NF musicians, You're my only hope!

[Mdowning]

I've been really interested in learning piano and guitar and have dabbled in each, but I've come to the conclusion that if I'm going to learn either one then I need some kind of structure or outline to follow. Some kind of guidance at least until I've learned the basics. The downside is that I am unable to afford lessons or any of the online programs I've found at the moment. I've tried youtube but have been unsuccessful in finding any kind of structured lessons other than "learn to play popular song x". Anybody out there willing to help a nerd out?

[Hit]

I play guitar somewhat well. Heres a three step guide:

 

1) learn to read chord charts and tabs.

2) learn to love ghost notes

3) lock yourself in your room and practice

 

go forth and conquer.

[Evicious]

I grew up playing the piano, and am currently learning to play guitar! Yay, new musical interests! :-D

 

 

First off, do you own or have consistent access to either of these instruments? Obviously, hands-on practice is the best way to begin learning music, but if you don't you can still keep busy while you look for what you need.

 

Secondly, can you read sheet music already? This is not a "necessary" skill, per se - lots of people play by ear, or just learn basic chords and jam out to that - but if you really want to learn music, this is your starting point. All sheet music is the same, regardless of your instrument: if you can read it, you can play it. Learning how to read the notes, keys, time signatures, etc. is called Music Theory (click on the link to go to a free Youtube series to get started; you can skip to 04:50 to go straight to the instructional portion).

 

As for structured lessons, you can check out your local library for instructional book series and dvds to work through on your own. It sounds like you've already done at least a cursory search online for training options; I'm guessing you either didn't like any of the free sites available, or you may simply have not found any. That's ok, IMO, because unless you're learning music theory, there's not a lot any of those sites will likely teach you. Youtube is your best bet for instructions; you just have to spend some time figuring out how to word your search, and learn to dig a little deeper through the available pages sometimes.

[Mdowning]

I've started to learn to read music, but that's not the fun part! Lol

Wasn't anything I could quickly learn quickly and I quit trying. Probably should get back on it. Thanks for the suggestions, time to get back on youtube.

Until I can find what I need, any suggestions on what to learn first? Aside from learning to read music

[FireproofPyro]

Having been a musician for several years of many instruments and for a time a music education major, I can attest to the boredom created by learning theory, however, If you want to be really good at it, that is the only way to go. Like going to the gym, if you don't first learn how to do a particular exercise properly you can hurt yourself really bad, the same goes for music, without knowing why chords do what they do, the music can suffer as well. For piano, I'd highly recommend Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course book, its great for beginners and even includes enough theory to get you started.

 

Lessons can indeed be pricey, but check with your local community college, most have piano classes in many levels and you do leave the end of the semester a better musician than you started.

[Evicious]

I've started to learn to read music, but that's not the fun part! Lol

Wasn't anything I could quickly learn quickly and I quit trying. Probably should get back on it. Thanks for the suggestions, time to get back on youtube.

Until I can find what I need, any suggestions on what to learn first? Aside from learning to read music

 

I'm going to assume from this that you do have a keyboard and/or guitar. So moving under that assumption, I suggest you pick a song you like and do a google search for the sheet music or chords. Picking a song to learn (for guitar; I had a traditional education in piano) forced me to learn the chords by heart; from there on out, it was just a matter of practicing to get faster at transitions between notes, and learning (through a lot of trial and error) the correct strumming pattern. Once I learned one song, I moved on to another and my musical vocabulary (the chords I knew by heart and didn't have to pause to think about where to put my fingers) very naturally and consistently increased. So that may be a way for you to get started learning to play without "boring" yourself too much. 

[Hit]

Thought of a 4th step for my 3step play guitar method!

4) play with conviction. No one likes a limp wrist.

[SugarRay]

My advice based on teaching myself guitar?

Learn yer chords!

I originally learned to play by ear, which ended up being not so impressive when I realized that I didn't know the names of chords. Managed to learn them quick enough, but still.

Another thing to look into would be scales. Yeah, you have some boring scales, but at the deeper technical levels in.. well, pretty much any instrument, scales can add a healthy dose of awesome-sauce to your playing and general understanding. They also help develop some very important attributes, like dexterity, timing and co-ordination.

 

You've probably heard of this website: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

There are a bunch of tabs here that are excellent if you want to learn some popular songs.

If you don't know how to read tab, take a look at this guide.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/for_beginners/how_to_read_tabs.html

 

Good luck! If you have any problems with reading tab or something, feel free to PM me.

[crowings]

The great thing about guitar is that it isn't too difficult to teach yourself for the most part if you can put in the time it takes to learn. Like everyone says, learn your chords, and even more then that, learn simple chord progressions (C-G-Am-F, G-D-Em-C, D-A-Bm-G, A-E-F#m-D, etc. (It's pretty easy when you see it as a circle of progression)). Once you learn the chords, get really good at progression, to the point where you can do one of the more common progressions purely by muscle memory, without having to think about which chord comes next. Don't worry about how long it takes, I played everything in the key of C for about a year until I branched out to other chords.

[Hit]

hmm i wonder if we could get like, a bunch of musician nerds to post up like a "song in a minute" style thing - so a short video of them playing whatever. could be awesome to see more of people, and also help others learn?

[Mdowning]

hmm i wonder if we could get like, a bunch of musician nerds to post up like a "song in a minute" style thing - so a short video of them playing whatever. could be awesome to see more of people, and also help others learn?

I like this idea!

And thank you to everyone for the tips. Now to get practicing!

[Hit]

 

 

And thank you to everyone for the tips. Now to get practicing! 

 

two weeks later! hows it all going?

[Mdowning]

Work has been stupid busy and I've been doing lots of overtime to afford camp NF, but I've been practicing chord transitions using G-C-D. I've also started reading on theory here and there. On piano, I'm learning the major scale and arpeggios in a couple different keys. It's going well, just slow

[dijos]

what do you want to play? I ask because I originally learned from the guitar handbook (an excellent resource), then learned a whole bunch of other things along the way (mostly tab), then started playing jazz, where I learned I was an uneducated idiot. After stuumbling through for the last few years, I would offer:

 

Playing guitar (the physical act) is hard. it is the most awkward instrument ever. it does not lend itself to theory or quick learning. That said, there are about 20 or so chords that you could learn and play 99% of popular music. It's actually easier in the short run to memorize these, and actually play tunes. However, you will eventually have to learn theory.

 

of all the methods I have tried, chord-scale theory (as taught in berklee) is the most efficient. this will teach how chords/arpeggios are constructed, and interrelations between scales. (I don't mess with modes, as i don't play modal music- I found that there is a scale for any mode, anyway). 

 

this still won't show you how to put that onto your guitar, and that's the rub.

 

 I am working through reading exercises, and they suck. you could just learn where the notes are without reading, too. 

[Archer]

I would take a course at a local community college.  You can choose from both group classes and private lessons.  

[iliovasilema]

I just learn chords so that can sing along sometimes while playing. 

but i don't think music sheets are all the same. it's very hard for me to bring guitar sheet to piano. or am i just too amateur?

[Hit]

due to the way strings work with a guitar (and this will apply to a lot of different stringed instruments too) the note "clusters" are different from how they form up for piano, so when you go from one to the other they can become confusing. this is actually a really good way to see how a song was composed - take a complex guitar song and play it on a piano and you can often see the pattern really quickly.