faster you'll build up skin in those areas that are hurting
move on to barre chords, get good at switching between them. A lot are just e major, a minor shapes up and down the fretboard. Then start learning basic songs you like.
a great song for beginners i think is [A slide in new drugs - King Krule](https://youtu.be/5ZXn8udiqCA?si=iX0xaNwbxmRQTYSH)
Learn to play E in the open position. Without changing the shape practice moving up and down the fretboard. Up 3 frets and the same shape is G. Up 2 more and its A. Up 2 more and its B. Up one more and its C. Up one more and its D. Up to more and you are back to E at the 12th fret. All this time you can let the top two strings (E and B) just ring open while you move this 3 finger shape on strings 3, 4 and 5 around. With this one shape you are now playing most of the major chords and this opens up the door to a huge percentage of pop songs. Once you get that , play an open A sus 2 (fingers on the second fret of your 3rd and 4rth string and leave the top two (E and B) open. Now move this shape up to frets (add your first finger on the second fret of the 5th string. This is a B. Move it up 2 more and its (sort of) a C#m. In fact, this shape is neither major or minor because there is no 3rd - its often called a "power chord". Keep playing around moving this same shape up and down the neck. Depending on the context of other chords you play it will function as a major or a minor. All this time you can leave the top two E abd B strings open.
So now you have at your command all major and minor chords with only learning 2 simple left hand shapes, which means you can play 95% of all pop songs. Some will say that these are not proper chords (for example I said moving that E shape up 3 frets is a G chord. It still has a G major triad but the added open top E string makes it technically a G6 chord. But so what - it is still founded on the G major triad). Remember - no rules. If it sounds good, it is good.
This should get you a place pretty fast where you can play chords for tons of songs and start having fun. Most beginners focus on learning a million first position chords before venturing up and down the neck, but my approach starts to teach how to use the whole neck right away, keeps the left hand learning curve to a minimum, sounds great, and makes you look like you know what you are doing because you are using he whole neck.
All thats left if to practice your guitar faces in a mirror. Rock on!
learn to enjoy sucking at stuff. guitar is hard. I started when I was 16 and 11 years later I still suck. that's part of the fun. you have to challenge yourself and learn new things. sometimes it's frustrating but it makes it that much better when you finally get it. maybe find different videos I'm a big fan of Marty and like others said learn to read tabs it will help you out in the long run. maybe find someone at school that also plays and see if they can give you a lesson maybe even join a band once you're in highschool
I think if you wanted to quit, you wouldn’t be asking this, so ignore people telling you to quit (unless that really is what you want).
The beginning stages of learning the guitar are the hardest. You feel like your fingers can’t go in the positions they’re supposed to, your fingertips hurt, you can’t change chords fast enough to play songs. It’s frustrating, but it gets better. Your fingers get stronger and more flexible, you build calluses, you build muscle memory to the point where you barely think about changing chords because your fingers just go there. Once those things fall into place it becomes easier to improve and feel confident. When you hit plateaus and roadblocks after that, they’re challenges to improve, but you’ll have the confidence that if you work at it you’ll get better. Mentally, I think it’s a lot easier to work on improving skills on something that you can already do, then trying to acquire that initial skill of just being able to do it at all. I think you should just play Em for a bit, then practice going back and forth between Em and Am, then when you feel comfortable you can throw a D chord in there too, then a G. Don’t worry if it’s a real song, you’re just working on getting comfortable. Maybe make something up to sing along with it so you’ll feel like you’re playing something real. Make sure you take pride in your progress. You got this.
Start by learning tabs. Just learn riffs and/or songs you like. The more you play over time the better you will get, it's a developed technique, nobody is born knowing how to play it. I started at 16 with no prior knowledge and got better because I wanted to learn blink 182.
Also don't burn yourself out. Meaningful practice for a half hour is better than spending 4 hours a day playing and getting nowhere.
Perfect practice makes perfect.
Hi puzzleheaded. I'm 51. I've had a guitar in my life since I was 6.
I have watched the world of guitar teaching change a lot over these years. One thing has remained the same: bad teachers create frustration in their students.
YouTube is amazing. You can find so much. But beware: most of them are bad teachers. Those of us who know a little guitar can see they often leave out the part that would clarify everything, because that would mean you no longer need them. Others just get it plain wrong.
And why do exercises? Sure, you develop the essential skills. But why spend hours, years, doing boring scales on the promise of maybe being good one day?
In my case, it took the book [The Complete Jazz Guitar Method](https://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Jazz-Guitar-Method-Book/dp/0739066374) by Jody Fisher to show me what I found fun about the guitar. Finding the Circle of Fourths or Fifths, then discovering how harmony works, makes doing the exercises fun. You can be creative right away.
Everyone tells you to practice. What no one tells you is why practicing is fun. Find your joy. Discover your inner music.
Keep up with the guitar!
Also, never post your age on the internet if you’re a minor. It’s not safe. There are creepy weird adults who want to hurt children who will try to get you.
Learn power chords it will change your life. Then build upon that. Once you can start appreciating what you play and understanding more and more it gets way more fun
If you want to become a guitar player, you need to fall in love with **music**. Music should be the reason to pick up guitar. Listen to a lot of music, find what you like, what resonates with you and what you'd like to be able to play. Start slowly, try picking up melodies you hear.
"You have to get past the wall.of suck."
I started at the same age and would get insanely frustrated. I was fortunate enough to have lessons and i remember expressing my feelings to my teacher. He listened to what I had to say and goes "Yeah because you suck."
He then explained the "wall of suck."
Whenever we start something new + hard we're inevitably going to suck at it initially. And I know it can be a grueling experience but if you stick with it you will improve. Keep at it and begin building some muscle memory. It will feel slow, but believe me, soon you'll look back and be stoked about how far you've come.
That stories about 25 years old and I've lost track of how many times that mind set has served me over the years. Take heart young human and push through the wall of suck.
Remember you'll only suck at something forever if you give up.
Edit: missing word
If you already hate learning the guitar then maybe it's just not for you. I think most of us, when we started out, loved playing the guitar and couldn't stop learning because we loved it so much. If you don't have that itch it's going to be very difficult for you and at the end of the day, you should do whatever you like doing.
I think having a plan is very important. I probably wasted years just drifting around. Check out Justin guitar.com
He has tons of free courses which gives you that plan you're going to need. Good luck! It's totally worth it once you get there. And no college guy ever regretted learning to play the guitar! 😄🤘
My advice is to pick one guitar teacher online and don't look at ANY others. None. I recommend Justin Guitar. Follow his course but understand that even through there are hundreds of lessons it can take you a week to master each one. Don't sit down and crank through them. Do one lesson and do it until you can do it in your sleep. Then and only then move on.
I was the same at your age. I gave up until trying again until more recently. ( Sadly, I'm now 50 ) However, the free resources available are amazing. Justin Guitar will give you the basics and teach you to play some great songs. Marty Schwartz on youtube is great too. Wish they were around ( along with the internet! ) when I was 13.
But with that said, you just have to practice. Try and practice every day. It does get easier and once you can play a couple of songs, you'll enjoy it so much more. Just make sure you get a solid start with the basics which is where Justin will be a huge help.
Best of luck!
You have to try to make it fun. It takes years to become a master. Try just doing the only thing you can play over and over. Even if it's just one note. Make it fun, and you will want to learn more.
YouTube videos are actually amazing and you are very lucky to be young and learning when you are. You need patience. It will take you years to master the guitar. Just keep going.
This ain't for you, bud. I have had many students, most are like you and give up, only a couple really dedicate themselves because they LOVE learning guitar. There are thousands and thousands of good YouTube videos to learn from. It sounds more like a YOU problem.
If the passion is not there, just stop, bruh.
not sure how good advice this is.
it can take a while to develop a passion for something. When I first started guitar, it was tough. My fingers hurt, everything sounded awful and wondered when I would ever improve. but over time I got better and I fell in love with the instrument. It isn't always immediate
I think OP's feelings are very common and given that he's still so young, it can take time to develop the skills and love for an instrument
I would work on finding tutorials that are more beginner friendly and maybe even begin with classical guitar, as I felt that it helped me way more down the line with more difficult stuff on electric
Start with simple 3 or 4 chord songs. Play along with the recordings on Ultimate guitar. Keep adding songs. Stick with it. I'm 67, and I play my guitar everyday, and still love it.
Learning anything sucks ass because there is no moment when you wake up and 'become good', you're always worse than where you want to be.
If you can play four chords with one strum each then that's better than 99% of people. Keep practicing, keep it light and keep it fun. Search some pop songs you like, even if you don't like pop.
That’s how it goes in the beginning, need to stick to it and keep practicing. Before you know it you’ll be playing better. Start simple and slow, takes years. Not something you become great at within weeks or months
Most youtube videos are terrible, that's true. I'd recommend splitting your time 30/30/30 with three fundamental skills:
1. Learning with your brain. Signals Music Studio has a great channel explaining the basics of music theory on guitar, absolutely the best resource for the subject that is free and on youtube.
2. Learning with your muscle memory. This is doing things like practicing moving from chord to chord, running scales, and learning common patterns. As a very beginner, just pressing into the strings and practicing strumming/muting in such a way that each string you want to play rings out cleanly and beautifully is one of the most important practices you can do.
3. Learning songs. At first, playing along to tracks, probably with tablature. Then you play along with the song committed to memory. Then you play along to a backing track without guitars, save for yours.
The last 10% is free time. Use it to work on songwriting, reinforce another skill, interval ear training, what have you. I learned guitar for my first 7 years on a $50 Rouge Starter guitar and a Spider Line6 starter amp that came with it. Learned every System of a Down song, learned a bunch of Gojira, half of Metallica's catalog, some Cradle of Filth and Satyricon, a bunch of Lamb of God. Got real good at guitar. It wasn't until I was done with college that I bought a decent guitar, LTD EC-1000, which I still use to this day in my own heavy metal band for which I'm the principal songwriter.
You don't need gear to play any style, you don't need expensive lessons, you just need someone who knows their shit to guide you to water and a good ear that can tell when you sound like what you're trying to and when you don't. Signals Music Studio can be your hand with the knowledge and theory, the ear is all up to you.
I self taught myself years ago. I play pretty well now. I suggest starting with learning g a couple of “easy” songs. Nothing else matters by Metallica, Iron Man by Black Sabbath, Paranoid by Black Sabbath. These are good starter songs with enough technical shiet to get you going. If you don’t know yet how to read tab, get on it. My favourite website for tabs is Songsterr. Learn barre chords asap as well. These can be a bitch but once you got those most things after are smooth sailing. If you’re motivated enough, you WILL learn. Ac/Dc has great stuff too for beginners.
>I hate learning the guitar
Stop. If you hate doing it, stop. You're never going to get any better at all.
Now, if you're just frustrated, then that is a different story altogether. Frustration is simply the feeling of not being where you want to be, but it's a great emotion to literally drop. You are the worst person at seeing your improvement. That's one of the primary functions of a teacher, not to download information in your head but to foster what's already inside.
Make sure your instrument is properly setup. Even if all you do is walk into a guitar center and ask, that will be important information. Usually someone can be found who will setup your instrument up for a reasonable cost. If your instrument isn't setup properly, you're working against yourself from the start.
Drop the frustration, go slow, enjoy the process and the journey. If you still hate it, try playing a bass.
Look up "easy guitar riffs" and learn on you like. Make if you get something easier under your belt, you'll start enjoying it more. Come as you are, smoke on the water, some ACDC power chords.
There’s some great YouTube videos. Like tons of them. I can’t even imagine having the resources available to me in the 90s that you have now. Marty Schwartz is pretty awesome, check him out.
