How to Learn A New Song on Guitar

Practicing the guitar can be quite frustrating for those who are new to the instrument. Though challenging, anyone who puts in the effort to learn the basics will be playing songs of their choice in no time. As a musician myself, I know that anyone who has purchased a guitar has ONE particular song that inspired them to buy it and created the dying need to play it. Continued below are my instructions on how to correctly learn a song using guitar tablature in collaboration with online music videos.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Guitar
• Computer. Internet Access
• Ability to read Tablature
• Song Name/Artist

1. The first step is to identify what song you want to play. The more popular the song is, the more likely you are to find the tablature. Recently a good number of tab sites have shut down due to the risk of copyrighted material. Do Not Fear.
2. Go to www.ultimate-guitar.com. There is no need to sign up or register here. Every tab is user submitted as an "interpretation" of the original song, and is not promoting the exact notations of the song. This allows users to submit songs they themselves have created from listening/seeing the song performed. These songs are very accurate and the majority have multiple versions to choose from. A pointer for choosing the best version is observing the song rating. A number of stars will be shown for each song, based on user ratings. Choose the song rated the best, the most number of times.
3. You have your song chosen. You have gone online and opened the tablature. Now I would suggest printing the entire song so you will be able to refer back to it away from your computer.
4. Now for further guidance, your more than likely going to be able to find a video of the song you are learning on YouTube. (www.youtube.com).
   There are thousands of close up, step by step instructional guitar lesson videos. You will be able to see how the song is played, which will greatly help your learning (some lessons even have tablature in the video). If you cant find an actual video lesson, look for a video of the artist playing the song or a cover video. You can get a good idea as to where your hands should be on the fretboard from viewing a video.
5. These are just a few ways to make sure your guitar playing is heading in the right direction. The majority of people in our society are visual learners, and thanks to technology, people can sit and watch the song they wish to learn up close and personal, over and over again. Hey before you know it you will be posting your own guitar lesson videos.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't make song learning your primary objective. You will only be hurting yourself trying to learn a difficult song too early.
• Fine tune your basic techniques and then attempt full songs.
• Learn all your basic open guitar chords first (G, D, C, Am, etc...) for easy song reading.
• Rest your fingers. Can't do much with a bunch of blistered fingertips.