Introduction:
As one of the most influential guitarists of all time, Jimmy Page once said “I
believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their
playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.”
I believe that once a person has some basic knowledge about the guitar and can
proficiently play basic chords and scales then their artistic fingerprint can be
formed and shown through their playing. I have been playing the guitar for five
years now and every time I play I know that there is more that I can do to
improve myself as a guitarist. Once you learn how to play the guitar you can
only keep growing as a musician. I have a passion for music and I hope to
inspire at least one person with this blog to pick up a guitar and start
strumming. So, if you are interested keep reading to find out how to start
playing the guitar.
Step
One: First let’s start off with picking out a guitar. Choosing the right guitar
can be a difficult task because it is hard to narrow down what exactly you want
to invest in. I would suggest first looking at the type of music you listen to
on a regular basis. This music will most likely be the type of music you will
enjoy playing on the guitar as well. For example someone who enjoys listening
to country should buy a steel-string acoustic guitar where as someone who
listens to rock and roll should buy a solid body electric guitar and an accompanying
amplifier. When you are looking to purchase a guitar always make sure to try it
out in the store to ensure that it feels right and suits you best.
Step
two: When you get your guitar home you are probably going to wonder a few
things like what is everything called, what does everything do, and how do I
even hold this thing properly. I will use an image as an aid to explain the
anatomy of the electric and acoustic guitar and all of their components and
explain how to hold the guitar.
The
main components you will need to know about on the guitar before you start playing
are the neck, strings, tuning keys, and the sound hole/pickups. The neck is
where you will place your left hand (for most people) in order to hold down the
strings on the fret board, this will produce sound. The tuning keys are turned
in order to get each string to produce a certain pitch so that your guitar
sounds like a proper guitar. The sound hole and pickups are what produce the
sound of the guitar so that we are able to hear what is being played. As far as
holding the guitar goes, you should sit up straight in a chair before you start
standing up like Jimmy Page or Hendrix. You should let the guitar rest on your
leg and then sort of cradle it on your stomach and chest. The biggest string
should be on the top of the neck and the smallest string should be closer to
the ground.
Step
Three: Learning how to tune your guitar is very important as I mentioned
briefly in step two, but along with tuning comes learning the names of the
strings. Going from the biggest to smallest the strings are called E, A, D, G,
B, and E. Once you know the names of the strings you can start tuning.
Personally I use an electronic tuner which is what most guitarists use. When
tuning you should put the tuner on the headstock of the guitar, this makes it
easy to read the screen and get the most accurate tune. To tune you should pick
the string and let it ring out, while this is happening you should be
simultaneously either tightening or loosening the tuning keys depending on if
the note needs to go higher or lower. The electronic tuner will display whether
the note is flat (low) or sharp (high) on its screen.
Step
Four: Before you start playing actual notes you should learn how to properly
hold a guitar pick. It is not required to play with a guitar pick but it does
make things a lot easier and it is less strenuous on your hands. To hold the
pick, simply make a fist with the hand you will be picking with and hold the
pick in between your index finger and thumb with the smaller end of the pick
facing you.
Step
Five: Now that your guitar has the right sound and you have the right position
and handling, you can finally start making some music and playing some notes.
To play a note you have to press your finger down on a string in between the
frets, but never directly on the fret itself. You have to hold down the string
firmly so that no buzzing sounds occur; it will take some practice to get a
clear sound. Pressing down on the strings will also hurt your fingers at first
until you develop a callus, just remember to keep going and persevere. Each
note played on the E, A, D, G, B, or E string that is closer to the body will
sound higher and each noted played toward the neck will sound lower.
Step
Six: After you have mastered note playing, the next step is chords. When three
or more notes are played at once as a harmonic group it is considered a chord. There
are two different beginner shaped chords that can be played, a bar chord and a
first position chord. First position chords are much easier to play compared to
bar chords. Bar chords take lots of practice and muscle memory to get down.
