Some people want to learn music just as a hobby and some want to be professional musicians. Some people learn faster than others. Some people are talented and practice hard, some are talented but don't practice enough, some are not as talented but practice hard. So, it all depends how you practice and how much you practice.

Rhythm guitar can be easily dealt with when one has a decent knowledge of most barre form and first position chords. This is just one way to approach it, though. The list of following books and videos cover various techniques for playing rhythm guitar: Rhythm Accompaniments for Guitar (Video); Rhythm and Blues Electric Guitar (Video); Rhythm Changes Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (books); and Rhythm Guitar Chord System (book).

Depending on what style of guitar, here is an example of some of Mel Bay's books to help you out or get you started.

For the beginner or intermediate bluegrass player, the following books Mel Bay publishes can be very helpful in building your flatpicking bluegrass skills and other elements that make up the bluegrass genre such as crosspicking.

Jazz guitar has basic picking techniques that must be mastered. Learning how scales and modes interact with chords and chord progressions is a definite must. Music Theory will play an important factor when you first start with learning jazz guitar. You need to understand the ii-V-I chord progression and how it is applied to jazz standards and tunes.

There are many techniques and many methods that can be learned when attempting classical guitar. A good way to attempt classical guitar would be to nail down basic techniques such as fingerpicking, alternate fingerpicking, rasgueado, tremolo, the rest and free stroke, reading standard notation, music theory, and the traditional way the guitar is held by using a footstool. From this point, one can move on to stylistic periods.

This style of guitar is usually chordal accompaniment with lyrics or a melody of some sort. Here is a list of Mel Bay books that cover this style in which some include folk tunes from various places around the world. Also check our Songbooks category for items with melody lines and guitar chords.

Blues guitar can be learned with basic theory and the basic blues forms. The common blues forms are the 8 and 12 bar blues form. Knowing what I, IV, and V are and how those chords relate to 8 and 12 bar blues form is a must. As far as style development goes, listen to some the "greats" such as B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Son House, and Lonnie Johnson. Suggested books are You Can Teach Yourself Blues Guitar, Mel Bay's Complete Blues Guitar Book, or First Lessons Blues Guitar

Mel Bay offers a book entitled First Lessons: Rock Guitar. This book covers the basics such as common chords, scales, and basic theory and how it is applied to rock guitar. With this book and the chords included, you should be able to listen to your favorite pop tunes on the radio and figure them out. That only works depending on how fast your ear develops. Knowing what key the song or piece is in also helps tremendously with knowledge on how to apply that.

The first thing you have to do is understand how your key signatures work. From there you can move on the modes. This is just one approach. Mel Bay offers many books on improving and understanding scales. William Bay has a book that is excellent for learning scales arpeggios (and will probably remain an excellent reference book to use later on) called the Complete Book of Guitar Chords, Scales and Arpeggios.

Pete Tindall's book Slide Guitar is a great book for any beginner needing to learn how to play slide but have a difficult time approaching standard guitar. The open tunings used in this book will give your slide guitar skills a boost towards various areas such as blues guitar, country, pop, and rock.

Well, the short answer is about two minutes because that is all it takes to be able to start to have fun and make simple musical sounds come out of it. The real question with the Strumstick should be "how long until I start to have fun?" The answer to that is right from the start, because it sounds good right from the start, even when you know nothing. You can play songs slowly in about five minutes (although I think you should just play it at random and leave songs for a bit later).

They both have strings and they both have frets; there the similarity ends. A guitar is generally thought of as an instrument for playing harmonies and chords, while a sitar must be thought of as a melodic instrument like a flute or an oboe. If you attempt to play chords like a guitar, you will be missing the entire concept of the instrument. How easily you make this fundamental shift in the way you conceptualize the instrument will determine how easily you can pick up then sitar.

Notation and tablature systems work equally well for any style of guitar, be it electric, acoustic, or classic. While tab is essential for learning music in altered or open tunings, we recommend that all guitarists learn to read standard notation on the guitar. A guitar teacher could help you achieve your musical goals faster, but don't settle for just any teacher.

It is less complicated than guitar where you need to play chords, melody, fillers, riffs and solos. When you play bass, you play bass lines which are one note after the other rather than chords. Also, you can get away with just a bass and an amp without having to add sound effects like guitarists do. Nobody has time if they don't make it. The same goes for money, you won't have any if you don't work for it. So, if you want to achieve something you have to make time and work for it.

There is not a simple answer for this question, because it basically depends on how much time you put into your practice, and also on your goals. Those who want to gain a basic understanding of the instrument can do so in about a year at the institute. For those who want to be fully accomplished as a tabla-player, it takes many years and a lot of effort, as with any branch of the performing arts.

Alvarez, Yamaha, Seagull, and Takamine make good quality (less expensive) student model steel-string acoustic guitars. Look into used guitars as well; sometimes you can get a bargain. I would definitely try to find an instrument with a solid wood top rather than a plywood top. You might also consider getting a classic guitar with nylon strings. The necks are considerably wider than an acoustic guitar with steel strings.

This depends on the individual. Some players get on to the bagpipes in under a year. Others take over two years. Still others can take a lot longer. Bagpipes are a musical instrument and require some musical aptitude. Age is definitely a factor. Younger students (10 to 16 is the ideal age to begin) tend to learn much quicker and have potential to become great players. Older students tend to take longer to learn and usually have limited potential. Practice definitely makes a difference.

The drum corp has three differenct drums: snare (or side), tennor and bass drum. The snare drum is the most numerous in the band and the following discussion targets the snare drum. with bagpipe, the time to learn to paly drums depends on the individual. Beginners seem to be able to play a 2/4 setting after three to six months . The student begins with the practice pad. The practice pad is basically a piece of hard rubber. Here you'll learn the basics of playing.