God Lives Underwater Forum

Yes.

Is it hard? Not when you know how. Its a hard question to answer. To some people it is, to others it isn't. It's EXTREMELY frustrating to learn. How good you get is dependant on how much you practice. I know that sounds like some standard cop-out answer, but its true.

Depends on the motivation of the person I think..... Me personally I started playing Nirvana songs at the age of 14-15..... Thats how I learned how to figure out songs by ear..... So it could be hard for some and easy for others.....

Well I'd say if you have to ask the question "Is it hard?" then generally the answer will be yes because you don't know how yet.

Haha

here's my musical training:
4 years viola and music theory
1-2 years piano and piano theory
like from age 11-now i have been reading music
one semester taking music theory as a class (honors class)
i just dont know how to read those chord charts..

ok lemme explain a little.

i have a guitar, and i know it should *ideally* (once i get strings) be tuned defaultly to EADBGE or something close to that if i remember correctly...for a 6-string. no when i open up music written fro guitar a lot of the symbols are common that are used for music theory (i know treble and bass clef from piano, and i know alto cleft from viola.) the only thing is i dont know how to read those boxes that say eadbge on the top (or whatever the tuning notes are) and then all those dots. is that the fingering positions?? it looks like it.

so thats the basis on what i know. im trying to gently learn pieces so i dont get overwhelmed. when i look at the books i have im not familiar with everything so i get a bit intimidated, even though thats sort of backwards to my learning style (take things apart put em back together and figure it out from there). i think im just craving someone to show me where to start... eh..

Its EADGBE
There are a million variations to tuning (probably the most popular variation is a dropped D) but that is the standard.
There are two ways you can learn to play:
1: Standard music. You can learn to play off music like what you learned on the other instruments. I used to be able to play this way back when I played guitar in High School, but I have since forgotten because of method 2 which is...
2: Tablature. Tablature or 'tab' is a diagram of the strings. each line represents a string, and each number on each of the lines represents what fret you press down on for each note of the song. I got so used to using tab that I completely forgot everything I was ever taught with reading regular music (which I was fluent in Bass and Treble cleff).

I have 8 years of music theory, 8 years reading music, 5 years french horn playing experience, and 3 years choir experience. That helped me none when learning the guitar.

By the way, I didn't learn guitar in either of your 2 methods... Tabs SUCK, they are ALWAYS wrong, I refuse to use them. I've learned everything I know on guitar and bass by teaching myself and listening/playing by ear.

What is a GOOD but affordable electric guitar to start with?

A lot of people are telling me ibanez hollow body...

Fender Squier Strats are pretty good beginner guitars and they are cheap. Either that or maybe an Epiphone (lower end Gibsons).

Technically you should be able to play the guitar rather easy since you have piano in your experience..... Piano basically is guitar and bass put in one.... Its pretty easy if you know how to translate piano notes to guitar..... At the beginning though you might not get it so just bear with it.....