What tips would you like to give to someone who started learning guitar?

2017-06-25

This was a Quora question by the same title that I answered yesterday. Thought I would share my answer here as well

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Persistence, persistence, persistence!

Congrats! You have started playing the guitar, one of the most versatile and popular instruments. The journey begins now. If you follow a simple but persistent practice regimen, the end result will be fantastic. Think of you coming from work, tired, bored, then pick up your guitar and play a couple of tunes. Its the best way to de-stress! Or you’re at a gathering with friends, you pick a guitar and either sing and play or accompany someone who sings. Thats life of a party.

Now to the details!

There are plenty online resources. There are YouTube lessons, courses on Udemy. All these in case you don’t have access to a teacher. But having a real teacher works the best!

Consistency of practice is a must. I teach guitar as well, and I tell my students to put in at least 20mins and at least 5 times a week. More the better, and faster you learn. But more than playing once a week for 2 hrs, its so much better to practice a little more frequently.

Learn to tune the guitar properly. Most of us now have access to a smart phone or a tablet, and there are plenty of (free) apps to tune a guitar. Never play a guitar thats not tuned. Learn to do absolute and relative tuning.

Work on chords. Simple chords, open chords, major, minor and seventh shapes will take you far. Make sure they sound clear.

Play to a rhythm. Playing a chord sequence without a proper rhythm is pointless. Its essential to pick up a few simple rhythm patterns. Once again, a metronome app, or a drum machine app, helps keeping time.

Playing clean is more important that playing fast. When you play anything, a song, or a chord sequence, its important to sound clean than playing fast. Make sure the strings ring out clearly. No dead tones, no muted sound (unless you intend to play muted). Once you get used to a tune, or a chord progression, or a rhythm pattern, playing fast automatically develops.

Playing guitar is a combination of many things. Left hand (also called the fretting hand), and right hand (picking hand), playing on beats, playing in tune, playing and singing (if you’re a singer as well)! To begin with focus on developing one thing at a time. If you’re working on chord transitions, then focus on smooth transitions in your left hand. If you’re working on plucking individual strings, focus on right hand, and so on. Slowly it all comes together.

Let your natural instinct drive you. This one is important. IMHO, guitar is a very personal instrument. Its an extension of who you are. The same song can be played by two guitarists, because they interpret it differently. And you want to develop your personal style, tone! This is one reason, why you see the most famous guitarists have their own style. In some cases, you can hear a guitar played by a famous guitarist for 10 secs, and can exactly tell who it is. Let that be part of you as well. Always look out to re-interpret. Obviously it takes certain level of proficiency to get into that zone. But it should be a goal. Not to copy-paste a song exactly as the record, but play it in your style. There are literally so many variables in guitar playing, fingerstyle, pick picking, electric, acoustic, plucking, playing distortion, chords, melody, percussive style (on an acoustic guitar) and so on, any song can be played in many diff styles. And that, frankly, is the most exciting part of being a guitarist.

Hope this helps many aspiring guitarists.