6 Essentials to Learning the Guitar

The guitar makes for a great instrument in many different ways – it’s a great companion on the road, portable, easy to learn, sounds great, and won’t put a very big dent in your pocket (well, that depends on how deep your pocket really is!). People love the warm sound of an acoustic guitar, it can be a great thing to have with you in a gathering or at a part, for instance, or impress your friends (or that special someone for that matter), can be a great boredom-killer, and as we’ve discussed on this blog in length, you can actually make a career out of it, and earn your living as a full-time guitar player!

If you’re looking to learn the guitar, and if you’re really serious about doing so, here are a few pieces of advice you would do well to heed:

1. Practice Makes Perfect

"All I did was practice, practice, practice" - Rudolf Serkin (pianist)

Yes, practice really does make perfect! This might seem like a very obvious thing to tell a guitar player, but the single-most important thing when it comes to learning the instrument is practice. This is probably what every professional and successful musician will give you as advice – and trust me, its good advice!

Practice is essentially repetition, and a big part of learning any instrument is learning-by-reptition, and perfecting your motor skills – which essentially means that your fingers get so used to doing something that they’re able to do it on auto-pilot, without any need for you to tell your fingers what to do. It is called ‘finger-memory’, and it is why the musicians that you see on the stage do what they do so effortlessly. Finger-memory comes with regular and constant practice.

Get as much of it as possible, but more importantly, try putting in a few quality hours of practice time every week. Because when it comes to practicing, quality takes precedence over quantity. You do not need to sit

2. Perfect the Basics

“When you're a dancer, you start with the basics. You don't all of a sudden do a grand jete and pirouette. You start with first position, second, third.” - Rita Rudner

One of the most essential things about playing the guitar and learning to play the instrument is starting off from, and learning and perfecting the basics. This is essential, vital even, because if your base is strong, it will allow you to be a more technically-proficient and skilled guitar player.

While this bit of advice goes for any and all guitar players out there, it is especially applicable to beginners and aspiring musicians and guitar players who have little to no musical education. Always start off from the basics; learn the chords, notes and scales. Learn rhythm, lead, strumming, picking, and take your time when learning the essentials – do it properly, and try perfecting each thing and move on to the next only when you sound better. Learn aural skills, music theory, composition, and improvisation. Get your technique right when it comes to your posture, grip, right and left-hand wrist-action, strumming and picking, etc.

I personally recommend enlisting the help of a professional guitar instructor. Yes, such lessons are usually quite expensive, however at the end of the day, it will be worth the investment, especially if you’re serious about learning the playing the instrument.

3. Motivation, Persistence and Hardwork is Key

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” - Raymond Chandler

“Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you're gonna be rewarded.” -Jimi Hendrix

As an aspiring musician and a beginner guitar player, you should know what you’re getting into: learning to play the instrument is anything but easy! In the beginning, you won’t know your strums from your frets, you will have problems doing basic stuff such as holding down the strings, you will sound awful, and it won’t be a very pleasant experience in general. Your fingers will hurt, and you might feel uncoordinated, awkward and clumsy.

Above all, after weeks and hours upon hours of practice, you might feel like you’re not getting anywhere, or you’re wasting your time and that maybe you don’t have the ‘talent’ or the ‘ability’ to be a guitar player.

At such a stage, it is essential to remain motivated. For this purpose, I suggest sitting down with your guitar instructor, and setting realistic and achievable short-term goals or milestones for yourself, and reward yourself each time you achieve a goal, such as after learning a new chord or scale.

I also recommend keeping your long-term goals in sight, and keep asking yourself this important question: why did you want to learn to play the guitar in the first place? Visualize yourself playing on the stage, or playing like one of your favorite musicians.

In addition, I recommend connecting with other fellow musicians and artists in your area, as well as online. Speak with these people about your problems, try seeking guidance, and try learning from them. If you get the opportunity to play in a band, go for it!

4. Get a Guitar Teacher

“Most people who choose not to work with a teacher either don't care enough about one's own musical progress to invest the time and money in him/her, or don’t understand how much a great teacher can help a student in more ways than one may have realized.” – Tom Hess

I spoke about this in point # 2 above, but allow me to explain.

A good guitar instructor will nurture and develop you as a musician, and will help you become a much more technically-adept guitar player. In addition, it will save you from a lot of frustration, and allow you to learn the instrument at a much more quicker, more efficient pace. Like Hess says, think about athletes and sportsmen, why do they need a coach?

A good instructor will help you achieve your goals in the best manner possible, and by taking the most efficient route. Sitting down with an instructor every single day ensures that you get daily practice, and having someone to report to gives you extra motivation to work harder.

5. Get a Good Guitar

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. While I would never recommend shelling hundreds or thousands on a new guitar, especially if you’re a beginner (unless you want to!), there are plenty of good guitars that can be had on the cheap. Yamaha, for instance, makes some excellent acoustic guitars, whereas you can’t go wrong with either a Squier or an Epiphone guitar if you’re in the market for an electric guitar.

Try looking for bundles, which is essentially a gig bag that contains all basic guitar equipment, such as the guitar itself, a tuner, metronome, extra strings, guitar stand, strap and a few other goodies all in one single bundle.

This Yamaha FG700S acoustic guitar bundle on Amazon not only comes with an excellent acoustic guitar, but a ton of goodies – all for under $300.

6. Have Fun!

Because that’s what it’s all about, and that is why you started playing, right?