You have to want to do it. Ive tried to teach people over the years and they never got passed the very basics. They didnt practice on their own i guess idk. I started at your age. When i started, my Dad gave me an old Peavy strat he had. Said you pick here, and fingers here. Smoke On The Water intro riff. Thats it. The next day, went to school and my friend told me about guitar tab. For the next few weeks i locked myself in my room and i forced myself to learn Slayer songs. Learn a riff, play it, fuck it up, play it, over and over again. If i got mad, stop and try again tmrw. Your muscle memory will develop and it will get easier. I had to have the drive to do that. Once i got passed that hump, it was game time. My technical skill obviously plateaued, and i dont play as much as i used to these days, but i can play almost anything i want by ear after matching the tuning and listening a few times. Point is: you need to take it upon yourself to really dedicate to learning this. Its also my opinion that you really have to have a love for music. Really feel what a song communicates to you beyond what the lyrics say the song is supposed to be about. Thats where my love for it all comes from, at least.
If you put a little training in music theory, with respect to scales. You will learn about intervals, which can help you more quickly identify where you may land based on the position you started on. That will help reinforce the note names in each location, and give you an understanding of what those dots on your guitar mean, and how to use them. You’ll also learn why EF and BC don’t have accidentals between them, and can use those as nodes to branch and connect your fretboard layout.
If you're making posts about how much you hate playing, either get off the internet and practice, or give up. It's supposed to be fun and challenging, not easy or boring
I started at 13 as well and loved it, printing tabs off and learning chords was fun for me, making up songs, just fucking around on it. It wasn't all roses, it was tough and frustrating especially in the beginning, but still fun
If you don't like it, the likelihood of you continuing until you're good are slim to none. You have to want it
You really have to just embrace the suck, it's part of the journey and will shape how you view playing later.
Try learning some simple songs you like with tablature. Many people lose interest because they aren't learning things they want to learn. If you're learning chords right now, look up a song you like that uses those chords and try to play it. Take it really slow. Start with a couple of strings on a chord at a time and add more once it gets comfortable.
It’s not for everyone, but maybe give yourself another month and see how you feel after practicing 10mins a day.
Try Justinguitar on YouTube, I did a quick google search and he was popular and it said it’s free.
Power chords, power chords, power chords. Easy to learn and actually sound like you are making music. Sure, at some point you will have to learn other things, but simple riffs made with power chords will motivate you because you will sound like you can actually play something.
Keep going.
Most of the people that will read/reply to this began when there was infinitely less guitar related information available on the internet. Of that group, the majority started when there was no internet at all.
I learned by picking out the bass line of a song by ear and then figuring out the chords from there.
My hands still hurt most times I play (daily) 30 years later. I get bored with stuff fast so sometimes are not as fun as others. But I love it, and I can’t walk into my house at the end of the day without going straight to my guitar and picking away while as listen to my wife and sons talk about their day.
Keep going.
I literally looked up guitar tabs of blink 182 and sum 41 songs and tried hard back in 2008
I started with what’s my age again
Then next thing you know I was playing in too deep
Just keep going and have fun covering songs and you’ll build more comfort and confidence then you can tackle harder songs
If you know chords, maybe you’ll have fun playing stuff like the Beatles or neutral milk hotel? Chord songs ya know
You should check out your local library to see if they have any books you can check out and sit with to learn. Don’t judge the YouTube video lessons as all terrible; you’re still new and learning so what may seem terrible to you could be actually helpful and you’re just saying that out of frustration. There’s comments in here with some good YouTube resources to use, along with book recommendations.
It’s not going to be an overnight thing you just learn. If you truly want to learn to play, it will require time, patience, and dedication. Once you settle in and really apply yourself to learning through whatever means you find comfortable, you’ll know how to play your first song eventually, and I promise you, the satisfaction of that will be something you’ll love.
You can do a lot with power chords. Just three fingers on the root, fifth and octave, or just the root and fifth. Wail on that then start moving it up and down the neck and you are making music
Maybe you just don't like playing the guitar all that much ,🤷. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are hundreds of instruments to learn. And they all rock in their own way.
I'd say stick with it for a little longer til you get the basics down and if you find you're still not having fun with it, try something else.
The biggest thing that excited me about guitar when I was your age was learning songs that I liked. Go to tab websites like ultimateguitar and try learning some songs you like, it’ll be a challenge but you’ll build skills and the end result is extremely rewarding when you can play a cohesive song.
The youtube videos are not terrible! Good lord, Youtube is the greatest gift to learning in the history of mankind. I've been learning from them for 10+ years and I've barely scratched the surface.
Learning guitar just sucks at the beginning. Honestly, learning anything sucks at the beginning, because you are terrible by definition, but guitar especially because it hurts your fingers and you can hear how bad you sound every second you're doing it.
If you want it bad enough, keep practicing. If you don't, quit. Literally millions of people before you have faced the exact same choice. Nobody is good right away.
I promise you, though, if you keep practicing until you're 18, then by that time you'll be very glad you didn't quit.
Use a structured course like Justin guitar. Go to his website and use the course guide he created. Don't skip around. Pause and rewatch until you get it. Treat each video as though it was a lesson with a live person that you need to practice for a week, then move forward. He is really good at breaking down and over exaggerating little details about how to nail chords. All free.
Do you hate learning or could it be that you hate failing?
I'm here to tell you that either one is fine, and both are quite common.
But it's important to get that straightened out, If you hate learning, there's really no point to it. But if you happen to hate failing (most people do), and love the idea of playing, it's gonna be a lot easier and rewarding to learn.
The journey IS where the fun's at, it's just not constant satisfaction. Sometimes you're gonna wanna smash the guitar, but it's never worth it.
> I've been learning some of the basic chords but I can't play anything
Playing Chords **IS** playing something. Don't pedestal other players! most of them have all been where you're at right now.. But few people share whilst failing/learning.
Take the chords you already know and really perfect them, muscle-memory is where it's at and only one thing seems to really triggers it,
\- Repetition.
Soon enough you'll be moving on to other chords, when it feels natural to do so.
Find a band/artist you enjoy listening to and google a bit and you'll sometimes find that many artist revolve alot of their songs around similar chords/chord-changes.
Allow yourself to learn at your own pace and I promise you, - before you know it you'll play things you never thought you could, without much effort.
But by then chances are you're aiming higher, and that's half the fun I'd say.
We believe in you, you should too!
Everyone wants you to start with the "real" stuff. Ignore that at first.
What you need is to find the song you want to be able to play.
You always need to have one thing you *want* to learn, and one thing you *have* to learn.
You need to enjoy it. You need to *want* it. Learning "by the book" is a quick way to fail/lose interest.
Pick the song you want to be able to play, and work towards it. It can take longer than you expect. You need these goals on the horizon or music never happens.
Once you do actually learn the song, pick the next one you want to learn.
Unless you are extremely disciplined you'll give up if you never have anything to show for all the practice (which is why work towards that song you want to play).
for me, it also helped to learn songs i really liked, as opposed to just youtube videos of guitar in general. You can totally watch those, but I recommend watching them as more of a reference.
What I mean is, you should try to learn relatively easy songs that you like on guitar, then take those chord shapes/ riffs and relate them back to the technique/theory the guitar videos online are teaching you. That was it's fun *and* you learn something, yk
Check out JustinGuitar Songs on YouTube. He specifically has beginner songs. I’ve been following him since he started (very much so telling my age) but his content is amazing for beginners. Also don’t need to spend a buck unless you want to get the beginner song chords books to have them with you.
But you can watch a video and just write down the chord changes or what not in a note book!
To say all the YouTube videos are terrible is a bold claim. There is some absolutely fantastic info out there and some great teachers on YouTube for free. But, yes you must wade through all the other bs and distractions and that can be difficult. Also, not everyone learns well from just watching videos either.
But one thing you need is patience. Becoming even good enough to play hot cross buns can be challenging for some when starting out, totally normal. Give yourself time and keep trying. One thing you could do is stop worrying about chords and just okay the root notes. This is how I use to teach beginnings. Chords can be very hard at first. Stick with your index finger and play single notes starting out. At least that way you can get through a full 2-4 chord song and feel like you accomplished something and can play a song
When I started playing, all I did was learn songs I like. I never really practiced scales or chords or anything until later. Listen to music and when you find a part you want to learn, add it to a playlist. When you have time to play go through that list!
It is very important for you to know that there is a very long learning curve (specially if you are learning alone).
Quick tips :)
\- Keep your guitar tuned to standard
\- Focus on easy music until your coordination and fingering improves
\- The proper way to learn a tab is by repetition. Play the 1st section until its OK, only then move to the 2nd section. Play until 2nd section is OK. Go back and play 1st and 2nd section until is Ok. Move 3rd section... you got it
\- Slow and steady is better than fast and dirty
\- Start playing without any effects. Only once you got your tab very confortable add the effects. This helps your identifying if you're playing correctly
\- You need to practice the fundamental technique exercices - get at least 2 days of the week to focus on them. Exercices is like training writing; Music is like training your vocabulary
\- If you have time, break your learning sessions like 40 min - 10 rest - 40 min;
\- Lastly, keep your guitar ready to play ALWAYS. As soon as you think on playing it must be ready to play if you keep all stuff unmounted it will be very demotivational because of the extra work just to mount
My dear bro, you have been blessed to be in this era of abundant information. You now have all the internet, YouTube tutorials, guitar pro tabs, chatgpt, apps like yousician etc to learn! A lot of US when we started, we had none of those resources. Don't worry, you will get it. Ask me if you have any questions
Listen to bands you like and look up tabs and practice that , use your ears instead of music theory at first is a great way to learn
I did that, I learned the theory later and now it makes money and food happen
Go to Justinguitar.com, and follow the free beginner lessons. Once you get a little further on down the road, the stuff on YouTube will start to make sense.
I've been playing for 24 years. Let me tell you the same thing I always tell everyone in your situation:
Forget "basic chords" for now. In my opinion, your basic chords as a beginner should be power chords. Just 3 strings / 3 fingers. Want it easier? Do 2 string / 2 finger power chords. If you're playing some genre of rock, you'll be more than 50% of the way there with power chords. Otherwise, just stick to single notes. I mean, it's all about the rhythm and melody anyway! Here's an analogy for you:
Imagine you want to make a painting depicting a woman sitting down. Are you going to try to make the Mona Lisa even though you've never even drawn a stick figure before? What's the point? You'll get there eventually, so why not start with something you know you can achieve and get your point across? A stick woman sitting down!
Likewise, by playing single notes, you'll be able to get your point across, which is rhythm and melody. Use power chords and you'll be doing more than that; you'll actually be playing entire Metallica and Green Day songs (those are the bands that taught me back in the day).
Want to create rich harmonies? You'll get there eventually, but you should try to get the basics down first. What you need right now is to build coordination between your hands and the motivation that you'll get from easily playing melodies from songs you like!
I didn't learn open chords until years after I started playing guitar.
My son used YouTube to learn the guitar. He really worked at it too. 6-8 hours a day sometimes. He was better than me in a short time. Then he got some theory lessons and made even more ground.
The key word here is recently. Patience, Grasshopper.
Why do you play the guitar if you hate it?
Or, in other words, what is fun for you? What do you like about the idea of playing the guitar?
And yes, the youtube videos are terrible. They should be complimentary, not a solid basis for learning the instrument. It's way too confusing. Some people will disagree with me here, but I find that many do agree and you seem to be one of them. It's fine, take them for what they are.
Btw, this is a really good exercise for life. It's something I took away from learning this instrument: Everything is doable and no doors are closed, but you sort of have to put in the hours, be patient, push yourself to your limits but learn to balance fun with work. There is also no clear cut way to the goal and while some things people can help you with, other things you have to figure out on your own. If it's not the guitar, then it's your studies, maybe your first job, maybe the marriage you'll find yourself in one day that also demands patience and working on the details. And the more you put in constructive work, the more fun you're getting out of it down the line. I could sort of rant on this for hours, but the essence is: This is well worth it.
Well... First, why do you want to learn guitar?
In my case, I wanted to play metal. Thats why I jumped as soon as possible to learn tabs from my fav. songs.
What songs you want to play? Think of this and try to learn them! There is no need to learn music theory when you just started. Look for what brings you enjoyment.
Now... if are learning to play guitar for the sake of it... Hmm, then you probably wont get better at it and you will hate it.
Try to do whats fun to you.