Personally, bar chords took me around three months of solid practice to fully
master, where as first position chords only took me a few weeks. First position
chords are played within the first three frets and their shape is formed by a
combination of open (not holding a string down) and pressed strings. Bar chords
require you to literally bar a fret with your index finger and then the rest of
the strings and are a mixture of open and pressed. When you get the different
shapes of the chords down, then you can start working on your speed and
transitioning between the chords and notes. Pictured below, is a bar chord
chart for beginners and a chart of first position chords. The following bar
chord chart shows which fret the chord is played on, the name of the chord, and
finger placing. On the first position chord chart, all of the chords are played
on the first to third frets; this chart also shows the name of each chord and
finger placing.
Step
Seven: Well if you have made it this far you are probably on your way to
becoming a next level guitar master, at least I hope. Learning how to play the
guitar does take a tremendous amount of time and effort, but every minute of
practice is worth it when you reach your goal of perhaps learning a new song or
getting down that new riff that you just heard. This last step sounds fairly
easy compared to the rest, but for some like myself it is the most difficult
one. The last step is to believe in yourself and have confidence while playing.
It can be hard to put yourself out there and play in front of an audience or
group because you do not want to face ridicule or criticism; I know I have been
there too. I am here to tell you that once you get over the initial fear of
playing to others, you will feel one hundred more times confident in your
playing when you get support and validation from the crowd you played for.
21 comments:
From a guitar player standpoint, this written tutorial was very well thought out. Not only was it thorough and detailed, but it was also easy to understand. The introduction utilizing quotations and the credibility of Jimmy Page was captivating, made me want to continue on and read more. I also enjoyed how you connected this tutorial to your passion for guitar playing, which gave me a little insight about not only the basics of guitar playing, but to you and your interests as well.
I always wanted to learn the guitar however never really had the time to go out and get a teacher to teach me. After reading this though it has encouraged me to hopefully invest in a guitar. I really love the way you made the steps and instruction very simple and easy to read. Only criticism I have to say is I wish it was more organized and not all squished together. I will definitely be saving this post though for future reference!! Hopefully I will soon become really good at playing the guitar because of this!
I have always been on and off of playing the guitar. I got my first guitar when I was five, it was electric! I think my dad had some high expectations of me being the next Joan Jett, if you know who she is. However, throughout the years I have learned and practiced for a while and then would forget and have to start over every time. You have inspired me to keep trying and to keep playing, so Thank You! Oh and by the way I have gotten a new guitar, I don't still have that kiddie electrical guitar, this one is ACOUSTIC!
I really liked how detailed, yet easy to follow along your tutorial was. And I liked how before you mentioned playing you talked about what type of guitar you should think about getting, and how to tune it. (The pics were good too) The whole thing just felt connected, like I actually had someone here talking to me about it. Made me wanna go play!
- Nathaniel Velasquez
I enjoyed reading this piece because it was instructional and kind of inspired me to pick up a guitar and learn how to play-something I have been thinking about for a while now. I think you made it really understandable and the way you described everything flowed very well. However, I think that the organization could have been a little bit clearer as to the steps of actually playing rather than grouping things together. Despite this I think even someone who doesn't have any musical theory background would still be capable of comprehending this. So great job!
I love this how to piece so much! It has a bit of humor and it gives the reader the desire to want to continue on with the instructions instead of a regular, boring instruction manual. I loved the detail that is added and how well everything is explained. I also loved the pictures which gives the reader of visual of where everything goes. Great job!
I really loved this piece mainly because often times tutorials such as these can be hard to follow and a bit confusing but yours clearly defined each step and kept me intrigued. I love that you added some personality while explaining how to play a guitar; the little humorous remarks entertained the audience. As someone who knows how to play an instrument It can often become challenging to teach someone how to play but your steps were perfectly organized and simple.
I used to play the guitar when I was younger, but I have not played in several years. I have forgotten some of the basic rules for guitar playing, and this tutorial brought everything back to my memory. It is detailed, yet straightforward so even someone who has never played guitar can follow along. I also like how there were charts in case someone is more of a visual learner. Awesome tutorial!
Standing at a guitar player's standpoint, I have to say that this instructional blog covered all the essentials of a beginner's guitar learning. Unlike the piano where you can fiddle around with the keys and eventually make some decent sounding music, the guitar is much different and much more specific. Every place you press down on the string and pluck makes a sound, but that sound is not guaranteed a pleasant sound. Having a tutorial like this to help new guitar players is extremely beneficial, well done!
