Girl attempting to autodidact electric guitar. Tips, anyone?

H

Hissy_Fit

Prowler
It's pretty rare to see a girl on lead guitar in bands. I asked a friend why and he said that girls don't have the mental capacity to learn such a difficult instrument. He's generally a little on the sexist side towards me.

I've been wanting to play for a while now, and this comment slightly put me off.
But I think that it's worth the try whether I am capable or not. It's better to say "I can't play and I have tried" rather than "I can't play and I haven't tried".
Another friend is lending me a guitar to practice on so it's not much money wasted if I give it up.

Perhaps other members can give me some tips? Preferably of either gender.
I'd like to know which the best "teach yourself" books are, whether it's best to learn chords first, or start with songs, e.t.c.

All tips, help and comments are taken with much gratitude and thanks.
 
Firstly, don't listen to your friend.  There is absolutely no reason why girls should be less able to learn lead, rhythm or bass guitar than any guy.

Secondly, I would advise you to practise, and practise often.  Initially, you won't be able to play for extended periods of time, because your fingers (on your fretting hand) will be sore from pressing the strings down on to the frets.  So, rather than doing 2 hours of practise one day a week, do 10 or 15 minutes a day.  To start with, just focus on getting the feel of the instrument.  There are great online guitar lessons which helped me pick up the basics, in particular Cyberfrets.com, Ultimate-guitar.com and About.com.  If I were you, I would begin by learning the very basics such as how to hold the pick, how to fret properly, then work up on some scales and chords.  Start by learning the chromatic scale and the Eminor and A minor chords.  They're easy, and you'll be using them a lot in metal (particularly if you're playing things like Children of the Damned or Tears of the Dragon).

To start with, don't look at songs, because you'll inevitably be put off.  However, something like Virus or Afraid To Shoot Strangers may be a good starting song, once you have the basics.  There is, I believe, another thread for good beginner songs, if you want to use the search function.

And, the most important advice of all, is never give up! :D
 
Thanks for the advice.
10-15 minutes a day of practise suits me admirably, as I find things stick in my head the longest when played little and often (especially with revision).

One of my friends, a bass guitarist-in-the-making, knows not how to read music, play chords and rifts at all. Instead, he knows 4 songs, and considers himself good enough to play in a covers band and spend £500 on a vintage Gibson.
Learning the basics seems sense to begin with, but wouldn't an even balance of both songs and chords be more in order once up and running?
 
Well, it varies from person to person.  Some people are entirely self-taught, and know hardly any theory at all.  As an aside, Chuck Schuldiner of Death had little grounding in music theory, yet the majority of his leads fell into several minor scales...he was just playing what he thought sounded good to his ear, whereas many other musicians would have actively set out to play lead X in minor key Y...same idea, only Chuck wouldn't have known how to describe what he was playing.

However, few people have such a good ear for music, which is why music theory is so important (then again, you can have people like me who are both tone-deaf and theory-illiterate :P).  Your first task should be to learn, at the least, how to read guitar tablature.  This is usually detailed in the first lessons on those sites I listed, and from there, you can quickly learn new chords and scales.

Later on, yes, you will want to learn more songs than chords, but initially, don't try and overstep your limits.  If you can't play (for the sake of argument) Hallowed Be Thy Name at first, don't worry...it's simply a matter of practising as often as possible, and not trying to do too much at once.
 
Well said Raven!

Hissy_Fit, there's actually quite some ladies who are better than the average guy.Tell everyone to f**k off if they say such crap to you.

Or rather, show them some footage of Lori Linstruth, who popped immediately in my mind when I thought of excellent guitarists in metal.

Vids:
http://lorinator.feminoise.com/passion- ... o/#more-83
http://lorilinstruth.com/videos/violenciaHQ.wmv
More videos: http://lorilinstruth.com/videos.php
Samples of her demo CD: http://lorilinstruth.com/demo.php

She also has tutorials on her site: http://lorilinstruth.com/learn.php
And this is her music-teaching website: http://www.lorinator.feminoise.com/
 
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