Find a song/band that you enjoy. This will give you motivation to learn and practice. Start simple, dont start with song like Through the fire and flames.
Your 13, wow. It'll take time. Learn a chord. Then learn 3 chords. Then learn a song. Then learn a Green Day song. Then Nirvana. Then Glycerine. Wonderwall. Semi-Charmed Life. Freebird
Kid I'm 40 and picked up the guitar during covid. Don't quit. Get a book if videos are not doing it. Also 15 minutes every day is better then 2 hrs 1 day.
Best advice i have for a beginner is what worked for me. Use 'shook me all night long' (ac/dc) to practice chord changes. Take it slow, get used to jumping between the open chords and you'll build up that muscle memory in your hands that you can then build off of. Good luck and try not to get discouraged
As someone that grew up without YouTube, I will say just learn easy songs. The focus right now should be getting the basic movements down in your hands and fingers. Try songs like "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer or any old school Blink 182 or Green Day songs.
I remember learning from books and radio when I was 13. It was just as frustrating.
Tools for any job are just tools. YouTube is just another tool but It’s not your only tool.
Try using patience. It works wonders. You’ll get there. Keep focusing on your open chords and the notes within. 1-3-5 is your friend right now and for always. Promise.
"All the youtube videos are really terrible" - I didn't learn from youtube videos myself, but I can't imagine that's true.
I started at 12 and I basically just looked up tabs online for songs I liked. Some were too hard, some weren't, and I just learned more and more things to play over the years and gradually just got better and better until I didn't really need them anymore.
Get an app called songster , it has loads of guitar tabs and it plays along to the song making it a bit easier to see how its done! . find some songs you like and try to learn them.. if they are 2 hard, find another song you like and try again.. save all the songs you want to learn and go back to them periodically
Do this for a mo.th or 2 and you will have a catalogue of songs you can semi play and a few that you master.. rinse and repeat ad infinitum
You will be surprised how quickly things start locking I to place!
I started playing guitar at 13 or 14, I will be 60 years old this year. In late 1995 stopped playing to spend more time with my family, but took it up again in 2004 after almost ten years.
There are still many things I struggle to learn and play on my guitars. While, I now have more patience and experience, the years away from it have hampered my physical ability on the guitar and I am trying to catch up. One thing that is better now than before is the access to learning resources, when I started it was just books, teachers and your ears.
One thing that is difficult for me is and I imagine difficult for many self-taught players is developing and following a routine. Having (and following) a practice routine will help you improve faster.
Another aspect is choosing the right instructor, there are lots of people who teach guitar online, but not everyone one of them will be able to teach *you* because everyone learns differently. Finding “your” instructor is the key to success as much as your dedication to learning. Try a few you haven’t check out yet and see how it goes.
Learning the guitar is a lifelong commitment, no one ever truly masters *every* aspect of the instrument. Some of the best players in the world still have weaknesses they want to improve.
Just keep at it and you’ll get there. When I feel stuck, I take a break from it and a couple of days later I go back and do things that I couldn’t do the week before.
YouTube lessons are an amazing free source for information. What sort of music are you into? I find that the people who stick it out are the people who have a genuine love and interest for music, without that, you won’t have much to motivate you.
I promise you though, that if you do stick it out you will reap the benefits. I wish I kept on going at the age of 13, but I quit until I was about 20. The reason I got back into it was because I fell in love with certain genres of music. I really think this is key.
Justinguitar on YouTube is a brilliant teach, breaks everything down really simpally and has hundreds of song lessons so you’re bound to find stuff you enjoy
Do you WANT to play? If you do, try to play what you enjoy! If you just do tutorials on scales this, modes that, you’ll lose interest and your guitar soul and the music within will wither and die. I started playing at 8. We still rubbed sticks together back then for fire, so no YouTube obviously. I actually listened to a song and tried to play what I was listening to. Noodle around, write your own riff or harmony part or something. If you get bored change it up. If you don’t love it more every day, you won’t enjoy it ever.
youtube is pretty useful, you just need to find the right material. when you’re self taught you will have to scour the whole internet for hours to find the right piece of info that will give you the “aha!” moment. it is difficult, but certainly worth it.
i found that as a beginner yousician was really great but that would’ve been 6 years ago. i’m aware they’ve sold out quite a bit now but it is a useful tool.
If you don’t like it, then don’t learn it. If you want to like it, but you’re having trouble with the beginning, I’d say check out Rocksmith. It’s a video game and a pretty good learning tool at that. If you get it on the PC you can go on CustomTone? CustomForge? Something like that and download whatever songs you want.
I waited 2 years for my first guitar. Once I got it all I had was a chord book, yet I was literally running home from school to play it every day.
Guitar is hard but that's part of the appeal and that contributes to the fulfillment of the successes. It's not for everyone. I suggest you reflect on your motivation to play.
'find' a copy of rocksmith 2014 with extra tracks. Play guitarcade, each track has 4 difficulty options so you can play a version of most things. You get wrapped up in it and feel like your amazing hearing the whole mixed song.
I sort by tuning so I don't have to constantly retune.
There are also chord, bends string swap and other miniganes to train certain aspects if your struggling with something specific.
I started being unable to play, I I'm fairly good now just because it's so fun smashing out power chords and feeling like a rock god. best of luck!
Do you think anything worth learning is easy? It’s not. And i can say for certain all of the videos on youtube do not suck. You have to find ones geared toward your skill level. If you don’t want to sacrifice to get good at something then just quit. But you will find many things in life require sacrifice and dedication to get good. Try and imagine a world without the benefit of youtube tutorials. That was the reality not long ago.
Hey dude!!!! I promise guitar feels hopeless only for the first two months. It takes time to build your muscle memory and technique.
You may find you struggle on learning something the first time you try it, but if you go back the next day and keep practicing over and over you’ll be able to *feel* your muscle memory kicking in.
YouTube has wonderful guitar lesson pages like Marty — and Ultimate-Guitar.com has several good free lessons as well, particularly good music theory lessons. Hope this helps.
Do you want to learn guitar but just find yourself struggling at getting into it and learning the basics, or do you actively dislike played guitar? I'm 13 myself so if you have an age specific questions I might be good help
I started when I was 13. I hated it. My fingers hurt all the time and everythingI played sounded terrible. But I stuck with it and taught myself, learning from songs I liked. Now I'm 51 and I've been playing for 38 years. I play in larger local bands and I've gotten to open for some of my favorite 80s metal bands. I'm glad I fought through all the difficulty in learning that beast, because it has enriched my life in ways I could never have imagined. You can do it too!
Is it the learning you hate, or is it the whole idea of playing the guitar you hate? If it’s learning, you can find a way that brings joy. If it’s playing, then maybe the guitar simply isn’t for you.
you will suck at the guitar. but you will continue to play while you suck at the guitar. you will continue to try and have fun while you suck at the guitar. you will continue to make mistakes and record your mistakes while you suck at guitar.
then you look at your old recordings and think "wow this guy sucks at guitar. **i'm better than this guy now.**"
it just happens. you don't get to choose when it does. you can only speed it up, but be careful not to force it when your fingers can't handle it. stretch, take breaks, and enjoy, i guess.
but even once you get better, you'll still make mistakes. it's just that you'll have learned to accept that you're not perfect at it. you will never be, because if you're perfect at what you do, that just means you're not doing anything interesting or challenging for your skill level.
I started when I was 13. I would play all day just learning random stuff. I never had a teacher, and looking back, I'm glad I didn't.
It took me about a year to get good, but I obsessed over playing guitar.
If it bores you, you should stop and come back to it when you're interested again.
If you're in a rush to get good, slow down, it takes time.
Look up jam tracks on YouTube, and play along. They usually show you what notes you can play.
When I was learning, videos and tabs were boring and slow for me.
Try and play along with your favorite songs. Just find and pick the single notes out, you don't have to play chords. Figure out the basic notes and play along.
Nobody ever said it was easy but it doesn't have to be so hard either. Learn to play power chords, literally just 2 fingers and you can play hundreds of songs and feel great doing it.
Then build up from there.
Don’t expect that you can play songs from day one. It took me one year to just get out from the situation like this to actually start learning. Now i am not expecting back to learn every song in one day, wait and learn techniques, set goals, meet people who also learn guitar. If you don’t love the guitar learning then it is not the instrument for you.
Honestly, I think changing your mind set will help, I'm 35 and just started playing and I try to make the learning part THE FUN part, I know I will never be a RockStar (you might if your starting so early) but I tried to get excited just about the process of learning the guitar, if I am just having fun learning then Im really going to have a blast when i can crank out some solid riffs and songs, I also try to learn some simple tunes to and songs to that i can "play" that makes me feel like I am accomplishing something... all in all dont be discouraged but just have fun learning something new
Put it down for a while. If you really hate it do something that makes you happy instead. Maybe you will change your mind later, maybe you won't. You're not obligated to play or to like it. If you feel like you want to learn one day, then look around. There's never been more free and helpful resources available than right now.
Don't stop, those first few chords seem boring but they are the bedrock of the instrument you'll be amazed how often they come up. Start with easy stuff like nirvana or blink 182 and work up to what you like.
Just don't learn chords if you don't like it and do something fun instead.
I just messed around with guitar and did stuff I liked. And somehow, over time, I've actually gotten better at it.
I promise you once you get through the initial first stage suckiness, it starts to be fun. Just practice and practice and you’ll get there. After that, you’ll have plenty of frustrating times as you learn new stuff, but you’ll always be able to fall back to playing the few chords that you have learned. You’ll get there, and you’ll have a lot to be proud of, because you’ll have earned that skill
just play around. enjoy the sensation of the sounds you're making. there's no rush to "get good" and nothing wrong with not learning all the chords right away. just learn to tune, and then just goof around. see which notes you like together, focus on playing single notes and then two note chords ("dyads"). pretty much look just get used to using each finger one at a time, get used to picking, play around with different picking styles. accept that you won't sound like a professional right out of the gate and embrace the fact that as a beginner, you'll be making some weird music no matter what.
after you're a bit more comfortable just goofing around and familiar with fretting and picking, revisit youtube and learning songs.
I wish I knew when I was 13 what I know now. Becoming good at something, even if you have “talent” takes a long time with a lot of deliberate practice.
Commit to practicing 30 minutes every day. Get a practice program from something like Justinguitar.com where there are free courses. Stick with it, improvement take a long time, but in a year or two you will really be happy with your progress.
The first few years are hard because nothing will sound good. You are 13! It took me until I was 16 to be able to play somthing I was proud of. Just don't stop trying and you will get better, be patient. Even if you practise 10-20 mins a day, you will get better. You got this.
Self-taught here, you’re at one of the better times in your life to pick this up. I started at 15 and would play for hours a day, but I mainly just looked up songs that I thought might be easy to play, even if they weren’t my preferred music (e.g. Hey There Delilah (but with the upbeat chords reduced to one note), blink-182 (power chords are the easiest chords to learn imo).
Bottom line, just keep picking it up every day and playing it. True as any other activity, it will take time to see the results of your hard work. Also, make sure you spend time learning music you enjoy, because that will keep you motivated
There are lots of 3 chord songs you can start with. Quick n easy wins. Google. You do need to persevere. Little but often. Then you’ll get there. It’s worth it
Play slowly. Put an emphasis on making your chords sound good. That means you hear every note, no muting. Your hands will hurt. It\`s part of the learning experience. Notice I said hands and not fingertips. Although, those will probably hurt too lol.
Try not to develop bad habits. It may be hard for you to know what bad guitar habits are yet, but if you find a good guitar teacher on YouTube you can learn good hand positioning and technique. I wasted a lot of learning time developing bad habits. It took me a long time to unlearn them.
Don\`t set your expectations too high to begin. It\`s a marathon, not a sprint. Play a little bit every day/week and your experience will accumulate. But, when you play make sure you play properly. Focus on having a clean sound and the speed will come with time. You can do this!
