Is guitar easy to learn??

[I love guns n roses]

I recently bought a guitar but i don't know how to play it and i was wondering if its something you can teach yourself with books and stuff or would it be better to get a teacher?

any advice would be good

[GnrJanus]

You can learn it yourself, or go to a teacher,
if you learn it yourself your able to make a whole differend aproach then teachers do.
They wanna give you the basics first. but if you learn it yourself you might be able to make some chords f your own and become a f*cking legend one day.

[White-Rider]

"IT'S SO EASY" - see?!

[Ruiner]

It's fairly easy to pick up the basic chord patterns. If you practice those and enjoy it you'll probably catch on and progress on your own with time! It all depends if you enjoy it and how good your is ear for music is.
Might be a good idea to start with a lesson or 2, I'm sure there's people on here willing to help!
I'll be no use since i taught myself...you don't need theory but it helps communication.

[Iconic Shawn]

Forget easy or hard.. Get the tabs of a song you really like that seems a little simple and have fun with it. The more fun you have with it the more you're going to want to learn and that just keeps going full circle.

~S~

[nemo]

Having taught myself to play I'd say do it properly and get some lessons.  All that 'you can create your own style' thing by teaching yourself is a crock of shit.  knowing the theory really helps.  Despite what some people will tell you, not knowing music theory does not help, not does it make you sound more original.  Get the fundamentals behind you, really train your ear rather than relying on tabs, learn the theory behind it all and you can make the guitar do pretty much whatever you want.

[PurpleHaze]

It depends.

If you want to play a few chords in order to get you laid at parties, it's pretty easy.

If you want to be Steve Vai, then it's a pain-in-the-arse journey you'll never finish.

And then there's all points in-between.

Since you're a girl and all you have to do to get laid is ask, I'm guessing you want to learn how to actually play the instrument. So my advice would be to learn the basics first and screw around for a few months, then pay for some lessons and some decent gear if you decide you like it and wanna make some serious progress.

[Ruiner]

Having taught myself to play I'd say do it properly and get some lessons.  All that 'you can create your own style' thing by teaching yourself is a crock of shit.  knowing the theory really helps.  Despite what some people will tell you, not knowing music theory does not help, not does it make you sound more original.  Get the fundamentals behind you, really train your ear rather than relying on tabs, learn the theory behind it all and you can make the guitar do pretty much whatever you want.

Not knowing music theory helps my mind 100%
It definitely depends on the individual.

[Gunner89]

As ruiner says, everyone id different and its up to the individual but Bumblefoot gave me some brilliant advice for a college projec i did in 2006 and he said "learn the rules so you can break them"

[nemo]

"learn the rules so you can break them"

Exactly.  learn the theory then choose to ignore it, but learn it.  It's far easier to be creative and do something unexpected if you have the knowledge of what is expected to fall back on.  So many people i know who've taught themselves to play guitar play the same things recycled over and over again because they've got nowhere else to go.

[I love guns n roses]

Since you're a girl and all you have to do to get laid is ask, I'm guessing you want to learn how to actually play the instrument. So my advice would be to learn the basics first and screw around for a few months, then pay for some lessons and some decent gear if you decide you like it and wanna make some serious progress.

Lol thanks for the advice

[wyldechild]

I agree with nemo.. if you know theory it makes everything a lot easier... but I'm lazy bastard and I dont know theory at all and I dont really want to 'cos I just play for fun. But I agree that it would help a lot

[Axsalute]

It is hard at first.. your finger tips get calluses..
I never followed thru real serious thou.. but I can play
chords.. make up my own stuff and kind of play
songs from the internet.. go to the net and look up
how to play a G chord then a C... then an A..for me thats all
I needed... and learn how to tune it first... you can start
right now from the internet.. Good luck

[Milles]

As ruiner says, everyone id different and its up to the individual but Bumblefoot gave me some brilliant advice for a college projec i did in 2006 and he said "learn the rules so you can break them"

I like that, there's also another sweet bit of advice that I got off some Jazz saxophonist when I was about 13/14. He said "you'll learn the rules and then forget it all", something along those lines. Now he didn't actually mean that learning theory was useless, he meant that it will be hard to learn and to implement but once you become good enough, you won't even need to think about it.

[stratocaster]

Easy to learn... difficult to master.

[eddierose0608]

Im teaching myself and am having great fun doing it. Once I get into a rythym it flows almost naturally

[Rocket Queen]

I'd say get a teacher if possible. Learning theory makes everything simpler to understand.

As for myself I thought myself, not because I didn't want to be taught but I couldn't afford lessons.. About 2 yrs ago I started playing, just picked up chords etc, now I'm playing a lot of scales.. Now, I've had 2 guitar lessons my whole life and just that made me better.

[CalumFarq]

It really depends how badly you want to learn it because if you really want to learn it, you will usually learn quicker also a mixture of self teaching and having a teacher is a good idea.

[wyldechild]

I dunno I'm still strugling 

[.slash.]

im completly self taught, taught myself chords and then play from tabs or ear, however i wish i would have had a teacher to teach me the basics, because its a bitch tryna learn that yourself. i still dont know any notes, just basic chords and i wish i could afford a couple of lessons.

so yeah lessons are worth it, but it depends how good you wanna be

[King bumb.l.foot II]

i just sit and obseess over shit i cant do until i can, if i cant after a certain amount of time i move on

[Reformed Terrorist]

guitar is the easiest instrument to learn how to play wrong.

[rocknroll41]

just keep preacticing and u'll b fine

[chezequerz]

first it seems deceptively easy then it becomes a very tricky thing to learn once you break through that stage the rest is usually easy enough

[CalumFarq]

guitar is the easiest instrument to learn how to play wrong.

Yeah 

[-Libertad-]

I picked up guitar 2 weeks ago and can already play a pretty good Chinese Democracy.

Just have to practice at least 1 hour a day, and have a little 'Patience'.

[eddierose0608]

I spend 3-4 hours a day practising I reckon I sound shit but people tell me I have improved a lot.

[Georgie]

i go through a lot of phases....there are periods of months where i'll play for 3-4 hours per day, then periods where i'll play a couple of days per week.  It all changes for me......when i am playing a lot, i make very good progress.  I don't know any theory, and i do feel deprived as a player because of that.  I need to make the time to take some lessons.  Being self-taught, i'm still pretty decent, and can play most of the songs that i want to.

[King bumb.l.foot II]

i usually learn songs on an acoustic or classical first.  Then i transfer it onto an electric.  It makes it easier to play on electric after you have struggled to bend etc on an acoustic