Finally got a tuner and my warlock is now officially tuned! Now, the journey, as they say, truly begins.
depending on what you want to start to learn to play, keep in mind alternate tunings. if you want to start playing lead, e-standard tuning is the way to go, but if you want to work on rythm first, drop-d is very useful for progressing, because you get immediate results, thus keeping your morale up. once you're more comfortable, or if you use stronger string gauges for bigger sound, drop-tunings can expand your sonic horizon. i dropped down to d-standard years ago, and never looked back. something about that lower end really makes the guitar vibrate in satisfying ways.
stay away from open-tunings until you're comfortable with standard tuning, else you'll get lost later on. hell, i've been playing in open-c for the past 6 months, and last time i picked up a standard guitar, i felt lost for the first 15 minutes. would be worse for a newbie.
*eyes glaze over* I have a lot to learn, it'd seem, lol.
not really. i'd divide it into two large categories. theoretical and practical. theory encompasses scales and musical theory. that's the boring but ultimately useful bit. practical is playing techniques (hammers, slides, tapping, sweeping...) plus alternate tunings, because even if you need some music theory to understand what you're doing, you can wing it by ear and it eases playing tough things by simplifying fingering.
i could scare you away by saying that standard tuning is a tuning in perfect fourths, with the exception of the g string, who's a perfect third. frankly, it doesn't matter one iota what it theoretically is, but it does matter that practically you know where to put your fingers. hell, it's making your guitar sound correctly that will motivate you to continue, not the theory. theory is very important later on when you're ready to understand it. i'm not a math-head, and i've always struggled with theory. in practice, however, having a near-perfect ear through training i can pull off extremely complicated things. when a violinist or a pianist asks me what was that, i just answer in a yorkshire accent "i 'ave nuh ideuh wot a'm dooin'".
i started playing guitar because of ego. i'm kind of ashamed of it. my oldest friend said that he'd become a great guitarist. having a guitarist dad, i told him i'd be better than him in no time flat. he took solfa lessons, i didn't. i jumped right in. six months later, he could explain what my chord was made of, but couldn't play it. he was disgusted by theory. i had no idea what i was doing besides instinctively knowing it was minor or major (roughly), but i could play some hard licks. i won my bet, but i was hooked to making loud noises. ten years later, i'm barely starting on musical theory because i need it to get better at composing.
the best lesson i can give to a newbie (and i teach guitar), is first and foremost to
have fun. seriously, if you don't enjoy it, you'll quit. go for the easy results, you'll progress faster. the most important thing you can learn for quick results is the e-major barre-chord. once you've got that fingering down, you can litterally play any rock song ever written. i'm not exaggerating, i've tried it, and it works. hell, i'm actively searching for a song that i can't play using that chord fingering. the other finnicky chords (looking at you, c-major) will come later, either through necessity or through practice. but they can be transposed to easier fingerings.
a good guitarist is a lazy guitarist. the one who'll seek out the easiest way to do something hard. but most importantly, a good guitarist is a guitarist who enjoys what he's doing. i know a shredder who beats me flat in speed and theory, but who doesn't enjoy it. what's the point then? bragging rights? you play for yourself first and foremost, not for anyone else.
if you need any counsel and advice, i'm here by pm. feel free to ask, i love helping others discover the joys of playing.