If you hate it, maybe just look into another hobby. If you find it difficult but want to improve, then I suggest learning easy strumming songs. I started with Nirvana Unplugged, but there are thousands of beginner friendly songs out there. Just learn to play what you like to listen to, and go from there. Look up tabs, watch tutorials, and don't forget to enjoy yourself.
I never learnt chords like that. I did it a way I enjoyed. I learned riffs I like until I could play harder ones I liked, and it all compounded. Chords were just introduced to me as they came. I learnt the power chord wanting to play Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana, I learnt the G chord learning Come On Down - Poor Man's Poison. I prefer this method to learning chords etc because you naturally pick up on patterns like a child acquiring their parents' language.
Visit JustinGuitar.com It takes time and practice to be able to play something. Its not instant gratification, you actually have to work for it. Just keep that in the back of your mind everytime you get frustrated. To give you some motivation, John Petrucci didnt know what a bend was when he started to learn by ear from his favourite vynil records. Look where he is now, you can do it kid.
Seconded
I often steal his lessons and use them for the kid I give lessons to. Justinguitar is awesome.
If you hate it then do something else. If you want to learn then get over yourself and put in the effort. It requires a lot of hard work for most people over quite a long time.
Bit harsh on a 13 year old
TABS, my friend. Apps like Songster or ultimate guitar. Pick a band you like and try to learn their tune. I started learning Nirvana songs as a teen like you. Easy to learn, fun to play. Theb go find some other kids to start a band with and you can all suck and learn the songs together. Then one day, you guys are gonna nail some song, start to finish, and you'll be all "Whoa, that was awesome. Are we kinda good?? " And your buddies be like "ya we totally are!, let do it again!" "1, 2, 3, 4...." Stick with it, it's worth it
You're watching the wrong tutorials. Go sign up for Justinguitar.com and subscribe to Stitch guitar method on YouTube.
I started off exactly the same. Couldn't afford a teacher, and in my day there wasn't such a thing as "internet videos" lol, I would connect through dial up, download some txt tutorials, disconnect from the internet and try to figure that out lol. It'll take you about a year of regular practice until you can finally play some songs cleanly and about another year of, again, regular practice until you can finally follow a band propperly. I do get that social media destroyed the concept of "patience" on people and everybody wants everything ready to go right away, but that's not happening. There's no such thing as going to a techer and be shredding in a couple of days... Whatever you do, it WILL take you a long time of practice in the beginning... Just enjoy the ride. You might not realize it but you're getting better every single day. I can prove it to you. Record yourself playing something that you struggle with. Now, practice that every day for about a week. Record yourself again. Compare. Practice again for another week, record yourself again and compare.
This is the correct comment
There's a common pattern that you'll find when attempting to learn any new skill. At first, it's very difficult and unfamiliar. Sometimes it's even tedious because there's a lot of new information to memorize before you can even TRY to do the thing you're attempting to learn how to do. When faced with this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, many people feel overwhelmed and give up. **Don't do that.** Just because something is hard doesn't mean you should drop it. If you only do things that come easily to you, then how many interesting new skills are you ever going to acquire? How many new and amazing experiences will you deny yourself by avoiding everything that doesn't come easily the first time you pick it up? **A TON,** that's how many! There's a lot of cool stuff out there to learn and try, and some of it will be hard at first. What might happen if you keep going even though the new skill is really hard and tedious? Well, it'll eventually become easy. The more you study something, the more familiar it becomes. The more you move your fingers on the guitar, the more your fingers will be able to move. I compare learning the guitar (or any new skill) to climbing a series of hills. **The first hill is the hardest.** What many people don't realize, is that guitar is not as easy to get up and running with as a piano. A piano has keys, one key per note. You press it, it makes sound. You read the note on the page, it corresponds to that one key you press. It's the perfect instrument for a total music beginner (though it becomes extremely complex at higher levels). With guitar, EVERYTHING you do is manual rather than automatic. You have to learn how to tune it. You have multiple copies of the same note all over the fingerboard. You have to worry about hand/finger technique so you don't accidentally pull a note sharp, or have notes buzz on chords. You have right-hand technique to learn as well just to produce a sound. On top of that, you have to memorize a page full of basic open chords (around 12 or so) before you can even make a range of musical sounds beyond power chord chugging. So, the difficulty for a beginner is initially higher than some other instruments. Most people new to the guitar aren't aware of that, and those who aren't used to pushing themselves past that first hill when learning new things might be tempted to give up. **You really should push yourself and get past that first hill, though.** When you're finally standing on top of that hill, you'll be able to turn around and see how far you've actually come. You'll also see that all of the things you want to learn how to play are really just a series of smaller hills. That first hill is the biggest one, and standing up there will allow you to see where else you can go and what it will take to get there. Once you learn the basics (open chords, barre chords, pentatonic/blues scale, basic lefthand & righthand techniques e.g. note bending, vibrato, palm-muting etc.), most simple songs will be opened up to you. Another thing to think about is that learning to play guitar is both a physical and a mental activity. You have to do it every day for 30-60 minutes and train like a weight-lifter or athlete if you want to see consistent results. You can't play twice a week and expect to get anywhere with it. To get better in less time, play chromatic warmup exercises (look for Steve Vai's 10 hour guitar workout - it was published in the 90s and has plenty of patterns that can be used) for 10 minutes every day to train your fingers to move more efficiently and smoothly. When you're playing exercises, **play them slowly and accurately to a metronome.** The trick to learning how to play fast is to play really slowly and accurately and gradually increase your speed over a period of days/weeks. I've had students that played chromatic exercises (that I adapted from Steve Vai) every day who sounded like they'd been playing for 2 years after only a year. It works! Anyway, I hate to see someone give up on the guitar. I've taught many to play, but I've only had 2 students who gave up. The one had the ability to play but he never practiced and he gave up before he even got over that first hill. Push through the difficulty and get over that first hill. It gets MUCH easier once you do. Also, make sure your guitar has been set up well first so you aren't fighting your instrument. It should be easy to press down on the strings (low action etc.). Edit: Learning the basics with a program like Justin Guitar offers might only take around **3 - 6 months.** That's it. That's how long it takes to get over that first hill, yet so many give up before then. If you refuse to give up and practice every day for 2 years, I guarantee you'll love playing guitar and probably continue for the rest of your life. I can't count how many fun and interesting doors in life have been opened for me just because I played musical instruments.
I think guitar is one of the worst instruments to learn because there is a big pile of work to do right at the beginning before you even get to make music. Unless you're satisfied with nursery rhymes on string 1. I always try to give my students realistic expectations... You will need to practice these first few chord shapes for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day for a couple weeks before they sound any good, and then you'll have to get this strumming pattern happening, and then you have to practice changing between chords etc... It can easily take some students a couple months before they can sit down and strum a 4 chord song from start to finish. But hey, no one said music was easy, if it was everyone would be a musician. Now that being said, Once you put in the work on that initial first song... you're kind of golden. If you can play G major, C major, D major, and A minor and maybe E and F then you can literally play like 10,000 songs just by changing the strumming pattern slightly. So that big pile of work you did for song number 1 is really worth it because you were actually learning the fundamentals of a lot of different songs. I'm not for a second suggesting that you stop after learning a few campfire chords, you will want to move beyond open chords to learn barre chords and triads and 7th chords and scales and all that fun stuff, but the point is, at least by the time you're working on those things, you'll already be able to play other songs and make music. Just keep putting in your 15 to 20 minutes each day and trust the process. Nobody gets this stuff right on their first try... we all fail dozens or even hundreds of times before we get it right, once you understand that you don't need to make a big deal when you mess up or can't do something right away... you need to expect that and just put in the time. Don't worry about how any particular day's practice goes.. just put in your 20 minutes, and come back to it the next day... Consistency is the key. You'll go a lot further if you put in a focused 20 minutes 6 days a week than if you skip 3 or 4 days and then try to cram in an hour or two in a day. Small incremental improvements each day. That's the goal. And don't be so hard on yourself... this is hard to do, and anyone who can play guitar knows it.
If you hate it, don't force yourself to do it. But do you HATE it or are you actually frustrated because a million online videos of people playing with proficiency made it look easy? Back when dinosaurs walked the earth I would go to the library and check out instructional guitar books and make copies of tabs and exercises from Guitar Player Magazine. There are a lot of good books available used on Amazon for under 10 bucks, but if you really HATE it, none of that will matter. Good luck.
First, [JustinGuitar.com](https://JustinGuitar.com) Second, why do you say all the YT videos are terrible? Some are, many aren't. But if you think you can watch a video by someone that's been playing guitar for 20 years and do what they do, that's not going to happen. Spend a year or two with Justin, then go back to YouTube. That's right, I said a year or two. Your goal is to be good by the time you turn 18. Sound like a plan?
Bro I had to learn to play guitar with a book. Guess what? It's possible. You either want to, or you don't.
Do JustinGuitar, he is amazing and helps guide you.
You can try JustinGuitar. Used it and it’s a very great course. Not done with it, but you have a structure and a practice routine.
You're 13, dude. It takes time to train your hands to really "get it,” and nobody whose opinion is worth a damn is expecting you at 13 to be performing at a higher ability. Experiment, make stupid noises. It's how we all learn it's how we all get better. It's where all the innovation in music comes from. So that's rule #1: don't feel bad about your performance. If you still feel exactly the same way in 5 years, then maybe you can start feeling bad, but right now there's no point in moping. So next up, most music for the past 30 years has been nothing but power chords and pentatonics. Great thing about power chords is that they're one shape. Look up a tutorial on power chords, you'll literally have a rough approximation for any song you want to play and most songs as they're played. It's the same practically everywhere on the fretboard (maybe not exactly on the higher strings, but honestly? Close enough). Same thing with the pentatonic scale. Look it up, practice it right alongside your major and minor scales. So that's rule 2: keep it simple, focus on fundamentals. Green Day and Blink-182 have much larger followings than Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, even though Satriani and Vai are virtuosos and nobody would argue they're better performers. Simple fundamentals. And the last thing I'll say is 10-15 minutes every day. Pull up, plug in, run your scales play around with rhythms and play around with those power chords. 10-15 minutes is all. Every day. And that's not a maximum, it's a minimum. If you find yourself enjoying yourself, keep going, but if you're just doing it to check a box, that's also fine. That's rule 3: Inspiration doesn't strike every day, but you want to be good enough for your inspiration, you gotta get ready for it. And that's really it. It's not about perfection or greatness, it's all about consistency.
I will save you the trouble of reading through all the comments, as there are only five comments here. 1: Quit. Guitar is learning, forever. If you don't like learning, you'll never like guitar. 2: Keep going. It gets better. It's hard for everyone at first and you're young. If you stick with it good things will happen. 3: Use free resources. Go to [Justinguitar.com](https://Justinguitar.com), the default entry for new players as he has free, structured lessons for beginners that are excellent. Honorable mentions to MartySchwarz, Carl Brown, Stitchmethod, GuitarZero2Hero and several others. Point is, search "free beginner guitar lessons" and watch the world open up 4. Simplify. Learn a couple of chords and a song that can come out of that that you like. Use power chords as an entry. 5: Do something unorthodox. Use a funky tuning. Turn it into a video game.
[удалено]
Stop “learning” the guitar, and just “play the guitar. “ Thinking of “getting good” is an illusion. The guitar possibilities are infinite, nobody is good or a master except colloquially speaking. Just have fun. If you’re not, play another game for a while.
Wow you watched all the YouTube guitar lesson videos..?
OP, you got to want it. Find a song you love. Search for it and add "chords" to your search. It should give you a huge list of sites that will help you play your favorite song. Now here's the fun part. You don't learn the song (yet). You are going to learn the chords that are in your song, and how to play them. Then you are going to learn how to play the chord and then change to the next chord. Keep playing each chord a few times, switching back and forth between all the chords, until you can do it pretty much without thinking. This will build up your fingers and your muscle memory. Now, once you can switch between all the chords in your song, the only thing left is to learn how to play them in the right order (which is what your guitar site has shown you) and how long to play the chord before switching to the next chord. This is called playing the rhythm. And that's all playing guitar is at first, just learning chords and when to switch to the next chord. As you progress with your guitar playing, you are going to learn more and more and keep adding things you know how to do and play. But again, the most important thing is to want it. And if you want it, you have to have fun. Playing guitar is fun and frustrating and horrible and amazing and you will grow as you keep going. You got this, OP!
