New to playing the guitar?

Have you ever done the whole air guitar thing when you were younger and your favourite song came on? Today peope play Guitar Hero. I can honestly say I think I’ve never rally tried it. The real thing is much better. 

My mom and dad always played music in our home. My mom had an organ while growing up, which sounds weird, it’s kind of like a electronic keyboard (she has one of those today) but much better. My dad didn’t play an intrument but he had this beautiful vinyl set and loads of albums.

My love for music came from them. A few years ago I decided I wanted to start playing an instrument. Obviosly guitar was my first choice. It just sounded so beautiful and the talent these people had was amazing. I didn’t really know what I was doing or what I am letting myself in for… today I know.

After thow guitars were bought and never really used, I decided to buy another one a while ago, one where I can just learn the basic skills on. 

I am happy I did. A wise friend once told me that if you play guitar to look cool you will lose interest, but if you do it because you really have a passion for it you will master it. 

It’s not the easiest thing to learn. It takes much time and effort. I wanted to share some tips on what I learned in just a short time on what is the best way to start learning etc. I am not at all yet an expert but every little bit helps. 

• First and foremost, like I said, if you want to play the guitar do it for the right reasons. 
• When I bought the my new guitar I had to decide on electric or classic. I chose classic, might not sound that great but for now you shouldn’t worry that much about the sound. You need to learn first. Acoustic is also a great guitar to learn on.
• When you’ve picked your guitar you might want to buy some extra strings, ones suitable for the type of guitar you’re playing. Learned that the hard way.
• I bought a book for beginners and I would advise you to do the same, some poeple have this gift that they teach themselves or learn by ear, I don’t have it. Maybe you have, but it’s still better to invest in a book that will teach you the basics.
• If you’d like you can buy some picks, I got some from friends, I use it, but its best to first learn to play with your fingers so you can learn the strokes and feel the strings better. Your fingers will get sore and your fingertips will start getting hard but that’s just part of playing, don’t over do it at first though.
• Know what is a peg head etc, in other words, learn the anatomy of the guitar.
• Tuner!Tuner! The most important tool. You can buy a tuner or you can download one. I downloaded an app called ‘gString’ from Playstore. It works great.

Okay, so now you went to the store, bought yourself an awesome guitar and a few extras and now you are ready to learn. 

• Welcome to the world of guitar playing or uhm learning, now you need to exercise those fingers. Your fingers will still be dumb. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
• Some people grow their nails to help with the picking, I chose short nails, and if you are a woman/girl be aware that your nail polish might not last long on your nails especially when strumming.
• Picking is the best to start out with, I found in difficult but it gets easier.
• First start with basic chords, there are loads of video’s on Youtube that will help you learn the basic chords. (A/B/ /C/D/E/F/G)

Go to www.freebasicguitar.com for images and print them out. 

Once you’ve learned them and know how to play them all you can start to learn how to play some easy songs, which you can get in YouTube, which might only use 3 chords or so.

• Once you feel up to it you can learn the open chords. Which most musicians use.

Here’s a link: Open Chords

• Once you know your open chords you can go on and learn other chords, there are a tremendous amount of chords but most of the time the open and basic chords is enough to start out with.
• The best advice I was given, which I didn’t listen to in the beginning was to go on YouTube and learn songs from there. It’s easy and step by step.
• You can also go on the net and search which song you want to learn how to play and type in the song name and artist followed with ‘chords’.
• If you are a song writer and confident enough after a while, you can start writing your own songs, but you have to learn how to play without concentrating too hard first. That’s where I am now.
• Some people might be able to quickly play and sing similtaneously, I am also not one of those, so it’s also a great idea to get someone to help you do both at first. Either go for some lessons or ask a friend who knows how to play and sing.
• Practise atleast 30 minutes or so a day. Organize some jam sessions with a friend, make it fun and you will never get bored.

That’s what I learned, and I thought it might be worth to know if there’s someone out there who really wants to start playing but don’t know where to start, like I did. Invest in quality musical instruments, in this case a guitar.

The most important thing is that you love playing. If you get frustrated (I think that’s why musicians slam their guitars into the floor) put your guitar down for a while and come back later. I do it for fun and for the love of it, but if you want to take it further then that’s great, there are many ways today that you will be able to showcase your talent. As for me, I might buy a tamborine soon, just for the fun of it!

Much love.