I'm a newbie, and I'm afraid I won't learn efficiently

by Sam K.
(Millburn, New Jersey, USA)

Hi Trevor,

First of all, your site is wonderful- full of resources and useful advice. I thank you for creating a free tool to help aspiring guitarists, especially now when the economy is in shambles and lessons are out of the question for college students like me.

I play electric guitar, heavy metal to be exact. A few years ago I happened to buy a few albums by the bands Nile and Behemoth, both of which contain heaping loads of Middle-Eastern and Spanish inspired classical pieces in between their usual heavy metal assault and battery riffs.

I was immediately hooked and part of the reason I still listen to these bands despite my out phasing of heavy metal after my teenage years is because of these beautiful classic guitar pieces.

About a year ago, I listened to some old Persian music from my mother's collection and again, I was attracted to the deep sound of the classical guitar. I decided to go buy a Yamaha starter's kit with a $100 classical guitar and the works. I played for a few weeks using a pick, and gave up.

I went back to heavy metal and electric guitars (keep in mind, I don't know how to read music or know my notes- I rely fully on tablature and write songs using tablature. I have absolutely no musical knowledge, but I somehow manage to write some complex metal songs).

I recently got back into classical guitar when rummaging through our closet for something and stumbled upon my old Yamaha. I picked it up and surprisingly, basic finger picking came easy within a couple hours.

I started listening to more classical guitar music, and I'm really hooked! I can say that I really like this type of music and my mother noticed how nice it sounds when I played and shared a story about my childhood when she used to play classic guitar tapes at home and I would love it.

She took me up for classical guitar lessons when I was four, but I got nowhere. Now I really want to learn.

But the discouraging thing is that, there is so much I need to learn before actually playing! I'm the type that improvises and can play something by ear after trial and error. I usually just keep trying different things out until I'm satisfied and find it hard to follow a rubric.

I'm scared of this heap of things I need to learn- how to read notes, memorizing notes on the fret board, how to alternate finger pick, learning chords (btw, I'm the chord retard here- I only stick to power chords and octaves most of the time).

I don't want to be overwhelmed and want to learn at my own pace, but still make progress. With another semester of college coming up, I don't want to waste time or interfere with my responsibilities, but the temptation of that classical guitar sound is sometimes too much for me to bear!

Trevor, please give me some useful tips and advice. I want to be able to not only pour my heart out into this beautiful music, but to be able to share it with others as a part time gig in the future.

-Best regards,
Sam

Wow Sam!

Yours is a great story and there's a lot going on there. In terms of your fears though I think it's quite common to feel that way.

My best advice is to pick one book to start with and stick with it. Slowly work your way through it even if you go off and do others things like "improvising" and other stuff. You'd be surprised how fast you can improve if you just stick with it (as you saw when you did the finger picking over a couple of hours).

If you look at my book recommendation page I'd advise that you start with those books in this order...

1. Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant- It's a great place to start and you can really consolidate some good knowledge and skills...

2. Classical Guitar Pedagogy by Anthony Glise - This book will give you a deeper knowledge of technique and of the "how" it should be done...


3. Kitharologus, The Path to Virtuosity by Ricardo Iznaola - This book delves into more advanced technique exercises and really "polishes" your musicianship.

These books are well established and are really what I term the "shortcut" to classical guitar success because they get to the heart of the matter without any real "fluff", as it were.

I hope this has been of some help. Good luck!

Kind regards,
Trevor M.