How I Taught Myself Guitar; What NOT To Do 

The hardest part of learning guitar is getting used to sounding like garbage.

One of my favourite quotes is “practice for 5 minutes then PLAY for 1 hour” and I live by that!

My advice, especially the teenagers... "Go for it!!" Don't be shy, don't let others knock you down and take unconstructive criticism with an "F'em" attitude. It's ok to make mistakes, it's ok to suck, it's ok to be a beginner. Keep practicing, keep playing and just go for it. Let your inspiration run wild.

Timestamps: 2:02 Instrument ready to play 3:54 On use of tabs 7:38 Vibrato and bending 11:35 Learn you some music theory 13:42 Set goals (somewhat based on post by Air conditioning unit) You're welcome

Ad: Want to learn guitar? Wait don't click ski- Me: Skip

"leave your guitar out" me being extremely lazy: way ahead of you😏

Self taught for over 20 years, a lot of what is mentioned here is rock solid advice. I will add my own for those who care. Those who sort by "new" I love you. : ) I began with trash gear and getting ripped off as a kid, took a long time to learn my way around things. Tabs were a godsend, especially once I learned that you actually have a tuning! I trusted my ear and used (and still use) tabs as a great framework and let my ear do the rest. The hardest part was direction. What, when and how should I learn? Good habits and good technique aren't things you know if you are doing until much later down the line. A video or seven might really set you up well, but without a buddy or teacher it can feel a bit weird. If you have a chance to jam with friends, always take it, I've rarely had a bad time and I knew my limits were pretty easy to achieve. Absolutely positively use every tool at your disposal like RU-vid, tabs, whatever you stumble across if it's something you're serious about. There's no real "right" way to learn, and self teaching introduces you to all the hard parts faster, I believe. You find the parts that come naturally and the ones that stump you every time. Those are the ones that should be babied in the beginning but really hammered on as you genuinely progress. I had a penchant for things like pinch harmonics and triplets. I really struggled with getting my pinky involved and accurate picking in the early years. I got to a point where that had to be adjusted and focused on that exclusively. As for your gear: sometimes you gotta piss with the cock you got. I did for a looooong time, and you will feel like a new amp, guitar or pedal is what you need. In the early stages it absolutely likely isn't so. It might prevent you from a sound you want i.e. a Floyd Rose on an axe or maybe some delay from a pedal, but it becomes very easy to think a new sound will fix or change you. It gives a lot of inspiration but a month later you'll be in the same rut. I hid behind distortion for YEARS until I stuck with acoustic for an extended period. Then I got a tube amp which is unforgiving for mistakes, ditto delay. That screw up will replay until that delay fades out, baby. As you progress you will begin to know without a doubt what it is you want, then you'll reach the plateau of "gear queer" where you will want all the shiney's. It happens to all of us, inevitably. Play with your knobs and tunings and find how you can get a sound you enjoy with what you have. Theory, learning your roots and chords will pay dividends as you progress. You'll hear a dude talk about some weird "Dsus7b add3# extra cheese" or whatever and when that makes sense, you're really ahead of us in the game. That's where I am, 20 years later. Don't follow my footsteps and you'll be better. The ever so cliché, have fun. If it isn't fun, you'll quit. You're going to suck when you start. Those exciting moments of "I got it!" are key, even if they suck. If you mean it, you'll get over the learning hump quicker than you think. We all sucked in the beginning and played "smoke on the water" on one string. We all hated it. Our fingers hurt and always hit a wall where we wanted to quit. It passes, it gets easier and sometimes a fat break helps. A new tuning, a different location, whatever. I've got some faith. If I can learn, I promise you can. I went almost two years before I knew how to tune a guitar.

