Recommended Products
Hi! Here are some product recommendations from Greg. Please consider using the provided links to buy these products via Amazon. If you use this link, I get paid a small referral fee, which I will no doubt use for some noble purpose or other.
Our Guitar Method
Volumes 1 - 4. Most of our students start with the first volume.
Instruments
For a beginner acoustic: consider a Seagull guitar. The Baby Taylor is a great acoustic travel guitar, also excellent for kids and adults with smaller hands. For electric: most students should consider starting with a Fender Stratocaster, a staple of modern American music. For heavier (distorted) rock and metal, consider the Epiphone Les Paul. For classical and spanish guitar, go for a Nylon string such as the one suggested above.
Nail Care
It's important to keep your left-hand nails trimmed. You must have shortened fingernails to play guitar. Many guitar players maintain longer fingernails on the right hand to facilitate playing fingerstyle. The diamond dust nail file is an excellent tool for this.
Guitar Picks
Dunlop Jazz III picks: These are the best picks for playing scales and lead. They make take some getting used to. The nylon picks, .60mm, are recommended for playing chords / rhythm.
Software
Band in A Box - One version is for Windows, the other for Mac. This is the single most valuable software I have ever owned as a musician. Unlimited possibilities for developing your musical skills. You can program it to play any chord progression at any tempo in any style with any instrumentation. Simply beautiful. The Mbox Mini is highly recommended for recording. Software included. Ear Master 5 is an excellent way to work on your musical skills when you're traveling or otherwise unable to come to the guitar.
Guitar Strings
These DR 'lite' strings are recommended for learning acoustic guitar. For electric guitar, we recommend the D'addario Blues/Jazz Rock set. The string winding tool is highly recommended.
Guitar Accessories
A tuner and metronome is a must. A capo is essential if you want to write songs or sing and play. To keep your guitar in shape: a microfiber cloth and polish for the body, and super fine steel wool to gently scrub the fretboard.
Other Books
Highly-recommended books for repertoire. The blues book is a great book to begin performing ensemble tunes. The classical books are excellent for solo repertoire, the pick-style guitar book being excellent for developing technique. And the Real Book is a compilation of hundreds of jazz, latin and pop standards. Alfred's guitar book for kids is recommended for children younger than 12.
Hand Exercise
Hand-exercising tools are an excellent way to evaluate and improve conditioning of the hands, one of the primary goals in learning the guitar. Start with a low-tension Grip Master; work your way up to the higher tension models when your hand becomes stronger. You may also find benefit in strengthening your grip with the Captains of Crush tool, used by bodybuilders worldwide to build a 300+ lb pressure grip.
As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.