Help me to learn electric guitar

[marina.marina]

Hello everyone,

I really want to learn electric guitar. My favorite electric guitarists are BB King, SRV, Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson, David Gilmour etc.

How difficult is it for a fingerstyle player to learn electric guitars and be able to play Blues Solo? I only play with thumpick and three fingers and never learn to play with a pick. And I am very new to scales etc. I personally feel that learning online lessons could be a better option then going to private classes…Anyone here knows a good source for online lessons for beginners interested in electric guitars.

[SY]

Wes Montgomery played with his thumb. Didn't seem to hold him back!

[Peter M.]

Originally posted by marina.marina
Hello everyone,

I really want to learn electric guitar. My favorite electric guitarists are BB King, SRV, Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson, David Gilmour etc.

How difficult is it for a fingerstyle player to learn electric guitars and be able to play Blues Solo? I only play with thumpick and three fingers and never learn to play with a pick. And I am very new to scales etc. I personally feel that learning online lessons could be a better option then going to private classes…Anyone here knows a good source for online lessons for beginners interested in electric guitars.

I have no experience with online lessons, but I don`t think it is better than a real teacher who can point out flaws in your playing that you might not see yourself. (depends on the teacher of course). But as a former classical guitar teacher myself I might be biased...

To change playing style is never easy, but how hard it is depends very much on how you do it.

In my opinion the fastest and best way to learn something new is to go slow, then go much much much slower till its allmost unbarably slow and apply perfect technique, and then gradually increase speed till you just start to go out of control, then start all over again. And buy yorself a metronome if you don`t have one.

Regards,
Peter

[Brett]

Get a good teacher. Online will never give you the depth of knowledge or technical ability that learning in the presence of a good teacher will.

[head_spaz]

Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, and others, have been making instructional videos that might give you some ideas. Google "Hot Licks" for more information.
Music stores usually sell Hot Licks' VHS and DVDs along with their printed library, but I usually just rent the DVDs from netflix.
Eric J, and Steve Morse have each made several videos for Hot Licks, and Eric J spends a fair amount of time covering Wes Montgomery's style in the videos. (Along with Jeff Beck's, and Clapton's, Hendrix's styles too.)
These guys are so freakin' good it makes me wanna give up playing. It's quite humbling.

[Minion]

For me Guitar teachers were a waste of money, They give you a lesson and once you mastered it they would tell you to do it over and over again "While you are Paying them to do nothing but watch you" ....

If you think you have an ear for music then just get a Tab book of your Favorive electric guitar songs and listen to the songs while you learn them...I didn"t even use tab books I would just listen to a song I liked and after hearing it a couple times I had the song down (Minus Leads).....

[rolic]

I applaud your decision to go online. A good source to learn electric guitar for beginners is hotstrings.
This is a cool new and fast beginner course without notes. Here you learn a short version of the basic elements of playing the guitar. The crash course has 30 daily lessons of different song styles such as rock ballads, pop songs, reggae, modern pop, funk and soul. Direct downloadable to your pc.

[Gcollier]

Take a look at http://www.justinguitar.com/

Plenty of videos and well laid out lessons there. Justin is the guitarist for Katie Melua's band.

Cheers!

G.

[PeteMcK]

seems like you're mainly into blues; just get some CDs you like and jam along, it's not that hard. As to style, being a pick player, I admire anyone who can play fingerstyle, gives you much greater flexibility in what you can play. Mark Knopfler uses his fingers, Martin Simpson is another great finger style player.
Learning scale patterns is useful, but blues is based on a simple pentatonic scale, plenty of info on this stuff online.
The only problem I can see with not using a pick is that it may make it more difficult if you're trying to emulate a particular player's sound, but ultimately you'll develop your own style anyway...

[KP11520]

Try Google Video and do a search for the songs you want to learn. Also put "cover" in the search criteria. Different people post videos of themselves playing the song and show the guitar chords.

I did a search for a Zeppelin song that I love, "Ten Years Gone". Then when I added "cover" I saw how others played it
See: http://video.google.com/videosearch?...en&sitesearch=

Then I found this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...L76ZTlDQ&hl=en

And from there, this site along what you might be looking for: http://www.vanderbilly.com/

Now that you get the idea I am sure you can find what you need. If you find something special, return the favor and post it here for all of us other guitarists here!

Oh, and BTW, nothing beats an excellent guitar teacher! He will always be pushing you (or he should be).

Good luck!

Regards//Keith