What does it take to learn to play guitar?
Playing the guitar is a great way to express yourself through music. If you feel a strong urge to learn to play the guitar, here’s a quick self-test to determine if you’re ready to take this giant step.

Test Mind and Body
Before signing on for guitar lessons, test your mind and body. Your mind should be clear to learn. Learning to play the guitar is like learning any other skill. You must have some free time to dedicate solely to learning – even if it’s only 15 minutes per day. This should be a time of total concentration when you can block out the cares of work and life to work on your lessons and practice.

Physical Health and Playing the Guitar
Your body’s physical health is also important. Playing the guitar requires holding a guitar in an upright position, either resting on your legs or held upright by a shoulder strap. Consider the strength of your back, shoulders, arms and legs. A person who suffers from severe lower back pain may find it difficult to hold a guitar for any length of time. If you know someone who owns a guitar, you can practice holding theirs to test your strengths and weaknesses.

Also, consider the physical condition of your hands, fingers and wrists. Some conditions that could hinder your playing ability include arthritis, carpal tunnel or frequent swelling of the wrists or fingers.

It’s Still Possible
Even if you have a condition that makes it difficult to play a guitar, this doesn’t mean you will never play. You can research online or talk with a professional instructor to find out if there are ways to work around your disability or physical weakness. For example, if you have back pain, you might find a lightweight guitar that’s easy to hold. Or, if you have swelling or pain in the hands, there may be exercises to help relieve the tension. Don’t give up until you’ve done the research.

The Relevance of Musical Talent
If you have natural musical talent, that’s great. However, if you don’t feel that you are naturally talented, don’t worry. You only need the desire to learn and the ability to listen, read and practice. You learn to play the guitar by taking one step at a time – or one note at a time. Without musical talent, you might have to concentrate just a little harder at the beginning, but soon you’ll find it to be similar to learning any skill.

Questions to Ask
After considering the above, answer these questions to determine your readiness to learn playing the guitar.

1) Do you have a strong desire to play the guitar?
2) Why do you want to learn to play the guitar?
3) Do you want to learn to read music or play the guitar by ear?
4) Is a guitar instructor available where you live?
5) If an instructor is not available, are you willing to learn using an online guitar course?
6) Once your guitar lessons begin, are you willing to practice at least fifteen to thirty minutes per day, five to six days a week?
7) Do you have the money to invest in a guitar?

Your answers to these questions should help you determine if you’re ready to learn how to play the guitar.

You’re only lessons away from playing great guitar music!

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When you first start learning to play the guitar you really want easy to learn guitar tunes to start with. Otherwise it is the equivalent of trying to understand German when you have only learned the basic words.

By starting with easy to learn guitar tunes you are setting yourself up for a much quicker learning curve and you will find that you will pick up learning the guitar much quicker and easier then without using tunes or songs to base your guitar skills on.

How to find easy to learn guitar tunes?

There have been many books written on easy to learn guitar tunes, usually the book is written from a guitar teachers point of view so you know you are getting great advice on how to pick and learn guitar tunes/songs.

Can I Just Learn Any Guitar Tune?

Yes you could start at any guitar tune and try to learn it, but why would throw yourself in the deep end? You are much better trying to learn an easy guitar tune then starting off on a more advanced tune.

The entire purpose behind easy to learn guitar tunes is that they focus on the basics of learning guitar which ensures that not only are you having fun learning your guitar tunes but you are also building your core guitar skills at the same time.

This will eventually lead to you playing much better guitar and having a better learning experience.

Also when trying to pick an easy to learn guitar tune it is usually best if you can listen to that tune as well as reading the sheet music. This lets you attack the songs from both angles.

1. You are learning the tune through sheet music so you are getting a feel for how to read guitar sheet music.
2. You are developing your play by ear skills which will be extremely helpful for you later when you are trying to learn the more advanced tunes.

So just remember, when you are looking for easy to learn guitar tunes don’t go for just any old tune, pick a nice simple basic tune or riff to start with and build yourself up from there.

If you practice learning tunes each day you will be surprised at how quickly you pick it up.

Final tip: Start with easy to learn guitar tunes.

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In the simplest terms, a guitar tab is a word that is used to describe a musical notation, which may contain either numbers or letters and explains to the musician where to place his/her fingers on the instrument. Guitar tabs consist of multiple lines and is often called a ‘staff notation.’ These lines, which are present in guitar tabs, each represent one of the guitar strings.

New musicians often find guitar tabs to be especially baffling in that the strings are written backwards. The highest string is found at the top of the guitar tabs, which is often difficult to learn since most people would expect that guitar tabs would be written from top to bottom instead of the other way around. In actuality, guitar tabs are written from the highest to lowest and the numbers on each line represent the guitar fret. In order to understand guitar tabs, all new guitarists need to learn string placement and how to correctly read frets.