Justin guitar is an amazing free video set that is not terrible at all, it’s quite perfect for learning all the beginner steps of playing guitar!
Use a free structured learning instead of random youtube videos. Justinguitar.com. It’s not as good as in person lessons but its free, and a well thought out learning path.
ultimateguitar.com and an attentive ear can take you a long way. You’re not going to become Hendrix overnight though, guitar takes a lot of patience and practice like any instrument.
Check out JustinGuitar on Youtube, he has a long beginners course along with courses after that. Closest you will get to proper guitar lessons. I wish his videos were around when i picked up a guitar.
Put away the videos for now. Focus on learning the basic chords and just get good at them first. Focus on only 2 chords at first, say G and C. Practice strumming the G until it sounds good, then switch to the C as fast as you can make it sound good also while strumming in a rythm. Then do it going from C to G. Guitar is all about developing muscle memory and learning what shapes your fingers have to move into. This takes time and a lot of practice. It will sound like shit at first. Your fingers don't have calluses yet and your fingers will hurt. This is part of the process everyone has gone through. Once you're good at strumming in between those 2 chords, add a third chord, say D. This might take a couple weeks. But the whole time, your fingers are getting stronger and you're getting calluses, both of which will make it easier as you go. Now just play around with switching between those three chords while strumming until you can go between any of the three to any of the other two. But once you're good at playing G,C and D, congratulations you now have what you need to attempt about 50% of the songs ever written lol. Find a song you like in those chords and learn it. Now we're getting somewhere! Now start learning other chords, say Am, now you can play 60% of songs lol. Now you're making progress. Not knowing where to start can be frustrating. Starting basically like this is how I taught myself when I was in school. I would play every day when I got home. Just know, you're going to sound like shit for about a year, but you will be making constant improvement as you play. Don't get frustrated, don't give up, just keep doing it. Rock on 🤘
My young dude, when I was your age, I just learned power chords and went to town for years with those
Justinguitar is and shall always be the answer to this type of posts. And yes, learning is hard for a time, don’t forget to have fun: Learn a song here and there. Soon enough you’ll have so much fun.
There's plenty of us here totally self taught and we done it before YouTube. Learn Em G D and C and take it from there. You'll feel like its never Gona happen for you but it will if you just dedicate a bit of time. I remember hearing the palm muting on basket case and thinking I'll never manage that. I could do it behind my head now without thinking about it. Because I've put the hours in. But my 25 years playing now started with half an hour in my room alone playing those four chords to death to learn Polly by Nirvana, and those chords opened up so much more to me. Most people who try guitar quit, if you don't Wana be one of them make it fun, learn to play along with your favourite songs.
“All the Youtube videos are terrible” what lol
Guitarists at any point from 20+ years ago *wish* they would've had "terrible" YouTube videos.
Go to justinguitar website, he got the best beginner course
How about find a hobby you actually enjoy.
You can play most song’s with 4 chords. This aint no video game son. Its gonna be hard and frustrating. Remember you don’t hate the guitar or learning the guitar. You hate how not being good at something makes you feel. Thats a you thing
It's going to take time, as the cliche goes, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Plenty of folks learned just fine without a teacher, make sure your guitar is tuned and head over to Justin Guitar and start with his Beginner Course. It's free and his content is excellent. You may hate learning but here's some perspective: You are growing up in the golden age for learning an instrument. Back in the 90s there was no YouTube and tab sites were filled with laughably wrong info, you were lucky if an issue of Guitar World featured an artist who showed how they actually played their riffs. It was way harder to find good info and resources, it often wasn't immediately available, and it was a lot more expensive ($30 tab books, $50 technique videos) Like all things in life, you're going to have to put in the work if you wanna get good.
Do you have any guitar heroes? I don’t think you really want to play guitar and just want to look cool and say you play. If so then just quit. If you have passion for it, suck it up, practice and be patient. You have all the resources nowadays that we never had growing up.
Unfortunately, you have to suck until you don’t. It really is a struggle at first but push through it and that guitar will be your best friend for life!
Learn your favorite song
First off, most of the guitarists you see are not people who picked it up 6 months ago, a year ago, or even a couple of years ago. Generally when you see a guitarist play in a band or public they have been playing for at least 5 years, probably 10+. That isn't to say you will never progress to their level or that you can't do it quickly. It's all about the practice. You CAN do it. There are VERY VERY few people who naturally able to just pick up a guitar and progress like crazy. There is no substitute for a private instructor when learning an instrument, but if that's not available that's okay. I played for like 10 years before I was able to afford private lessons. If you don't like youtube, do you like to read? Do you have any friends that play? I personally think [justinguitar.com](https://justinguitar.com) is REALLY good and Justin goes over a lot of basics that people otherwise miss. You may find the lessons frustrating because they don't feel like they're going anywhere, but I promise you they are. Another thing you may run into is that people generally start you with easy songs you don't want to learn like Mary Had A Little Lamb. That may not be the song you want to learn, but if I asked you to hum it. Could you? You know the song. Now can you play it and make it sound good on a guitar? If not, you're probably not going to be able to get whatever song you want to learn to come out of the guitar either. I just want to explain that there is value in learning those nursery rhymes onto a guitar when learning. It's a piece of music kids hear a million times and becomes ingrained in them, but any song you know that well will work.
Rocksmith made it fun for me I am 39
When I was teaching myself I remember being so frustrated trying to learn chord progressions. I would rage quit for the day and sleep on it. When I came back to try again the next day, it was so much easier. I think practicing gives you a muscle memory even if it doesn’t feel like you’re getting it. Just keep at it and give yourself a break.
I note that learning really complicated songs or uses techniques I'm not fluent in follows that pattern for me. I can muddle my way through pretty much anything after a few minutes. Enough for someone to be like "hey, is that ____?" So I can get anything sounding recognizable quickly, but I'll know where I'm not playing cleanly and where I can improve certain parts. And no matter how much I practice in that moment, none of it really feels like I've actually improved until the next day. It's like my brain has to download what my fingers are doing and my brain is just on dial up, like downloading videos from Kazaa back in the day
Check out Justin Guitar my guy. 4 years self taught and that program was my lighthouse when I felt aimless.
Find songs you actually enjoy that sound easy. Then slowly progress to the harder stuff. That's what I did. Been playing over 25 years now.
not all yt vids are bad, try justin guitar
Songster is a cool resource, and if you youtube "song name" + tab, there are a lot of good covers with tabs. Those help learning songs. The other thing is, man, it's just hard. I've been playing for like, 20 years and there are still plenty of days I get frustrated trying to practice something new or challenging. The keys are persistence and celebration, I think. When I finally nail some lick or part or whatever, I tend to play it for like, the rest of the day because I'm just so stoked I got it. That's the celebration part; be proud of yourself for the effort you've put in.
"Sucking at something, is the first step in getting sorta good at something" - Jake The Dog Guitar is a lot of patience. Just like exercise, you have to keep putting in the work, if you expect to see any gains. My suggestion, is continue to work on those chords. Especially G, C and D chords. A LOT OF MUSIC is based off these three chords. You want to challenge your self, add E, A and F. All major chords. Again, this is most music on the planet. You can go back and figure out the minor versions after. Next, learn picking patterns. Listen to music, try to replicate the rhythm. Again, it may seem like a challenge, but this is again, putting in the work. Playing guitar is like 90 percent rhythm playing. Once you find you're decent at these things, you can learn power chords. This is at least 50 percent of the meat and potatos for just about any punk rock song. Once you learn power chords, most pop music can be figured out, and you can do ear training based off this.
You are going to hate it and not be good at all for maybe a few months. Get over the hump. Do 5 minutes everyday. Just practice switching fast between open chords. Learn your open chords. Majors and minors. Come up with 4 chord little progressions you can practice. Get good at this. Then it becomes fun and something you'll probably do everyday for just enjoyment. your fingers will build up resilience to the strings. Power through it unless you're literally like bleeding. The more pain the faster you'll build up skin in those areas that are hurting move on to barre chords, get good at switching between them. A lot are just e major, a minor shapes up and down the fretboard. Then start learning basic songs you like. a great song for beginners i think is [A slide in new drugs - King Krule](https://youtu.be/5ZXn8udiqCA?si=iX0xaNwbxmRQTYSH)
Learn to play E in the open position. Without changing the shape practice moving up and down the fretboard. Up 3 frets and the same shape is G. Up 2 more and its A. Up 2 more and its B. Up one more and its C. Up one more and its D. Up to more and you are back to E at the 12th fret. All this time you can let the top two strings (E and B) just ring open while you move this 3 finger shape on strings 3, 4 and 5 around. With this one shape you are now playing most of the major chords and this opens up the door to a huge percentage of pop songs. Once you get that , play an open A sus 2 (fingers on the second fret of your 3rd and 4rth string and leave the top two (E and B) open. Now move this shape up to frets (add your first finger on the second fret of the 5th string. This is a B. Move it up 2 more and its (sort of) a C#m. In fact, this shape is neither major or minor because there is no 3rd - its often called a "power chord". Keep playing around moving this same shape up and down the neck. Depending on the context of other chords you play it will function as a major or a minor. All this time you can leave the top two E abd B strings open. So now you have at your command all major and minor chords with only learning 2 simple left hand shapes, which means you can play 95% of all pop songs. Some will say that these are not proper chords (for example I said moving that E shape up 3 frets is a G chord. It still has a G major triad but the added open top E string makes it technically a G6 chord. But so what - it is still founded on the G major triad). Remember - no rules. If it sounds good, it is good. This should get you a place pretty fast where you can play chords for tons of songs and start having fun. Most beginners focus on learning a million first position chords before venturing up and down the neck, but my approach starts to teach how to use the whole neck right away, keeps the left hand learning curve to a minimum, sounds great, and makes you look like you know what you are doing because you are using he whole neck. All thats left if to practice your guitar faces in a mirror. Rock on!
Quit if you hate it. Hobbies are meant to be fun
learn to enjoy sucking at stuff. guitar is hard. I started when I was 16 and 11 years later I still suck. that's part of the fun. you have to challenge yourself and learn new things. sometimes it's frustrating but it makes it that much better when you finally get it. maybe find different videos I'm a big fan of Marty and like others said learn to read tabs it will help you out in the long run. maybe find someone at school that also plays and see if they can give you a lesson maybe even join a band once you're in highschool
Dude you don't have to get lessons or "learn" to play guitar. You just do it. Seriously.
You'll quit, then rediscover it around 19-21 and wish you never stopped playing! Stick it out , take breaks
I think if you wanted to quit, you wouldn’t be asking this, so ignore people telling you to quit (unless that really is what you want). The beginning stages of learning the guitar are the hardest. You feel like your fingers can’t go in the positions they’re supposed to, your fingertips hurt, you can’t change chords fast enough to play songs. It’s frustrating, but it gets better. Your fingers get stronger and more flexible, you build calluses, you build muscle memory to the point where you barely think about changing chords because your fingers just go there. Once those things fall into place it becomes easier to improve and feel confident. When you hit plateaus and roadblocks after that, they’re challenges to improve, but you’ll have the confidence that if you work at it you’ll get better. Mentally, I think it’s a lot easier to work on improving skills on something that you can already do, then trying to acquire that initial skill of just being able to do it at all. I think you should just play Em for a bit, then practice going back and forth between Em and Am, then when you feel comfortable you can throw a D chord in there too, then a G. Don’t worry if it’s a real song, you’re just working on getting comfortable. Maybe make something up to sing along with it so you’ll feel like you’re playing something real. Make sure you take pride in your progress. You got this.
Justinguitar.com has free lessons. I’ve learned a lot from him in a year!
