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Easiest Guitar instruments to play ?

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norm9

Member
You can get a cheap guitarlele for $100. Just tune it to guitar settings and you're good to go.

Though if you're gonna spend $100 for one of those, just hold out for a sale and buy a cheap full size acoustic for the same price. So if you feel you're not gonna stick with it, it's not a total loss on investment as you'll probably get your money's worth.
 
As someone who has a guitar and is too lazy to learn how to play, what's the best way to start?

And how long before I start shredding faces off?

Stop being lazy?

Label your frets to acclimate you to chord progressions, practice hand exercises to increase strength and dexterity, learn warm-ups that teach you how to play individual strings quickly, master music theory, grow long hair, begin shredding.
 
As someone who has a guitar and is too lazy to learn how to play, what's the best way to start?

And how long before I start shredding faces off?

Honestly, find a copy of Rocksmith and plug in your electric guitar and go. It's a fantastic way to familiarize yourself with the neck and spacing
 

shaowebb

Member
Electric Dulcimer.
No I'm serious. Skip to vids for proof.
  • 3 strings and diatonic not chromatic. This means its tuned to a chord and its a straight scale down the neck with the exception of only a few sharps. Strum it and do nothing but bars if you wannabe like Green day. Its tuned to a chord already so its all good. Just slide your finger down all the strings and strum as you see fit.
  • Chord shapes are easy if you want to do non bar chords to get the 4th and 5ths and what not. Plus frets are WIDE so no finger cramping.
  • You can hold down 2 strings and just strum while moving your thumb around to play both back up and lead from day one. Its actually a dream to fingerpick so its easy to do really nice fast melodic stuff.
  • Since its a solid body you can put rail pickups into it and get a guitar sound or midi pickups for a keyboard sound if you like. Only sacrifice is the scale range since you have half as many string sizes and not all the chromatic notes. Most notes you can makeup for by pre bending a string before picking it. You can also get a cheap piezo pickup to lay on an acoustics body if you want electric tones on an acoustic. Not bad, but you'll pickup body noises.
  • You can play them overhanded or underhanded so guess what...if gripping a guitar cramps your wrist fuck it and just go overhanded like a lap dulcimer player.
Here's mine. Its got a dimebucker bridge and an Invader neck pickups. Solid Red Mahogany and heavy as fuck. So much tone would it can sustain a note tapped for nearly 10 minutes. Tune it to GDG and its in the G major scale meaning damned near all piano sheetmusic can be read for this instrument so no worries on sheet music not existing. I can read pretty much anything I find online and play it. Theres also a tab program that'll convert mp3 or midi to dulcimer tabs called Dulcitab.

imEyWIQ.jpg


Perfect for upright, overhand, under hand styles of grip. Strumming, picking, slide or whatever. Piss easy.

Here's some music.
An electric Dulcimer and two acoustic dulcimers playing Pinball Wizard

Famous Unknowns Lindsay Buckland playing his electric dulcimer with guitarist Carlos Vamos I think he has a midi pickup which means any sound bank a keyboard has he can make his dulcimer sound like it.

Bing Futch playing some SICK blues on his electric dulcimer. As well as doing a national anthem hendrix style

Quentin Stephens shredding Halen-style on an electric dulcimer

Insane piece done by Bradley fish on an acoustic Dulcimer with a piezo electric pickup. This piece really shows how much tone you get just from strumming and sliding and how fast you can play. Dude is literally playing with a wooden noter which is like a slide you just move up and down the neck. Check this out above all.

I'm just needing someone to make me a tremolo system for mine. I need to fish around for custom guitar luthiers to machine one. If I pull that off then I can do divebombs and all that good whammy bard stuff on the instrument. For now...I have a pedal for it :)
 
Thanks for the tips.

Any sites/lessons/youtubers you suggest following for beginners?

my opinion is to find some songs you like, that use only 3 or so chords (being either A, E, Am, G, C, or F) and just learn how to play that song first. That will take you a month easy.
 

Konosuke

Member
Shocked at the few Rocksmith mentions here. I'm using it everyday to learn Pixies songs (I'm a newbie guitar player) and can play 3 from memory already.
 

KrellRell

Member
Bass, the answer is bass. Really though put less effort into thinking and asking and more effort into doing and you'll be fine.
 
This never happens, by the way. Been playing for 30+ years. Chicks don't dig guitars anymore, it's not the 80s.
If you wanna get laid, be a DJ.

id agree re rock guitar. aint nobody give a shit about solos these days. but if you learn to play like prince or d'angelo its a little different
 
I never played an instrument before and maybe it's time to learn. A ukulele is what comes to mind and then the mandolin.

