| ign="center"> | | | | tones on my guitar. And that is how I acquired |
| I grew up listening to some amazing guitarists. I | | | | the guitar fundamentals. By trial and error and |
| don't have enough space to list them all, but a | | | | determination. |
| few of my favorites were Jimi Hendrix, Stevie | | | | I don't believe that there is a right way or a |
| Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, the highly underrated | | | | wrong way to learn how to play the guitar. I do |
| Robby Krieger, and all the blues playing Kings. | | | | believe that, with determination and persistence, |
| These guys were phenomenal guitarists and, to | | | | anyone who is serious about it can do it, |
| me, were nothing short of inspirational. The more | | | | regardless of what resources are available. The |
| I heard, the more I wanted to learn to play the | | | | most important piece of advice that I can give to |
| guitar like them. | | | | the aspiring guitarist is to practice, practice, |
| I became obsessed with the idea that I could | | | | practice. Learning to play could be considered hard |
| learn to play guitar as well as these guys. | | | | work, but to the serious student, it is not work at |
| However, at the time, resources were limited. I | | | | all. It is more like an extraordinary learning |
| didn't know anybody who played the guitar, there | | | | experience. |
| was no Internet, no guitar lessons at school, and | | | | Next, to save time, find an instructor or a good |
| no money for expensive lessons. It was up to | | | | book from which to learn music theory. To be a |
| me to grope my way toward my goal. I was like | | | | well rounded musician, it is essential that the |
| a blind man searching for a light switch. I didn't | | | | student learn to read music and tab and to |
| know where enlightenment would come from. | | | | discover how the two are interrelated. Technique |
| When I was about 15 years old, I acquired my | | | | will come with practice, and eventually the |
| first acoustic guitar, a cheap no-name with bailing | | | | fundamentals will become second nature and you |
| wire strings. Then, in a second-hand store, I found | | | | will develop a distinct style that you can call your |
| a book that contained guitar lessons for beginners. | | | | own. |
| From the book, I learned to restring my guitar | | | | From experience, I can tell you that you can learn |
| with some decent strings and how to tune it. I | | | | to play the guitar without guitar lessons. However, |
| learned some basic major chords and some old | | | | it behooves you to find some source of |
| simple classics, like "On Top of Old Smokey" and | | | | instruction. It will save time and a Good instructor |
| "Greensleeves." | | | | will steer you away from time consuming |
| However, my most useful resource was my | | | | mistakes and bad habits. |
| collection of rock and roll records, LPs, wax disks, | | | | If you would like to hear more, visit my blog at: |
| or whatever you want to call those old vinyl | | | | My name is Joe Clements and I would like to |
| anachronisms.Once I figured out how to tune my | | | | share a great software based program of guitar |
| guitar to the same frequency as my turntable, I | | | | lessons with other aspiring guitarists. |
| could listen to the music and try to reproduce the | | | | |