My daughter has decided to give her boyfriend a guitar for his birthday. He had one once before and smashed it in frustration as he couldn't learn it. She says he's "not musical" and clarifies this as "he listens to hip-hop mostly" She wanted to know if there was a good book for helping you to learn. I'm sure the best answer is to get a teacher, but assuming he doesn't want to do that yet, what's the best kind of resource for teaching yourself?

A book?
A CD (presumably with a book)
A DVD
A phone or computer app?

I would tend to go for a DVD possibly with a book that comes with it, but I'd like some recommendations, please. Either from first-hand experience or speaking as a teacher.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Linda,

Not a teacher, but first hand experience of self teaching (admittedly, having learnt "properly" a long time ago).

First and most important thing is: what sort of music does he want to play? This has a bearing not only on what sort of guitar to get him: classical (nylon string), acoustic (steel string), or even rock (electric), but also what resources to go for. It's not really possible to recommend any books without being clear about this - classical technique will be of no interest whatever if he wants to learn screaming electric solos...

That aside, I have actually found some really good stuff on You Tube, which has everything from ABRSM scales and pieces to rock riffs. Just search "learn to play guitar" or the name of an actual song, or "ABRSM guitar scales" and you'll see what I mean. (there's a great video that michael_N posted in the Adult Learners section, entitled "How to improve!" which is just one example).

I imagine that you want an actual "thing" (book, DVD) that you can hand over to make it more of a gift, but without more info an what guitar and style he wants it will be difficult for anybody to recommend anything.

I'm using "A Tune a Day for Classical Guitar." I and my pupil are teaching ourselves together and after 18 months we are on lesson 6! I don't practise and he can't read so we even out! It comes with a CD. The backing tracks are nice but in my opinion a little on the fast side.(When aren't they?)

As far as I know there is a similar series for Folk Guitar.

I actually started many years ago and then gave up for lack of time but at that time I used the same book, old edition. When I do get some time to practise I use this book too.

Incidentally a friend who before she got galloping arthritis was a mluch admired self taught guitarist, told me that the only way to learn your way around a guitar is to learn to play melodies from the start and not just chords. So far, my limited experience seems to validate that.

Well, he doesn't know he's getting it, but I would imagine she won't be thinking of classical with him in mind. I don't know what he was trying to play the last time he had the guitar, but, you know, some people actually don't know what they want to play! They just think the guitar would be a cool idea. Not electric, certainly, he's too laid back to be wanting to do "screaming electric solos" (He's also in his mid-30s, not that that will exclude the screaming and head-banging, but he doesn't do tht)

I think if I were doing this "blind" I would be going for folk/acoustic, because it's more adaptable.

And yes, she does want a "thing" to give him. Anything which seems to say "learn yerself guitar" will do, but I wondered if anyone could give me a recommendation that they've tried.

He may not want to learn classical guitar, but if he does, Prof. Delcamp has been running on-line lessons on his classical guitar forum (just Google 'Delcamp'). I've not used them myself, and they started a year or two ago, but may be worth a look.