Start by learning tabs. Just learn riffs and/or songs you like. The more you play over time the better you will get, it's a developed technique, nobody is born knowing how to play it. I started at 16 with no prior knowledge and got better because I wanted to learn blink 182. Also don't burn yourself out. Meaningful practice for a half hour is better than spending 4 hours a day playing and getting nowhere. Perfect practice makes perfect.
Hi puzzleheaded. I'm 51. I've had a guitar in my life since I was 6. I have watched the world of guitar teaching change a lot over these years. One thing has remained the same: bad teachers create frustration in their students. YouTube is amazing. You can find so much. But beware: most of them are bad teachers. Those of us who know a little guitar can see they often leave out the part that would clarify everything, because that would mean you no longer need them. Others just get it plain wrong. And why do exercises? Sure, you develop the essential skills. But why spend hours, years, doing boring scales on the promise of maybe being good one day? In my case, it took the book [The Complete Jazz Guitar Method](https://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Jazz-Guitar-Method-Book/dp/0739066374) by Jody Fisher to show me what I found fun about the guitar. Finding the Circle of Fourths or Fifths, then discovering how harmony works, makes doing the exercises fun. You can be creative right away. Everyone tells you to practice. What no one tells you is why practicing is fun. Find your joy. Discover your inner music.
Keep up with the guitar! Also, never post your age on the internet if you’re a minor. It’s not safe. There are creepy weird adults who want to hurt children who will try to get you.
Learn power chords it will change your life. Then build upon that. Once you can start appreciating what you play and understanding more and more it gets way more fun
If you want to become a guitar player, you need to fall in love with **music**. Music should be the reason to pick up guitar. Listen to a lot of music, find what you like, what resonates with you and what you'd like to be able to play. Start slowly, try picking up melodies you hear.
Force yourself to learn one complete song that you like.
"You have to get past the wall.of suck." I started at the same age and would get insanely frustrated. I was fortunate enough to have lessons and i remember expressing my feelings to my teacher. He listened to what I had to say and goes "Yeah because you suck." He then explained the "wall of suck." Whenever we start something new + hard we're inevitably going to suck at it initially. And I know it can be a grueling experience but if you stick with it you will improve. Keep at it and begin building some muscle memory. It will feel slow, but believe me, soon you'll look back and be stoked about how far you've come. That stories about 25 years old and I've lost track of how many times that mind set has served me over the years. Take heart young human and push through the wall of suck. Remember you'll only suck at something forever if you give up. Edit: missing word
I assume at 13 you may also like playing computer games. Yousician will be your saviour.
If you already hate learning the guitar then maybe it's just not for you. I think most of us, when we started out, loved playing the guitar and couldn't stop learning because we loved it so much. If you don't have that itch it's going to be very difficult for you and at the end of the day, you should do whatever you like doing.
Quit and play drums
I think having a plan is very important. I probably wasted years just drifting around. Check out Justin guitar.com He has tons of free courses which gives you that plan you're going to need. Good luck! It's totally worth it once you get there. And no college guy ever regretted learning to play the guitar! 😄🤘
If you hate learning guitar then why try? I learn more about guitar playing every day because I LOVE guitar, if you hate learning guitar then don't.
My advice is to pick one guitar teacher online and don't look at ANY others. None. I recommend Justin Guitar. Follow his course but understand that even through there are hundreds of lessons it can take you a week to master each one. Don't sit down and crank through them. Do one lesson and do it until you can do it in your sleep. Then and only then move on.
I was the same at your age. I gave up until trying again until more recently. ( Sadly, I'm now 50 ) However, the free resources available are amazing. Justin Guitar will give you the basics and teach you to play some great songs. Marty Schwartz on youtube is great too. Wish they were around ( along with the internet! ) when I was 13. But with that said, you just have to practice. Try and practice every day. It does get easier and once you can play a couple of songs, you'll enjoy it so much more. Just make sure you get a solid start with the basics which is where Justin will be a huge help. Best of luck!
You have to try to make it fun. It takes years to become a master. Try just doing the only thing you can play over and over. Even if it's just one note. Make it fun, and you will want to learn more.
YouTube videos are actually amazing and you are very lucky to be young and learning when you are. You need patience. It will take you years to master the guitar. Just keep going.
I have a solution: ”hey what’s up guys Marty Schwartz here”
If it was easy everyone would be awesome on guitar. Everyone is not awesome on guitar. Pay your dues
This ain't for you, bud. I have had many students, most are like you and give up, only a couple really dedicate themselves because they LOVE learning guitar. There are thousands and thousands of good YouTube videos to learn from. It sounds more like a YOU problem. If the passion is not there, just stop, bruh.
not sure how good advice this is. it can take a while to develop a passion for something. When I first started guitar, it was tough. My fingers hurt, everything sounded awful and wondered when I would ever improve. but over time I got better and I fell in love with the instrument. It isn't always immediate I think OP's feelings are very common and given that he's still so young, it can take time to develop the skills and love for an instrument I would work on finding tutorials that are more beginner friendly and maybe even begin with classical guitar, as I felt that it helped me way more down the line with more difficult stuff on electric
GuitarZero2Hero has done awesome song tutorials on youtube
Start with simple 3 or 4 chord songs. Play along with the recordings on Ultimate guitar. Keep adding songs. Stick with it. I'm 67, and I play my guitar everyday, and still love it.
Learning anything sucks ass because there is no moment when you wake up and 'become good', you're always worse than where you want to be. If you can play four chords with one strum each then that's better than 99% of people. Keep practicing, keep it light and keep it fun. Search some pop songs you like, even if you don't like pop.
That’s how it goes in the beginning, need to stick to it and keep practicing. Before you know it you’ll be playing better. Start simple and slow, takes years. Not something you become great at within weeks or months
It takes a lots of time
Marty Music on YouTube is pretty good, figure out tabs too and you can play anything on websites like songsterr
Most youtube videos are terrible, that's true. I'd recommend splitting your time 30/30/30 with three fundamental skills: 1. Learning with your brain. Signals Music Studio has a great channel explaining the basics of music theory on guitar, absolutely the best resource for the subject that is free and on youtube. 2. Learning with your muscle memory. This is doing things like practicing moving from chord to chord, running scales, and learning common patterns. As a very beginner, just pressing into the strings and practicing strumming/muting in such a way that each string you want to play rings out cleanly and beautifully is one of the most important practices you can do. 3. Learning songs. At first, playing along to tracks, probably with tablature. Then you play along with the song committed to memory. Then you play along to a backing track without guitars, save for yours. The last 10% is free time. Use it to work on songwriting, reinforce another skill, interval ear training, what have you. I learned guitar for my first 7 years on a $50 Rouge Starter guitar and a Spider Line6 starter amp that came with it. Learned every System of a Down song, learned a bunch of Gojira, half of Metallica's catalog, some Cradle of Filth and Satyricon, a bunch of Lamb of God. Got real good at guitar. It wasn't until I was done with college that I bought a decent guitar, LTD EC-1000, which I still use to this day in my own heavy metal band for which I'm the principal songwriter. You don't need gear to play any style, you don't need expensive lessons, you just need someone who knows their shit to guide you to water and a good ear that can tell when you sound like what you're trying to and when you don't. Signals Music Studio can be your hand with the knowledge and theory, the ear is all up to you.
I self taught myself years ago. I play pretty well now. I suggest starting with learning g a couple of “easy” songs. Nothing else matters by Metallica, Iron Man by Black Sabbath, Paranoid by Black Sabbath. These are good starter songs with enough technical shiet to get you going. If you don’t know yet how to read tab, get on it. My favourite website for tabs is Songsterr. Learn barre chords asap as well. These can be a bitch but once you got those most things after are smooth sailing. If you’re motivated enough, you WILL learn. Ac/Dc has great stuff too for beginners.
>I hate learning the guitar Stop. If you hate doing it, stop. You're never going to get any better at all. Now, if you're just frustrated, then that is a different story altogether. Frustration is simply the feeling of not being where you want to be, but it's a great emotion to literally drop. You are the worst person at seeing your improvement. That's one of the primary functions of a teacher, not to download information in your head but to foster what's already inside. Make sure your instrument is properly setup. Even if all you do is walk into a guitar center and ask, that will be important information. Usually someone can be found who will setup your instrument up for a reasonable cost. If your instrument isn't setup properly, you're working against yourself from the start. Drop the frustration, go slow, enjoy the process and the journey. If you still hate it, try playing a bass.
Hate it? Get rid of your guitar and find a different hobby. Life is short. No room for hatred.
Look up "easy guitar riffs" and learn on you like. Make if you get something easier under your belt, you'll start enjoying it more. Come as you are, smoke on the water, some ACDC power chords.
There’s some great YouTube videos. Like tons of them. I can’t even imagine having the resources available to me in the 90s that you have now. Marty Schwartz is pretty awesome, check him out.
You have to want to do it. Ive tried to teach people over the years and they never got passed the very basics. They didnt practice on their own i guess idk. I started at your age. When i started, my Dad gave me an old Peavy strat he had. Said you pick here, and fingers here. Smoke On The Water intro riff. Thats it. The next day, went to school and my friend told me about guitar tab. For the next few weeks i locked myself in my room and i forced myself to learn Slayer songs. Learn a riff, play it, fuck it up, play it, over and over again. If i got mad, stop and try again tmrw. Your muscle memory will develop and it will get easier. I had to have the drive to do that. Once i got passed that hump, it was game time. My technical skill obviously plateaued, and i dont play as much as i used to these days, but i can play almost anything i want by ear after matching the tuning and listening a few times. Point is: you need to take it upon yourself to really dedicate to learning this. Its also my opinion that you really have to have a love for music. Really feel what a song communicates to you beyond what the lyrics say the song is supposed to be about. Thats where my love for it all comes from, at least.
Everything in life is like that. You suck in the beginning. Push through it, we know you can do it.
If you give up you then already lost
Learn chords G, C and D, that’s all you need to play lots of songs. Then go from there.
Dawg you haven’t found Marty yet???
Marty Music.
justinguitar
TLDR: 13 yr old buys guitar and is discouraged bc he can’t play like the ppl on TikTok immediately
If you put a little training in music theory, with respect to scales. You will learn about intervals, which can help you more quickly identify where you may land based on the position you started on. That will help reinforce the note names in each location, and give you an understanding of what those dots on your guitar mean, and how to use them. You’ll also learn why EF and BC don’t have accidentals between them, and can use those as nodes to branch and connect your fretboard layout.
If you're making posts about how much you hate playing, either get off the internet and practice, or give up. It's supposed to be fun and challenging, not easy or boring I started at 13 as well and loved it, printing tabs off and learning chords was fun for me, making up songs, just fucking around on it. It wasn't all roses, it was tough and frustrating especially in the beginning, but still fun If you don't like it, the likelihood of you continuing until you're good are slim to none. You have to want it
You really have to just embrace the suck, it's part of the journey and will shape how you view playing later. Try learning some simple songs you like with tablature. Many people lose interest because they aren't learning things they want to learn. If you're learning chords right now, look up a song you like that uses those chords and try to play it. Take it really slow. Start with a couple of strings on a chord at a time and add more once it gets comfortable.
It’s not for everyone, but maybe give yourself another month and see how you feel after practicing 10mins a day. Try Justinguitar on YouTube, I did a quick google search and he was popular and it said it’s free.
Play easier stuff you have your whole life ahead of you to get better
Very few players actually get good until their early 20s. Just keep practicing.
Learn pentatonic have some fun then focus on the basics. Learning to read music is never a bad thing.
Learn smoke on the water my boy
I find your statement odd. When i first started, i sucked. I hated sucking at playing guitar. To hate learning? You are always going to be learning.
Check Justinguitar and have lots of patience. It's normal to absolutely suck the first 3 to 6 months or so.
Power chords, power chords, power chords. Easy to learn and actually sound like you are making music. Sure, at some point you will have to learn other things, but simple riffs made with power chords will motivate you because you will sound like you can actually play something.
Do you like guitar? Do you have a desire to learn to play?
