Reply to: Learning a musical instrument.

[BlasterBates]

Yes that's right so you when you choose a guitar you have to decide between a guitar played in a Spanish style (think flamenco, bossa nova, classical, Gypsy) nylon string or Western/folk/pop steel string (i.e. American country (John Denver), Irish folk music or pop music (the Beatles).

If you want to strum folk songs then a steel string is best, if you want to play classical stuff, guitar solos probably you want the nylon string. The classical style is how you would want to play a guitar solo i.e. no singing just to impress people playing the instrument.

[d000hg]

With guitars you've also got the big choice between gut (Spanish style) and steel strings. The former being for more classical music, the latter for chords.

[BrilloPad]

Has anyone done the pink oboe joke yet?

[BlasterBates]

The standards are much higher these days and you can actually pick up dirt cheap guitars that are fine. A mate of mine picked one up from a supermarket for 60 quid and used it for live gigs in the pubs, and that was even though he also already had a respectably priced one. I have an electric bass that cost quid 200 that I use for recording, sounds fine.

Best though to try them out in the shop and find one you like, I wouldn't pay more than around £500 or £600 and I would try out different guitars between £200-600 and pick the one you like the best, and it won't necessarily be the most expensive one.

[d000hg]

Don't buy a cheap guitar !! Get something with a nice low action and a thin neck. Makes it easier to fret the notes and shape the chords.

Depends what you class as cheap - you can get some nice ones for a couple of hundred quid. Cheap by 'proper' guitar standards, maybe you mean sub-£100 models though.

[BlasterBates]

A harmonica is an easy instrument to play, managed to figure out silent night in an hour or so.

Sounds good in an evening by the fire, or on the patio in Summer.

[NotAllThere]

Just three or four chord shapes if you do power chords.

[TestMangler]

Depends what you want to do with your musical talents.

If you want to be able to knock out a few songs to sing along with, start with the guitar and learn a few chords. (G/C/D7/Em) and the song possibilities are almost endless.

Don't buy a cheap guitar !! Get something with a nice low action and a thin neck. Makes it easier to fret the notes and shape the chords.

[DS23]

piano will hurt less (or not even at all). be prepared; the guitar will be quite painful. if you've never tried before it will hurt and you will get very cross with your fingers as they will not do what you are telling them to do. you need to want this to get over the hurdles. 20 mins every day is right.

i think it would help to have a musical style / direction / sound. whatever instrument you choose you should decide on the sound that you want to create. it helps in determining all sorts of stuff. for example, if you select guitar do you want to play finger style or plectrum strumming? or rather; do you want to play classical, folk, pop, blues...? decide that and then you need to get the right instrument; acoustic steel, classical nylon, resonator, uke, banjo, mandolin, electric... after that a teacher would be good idea but you need the right kind of teacher (technique: modes and scales v results: play a song type)...

good luck. i've been playing since the mid 70's. i love it. you never stop learning. i actually just had an acoustic guitar built for me.... its fantastic!

[ChrisPackit]

Selling the dream there.

How easy was Uke compared to Guitar?

Much easier to learn the uke rather than guitar IMO, for many reasons; less strings, strings closer to fretboard, many one / two finger chords on the uke - not that many on the guitar, hundreds (thousands) of chords to learn on the guitar, whereas you can play the whole George Formby catalogue on about 10 chords on the uke

Superb instrument though the Uke, especially with proper metal strings rather than nylons. Mine was actually a Banjelele though - a la George Formby which sound sweeter than the traditional Uke I think.

[Normie]

I ordered one of these yesterday - £8 delivered:

Stylophone

Probably the limit of my musical ability. Hopefully the kids will like it.

[NotAllThere]

I'm with those recommending a ukulele. Cheap and cheerful. I bought one with a pickup for £65 last summer. Connected to a MicroCube amplifier it's a lot of fun.

I'm fairly sure Stairway to Heaven was written on a ukulele - it's a lot easier to play than on guitar.

Once you're fairly competent on the uke, get a decent electric guitar.

[Pondlife]

Harder than it looks and it sounds terrible when you're not used to playing one.

Selling the dream there.

How easy was Uke compared to Guitar?

[ChrisPackit]

One instrument I wouldn't recommend through personal experience is the Violin / Fiddle. I kind-of cracked the ukelele first, then the guitar, then I thought it would be cool to try some of the indie-folk stuff on a fiddle - thinking Levellers / Wonderstuff / Mumfords.

Harder than it looks and it sounds terrible when you're not used to playing one.

[Bunk]

Out of those the piano probably has the easiest learning curve. The action of playing a note is simpler than the others. Once you get over the initial physical hurdles there's not a lot between them, although obviously the drums involve a different theory to the others.

Agree with cliphead though, don't get a really cheap guitar because it will make mincemeat of your fingers and put you off at an early stage. Once you've played for a while your fingers will be like leather and you can play anything but it's a false economy to start off like that.