When most people decide to learn the guitar, they see the only natural option as approaching a professional tutor. Of course, if you are looking to pick up the guitar quickly, one on one lessons with a qualified guitar tutor are probably the fastest way to perfect your skills and to progress with your tuition. It's also probably one of the most expensive, as compared to the various self-teaching methods available for the determined student. With some determination and drive, teaching yourself in your own time at home can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience, and can save you money in the long run, as well as enable you to spend enough time where you need it most in learning the guitar.
To learn to play guitar at home, you need only a guitar book or a connection to the Internet to pickup guitar online lessons. Other than that, you can begin learning the guitar in a couple of hours a week, or a couple of hours a day depending on your schedule. But in order to succeed at learning guitar, practice is vital, and regular access to a guitar is essential. For this reason, most students borrow a guitar from a friend or family, or purchase one of their own. For less than $100, you can find a great beginners guitar, which will allow you to practice whenever possible for quicker results.
Starting to play the guitar at home firstly requires you to learn how to tune the instrument. Initially, buying an electronic tuner with an LCD display will suffice, although for the longer term it will be desirable to learn open tuning. In most guitar books, you will find a guide to basic tuning, although in summary playing each string in the fifth fret should equate to the sound of the open string directly below. If this is not the case, the string directly below must be adjusted at the machine heads until it sounds 'in tune'. The exception to this rule is the third string, which must sound similarly to the string below when played in the fourth fret. Again, if there is a discrepancy, it is the second string (i.e. the string directly below) that must get adjusted accordingly to ensure it sounds the same note.
After learning how to tune the guitar, learning at home requires you to grasp the basic chords before you can progress to playing songs, and more complicated chord patterns. Initially, working towards playing a song is the best way to motivate improvement, and to work towards learning to play guitar at home. After learning the basic 'open' chords, it is perfectly possible to play most songs, thus learning to play the guitar is not necessarily a terribly complex process. However, it is the ability to play by ear, and to change fluently between complex chords that makes a good guitarist. To increase proficiency, it is essential to practice regularly, and to continue to set targets and to progress.
Learning to play guitar is an exciting and enriching activity that can bring hugh rewards in self confidence and personal satisfaction. Guitar provides gratification for people and learning to play guitar is just one way that you can have this enjoyment for yourself and others. The method you decide to use to learn to play guitar is up to you. While playing is not something you pick up overnight, it's not impossible to play a guitar. It just takes determination and practice...practice...practice!
Guitar
Guitars come in all sizes, shapes and types. There is the acoustic guitar which has a hollow body and doesn't require an amplifier, although some do have pickups mounted on them for playing through an amp for more sound. These guitars can be played with either steel strings or nylon (more for classical style) on them. Some are flat and arched tops, and come with different width necks and scale lengths. You can buy a 6 string or a 12 string acoustic guitar. There is also the electric guitar which is played through an amplifier. These are somewhat easier to note than the acoustic because the strings are not as heavy a gauge and usually the strings are closer to the frets so it take less effort for your fingers to note the strings. If you're looking to buy your first guitar start small by buying an inexpensive one or borrow one from your friend. Before buying a guitar you should get some advice form a guitar teacher or someone that knows the guitar on how to decide whether you should learn to play guitar on an acoustic or electric guitar, and just what to look out for if you choose to buy a used guitar.
Lessons
Today with the Internet, computers and video, guitar lessons can be taken as if you had a guitar teacher, showing you where to place your fingers, the fine points of picking, and what pentatonic scales sound like, all in high definition video. There are video lessons of impressive quality for any style of guitar playing. There are CDs with information on almost any style of guitar playing you can think of. There are hundreds of web sites that even offer free lessons, most of which are very well created and can certainly be applied to your practice habit.
Strings and Tuning
There are many different varieties and gauges of strings. There are strings that are steel, nylon, bronze plated, nickle plated, flat wound, round wound, light gauge, heavy gauge,etc. In the early stages of practice, when you're learning how to play the guitar, your fingers will become sore and tender from noting the strings, but over time they will become hard and calloused.
Tuning your guitar involves adjusting the pitch of each string so that they play the correct note. Tightening the tuning peg raises the pitch of a string, while loosening the peg lowers the pitch. Since beginners usually have a hard time telling whether or not a string is in tune just by ear, it is often a good idea to purchase an electronic tuner.
Beginner
Start with proper training from the beginning regardless of what type of lessons you choose, and learn to play guitar the right way before bad habits are formed. Start with a beginner program and then progress from there as your ability and understanding grows.
Learning to play guitar is like many other activities, it takes effort and determination but the reward is very much worth the effort. Learning to play guitar is like learning any other skills. One important thing to keep in mind when learning how to play guitar is that playing should be enjoyable. Learning to play guitar is like a long journey...you don't get there overnight.
Both Peter Finlay & Lamar Deane are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Finlay has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Aquarium Fish and Guide Guitar. Peter Finlay, a proficient writer, writes for . The author writes articles about