
Ask HN: How do you learn to play guitar? - nshung
I just started learning to play guitar by watching some guitar lessons from YouTube.<p>If you have done this before, what are the tips and tricks to progress faster? Are there any pitfalls along away that I should avoid?
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riantogo
I’m 3 to 4 months ahead on the YouTube path you have started on. Here are some
tips:

Show up daily. Even if it is only for 5 mins. Which means your Guitar should
be handy. Pick it up every time you pass by it and give it go.

You will be managing three things all at once: Strumming, chords and singing.
It will be an absolute mindfuck for a bit. The name of the game here is muscle
memory. The only way to develop it is with practice. There are no shoutouts.

Most important is to have fun along the way. You don’t want the misery to
break you down. I recommend targeting some fun songs with just 2 chords and
simple strumming. Mine was “Rudolph the red nose reindeer”. The timing will
work for you as well given that we are in Oct.

Once you develop the muscle memory it starts getting fun. But you have to
persist.

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nshung
My strategy right now is not to learn the next chord until I master the
ones(A, E and D) which I am currently learning. Master here means to be able
to play those thress chords each and move between them effortlessly. Seems
like this will take some times.

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russianator
After taking lessons I just played along to tapes of my favourite artists.

I would also recommend learning tablature.

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codegladiator
Pitfall is trying to get into tips and tricks to progress faster.

Go slow and steady, practice daily. Follow justin guitar or pebber brown, sit
back and practice over and over again.

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nshung
Justin Guitar seems like a great resource. Thanks for sharing!

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jimmyvalmer
Yeah, that dude has created something special on the internet. The sheer
number of hours on camera as well as his print materials blows my mind. He
also appears to be the nicest person on the planet.

It's an odd thing giving advice from the perch of mastery. Justin emphasizes
the "key" is transcribing songs. Similarly, as a go/baduk acolyte, I'm told by
dan players to study tesuji, but most of my practice is playing actual games,
just as it is playing actual songs.

Masters fall into the trap of thinking well, what would __I __do to get
better? Because of their own preternatural talent and a 360 view of the
discipline, they don 't quite see that the less talented, casual learner needs
practice to be a non-chore to stay motivated.

