First and most importantly, you have to have a love and passion to learn new thing an always have the desire to make music on the guitar. If you don't enjoy every second of it, you weren't born to play. You'll need to have the drive in order to maintain the practice. Start by focusing your time on technique. Right hand technique
includes alternate picking (
Alternate picking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), economy picking (
Economy picking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and is what I use most), chicken pickin' or aka hybrid picking (
Hybrid picking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), and lastly sweep picking (
Sweep-picking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which will take a very long time and lots of effort to master). Legato, or playing with mostly hammer-ons and pulloffs instead of picking each note, is my main style of playing. It sounds much smoother and more fluid when playing using legato. Go on youtube and search for "guitar legato" and you'll have a wealth of info. It will enable you to play SUPER fast.
Good left hand technique involves the use of fluid movement on consecutive notes of scales or licks, which will all be explained later, and the good use of sliding up and down in good time, hammer- ons (
Hammer-on - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), pulloffs (
Pull-off - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and bending notes up or down with a tremolo. Sting dampening is extraordinarily important. That is, use your palm at the bridge to slightly mute the strings so that they don't all ring out when you play. This is all part of learning right hand technique. Don't get ahead of yourself and try to learn the hard and showy techniques such as tapping and sweeping and whatnot. Take your time on mastering the basics.
If you choose to learn fingerstyle guitar, or playing with your fingers and no pick, its notable to learn classical guitar and how to read sheet music. Your thumb only plays the lowest 3 strings (the 3 biggest strings, E, A, and D) and your index plays the G string, your middle plays the B string and your ring plays the high E string. As you now know, the strings from low to high are e, A, D, G, B, and E.
This next part is VERY IMPORTANT. You have to learn music theory to a certain degree in order to be able to express yourself. Some people think that they can get away with just playing what they want all of the time and take it from me, you'll always end up wanting. Learn how to read music and tablature. Learn what note each fret represents. Learn the fretboard, in other words. Learn where notes are the same but octaved. Nip it in the bud and learn the following and apply your technique to it.
The Musical Modes: The single most important piece of musical theory geared towards improvisation and expression are the modes, or church modes. The modes are as follows and they follow a certain order so learn them in this order (and I'll link you to videos and explanations later):
1.) Ionian mode (
Ionian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- the common major scale. Sounds happy and lilting. Almost boring.
2.) Dorian mode (
Dorian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- I call this the Santana mode. It sounds sad and lonely but hopeful. Reminds me of John Wayne riding out alone into the desert. It also sounds incredible when being used in jazz to make a smooth, cool sound. Listen to Santana's "Evil Ways" and "Oye Como Va" to get a feel.
3.) Phrygian mode (
Phrygian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- Spanish sounding. Used in flamenco and metal, etc.
3 1/2.) Phrygian Dominant mode (
Phrygian dominant scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) - the Phrygian mode has a close relative called the phrygian dominant that is to be used in a more major usage. It sounds Spanish, Jewish Klezmerish, Egyptian, whatever. Listen to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" intro or The Scorpion's "Sails of Charon" to get a feel.
4.) Lydian mode (
Lydian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- Dark yet very ethereal and pious. Easily my favorite mode and probably the most complex mode as it is one of the three major modes yet it contains the tritone (for tritone, listen to Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath").
5.) Mixolydian mode (
Mixolydian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- Happy, whimsical and triumphant. Very Irish or Scottish sounding. Listen to Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam" or Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" to get a feel.
6.) Aeolian mode (
Aeolian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- The common minor scale. Sounds sad and epic. Used in all forms of music. Listen to Led Zep's "Achilles' Last Stand" to get a feel.
7.) Locrian mode (
Locrian mode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)- A diminished mode that is only really used in jazz. I won't go into detail of it since it is really only a theoretical mode.
There are scales that are not modes: the minor pentatonic is probably the most widely used and known scale in human history. It is the skeleton for many minor modes and the blues scale.
YouTube - five positions of minor pentatonic scale Learn the major pentatonic, the harmonic minor scale, the melodic or jazz minor scale, and the many exotic scales such as the hirajoshi, the whole tone, and the diminished scales. Learn the modes and scales in every position (meaning starting on every fret).
Now that I explained the modes, here are some videos demonstrating the modes played over a pedal tone, or a single note representing a key to play in. The guitarist is a shred legend named Vinnie Moore. WATCH THESE 3 VIDEOS! THEY ARE IMPERATIVE! They helped me tremendously to learn the modes and recognize their sounds.
1 of 3:
YouTube - Vinnie Moore(Great lesson on Modes)-part 1/3
2 of 3:
YouTube - Vinnie Moore(Great lesson on Modes)-part 2/3
3 of 3:
YouTube - Vinnie Moore(Great lesson on Modes)-part 3/3
If you do not practice often, you will not get good at guitar. That being said, it is absolutely imperative to surround yourself with music and guitarist's music, guitar instrumentals for example, that you strive to achieve the level of in the future. This is goal setting and day by day you must work towards that music's level of playing.
DO NOT STICK TO ONE GENRE OF MUSIC. I fucking hate people, musical idiots that is, that only learn how to play metal music or blues or what have you. I'll tell you right now, if you want to be known as a good guitarist to yourself and to others, it is essential to be well rounded in ALL genres. Otherwise, you're just a metal guitarist, or a blues guitarist, NOT a guitarist. This is applicable to trades, disciplines and any expertise in life in general as well. Be a well rounded individual. Its more fun that way. Practice jazz as it will make your playing and improv blossom.
Listen to yourself play without music more than with music. That way, you'll be able to tweak your sound into sounding more smooth and listenable. Put nuances into your playing such as quick slides and pre- bends and palm muting to spice your sound up. Tone is practically 90% in your fingers. Do not expect to get good by reading lessons or taking lessons. The best guitarists are self taught and then supplement their self- established guitar playing with lessons and exercises. As Mason said, learn how to read tablature (tabs). Learn the concept of time signatures such as 4/4 and 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8, etc. The top number represents how many beats are in each measure and the bottom represents what note value constitutes one beat.
If you want to get good at guitar, look up guitarists on youtube like Eric Johnson, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Guthrie Govan, Albert Lee, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Hendrix, Frampton, David Gilmour, Danny Gatton, Frank Gambale, Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine and the like. There are SOOOO many good ones. Listen to the bands they play in (if they do play in a band).
I know I'm missing some things in this, but thats why you are teaching yourself. Use the internet and get lessons from sites on google. Look up "guitar theory" and "guitar technique." Learn about octaves and intervals and chord shapes. The amount of chords are practically endless, so learn them off the internet. Don't be afraid to play in front of people as music is a performing art. Sing with your guitar and also sing the same note you're playing on the guitar sometimes to be able to gain what is known as relative pitch (if you were not born with perfect pitch, that is.)
This is incomplete and I'll add to it as people post and give me ideas. This is an endless topic for me, so bear with me.