Novice mistakes/ignorance in your early playing days...

[Benrocky]

Ambitious.
How'd it work out for you?

Badly

It put me off playing guitar for a little while, thinking 'man if i cant nail this song by now, i must be bad at this.'

I still refuse to go back to it, the scars are still fresh.

[Aquila Rossa]

The biggest mistake many novice guitarists make is to spend so much time trying to become a good soloist that they neglect to learn the skills required to become a good musician.

[druz15]

The biggest mistake many novice guitarists make is to spend so much time trying to become a good soloist that they neglect to learn the skills required to become a good musician.

this, the world is fully of yngwie widdly wannabes that can't play basic rhythm to save themselves. Bands (well good ones) don't want someone who can play flight of the bumblebee at 800bpm, they want someone who knows how to slot in with the drummer and bassist perfectly and work with a chord progression, know how they work to contributing to songwriting etc.

Still have a laugh when I think about first year uni when all the metal übershred guitarists' jaws dropped at the simple Earth Wind & Fire chord and melody chart we got given. None of them could play it come assessment time, but by god could they sweep pick and shred.

[Zaulkin]

I had an argument with this russian kid about how to play master of puppets back in 4th form. We were both playing it right.

I wish I spent less time looking at gear demos/buying gear and more time actually playing. I don't actually care about the gear now because I can get a good sound out of most setups... But then, if I hadn't spent the time trawling through pedals/amps/guitars/gear then I may not have found how to get 'my' tone. Hmmm.

Can't actually think of much else (other than more of the same)... I'm pretty happy with the way I have progressed although I wish I had sooner picked up a teacher who would teach me how to read music. It got hard when I needed to do it and couldn't.

[Terexgeek]

I wish I hadn't pissed around; I should've joined a band sooner.

[Matt_Demise]

I am having a metal zone and enough KT88's

I wish I did

[druz15]

Can't actually think of much else (other than more of the same)... I'm pretty happy with the way I have progressed although I wish I had sooner picked up a teacher who would teach me how to read music. It got hard when I needed to do it and couldn't.

oh fuck yeah this. Sight reading when you've just started guitar = challenging but a natural progression and easy enough to pick up if you work on it.
Sight reading when you've got 7 years playing by ear on you and a complete differently approach to playing = nigh fucking impossible

[RuBear]

You just need a good book to teach you, I recommend "A Modern Method for Guitar - Volumes 1, 2, 3 Complete (Berklee Methods)", obviously can just start with volume 1 and see how you go.

Or have you already figured it out?

[rob_on_guitar]

Fatal Mistake: Buying gears that were awesome, later selling them to support the sex drugs and rock n roll life style then finding out years later they were worth thousands more than what i sold them for.

But what a frikin blast!

Being polite is also a mistake, crank it up because all rock guitars should be arrogant mofos.

[alf]

I wish I hadn't pissed around; I should've joined a band sooner.

this - now it's hard to find one that fits location, age and lifestyle and wants/accepts a noob

[darkness]

I wish I hadn't pissed around; I should've joined a band sooner.

this - now it's hard to find one that fits location, age and lifestyle and wants/accepts a noob

this +1000.

[Vince]

I wish I hadn't pissed around; I should've joined a band sooner.

this - now it's hard to find one that fits location, age and lifestyle and wants/accepts a noob

Start your own.

A few years ago, I really wanted to be in a band, but I was stuck in Milan which is good for nothing but metal tribute bands and techno. Horrible music scene.

At the same time, with my wife and a friend of hers we found that we were having fun drinking a few beers and singing along to country records.

So I taught my wife to play very basic drums (I taught her how to drum using sticks and an old sauce-pan) and got the friend to sing. Of course, I had to write songs that played to the band's strengths and we developed a sound of our own, but I was in a band, with regular rehearsals and so on. We had to get a new singer when the friend went back to America but we even managed to play a couple of gigs.

So yeah, start your own with whoever you have around you.

[TmcB]

I found that my confidence was seriously dented by a guy who learned in the same lesson time as me.
Pretty much started being an excellent prospect for lead etc. but over time got ridiculed so much that I lost all confidence, the will to learn and concentrated on rhythm guitar, after a while switching to bass. My rhythm is really tight and I play random stuff in terms of chords; I usually need to split my guitar parts into two for others to play because I like to combine them all together. It's kinda like I have no confidence doing lead but incorporating it in chords is fine. It's such a bit mental block.

I've taken my time to get back being a bit more confident with guitar, trying to learn the major scales and the proper up/down picking method.
I know that if I'd had the sense to just have one-on-one sessions with the teacher, things would have been a lot different.

SO yeah, make sure you get a good teacher that can spot these confidence issues, actually knows his stuff, and cares enough to take action.

I desperately need a teacher now methinks, to get to a point where I'm happy with my playing.

[Matt_Demise]

Fatal Mistake: Buying gears that were awesome, later selling them to support the sex drugs and rock n roll life style then finding out years later they were worth thousands more than what i sold them for.

But what a frikin blast!

Being polite is also a mistake, crank it up because all rock guitars should be arrogant mofos.

You paid for sex?

[Slowy]

Fatal Mistake: Buying gears that were awesome, later selling them to support the sex drugs and rock n roll life style then finding out years later they were worth thousands more than what i sold them for.

But what a frikin blast!

Being polite is also a mistake, crank it up because all rock guitars should be arrogant mofos.

You paid for sex?

You always pay for sex.