The Basics of Learning How to Play Guitar
If you’re looking for a good way to get started playing guitar, there are some basic things you should know before diving in.
There are so many guitar teachers, guitar players and guitar books out there. It can get a bit confusing trying to figure out what the best guitar is for you and how to learn to play it.
If you’re like me, you probably need a little help getting started. In this lesson, I’ll cover the basics of learning to play guitar and how to choose an electric guitar that works best for you.
Where to start?
A newbie guitar player might be a bit nervous about picking up the instrument. It’s understandable that a guitar is not the easiest instrument to learn to play. But with enough patience, practice, and good equipment, you can pick it up easily.
You don’t have to be an expert to be able to learn how to play the guitar. And it’s never too late to start playing the guitar. There are a few basics that you need to know in order to get started.
If you want to learn how to play the guitar, you need to understand some basic facts. One of the first things you should do is buy a guitar that you like, so you can play along with the songs you already love.
If you’re interested in learning how to play guitar, you’ll probably also want to buy a quality guitar that’s comfortable for you to hold. You’ll also want to purchase some guitar accessories—such as a guitar tuner, amplifier, and a guitar stand.
It’s important to have good equipment, so you can create your own sound and express yourself fully on the guitar.
Learning How to Play Guitar for beginners
We know how tricky it can be when you are getting started with guitar, so we want to cover some easy things to help you get started quickly
1. Get the Basics of guitar down first
It doesn’t matter what style of guitar you play. The first thing you should learn is how to tune your instrument. If you can’t get your guitar in tune, no one else can. And it’s impossible to play with a bad guitar.
As the old adage goes, if you can’t play the blues, you can’t rock. Playing the blues is all about knowing the basic elements of how a chord is built. Once you know these basics, you’ll be able to learn a new song and apply those same concepts to the way you play.
Learning to play blues means learning about a specific chord shape called a “major scale” and playing the notes of the scale in a specific order. You can do this over and over again with different chords to create the sound of your favorite blues.
2. Get the right musical equipment for your style
The second psychology principle on this list is consistency, and the idea behind it is pretty self-explanatory: People tend to act more in line with their behavior when it’s familiar. So the easiest way to get someone to keep returning to your site is to give them the same experience over and over again.
When you find that someone has stopped engaging with your content because they can’t find what they want, change up how they’re being shown information, and make sure that the layout is visually consistent with the rest of the content on your site.
Now, I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a gearhead, and I spend a lot of time searching for new gear. However, when it comes to music, there are a few basic guidelines to follow.
Don’t get a guitar or amplifier that will completely dominate your sound and limit what you can do with it. Most people end up buying a guitar or amp that doesn’t do a great job of expressing their creative side and they regret it.
3. Learn the songs that you want to play
The key thing to remember when learning how to play the guitar is that it is hard work. If you are learning music and songs that don’t appeal to you then you will not enjoy the learning process.
There will be times when your fingers are feeling stiff and sore, and your finger tips will be tender and blistered, which means that sometimes you really will not want to play.
The music that you love will help you to overcome the temptation to not practice, which is vital in the early stages of guitar.
If you love fast and technical music then you will be disappointment at your perceived lack of progress, but remember to also concentrate on scales and other exercises to keep things fun and fresh.
If your music requires many chords to play, then you can definitely get into that side of guitar, but remember that unless you plan on becoming a well rounded musician that can play songs around the campfire, then you might not need to invest all that much time into it.
4. Learn to Read Music Notations and not just guitar tabs
Depending on the kind of music you plan on learning you will need to learn how to read the either notation or tabs. Tabs are far easier to learn, as they mirror the fret board of the guitar and show you which frets need to be used in order to play a song completely.
Music notation shows you the musical notes as symbols, which denote the speed, duration and many other aspects of music. It’s not vital to learn musical notation in this day and age, but it is a cool way to show other people that you have taken the time to learn it.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
There are no shortcuts to playing guitar, and as tired as the old trope is, it still rings true, practice makes perfect. Guitar-playing experts agree that you need to work on all aspects of your craft, especially the fundamentals.
This is particularly important when it comes to learning new techniques like arpeggios, alternate picking, and hammer-ons. In addition to playing technique, make sure you work on practicing at a good pace.
You may not realize it, but you have to practice every single day in order to succeed. And just like a musician who can’t play the guitar without spending time practicing each and every day, you have to spend time with your business or hobby each and every day in order to grow and improve.
Conclusion: Moving forward
To learn to play the guitar well, you need to practice regularly—daily, if possible. But you also have to practice the right way.
There are plenty of online lessons that offer to teach you guitar, but you don’t want to just watch someone else play, because they won’t be playing the guitar exactly the way that you do.
You have to practice playing the guitar like a pro. You can’t just watch someone else play, then copy what they do and expect to become a great guitarist. To learn to play guitar the right way, you need to do what I call a “Guitar Practice Checklist.”
This checklist helps you understand what you need to do in order to play guitar well. Stay tuned as we will be publishing more great info and articles about all aspects of learning music and recording.
