How'd you do it?  

practice, practice, practice.  get a chord chart and a scale chart and just play.

i bought the tablature to "don't cry" by GnR and "nothing else matters" by metallica, and then...

practicepracticepractice and play until your fingers bleed.

that's about it.

Quoted: practice, practice, practice.  get a chord chart and a scale chart and just play.

Good advice. That's how I started. Got the tabs for Black and Blue, Stairway to Heaven and a few Beatle tunes. Stumbled around a bit, and then one day after practicing and sounding like a idiot, the lights turned on and I made music. Well, at least the notes were in the right place.

If you can figure out C, D and E and a little bit of G, you're strumming.

What I found very handy is an electronic tuner that does both my electric and acoustic.

Quoted: How'd you do it?

Learn chords.

Learn some scale patterns.

Listen to what you like.

Break it down into all its elements. Reproduce the basic elements. Repeat with every song you like. Then every song you can find.

That will teach you enough to sound competent.

A lot of the best guitar players on earth used that method. They dedicated themselves and experimented a lot, and developed their own style and sound based on what they could figure out.

Thanks guys... that's more or less what I've been doing.  Just like hearing from someone else... who's succeeded at it.

I was, and still am, a hack.

Back before the magic of the intraweb, I picked up a lot of magazines that provided songs I liked in tab form. Guitar World, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Guitar Player, etc.

Also, I used a portable CD player pumped through a Tom Scholz Rockman (the X100 rulez!) and into headphones.

Shit - I really miss all those hours spent playing along to Ramones, Helmet, The Clash, Iggy and the Stooges, etc...

Learn your open chords first and get your strumming rhythm down - and then allow yourself to indulge into mania that are bar chords.

Quoted: I was, and still am, a hack. Back before the magic of the intraweb, I picked up a lot of magazines that provided songs I liked in tab form.  Guitar World, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Guitar Player, etc. Also, I used a portable CD player pumped through a Tom Scholz Rockman (the X100 rulez!) and into headphones. Shit - I really miss all those hours spent playing along to Ramones, Helmet, The Clash, Iggy and the Stooges, etc...

Guitar for the Practicing Musician was the greatest Guitar Mag out there.  I miss it so.

Oh yeah, if your playing sucks, you obviously need more cowbell.

Quoted: I was, and still am, a hack. Back before the magic of the intraweb, I picked up a lot of magazines that provided songs I liked in tab form. Guitar World, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Guitar Player, etc. Also, I used a portable CD player pumped through a Tom Scholz Rockman (the X100 rulez!) and into headphones. Shit - I really miss all those hours spent playing along to Ramones, Helmet, The Clash, Iggy and the Stooges, etc... Learn your open chords first and get your strumming rhythm down - and then allow yourself to indulge into mania that are bar chords.

You forgot Skrewdriver...I'm sure you jammed to that a lot too.

Quoted: Thanks guys... that's more or less what I've been doing.  Just like hearing from someone else... who's succeeded at it.

Depends on what you mean by "succeeded".

Personally, I think I suck as a guitar player. But then again, I don't spend a lot of time playing like I used to when first learning. And I am usually my harshest critic. Most everyone who listens can't tell if I foul up, and don't realize my limitations as a guitarist.

I have found out that there is a limit to how much coordination I have in my hands, meaning that my peak potential as a guitar player is limited. Some folks have better natural aptitude than I do, and given the right ammount of work will always be able to play better than I can at my best.

What and how you learn has a great influence on what you can play and how good you will sound at it.

People make the mistake of looking at someone like a Chet Atkins and thinking that he always sounds that good. Truth is that Chet spent lots of hours learning and perfecting those songs that he played so flawlessly for a few minutes in front of a camera. His technique was top notch and his aptitude on the guitar was undeniable, but he still had to spend hours hunched over his guitar to sound like anything.

As he progressed, things he learned in the past stayed with him and made him more able to play more complicated stuff in the future.

To truly master the guitar takes a special blend of talent, dedication, hard work, and luck. To be good enough to play what you like and enjoy it really just takes a decent ear and a willingness to spend some time figuring things out.

Patience is the guitar player's most important virtue.

VCRS and DVDs of concert performances, BTW, make EXCELLENT training. Being able to see what the player of your choice is doing with his hands is often helpful in figuring it out for yourself. I have figured out many a Clapton lick by using the VCR.

ETA --

Do NOT buy a fuzz pedal. Do NOT buy an effects pedal. Do NOT worry about any of that kind of stuff until after you sound good playing clean straight guitar.

I have seen many a hack guitarist try to cover the fact that he can't make decent chords with a fuzz pedal and a lead singer that screams.

Unacceptable.

Quoted: Shit - I really miss all those hours spent playing along to Ramones, Helmet, The Clash, Iggy and the Stooges, etc... Learn your open chords first and get your strumming rhythm down - and then allow yourself to indulge into mania that are bar chords.