I agree/disagree with tab. If you trust people to pick things up by ear they might not ever get started and give up. Learning that first song or even first thing that sounds like something can be addictive

1. Don’t keep your guitar in your case. Leave it in the open. Adds motivation 2. Don’t use tabs. Use your ear. 3. Practice bends and vibrato 4. Don’t skip music theory 5. Set goals and milestones

Here is a little challenge for beginners, try to play "happy birthday" song without looking it up online on how to play it just try to figure it out by yourself by experminating on your guitar, if you manage to do it...then think about it what else can you play? I know this sound silly but this will train your brain, ears and your left hand fingers on how to start playing songs by just listening to them.

I’ve been teaching guitar for many years, and I’m also self taught, and I agree with every single point you made. I would only add that as a beginner, one shouldn’t force oneself to practice, there is such a thing as bad practice.

*leaves guitar open* my cats : “ make sure you pass the tickets to our neighbors .. we’re gonna rockk tonightttt”

Best quote: "plus, guitars are COOL. Why wouldn't you wanna have one in your room" That's gold

Learning by ear is so hard when songs have pedal effects.

1. Leave guitar out to play - you practice more and want to play it. Also guitars look sick. 2. Don’t rely on guitar tabs - use your ears. 3. Use RU-vid to your advantage - watch great artists to find the emotion and story around what they are playing. 4. Practice your bends and vibrato. 5. Don’t skip over music theory - major scales, notes of fretboard, triads, and caged system. 6. Set goals and milestones.

This is fantastic advice. Practice is everything. I’ve spent the past 3ish years just trying to get better by learning songs and solos. In this I’ve completely neglected my technique. I’m now focusing on a rigorous practice routine, focusing on speed, dexterity, and overall cleanliness, and rewarding myself with playing songs afterwards. It’s made learning easier, and playing much more sarisfying

him: "don‘t skip music theory" the ad under the video: "skip guitar theory - do THIS instead"

Dont obsess over learning the guitar. Play something you love on it and the rest follow

Rhett I've been playing over 50 years and I love listening to you because you know what you are talking about. Thank you for all of the great advice.

I'm 59 and started playing in '76. There wasn't much tab in the 70s at all and it was mostly wrong. Everyone learned songs by ear. We wore out LPs and tapes trying to figure out stuff. One way we developed the skill for figuring out songs was to play along with the radio. You had 3 minutes to figure it out and then you were off to the next song. After a while you get pretty good at it. Now we have all of these great tools at our disposal, RU-vid, Spotify, PCs, lots of tabs, etc. I still try to learn songs by ear first, tab second, RU-vid third, if I'm having a hard time. Also, play with other people. This is very important. Another trick is to play a note and then sing it while playing it. Provides major reinforcement.

"Try that bend on your first finger" *acoustic players start crying*

When learning how to play, don't get overwhelmed(take one lesson at a time), and don't let peers pressure you into thinking you have to be a natural Hendrix right out of the starting gate.

These are all great tips for someone who is starting out incredibly dedicated to the craft of learning guitar. But I taught guitar for many years (also after many years of being self taught), and the biggest hurdle for most starting guitar players is managing that commitment. Keeping the guitar out is a great nod to this, but some of this advice is actually terrible for that. The biggest one is, beginners should ABSOLUTELY use tabs if it helps them learn a song that they'll WANT to practice. Most people starting out wont have the ears to just "pick stuff up", so when you reinforce the idea that that's something beginners SHOULD be able to do, then when someone can't it immediately sends the message "well I guess I'm not talented enough/good enough/musical enough to play guitar", and 9 times out of 10 they quit. To any beginners, THAT'S NOT TRUE. If you can't learn your current favourite song by just listening and plucking around, OF FUCKING COURSE YOU CANT. Get a tab, get a friend who kinda knows it, watch youtube (which rhett does suggest). Do whatever it takes to learn the thing that you'll ENJOY practicing. Should you also try plucking things out by ear? Of course! And as you develop your ears and that skill you'll likely find it super rewarding and may end up writing some tab corrections yourself! But the messaging that if you don't do that you're learning guitar wrong is terrible. Also, forget about theory and vibrato when you're starting. I learned theory 2-3 years into playing and tbh, it was perfect timing. I understood enough about playing that the theory mapped onto the guitar in a way that had so many "oooooh, that's why" moments and made learning it really rewarding. I'm not arguing the relevance and benefits of working on vibrato and theory, rather saying, if you're here trying to get tips on how to get started out teaching yourself guitar, those things are not where you start.

