The Beginners Guide to Playing the Acoustic Guitar

Learning acoustic guitar is an extremely broad topic. One that would no doubt fill many books. The following guide focuses on some of the most important aspects of playing guitar providing you with an excellent starting point. This guide was written for the right handed, absolute beginner using a steel string guitar. My apologies to all of you left handed guitarists in advance.

ABOUT THE STEEL STRING GUITAR

The steel string guitar is a masterpiece of musical instrument engineering. Before the steel string, the acoustic guitar was very limited. The guitars of old were very quiet when played, so much so, that a guitarist was not able to play along with other musicians as the sound produced was simply too low. In order to overcome this shortcoming, the steel string guitar was born. The steel string produced a louder sound, but also caused too much stress on the instrument because of the added weight. The body construction therefore needed to be altered to accommodate the heavier strings. These changes not only made the guitar stronger, but they also increased the life of the guitar.

GUITAR STYLES – WHAT STYLE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Guitars are available in a variety of different styles and sizes and it really depends on what is most comfortable and enjoyable for you. Popular guitar styles include the Dreadnought, Nex, Artist, Classic and Jumbo. Each guitar has its own unique look, feel and sound. The larger styles like the Jumbo and Dreadnought produce more bass and are more difficult to hold and play. The smaller models like the Nex and Artist favor the midranges and treble and are much easier to hold and play. The Classic guitar is a whole different animal. It can only be played using nylon strings and produces a sound that is noticeably different than steel string guitars. So if you aren’t sure what guitar style is right for you, then head over to your nearest music center and give them all a test drive.

Need a reliable, high quality and  affordable acoustic guitar? Click here for our list of the top best selling acoustic guitars!

HOW TO HOLD THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR

Holding your acoustic guitar is not an exact science.  Everyone has different body types, finger lengths and there are a variety of different sizes and shapes of guitars.  There are many points to keep in mind and it really comes down to how comfortable you are when holding and playing your guitar.

I posted an excellent video on this topic not too long ago that demonstrates and explains how to hold your guitar in detail.

Follow this link to view this video on how to hold your acoustic guitar.

HAND, FINGER AND THUMB POSITIONING

How to position your hands, fingers and thumbs may seem obvious to some, but there is a right and wrong way to do this.  It would be very difficult for you to visualize how to position your hands when playing guitar if I were to explain it here.  A video would do a much better job, so I included a link below to an excellent video.

Guitar Lesson – Hands, Fingers & Thumb Positioning

LEARN HOW TO TUNE YOUR GUITAR

Make certain that you spend time learning how to tune a guitar. Purchase a guitar tuner at any local music store and practice tuning your guitar with the guitar tuner. Or if you do not own a guitar tuner, there are plenty of lessons and tools online that will guide you.  I have posted several videos on this topic that I recommend you watch:

How to keep your electric or acoustic guitar in tune

Get Your Guitar In Tune

LEARN HOW TO CHANGE YOUR STRINGS

Learn how to change your strings and change them often. I know the idea of changing your strings on your own is intimidating, but it really isn’t that difficult and eventually it will become second nature. I put together a post not too long ago that includes video instructions on how to change strings on both an acoustic and electric guitar.

Click here to reach that post on changing your guitar strings.

GUITAR MUSIC THEORY

Guitar music theory is where all of your scales, chords, progressions, notes and more come into play. It is such a huge topic and would fill many books all on its own. Music theory is extremely important to your growth as a musician and should not be overlooked. Many beginners frown upon guitar theory and completely ignore it. They would much rather take the short route and learn tablature and start playing their favorite songs. There is nothing wrong with learning tablature and playing your favorite songs, but don’t make that your only form of study.

There are a plethora of free sites online that teach guitar music theory, but not all are created equal. One of the best sites I have found on this topic is: TheoryLessons.Com. I highly recommend you start there. The owner of that site starts at the very beginning and covers all the major bases. Your guitar is like a challenging puzzle and guitar music theory is a key that will open up many new doors for you.

SHOULD YOU HIRE A GUITAR TEACHER OR LEARN ON YOUR OWN?

Learning on your own

With the right home study course, teaching yourself how to play is quite possible, assuming you are dedicated to working hard and practicing. Teaching yourself how to play will save you a ton of money in the long run and allow you to learn at your own pace. You also have the option to access the same information whenever you want and for as many times as you want. There are several excellent home study courses available that can be just as effective as hiring a a good teacher. Courses can cost anywhere from $30 to as much as a few hundred dollars, depending on the quality and content of the home study course.

