I’ve tried and failed over the years to learn to play guitar and it’s only in the past year or so that I’ve made enough progress to be able to say I can play (a little). There’s many more options for learning now. Previously you had largely work it out for yourself or hope there was a good teacher nearby. The internet does have some high-quality lessons for little to no money. That doesn’t mean it’s automatically easier - you’ve still got to find the path that works for you and it still takes patience and perseverance. There’s a lot of bad information and dead ends on the internet waiting for the unwary

If you two could ever give more lessons for beginners and intermediate players I think it would be great. Love this channel thanks guys

I found it more fun when I learned it wrong. I really don’t want to watch a video on KZfaq being told that I should replace my strings every week, I’m holding my pick wrong and I have to learn all seven modes. I like humming a tune to myself and then working out how to make a fun song out of it with my guitars.

I started playing in 1980 and most everything you learned was off of a record or maybe another guitar player. It seemed to somehow stay with you better when you took the time to learn it by ear. If KZfaq existed back then I would’ve absolutely gone straight to that.

I started learning guitar from my uncle around 1980 when I was around 13 years old. He was a bivocational pastor of a small country church and felt the need to share his passion for music with me and his son. He taught me the G chord, C chord, and D chord. My parents had an old record player that somewhat worked, and they later bought me a cheap KMart cassette/AMFM player. I would find a church song, riff in a song, a chord progression, etc that I enjoyed. Then I’d spend hours of repetition rewinding or replaying the same section of the LP until it “somewhat” sounded like I thought the original piece did. And then I watched others’ hands in church or on TV as they played (unfortunately no rewind there). Pretty soon, I picked up interest in piano and taught myself solely from what I had learned on the guitar and from some of the techniques I mentioned above. During this time, I would catch myself driving around listening to music and almost inadvertently working out the chord progressions as I “heard them”and “visualized” them. I think this approach further trained my ear. And, great point guys!!!! I don’t consider myself to be a great musician, but I am confident that my ear was trained to be able to work through musical pieces to the point that I could play along with others and feel comfortable doing so. I really enjoyed listening to you guys break this concept down. Keep up the great work!!!

Great video and topic is on point! Ear training is a lost art.

It's just a matter of putting the time in and doing what you want with the instrument. I can't play worth crap and I'll never be a shredder but I still enjoy it after 22 years of strumming.

Definitely old school but YT has made things easier to find. I kinda miss the days of only listening to learn and then searching for a tab that is actually correct and that “got it” moment when you realize it is correct. There was so much bad tab out there so having a good ear was more important. Actually now that i think about it, theres a-lot of bad/incorrect tutorials on yt so its still important to have a good ear.

When I started in 1997 the only instructional material I had was the VHS tape my teacher would record from our 1 hour lessons. By 2007 I was literally trying to create a guitar teacher website where both teachers and students could collaborate and upload videos. But KZfaq became more than it was and my idea was quickly overshadowed. Now you can learn anything you want on the internet from 50 different sources.

Fun memory lane walk! Rain Song in standard with the stretches is how I learned it - maybe from Led Zeppelin Complete or whatever that big white book was called. I was self-taught, using a Mel Bay book, trying to play rock and punk and so on on the acoustic guitar I was given (instead of the electric I wanted). I was lazy so typically I learned by "replaying the song in my head" and then trying out chords against it. Because the only chords I knew were cowboy/open ones and barre chords based on either the E or A shape, I was often wrong, but as long as I was close I could thrash away at home or the odd party - especially if I learned the main riff and all the words. Learning this past year has been incredible - the lessons I never had are finally mine, I am finally on electric, much of the music I love that was never available is now somewhere on the internet. So for me it has been so much easier now. I never had the patience to work out every note of a song, so I'd just get a strummy version up and play that, but now I can see some of these licks and basic music theory knowledge is there so I can figure things out.

open chords via Mel Bay booklet. met the 3 other people in school who played, taught me major/pentatonic scale. jammed as often as we could. took lessons after 2 years. had several teachers thru my years but 2 of them were more. they mentored and opened my listening skills as well. i think there is def more materials (Tab/technique etc via inet) but there is also more "virtuoso" hubris. the jams and dozens of "bands" i(we) started, failed and abandoned were all with other people who imo the other half of why i wanted to play and, still do. by all means learn but, music is to be shared. both making and listening. the inet is a feast of info but can be a desert of artistry if its all u do.

