Tips for Learning to Play Guitar

So you’re thinking about learning guitar? Maybe your in your first few days and can’t quite get your fingers to reach all the strings at the same time. Perhaps you are having trouble getting the rhythm you want. Well in this article I am going to give you a few key tips for beginning guitar players that will hopefully help you.

Playing guitar is something that most people would like to be able to do. Just about everyone likes the sound and anyone who can play, instantly becomes popular simply because of that. Now, there are some people who are naturally gifted musicians and can pick up any instrument and learn it. However there is hope even for those of us who are not! Anyone can learn guitar with a little bit of discipline and practice. Which is tip number one: Practice every day!

If you practice every day, even if only ten minutes, you will very soon see results. You’re fingers will begin to get callused and not hurt when you play. They will become more limber and your rhythm will improve as well. Keep in mind that no great musician started great. They had to learn and practice hard into order to get to the level of playing skill that they have today. So don’t expect to be there in your first week, or even first month.

Tip number two is for learning rhythm. I have found that the best way to do so is to pick just one simple song with a simple rhythm. Then practice only that song until you have mastered the rhythm. It may take a little while and it may be frustrating but keep it up and you will get it. Once you have that song down and you can play that beat even without the song going move on to another song. Find one that is slightly more complicated with a rhythm just a tiny bit more difficult and so on. Work your way up until you can play just about anything.

Now the third tip is one that probably won’t appeal to many people but I think it’s important. Most of us want to learn guitar because we want to play our favorite songs. The problem though is that new guitarists often start off by trying to play their favorite song right away and end up being frustrated because they are not instantly at the level of playing skill as their favorite guitarist. So they end up giving up on the whole thing and never learn anything on the guitar! Start small! Pick an easy song with basic chords and that is slow enough to work up to. Faster songs often change chords faster than a new guitarist can and it is easy to get lost in them and lose track of where they are. So stick with a slow, simple song that you can quickly learn to keep up with.

Overall the most important thing in learning guitar is the practice. You can wish you could play guitar all you want. You can even own the best guitar on the market and take classes for it, but if you don’t sit down and practice as much as you can every day you will never get anywhere. So grab your guitar, start practicing and keep it up every day. You are on your way to being able to play the greatest hits! Happy playing!