@ People who play guitar ( Well ).

Ive had an acoustic guitar for around 3 years now. I got it as a christmas gift around the last time i decided i wanted to learn how to play. Time caught up with me, i got busy and sorta lost interest without ever really picking it up.

Im at a fairly bad spot in life right now and im looking for something to poor myself into and i figured learning guitar was as good a thing as any.

So, here i am.

I dont really want to take classes and be taught how to play guitar the way someone else plays guitar. On top of that i really cant afford classes and if i didnt already have a guitar we wouldnt even be having this discussion ( since i couldnt afford a guitar either ).

Ultimately im trying to figure out how hard it would be to teach myself to play.

I would obviously need to learn how to keep it in tune either via a tuner or some other method and i guess i'll have to learn how to read music as well. Tabs didnt look that intimidating at first glance and i understood the structure even without playing them.

Any advice for a guy wanting to learn on his own would be appreciated.

All you can do is put time into it if you're going to teach yourself. If you know how to read tabs then reading music isn't neccessary if you're just learning for you.

go to Ultimate-guitar.com

they have lessons and a good load of tabs, once you learned how to read tabs use the 911tabs.com search its awesome.But Ultimate-Guitar has a few good lessons on the basics and how to tune a guitar and stuff like that.But its kinda hit and miss but you do find a good lesson.

I only took 4 or 5 lessons to get the basics of the basics down and learned the rest from friends and in a way because of that imo i have developed my own style of playing and doing things :P

I was assuming i would just get everything tuned and play tabs of songs i have listened to until i start playing them how they are suppose to sound. Learning by ear i guess.

I just didnt want to learn the wrong way and then be forever handicapped after i got decent.

Find a good chord chart online and learn all the chords. You could also just find some tabs online to your favorite songs and learn those. Once you get used to playing and your hands and fingers are conditioned then the world is your oyster;)

Well you should start by learning chords and strumming a few songs, just to get some basic rhythm. Then find some songs you like with some riffs you'd like to practice and, well, play! Of course it'll sound like crap at first, but you eventually get the hang of it. Personally, I doesn't matter how many riffs I've mastered before: whenever I try a new one, I can't get it straight away.

I never really bothered to read sheet music, since most of what you find on the internet is either in tabs or chords, but it can be interesting since it gives you the rhythm, not just the notes.

Tuning is fairly easy, you can find electric tuners for pretty cheap. They're very simple to use, standard tuning is EADGBE, starting from the lowest (biggest) string.

I really wouldn't bother with lessons if you have a good ear. Lessons can be discouraging, practicing songs you like is much more motivating! :)

Also, I second razgriz_101: Ultimate-Guitar.com is awesome. If you can't find the song you want there, try 911tabs.com.

There are some pretty good online tutorials and lessons.

Ive had an acoustic guitar for around 3 years now. I got it as a christmas gift around the last time i decided i wanted to learn how to play. Time caught up with me, i got busy and sorta lost interest without ever really picking it up.

Im at a fairly bad spot in life right now and im looking for something to poor myself into and i figured learning guitar was as good a thing as any.

So, here i am.

I dont really want to take classes and be taught how to play guitar the way someone else plays guitar. On top of that i really cant afford classes and if i didnt already have a guitar we wouldnt even be having this discussion ( since i couldnt afford a guitar either ).

Ultimately im trying to figure out how hard it would be to teach myself to play.

I would obviously need to learn how to keep it in tune either via a tuner or some other method and i guess i'll have to learn how to read music as well. Tabs didnt look that intimidating at first glance and i understood the structure even without playing them.

Any advice for a guy wanting to learn on his own would be appreciated.