Guitar

[Grim Machine]

Yes, I know there is a Musician's Club, but I have not been admitted yet.

Here's my situation:

I have been self teaching myself guitar for 6 months and have been learning off online stuff like YouTube, and guitar forums.

I consider myself to be past the beginner stage now. But what I really want to know is, are there any key, important techniques I should learn? I don't know many, only palm muting really.

Thanks.

[ʕÎnsąnitÿʔ]

Well since you're teaching yourself, it might be hard to pick up bad habits or techniques while you're playing, but it's important not to develop bad habits early on because it'll be hard to erase them later. And I'm talking about things like holding your pick wrong or not keeping you left hand fingers close to the fretboard. It also pays off if you know your scales and arpeggios if you ever want to improvise or solo.

[JDitto]

Learn notes before chords, if vice versa, it's waay harder.

[ssgtGrimreaper]

Try to learn some basic music theory if you can.

[c00lryguy]

I'm self taught and I've played for about 4 years now and the best advice I can give is to get a chord book containing all the chords, and learn the CAGED system.

[Lui]

I'm self taught for over a year now, what I can tell you is: just play whatever songs you can and just keep practicing them.

[LizardRob]

By teaching myself for so long, I developed the ULTIMATE bad habbit.

I never used a pick, so now I find it unbelievably hard to use one.


All I can suggest is learn how to read a tab if you can't already. That's all you really need to play guitar. If you want to do anything more than just play (songwrite, improvise, make up solos on the spot ect.) you'll need to learn all the notes and chords and different types of scales.

For instance,
The pentatonic scale
E I---------------------0-3-I
B I-----------------0-3-----I
G I-------------0-2---------I
D I---------0-2-------------I
A I-----0-2-----------------I
E I-0-3---------------------I

The Blues scale
I-------------------------0-3-I
I---------------------0-3-----I
I---------------0-2-3---------I
I-----------0-2---------------I
I-----0-1-2-------------------I
I-0-3-------------------------I

Basic chords
N--C--D--E--F--G--A--B-----N
I--0--2--0--1--3--0--2-----I
I--1--3--0--1--3--2--4-----I
I--0--2--1--2--0--2--4-----I
I--2--0--2--3--0--2--4-----I
I--3-----2-(3)-2--0--2-----I
I----------(1)-3-----------I