First off let me commend you guys! I truly enjoy your Channel! I've been a musician for over 40 years and was fortunate enough to grow up around a family of back porch Pickers. Countless times I have been asked by people if I give lessons. I tell them that I wish technology was as advanced as today because I'm learning more than I ever have! There's hardly nothing you can't learn about any instrument and the convenience of doing it at your leisure is awesome! Instead of having to go to a teacher,every Thursday at 6:00 if you feel like taking a lesson at 3:00 a.m. its there waiting on you! A plethora of choices and the convenience of learning at your own pace! Hope you guys have a wonderful day and keep doing what you do!

I think it’s easier to learn now. I grew up the 90s and took guitar lessons for a year or two and then was “self taught” after that. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a tube amp until I was a lot older. In the 90s you had to deal with tab books with sketchy transcriptions and no other information on how to actually play it if you weren’t taking lessons. I started playing again more seriously a few years back and I have made more progress in the last three years than I did in the previous 30 years. Now you have access to videos and backing tracks to play along with. It’s a totally different ballgame now.

Learning by ear on the radio, or tapes. Guitar magazines would have tabs but it’s hard to learn those if you haven’t heard the recording the tablature is based on. I learned a lot by hanging out with other people and we’d teach each other what we know. KZfaq makes it really easy to look up how to play something, or at least to get a recording and maybe get to watch someone play the song

"Slow down and play with more feeling"---Boy, I remember those comments too when I was 8 years-old in 1973 trying to get through my "Songs of the"60's" songbook with my teacher who was in a band at the time. Also, "Cut those nails!" was written as a reminder on nearly every first page of each song---I must have drove my teacher crazy---Ah, good times-----He had an impact as I'm still playing today and the nails are cut!---LOL!

Playing by Ear, repeating one cassette or Album over and over to catch the right notes and phrasing was the only way in the 60's & 70's and still works today, even on days the Internet is Out or Electric Grid Fails or we are strumming our Acoustic Guitar, those were the days my Friend.

I was laughing just now at Baxter's Rain Song. Thats exactly what I did! Back in the 70's there was no Tab, it was your ears or nothing. A freind of mine ordered a Black Sabbath song book, when it arrived it was transcribed for piano,( possibly by Liberace!) with basic guitar chords above. Oh how we laughed well..he cried, I laughed!

I learned in the early 70's and took lessons and learned through Mel Bay books With that said though after I finished the books I was told sorry can't teach you anymore. What you do from here on out it's all you so I ended up stopping for years. Now at 62 back into learning and it's much easier but a good teacher is a must Learning the major/minor pentatonic and barre chords and it's going really well Even with all the video's a good teacher is a must as well as learning to read music and tab.

So much easier now. We had to use things like Rock licks and magazine tab, and just sitting down with the records.

As someone who has tried and failed many times. It's hard as ever just for different reasons. In person I am limited to class room rock stars- meaning they want to show what they can do, not teach you how to. Or. They think I am a 7 year old who has all the time in the world between lessons to nail or competently grasp the previous lesson and move on, I work 60+hours a week, not really a thing. Then there's the internet. All the information and nothing so far to help me connect things. My brain works in a need to know way. This is what you do, this is why you do and this is what ties those together. Something as simple as different finger patterns for the same chord. Why was one particular one chosen, why is it still that particular chord name, when would you use the varied one vs the "basic" one? The internet gives a lot of little bits, like a 6 pack without the little rings to hold the cans together.

"How to Learn", please discuss this more often!! Then and Now etc. Great subject.🤩😎👌

I have a Hal Leonard "Teach Yourself Bass" kind of book I got in 1981-82. On page 4, where lessons begin, it starts off with "Hot Cross Bun" and "Aura Lee". Page 8 looks like a Rachmaninoff concerto. Also, no tab whatsoever. Today, there are so many different offerings from apps to Zoom calls to good old-fashioned in-person lessons that can cater to your needs that if you can't find the right kind of lesson plan and style that works for you then you're not really trying.

Learned same way as you cats. 38 years old, and I can relate with everything you said. Theory wise, I only started learning bits and pieces of it 2 years ago. Haha

When I started learning guitar back in the early 90s, tab was widely available, so I didn't bother training my ear (my biggest mistake). After recently reigniting an interest in playing music, I decided to learn songs by ear, and learn the whole song, not just the main riff or solo. I use the latest technology to take the tedium out of learning songs by ear. By no means does it replace the learning and application of skills. Back in the day, I was put off by rewinding/seeking too far or not far enough to repeat phrases, and there was no slowing down music without changing the pitch. If a band tuned down half a step, it killed my motivation to learn the song. I use the new tech to loop, re-pitch and/or slow down pieces of music to learn them by ear. I'm getting better and faster at learning music by ear whereas I feel there is a low ceiling to how fast I can learn songs with tab or KZfaq tutorials.

