Hello, new player new member from Florida & NY. has a question

[Gadget]

Hello
i am very new. Never played a guitar before. Just puchased a Taylor 114 CE and need to learn. I hope you all can give me some guidance. There seem to be different methods of learning. There is the Tab method and i think Notes or whatever.  I do not want to start one way and then feel like i have the wrong method and switch and then get frustrated.
what is the best way to learn and why.
thank you

[guitarsrsoawesome]

Hi Gadget!  Welcome to the forum.  So glad you got your Taylor and are learning guitar now.  You've already done something very important in learning guitar, that is, buying one that is setup well, that is, relatively easy to play.  You can't go wrong with a Taylor 114 in that sense, so congratulations.

Now your question about what is the best way to learn guitar is a tough one, at least for me, to answer.  That's because we live in a time where the ways to learn seem to have increased exponentially with the advent of the internet.  When I was younger, if you wanted to "self-learn" you went to a music store and bought books and sheets music (with tab and chord diagrams) for your favorite songs and went at it.

That still may be the best way for you to start, by learning songs you like, which will also keep you interested.  But you have some serious advantages many of us didn't:  youtube which has a loads of free lessons of how to play almost any song you can imagine. You can also go to sites like ultimateguitar.com which have chord charts and tabs for hundreds of thousands of songs. 

So, that's one approach.  It might be easier for you to just learn chords for right now, rather than trying to get down lead riffs.  So learning to read chord diagrams rather than tablature might be a little easier.  There's an abundance of songs (you'd be surprised how many) which are only three or four chords which would be the easiest to learn.

It might not hurt for you to take a few lessons as well.  This obviously isn't free, but having someone help you with finger positioning and also strum patterns can accelerate your learning.

Let us know how it goes, and I'm sure some of the other members will chime in with some other methods to learn which will be more helpful.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy learning guitar!  It's an amazing way to relax as well as grow as a person.

[BobSol]

Very good advice already. I was EXACTLY where you are now two years ago at sixty years of age. I highly recommend Justinguitar. Com. for internet instruction, but you can't beat one on one instruction. Most instructors usually give the first lesson free and it's really important that you "connect" with your tutor. Welcome to the forum and enjoy the journey. By the way, I love Florida. My wife and got married underwater in Key Largo nearly twenty years ago after we met at our local scuba club here in the UK.

[Jersey tuning]

Gadget, a lot depends on your knowledge of music.  If the one- 4-5 progresion is Klingon to you, some music theory alongside learning some basic chords would be very helpful.  Starting with some simple songs you know well would also help. Peter Paul and Mary's arrangement of Dylan's Blowing In The Wind (an easy 1-4-5 progression with the relative minor thrown in at the end ) would be a good start. I began my journey in 1967 with the Animal's "House of the Rising Sun".
The easiest key to get a hold of is C major, with its relative minor of A minor........

[donlyn]

gadget,

all great advice. there are many ways to learn. people most easily learn by imitation, so having a teacher or knowledgeable friend is important.

i started playing about 1966, after buying a guitar. i got a book of chords by mel bay (still in print i think) and went at it with some help from my friends. shortly thereafter, i took a course in music theory in college. learned elements of music including how to read standard music notation. i still can't sight read (playing while reading) either standard notation or guitar tab. mostly i play by ear. however knowing music theory makes it easier. previous post mentioned a 1/4/5 (e.g. c-f-g) progression. knowing why that works makes the how much easier and results in more transportable/transposable knowledge. 

so by all means learn basic chords and scales. these are your building blocks. then you can more easily learn about things like relative minors because it will make more sense. (a relatve minor uses the same scale as its major. e.g. c major scale is used for both c major and a minor.) watch as many guitar players as possible. and please get yourself a digital tuner. for me when i started, tuning was harder than learning to play

[guitarsrsoawesome]

The guys are so right about learning some theory.  I wrote quite a few songs and had no idea why certain chords sounded right together, they just did.  I finally read a book on music theory, called Edly's, and then I began to understand why certain chords worked together and how to identify the key of the song based on the 1, 4 and 5 chords.  Then you can branch out into improvisational lead playing using the scales for the key your in.  So all your learning can grow on itself.  To everyone's point, the best way to learn is to combine the fun (playing songs you enjoy) with the theory (theory alone might seem tedious without the enjoyment of learning to play simple songs early on in your development).  The great part is that you can do both, and there are hundreds and hundreds of songs that are simple 1, 4, 5 chords that you can start with and grow from there.  Enjoy the ride!

[donlyn]

by the way gadget, you are starting out with a much better guitar than i did. this is a positive thing, as it should make your progress smoother.

old story:
lost person asking directions, "how do i get to carnegie hall?"
man answers, "practice, practice, practice."

learning to play can require some hard work, but the journey is well worth the first few steps.
good luck, and keep the wind at your back.

[cooper59]

114 is a great guitar to learn on. being easy to play makes learning all the better, There are a million videos on youtube for the very beginner to the experienced.