When I was younger I had my own guitar, but never learned how to play it properly. This is an excellent tutorial on how to play a guitar. You made it easy to understand, with the addition of pictures for visual learners. This will certainly help beginner guitar players. Good Job!
This tutorial was very well written and put together. It had a nice hook to grab the attention of a reader and clearly went through each step in the process of playing a guitar. The visuals were well thought out and made this article easy to understand.
Not being a guitar player, I don't know much about the trade, but I certainly know that this tutorial was amazing. I can't think of any basic aspect of guitar playing that you didn't cover. When I was about seven, I received an acoustic guitar under the Christmas tree and never learned to actually play it besides purposelessly strumming my fingers along the chords. This tutorial made me consider pulling it out from the back of my closet and givin' it another shot. Before your tutorial, I didn't realize how convoluted the act of playing the guitar actually was and how many factors you have to take into consideration. Nice visual aids too! Thanks for the tutorial!
I am not a guitar player, but I always have wanted to play, so this is an amazing thing to read. It's very clear on the basics of guitar playing which I myself enjoyed. Great lesson!
I've had a guitar sitting in my room for the past couple of years and never did learn how to play. After reading this I feel like I have a better understanding of learning the basics of how to play a guitar. Personally I am a visual learner so incorporating the pictures that followed the steps made it even easier for me to follow. Overall this was a great job!
As someone who has recently grown beyond the beginner lessons of guitar playing, I find this tutorial very accurate and in tune with how I went about using my resources to teach myself. The inclusion of a quote from a guitarist icon heavily solidifies your introduction, as it functions to reassure new players of their potential to succeed. Your organization is well thought out, beginning with first the proper guitar-playing etiquette, then transitioning into the process of learning to play notes and chords. There is a lot to explain, and although you may have skimmed over a few of the main components of learning to play (such as chords and bar chords), your breakdown of each method of playing was as concise as possible; the use of visual aids greatly assisted in alleviating the slight lack of extensive explanation. Overall, this is a very insightful instructional work, accentuated by your anecdotal shortcomings/triumphs in your guitar education, which in turn facilitate the reader's persuasion of the value of your topic. Well done.
I enjoyed this piece of work very much. Your piece was well thought out and insightful. From the view of an individual that has never held a guitar, reading this piece gave me a better understanding of the basics that are used when playing the guitar. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to take up guitar as a hobby, as this piece is very informative.
As someone who wants to learn how to play a guitar, this piece of "how to" is a very well written piece of instructions for beginners like me. In your very well organized piece, you talk about every single thing a beginner should know about, such as choosing or finding a guitar that suits you best, tuning a guitar, holding a guitar pick, knowing all the chords and notes and the time and effort the guitarist should put into his or her practice to be a "next level guitar master." Your piece involves a much good, easy, and beginner friendly methods as you used diagrams of the different parts of the guitar and the basic chords chart, which are very suitable for learning music. I hope I can use this well written piece of instructions as I plan to learn how to play a guitar throughout next summer. Well done on your instructional piece!
This tutorial was very helpful for anyone interested in learning to play the guitar without any prior knowledge. You were able to clearly to explain each step whether it was the anatomy of the guitar or the basic understanding of the main elements of the guitar such as chords and notes. Overall, this piece was very informative and you did a great job helping the reader to visualize the different steps using images.
I've always loved watching people people the guitar and admired their skill and talent. But, never have I ever thought about playing one myself as a hobby and reading this I still don't have plans on doing do. This looks like pretty hard work and although reading this had honestly discouraged me from ever wanting to learn how to play the guitar, I have gained a much greater respect and admiration for those who do.On the other hand, I now feel confident that I am making the right choice whenever dropping some bills into a street performer's hat or guitar case.
I remember freshman year I played the guitar for a bit, but it got so difficult for me to keep learning because I was so accustomed to playing classical string instruments. This makes it so much easier to actually re-learn how to play the guitar and appreciate how cool of an instrument it really is. This tutorial was really easy to understand. I liked this a lot!
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