I learned to play from my drummer! He had rhythm.

I think it's much harder to learn how to become a guitarist that can play with other people today then it was back in the 70's and 80's. Learning primarily by ear if you have the passion will put you in a position to be able to play with others and enjoy the interaction that is not as common today. Today's learning from teachers and self taught with all the available materials is pretty technique based and that's just one part of the game or at least it used to be. Having said that, after a serious accident about 10 years ago I had to relearn how to play and I took KZfaq lessons from Ben Eller to help get my chops back and he was great so I've tried it both ways and I think as was noted in the video, being able to hear and having good time is more important than anything else. NIce video.

Well, it's nice to know I'm not the only idiot who learned to play "The Rain Song" in standard tuning. I also learned SRV's "Riviera Paradise" by ear, the day the record was released, and have only recently learned that how I play it is wrong. That said, both songs sound like the songs, they just have my own spin on them.

Love the videos Baxter, Jonathan, and crew! Old-school opinion: All ways are important, but I believe you have to at least know how to do most anything the manual/hard way, in order to have a well-rounded perspective and progress. A less hard way can then be discovered on one's own, as this is an individual endeavor in every way. You know I don't claim to be a "guitar player," but yes I can play the guitar and have been doing so for coming up on 50 years. What I want our inspiring musicians to know is there's another, just as satisfying way to play, if one can't devote the time nor have that mathematical brain (me!) to learn to play guitar as a stand-alone instrument. I have been playing guitar as an accompaniment to singing all this time, and I can honestly say I've never had a dull moment in my life because of it. My life has been enriched in so many ways by the ability to sing and play. It's all about the song for me, and not necessarily technique...specifically learning and delivering a song well enough to honor the intentions of the songwriter but finding my own way to present in an authentic manner. I started out jotting down lyrics from the radio to find new songs, I'd then buy the cassette and transcribe the song, listen to it over, and over (and I mean over, and over) until I found the spirit of the song, which is more complicated than just playing the cords and singing it. Yes, I play chords only, but through the years I've learned how to make my play more interesting, with finger picking, walk ups/downs, hammer ons/pull offs, things like that, and I'm able to deliver four hours of polished songs, solo. Don't get me wrong, I do love the company of a lead player and the accompaniment of other instruments, which further brings the song alive. I just wish I could shout it out to the wannabe's there's another path, even if it's a segue to learning the instrument stand-alone, reading music, learning tabs, scales...there are just so many ways to enrich one's life with the many ways you can make your journey your own. And another good reason for learning the manual/hard way is you can spot the inaccurate way. For instance, with lyrics and chords readily available on the internet, it's now easy to get them, but most are not very accurate, so I don't even look at the posted chords. And, after 50 years, I've just discovered alternate tuning and now play dropped down a full step. This has opened up the ability for me to sing songs once thought out of my range. Because those of us who have been playing for a long time know some songs just play better in a particular key, and you can't capo down. What this means to those who are scratching their heads: I can now play a song in the key of G chords, when it's really produced in F (and who wants to play in F :))) . And I'm amused when someone looks puzzled when I'm asked what key that was played in, and I respond Gb...ha, ha, ha!

I’m 3 years in. But about 15 years of adult piano, primarily fake book jazz standards, beforehand. I’ve learned primarily from method books by Mel Bay, Mickey Baker, Joe Pass, Charlie Byrd, and most of all, Christopher Parkening. Even with piano, I used the Alfred method. At 70, I like the printed page and a full piece of music with repeats, codas, dynamics and the like. Tabs lack that for me. And videos, which I do watch to learn stuff, are best in my down time, not when I’ve got the guitar on my lap.

A lot of my favorite bands are smaller newer groups so I’ve ended up learning how to learn by ear since there were no tabs

I believe the best way to learn is by ear. It's crucial to play in a live setting as yall stated. I taught myself growing up as I too lived in the sticks with no sort of community when it came to music. My community hunted and shot guns. Definitely not a bad way to grow up I think.

Great episode! My itty bitty channel is only about letting those that want to learn know what is available as I now teach my grandkids and UNLIKE when I taught my 3 sons they have so many choices but it can be a rabbit hole for those on their own without guidance as to where to even start and then if someone is not there to occasionally focus they can drift from site to site and get really frustrated. Like y'all mentioned if you get a "good" instructor / teacher they will assist the student with online resources and possibly help them navigate and enhance what they saw online. In other words many need a mentor and back in the 70's most of us could not afford lessons so we got together and shared. I'm not knocking either way, just saying the resources are great but they can overwhelm a student especially with the marketing thrown at them.

