I can’t tell you what’s right or wrong but in my opinion, learn songs you like for a while. The first rule is to have fun.

Pretty much every song’s chords are available online so you can start slowly by strumming along to any song. If that becomes boring or tedious for whatever reason try singing along while playing.

Try using your ear to play the melody on a single note. You shouldn’t be trying to sound amazing at first, because really, even after years of playing no one feels satisfied with how they sound. You should be building your dexterity, training your ear, pushing your talent, and as always, having fun.

There’s going to be a bunch of technique snobs everywhere in every community of anything. Guitar is one of those things.

After 2 years of playing I realized I was holding my pick “wrong”. I re-trained myself with a “correct” technique within a week. A couple years later I found a new technique of holding the pick. Again, within a week I was able to play everything I could previously while holding the pick in a dramatically different way.

Technique is something you can pick up along the way. Yes, if you practice “proper” technique from the start you will be better off, but that’s only if you continue playing. Playing in a regimented fashion where you must play “properly” often times turns people away from playing at all.

All of this depends on what you actually want to do with the guitar and what your goals are.

Is it to be able to play along with some of your favorite songs? Is there a certain skill level you want to attain? Do you want to focus on lead, or rhythm?

I, for example, wanted to play the entirity of Crazy Train. I thought that as long as I could play that, I would be happy. After I learned Crazy Train, I figured, if I could play whatever note I heard in my head I would be happy. Then it was whatever phrase or riff I was hearing in my head. Then it was jamming. My practice of learning songs, paired with some very basic dexterity exercises got me beyond what my initial goal was.

That said, a good guitar teacher being there one on one will absolutely accelerate your learning. They should be asking you a lot of these same questions and directing you accordingly. More importantly than anything though, they should be making sure you’re having fun. Fun gets done. Chores get ignored.

If you’re not already usuing a metronome and formally practicing scales and picking tehcniques (as opppsed to just playing), then doing so should help you see improvement.

I’ve heard good things about these online courses: https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons

I’ve been getting back in to guitar after a decade+ away and I’m seriously considering doing some in person lessons just to get some better technique that won’t destroy my wrists

Hi, I would really reccomend trying ‘classical’ guitar, if you can afford it.

To me its analogous to learning to draw, then paint, then using software to make pictures - its fine to start anywhere, but where you start will shape your understanding of the other media and all aspects of the subject. Like ‘brushes’ in software are rooted in (although deviate from) brushes in oil or acrylic etc. So, if you start with the basics, you’ll more easily develop a more comprehensive understanding of the subject as a whole.

Basically, acoustic (steel string) or electric guitar, with picks or strumming by hand, are not the fundamentals of guitar, but rather so-called ‘fingerstyle’, that is in our times most commonly using a nylon string (and some metal coated bass strings) ‘classical’ guitar. All other modern techniques evolve from that (and earlier, the lute I think). Of course, they have their own styles and developments and techniques, but these are not the fundamentals, they’re deviations due to developments of the instrument.

Classical guitar is easier to play in some ways, beacuse the strings are softer. A pick, while it can produce complex motions with practice, is not as dextrous as your fingers (again, with practice). A lot of classical sheet music, professionally produced, is available for all levels of skill, sometimes for free because of its age. There are also a lot of styles to try, from all across Europe and European settler states, which incorporate different musical traditions. In my experience, at least where I live, its harder (but not impossible) to find adaptations from the rest of the world however (like East Asia, where they have the lap guitar/harp instead, at least traditionally).

In comparison, its very hard to find ‘classic rock’ music accurately transcribed, and cheaply, and also its a lot more difficult to translate such music to a single guitar without broad approximations that for me at least make it frustrating to play. That is, a lot of music from that era uses effects that are achievable with a satisfactory level of fidelity only if you have a particular type of guitar, amp, pedals, and studio, or a full band. Further, I think that ‘fingerstyle’ classical guitar is able to reproduce such sounds better than ‘strumming’ and even metal string guitars, beacuse its easier, or more achievable, to play both rythym and melody, and even more than one melody at once. The techniques that are learnt from ‘fingerstyle’ guitar make many techniques unique to electric or ‘acoustic’ guitars much easier to comprehend and pick up, I think. Also, a classical guitar using fingerstyle technique is better for adaptations from other instruments like piano, in that it can more faithfully replicate the music compared to other guitars.