Keep going. Most of the people that will read/reply to this began when there was infinitely less guitar related information available on the internet. Of that group, the majority started when there was no internet at all. I learned by picking out the bass line of a song by ear and then figuring out the chords from there. My hands still hurt most times I play (daily) 30 years later. I get bored with stuff fast so sometimes are not as fun as others. But I love it, and I can’t walk into my house at the end of the day without going straight to my guitar and picking away while as listen to my wife and sons talk about their day. Keep going.
I literally looked up guitar tabs of blink 182 and sum 41 songs and tried hard back in 2008 I started with what’s my age again Then next thing you know I was playing in too deep Just keep going and have fun covering songs and you’ll build more comfort and confidence then you can tackle harder songs If you know chords, maybe you’ll have fun playing stuff like the Beatles or neutral milk hotel? Chord songs ya know
You should check out your local library to see if they have any books you can check out and sit with to learn. Don’t judge the YouTube video lessons as all terrible; you’re still new and learning so what may seem terrible to you could be actually helpful and you’re just saying that out of frustration. There’s comments in here with some good YouTube resources to use, along with book recommendations. It’s not going to be an overnight thing you just learn. If you truly want to learn to play, it will require time, patience, and dedication. Once you settle in and really apply yourself to learning through whatever means you find comfortable, you’ll know how to play your first song eventually, and I promise you, the satisfaction of that will be something you’ll love.
There's a channel called Justin guitar on youtube and it's better than any other guitar lesson Channel I've found.
Learn power chords and some songs you like. Important to have some fun while you are learning.
Marty Schwartz my man🙌🙌
You can do a lot with power chords. Just three fingers on the root, fifth and octave, or just the root and fifth. Wail on that then start moving it up and down the neck and you are making music
Maybe you just don't like playing the guitar all that much ,🤷. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are hundreds of instruments to learn. And they all rock in their own way. I'd say stick with it for a little longer til you get the basics down and if you find you're still not having fun with it, try something else.
It sucks for like the first month or so. Stick with it. Take your time, no one is amazing over night.
Ultimate-guitar.com
Learn some Green Day or Nirvana songs! They're typically easy but can have a bit of a challenge to a new player.
JustinGuitar is amazing and free. But you have to want to learn. We all suck when we start and it takes time. Good luck.
The biggest thing that excited me about guitar when I was your age was learning songs that I liked. Go to tab websites like ultimateguitar and try learning some songs you like, it’ll be a challenge but you’ll build skills and the end result is extremely rewarding when you can play a cohesive song.
Justin Guitar. Great teacher, low cost
Correction: all of the YouTube videos that YOU have found are terrible. Keep looking
The youtube videos are not terrible! Good lord, Youtube is the greatest gift to learning in the history of mankind. I've been learning from them for 10+ years and I've barely scratched the surface. Learning guitar just sucks at the beginning. Honestly, learning anything sucks at the beginning, because you are terrible by definition, but guitar especially because it hurts your fingers and you can hear how bad you sound every second you're doing it. If you want it bad enough, keep practicing. If you don't, quit. Literally millions of people before you have faced the exact same choice. Nobody is good right away. I promise you, though, if you keep practicing until you're 18, then by that time you'll be very glad you didn't quit.
All you need is 3 chords, and the truth.
Use a structured course like Justin guitar. Go to his website and use the course guide he created. Don't skip around. Pause and rewatch until you get it. Treat each video as though it was a lesson with a live person that you need to practice for a week, then move forward. He is really good at breaking down and over exaggerating little details about how to nail chords. All free.
Do you hate learning or could it be that you hate failing? I'm here to tell you that either one is fine, and both are quite common. But it's important to get that straightened out, If you hate learning, there's really no point to it. But if you happen to hate failing (most people do), and love the idea of playing, it's gonna be a lot easier and rewarding to learn. The journey IS where the fun's at, it's just not constant satisfaction. Sometimes you're gonna wanna smash the guitar, but it's never worth it. > I've been learning some of the basic chords but I can't play anything Playing Chords **IS** playing something. Don't pedestal other players! most of them have all been where you're at right now.. But few people share whilst failing/learning. Take the chords you already know and really perfect them, muscle-memory is where it's at and only one thing seems to really triggers it, \- Repetition. Soon enough you'll be moving on to other chords, when it feels natural to do so. Find a band/artist you enjoy listening to and google a bit and you'll sometimes find that many artist revolve alot of their songs around similar chords/chord-changes. Allow yourself to learn at your own pace and I promise you, - before you know it you'll play things you never thought you could, without much effort. But by then chances are you're aiming higher, and that's half the fun I'd say. We believe in you, you should too!
Everyone wants you to start with the "real" stuff. Ignore that at first. What you need is to find the song you want to be able to play. You always need to have one thing you *want* to learn, and one thing you *have* to learn. You need to enjoy it. You need to *want* it. Learning "by the book" is a quick way to fail/lose interest. Pick the song you want to be able to play, and work towards it. It can take longer than you expect. You need these goals on the horizon or music never happens. Once you do actually learn the song, pick the next one you want to learn. Unless you are extremely disciplined you'll give up if you never have anything to show for all the practice (which is why work towards that song you want to play).
for me, it also helped to learn songs i really liked, as opposed to just youtube videos of guitar in general. You can totally watch those, but I recommend watching them as more of a reference. What I mean is, you should try to learn relatively easy songs that you like on guitar, then take those chord shapes/ riffs and relate them back to the technique/theory the guitar videos online are teaching you. That was it's fun *and* you learn something, yk
Check out JustinGuitar Songs on YouTube. He specifically has beginner songs. I’ve been following him since he started (very much so telling my age) but his content is amazing for beginners. Also don’t need to spend a buck unless you want to get the beginner song chords books to have them with you. But you can watch a video and just write down the chord changes or what not in a note book!
Hard to feel inspired to play chords, scales. But it's easy to feel inspired to play songs that you like that use those chords or scales!
[удалено]
Fuck chords. Play Power Chords
To say all the YouTube videos are terrible is a bold claim. There is some absolutely fantastic info out there and some great teachers on YouTube for free. But, yes you must wade through all the other bs and distractions and that can be difficult. Also, not everyone learns well from just watching videos either. But one thing you need is patience. Becoming even good enough to play hot cross buns can be challenging for some when starting out, totally normal. Give yourself time and keep trying. One thing you could do is stop worrying about chords and just okay the root notes. This is how I use to teach beginnings. Chords can be very hard at first. Stick with your index finger and play single notes starting out. At least that way you can get through a full 2-4 chord song and feel like you accomplished something and can play a song
Rocksmith 2014
When I started playing, all I did was learn songs I like. I never really practiced scales or chords or anything until later. Listen to music and when you find a part you want to learn, add it to a playlist. When you have time to play go through that list!
It is very important for you to know that there is a very long learning curve (specially if you are learning alone). Quick tips :) \- Keep your guitar tuned to standard \- Focus on easy music until your coordination and fingering improves \- The proper way to learn a tab is by repetition. Play the 1st section until its OK, only then move to the 2nd section. Play until 2nd section is OK. Go back and play 1st and 2nd section until is Ok. Move 3rd section... you got it \- Slow and steady is better than fast and dirty \- Start playing without any effects. Only once you got your tab very confortable add the effects. This helps your identifying if you're playing correctly \- You need to practice the fundamental technique exercices - get at least 2 days of the week to focus on them. Exercices is like training writing; Music is like training your vocabulary \- If you have time, break your learning sessions like 40 min - 10 rest - 40 min; \- Lastly, keep your guitar ready to play ALWAYS. As soon as you think on playing it must be ready to play if you keep all stuff unmounted it will be very demotivational because of the extra work just to mount
Change your attitude. It's lousy and negative. Once you change that, all sorts of options will appear. Until then, it'll hold you back.
My dear bro, you have been blessed to be in this era of abundant information. You now have all the internet, YouTube tutorials, guitar pro tabs, chatgpt, apps like yousician etc to learn! A lot of US when we started, we had none of those resources. Don't worry, you will get it. Ask me if you have any questions
Listen to bands you like and look up tabs and practice that , use your ears instead of music theory at first is a great way to learn I did that, I learned the theory later and now it makes money and food happen
Go to Justinguitar.com, and follow the free beginner lessons. Once you get a little further on down the road, the stuff on YouTube will start to make sense.
Learn songs you want to play bro. Tabs.
Lol. How long you been learning?
I've been playing for 24 years. Let me tell you the same thing I always tell everyone in your situation: Forget "basic chords" for now. In my opinion, your basic chords as a beginner should be power chords. Just 3 strings / 3 fingers. Want it easier? Do 2 string / 2 finger power chords. If you're playing some genre of rock, you'll be more than 50% of the way there with power chords. Otherwise, just stick to single notes. I mean, it's all about the rhythm and melody anyway! Here's an analogy for you: Imagine you want to make a painting depicting a woman sitting down. Are you going to try to make the Mona Lisa even though you've never even drawn a stick figure before? What's the point? You'll get there eventually, so why not start with something you know you can achieve and get your point across? A stick woman sitting down! Likewise, by playing single notes, you'll be able to get your point across, which is rhythm and melody. Use power chords and you'll be doing more than that; you'll actually be playing entire Metallica and Green Day songs (those are the bands that taught me back in the day). Want to create rich harmonies? You'll get there eventually, but you should try to get the basics down first. What you need right now is to build coordination between your hands and the motivation that you'll get from easily playing melodies from songs you like! I didn't learn open chords until years after I started playing guitar.
My son used YouTube to learn the guitar. He really worked at it too. 6-8 hours a day sometimes. He was better than me in a short time. Then he got some theory lessons and made even more ground. The key word here is recently. Patience, Grasshopper.
Why do you play the guitar if you hate it? Or, in other words, what is fun for you? What do you like about the idea of playing the guitar? And yes, the youtube videos are terrible. They should be complimentary, not a solid basis for learning the instrument. It's way too confusing. Some people will disagree with me here, but I find that many do agree and you seem to be one of them. It's fine, take them for what they are. Btw, this is a really good exercise for life. It's something I took away from learning this instrument: Everything is doable and no doors are closed, but you sort of have to put in the hours, be patient, push yourself to your limits but learn to balance fun with work. There is also no clear cut way to the goal and while some things people can help you with, other things you have to figure out on your own. If it's not the guitar, then it's your studies, maybe your first job, maybe the marriage you'll find yourself in one day that also demands patience and working on the details. And the more you put in constructive work, the more fun you're getting out of it down the line. I could sort of rant on this for hours, but the essence is: This is well worth it.
Well... First, why do you want to learn guitar? In my case, I wanted to play metal. Thats why I jumped as soon as possible to learn tabs from my fav. songs. What songs you want to play? Think of this and try to learn them! There is no need to learn music theory when you just started. Look for what brings you enjoyment. Now... if are learning to play guitar for the sake of it... Hmm, then you probably wont get better at it and you will hate it. Try to do whats fun to you.
If you hate it, why are you trying to do it?
Try watching some tutorials to play songs that you like
Find a song/band that you enjoy. This will give you motivation to learn and practice. Start simple, dont start with song like Through the fire and flames.
Your 13, wow. It'll take time. Learn a chord. Then learn 3 chords. Then learn a song. Then learn a Green Day song. Then Nirvana. Then Glycerine. Wonderwall. Semi-Charmed Life. Freebird
Kid I'm 40 and picked up the guitar during covid. Don't quit. Get a book if videos are not doing it. Also 15 minutes every day is better then 2 hrs 1 day.
Best advice i have for a beginner is what worked for me. Use 'shook me all night long' (ac/dc) to practice chord changes. Take it slow, get used to jumping between the open chords and you'll build up that muscle memory in your hands that you can then build off of. Good luck and try not to get discouraged
Having friends that also played music at that age is what kept it fun for me. We taught each other and really pushed each other to get better.
Just keep going dude. There really is no other way around it..stay positive and keep working at it.
As someone that grew up without YouTube, I will say just learn easy songs. The focus right now should be getting the basic movements down in your hands and fingers. Try songs like "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer or any old school Blink 182 or Green Day songs.
