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A good guitar will retain value and will actually sound good. More learners are discouraged by the cheap horrors that some Chinese manufacturer calls a musical instrument than anything else. Then they're stuck with a boat oar they can't sell for any price.
I would recommend acoustic. Quite frankly, people who first learn on electrics seem to "learn" how to use distortion and effects to cover their lack of skill. They don't hear their mistakes but everyone else does. An acoustic is far less forgiving and that's actually a good thing!
Youtube is loaded with free lessons. Some are great, some will make you feel like you want your money back.
Good Luck!
starting out on an acoustic is good advice for the reasons stated but
If you plan on eventually playing in a rock band I would start with an electric guitar as it really is a different instrument. when I used to give lessons I would get students that wanted to learn how to play Metallica riffs on an acoustic guitar. crucial techniques like palm muting and shuffle picking are hard to mimic without distortion. I've always told my students if you want to learn to play rock music you need to be playing a rock set up. this doesn't mean you need a marshall stack and gibson les paul but it does mean you need to be playing an electric guitar threw an amp.
Our 9 yr old is looking to learn the guitar and drums...ambishes dude. Anyhow, I picked up a really nice aquatic guitar from a pawn shop for cheap. My thinking if it doesn't work out I haven't lost a lot of money. If it does work out, I'll advance him to a better quality set up. We signed him up for lessons he really doesn't like the way he's being taught...like using a pick for example. He likes using his fingers and has had countless blisters. Does anyone have any ideas on helping a small child learn the guitar? No one in our family plays and we're trying to be supportive.
I pretty much did. Well, I had one class of beginning guitar in 7th grade but that was it. It wasnt until about 11th or 12th grade that I picked up the guitar again and started playing. Bought a couple of books that showed different scales and learned chords (not just bar chords but real chords) and started playing my favorite songs from guitar tabs in magazines and thats pretty muchit.
Not going to say I play like SRV, Jesse Johnson, Ernie Isley or Yingwe, but I CAN jam a bit.
There are lots of folks who are "self taught" but it's still a good idea to get with others to share knowledge. I've been playing since I was 11, there was no internet, no dvd's, and a few magazines when I started out. I sat through Woodstock four times one day in a theater just to watch Alvin Lee, Pete Townshend, Hendrix, etc. Nowadays with the internet, youtube and all the magazines there's an abundance of knowledge and info available. I have taught quite a few folks and it does indeed help to sit in with other musicians.
I've decided, after wanting to learn for a while, to learn to play. Going with a cheap electric ($200) to start with in case I fail miserably. Just curious if anyone has any pointers or online lessons they can recommend.
I taught myself to play on a right handed bass, upside down because I play left handed.
Years later I decided to take a class just to learn anything I didn't know, and not only did I have to relearn hand movements, (because I got an actual left handed bass this time), but I also found out that how I held my hand and wrist was incorrect.
You can teach yourself, just like you can teach yourself piano...but know that some techniques may require an instructor or someone who knows so you don't fall in to bad habits.
I took up the guitar 25+ years ago. I've never had a lesson, I had some friends who played that showed me what a power chord was and learned the standard chords from music books. I was fortunate to be blessed with good pitch which allows me to play by ear. I can read music (result of piano lessons as a child) but have no idea how the notes on the page relate to the fretboard without counting the frets. I do sometimes wish I had taken lessons at some point, mainly to learn some theory so I could improvise some leads. But I enjoy playing any less because I didn't. And I may still do it someday.
I started with a cheap guitar, it played fine and didn't do anything to diminish my desire to play. And the quality of today's cheap guitars is much, much higher than that of the cheap guitars of my youth. And I don't think there was such a thing as a cheap amp back then. Today you can get a little $75 practice amp that blows away the $300 Marshall combo I started with in terms of features, volume, and sound quality.
If your desire is to play electric guitar, go ahead and get an electric. I started out on electric because I wanted to be the next George Lynch, but when my preferred "venue" changed from jamming hard rock in a basement with my buddies to picking folk and country tunes around a campfire I switched to acoustic without skipping a beat.
It's a great, rewarding hobbie, I encourage you to give it a try!
I had my mandolin and guitar out this afternoon, saw this thread and thought I would add my two cents.
I have had guitars since I was around 14 (some 48 years ago) starting out with an old Silvertone dreadnought acoustic (about $39 new in 1963) that was really tough on the finger tips. My first recommendation to anyone starting out is to get the best guitar you can afford. A good guitar will retain its value and will increase the chance you will make some good sounds before you get frustrated and quit. Unless you are lucky to have been born with it, rhythm and pitch come slowly.
Many times a (cheap or otherwise) guitar can be made to play better by having someone do a fret job and lower the action. Nothing will turn off a prospective guitarist more than an instrument which is unnecessarily hard to play.
Many times a (cheap or otherwise) guitar can be made to play better by having someone do a fret job and lower the action. Nothing will turn off a prospective guitarist more than an instrument which is unnecessarily hard to play.
I meant to mention this in my post but I forgot. For your first guitar, DO NOT go mail order or "big box." Go to a reputable shop that has a qualified guitar tech on staff who can properly set up your new guitar. As catman says, A good setup can make all the difference in the world.
Of course you could buy the guitar from the mail order house and take it to the guitar shop to have it set up, but they'll probably charge you $100 to do it which will probably eat up most of what you would save.
My 14 year old son wanted to learn guitar a year ago, so I got him a Fender Strat copy and a book, but he had hard time learning from it. He started going to a private instructor and after 2 weeks, he was able to play the basic chords and scales.
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