How to Learn to Play Guitar

Learning to play guitar requires a great deal of time, patience, discipline, and the burning desire to learn. But in return, being able to play a guitar can be an extremely fulfilling experience and can provide incomparable enjoyment. It can be ones outlet to different emotions. Many people make a successful career out of it too. If you want to learn how to play guitar and don't know where to start, then this article is for you. I am assuming that you already have a guitar to start with so clip your finger nails and continue reading.

TUNING YOUR GUITAR. Before you start, make sure your guitar is not out of tune. Either ask someone to tune it for you or get one of those electronic or digital tuner. There are also web sites that help you manually tune your guitar. Keep in mind that tuning is an important aspect to develop if you wish to become a better musician. What good does knowing all the broken chords or having the most expensive guitar if you cannot tell an out of tune guitar? So this is something that you need to practice on also.

GUITAR CHORD CHART. Always keep a print out of a Guitar Chord chart handy at this stage until such time you know all the major chords by heart. This is very important since you will not be able to remember most of them instantly. If you can have a giant chord chart poster on the wall of your room, that would be better.

PICK A SONG. The song you should pick as your practice song had to be simple. Meaning it has to be acoustic (no metal rock noisy songs) because it is clean and you won’t have difficulty isolating the guitar sound from other instruments; Strummed pattern because it is the easiest starting point when learning to play guitar; Slow tempo because fast tempo means fast chord switching; Easy chord pattern like A, C, D, E, or G (no Bar Chords like F or B because these are difficult to start with). Unfortunately, songs with these characteristics are mostly country songs, so be patient if you are not into country songs.

LISTEN TO THE SONG UNTIL YOUR EAR BLEEDS. It’s probably not going to happen, but seriously, you need to listen to your practice song as often as you can and try to pick up the details. It helps to enhance your ability to recognize tones and eventually play the guitar by ear. It will help you get the correct tempo and strumming patterns too. This technique is also useful if you are trying to learn the picking pattern of a song with or without the guitar tabs in front of you (I’d say this will be your next stage).

UTILIZE YOUR RESOURCES. It is more encouraging if you have a friend or family member who knows how to play the guitar to give you some pointers. But if you have no one, it’s not the end of the world. Search the internet for the chord pattern of your practice song and print out a copy for your reference. You can also go to www.ultimate-guitar.com and they have a great collection of songs with chords and tablatures. I also recommend searching for video lessons of your practice song for your visual reference. It will help you learn faster.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, AND MORE PRACTICE! The more time you spend practicing with your guitar, the faster you will move up and advance. If you can’t play it right, don’t give up! Just keep practicing and eventually you will improve. Practicing your song not only helps you remember the chord patterns, but it also speed up your chord switching. Once you are comfortable playing your practice song, you can start picking another song to learn. This time, choose something with a different tempo, chord patterns with Bar chords, and strumming pattern.

At the same time, you should start reading about guitar basics and fundamentals to widen your knowledge and help you get a better understanding of music. Do not take a shortcut because it might frustrate you and discourage to continue learning.

Once you get good at it, you may consider taking serious lessons if you really want take your guitar skills to the next level. Goodluck with your journey!

Comments (1)

paul said:

	... I've been slowly learning the guitar but am not very good. Good article.
	report abuse vote down vote up

September 04, 2009
Votes: +0