I tried playing with my ear, but found it much easier to use my hands.

1. Pick a genre 2. Study that genre 3. Practice guitar concepts of that genre.

My problem is I can't put my guitar down, lol. I've been practicing for 4 months, and I'm always happy. Love y'all.

another of the best videos you have ever produced! I have been playing guitar for a lot of years, and I benefited from this. Not only good for beginners, but a good reminder for all of us! Keep up the great work!

This is some of the best advice i have heard on RU-vid. My dad is a musician and he has been playing since he was 18, he is now 52 and he learned by ear. Learning by ear is the best way you can possibly learn guitar, because you can understand your instrument alot better if you learn it, instead of looking up tabs and just looking at sheet music. So thank you for giving out this advice.

Scales are important; so are arpeggios. Arpeggios, combined with "short" scale phrases, are extremely useful for introducing variety into your playing.

practicing guitar standing up is also really helpful

14:59 Learning what fingers should go where and not getting into a bad finger placing habits was something I struggled with early on. I would use my index and pinky alone to create a 3 string power chord, not realizing it would hurt me down the road when it came to making more complicated chord shapes or even making power chords sound more clean, etc.

New fan, 65yo beginner, and you hit the nail on the head right out of the box. Leave your guitar out and visible!!! I could NOT agree more. This one thing has made a huge difference for me. I still suck due to physical limitations but, I have learned so much. Because of people like you, I pick up my guitar several times a day and learn something new. Thanks Rhett

being 74 and just starting out and knowing nothing, just got my Epiphone Limited Edition Peter Frampton Les Paul Custom PRO Electric Guitar today and that has given me the wanting to succeed, where would you have me to start, plus want to read music, was listening to Peter Frampton and it's the first time of hearing a guitar axially sing, couldn't believe my ears, not a word was sung all guitar, Wow, how sweet it was, that's my inspiration, in 30 years or so, Lol well head me off in the right direction, take care, have fun and be happy, George

Hey I’m 14 and I’m teaching myself with tabs too! And I’m sitting on my bed with my guitar on my lap!

been a teacher on and off for twenty years, and this is the best advice i've seen in one place. well thought out and well put.

Rhett going back to these older vidios you've done is NEVER a disappointment! You are a master for the ages, this sh-t is timeless, and so point on. I came in the back door, (so to speak) got interested in playing building guitars for my kids! You and Billy Sheehan have been my motivators. Yes, I know, two totally different styles, but both class acts as motivators and teachers

I can confirm that having your guitar on the wall or on a stand will make you play more. I have mine on the wall by my bed and whenever I can't sleep I pick it up and play something, it doesn't matter if it's 2am and I have school the next day or if I'm just going to bed and have a lot of energy.

Concentrate on playing accurately, in time. Not necessarily with a metronome, but tapping out steady time. If a part hangs you up, slow down the whole piece/part/line until you can play it smoothly. Playing smoothly, without anxiety about weather you have “enough time” to make a change, play a line, etc. allows you to work up tempo while concentrating on accuracy. Practice makes permanent, not perfect. Practicing a part accurately builds muscle memory, which then allows you to play forget about form (because it’s already locked into your hands), and work on expression.

I’ve been teaching myself how to play guitar, I began in may this year, and I finally, FINALLY, learnt how to do barre chords. I’m still rusty on transitioning in and out of those chords but I CAN do them :)

Very well articulated. Hard to find a guitarist that can verbalize what he's doing as well. I've been looking for awhile. You hit the high note! 🎶 Thanx.