Everybody learns differently to some degree, and I’m not sure my own experience would be useful to you (I’m entirely self-taught from a family with zero musical ability of any kind, can’t remember any piece by heart, and I don’t read sheet music and can’t ‘play by ear’), but if you have any specific questions I can try to answer them. Seemingly, modern guitar education doesn’t anymore emphasise rigid styles or techniques or approaches, but encourages the user to develop their own approach, if it works its good. This makes sense, because everybody’s hands are slightly different and also shaped by their occupations etc, so there isn’t really a one-size approach possible. I wouldn’t worry about picking up ‘bad technique’ so much, you will know its bad if its not letting you transistion fast or smoothly enough between positions, or if it hurts, or if it sounds bad and isn’t getting better with practice (beyond just usual muscle development ache or calous development I mean, i.e. fixable by rest).

If you were to go down the nylon-string route, don’t get the cheapest possible one as it will dissapoint, but also don’t get an expensive one, I’m not sure of price conversion but I would reccomend circa £200-300, and to go to a small/dedicated store and ask because they usually have people working there who play and aren’t (usually) trying to con you, so you can ask them and let them know that you have a budget and they, being enthusiasts, will try to help you (though some can be very snobbish, which can be a problem).

In terms of resources, tab books for guitar (even ‘classical’) can be expensive (but are usually of good quality, more so for ‘classical’ guitar, and are arranged according to experience - basic, intermediate, advanced etc), and I ‘expropriated’ some instead, however I will have a look and get back to you because I did also find some sites that had some for free of a reasonable quality (which I’ve never found for ‘rock’ or pop music). I will see if any of the book pirate sites have uploaded any too.

In terms of learning, as above, this might not apply to you or be useful as everyone learns differently to a degree, however;

When I was first learning, I dedicated a period of time to just practicing transitioning between chords over and over, sometimes strumming and sometimes plucking up or down (broken chords I mean), to make my fingers learn (like sports), before attempting to play any particular piece. Now, I play particular pieces I’m familiar with to warm up, and then move onto something I’m trying to learn. I don’t spend a huge amount of time on one piece, but change to others if I hit a point where I’m not immediately progressing (you solve a lot of problems by sleeping on them, so I don’t try overly hard on one particular thing). I started with simple pieces for begginners, but also at the same time tried more advanced ones or parts of them for some time to avoid boredom and too narrow a focus (like with sports, you practice the basics but also try cool stuff at the same time).

Now (though this is a result of previous practice), when approaching a piece I don’t know (which with classical pieces is most because I don’t really like listening to classical music, except some ‘folk’ styles of it), I start by not listening, but instead trying to go through the tab as I read it - I don’t really understand beats per minute or those kind of things - I kind of infer the general idea from how the tab is laid out. I play it through (once you’ve practiced enough, you start to be familiar with common ‘fingerings’ and right-hand sequences), and identify any difficult transitions or unusual positions. Then, I break it up into parts based on that, without trying to improve the difficult parts, but get the easy parts sorted so they flow (again, ignoring for now the correct tempo). Then once that’s sorted, I go to the difficult parts, and try to play the whole piece over and over, until the difficult parts are gradually sorted. Then finally, once its all somewhat smooth, I listen to the actual music online and then adjust what I was playing if there are any differences. A lot of the time, I play a piece (even a simple one) slower or faster, even to extremes, than intended, because I find it helps learning.