Here are our picks for the best Home Study Courses For Guitar:

Learn & Master Guitar – Our #1 Pick!

Jamorama Acoustic Guitar

Next Level Guitar

Hiring an Instructor

First and foremost, this option is expensive. Private guitar lessons, on average, can cost about $15 – $30 for a half hour lesson, and $20 to as much as $75 for an hour lesson, depending on the teachers experience and reputation.

Finding a good teacher can be a difficult task and you should choose one carefully if you decide to go that route. Even the most talented guitarists, that have been playing for decades, can make terrible instructors, so your criteria for choosing a teacher should not be based on experience alone.

One of the most common problems a beginner faces is developing bad playing habits. A good instructor will help you recognize your bad playing habits and help you correct them.

The choice is yours. Only you can determine which options is best for you. Some of us simply cannot afford to hire a teacher, so the choice is rather simple. Others are simply unable to learn on their own and need the guidance and encouragement that a teacher can provide.

PRACTICE

Whoever coined the phrase: “Practice Makes Perfect”, knew what they were talking about. Practice as many days out of the week as you can for at least twenty to thirty minutes, more if possible. The more often you play the faster you will learn. Be careful not to overdo it though and take breaks of course. Your brain can only absorb so much information before it needs a break and your hands and the rest of your body need time to recuperate as well. When you practice guitar do not rush through any of your exercises. Twenty minutes of quality focused practice is much more effective than an hour of sloppy practice.

Be sure to visit our section on acoustic guitar practice for more great tips on how to practice your guitar.

EASY GUITAR SONGS

As I explained earlier in this guide, there is nothing wrong with learning how to play your favorite songs.  In fact, it is an excellent and fun way to familiarize yourself with the guitar as long as your are not making this your only form of practice.

That being said, I put together a post that includes 20 easy guitar songs that you can start playing right away. This post includes free video lesson as well as links to chords, lyrics and tablature.

Follow this link to view this post on easy guitar songs for the beginner.

Next Level Guitar

What is Next Level Guitar?

Next Level Guitar is one of the best guitar courses available online today.

It contains Over 100 individual videos starting with Guitar chords and progressing to playing full songs.

Next Level Guitar does not use old tired methods that will leave you frustrated. You will learn the fundamentals of guitar playing that will build a solid foundation and enable you to progress faster. You will learn rock solid principles and techniques and how to avoid developing bad habits.

Next Level Guitar includes methods that are often overlooked in other programs, like “Structure”  so you know exactly what to practice. Included are easy to follow practice routines to ensure you are practicing the right things and not wasting your time. Next Level Guitar uses popular songs as vehicles to learn strumming, new chords, rhythm, timing, and chord changing.

So practice is no longer like practice, but rather a fun and enjoyable way to learn guitar. This teaching methodology has helped hundreds and hundreds of guitar players all over the world. These methods work. They are fun and will have you playing the guitar fast!

I really like the teaching style of the folks over at Next Level Guitar and I know you will as well.

Click here now to learn more about Next Level Guitar!

Beginners Guitar Lessons, Scales – 4 Tips to Get the Most From Your Lead Playing

By Mike P Hayes

Learning guitar scales can be frustrating and confusing for the beginning guitarist. Often the student simply doesn’t know where to start.

How important are scales?

It appears that learning and understanding scales is vital to becoming a better guitarist, how many scales should I learn and which scales should I learn first?

Good questions, the truth is scales re important, they’re like our musical alphabet. The thing to keep in mind is that you only need to know a few scales, guitarists often become obsessed with practicing scales and over their real purpose which is to make music.

Here’s a list to help you choose what scales to practice and eliminate the confusion.

Tip 1 — Select a style

With literally thousands of scales to learn the first thing to do is decide on which style of music you want to play. Certain scales are more applicable to particular types of music e.g., the minor pentatonic scale works well for rock, blues, metal music…mainly songs with power chords.

The blues scale is used mainly for rock, blues, metal music while the major pentatonic scale is mostly used for country, pop, country rock …generally songs with open chords.

Of course, I’m generalizing here, you can use any scale you wish for any style of music, however some scales work better than others. The idea is to use the correct musical alphabet (scale) for the style of music you want to play.

Tip 2 — start on the keynote

Simply running up and down a scale won’t produce any meaningful music no matter how fast you play them. It won’t communicate anything to the listener.