I wish I could have heard this when in was 21. I'm 68 now. Between You and Rick Beato I've learned more about music in the last year than I've ever had.

I just started teaching myself to play guitar and I must say it's really overwhelming and hard... but watching your videos for beginners really do give me a good feeling I can achieve it and also kind of take away the fear. Thanks, Rhett !

Thank you for this video Rhett. Few instructors put out videos on this subject but you were inventive enough to come up with something this unique. I look forward to your further videos as I'm a big fan.

Love this list! I only wish I started bends and vibrato earlier in my playing journey. Also, I remember the confidence I got after admitting to myself that tabs are often wrong and my ear was often right! Train your ear! Trust your ear!!

Once you have learnt one instrument, regardless of how related they are, it's a lot easier to learn another. I'm an alto saxophonist and learning guitar is going a lot quicker than my first instrument. Learning also gets a lot smoother (not necessarily quicker but a lot less laborious) the further you get with any instrument.

that first tip is such a good one, I literally just pick up my guitar all the time and play it even for just a few minutes

I like this video! I’m just learning and these are solid pieces of advice that i haven’t heard anywhere specifically.

Thank you for this! I liked that you included music definitions and samples! Your style sounds amazing!

This video helped me a ton. When you start off with the guitar, you should start where you feel most comfortable. People can’t tell you what to do, they can only tell you what’s best. I’ve been playing the guitar for less than a month now (3 weeks and 5 days). Some things I did for myself was making goals for myself, watching RU-vid to help me, and having fun. NEVER feel like your pressured to learn it quick because somebody told you that they did. I learned some chords, learned a few string songs, and just kinda did my own thing. Just by doing what made me comfortable is what made me into a not so bad guitar player. It doesn’t matter how long you practice for each day, it’s about if your having fun and learning new things while your practicing :) hope this helped anybody who is having a hard time with guitar or just wanted some inspiration.

in 86 when I started learning I tried to pick out notes on songs. found a note and everytime it was played I would play it... next time, would add another note, soon I was hitting 7-8 notes in row.. then like you said, find out what that note was then I would write them down, and learn it.... later when I was in Music Theory class in College I went back to my "notebook" and figured out what scale they were in. really helped in leaning what was where.... and always did finger exercises... 1,2,3,4 then skip a string and play 4,3,2,1 so on.. then would skip fingers and strings 1,3 next string 2,4 and so on.then move up one fret and do the same thing. Training my fingers to go places I wanted them to. Great Vid Rhett, will be checking out your live stream for sure. Cheers from Montana

The point of always having your guitar, stand-in-front was spot on. Accessibility is crucial, right on man!

8:01 gollyyyyy. Brought a tear to ny eyes 😩

Shoutout to all my beginners for guitar we got this keep goinggg❤️

Been learning in quarantine n the best thing that's keeping me motivated is having one of my friends giving me tips and sending videos of him playing too, as well as looking at tutorials on RU-vid and playing in front of my family, its nice to see them smile even in these hard times

Thanks for all guidance. Highly appreciated.

So far, I've watched 3 or 4 of your videos. I keep watching because I've found great advice in all of them. It's basically your "lessons learned" or "nuggets of wisdom" that I really need at this stage of my guitar playing.

Agree: learning "by ear" has served me well over for almost 50 years, now. Learning The Beatles catalog was my building-blocks for future song learning.

I had 5 bass lessons when I was 17. That taught me scales and fingering and memorising every note on the neck. I taught myself guitar from there aged 30. That was 30 years ago. I'm retired, ownm 20+ guitars and write and record in my music room. It puts joy, absolute pleasure at the centre of my life. The biggest problem is not knowing what you dont know, and therefore not looking for ways to learn them. My one tip that isn't covered often is this. Get recordings of the songs and solos you really love, that's why you became a guitarist in the first place. Put them into software that slows down and speds up and learn the bits that make you feel great. First slow down as much as possible to get the chops, then speed up a bit at a time until you reach normal.THEN play the recording faster, about 110% is good. Then when you play at normal speed it will be easy.

i wanna say that the leaving your guitar on display at all times really works. i fell out of playing my electric because i was super unmotivated (due to lack of progress for a lot of reasons) but when i got that stand and left it out-it was like a whole new world for me. the guitar itself is just beautiful so i loved to look at it, but it _made_ me pick it up because i was able to admire it everytime i walked in the room.

