How long did it take for you to learn the guitar ?PROS ONLY?

Question:How long did it take for you to learn the guitar and how did you do it . Im 16 and the only this ive ever wanted to be is a guitarist , but i cant play a note . Ive just gotten the guitar and know i dont have a clue . I would love to learn by ear but i dont have a clue where to start. I would really love to be a session guitarist as my mother is a back up singer and my dad is a producer . Ive grown up around music , music is my life . I know most things about the music industry except how to play . Thats the only thing thats bringing me down at the mo lol .

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: How long did it take for you to learn the guitar and how did you do it . Im 16 and the only this ive ever wanted to be is a guitarist , but i cant play a note . Ive just gotten the guitar and know i dont have a clue . I would love to learn by ear but i dont have a clue where to start. I would really love to be a session guitarist as my mother is a back up singer and my dad is a producer . Ive grown up around music , music is my life . I know most things about the music industry except how to play . Thats the only thing thats bringing me down at the mo lol .

I started playing piano when I was 6. I think this made learning guitar at 16 easier for me, since I already knew how to read music and keep time.
In your situation, I think you may want to start giving yourself lessons. It's totally doable.
What kind of guitar do you have? I learned on a steel string acoustic. It was harder than a nylon string or an electric, but it toughened up my fingers really fast.
Get a tuner. Tune your guitar daily and listen to how the guitar sounds when tuned properly. This helped me in learning how to tune my guitar by ear.
Start goofing around. Listen to how the strings sound. Find some guitar tabs online (something simple) and start practicing. Tabs are awesome because you don't need to learn how to read music to play songs.
I would also suggest you find something on chords and start practicing finger positions. Learning basic chords is very important, even if you are trying to learn by ear.

The most important thing... unless you're a musical prodigy, you'll never get any good without practice. Set up at least an hour a day to practice. The more you practice, the more comfortable and familiar you will be with your axe!

im not a pro, but it took me 2 years of regular practice before i felt confident in my playing

I learnt in 6 months but not everyting. But i could play good enough to win a contest from people who were playing 5 years more.
I studied 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. I had a goal and today, I teach and play any styles with feeling except country music.
If you don't start, you will never play. Believe in yourself.

get a good teacher/mentor. nothing is impossible.

My guitar teacher scared me by telling I have short fingers which can be a little hard to play guitar very fluently..... I wish it never discouraged me.. coz I stopped playing after that. I wud start the clsses again some time later, but right now they r too expensive for me..

OK, I've played guitar and also over 100 other instruments professionally, and I've taught privately and also in college courses.

GET A TEACHER.

If cost is a concern, advertise at a local college's music department. A note on the bulletin board might yield a hungry guitar major who will work for cheap.

Otherwise, get referrals from your best music store.

A teacher will get you further, faster, than any other method. And that's what you want, right?

One other pointer--as a beginner, practice often for short periods. Four 10-minute sessions for a beginner yields more progress than one full hour per day. Each week, expand the time of one practice session by a minute or two until you're up to half-an-hour; then drop off the other shorter sessions one at a time while you continue to extend the time of the longer rehearsal. This procedure builds up stamina properly as well as getting you there faster.

Probably three years to play decently. I've seen people who take lessons do it in six months.

It depends how many hours per day you practise. If you practise for two hours EVERY day then you should be a reasonable player in about 5 - 7 years.

Get a teacher or you will be wasting your time.