The idea is to train our brain and fingers to make musical decisions, which note do you want to play next? Where is the note I’m hearing in my head is it higher or lower than the previous note?

To get this brain — fingers connection practice starting on the keynote of the scale and decide whether your next note is higher or lower than the keynote.

The keynote is the first note of the scale, e.g., the keynote for the A minor pentatonic scale would be “A”.

Tip 3 — record a background

Once you have decided on a scale to practice, record a background in the key you want to practice. The recording does not have to be elaborate, a simple acoustic guitar will work fine.

Record the backing track for 5 to 10 minutes duration, this will give you plenty of time to practice and try out your ideas.

A good idea is to try and play just one note (the keynote is an idea choice for this), practice all different types of rhythms, slides, bends etc., to see how creative you can be.

Recording a backing track is very helpful as you will find that you react differently to certain chord textures, the same note will sound different when played against a variety of chords.

Tip 4 — learn all keys

Guitarists should practice their favorite scale(s) in all keys, this is especially important when working with singers.

Each key has it’s own personality, certain keys have a warm feeling, while others are bright.

Try playing a “G” minor pentatonic scale over a recorded background in the key of “G”, then, play a “B” minor pentatonic scale over a pre-recorded background in the key of “B”.

Scales can “free your fingers and freeze your brain” the whole idea of scales is to help you play music. Think of music as a language, scales are our musical alphabet, knowing the alphabet is just the beginning, it’s how we use the alphabet to communicate that’s important.

These ideas will help you develop your own style and soon you will be transferring the music you are hearing in your head onto the guitar.

Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed in your guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at:
=> http://www.guitarcoaching.com

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Guitar lesson: Do You Have To Set Goals?

By Peter Edvinsson

Do you have to take the right train to have success? It depends on what you want to accomplish. The same with your guitar playing. Let’s see if you can play guitar without goals!

I would like to share some memories with you…

Way back in the late 80’s I started to become very interested in computers. Well, not really in the computers but in the things I believed a computer could help me with.

I compose a lot of music and had used ink and paper so far. Mozart used this equipment so it surely is effective in the hands of the right person.

I used my pens and wrote my music sheets with concentrated efforts trying not to make mistakes. The problem was that it was difficult to change things in my compositions. I often changed things then and still do today.

It was quite difficult to use the notation programs back then. I used DOS on my computers and had to peruse the notation program manuals.

However, I had a goal in the back of my head.

To tame the computer to help me in my endeavors to create sheet music!

Let’s stop for a second and go to your guitar playing. What about your goals? Do you have any? In many guitar articles you can read about the importance of setting goals as you try to progress as a guitar player.

Well, there are many advantages with setting goals. Let’s take a look at some of them:

1. As you write down a long term goal you give yourself a chance to meditate upon why you are playing guitar. Is it to impress your friends? Is it because you like to play? Is it because you want to find a profession as a guitar player? Is your desire to play guitar so strong that you think it is worth to take the time and effort required?

In the goal setting process you will have time to think the whole thing over and maybe turn the whole thing off!

2. Writing down a long term goal and splitting it up in smaller manageable chunks is a good way to use your free agency instead of letting circumstances dictate what will happen with your guitar playing.

3. When you have clear goals and also smaller intermediate goals it is easier to measure your progress and feel the satisfaction that you are on your way and to the right place.

But what if you don’t want to have goals? You just want to play!

Let’s go back to the previous story..

Somehow things have turned out quite nice as far as my more or less subconscious goal is concerned. I do write my music with the help of computers nowadays and can change my music as much as I want. I can change keys, melodies, lyrics and feel good about it. I am where I wanted to be back in the 80’s.

Was this a goal of mine?

Some people define goals as something you have written down on paper with clear deadlines and clearly defined and measureable intermediate goals along the way.

Before we discuss if we need goals or not we have to define what we mean. Is a wish a goal? Is a strong desire a goal?

Let’s continue with the story..

There are people using computers the opposite way from what I do. I have friends who have been deeply interested in working with computers and have seemingly aimlessly installed computer programs, messed around with the Windows directory, changed OS, changed hardware, run into trouble, trying to solve the problems and so on.

My friends have sometimes been of great help when I myself have run into trouble with my computers because they have learned a lot about computers by the previosly mentioned activities and accompanying mistakes.

Did the have goals?