This video helped me understand a few different aspects I didn’t keep in mind for teaching myself how to play, originally I had a friend willing to teach me then I got my guitar and amp and everything else I needed to start learning and he told me to resort to youtube videos so here I am now on your channel adding your channel to my subs I watch and most likely will be watching your videos everyday Thank you very much for your supportive words 🤘🏾🎸😎🙏🏾

Learn a bit of piano at the same time. When you see a chord or scale on the piano it makes more sense straight away with keyboard layout than a guitar fretboard which shall we say is not so linear.

Additional tip: Get your guitar set up by a professional luthier. I always thought that was for "good" guitar players of which I certainly am not one. After 10 years of being stuck in the beginner stage, I've recently decided I'm going to follow an online course from the very beginning and stick to it. While learning scales, my cheap guitar's high action was becoming very frustrating so I decided to take it to a small guitar shop for a professional setup. WOW, for $49 I feel like I now own a much higher end guitar. And the dude spent so much time explaining guitar stuff to me. I have so much more confidence now when I practice. I can't believe I didn't do that 10 years ago.

As an older beginner i would like to applaud you very helpful and informative video, ive learned a lot just from this video. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks much Rhett. Enjoyed your presentation and now sharing. 🙏🌷

I still remember trying to learn the Skyrim theme on guitar by ear, another classmate learnt from tabs and would complain that how i did it was wrong. Learning by ear is fun, even if you aren't fully replicating what you're hearing. don't let perfectionists and elitists ruin your fun.

Learning guitar inside now is a real help given how we are in this uncertain times. Grateful to see you giving experience and advice on this

Wow, having my morning breakfast and so glad I came across your video ❤️❤️it's lifted my mood as a beginner Thank you 💥

I am 17 and I just got a guitar yesterday which I plan to teach myself how to play. Thank you for this video! I learned a lot.

After playing bass for several decades, Im learning guitar and having a blast. As for tips, using a metronome is valuable. Also being able to use RU-vid to slow down the clips helps me a lot. Thanks Rhett.

There’s a part in Jamie’s Cryin’ by Van Halen where the end of the chorus jumps into a C Minor chord for the bridge and my fingers just would not land on the C Minor properly, but I persisted until it became second nature. And I still practice tedious shit like that to this day.

All great advice! One thing that has changed thing for the better for me, is practicing those scales as a warmup and for the first 10 minutes-using a metronome.

Very useful info looking forward to trying it all out thanks

I've been playing nearly for 2 years, I genuinely can't put it down anymore it's always in my sight, I just sit and play all day. Ive tried most genres, rock, metal, shred, blues but I feel like shred/rock is where I'm going most often. I like playing fast I'm obviously not the best, but I enjoy it! I'm completely self taught and now I'm teaching myself theory

Rhett, I agree wholeheartedly about using your ears to figure out the music in a song. I grew up in the 60s I’d never even heard of tabs. I’m 67 now and started playing and singing when I was 12. I ordered my first guitar from Sears. We lived out in the country were there wasn’t much else to do but spin vinyl and play my guitar at night. Learning that way was really hard at first, but finally my ears got smarter and it’s benefited me greatly over the years!

4 months into guitar, and I’ve started learning triads, scales, and arpeggios recently. Between those and learning some theory, for example what makes a minor triad, my major and minor pentatonic scale degrees not just the shapes, and how to put together chord progressions while using the scales to lead into each chord, have made me feel better about not actually learning other peoples songs, but still feel like I’m progressing.