I started playing at 8 learned from the old Mel Bay books… starting getting serious around 12… which was in 1967… learned a lot of songs off of records mainly 45s… a lot of picking up and placing the needle until I got the part I was working on…😵‍💫

When I started playing in 78, I learned off the radio, recording or someone showed me. It’s still kind of the same today except now you can get a video instruction, sometimes by the artist. Still, learning by ear is the best way as you learn what’s where on the instrument at the same time.

back in the 70's i learned guitar by watching and listening to other players and reading guitar "Fake books", I had a band and orchestra background,, yes i learned some things wrong like fingering, but i learned some things right, I was never taught patterns / shapes, CAGE, Modes, scales, I just strummed songs,

I did it by listening on the radio and reproducing by ear and I picked up the odd music book. I had no friends that played and i didn't know how to tune a guitar. Basically I knew nothing, I finally gave up after trying to learn a F chord. I had no money for lessons etc back then. I think things are so much easier now. My first guitar that I bought was a Ovation but not even knowing how to tune I was doomed lol

When I took my first lessons my guitar teacher had me bring in a recording of a song I wanted to learn. I brought an acoustic version of Slaughter's Days Gone By and she had it transcribed within the hour. It was magic to me then and it's still magic to me now.

Is Baxter going to grow a beard like Jonathan’s?

I'm happy living in SoCal but these guys make me want to visit, at least, NC. Guildford England too.

Great topic! I started learning music before the internet. But back then I was a trumpet player. and even though i did technically start playing guitar in 1995 (even took some lessons and still remember a few of those things) i didn't take it seriously nor did i really practice. I'd mess around here and there trying to just play along to songs i was listening to sometimes but just occasionally. But i thought chords were too hard and copped out thinking that my hands just weren't built to play. It wasn't until 2018 that i got serious about playing guitar. Now i try and use all the resources I can. Music, Tabs, KZfaq, lessons, ears, even watching where the other player has their hands and fingers can help. I'll probably never be as good on guitar as i am at the trumpet, and i really wish i had been practicing every day for the last 29 years but I'm definitely enjoying it now and that's what's important for me.

So this is gonna be a rant... First off y'all caused me to depress myself cuz you were talking about having or not having a local shop back in the day and I looked up my home town local shop cuz I know they had survived COVID but they closed last year... But at that shop the guy who gave lessons was named Gary... And you aren't lying about kids thinking a guy just learning something off the top of their head was magic... My cousin and I asked him if he could play come as you are by Nirvana and watched him pick it out in about thirty seconds ,(or close enough like he said at the time) and we were floored.

i learned to lay by lifting the needle off the record and backing it up hundreds of times. then 50 years of watching and listening. one note at a time. now i've learned over a thousand songs. it's all billy joel to me.

You have so many young people who can shred today but yet they can’t play with others. I’m not the greatest guitar player but I can play with others and hold my own. And yes I’m from the sixties and you had to learn the hard way.

Easier now? Maybe however music theory and perfect pitch are a constant. One thing about KZfaq is the songs are generally wrong but for the beginner it doesn’t really matter. It does make it easier to watch a video and repeat what you see rather than the old school way of looping or rewinding a tape or moving the needle on the record player.

I started playing bass in 1979 when I was 12 years old. For at least 2 decades, it was learning by cassette tape, album, or CD over and over again to pick the songs apart. If you could adford it you would hire a private teacher or attend music school. We made it work in that era before the KZfaq world. Presently, I use KZfaq to augment my old-school ear training, and it has become a hybrid learning session for me the past 10 years or so. I also rely on chord charts found on internet sites, although they are not always accurate, so I use caution. I think in order to adapt to modern days and ways of learning, we should embrace technology to compliment ear training, but not let technology delete ear training from our skill set.

Metal Method on cassette (best thing was lesson 4 - ear training and lesson 6 - modal theory)! and it worked! PS: It's definitely easier now!

I’m so tired of how “Easy” to learn guitar companies say it is to learn on you tube , it’s a money grab, the truth is GUITAR IS HARD TO LEARN, but it’s very rewarding when you do learn. PRACTICE, and PRACTICE, the great ones PRACTICE every day. Slash told me himself in a meet n greet , “to this day I practice just about every day”

I am trying to learn the old school voodoo way...to me that will genuine success

Wrong, wrong, wrong, Jonathan, you guys are the best guitar players. Hands down.