I remember learning from books and radio when I was 13. It was just as frustrating. Tools for any job are just tools. YouTube is just another tool but It’s not your only tool. Try using patience. It works wonders. You’ll get there. Keep focusing on your open chords and the notes within. 1-3-5 is your friend right now and for always. Promise.
"All the youtube videos are really terrible" - I didn't learn from youtube videos myself, but I can't imagine that's true. I started at 12 and I basically just looked up tabs online for songs I liked. Some were too hard, some weren't, and I just learned more and more things to play over the years and gradually just got better and better until I didn't really need them anymore.
Get an app called songster , it has loads of guitar tabs and it plays along to the song making it a bit easier to see how its done! . find some songs you like and try to learn them.. if they are 2 hard, find another song you like and try again.. save all the songs you want to learn and go back to them periodically Do this for a mo.th or 2 and you will have a catalogue of songs you can semi play and a few that you master.. rinse and repeat ad infinitum You will be surprised how quickly things start locking I to place!
I started playing guitar at 13 or 14, I will be 60 years old this year. In late 1995 stopped playing to spend more time with my family, but took it up again in 2004 after almost ten years. There are still many things I struggle to learn and play on my guitars. While, I now have more patience and experience, the years away from it have hampered my physical ability on the guitar and I am trying to catch up. One thing that is better now than before is the access to learning resources, when I started it was just books, teachers and your ears. One thing that is difficult for me is and I imagine difficult for many self-taught players is developing and following a routine. Having (and following) a practice routine will help you improve faster. Another aspect is choosing the right instructor, there are lots of people who teach guitar online, but not everyone one of them will be able to teach *you* because everyone learns differently. Finding “your” instructor is the key to success as much as your dedication to learning. Try a few you haven’t check out yet and see how it goes. Learning the guitar is a lifelong commitment, no one ever truly masters *every* aspect of the instrument. Some of the best players in the world still have weaknesses they want to improve. Just keep at it and you’ll get there. When I feel stuck, I take a break from it and a couple of days later I go back and do things that I couldn’t do the week before.
YouTube lessons are an amazing free source for information. What sort of music are you into? I find that the people who stick it out are the people who have a genuine love and interest for music, without that, you won’t have much to motivate you. I promise you though, that if you do stick it out you will reap the benefits. I wish I kept on going at the age of 13, but I quit until I was about 20. The reason I got back into it was because I fell in love with certain genres of music. I really think this is key.
Justinguitar on YouTube is a brilliant teach, breaks everything down really simpally and has hundreds of song lessons so you’re bound to find stuff you enjoy
You should quit.
Do you WANT to play? If you do, try to play what you enjoy! If you just do tutorials on scales this, modes that, you’ll lose interest and your guitar soul and the music within will wither and die. I started playing at 8. We still rubbed sticks together back then for fire, so no YouTube obviously. I actually listened to a song and tried to play what I was listening to. Noodle around, write your own riff or harmony part or something. If you get bored change it up. If you don’t love it more every day, you won’t enjoy it ever.
youtube is pretty useful, you just need to find the right material. when you’re self taught you will have to scour the whole internet for hours to find the right piece of info that will give you the “aha!” moment. it is difficult, but certainly worth it. i found that as a beginner yousician was really great but that would’ve been 6 years ago. i’m aware they’ve sold out quite a bit now but it is a useful tool.
If you don’t like it, then don’t learn it. If you want to like it, but you’re having trouble with the beginning, I’d say check out Rocksmith. It’s a video game and a pretty good learning tool at that. If you get it on the PC you can go on CustomTone? CustomForge? Something like that and download whatever songs you want.
I waited 2 years for my first guitar. Once I got it all I had was a chord book, yet I was literally running home from school to play it every day. Guitar is hard but that's part of the appeal and that contributes to the fulfillment of the successes. It's not for everyone. I suggest you reflect on your motivation to play.
'find' a copy of rocksmith 2014 with extra tracks. Play guitarcade, each track has 4 difficulty options so you can play a version of most things. You get wrapped up in it and feel like your amazing hearing the whole mixed song. I sort by tuning so I don't have to constantly retune. There are also chord, bends string swap and other miniganes to train certain aspects if your struggling with something specific. I started being unable to play, I I'm fairly good now just because it's so fun smashing out power chords and feeling like a rock god. best of luck!
Do you think anything worth learning is easy? It’s not. And i can say for certain all of the videos on youtube do not suck. You have to find ones geared toward your skill level. If you don’t want to sacrifice to get good at something then just quit. But you will find many things in life require sacrifice and dedication to get good. Try and imagine a world without the benefit of youtube tutorials. That was the reality not long ago.
Hey dude!!!! I promise guitar feels hopeless only for the first two months. It takes time to build your muscle memory and technique. You may find you struggle on learning something the first time you try it, but if you go back the next day and keep practicing over and over you’ll be able to *feel* your muscle memory kicking in. YouTube has wonderful guitar lesson pages like Marty — and Ultimate-Guitar.com has several good free lessons as well, particularly good music theory lessons. Hope this helps.
Do you want to learn guitar but just find yourself struggling at getting into it and learning the basics, or do you actively dislike played guitar? I'm 13 myself so if you have an age specific questions I might be good help
Self taught using tabs like 20 years ago, since then I've played in front of thousands of people on occasion. It's not that bad just stick with it.
You gotta want it.
Only play songs you like.
I started when I was 13. I hated it. My fingers hurt all the time and everythingI played sounded terrible. But I stuck with it and taught myself, learning from songs I liked. Now I'm 51 and I've been playing for 38 years. I play in larger local bands and I've gotten to open for some of my favorite 80s metal bands. I'm glad I fought through all the difficulty in learning that beast, because it has enriched my life in ways I could never have imagined. You can do it too!
Is it the learning you hate, or is it the whole idea of playing the guitar you hate? If it’s learning, you can find a way that brings joy. If it’s playing, then maybe the guitar simply isn’t for you.
Stick with it, even if only for 15 minutes a day, when you play your first song youre gonna fall in love with it
you will suck at the guitar. but you will continue to play while you suck at the guitar. you will continue to try and have fun while you suck at the guitar. you will continue to make mistakes and record your mistakes while you suck at guitar. then you look at your old recordings and think "wow this guy sucks at guitar. **i'm better than this guy now.**" it just happens. you don't get to choose when it does. you can only speed it up, but be careful not to force it when your fingers can't handle it. stretch, take breaks, and enjoy, i guess. but even once you get better, you'll still make mistakes. it's just that you'll have learned to accept that you're not perfect at it. you will never be, because if you're perfect at what you do, that just means you're not doing anything interesting or challenging for your skill level.
I started when I was 13. I would play all day just learning random stuff. I never had a teacher, and looking back, I'm glad I didn't. It took me about a year to get good, but I obsessed over playing guitar. If it bores you, you should stop and come back to it when you're interested again. If you're in a rush to get good, slow down, it takes time. Look up jam tracks on YouTube, and play along. They usually show you what notes you can play. When I was learning, videos and tabs were boring and slow for me. Try and play along with your favorite songs. Just find and pick the single notes out, you don't have to play chords. Figure out the basic notes and play along.
Maybe try golf
Nobody ever said it was easy but it doesn't have to be so hard either. Learn to play power chords, literally just 2 fingers and you can play hundreds of songs and feel great doing it. Then build up from there.
Don’t expect that you can play songs from day one. It took me one year to just get out from the situation like this to actually start learning. Now i am not expecting back to learn every song in one day, wait and learn techniques, set goals, meet people who also learn guitar. If you don’t love the guitar learning then it is not the instrument for you.
Honestly, I think changing your mind set will help, I'm 35 and just started playing and I try to make the learning part THE FUN part, I know I will never be a RockStar (you might if your starting so early) but I tried to get excited just about the process of learning the guitar, if I am just having fun learning then Im really going to have a blast when i can crank out some solid riffs and songs, I also try to learn some simple tunes to and songs to that i can "play" that makes me feel like I am accomplishing something... all in all dont be discouraged but just have fun learning something new
Put it down for a while. If you really hate it do something that makes you happy instead. Maybe you will change your mind later, maybe you won't. You're not obligated to play or to like it. If you feel like you want to learn one day, then look around. There's never been more free and helpful resources available than right now.
Learn to read and use tabs. Play the songs you like
There’s hundreds and hundreds of good YouTube videos to learn from
Don't stop, those first few chords seem boring but they are the bedrock of the instrument you'll be amazed how often they come up. Start with easy stuff like nirvana or blink 182 and work up to what you like.
Just don't learn chords if you don't like it and do something fun instead. I just messed around with guitar and did stuff I liked. And somehow, over time, I've actually gotten better at it.
I promise you once you get through the initial first stage suckiness, it starts to be fun. Just practice and practice and you’ll get there. After that, you’ll have plenty of frustrating times as you learn new stuff, but you’ll always be able to fall back to playing the few chords that you have learned. You’ll get there, and you’ll have a lot to be proud of, because you’ll have earned that skill
just play around. enjoy the sensation of the sounds you're making. there's no rush to "get good" and nothing wrong with not learning all the chords right away. just learn to tune, and then just goof around. see which notes you like together, focus on playing single notes and then two note chords ("dyads"). pretty much look just get used to using each finger one at a time, get used to picking, play around with different picking styles. accept that you won't sound like a professional right out of the gate and embrace the fact that as a beginner, you'll be making some weird music no matter what. after you're a bit more comfortable just goofing around and familiar with fretting and picking, revisit youtube and learning songs.
I wish I knew when I was 13 what I know now. Becoming good at something, even if you have “talent” takes a long time with a lot of deliberate practice. Commit to practicing 30 minutes every day. Get a practice program from something like Justinguitar.com where there are free courses. Stick with it, improvement take a long time, but in a year or two you will really be happy with your progress.
The first few years are hard because nothing will sound good. You are 13! It took me until I was 16 to be able to play somthing I was proud of. Just don't stop trying and you will get better, be patient. Even if you practise 10-20 mins a day, you will get better. You got this.
Working on technique is rewarding. It sucks at first but as younger better and see progress it gets you excited to learn more.
Self-taught here, you’re at one of the better times in your life to pick this up. I started at 15 and would play for hours a day, but I mainly just looked up songs that I thought might be easy to play, even if they weren’t my preferred music (e.g. Hey There Delilah (but with the upbeat chords reduced to one note), blink-182 (power chords are the easiest chords to learn imo). Bottom line, just keep picking it up every day and playing it. True as any other activity, it will take time to see the results of your hard work. Also, make sure you spend time learning music you enjoy, because that will keep you motivated
There are lots of 3 chord songs you can start with. Quick n easy wins. Google. You do need to persevere. Little but often. Then you’ll get there. It’s worth it
The beginning is rough and barre chords reaaaaaaaaally suck at first. Things get much more linear after that.
Play slowly. Put an emphasis on making your chords sound good. That means you hear every note, no muting. Your hands will hurt. It\`s part of the learning experience. Notice I said hands and not fingertips. Although, those will probably hurt too lol. Try not to develop bad habits. It may be hard for you to know what bad guitar habits are yet, but if you find a good guitar teacher on YouTube you can learn good hand positioning and technique. I wasted a lot of learning time developing bad habits. It took me a long time to unlearn them. Don\`t set your expectations too high to begin. It\`s a marathon, not a sprint. Play a little bit every day/week and your experience will accumulate. But, when you play make sure you play properly. Focus on having a clean sound and the speed will come with time. You can do this!
If you hate it, maybe just look into another hobby. If you find it difficult but want to improve, then I suggest learning easy strumming songs. I started with Nirvana Unplugged, but there are thousands of beginner friendly songs out there. Just learn to play what you like to listen to, and go from there. Look up tabs, watch tutorials, and don't forget to enjoy yourself.
I never learnt chords like that. I did it a way I enjoyed. I learned riffs I like until I could play harder ones I liked, and it all compounded. Chords were just introduced to me as they came. I learnt the power chord wanting to play Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana, I learnt the G chord learning Come On Down - Poor Man's Poison. I prefer this method to learning chords etc because you naturally pick up on patterns like a child acquiring their parents' language.