One of the best I have seen for beginners!

Damn, this so cool. I was a garage band kind of guy for many years- 72 years old so lots of history for me. Learning songs from Vinyl and no tuners was how we did it.

Jam with people that are farther along than yourself. You can possibly learn months of different things in a much shorter time frame.

I thank you for this Rhett! I'll try my best to actually implement them into my playing!

Finally found an experienced guitarist who's honest and truly teaches the audience what main factors lead to success when playing the guitar, thank you sir.

How dafuq do you people learn songs by ear i would never be able to hear an exact note from listening are my ears just broke or somethin

Good video Rhett. I’ve been paying for 20 years now, and lead playing has definitely been neglected in that time. I’d not thought about vibrato before, but will be focussing on that. My tip: put on an album you enjoy and learn every song by ear/play along. It’s helped me a few times to get into the mindset of those players, and crucially it’s fun, so keeps you playing.

really like the sound of your guitar when presenting the triads. Thanks for another great video!

Great advice Rhett! Thanks so much for making great content for us!

"try to play by ear" well, i've been playing the guitar for 3 years and i'm so bad at playing by ear...

Me not knowing what bend pitches or vibratos are 👁👄👁

Man my history with my guitar will just like yours , i also started self learning when i was 13 , now i'm 15 and i still a beginner just like how i started , thx sooo much i was in a huge need for this

Just need to mention that your entire setup is very very impressive. Your mic is very crisp and the video aesthetics are so nice

Rhett, thank for this. Times a tight financially and being an “old guy”, time is at a premium. And I live OTP on the south side. Love to come hear you play sometime. Take care

I wasn't self taught. I had formal lessons that my parents paid for, god bless them. But.... I did have to learn alot of things by my self. Eventually everyone reaches the point where any further education will be self taught. The two bands that I basically learned how to play on were: Van Halen, and Metallica. No it's probably not the easiest for someone who is litterally a beginner, but you learn so much from those two. Or pick a band that you love and buy a TAB BOOK of one of their albums. Then just listen to the song and follow along in the tab. That will get you half of the way to being a pro. The rest of the way comes from really digging into music theory and watching youtube videos. Most importantly, never stop being passionate!

Very interesting delivery. Explained very well.

About to start learning....your videos are a huge help!! Thanks!

I've been playing piano for around 6 yrs (I'm 17yrs old) and this would be my 6th day learning electric guitar. I'm atm discovering riffs for different songs i love, working on my spider walk, and a routine down picking with a metronome that goes 70-95 beats per min. For practice. It has been amazing in the past few days and also surprising. I set my hands on an acoustic a few yrs ago and said no to it. As a classical pianist, In the past days, I still can't believe what my fingers can do with strings. The strings are a whole new world from keys and I'm all here for it!

When I learned to play there wasn’t even tabs online, you had to learn everything by ear and occasionally get some tabs from music shops, RU-vid is a wonderful helper but you still need to learn to use your ear when you can

Thanks for this guide!!

Man....I love your channel. Such helpful info!

Yep - leaving mine out has been huge in getting me to just pick it up. Then picking it up for a quick strum turns into an hour. I'll look at tab, then also look at an instructional on RU-vid, but trust my ears if neither sound "right". I'll also look a few sources as some will play that chord differently and an alternate fingering may suit me better for a particular passage. Some basic theory has also helped immensely and I keep a picture of an annotated fretboard next to me and I use it to deconstruct any new chord so I can try and understand it.

#1 Yes, yes, yes. My guitar is on a stand right next to my couch, it gets played every day. I even get itchy watching tv and rarely can sit through a whole movie without picking it up (been working on my ear training!). Now if only I could build my studio around my couch....

These are great tips, thanks!

I felt like my journey to learn the instrument was losing speed- these tips gave me a new insight and I'm so pumped to just do a little bit each day. The progress will come with time and consistency.