In a broad sense we could say that their goals were to have fun with computers. I guess they haven’t expressed it that way but we could say that they reached their goal.

Let us take a look at you!

If you don’t wish to have written down goals is of course completely up to you. You can have fun just sitting down strumming some chords on your guitar sometimes.

The important thing to think about is this:

Whatever you do with your guitar will lead you somewhere sooner or later. Whatever road you take will take you to a place if you don’t change direction. Do you want to come to this place or not? If not, let me suggest that you change road!

Thirty years from now do you want to be a guitar player that is only able to play a few chords and that is not able to play a song on your guitar? We can say that this is the goal you will reach if you are an “occasional strummer”.

If this is okay with you you can relax and continue playing this way. If you want to be another type of guitar player I guess you have to think about goal setting a little bit more consciously!

Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free sheet music, guitar tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his music blog at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Learn to Play Acoustic Guitar – Acoustic Guitar Tips For The Beginner

So you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar? Do you have hopes and dreams of one day becoming a professional guitarist in a popular band? Perhaps you just want to play for the purpose of entertaining yourself, family, and friends. Whatever the case may be, I do hope the following article will help you achieve your goals as an acoustic guitar player.

The very first step in learning how to play the acoustic guitar, is of course to get a guitar. For the sake of argument, I am assuming you already own a guitar and are ready to start playing. If not, you may find it easier to purchase a second hand guitar in the beginning while you are practicing and learning the basics. You will also save some cash. When you get better you can always upgrade.

Whether you are buying a new or used acoustic guitar, you will save a lot of headaches if you do your research first. Visit free newsgroups and forums online to see what other guitar players have to say. If you are buying a used guitar make sure you are able to physically see and check out the guitar before buying. You will need to examine the entire guitar for any visible damage or other imperfections. You want your guitar to have the correct action, intonation, and pitch. Your best bet, if you are that lucky, is to find an experienced guitar player to take along with you before you buy.

Once you found your guitar, it’s time to start practicing. Learning the correct way to practice is probably the most important part of your acoustic guitar playing success. It is better to practice 10 minutes of quality focused exercises then to spend an hour on the couch messing around trying to learn a complicated song. The environment that you learn in is equally important. You will need complete silence and privacy. You should not have any interruptions at all if possible.

You will need to recognize the learning method that works best for you because everyone is different. The last thing you want to happen is for your guitar learning to become boring and monotonous. I think every one has come to that point at one time or another. You appear to hit a dead end where your guitar playing doesn’t seem to get any better. No matter how long you practice, no matter how many finger exercises or chords you learn, you cant seem to get over that hump. Your brain is not responding as well because it isn’t being stimulated. Definitely do not become discouraged by your lack of progress. Put down the guitar and take a break. Stimulate your brain by doing something else for a while, then come back to your guitar practice.

Don’t give yourself super challenging tasks to complete in the beginning. You are setting yourself up for some major disappointment. Start off slow and easy. Learn the easy stuff first then tackle the more difficult stuff later on.

Set easier goals for yourself. When you set easier goals that you know you are capable of doing, you are building confidence and you are making progress.

Think about the growing stages of a newborn baby. The baby does not come right out of the mothers womb and instantly knows how to run marathons. No, he learns to crawl first, then walk, then run. The baby has to develop his muscles first in order to support his body. The same holds true for guitar playing. If you want to be able to produce clean sounding chords or play complicated solos, you have to develop your muscles, and this only happens when you are patient in your practicing. Over time, you will begin to develop what is known as “muscle memory”. This refers to the body’s ability to remember, or automatically perform, a well practiced motion. If you ever watch a professional guitar player, you will see this in action as the guitar player plays complicated chords and solos without looking or even thinking about it.

Be persistent. I don’t care if takes you 6 months to learn two chords. Never stop trying. If you have the desire to become a good acoustic guitar player, then you will succeed. It is simply a matter of time.

Listen to as much music from as many different artists as possible. Do not limit yourself to only your favorite artists. There are a multitude of acoustic guitar players out there in a number of different genres including classical, folk, jazz, rock, etc. If you limit yourself to only one particular area, you are depriving yourself of some beautiful music. You never know what artist can influence your playing style. So be open to new styles of music.

I hope this article has gotten you excited enough to learn how to play acoustic guitar. Remember to keep practicing and to never give up, no matter how long it takes.

Click here to learn about the worlds most popular and effective acoustic guitar home learning course!