Playing ‘fingerstyle’ guitar was a lot more satisfying and rewarding, because you can reproduce melody and rhythm more easily, and I found early on that just strumming chords was a bit underwhealming and fingerstyle on acoustic is not a good way to learn it - picks are used for good reason. But then, having mostly played fingerstyle, when trying acoustic or electric, those mostly don’t feel particularly difficult (with some particular styles being the exception). Transcriptions of classic rock into fingerstyle also sound much better imo than those for acoustic guitar, and sometimes than those for electric, since most rock songs have the electric do just a lead line and rely on a bass and rhythm guitar and drums for the rest.

I hope some of this helps, but I might find it easier to answer specific questions, rather than a general one if you see what I mean. Above all, don’t worry about being good, or see it competatively, music is cooperative like any human pursuit, even if playing alone - like the whole ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ thing you’re always playing with the dead in a hopefully not morbid way - maybe its better to say playing alongside our human ancestors. Its a lifelong ‘hobby’ really, and like anything worthwhile it takes time and practice, but comparing progress to others (especially those in the music ‘industry’) won’t help.

I got two lessons like 15 years ago and then scrambled the rest of my knowledge together by playing with other musicians and trying to write music like the music I like. I think I’d be a better guitar player if I had more lessons, but I still have fun with it.

I think what you do kinda depends on what you want to get out of it. Do you want to write music? Might be worth it to have lessons. Maybe learn piano for music theory purposes (can get a lot of cheap keyboards these days).

If you just want to play other people’s songs? You can probably get by following some youtube lessons and winging it from there.

Also sort of depends on the genres of music you’re most interested in. I like a lot of punk/folk, so I tended towards rhythm guitar with fairly simple chord progressions. I might have bad techniques, but it doesn’t matter much for the music I play. If you want to play a more technical style of guitar, lessons can help a lot there and technique becomes incredibly important.

Man, I should break out my guitar too. It’s been years.

Anyway last time I played it I found that the game Rocksmith was great at getting me to play more. There’s a community that makes custom songs for the game, everything from The Ramones to the Sonic Adventure soundtrack is out there. It turns your practice into a game and it has tools like breaking down specific sections of a song and slowing it down to practice tough parts. It won’t teach you a whole lot of music theory but it’ll work out your fingers and very quickly give you a repertoire that you can mildly impress other people with, which is fun.

It does require you to have an electric guitar and a way to send its audio directly to your PC. The USB cable that the game came with works fine but I got an audio interface (this one specifically) which worked better and as a bonus let me record really clean audio for myself when I was messing around with that.

What do you want to play? That might make a big difference in terms of advice.

If you’re at all into folk music you might see if there are any regular jam sessions/jamborees in your area. I was taught to play orchestral instruments but more or less self taught a bunch of folk instruments by going to jams. You’ll run into people of all kinds of skill levels and can play in a low pressure setting where mistakes won’t draw a lot of attention. They’re often older folks too, so they appreciate the socializing and engagement in my experience.

I’ve played guitar off and on for 30 or so years. Started when I was 17. Got a cheap strat copy and later an acoustic and bass. Guitar lessons are great if you can afford them. In some places tutors have quality related affiliations that will let you know the tutor knows what they’re actually doing.

However there are tons of free tutorials on youtube.

What you need to do is ask yourself what you want to achieve. Tutorials are great if there is an end objective (eg join a band, write some music). What instrument do you wish to play - classical guitar? Steel string acoustic? Electric guitar? Buying used will save you a shitload of money if you dont currently have a guitar, though taking it to a good shop to get it set up will help.

I never liked “this machine kills fascists” on a guitar because it’s not a machine it’s a fucking guitar. It’s an instrument “this guitar kills fascists” or “this instrument kills fascists” is better than a machine.

Yo I’ve worked part-time as a guitarist for longer than any other career I’ve had. I was full-time for a couple of years, but I didn’t really like managing lesson schedules, participating in the gear review content mill, or even hustling gigs really. Anyway, I just want to tell you how amazing music is, and encourage you to keep participating. It’s a really important facet of any culture. The more immersed you get into it, the more you will get out of it. The guitar offers a nearly unparalleled balance of versatility and portability. It’s also cheap and durable. It generally can’t keep up with the acoustic volume of horns or even most accordions, but it offers a nice volume level for accompanying singers without making them strain.

