Learning Guitar

Learning the guitar is quite a journey. With the use of both hands information overkill’ and ‘this is getting boring’ and essentially it is up to the student to self monitor and stay on top of their progress. Playing at the same time it can be quite a challenge to co-ordinate both sides of the brain to ‘talk to each other’.

For this reason it is essential to learn from an easy to understand and progressive method. It is a fine line between ‘information overkill’ and ‘this is getting boring’ and essentially it is up to the student to self monitor and stay on top of their progress.

If you have never learned an instrument before then it is important to realize that music is a language and you will be using the guitar as your ‘weapon of choice’ to learn that language. The language of music is comprised of many avenues that a student can approach from.

Whilst scales and chords are an integral element of learning the guitar it is not essential to play these initially. Really a student of the guitar just needs to pick up the first notes (5 is good) and play basic songs and exercises within that range. From there you can expand your note repertoire and develop timing, reading and chord shapes along the way.

Having music to play along with in the form of backing tracks or drum beats in the keyboard is a luxury of the modern era. Backing music greatly adds to the ‘fun factor’ of playing the guitar as you pretty much get the experience of having a ‘band’ at your disposal.

I find it really fun to have some cruisy swing music to play your scales to.

There are many fun exercises to play scales that allows you to develop your technical side naturally in a non-demanding way. It is also a great avenue to improvise. Improvising leads to melody creation and when you find that ‘killer riff’ you can’t help but feel totally awesome. guitar is a great instrument to write songs on as it covers melody, harmony and rhythm.

Video tutorials are an excellent alternative to the traditional ‘having a teacher’ method. Video lessons are easy to understand and can be done in your own time as many times as you like. They tend to cover more and are much cheaper. If you get stuck then it is usually pretty easy to find the solution but of course you can feel free to book in with a local teacher for the odd ‘one off’ lesson. Your online provider may even have live lesson feeds available for you.

Finally, it is also a good idea to tune in to the radio or some music videos and just play along. If you can find the right group of notes then this will greatly develop your ear. Remember you have the rest of your life to play your guitar so take your time, be thorough and enjoy yourself. Play to a level that gives you pleasure, play familiar songs and listen others playing. Your fingers will learn where to go eventually and you’ll enjoy more while concentrating less. Listen, play, practice and have fun!

Video Tutorials for Guitar – Select Acoustic or Electric

Acoustic Guitar with Keryn Lorent

Electric Guitar (Blues) with Dan Max