I love listening to guitar. Acoustic is very good, but I love electric most. In fact, I think electric guitar has the most beautiful tonal quality of any instrument except sarod. I've played around with the acoustic of my friend. I've now decided to learn playing rock guitar (both rhythm and lead). I need advice on three counts: 1)Which guitar and amp to buy? The total cost needs to be under 15,000/-, 10,000/- preferred, 20,000/- the absolute maximum. About.com suggested a Squier Standard Stratocaster. Is that a good choice? And is it available in Kolkata? 2)From whom to learn? Amyt Dutta seems to be highly recommended, but does he teach beginners? I want someone who can give me a solid grounding in theory and technique of both rhythm and lead playing, and who is up-to-date with modern methods. For me, understanding harmony and time signatures so I can come up with truly original compositions is more important than just playing fast and copying western guitarists. 3)Where to play? Once I pick up the basics and can hammer out a few chords and scales, I want to start jamming with other people rather than practicing alone. I think I can improve much faster that way, and have more fun. Just for information, my favourite guitarists are (in approximately descending order) Kirk Hammett (Metallica), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Slash (Guns N' Roses), Joe Satriani, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) . For some reason, the God Hendrix doesn't go down well with me. I'm also very interested in Hindusthani classical music, and my ultimate goal is to fuse the intricate melodic structures of classical music with the aggression and rhythm of hard rock/heavy metal. Thanks a lot for your advice. Molu
Loom91: brother you are expecting too much!! 1>first you gota learn acoustic,learn the basics..get used to the normals leads n rhythms bfore going to the electric heavy metal rock ..n all.. there are lods of shops in kolkata.. i've heard therez a good shop at parkstreet. 2> there are lots n lots of teachers in kolkata.. first learn the basics ..Dont even think about the selfcompositions n all nw...at the beginin! n yeah... "copyng" western guitarist aint that easy..man..(its real hard 2 even get close to what those guys can actually play)!! 3>> n den ... learn the basics frm the teacher...n start playin alone first...'coz when u are learning..u gota "learn".. not improve!..n those guys in the jammin session ..wont wait fr u to pick up the notes n all .. so ? hope u getting it! tkcre n gudluck !!
Thnx Thanks for your advice. But I'm not interested in starting with acoustic, I like electric, I want to play electric and that's what I want to learn on. What difference does it make? The tension is higher in acoustic, other than that a guitar is a guitar, and you play it the same way (except the tone control in elctric). Which guitar and amp will you suggest for a beginner? Please give me your expert advice guys. I know how hard it is to copy those western guitarists. It will probably take me years and years of practice to play something like Van Halen's Eruption. What I'm saying is that imitation is not my ultimate goal. Which teacher would you suggest? I used to learn the keyboard from Samir Khasnobish's brother. I live near Chandni Chowk Molu
I said within 10,000 preferred. But I won't like to get stuck with a guitar that doesn't sound satisfying. Molu
haha... mann .GUITAR IS A GUITAR?? ..!! you asking what difference does it make?!?..jus a tone control ?!! i tell u one thing.frankly brother.... if u dont get used 2 an acoustic ..befor going for the electric ..u wont b able 2 play it properly..("like the way u want")..as in u'll jus manage wd it PLUS it will take more tym to learn ... so its your choice now... n yeah...the lessons frm the teacher wud b fr d acoutic one...!! ..n hmm..frankly sayin smthn .." dont tell all this to the teacher..( bout learnin electrc directly..selfcomps n all the ambitionz nw..)..he may make fun of u ...cz this is realy kidish.. "knowin nthn bt still..ur sayin "guitar is a guitar " ??!.. neway...if u really wanna go fr an electric nw.. get a cheap one.. lik "givson gs 1000" n all wid stranger cube 20 amp ..learn it..mastr it n den get a good 1... cz ...u shudnt waste money on a eltric guitar ..for "LEARNING"... Gudluck brothr!!
It's not like I've never touched an acoustic. I have, and I can play a few simple chords with it. Why do you say that an electric will be harder to play than an acoustic? Everyone else seems to say the opposite, that an acoustic is more difficult to play than an electric because the strings have a higher tension. Maybe it will be best if I discuss all this with an experienced teacher before actually buying. Please suggest a good teacher to me, that's the most important thing to me. I appreciate the importance of a good teacher more after seeing my friend's guitar teacher. Man, he teaches the guitar like the keyboard, just writing down songs for her to play (no chords, and it has been a year). What's more, he writes wrong tabs for chords! Can you believe it, he gives the root note of C Major to be E! Don't tell me I'm making a mistake, I know enough guitar to read a tab correctly. I don't want to get stuck with someone like that. So I really need to know a good teacher. Please suggest someone. Thanks. Molu
