Ways to keep going at guitar?

I stopped going to guitar lessons for a personal reason that I donot wish to say. Anyways, I pretty much just jam on it and play some regular chords on it every day.. Any ways I can start to play again? Anyone know some good Do it yourself books? Where i can teach myself... Any suggestions so I can get better at it?

Hey. I am a self taught guitarist except for two lessons. The best way to learn is to look up various tabs on the internet, starting with easier songs and working your way to more difficult.
I use Power Tab Editor because this program plays through midi thousands of songs in its archives (new ones added daily) and it's all free. All you have to do is download the program.
*edit: download from download.com

The good thing about this is, ordinary tabs indicate nothing of the rhythm. In playback mode, you can simply hear the midi play the guitar part.

If you download this, you can also download tons of different lessons. I recommend the Jazz Chords lesson. I don't even play jazz but it teaches you a lot of chords.

By the way, I am a competent musician in the regards of reading music, but I can tell you it hasn't had any significantly role in my guitar playing. The only thing I used it for was an instrument in my schools band. Good luck! rock on

I found that taking a break for a few days after playing for a few weeks gives me a fresh perspective. Also, I like to play different guitars... electric, acoustic, classical... each piece I play gets translated different and I get another new outlook.

Also try piano or another instrument... you start to think about accompaniment and perhaps trying to replicate the music on an entirely different instrument cna be a challenge.

Like anything in life, you have to go for what you love regardless of what others do or say. If you enjoy jamming doing your own thing, that's what you need to do. There are a lot of bad teachers out there who kill a student's creativity and enjoyment of the art. Remember, a super talented guitar player doesn't have to teach to make money, you are often getting the mediocre ones who can be weird or control freaks. The best way to get good is to learn to play the songs you listen too. Learn tablature and look up songs on the internet. If you can't teach it to yourself, find a guitar teacher that will teach you to read tabs and learn the songs YOU like. Screw anyone else who interferes with that!

What I would do is go to a website like
www.ultimate-guitar.com
and look up any tab you like thats what I do
also I respect that you play guitar
keep playin

learning songs is good, learning scales and practicing them constantly is also good. basically, just play many hours every day and you'll keep going and progressing

The Guitar for Dummies isn't bad. And it comes with a CD to help you out. There are many guitar books out there and all of which help in their own way but the writers seem to forget they already know how to play and the reader doesn't.

If you can afford it check out this website : http://thenextlevelguitar.com/

They're pretty good and fun, but nothing is for free. If you really want to benefit, you need to be a member. But the free lessons are a good start and bring the basics to life as opposed to many lessons that you pay much more for. Instead of learning the basics by playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, you learn them by playing Stairway To Heaven.

Lastly, the way I started playing, many years ago. Take an hour out of every day, at a minimum and listen to your music like you've never listened to them before. Learn to hear only the guitar and nothing else. And then start plucking strings at different frets and hearting what makes what noise and where.

Just remember that most of the greats in classic rock history had NO lessons at all. They just grabbed a guitar and used it as an outlet to what they were feeling and expressed it all in music. As that is what real music is, expressing feeling through the strings.

Good luck.