Playing Guitar 2: Learning The Guitar – Starting Out

So you want to play guitar? Of course, you do. It’s cool, it’s fun, and you become the instant hit at parties. Not to mention playing music is one of the most joyful experiences one can have. Who hasn’t imagined the feeling of playing onstage in front of a crowd?

Assuming you’ve picked out your first guitar, you’re ready to start learning the instrument. First things first: learn how to tune the guitar on your own (no tuner)!! This is crucial. Guitars are temperamental and go out of tune all the time – especially if the strings are new. Tuning can go haywire from changes in temperature or humidity, if guitars are banged around, or even played aggressively. It may be frustrating at first, but it’s really easier than you think.

Now get a hold of some simple open chords and mess around with them to see what happens. Your best bet is to learn simple versions of popular songs. You’ll be able to play something cool, and friends and family will dig it as well. Approval from yourself and others will keep the “fires burning.”

Next, get a hold of some simple scales to develop your finger independence and see what happens when you experiment with them as well, and you’re well on your way to really playing the guitar.

The Importance of Practicing

Practicing is something that cannot be emphasized enough. It is the critical ingredient that determines whether you will be a good guitar player, a bad one or just the occasional “noodler.” Practicing allows us to take the patterns and knowledge and make them instinctual – physically and mentally. Without this, your playing will never flow smoothly from statement to statement, and the emotions you try to convey get lost.

The key here is to practice various patterns and principles and repeat them over and over until it’s second nature - making the playing as natural as breathing. Your mind and fingers learn the material, and you’re free to express yourself. Isn’t that what we’re striving for?

There are as many ways to practice guitar as there are guitarists. Some practice at specific times of the day for a specific amount of time and on specific things. Other just play when they feel like it and do whatever they want. Since the important thing is to have fun, I believe there’s a happy medium where one can have tons of fun and learn as much as possible. I’ll tell you how I go about it.

As you know, you need the proper tools to get the job done. For practice I will need all the items below, and ALL the learning material I have received over time. Otherwise, progress slows dramatically. The basics for guitar practice are:

• Guitar - ESSENTIAL

• Picks & strings - ESSENTIAL

• Notebook(s) – ESSENTIAL

o Everything given to the student/worked on during lessons

o Method/Instructional Books

o Blank paper: staff (or “music” paper) and notebook paper

• Metronome – ESSENTIAL

Practicing: the “Meat & Potatoes”

The first thing I do every time I pick up the guitar is TUNE IT!! Like I said before, it will go out of tune on its own. Because of this, tuning must be done first and always. Remember, if the instrument is out of tune, you won’t know what the exercises, songs, etc. are supposed to sound like, and your learning is impeded dramatically.

Second, always practice with a metronome. No one is born with perfect timing, but it can be acquired if you work diligently with the metronome. Never work at a speed too fast to play the exercise/tune perfectly, but don’t play so slowly as to not improve upon your ability or technique.

When you’re first learning to play, you should spend at least 30 minutes a day practicing the material you’ve been given. This should be reserved for practicing memorization and execution of the exercises. “Noodling” should be outside of this framework. As you receive more material, your time at practice will increase.

Finally, ‘noodling” is a fundamental and important part of learning the instrument. This undirected play leads to discoveries that are not necessarily shown in lessons. These things help the student grow as a musician and develop one’s own unique personality. They’re also the lessons best learned and remembered.

IN GENERAL:

• Play it right the first time. This is incredibly important and easily accomplished. Before you play it on the guitar, play it in your mind. Visualize the patterns your fingers will use in your mind and then play them on the guitar;

• Accuracy is the key!! Speed is the byproduct of accuracy. If you try to play fast, you’ll be sloppy and no one wants that. You’ll find your speed actually increases faster if you concentrate on accuracy; the best way you can gain it…;

• Start out slowly and gradually build up speed. The best way I’ve found to do this is to use a metronome. It may be a little frustrating at first but it’s what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Good luck to you and your future guitar adventures!