Okay kids, here is the straight dope. Back in the early nineteen-seventies no one knew how to play guitar, not Clapton, not Blackmore, and damn sure none of the Beatles or Stones. They were blues noodlers, and that was about the best anyone could do. Around the mid-seventies certain players emerged: Al DiMeola comes to mind, guys with a heretofore unknown level of facility on the instrument emerging. By the late seventies guys were upping their game, imitating better local players such as the superstar of the genre the great Ed Van Halen. When the Yacht Rock logjam broke in FM radio in the very early eighties, guys like Billy Squire, (who couldn't play guitar to save his ass but who had a great writing sensibility and a lot of personal charisma) did massive business as rock replaced everything else on radio. Then he did Rock Me Tonight, and soon it was Ratt and their ilk who owned the airwaves. Cinderella. Bulletboys. Nuno. Kix. Danger Danger (who I feaking love and who were best of breed). Suddenly even average bands had extraordinarly great guitarists, and all raised the guitar game to a point where by the late-eighties it was difficult imitating your guitar heroes. Remember, we went from Smoke On the Water (easy peasy) to Steve Vai's indiscernible licks within about a decade. Learning guitar is much harder than it used to be because the level of musicianship is unquestionably much higher today than ever before, and here is the tricky part, even as the guitar recedes from the cultural spotlight becoming culturally irrelevant, or at the very least an afterthought.

Easier now. Teachers back then taught you E, G, D, A. Without realising that kids had never picked up a guitar and had no finger strength. Chords ? You don’t teach kids chords until you teach them where the notes are Open tuning? Agreed Baxter. Didn’t see that until way when i was in bands. I gave away tabulated versions of Led Zep songs that i did in normal tuning coz no one ever told or taught me about alt tuning Cheers from NZ 😎🎸🤘

It’s more expensive than it used to be that’s for sure… 🎸🔊🎶🤘✌️❤️🤟

Way easier now. The internat has taught me way more than all my teacher combined

I still try by ear first. If I get stumped, KZfaq it is

John Daly is crazy guys...

Alphajams has changed the game...

I think it's easier now.... just the fact that you don't have to commute for someone to show you something

Easier ive learned more about theory and soloing from KZfaq then I could ever learn from taking lessons....

When I started in 1971 if you could find someone who actually knew the correct way to play a Led Zeppelin song for example, it was like finding buried treasure.

Thanks for finally getting that wacky hair doo under control bax.......you look normal now . 👏

Great question man. I have to say... When I finally took the old man hit and admitted that using youtube to learn to play guitar was smart... I mean.. Im no Jimmy Hendrix. but Id say sense 2014 my playing has gone up exponentially. Where as before.. I sat there for 18 years playing the same 12 licks I knew wrong... When I started using the internet shit opened up for my playing... As mediocre as it is.

I went back and got lessons when i was 18 when you know- you know everything (started as a 10 yo) purely coz I wanted some theory. Got a great teacher who was in a known band at the time who was both motivational and fun to be there instead of a dull, droll dumbass who knows the basics that’s trying to fund his/her Uni fees

Sounds like you guys are saying people dont learn basic theory around the 4ish min mark

Toby Keith learned by ear.

Back in the day if you didn't have passion you didn't make it as a a player.

Baxter - “I might have misgendered my earlobes.” 😂

A little diss for the bass guitarists, huh?

Baxter’s beard makes his hair look more tame for some reason… I don’t like it.

I started playing in '78 and it was the wild west back then. You stole chords and licks from anyone and anywhere you could find them. I drove 50 miles to buy my first chord book and a song book of Led Zepp songs. I still have those early books, I ruined several albums, picking up and dropping the needle just trying to learn a lick from a song. It wasn't easy, but that's what had to be done if you wanted to learn.

Jon what happened to your beard? Don’t listen to others Grow it back bro. No irony intended 😎

Baxter really has his shit together when it comes to guitar. But, sometimes he is like a nat on a dogs azz with a very little attention span.

You posers are great but you are middle aged, not old. You gotta earn that, its not a shirt.

To many options, to many “Teachers” to many KZfaq videos. Way too many distractions.

😧If you guys are old what does that make me? I learned off of vinyl records slowed down to half speed, wrote my own tab and took weekly lessons 😀 70 this November.

I'm kinda in the middle on this, and in my late 60s. I think KZfaq, etc is a great tool to use as a shortcut but when it comes down to it, trust your ears. If you hear something in a lesson that doesn't sound right, it probably isn't. Then you have to figure it out. And I also agree with Jonathon about using your eyes. I knew how to strum (the basics) before I ever picked up a guitar from watching people play.