The fact that you played a little in high school will really help you out now. One thing I noticed when teaching adult students was that there was a big difference between those who had never played an instrument before and those who had even some piano lessons when they were kids. Something about their relationship to their hands seemed different. That isn’t to say that adults shouldn’t play music if they didn’t start as kids. I think everybody should do it.

If you’re playing for around an hour every day, then you’re going to get a lot figured out quickly. My main advice would be to enjoy the process as much as possible, and to avoid worrying about the level of your abilities. I know plenty of professional musicians who have experienced depression because they judged themselves harshly, despite being capable players. There really isn’t a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In my experience, basically all free sheet music is garbage. Also most professionally prepared sheet music doesn’t meet my needs. If I want a chart for a tune, the only way to get a good one is to make it myself. Your ears are always going to help you more than a chart. That is, unless you’re playing classical guitar. There’s a lot of great sheet music available for the classical guitar that needs little or no editing. It’s been a while since I engaged with that, but I remember https://www.delcamp.net/ being a good resource for free guitar sheet music.

If I were in your position, I’d probably not get a teacher. A teacher can help you stay motivated for a while, but you will need occasions to play the guitar for yourself or with friends to keep you going in the long run. If you want to see what fingerings or techniques other players are using, there’s tons of video recordings online now. Only a couple of decades ago video recordings were not easy to find, so you had to either go to shows or pay for lessons to see how people play. That’s changed in a major way.

Most of the time technique will improve when it has to. If the reason you can’t play something is because of the limitations of your technique, that’s a pretty easy problem to identify. Finding better techniques is usually much easier than actually getting them under your fingers too. Playing exercises is great for this. Musicianship does has an element of athletics to it. Just make sure that you’re actually making music most of the time, and not just running mindless drills. If the reason you can’t play something is because you’re hearing or reading it wrong, then you should be working on your ears instead of your fingers. If you are finding something challenging, it is important to correctly identify the nature of the challenge.

Music is really one of the greatest things about being human. It provides the occasion for us to remember our greatest poetry. It allows us to connect with our culture and our history across many generations. It accompanies our dances. It can be an endlessly complex puzzle if you want it to be. It can be a powerful form of meditation. It’s also a pastime that you can keep with you into your old age. I’m really happy to hear that you’re getting back into the guitar.

I’m not very experienced, but I had some success with the Mel Bay books.

Learn basic music theory. Do not be afraid of it. If you learn the nuts and bolts of music, it will be much easier to learn your instrument As a beginner, it will be most important for you to learn proper techniques (very difficult to unlearn bad habits) and build strength. Playing the guitar involves muscles in your hands and wrist that you probably don’t use very much right now. It will be tough at first, but the more time you have hands on the instrument the better.

I took lessons for years and sorta stopped taking it seriously during college, a couple years after I graduated I decided I wanted to take it more seriously. I sorta plateaued for a bit and just bit the bullet and got a teacher and my progress has skyrocketed in a few weeks.

My biggest struggle was learning and holding onto theory because I couldn’t tie the many disparate parts together. I had learned and forgotten how to sight read several times, as well as various theory bits. Now I’m properly learning the fretboard and connecting it to concepts in a way that I’m able to just find scales and arpeggios rather than memorizing them.

Being able to make the connections and go “Ah! that’s why this works!” is a huge game changer and confidence booster.

For a greater context, I got really bored playing most kinds of rock, learning songs just felt pointless to me. I’ll go back to classical guitar occasionally but what I really wanted to do was create my own jazz chord melodies and that’s sorta hard. I’m really good at learning songs from tab, but it began to feel sorta empty.

Use light strings, you’re not gonna get anything extra from heavier ones but arthritis.

Hey! I play so much guitar, Im in a bunch of bands in NYC. Id say do it, if you can get a tutor thats great. My advice is to practice with a metronome so you can get good enough to play with other people, all anyone really wants is someone who can stay on beat.