Generally written in standard format, guitar tabs may slightly vary depending on the sheet music publisher. Even still, guitar tabs are easier to read than learning staff notation. Because of it’s visual representation, new musicians are often more comfortable reading guitar tabs than any other kind of music.

When learning the guitar, musicians will become familiar with the instrument and how it works. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including private instruction, informational reference books and videos. In some cases, classroom lessons may even be used to help better equip the musician to learn guitar and how to read guitar tabs. As the musician becomes familiar with the terms used to describe a guitar, including the neck, fret, string, chord, etc., he/she will also begin to easily read guitar tabs.

In the beginning, guitar tabs can be intimidating. Multiple lines and letters, numbers or other symbols may seem quite confusing. With practice and time, a guitar tab will be as easy to understand as the links found your favorite website. Few musicians can play by ear without first learning a song via sheet music, which is why reading guitar tabs is the first step that a guitarist must take before learning how to play.

If you need further information on finding a guitar instructor, check the local yellow page listing or stop by your local high school or college and ask the music director for a recommendation.

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What grooves you? Why do you want to improve?

Regardless of your intentions – whether to get started playing, learn a few licks of your favorite tunes, or want to expand your repertoire to include blues, funk, or rock and roll music, on your way to recording yourself, there are resources out there that can help you.

Here are a few ideas that may help you better understand your guitar playing and some solutions you can consider.

Guitar videos
You can purchase guitar playing videos, either for home or computer watching, that include hand position, strumming technique, rhythm and timing, and finger exercises that take through various type of songs. Essentially these become a mirror for you in learning to play as you mimic what you’re watching on screen and then reproduce this on your own. With commitment and determination, this can be a good one to go – especially for the visual learner who likes to learn primarily on their own.

Guitar lessons
You can find a community of guitar instructors in your surrounding area who are either private tutors or work through a community college. You’ll want to consider their expertise, the type of students they work best with, their flexibility with your schedule, success stories, and of course their fees, in considering working with them. In pursing guitar lessons, you can either do one on one or group – both have their plusses and minuses but either can work for you.

Playing partners
Find someone in your local community who plays. You can do this through asking the local community college, posting online to a resource like craigslist, or asking the guitar shop. The idea is to develop a friendship with someone who is a bit better than you who wants the accountability of practicing weekly. What you can provide is the commitment to meet up with them weekly and practice. In return, you can learn from their techniques or methods what works. Of course, you always need to be aware of learning bad habits in situations like these, which is why it’s important to have a foundation in guitar technique before starting.

Guitar theory
Related to guitar technique is developing a basis in guitar theory. Chord patterns, minor and major chord progressions, note scales, and overlap with piano and percussion instruments can all give you a basic structure upon which to layer in the knowledge and technique you gain in your guitar playing.

Playing guitar can be a wonderful expression of one’s musical and creative talent. And with a commitment to constant improvement, it can provide a lifetime of enjoyment for yourself, friends, and family.

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Beginner guitar lessons usually have basic music scales and how to position for certain chords; it is vital to have some amount of music theory so you can always fall back to it, this maybe even when you become an expert musician.

If you are looking for beginner guitar lessons online it takes a bit more precaution than having private tuition at a local guitar centre or home visit. Online guitar tuition is an increasingly popular way to pick up the instrument, and to learn how to play competently. So you should always look for a book or piece of software that has been well reviewed, has good testimonials and has a 100% money back guarantee.

Online guitar lessons are much cheaper and, many times, your introductory lessons are even free. Online guitar lessons offer way more bang for the buck.
Online guitar lessons are made to allow you to have a great time while you are learning to play the guitar.

I would also recommend that you take a look at some of the free lessons available but beware, they are very limited and the quality is often so poor it actually ends up confusing and slowing your guitar skill development dramatically. By all means, take some free advice but please be weary of any website that sucks you into giving email address for “unlimited free lessons” or similar offers.

Just remember, a free lesson is ok but it is unlikely that any real guitar professional guitar teacher out there is likely to want to just give up all their years of experience for free, forever!

If you are considering offline methods then that’s a good option as you will avoid many of the scams online. Guitar lessons that are taught by a professional aren’t always easier and more effective to you as well. Some Guitar lessons can cost up to $30 per hour or more, Lesson fees can soon add up, and are impractical for most people. Guitar lessons are only as successful when people are committed to making them successful.

However, the downside to this is that it can become very expensive very quickly and you will always have to rely on someone else’s teaching schedule. Online guitar lessons give you the flexibility to learn when and where you want, at your own pace, using material targeted just for your needs. With proper online lessons or learning material it is always there at your disposal night and day, whenever you want to take your guitar skills to a new level!

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