I have been taking guitar lessons for about 7months and I’d like a new guitar. I have an Ibanez now. I was thinking about getting a Les Paul. I also need some songs that are guitar-leading, that isn’t country. I can already play Gun Powder and Lead by Miranda Lambert, Romanza, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll by Joan Jett. I would like to learn Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe. Are there any other good songs to play and what kind of guitar should I get?

Hello there,

There are so many good guitar lead songs, I could not begin to make a list. I will give you one to learn. This one is fun.

As for what guitar to get? You need to do a hands on test to select your guitar. There are different scale length (Les Paul 24 3/4 inch and Ibanez 25 1/2 inch). Decide what you want from your guitar. Set neck, heavy body give better sustain and tone (such as the Les Paul). But a heavy guitar may not be comfortable to play for several hours at a time. Fender and Ibanez make light weight bodies with bolt on necks. Those can be quite comfortable. A tremolo bridge allows you do bend the pitch. But the tremolo bridge is a sustain killer and needs adjustment. What profile neck and fretboard radius feels best in your hands. What pickup configuration gives you the tone you want for your music. Those are factors you must decide. No one else can decide them for you. All anyone else can say is what they prefer. That does not help you at all. You need to do a hands on test to decide which is most comfortable and which sounds best to you.

Do not overlook your amp and speakers. Most newer players search for the best gutiar. They search for the best sounding pickups. They want the best sounding strings. They spend time selecting the best pick. Then they play the great guitar through some cheap amp and expect it to sound great. It won’t. A great gutar played through a lousy amp or lousy speakers will sound lousy. A mediocre guitar played through a good amp and good speakers will sound decent. You only sound as good as your speakers no matter what guitar you have.

Later,

I’ve been playing guitar for almost a year but i wanted to learn leads, so I did. I have been playing leads for about 6 months. I have progressed very quickly and I’ve learned some cool solos and riffs. But I feel like I’m missing something. I think I push myself too hard, too. The day after my first lesson I beat myself up to learn bohemian rhapsody. I did but it wasn’t really fun. I was quite miserable actually. But anyways any tips? I want to increase my speed, too. Ive learned some stairway to heaven but I feel like I have to be a bit faster. I want to learn eruption and freebird. I know, I know I think I’m being hard on myself but I like a good challenge thanks and God bless <3 (lol this was like my life story sorry!)

Play songs slowly at first, and bit by bit, or you are going to get incredibly frustrated or overwhelmed.
When you start reading up on a song’s tab, just cut it it bit by bit, and play each part slowly so your fingers know where to go, and gradually start going faster. Try to learn a lot each day from any song, or just playing the scales. You can also find tabs of different scales that will help you get better, and also improvise better.
After doing all this, you may find going back to songs you thought were impossible are now super easy.

Good luck

Who would you pick?

As for me I’d pick Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Jimmy Page

I have some money and would like to take some music lessons. I have a piano, guitar and bass guitar but don’t know which one to choose to take lessons with. I currently play in the percussion ensemble at school and it comes easily to me. I took piano for two years about 2 years ago and stopped because I got bored. I would like to play the rhythm/lead guitar style (not sure what to call it) and eventually learn ukulele. Basically the style that the band Never Shout Never plays. I have also heard that if you learn to play guitar, bass is much easier to learn.

In short, which instrument should I take lessons in?

Thanks! (:

Not bass. That’s easy enough to pick up by yourself.
I’d tell you that keyboard skills are far more important than anything else if you’re serious about making music a career – but you really do have to be motivated or you won’t get much out of it.

So that leaves guitar. I think you’d get a lot out of a few months of private lessons. Find somebody who knows music theory etc. but has also played in bands like you want to do. Lots of us out there.

Do plan on taking more piano/keyboard skills later if you stay with music as a career.

My friend is trying to argue that they don’t, which is really pissing me off since I’ve been taking lead guitar lessons every week for over a year. And my friend can’t even PLAY guitar. Ironic, huh?

Why would it bother you that someone with no actual knowledge of the guitar is presenting you with incorrect information on the guitar?

You should simply dismiss it as nonsense from the uninformed. It’s like a high school drop out telling a doctor that education isn’t important when getting into the medical field.

Can someone with a lot of guitar playing experience please tell me the most necessary things (from what tools to use, lessons, music to practice with, etc.) that I need to become a great guitar player…both lead a rhythm? Any and all tips/suggestions/experiences/links will be greatly appreciated! Also, how long did it take you to get really good?

Rhythm is most important, first and foremost. Without it, you have no song, nothing. I constantly hear people in guitar stores shredding like crazy acting cocky about their skills. Some are just that good, but a lot of them would totally have a trainwreck if you slapped a metronome on them. Practice with a metronome, its the best investment for under 30 bucks you will make when you are learning. If you can’t play in time with a beat, you will always have problems.

