Learning Guitar Songs - The Adventures Of An Ambitious No Hoper Part 1 of 3
Many people starting to learn the guitar are doing so because of they have been inspired by some of the greatest rock stars of all time. A misspent youth listening to guitar gods such as Angus Young, Slash, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Gilmour, Gary Moore, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, BB King, etc makes you wonder what it would really feel like to stand on stage in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans as you wail away, lost in the moment.
Next, you probably think "Well, I won't get to play any big stadiums, but it would be nice to just learn some guitar songs to play at home". But where do you start. If you're interested in playing electric guitar, that's fine but they can be horrifically expensive. When I was younger, my bedroom wall was always covered in posters of my guitar heroes and I was thrilled when I finally plucked up the courage to buy my first electric guitar. I had long coveted Angus Young's Gibson SG and so obviously my heart sank when, as a naïve sixteen year-old, I visited the music store and saw how expensive it was.
I think I had just watched the school 'battle of the bands' contest and was impressed by the female attention the winning guitarist was getting! So, unable to afford my beloved SG, and with eager anticipation, I headed home with my freshly purchased, slightly used $50 Les Paul copy and book of AC/DC songs to start learning. I didn't even have an amp - I just plugged it into my hi-fi and got on with it. I needed to learn guitar fast!
Parental tolerance of my new hobby proved to be something of a sticking point. While totally supportive of my desire to learn a musical instrument (my father is a very accomplished jazz and blues pianist), the sound of me spending hours every day trying to learn the solo from Highway to Hell was driving them to distraction. Obviously, as an aspiring rock god, I wasn't about to concern myself with the boring stuff - I was straight into the difficult stuff - and on my way to global acclaim!
I continued to annoy my parents by never managing to learn any song in its entirety. I could learn bits of a solo out of time and I could play a few repetitive chord sequences and that was about it. I was a typical arrogant teenager - lots of enthusiasm and absolutely no idea how to make the most of it.
But I was happy. Locked in my room, playing the little snippets of songs I had learnt, I was in another world and it felt good. I bought more books, eager to learn more new songs - Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Clapton - gradually I was beginning to increase my repertoire of poorly played but life-affirming riffs and licks.
Already I felt I had progressed enough to warrant a slightly sexier axe. My cheap starter guitar had done me proud but it was a bit tatty and I needed to start looking the part. I couldn't let any girls see me playing such a feeble object so back I went to the music store and came home with a shiny new Aria Pro in a snazzy shade of electric blue and my first proper amp - 10 watts of audio dynamite!
I was now ready to enter the next phase of my education.
About the Author
'How To Learn Guitar Songs - The Journey Of An Ambitious No Hoper' is written by Simon Turner - an aspiring rock god, who eventually succumbed to reality and instead became a marketing consultant, and who did learn to play in the end, with the help of some gifted and patient friends, and some proper lessons. http://www.howtolearnguitarsongs.com
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