" How to Start Playing the Guitar" by Madyson H

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.  

http://www.guitarcalculator.com/learnguitar/images/guitardiag.gif

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.

 

http://www.guitar-skill-builder.com/Bar-Chord-Chart.html

http://www.guitarhabits.com/the-8-most-important-open-guitar-chords-for-beginners/

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.