Practice with cds of your favorite bands. Listen very closely to their style and try to learn it. I am a big fan of one on one lessons. Be humble and trust your teacher. If you can’t trust or respect them, then you need to find one that you can.

Study different kinds of music, even the ones you may not like that much. All of them are useful in some way and you can borrow from all styles. As you learn, you will develop a more open mind and appreciation to different styles. Ultimately, you will be more well-rounded as well.

Be patient, learning guitar is a long process. I mean not just learning some songs, I mean REALLY learning it. You should be able to know every note on every fret, every chord, every way to play every chord. Scales, triads, bar chords, power chords, arpeggios, and tons of other things. If you do, you will never be lost and if you make a mistake, it will provide damage control. You won’t have a trainwreck.

Study the subtle things as well. How to do vibrato, properly bend the strings, different kinds of harmonics, muting, etc.

Play with other people. It will only make you better. Ask them about how they do things. Eventually, you will develop your own style that you can express your feelings and soul.

Good luck to you!

So I’ve been playing guitar for close to 3 years (mainly acoustic) and I’ve had an electric for a year and a half but I really only can play rhythm on it.
I’d like to be able to play solos and licks etc (from songs not my own….yet) but I don’t know how exactly….
I understand how to do the techniques and stuff but I just can’t seem to put them together when playing. It’s not the playing at the speed thats holding me back just incorporating the pitch bends, hammer ons, slides etc.

Anyway I’ve searched through online lessons for help on this (ultimate guitar and others) but all the ones that I’ve found are based on creating your own solos and as I said earlier I don’t want to start there.
I was wondering if anybody has any advice, links to lessons/video etc or anything that may help me?

Thanks in advance x

first learn cords then tab( its not hard when you get used to it) on YouTube type "Marty Swartz guitar jam" he’s really helpful Marty helps you improve and teaches you songs from various artists and
techniques.
the bands i find easy to play on guitar are:
the white stripes
nirvana
blondie
Metallica
pixies

some songs are difficult to play, but just learn the easyer song first ( that’s what I do) then work you way up.
Metallica for example, there riff are mostly easy but there solos I find really hard.
just learn one step at a time. good luck

SO I recently bought an acoustic and a strat for use in my productions for pop, R&B, and hip hop. I in no way plan to skip over learning my blues, pentatonic, major/minor scales, etc. But there is almost no other tutorials for any other genre of guitar playing other than blues, jazz, and country.

I have to resort to watching bad quality tutorials of kids in their bedroom teaching me how to play a specific babyface song or whoever did "Cupid" by 112 lol. I want to play like guitarist on R Kelly tracks, contemporary R&B tracks or anything made in the last decade. I know that all those playing styles have foundation in these genres that I can’t stand, but I would like to see more dedicated guitarists breaking down modern guitar playing and showing the differences between the old school playing and the new twists they add in today’s music.

I know gospel/R&B session guitarists but they’re always busy and in different sessions outside of Atlanta lol So I want to learn as much as I can myself.

P.S> If you feel the need to tell me to just listen to my favorite songs and imitate, or to take guitar lessons,..please refrain lol I’m just hopefully looking for people to point me in the right direction on the internet to a place where I might obtain this information that I might not have looked at before.

hmmm, lets see what i can find…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvoav-13IdE&playnext=1&list=PL85351C3F8AC5BD01&index=32

I’m 13, I want to be in a deathcore (don’t flame, everyone has different opinions) band when I’m older. I want to be the lead singer/screamer. Should I stop taking guitar lessons if I want to do this?

Well it’s always good to be able to both sing and play guitar =]

If I was you I wouldn’t stop taking the lessons only because I had the chance to play an instrument and I didn’t take it and now I really wish I had. I love music and I wish I could compose my own, but all I can do is write it. =( So yess, I’d say keep the lessons.

I typed in ‘guitar’ and got videos i dont want to watch and still cant find the one I want…i search one word and it decides to show me

"gibson guitar corp. responds to federal raid"
"air guitar world championships 2011 top 3"
"rock blues lead guitar target note soloing lesson notes scales arpeggios over c"

even when i filter it to show me most viewed, it’s not there

how do i make youtube seach for ONLY one word video titles…

if i wanted to watch the videos you give me, i would type in the title of it..

Most search engines don’t allow you to be so specific. But in this case you can exploit the fact that youtube video pages have a title in the form "video title – YouTube" and do a Google search (not a YouTube search) for this:

   site:youtube.com intitle:"guitar youtube"

It doesn’t filter out everything, but it does at least guarantee the word guitar is at the end of the title.

It turns up these videos…
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQyTn0_cNV0
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiFTljSuleY
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsr_oitOmy4
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLuZDFHF1Pw

Was it one of those you wanted? There’s probably more in those results.