I’m trying to find a way to understand guitar. I’ve played piano for decades and never caught on to guitar. Justin guitar was suggested. I know music theory and can read music and understand the piano.
What is the best way to learn guitar for an older person with previous knowledge in another instrument? Apps like simply guitar / yousician? Sites like Justin guitar? Fretboard visualization techniques with the 2 note theory (solo fretboard visualization)? What would you recommend?
Welcome Jeff I recommend you start at beginners’ course 1 module 1 on the web site, personally I don’t use the app, also grab some large exercise books and write out the lessons that way you don’t have to keep firing up the PC. well, it works for me anyway have fun don’t rush and don’t get too serious.as for fretboard visualization and all the other stuff that can wait until later in
the course just start learning the basics.
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As you’re on the Justin Guitar forum, you’re bound to get ‘Justin Guitar’ as the leading answer 
But honestly, it is a prime resource to learn to play. It’s very structured, but also very practically orientated, so you get playing right away. There are loads of people on here who started to learn at a riper age and got round to being able to play through this course, and quite a number of them have played one or more other instruments before. Your knowledge of music theory will certainly help you during your journey.
Overall: you’ve found the right place!
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This is the answer. 
Start at grade one and practice hard.
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Hi Jeff & Welcome!
Former trumpet player here who goofed around with guitar for over 20 years… I’ve learned more in the last couple of years than the previous 2 decades since finding Justinguitar.com…
Just my 2 cents…
Good luck!
Tod from New Mexico
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Thanks for helping. Seems this is a very nice community as well. I appreciate your time.
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. A nice community is a sign that this is the right place. I appreciate it.
Thanks 
I’m glad you took the time to help. It’s much appreciated. Seems like this is a nice community as well.
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Hi Tod,
Thanks for taking the time to help out. I appreciate it. It’s nice to see that the. Community here is so helpful.
By the way I also play trumpet. Started in elementary school. But piano is my main instrument. Like the trumpet the guitar is portable. But the guitar is polyphonic which makes it more a stand alone instrument. Again, thanks for your support.
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Hi Jeff, welcome to the community.
I did the opposite of what you speak of. Recently started playing piano keyboard after well over a decade on the guitar. For me, learning an instrument has always been about the songs. Songs songs songs. So my goal was to learn an easy song on keyboard as my first goal.
What surprised me about the keyboard was it was a lot easier than learning my first song on guitar. And it taught / reinforced music theory very quickly which the guitar initially didn’t do but I digress.
I’d encourage you learn to play the rhythm / chords to a simple song first. Justin teaches a different fingering on the A chord at beginner level which gives an anchor finger so you can play the A - D - E progression more easily. Find a simple song that has such and make that your initial goal.
Look forward to hearing more from you.
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Thanks for sharing your story and for helping out. I appreciate it. And I agree. - piano is linear and clear. The guitar is a matrix and it’s hard to see.
We need practice just playing all the popular notes string by string and getting used to that at first. Maybe I should do it myself and try to hammer the note names into my psyche for all 6 strings. There are only 88 positions in a piano there are something like (including open notes) 6x16=96 notes/positions on the 6 string guitar which is a bit more. Yes they repeat but on piano they repeat too every 12 tones. Since there are 12 tones in out scale and 16 positions only 4 repeat each string. But there are 6 strings. So probably each tone should appear on average 7 times.
Talk about diverging I did it. But you made me discover something important now.
Thanks 
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If you are used to finding (as it’s easy on the piano) the chord tones, there are heaps of videos out there of people playing triads on the guitar. There are chords all over the place where you least expect them if all you do is follow the open / cowboy and barre chords that are typically taught.
For example, I play Happy Birthday in triads in the key of G and my hands go right up and down the neck with those triads.
Yep, this would be my advice. Since you already have a strong musical background I would spend some time learning where all the notes are on the fretboard. It’s a little less obvious than piano since the intervals between the strings aren’t always the same. But it’s also a bit easier because you only need to slide the same shapes/patterns up the fretboard to change the key.
Plenty of fretboard training tools online.
Hello @JeffreyD and welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.
To learn to play guitar, you do not need to read music (standard notation) nor have a vast knowledge of music theory nor know notes on the fretboard (yet, notes of open strings and upto fret 3 will come soon but not immediately). You simply need to begin with Justin’s beginner course, learn your first two and three chords, some simple techniques, the mechanics of basic strumming and to jump in.
Given that this is the Justin community, you are asking the converted!
Obviously there are loads of guitar resources out there. But you can’t go wrong starting at the beginning of Justin’s course and following the lessons. If something is too easy and obvious, just watch the video and go onto the next bit. Most of the first part of the course introduces guitar techniques without much theory and is essential knowledge packaged into easy to follow lessons that will allow you to see progress rapidly (assuming you practice).
Don’t hesitate to use the community as a good place to pose questions. It’s a very helpful bunch of people.
Best, Ian
I recommend the old Absolutely Understand Guitar course on YouTube with Scotty West. Each instrument has its own applied music theory, and while the guitar and piano are both polyphonic instruments, they are completely different. A piano can only play one note in one place. You can find the same note in around six places on the guitar, and use these different locations to voice chords more easily. Intervals are linear on a keyboard, but a grid on the guitar. How do you find an octave on the guitar? Two strings up and two frets up. But why? That’s where AUG basics are helpful. Map your twelve semitones without the help of black keys.
You can do AUG lessons in between JG course lessons.
I started with the same experience 3 years ago (at 51). Long-time amateur piano player with a classical background — theory, sightreading, the works.
My advice: start right away with music you actually like, just look for super-simple tunes at first, then follow wherever your musical sensibility leads. As you s-l-o-w-l-y work through each piece, always ask yourself the usual questions — what notes of the chord am I playing, which key, where do these notes sit on the fretboard bar by bar. A general guitar fretboard 101 tutorial can help break the ice, but there’s no substitute for gradual absorption. Just like piano — logical as it is — nothing gets learned all at once, and there’s no shortcut that simply unlocks it. It takes time. Right now I’m working through Grade 3; the first two were genuinely useful, full of guitar-specific detail that helped connect the dots (and notes 
).
The big revelation: I need to play the styles I actually enjoy playing (which is not the same as what I like to listen). Also, strumming alone isn’t enough to keep me going, and I need far more challenge — and at the same time more patience with myself — to just relax and let it sink in. Slowly, I’m starting to see the organized structure hiding under those six strings.