Yousician is a cool app that helps you learn guitar. Check it out and see what you think.

Second yousician. Great app for a beginner or anyone looking to improve skills.progression is kinda slow if you are an intermediate player though.

I suggest having your son search YouTube for tutorials for songs he likes. Learning songs you actually like is WAY better than twinkle twinkle. Plus chicks don't dig twinkle twinkle...

Bar chords. Period.

All I can say is this... as a techie who recently discovered live music... I have tried to learn the bass guitar twice now. And just literally no luck. (Although I am an engineer by trade, I just think it’s not possible for me!!). So with that said the local band that I love and adore so much, I have now relinquished myself to doing lights for them. PRO BONO!! it’s the o my way I feel I can give back!!

So hats off to those of you “artsy fartsy left brained individuals” that can truly “rock it out!!”

I have a musical background and decided to learn guitar too. I second searching for "guitar lesson song X" on YouTube. It's way more fun if it's songs you like. You also figure out which type of songs are easy vs. hard pretty quickly.

Rocksmith 2014 Enhanced Edition. You and your son can play together with hundreds of different songs.

Songsterr is my go to app for tabs and chords. YouTube for video lessons, and Hal Leonard guitar lessons book for the basics. I still suck after a few years, but the more time I put in for practice the better I get. Have fun, it’s a good father/son activity.

Power chords graduating to bar chords will get you a long way — learn 5 bar blues progression and the blues box plus a few “tools/tricks” in the box and you guys can jam all night long before too long. Sorry no website advice just general.. I learned by printing out tabs of favorite songs and took some lessons on the blues progressions / solo licks and it helped tons.

I’d recommend Justin Guitar. He has hundreds of free lessons that begin at the most basic (how to hold a guitar) and have a well thought out progression through open chords, barre chords, strumming patterns, scales, etc. He also has song tutorials that help put the practice techniques of each of his lessons to use.

I’m in no way affiliated with him but do think his courses are well thought out easy to follow and offer a good progression.

And as with most instruments, finding others to play with can greatly accelerate learning and make it much more enjoyable.

I like Marty Schwartz and his YouTube channel Guitar Jamz. Probably because he does a lot of material that I love.
IMO, unless you are really motivated and or have great ear for music, nothing beats a good teacher. They can watch you play and point out small things that you are missing or bad habits you may be forming.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL86E27FBF1726F463&v=ZSMsNqDr9aI

I second this!

Here's what rocksmith 2 player mode looks like with a couple easier songs:

And then:

Get the free Fender Guitar Tuner app, it's the best I've found.

Jamplay.com is where I started five years back. At the time, there were 30 different teachers, numerous styles of music to choose from, and superbly laid out progression of lessons. Combined with weekly live lessons, forums to ask questions on, and written lessons as well, I could not recommend them highly enough. I know that they've grown a lot over the past few years. Annual subscriptions are currently $159.99, I believe. You should check them out!

I found the best way to learn guitar is to learn to play songs using tablature. Music theory and playing scales is good, but it can get boring and you're more likely to quit playing guitar if you use these traditional methods. When you learn a song using tablature, it gets you motivated to learn more... Songsterr has many popular songs on guitar in tablature and most of it is free...

https://www.songsterr.com/

Fret Zealot is integrating Justin Guitar lessons next week....

You can't train your ear by watching a video.

Get some tablature. Learn some chords. Then learn some scales. Then LISTEN to your favorite songs/licks etc and try to figure them out. One or two notes at a time if that's what it takes, and that IS what it takes. Before long, you will be able to hear something and not only know what's being played, but where on the neck they're playing it.

Fall back on YouTube if you get stuck, but personally I'm glad it wasn't around in the mid 70s when i started playing. I doubt I would be the player I became if I hadn't been forced to listen, then try, then listen, then try again instead of just watching a video and having it handed to you.

Yep. Guitarjamz (Marty Schwartz) is the best online instructor for beginners with a website that is easy to follow. Don’t try to skip ahead with the lessons and they all pay off.

I just started trying to learn last week. Marty Schwartz’s videos is what I’ve been using as well. Seems to be working so far.

Bought this Fender Squier Stratocaster and loving it.

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I know it’s old school, but this was how I learned 35 years ago. Lessons learned here are timeless.

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i picked up a guitar about a year ago. I find short scale guitars much easier to play. My go to guitar is currently a 24" scale telecaster. I also find the flatter fretboard radius on Gibsons uncomfortable. Rocksmith is a fun way to learn. I also recommend Justin Guitar.

The flatter the radius, the lower the strings can be set without **fretting out** when bending.

But chording is easier on a lower radius neck.

Fender has **compound radius** necks on their better guitars:

9.5" radius at the nut - for easy chording, that gradually flattens out to 14" radius at the 15th fret for low action, easy soloing/bending.

It's kinda the best of both worlds.

Going back to your original post, are you really starting out cold? That is, playing for the first time? If so I still think the best way to start is with some face to face lessons. Getting in front of someone experienced who can observe you and get you set up correctly with the basics will be a tremendous help in giving you something to build on. If you start on your own by just grinding it out you might set in some bad habits that will be hard to get rid of later. Don’t ask me how I know this.

It would also be good to know what your goals are. There are so many paths to go down, and while the basics apply across the board, the style you want to learn is a big factor. You said you have acoustics, and a lot of the suggestions here, while great, really won’t apply to acoustic playing. Using 2 string power chords isn’t really going to work well on an acoustic.

To continue learning, the internet has absolutely exploded with content for learning guitar. There is so much out there you could never go through it all. A lot of it is paid and a lot is free. I took a fair amount of lessons from several teachers over the years and it was very helpful. I was able to progress to a good degree, although I am not claiming to be a great player by any means. However I noticed that once you reach a certain plateau of execution the lessons often deteriorate to you asking how to play your favorite song and your teacher showing it to you note by note. This even happened with my last teacher, after I finally learned to play full scales instead of pentatonics I got into learning all the songs I always wanted to play. Finally one day my teacher came right out said to me, hey I don’t mind doing this if you want to pay me, but I’m not teaching you anything new any more. You’re just paying me to learn a new song. You can get that for free from the internet. And he was right. For the past few years I have learned a lot just from what is out there. There are a ton of sites with paid content that are no doubt great. But for myself I have found that there is enough totally free stuff to keep me occupied for a looong time. The main issue with the free stuff is that some of it is junk. So you need to be able to tell what is junk and what is good and accurate stuff. You can do this once you have some experience.

In the end, you gotta practice. A lot. But it’s fun stuff.

Fender Play seems to think really highly of themselves. $10/mo right now but there is a 30 day trial. Might be worth a look, out nothing if it's not for you.

https://www.fender.com/play

Would this be a good guitar to learn on?

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Good Lord, it has been three years!

How has your adventure into the Axe gone so far?