I'm a beginner and really having trouble learning guitar. Can you give me some tips?
Requested and Answered by Dan on 04-Mar-2008 19:31 (1422 reads)
I remember the first time I picked up my first guitar. It was shiny and new - a birthday present from my wife. Within two minutes I figured out that I didn't even begin to know how to hold the guitar let alone play it! The journey had begun.
The beginning phase of guitar is difficult...very difficult. And it sucked. Rather I sucked. Guys playing on TV or live just make it look so easy. I kept thinking in my mind, "How hard could this instrument be to play?" Plenty hard! Your fingers aren't used to being independent little machines.
It took months of serious work (about an hour a day) to get out of what I call the "beginner stage". So for this mini-lesson, I thought I'd offer some insights.
1) Separate the hands. Hold one chord - say "C" or "G" - and just strum! Don't change chords. Just try some strumming patterns such as shuffles, 8th note, and 16th note patterns. Get used to your wrist swinging loosely and hitting only the strings you want. Watch your hand as it hits the strings. Focus on your right hand until it is doing what you want it to do - even if you have to slow WAY DOWN to make it perform. Do this for 10 minutes. Then switch focus to the left hand. For this, just keep a slow, steady down strum - 1 strum per measure - on the "1's", if you will - if that's all you can manage. Now practice switching chords in time. I started with "G" to "D" then added "C", etc. To this day "G-C-D" is my favorite and easiest chord progression!
2) Learn the Blues Scale. If you are over your friends house and you play it - people with think you know how to play guitar! It'll also help you build your finger speed. Play this scale for five minutes or so in different positions. Learn the position names and you'll be able to conduct simple solos over key changes. Just Google "Blues Scale Guitar" and you'll find a million good sources.
3) Pick a song, any song - and learn it! Preferably an embarrassingly easy song and play the heck out of it. Let me give you a personal example. When I first started I was doing a self described "super easy lesson" that required me to learn John Denver's - "Leaving on a Jet Plane" as a chord changing exercise. It's a great song and very easy - but at my level, I still couldn't do it! Here's where most people give up and tell themselves that "they didn't have the talent." Instead, I found some little blues ditty to play that was even easier...embarrassingly easy - it was "Show me the way to go home". It took me the whole evening to learn that song, and I loved it because I could play it. I even made my wife sing along with me. After I picked up E, Am, and D7, I learned "Patience" by GNR - I felt really cool then!
4) If you are feeling stuck on a song, just stop and focus on technique for awhile - take a week or so and call it "technique week" or "speed week" or "chord week", etc. Just focus on finger speed, picking, chord strumming, changes, bends, vibrato, etc. Don't over do it. Guitar is a physical exercise, remember to allow yourself some time to develop some tools.
5) Don't be afraid to take a day or so off. Sometimes - I just got angry at my guitar. You'll hit a wall and you can't get better and you'll think - "man, I suck". Take a day or two - play a video game - spend some time with your wife or girlfriend (remember them!?! ). Then come back to the guitar. I'll guarantee that you'll break through the barrier.
6) Sometimes, just pick up the guitar and play whatever comes to mind - it doesn't have to sound good. Just bang on it and see what comes out. You may even surprise yourself!
7) Watch videos of great guitar players. Al Di Meola, Eric Clapton, SRV, etc. - whoever inspires you. MTV "Unplugged" and Austin City Limits is great for me. I get really inspired by these guys and want to run to guitar and learn. In fact, when I was having trouble with barre chords, I watched a video of Eric Clapton and looked how he slid into a barre chord. I could feel the "light going off" in my brain. Within days I was much better at barre chords.
