Beginner’s Guide to Learning Guitar

You may have had the dream to learn how to play guitar. Your motives may range from impressing friends, entertaining others in general, a strong passion for music or a mere hobby to help you fight boredom at any time. Unfortunately, you may have given up this dream due to your tight schedule and other daily commitments. You might have felt like you had insufficient time to do it. Some may have declined due to a feeling that it’s expensive since you need a tutor or guitar lessons.

Some of you may have already started but gave up, in the long run, thinking that it’s tough and complicated. Either way, playing the guitar is quite cheap and simple. Besides, it’s fun and exciting as well. Playing guitar has become easier and faster due to the high availability of credible online resources. Surprisingly, the guitar is currently considered one of the easiest musical instrument to learn. It’s not too late for you to get started. Here is a detailed and comprehensive guide to learning guitar.

How Amazingly Fast it is Learning Guitar

Guitar is among the oldest and most prominent musical instruments in the world. It’s so popular such that almost every culture has its brand of the standard acoustic guitar. Surprisingly, we can still hear the complex leads and sweet rhythms of a guitar in most modern music genres. People opt to pick up and learn the guitar every day. Unfortunately, only a few stick with it and manage to master this instrument.

Most beginners usually fail due to impatience since they expect to learn the chords and scales quickly and to be able to play great tunes immediately. If you want to learn how to play guitar to perfection, there are various skills that you need to study. These skills include learning to play notes and chords, mastering the scales and modes, and learning different songs to actively gauge your skills on how to form music.

Here is how amazing first learning to play guitar can be:

The basic skills

There is no “best” way to learn guitar fast. You need to start with guitar lessons for beginners to master the significant areas. You can engage in either online or offline guitar lessons. The best thing is that the Internet offers the perfect free resources for detailed information, and various tips and tricks. Through the Internet, you can quickly find the chord charts, tuning software, scale charts, MP3’s, various tutorials and much more. Here are some great tips and tricks to help you quickly learn to play guitar like an expert.

Practice and repetition

This may seem obvious, but it’s among the main reasons why people give up learning guitar. Whenever studying something new, we get motivated by the marked improvement that encourages us to do more. Otherwise, we get discouraged and tend to lose hope. It’s only through practice and repetition that we get better day by day and learn quickly. According to research, our brains learn and memorize new things after hearing and doing them for at least 14 days. To become exceptional on guitar, we need to it more often than this.

Picking and strumming

There is a wide range of picks ranging from strumming, fine note, and a thumb pick. Each pick has a different size and grade of hardness. It’s always advisable for you to purchase a variety of picks for evaluation before choosing the right one for you. There are two proper ways of holding a pick; you can either hold it between the pads of your thumb and index finger or between the thumb and the side of your index finger. The first one gives you more precise single note picking while the second one is best for strumming.

Holding Chords and fretting

It’s vital to get your fingers set in the right position to form chord patterns. This is an incredible skill that only comes with time and practice. It’s also recommended to work on muscle memory to memorize your finger/hand positions and the placing on the neck to be able to switch between different chords without having to look and check on the guitar. You should always use your fingertips to push the strings to avoid overlapping the fret. If you hear a buzz instead of a sharp ring, reposition the chord and consistently repeat until you get a clear and fine sound.

Tips from a Pro Guitarist on Learning to Play Guitar

Playing guitar is one of the most exciting hobbies. It’s great fun if you discover the right way of doing it. Besides, you can make good money if you happen to be in a band that has a great name or becomes prominent. Learning how to play guitar implies that you may play in live performance or be able to teach others how to go about it once you perfect and become a competent guitarist. However, the purpose is to learn to play guitar for the sheer fun of making music successfully.

Some tips and tricks significantly contribute to the success of a beginner or pro guitarist. Here are some tips and tricks to help you learn to play guitar successfully:


Study Your Instrument

You will only learn to play the guitar correctly if you are interested in playing it to a high standard. Beware that you are likely to develop bad habits by playing it the wrong way. This won’t be easy to correct and may affect your skills incredibly. It’s always great to ensure that you learn all the basics starting from the outset while including even the minor things such as the proper way of holding the instrument. This will significantly reward you in the long run.

Connect with a competent teacher, credible books or trusted online resources. Always ensure that you learn from qualified teachers and go for reliable online sources for information. Despite the fact that you can learn a lot from the online resources and videos, a teacher is a better choice as you get to interact directly and receive a personalized assessment. Competent instructors provide a wide range of written, audio and video lessons that you can watch consistently over and over again.

