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Please note, you do not have to play the guitar (you may fully theorise based on rational thought) nor do you have to focus only on guitar (you may talk about another instrument, as long as they could applie to guitar).

To start, I will outline a few methods I have seen. For the sake of conversation, I will make up names (as in, they probably aren't right).

Natural- Rarly or never getting instruction of any sort, never doing cover songs etc. A natural style should (I'm guessing) lead to a unique style, with no influence of other known music. When learning the musician will experiment until he finds something that sounds good, or will have thought of and then tried to play on guitar. Obviously there will probably still be some subtle influences, though hopefully many won't be related to published music, and rather, other more natural sounds (like rain, for example).

Cover- Learns how to play guitar by learning how to play songs that have already been written. Obviously, style will be heavily influenced by the songs this musician has learned to play. Will probaby (again, I'm guessing) mix and match parts of songs they've already played to create something new, yet not totally original.

School- Learns to play the guitar through lessons and music practice books, from professionals. These musicians tend to get really good, really fast, but all sound the same. There is a lack of uniquness and style (GUESSING!). It's been said "Any person who got lessons and says they have their own style is lying".

To be fair, ones goals will heavily affect which method of learning they choose, so explain the goal you wish to examine the best method for first.

-Career
For me, I have been learning under the natural style. This is because I hope that by playing on my own accord, creating my own patterns and rhythm I will have a sound like no other (and if there is, only by pure coincidence). The obvious downside of this is (if it even works out that way) that it might be harder to work with other people, and adapt to their sound (in a band, sounding good is clearly your main concern). However, I think with several natural artists, the sound would still be unique, and be well worth the effort of working together and compromising.

-Plain entertainment for friends and the like
I would have to say Natural is a very safe choice if it goes the way I think it would. There's no worries about adapting to styles, and people who frequently listen to people play guitar will not have a sense of "I swear I've heard this exact thing before".

Obviously I'm bias toward Natural, this is partly because I'm cheap, and partly because I feel there is more satisfaction in coming up with something that sounds good all on your own. I have friends from all three theorys (hence how I know about them), who sound good, but it's tricky bussiness figuring out which is best.

PS: Sorry it's long and unfocused, but I'd really like to hear what some of you think works well, and share your experiences if you have any.

I find lessons work the best. I tried the natural way and my brother tried with lessons and he was and still is way better than I am. Its impossible not to play other bands songs (you called it cover) since your not going to be writing your own music as soon as you start. usualy, learning naturaly doesn't work to well. You get distracted and unfocused and that leads to a dusty guitar siting in the corner of your room. I don't really see how your style can be unique if you try learning by yourself unless your doing something wierd and/or wrong. Lessons usualy give you the same style as your teacher but thats usualy because that is the right way to do it. style isn't a very big issue unless your writing your own stuff. When your playing some one esle's song, if its played the right way, will sound very similar unless your add some zest or whateva.

I am...


Timing, how hard you hit the strings, how often you use things like hammerons, harmonics etc and complexity.


Which is the same as every other teacher sounds, and every other person who's ever taken lessons sounds.


The right way is the one that sounds good. To some people, new things sound better than repeated things.


This is where goal become important. Some people will be happy playing songs that aren't theirs, others will feel a need to add something of thier own.


This is exactly what some people avoid. Say you're holding band try outs, 10 people with lessons sound exactly the same, because they're playing the exact notes. 1 person with unique style sounds distinctly different. If you choose the person with lessons, you're not going to sound new, you'll sound like every other band. Choose the person with the unique style you might have an interesting sound. That's not to say some people won't still prefer the schooled artists... it's just I won't.

How long have you been playing? When i said "you won't be writing your own stuff at beginning i meant the exact second you pick up the guitar and go "wow I just hit an E string"

I starting making my owns tunes the instant I picked up my guitar... When I get a sound driver I can show you the first thing I came up with (it was fairly complex for a total novice, and still not half bad)... I havn't played long, only about a month. But I've got callouses to show for it =) When I play guitar, I don't think what the note is called (partly because I don't know them), I just know what sounds good, or I have a sound in my head and I try to match it on the guitar.

To be fair, I burrowed my friends ukelele for a weekend a couple months ago, but even then I was coming up with fairly simple tunes.

My friend taught me the utter basics... about frettes (when he lent the ukelele), harmonics and told me the names of things I'd discovered while messing around on my own.

I guess it also depends on one's learning style. I have a very wierd (as in, few other people learn the same) one. The guitar never sits only in the corner of the room, simply because guitar is just fun to play... much like the electric keyboard =)