Heavens!

I have never been a big fan of punk(ish) type stuff.

I have always preferred Clapton and the blues and jazz greats. It just seems more pleasing to the ear.

But to each his own.

Quoted: I have always preferred Clapton and the blues and jazz greats.

Way too tough for me!

To be good enough to play what you like and enjoy it really just takes a decent ear and a willingness to spend some time figuring things out.

There you have it Langadune.

Quoted: Quoted: I was, and still am, a hack. Back before the magic of the intraweb, I picked up a lot of magazines that provided songs I liked in tab form. Guitar World, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Guitar Player, etc. Also, I used a portable CD player pumped through a Tom Scholz Rockman (the X100 rulez!) and into headphones. Shit - I really miss all those hours spent playing along to Ramones, Helmet, The Clash, Iggy and the Stooges, etc... Learn your open chords first and get your strumming rhythm down - and then allow yourself to indulge into mania that are bar chords. You forgot Skewdriver...I'm sure you jammed to that a lot too.

wtf

Quoted: practice, practice, practice.  get a chord chart and a scale chart and just play.

+1, and I cheated some and subscribed to "guitar for the practicing musicians" too - mmmm, tablature.  You need daily practice and to learn the at least the major chords (full fingered, not power chords) and scales. You can learn all that stuff out of books and with enough PRACTICE!

Listen to what you like. Break it down into all its elements

That's good advice too. I remember spending a lot of time with the rewind button (I started playing in '87) listening to 10 or 20 second clips from songs I liked over and over trying to pick them apart.

Quoted: Quoted: Thanks guys... that's more or less what I've been doing.  Just like hearing from someone else... who's succeeded at it. Depends on what you mean by "succeeded". Personally, I think I suck as a guitar player. But then again, I don't spend a lot of time playing like I used to when first learning. And I am usually my harshest critic. Most everyone who listens can't tell if I foul up, and don't realize my limitations as a guitarist. I have found out that there is a limit to how much coordination I have in my hands, meaning that my peak potential as a guitar player is limited. Some folks have better natural aptitude than I do, and given the right ammount of work will always be able to play better than I can at my best. What and how you learn has a great influence on what you can play and how good you will sound at it. People make the mistake of looking at someone like a Chet Atkins and thinking that he always sounds that good. Truth is that Chet spent lots of hours learning and perfecting those songs that he played so flawlessly for a few minutes in front of a camera. His technique was top notch and his aptitude on the guitar was undeniable, but he still had to spend hours hunched over his guitar to sound like anything. As he progressed, things he learned in the past stayed with him and made him more able to play more complicated stuff in the future. To truly master the guitar takes a special blend of talent, dedication, hard work, and luck. To be good enough to play what you like and enjoy it really just takes a decent ear and a willingness to spend some time figuring things out. Patience is the guitar player's most important virtue. VCRS and DVDs of concert performances, BTW, make EXCELLENT training. Being able to see what the player of your choice is doing with his hands is often helpful in figuring it out for yourself. I have figured out many a Clapton lick by using the VCR. ETA -- Do NOT buy a fuzz pedal. Do NOT buy an effects pedal. Do NOT worry about any of that kind of stuff until after you sound good playing clean straight guitar. I have seen many a hack guitarist try to cover the fact that he can't make decent chords with a fuzz pedal and a lead singer that screams. Unacceptable.

+1 So true.

Quoted: Quoted: practice, practice, practice.  get a chord chart and a scale chart and just play. +1, and I cheated some and subscribed to "guitar for the practicing musicians" too - mmmm, tablature.

Tab is a guitar player's second best friend.

When you get good at the guitar and train your ear, then you can start to appreciate the true beauty of tone, and will thus spend the rest of your life looking for tone.

You will then become obsessed and spend waaaaay too much money on stuff like a custom Heritage 535 with white binding, ebony fretboard, and mother of pearl block inlays, or a Taylor 610 guitar, or a Fender Eric Clapton signature Strat.....

There are a lot of cools songs that are transcribed into numbers and fret patterns that are easier to read than notes. You won't have to learn how to read sheet music. I can pretty much read the transcribed music fairly quickly now.

Practice a lot to get your fingers to react by reflex rather than individual notes then it all starts to flow. My MP3 player can "time scale" the MP3's, slowing down the speed but maintaining the correct pitch. This makes picking out individual string picks and plucks easier to hear.

Quoted: Quoted: wtf

He's just trying to poke fun.

Quoted: My MP3 player can "time scale" the MP3's, slowing down the speed but maintaining the correct pitch. This makes picking out individual string picks and plucks easier to hear.

Anyone care to recommend a good (free) mp3 player that has handy features like this?

My MP3 player can "time scale" the MP3's, slowing down the speed but maintaining the correct pitch.

