Just Wondering

[UltraKolby]

Well, I've been playing guitar for about a year and a half but I started to get serious about a half year ago. So I'm just wondering how long did it take you guys/girls to learn how to play the guitar because everytime I play, it still frustrates me sooo much. So just wondering how did it take you guitar players to learn how to play the guitar? Please and thank you!!

[Jeremy Kill]

I can't really remember how long it took me to start to get better at guitar or what the process was like. When I first picked it up, I hardly played for the first six months to a year because I couldn't play anything besides a shit Seven Nation Army riff and Brain Stew. I thought I would never be able to double-pick or play the intro to Master of Puppets (I was really ambitious and tried learning Master of Puppets and The Bitter End when I first started playing).

Long story short, it all depends on what songs you learn and how often you practice. All my skill came from playing other people's songs and watching videos on YouTube. I had been playing guitar for a year when I learned my first Sum 41 songs Motivation and Still Waiting. Took me about a week to learn them both, playing the songs a couple hours every day.

[Name]

When i started seriously playing this recent July, i was horrible and i was never learning much, my father gave me books and lessons but i never got any better. I think you need to find a method you find easiest to play guitar with. I started learning easy Sum 41 songs(i managed to learn With Me in a few days) and mostly punk rock and occasionally an easy Metal song (rhythm for For Whom the Bell Tolls) and after a few weeks i would VERY slowly go higher in terms of difficulty with songs (i'm at songs like Still Waiting, London Calling etc.) i'm not saying i'm GREAT but i'm nowhere near as bad as i used to be. I would try getting situated with the guitar with easy songs and when i improved i took on scales and chords and it seemed much easier then it did months ago.

Currently, I practice chords for half an hour then scales for a half an hour and if i'm not busy i work on playing songs for maybe 2 or 3 hours.
It just takes a lot of practice to get really good which is why i do so for hours per day, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

[silverdolphin]

It took me more than 2 years to be able to play songs like Still Waiting.
When I first started guitar, I learned easy acoustic songs. When I bought my electric guitar I started to learn harder songs, scales & music theory.
The most important thing is to be patient.
Try practicing songs half an hour a day, technique an hour a day. It depends on how much free time you have. I'd be practicing right now if I didn't have to study for a test :(
Good luck playing guitar :)

[Mitchell]

I highly recommend starting out with an acoustic guitar, it helps you get more strength in your fingers..
Songs like so long goodbye are good ones to start with.. that's the easiest song I've ever played..

It all went pretty fast after I managed to play power chords, I was struggling with those powerchords for the first month of playing guitar.. but one day(out of the blue) I was able to play powerchords which helped me alot in playing songs like The hell song..

besides that I suggest just practicing, I sometimes practiced 6 hours a day.

[182sins]

I can't remember exactly, what I remember is that I started with pieces, and I was pretty bad at it, and one day I played it naturally. I think there's no real time to learn. I now I can play almost anything if I really want to (it took me like 1 day to play the Hell Song solo). Dunno for you, but it took me almost two years to start playing what I had in mind, so I'm pretty sure it's ok for you, just be patient !

[Madjid]

I was born with a guitar in my hand.

[Emil]

I've played for about 5 years and i'm doing okay, but i still haven't bothered how to learn to palm mute properly.

[lisaNL]

I've been playing for 2 years and I still suck

[Heather]

My mom use to play, so its always been around my house, my hands just weren't big enough for the longest time. Finally got my own acoustic like 4 years ago, learned Av's Nobody's Home and Knockn On Heavens Door. I kinda stopped playing my first year in college, cause frankly I didn't have time for it. Picked it back up late 2007 by learning more Av acoustics and writing my own, then learned the Sum41 acoustics from UH. Got an electic in 08 and learned some Ramones and Sum41 rhythm. I suck at melodies for guitar cause my fingers just aren't use to it yet, I'm more of a stummer, but I have dabbled in it. I started writing my own acoustic stuff a lot more at this point and using the electric for covers.

I have majorly picked it up since September by basically just messing around and seeing what sounds right. I use the capo A LOT.
like it's been said, just play every day, I've done that since September and have learned more in that time than I did the first 3 years.

[UltraKolby]

Thank you everyone!!! I really appreciate all the good advice and encouragement!!