Best way to learn guitar
 

I bought an acoustic guitar this spring and learned a few chords via the guitar for dummies book then summer came along and the unspeakable happened... I put it down.

Where do I go now? Private lessons? Online route? This is something I would like to do with my 5 year old son who has his own guitar.

Apple's Garage Band has a good series of starter lessons. I don't if there is a non-Mac version available though.

I will look into that. I did play with it for bit a few months ago when I bought a new iPad.

Take a look at Truefire, there's plenty there to keep to keep you busy. The hard part is committing to practice, more practice and more practice. I'm finding guitar time will have to take over TV time. I'd also recommend a good playing and well setup guitar.

What guitar did you buy?
Was there another thread here on what to look for while purchasing a guitar?
Something that is on my list of things to do...
Any opinions on what guitar would be easiest to play for a beginner?
Sorry for the hijack.....

I bought an Art and Lutherie cedar Dreadnaught in blue which is nla. It is made in Canada out of mostly Canadian woods. It was a grad gift and had been played twice so I got a screaming deal on it. It is pretty similar to a seagull s7 and made by the same company.

It might not be a bad idea to get the guitar checked out and have it set up properly. Have some friends play it, see what they think. If it plays like a dog, then take it to a repairman and get it set up as good as it can be set up. It might already be set up fine, or as good as that guitar ever will be. Also- get your 5 year old's guitar checked out. Make sure it can stay in tune, etc.- for example, my dad gave my daughter a guitar which cannot stay in tune and all the frets are cut in the wrong place. It was a thoughtful gift. It is worthless as a musical instrument, but she likes to make noise on it, so what the heck- however, I would like to get her a guitar that can at least stay in tune, and where I can tune it to open chords (open d, open g, modal tunings) where all she would have to do it strum and it would sound good.

With my daughter (3 years old), she really likes certain kids songs. We also take her to a childrens music class where all the kids sing, and they give us CD's of children's music which she listens to in the car alot. When we are at home, I will pick out some of the tunes (wheels on the bus, abcd song, etc) and we have a blast. My wife, not so much.
I play a *****en rendition of twinkle twinkle little star btw....

Anyway, the point is to find the music you enjoy listening/ participating in together, and let that be your guide in determining where to go next in your education. The good news is my daughter enjoys the musical aspect of it- not the guitar riffs, tone, and intonation stuff I listen for- which makes it easy for me to just crank out some basic chords and we both have fun.

Let the music you/ both of you like be your guide.

This is all you need.

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This will sound harsh, but I've never met a single person who has ended up actually learning any guitar when they tried to double it as a fun babysitting parenting activity.
Did you learn to work on cars while your 5 year old worked on a second car?

Learning a musical instrument is one of the most challenging mental and physical endeavors you will ever attempt.
You want to learn guitar? Hire a babysitter for your 5 year old. That is the first thing you need to understand.

I thought about this after I posted. I agree.

True. I used to play a lot. Then I had kids.

This.

Pick an easy song you like and go to Guitar Tabs With Rhythm | Songsterr to learn it. While you always have to put in the hours with rudiments, you'll only stick with it if you learn music that makes you want to practice.

There is pretty much something for everyone here:
Homespun Tapes
The DVD's available have multiple camera angles, slow speed descriptions and complimentary sheet music or tablature (fretboard diagrams).
Choose which style you like and go from there.
-C

Lots of good suggestions. Trying to learn guitar along with a 5 y.o. will be an exercise in futility. At that age they just don't have the attention and focus.

That said, Justin Guitar has a great beginners course, all free, with videos to help you along. Give it a try. Justin Guitar | Free Guitar Lessons

I've been sort of playing the guitar for over 30 years. Just never clicked with me. Check out the software called Rocksmith. I have learned more with that than I have any other way. You'll need an electric guitar, but you can buy a decent cheap one plus the software for what you'll spend on private lessons in a month or two.

Best way to learn is to dive deep by buying up a huge rig and then forcing yourself to justify it. I'm selling these if interested:).

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This is what I've been telling myself. Says the guy with 2 very nice guitars and 2 low wattage boutique amps whose playing leaves a lot to be desired. Not to mention I've been looking for more.

I will say that I have shown more interest than ever and believe I'm on the verge of really being a serious student, it's something I've always wanted to be.

For the basics you can get a decent start on Youtube. MartyZSongs and YourGuitarSage are two channels that do a lot of basic songs and instruction. Justinguitar as mentioned above is also good. The websites will generally have some beginner lessons for free and then you start having to pay for access. If you just want to strum some chords those are good resources. I haven't joined any of the websites but I would think they have good material and they don't seem to cost too much.

If you want to get into soloing and such then I would learn the pentatonic scales with the blues notes. Important thing is to put some time into it daily. Shoot for 30 minutes a day but if you can't fit it in even 10 minutes of running scales is better than nothing.

I've suffered from the same issue, getting started and then putting it down for several months. It's devastating to your skills.

You should play a minimum of one hour per day, every day, no exceptions. That's the bare minimum it will take to get anywhere at all. Better yet is a few hours a day and, if you're a tv watcher, always have a guitar by the couch to plink on while watching tv. One you get good, you can maintain your chops with one hour a day, but you won't progress with less than two hours per day. I have a gig tonight, I've been playing all these songs for 20-25 yrs. and I still feel totally unprepared because I only played about 10-12 hours in the last week.