That's pretty cool, got a link to the brand and model?

I have found my way into the tab universe... almost feels like cheating.  I've been trying for awhile now to get down Wish You Were Here (fphooey on you if you don't know who that belongs to ).  I can make a similar sound to the song... but I'm a long ways off.

I need to go back and learn my chords.  I've been putting it off.  My finger tips don't hurt anymore, but the positioning is tough to get down.

I wish they had these things when I was a kid.  $139

www.tascam.com/Products/cdgt1mkii.html

Quoted: I have found my way into the tab universe... almost feels like cheating.  I've been trying for awhile now to get down Wish You Were Here (fphooey on you if you don't know who that belongs to ).  I can make a similar sound to the song... but I'm a long ways off. I need to go back and learn my chords.  I've been putting it off.  My finger tips don't hurt anymore, but the positioning is tough to get down.

That was the first song I learned too.  It's a good song to begin with.

Quoted: I have found my way into the tab universe... almost feels like cheating.  I've been trying for awhile now to get down Wish You Were Here (fphooey on you if you don't know who that belongs to ).  I can make a similar sound to the song... but I'm a long ways off. I need to go back and learn my chords.  I've been putting it off.  My finger tips don't hurt anymore, but the positioning is tough to get down.

Try www.OLGA.net  Great tab site!

Quoted: If you can figure out C, D and E and a little bit of G, you're strumming.

hell, that's about half of all the rock and roll songs ever written.  in college, my friend and i had an hourlong set that we referred to as the "CDG".  

and one more suggestion to langadune--most of the jazz guys i know say that "the wheel of fifths" is the single most important tool for learning to play any instrument melodically.

 Dave Mustaine:  The Wilford Brimley of guitar junk!

Quoted: Try www.OLGA.net  Great tab site!

Thanks, hadn't seen that one.  Just checked it out.  Pretty good.

Quoted: www.tascam.com/Products/CD-GT1mkII/cdgt1mkii_mustaine_thumb.jpg  Dave Mustaine:  The Wilford Brimley of guitar junk!

Effects processors are the debil!!!

If a guy can sound good playing a Strat or a Les Paul on a plain old tube amp, odds are that he can sound good on anything, and will sound so good that he won't play anything else. (With the exception of using a vintage Tube Screamer for a little extra crunch now and then...)

I pretty much suck, but I have a good time... I haven't had an amplifier for over 17 years, and just traded a garand for an old fender twin reverb. I've been playing a lot more since I got the amp, it sounds great.

btw, this is the path to more insanity.   If you like to build your own ARs and play guitar, the next logical step is building your own guitars. Witness the guitar kit.

www.torresengineering.com/comguitkit.html

a lot of free time in the summer while in high school.

and prior theory training.

Speaking of building your own, I used to get Warmouth's catalog all the time. You guys that read guitar magazines should recognize the name (and the turtle mascot).

Quoted: www.torresengineering.com/comguitkit.html

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Growing-up in the 80's, I bought a book called "The Heavy Guitar Bible". It taught me what are probably the two most important things in a rock guitar player's tool kit -- 5 chords (as in triads like E5, A5, D5, etc) and the pentatonic minor scales (boxes). That's all a kid needs to know, to start with. So I learned how to make a 5 chord shape, and I put on The Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and learned that song in about 5 minutes. After that, it was as many songs as I could put on the tape deck. It's all about Play -> Stop -> Rewind ->Repeat. Learn one note at a time, starting with the first note of the song. When you get to the solo, do the same. After enough of this, you can practically learn a song by ear as it plays. It gets that easy -- especially once to have all of the tools in your trick bag (chords, scales/modes, etc). But it ALL starts with learning that first note. Just push play on your tape deck/CD player. Stop after the first note. Think of that note in your head, or sing it to yourself. Start playing notes on the fretboard. If the note you are singing is higher than the one you're playing, then move your fingers up the fretboard. Or vice versa. Once you find the first note/chord, then do the same for the second. It's just like walking -- one step at a time.

I mainly used Guitar For the Practicing Musician's tabs to check on my work. It was a good mag. I was mostly right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes THEY were wrong (mistakes happened). As far as tab from the internet goes, be wary. There is a lot of crap out there. I prefer to hand-tab anything that I tab out for students. That way I know it's right. And it makes me work, think, and practice me ear more.

ALL of the great rock players (SRV, EVH, Clapton, etc) used their ear to learn. Their teachers were the greats that came before them. I try to wean my students off of lessons as quick as possible. It's one thing to be mentored or to receive occasional guidance from a teacher, but no one should need to be spoon-fed this stuff. Those that do, just aren't trying hard enough. But I will admit that I started when I was 16. I had the time to put in back in those days. I used to practice about 8 hours a day. For the last 10-15 years, it's been more like 1-2 hours a day. Anything above and beyond half an hour is sufficient.