Which one has an awesome sound and easy to play.

If I ever get a girlfriend, being able to seranade her with a song would be nice. I need to learn some new skills.

Learn to play guitar because it's awesome, not for this silliness. That's Ray Wonder's area - he's the only one for a reason.

Then again, I know a girl who gets super excited when I do magic tricks, so who the hell knows.
 

Big Blue

Member
As someone who has a guitar and is too lazy to learn how to play, what's the best way to start?

And how long before I start shredding faces off?

I learned the basic chords on my own through instructional videos.

I learned finger picking through Rocksmith, seriously.
 

MCN

Banned
If it has a Floyd Rose bridge, it will be a pain in the ass, but yeah in general, guitars are very easy to tune.

I learned the lesson years ago - never buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge. Hell, tremolos in general are unnecessary.

Les Paul all the way, baby.
 

Edzi

Member
You've just gotta get one you like the sound of and practice OP. I tried learning how to play on a Steel String guitar around 5 years ago, slowly lost interest. I then tried again last year, but I gave up on it again because callouses suck and I wasn't really happy with the music I was limited to at a beginner level since I was trying to teach myself. I recently started taking Piano lessons though and I absolutely love it, but I've toyed with the idea of picking up a Ukelele on the side for fun.
 
As someone who has played guitar nearly their whole life, just get a cheap ass acoustic. Maybe one that's like 100 to 150 bucks. Then get a cheap tuner. And practice every single day. Progress will be slow and frustrating at first but if you stick with it, within even a few months you'll be able to play some songs.

Edit - Also yes get Rocksmith 2014. It will seriously help you. As an advanced player I still use it almost every day. You can get 1000s of different songs if you get it for PC
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Learn to play guitar because it's awesome, not for this silliness. That's Ray Wonder's area - he's the only one for a reason.

Then again, I know a girl who gets super excited when I do magic tricks, so who the hell knows.

😲 Screw you buddy I was being serious as hell 😂😭
 

Sora_N

Member
I took my sister's guitar that was purchased 12 years ago. It needs to be restringed but I think I'm gonna try to learn it myself. Never played any instrument in my life though.
 

number11

Member
The Ukulele is probably extremely tough to master.. but it's pretty easy to pick up and start making music. Just learn 3-4 chords and you can play dozens of songs.

In the end, if you wanna advance.. learning an instrument is never 'easy'.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
The Ukulele is probably extremely tough to master.. but it's pretty easy to pick up and start making music. Just learn 3-4 chords and you can play dozens of songs.

This is true of the guitar too really. You can do a lot with a handful of chords if mastery isn't your aim.
 

scotcheggz

Member
my opinion is to find some songs you like, that use only 3 or so chords (being either A, E, Am, G, C, or F) and just learn how to play that song first. That will take you a month easy.

That's exactly what I did like.. 21 years ago during easter break at school. Just looked up some tabs on the old dialup and sat in my room learning by myself. It's quite a fun way to learn the basics I thought, since you can recognise cool shit you like straight away.

These days I'm sure youtube can teach an awful lot to a beginner.
 

Shadybiz

Member
I learned the lesson years ago - never buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge. Hell, tremolos in general are unnecessary.

Les Paul all the way, baby.

Yep, Floyd Roses are fine for if you want to stay in the same tuning all of the time, because they'll basically keep that tune forever, but as soon as you snap a string or want to do something as simple as drop into Drop D...good luck. As neat as they are, I'll be rocking the fixed bridge for life.
 

northernflights

Neo Member
As somebody who has been playing guitar for 10 years, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have gone this route.

4102ZJK0QDL.jpg


Probably would have saved a lot of money.
I started playing like a year before this came out and honestly, it really helped me a lot. A lot of purists dismissed it as a novelty, but my strumming and fingering improved massively as a direct result of trying to get FC's
 

Capitan

Member
Ukulele is easier sure, but imo learning how to pick up a guitar and play a few chords is probably better if you're just trying to impress the ladies. Unless you live in Hawaii, I guess. Also playing while you sing is harder than it looks
 

styl3s

Member
That's exactly what I did like.. 21 years ago during easter break at school. Just looked up some tabs on the old dialup and sat in my room learning by myself. It's quite a fun way to learn the basics I thought, since you can recognise cool shit you like straight away.

These days I'm sure youtube can teach an awful lot to a beginner.
This is how i learned the Banjo.

Youtube is a gold mine of information and learning if you look for it.
 

