How to learn to play the guitar

So you've got your fisrt guitar or are thinking about getting one. You may be asking yourself whether it is worth it, or whether you'll be able to play like the guitar gods. To increase your chances of becoming a guitar god, follow these tips and start learning fast!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar
• Amplifier
• Patience

1. This first point seems very obvious, so just hang in there. But you need to familiarize yourself with the guitar. As you know, the guitar is constructed with a head, neck and a body. The body is made to maximize the sound, the neck has frets to adjust the pitch and the head holds the strings properly and alters the tune.
   
   The strings on the guitar are tuned:
   1st string E (thinnest string)
   
   2nd string B
   
   3rd string G
   
   4th string D
   
   5th string A
   
   6th string E (thickest string)

2. Look online (or purchase a book) that will teach you the basic chords. What I did to learn to play the guitar by myself, was to play those for 2 hours a day until I got them all down perfectly. You will need a lot of daily practice if you want to play well. Also, there is more than one way to play each chord. Learn every single one of them, as it will make playing one chord after the next easier.

3. You will need to get your fingers callused. This will hurt in the beginning, but the more you practice, the faster the pain will go away.

4. If you know someone who already plays the guitar, try and play together, since you can learn from them. I found that this was very helpful, and it also helped me learn the proper sound of the chords.

5. If there is a guitarrist you really like, try and watch them play. See what techniques they use, and maybe even how they learned. This may inspire you.

6. There are many free resources online for learning how to play the guitar. Some people post lessons on YouTube, some have made online tutorials. Use a search engine to find those.

7. Try to record yourself playing. This way, if you get frustrated, you can always hear your progress and look forward to your next improvement.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice makes perfect. Always practice. No one is born knowing how to play, and the only way people can play so well is because they have spent many hours practicing.
• Get a guitar that you like, however, make sure that it is proper for learning. Some guitars are heavier than others, the frets are different, etc.
• Consider an instructor. Once you have learned the basics, an instructor will be able to make you go above and beyond.

[JesaLynn]

on 3/27/2008 Oh, wow THIS is a very useful article, I have had an acoustic guitar in my closet for two years now. Once the initial fooling around wore off I had not pulled it out. But I really would like to learn, your article has inspired me to really take the time and put in the effort to learn. Thanks!