Get an excellent, and high-quality chord chart

It’s mandatory for all guitarists to know how to play different chords. A chord chart is an ultimate guide on how to go about it. However, you don’t have to worry about the wide variety of chords on the chart. The best strategy is to start with simple ones and gradually hone your chord repertoire. This will help you realize that most chords can be easily and quickly learned since you may use the same chord ”shape” in various positions up and down the guitar neck giving rise to many different chords.

Practice daily

Never despise practice. Know that even a daily routine short practice can lead to a significant impact that may incredibly improve your skills in playing guitar. If you are always on a tight schedule and only manage to practice on weekends, you can instead spare a few minutes every day and do it daily. It’s far better to practice bit by bit every day even if you will only manage to do it for a short time than to abandon it for several days and have an intensive practice after long breaks. Daily practice will help your fingers and brain to adapt and coordinate properly. This will help you learn the skills easier and quicker.

Be patient

The truth is that playing guitar is highly demanding especially during the initial stages. This is due to the amount of physical effort that is required to learn to hold down the strings in various places concurrently. At this point, a lot is happening on your hands and brain since you are not used to it. You may find it tough and complicated at the onset, but all you need is patience and dedication. The best thing is that you will make progress as long as you practice a few minutes daily. Like the guitar, any other instrument also takes time to learn to play. Relax, it won’t be very tough forever, especially if you are genuine and realistic with your goals.

Learn and play with great and competent players

Go for those who you already know play guitar to a high level. Playing with musicians who can play a good standard will hone your skills to another level. You will not only be motivated, but you will also learn great tips and tricks that will incredibly speed your learning. Being able to play other genres of music will be much fun since this is one of the significant components of making music.

Quick Guide for the Electric Guitars

There is a vast difference between playing an electric guitar and an acoustic one. Ideally, you need to be well versed in playing an acoustic guitar before switching to an electric one. This is mainly because an electric guitar is often used when learning how to play the lead part. The fact is that it’ll be a challenge if you have no idea of what’s fret and how to read notes. However, learning to play guitar is not as tough as you may think. It all calls for patience and determination.

An electric guitar was first used in the 1930s in jazz music. This guitar was named after the last name of the man who invented it, “the Rickenbacker.” Electric guitars work by just converting string vibrations into an electric current which is further converted into sound by an amplifier. This is why an amplifier is a must-have device for all electric guitars. Some guitars have six strings while others 12. The number of strings usually depends on the expertise of the guitarist. Most lead guitarists often use the ordinary six-stringed guitar. However, heavy music genres prefer a 12-stringed guitar.

As stated earlier, an electric guitar mainly depends on an amplifier. This implies that you should buy the amps when buying this guitar. Here is a list of what you need for a complete package of electric guitar accessories:

  1. Amplifier
    The amplifier must be around 10-15 watts. An amplifier with this power is for practicing purposes and can’t be used for performing.
  2. Guitar strap
    You can’t play an electric guitar without a strap while standing since it’s heavy. You should buy a sturdy and tough guitar strap. Ignore the designs as they can easily lure you to purchasing a weak strap. Go for quality and not beauty.
  3. A cable wire
    Cable wire is used to connect the guitar to the amplifier.
  4. Guitar pick
    Unlike an acoustic guitar, it’s not easy to play an electric guitar by bare fingers. A pick is critical since it prevents your fingers from getting hurt.

Tuning is one of the most critical guitar lessons. It’s quite tricky to learn how to play guitar without tuning skills. Tuning an electric guitar requires more skills than tuning an acoustic one due to the role of amplifiers in the sound. Amplifiers can easily distort your hearing, and thus, you are advised to use a tuner. It’s usually a challenge for the beginners to discover their pitch and that’s why an electric tuner is critical in learning to play guitar, particularly electric guitars.

Finally, always play your favorite songs. It’s discouraging to play boring songs. Playing your favorite songs will motivate and help you learn quick and fast. If chords turn out to be difficult, find songs with over six chords and gradually work your way up to the more complex ones. Go for incredible electric guitar lessons and feel the joy of learning new skills and playing your favorite songs.

In conclusion, learning the guitar is cheap, exciting and straightforward. It’s a great hobby that may be used to fight boredom, entertain others and much more. Above all, playing guitar as a profession may earn you extra cash. You may even make a living out of it. If playing guitar has ever been your dream, you have nothing to hold you back. Go for your dream!

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