Fletcher

Member
Ive been playing guitar for a while now and am ok. Have been thinking about picking up a banjo lately as I've mostly been finger picking and getting into bluegrass and country.
 

forms

Member
Electric Dulcimer.
No I'm serious. Skip to vids for proof.
  • 3 strings and diatonic not chromatic. This means its tuned to a chord and its a straight scale down the neck with the exception of only a few sharps. Strum it and do nothing but bars if you wannabe like Green day. Its tuned to a chord already so its all good. Just slide your finger down all the strings and strum as you see fit.
  • Chord shapes are easy if you want to do non bar chords to get the 4th and 5ths and what not. Plus frets are WIDE so no finger cramping.
  • You can hold down 2 strings and just strum while moving your thumb around to play both back up and lead from day one. Its actually a dream to fingerpick so its easy to do really nice fast melodic stuff.
  • Since its a solid body you can put rail pickups into it and get a guitar sound or midi pickups for a keyboard sound if you like. Only sacrifice is the scale range since you have half as many string sizes and not all the chromatic notes. Most notes you can makeup for by pre bending a string before picking it. You can also get a cheap piezo pickup to lay on an acoustics body if you want electric tones on an acoustic. Not bad, but you'll pickup body noises.
  • You can play them overhanded or underhanded so guess what...if gripping a guitar cramps your wrist fuck it and just go overhanded like a lap dulcimer player.
Here's mine. Its got a dimebucker bridge and an Invader neck pickups. Solid Red Mahogany and heavy as fuck. So much tone would it can sustain a note tapped for nearly 10 minutes. Tune it to GDG and its in the G major scale meaning damned near all piano sheetmusic can be read for this instrument so no worries on sheet music not existing. I can read pretty much anything I find online and play it. Theres also a tab program that'll convert mp3 or midi to dulcimer tabs called Dulcitab.

imEyWIQ.jpg


Perfect for upright, overhand, under hand styles of grip. Strumming, picking, slide or whatever. Piss easy.

Here's some music.
An electric Dulcimer and two acoustic dulcimers playing Pinball Wizard

Famous Unknowns Lindsay Buckland playing his electric dulcimer with guitarist Carlos Vamos I think he has a midi pickup which means any sound bank a keyboard has he can make his dulcimer sound like it.

Bing Futch playing some SICK blues on his electric dulcimer. As well as doing a national anthem hendrix style

Quentin Stephens shredding Halen-style on an electric dulcimer

Insane piece done by Bradley fish on an acoustic Dulcimer with a piezo electric pickup. This piece really shows how much tone you get just from strumming and sliding and how fast you can play. Dude is literally playing with a wooden noter which is like a slide you just move up and down the neck. Check this out above all.

I'm just needing someone to make me a tremolo system for mine. I need to fish around for custom guitar luthiers to machine one. If I pull that off then I can do divebombs and all that good whammy bard stuff on the instrument. For now...I have a pedal for it :)

Thank you for this post, it really made me interested. I personally play around with a banjo, oldschool style. :)
 

shaowebb

Member
Thank you for this post, it really made me interested. I personally play around with a banjo, oldschool style. :)

Oh then you'd probably enjoy some traditional stuff. I'd suggest Bing Futch, Robert Force or Stephen Seifert.
Here's a popular tune amidst traditional players and finger pickers called Wellyn played on the old acoustic. Link
 

Protome

Member
My recommendation for a good cheap starter guitar is either pick up something second hand (most guitar shops have a second hand section with pretty great guitars with steep discounts and they'll be maintained by the shop) or a Fender Starcaster Strat. You can get the latter for <£100 and they're pretty solid started electric guitars.
 

geardo

Member
Just get a standard acoustic guitar or bass and mess around with it until you get comfortable with the feel. Get a chord book and a scale book after that. Keep on going. Take some lessons if you fell like. Don't get caught up with trying to emulate songs and shit.

Anyone can be good at it. It just takes time. I've been playing bass for 15 years now, and I still have forever to go. The barrier to entry is just getting over your own anxiety about it.
 

shaowebb

Member
BTW similar to the dulcimer I mentioned is the "Thai Phin".

Basically its an electric dulcimer from frets to strings (usually 4 string and not 3 like dulcimer), but the body is like a guitar. TONS of electric models exist online.
1TUjbWf.jpg


Here's what it sounds like
Here is what it is played like in modern times in Thailand
Interesting street band

There are tons of stringed instruments that can get a guitar sound. Its all a matter of whether you can cope with learning chromatic or if you want to learn on easy mode and go diatonic like with Dulcimers or Thai Phin. So long as its a hard bodied stringed instrument you can put a pickup on it and make it sound like a guitar...violins, cellos, diddly bos (one string guitars), etc.

Have fun with music folks. Its all in HOW you play it. Not what you learned on.
 
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