Lot's of people try to play guitar but soon realize that there are only a few people who have really prodigous talent. The rest of us have to work at it. I am a firm believer that anyone can learn to play guitar if they want to, so don't defeat yourself. It may be sooner or later than you would like but if you keep at it, I promise you'll get there.
by Dan Halberg
www.guitargearheads.com
Copyright © 2008 Allen & Halberg Publishing
GuitarGearHeads™ is a Trademark of Allen & Halberg Publishing
All Rights Reserved
The beginning phase of guitar is difficult...very difficult. And it sucked. Rather I sucked. Guys playing on TV or live just make it look so easy. I kept thinking in my mind, "How hard could this instrument be to play?" Plenty hard! Your fingers aren't used to being independent little machines.
It took months of serious work (about an hour a day) to get out of what I call the "beginner stage". So for this mini-lesson, I thought I'd offer some insights.
1) Separate the hands. Hold one chord - say "C" or "G" - and just strum! Don't change chords. Just try some strumming patterns such as shuffles, 8th note, and 16th note patterns. Get used to your wrist swinging loosely and hitting only the strings you want. Watch your hand as it hits the strings. Focus on your right hand until it is doing what you want it to do - even if you have to slow WAY DOWN to make it perform. Do this for 10 minutes. Then switch focus to the left hand. For this, just keep a slow, steady down strum - 1 strum per measure - on the "1's", if you will - if that's all you can manage. Now practice switching chords in time. I started with "G" to "D" then added "C", etc. To this day "G-C-D" is my favorite and easiest chord progression!
2) Learn the Blues Scale. If you are over your friends house and you play it - people with think you know how to play guitar! It'll also help you build your finger speed. Play this scale for five minutes or so in different positions. Learn the position names and you'll be able to conduct simple solos over key changes. Just Google "Blues Scale Guitar" and you'll find a million good sources.
3) Pick a song, any song - and learn it! Preferably an embarrassingly easy song and play the heck out of it. Let me give you a personal example. When I first started I was doing a self described "super easy lesson" that required me to learn John Denver's - "Leaving on a Jet Plane" as a chord changing exercise. It's a great song and very easy - but at my level, I still couldn't do it! Here's where most people give up and tell themselves that "they didn't have the talent." Instead, I found some little blues ditty to play that was even easier...embarrassingly easy - it was "Show me the way to go home". It took me the whole evening to learn that song, and I loved it because I could play it. I even made my wife sing along with me. After I picked up E, Am, and D7, I learned "Patience" by GNR - I felt really cool then!
4) If you are feeling stuck on a song, just stop and focus on technique for awhile - take a week or so and call it "technique week" or "speed week" or "chord week", etc. Just focus on finger speed, picking, chord strumming, changes, bends, vibrato, etc. Don't over do it. Guitar is a physical exercise, remember to allow yourself some time to develop some tools.
5) Don't be afraid to take a day or so off. Sometimes - I just got angry at my guitar. You'll hit a wall and you can't get better and you'll think - "man, I suck". Take a day or two - play a video game - spend some time with your wife or girlfriend (remember them!?! ). Then come back to the guitar. I'll guarantee that you'll break through the barrier.
6) Sometimes, just pick up the guitar and play whatever comes to mind - it doesn't have to sound good. Just bang on it and see what comes out. You may even surprise yourself!
7) Watch videos of great guitar players. Al Di Meola, Eric Clapton, SRV, etc. - whoever inspires you. MTV "Unplugged" and Austin City Limits is great for me. I get really inspired by these guys and want to run to guitar and learn. In fact, when I was having trouble with barre chords, I watched a video of Eric Clapton and looked how he slid into a barre chord. I could feel the "light going off" in my brain. Within days I was much better at barre chords.
Lot's of people try to play guitar but soon realize that there are only a few people who have really prodigous talent. The rest of us have to work at it. I am a firm believer that anyone can learn to play guitar if they want to, so don't defeat yourself. It may be sooner or later than you would like but if you keep at it, I promise you'll get there.
by Dan Halberg
www.guitargearheads.com
GuitarGearHeads™ is a Trademark of Allen & Halberg Publishing
All Rights Reserved
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