Oct 09
8

Is guitar easy to learn?

5 Comments

yeah well im going to get an acoustic guitar soon and i wanna know, is it hard to learn guitar? because my friends friend knows guitar and she taught it to her i guess like the basics and she knows it well i guess and she knows how to play one time by justin beiber. and also do i really need guitar lessons? because i really dont have time to go to lessons

Successfully learning how to play guitar is within the grasp of the majority of people, yet many beginners give up too fast. Often, quitting beginners will blame their lack of time to practice and that playing hurts their fingers. The cause is that they just don’t practice in an adequate amount of time. This answer can’t give you more time to practice, but it will show you how to successfully become an adequate guitar player :

1. Study the physical instrument itself, for the first time. Learn the names and functions of the guitar parts, and how they work together to make sounds. A half hour spent on this fundamental understanding will be repaid many times over throughout your practicing and playing time.

2. Teach yourself various ways to play a chord as you can. for example, there are 10 different fret hand positions from which to play the C chord. Obviously, go for a ‘perfect’ open C chord first, but the more ways you know to play a chord, the more flexibility you’ll have in moving from one chord to the other. This can also come in handy if you decide to try composing new music.

3. Practice every day (5 out of 7 days minimum) for at least a half hour. If you want to learn quickly, you must force-feed your brain with guitar. This entails learning how to have a good ear for changes in intonation, comfortably positioning your body (including leg, back, shoulder and arm positions), strum-hand coordination and technique, fret hand coordination and technique, and most significantly, fret hand muscle memory.

4. Carry your guitar every where you go if you’ll be sitting, waiting, watching, etc. Having your guitar with you in those locations will promote your playing ability when starting out. It’s also helpful when establishing calluses. Always have your guitar with you so you can practice pressing down the strings using proper fret hand chord formation.
Buy an electric guitar tuner, you’ll save yourself many packs of strings and be careful when tuning, especially the first string.

5. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice makes perfect isn’t just some phrase. When practicing, strive for quality; if you practice sloppily you’ll be making bad habits permanent. A better aphorism in fact might be, "Practice makes permanent." Also, just as weight-training athletes rotate their exercises, focusing on one part of the body one day, it’s possible to practice passages focusing on different aspects – tone, smoothness, speed, accuracy. By concentrating on different practice facets of the music individually, you can hone your skills and improve your overall playing!

6. Play along with CD versions of songs you are fond of[spin]. The CD player is a great tool for music learners because it is [spin]easy to ‘rewind’ and repeat even very small pieces of a song over and over until you figure out exactly how to do that riff you really like. Just hold down the ‘fast rewind’ button and watch the number counter (the number counts the number of seconds of music). Make a mental note of the seconds-count where the riff begins. Then you will be able to easily backtrack again and again to your start point.

7. Never put nylon classical strings on a steel string guitar, nor vice versa. They are not exchangeable. However, if you have a steel string acoustic, you can use "silk & steel" strings on the guitar until your fingers are tough enough to use the steel strings, because they are easier on your fingers. Note that the sound will be more subdued and less brilliant.

The most important part of learning to play guitar is having the right guide to take you through each step professionally and thoroughly. I can recommend a helpful program which is reviewed in the following link:

http://www.squidoo.com/guitar-like-pro

Good luck with the guitar!

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Posted in easy guitar lessons by Brian Nisbet 5 Comments

5 Responses to "Is guitar easy to learn?"

  • Dilini S says:
    October 8, 2009 at 7:13 am

    Nah, i’d say the guitar is the easiest instruments to learn. Of course this does depend on if you know how to play another instrument already. If you do, Guitar is very straightforward. If, however, it’s your first instrument i would suggest lessons because you do need some kind of theory/music training before you can reach any decent level of skill playing.

    The guitar is easy to learn because once you’ve started learning a few chords you can pretty much start playing songs straight away. Guitar tabs are also in abundance on the web so find a few songs you like with easy tabs and get playing. That’s the best and easiest way of learning chords. And that’s pretty much the basics of it, or at least all you really need if it’s just a fun hobby.

    Good Luck!
    References :

  • Matthew says:
    October 8, 2009 at 7:26 am

    I suggest that you start out with a electric guitar because an electric guitar is 100 times easier than an acoustic. And no it is prettty hard to learn. It took me years to get the hang of it no joke. But trust me it is so worth it you should take some guitar lessons.
    References :

  • Paulsky says:
    October 8, 2009 at 8:09 am

    If you have not played an instrument before and are not musically inclined, it may be frustrating at first. Not necessarily, hard, just frustrating. The problem with many people, I find, is they don’t start at the basics and assume they’ll automatically be good.

    If you are not musically inclined I suggest getting a guitar teacher or at the very least a how to book. If you are going to teach yourself then you should learn the basic chords, have an understanding of notes and learn to read tabs. You can find the chords and tabs to songs on the internet and play along to songs.

    I personally picked up on guitar fast, but I had previous experience on the bass and I was learning punk rock, which is mostly just power chords played with a bit of attitude, so far easier then learning some other genres. So basically start with simple stuff that you like.
    References :
    Currently lead guitar for a punk/ska band, have acted as rhythm guitar for a metal band in the past though.

  • Guitar Lover says:
    October 8, 2009 at 8:21 am

    Hey Kelsey!

    Check out http://www.shigaru.com . It’s a new guitar community based website where people can share their musical knowledge by uploading there own music, video tutorials. They have all kinds of levels and languages on there too!

    Best of all ….it’s free!!

    Hope this helps!

    And please tell all your friends about it. The more people we tell about the site the more users it will have and the more tutorials people will share with us!! :-)
    References :
    http://www.shigaru.com
    ‘The Community for Sharing Musical Knowledge’

  • Robert says:
    October 8, 2009 at 8:38 am

    Successfully learning how to play guitar is within the grasp of the majority of people, yet many beginners give up too fast. Often, quitting beginners will blame their lack of time to practice and that playing hurts their fingers. The cause is that they just don’t practice in an adequate amount of time. This answer can’t give you more time to practice, but it will show you how to successfully become an adequate guitar player :

    1. Study the physical instrument itself, for the first time. Learn the names and functions of the guitar parts, and how they work together to make sounds. A half hour spent on this fundamental understanding will be repaid many times over throughout your practicing and playing time.

    2. Teach yourself various ways to play a chord as you can. for example, there are 10 different fret hand positions from which to play the C chord. Obviously, go for a ‘perfect’ open C chord first, but the more ways you know to play a chord, the more flexibility you’ll have in moving from one chord to the other. This can also come in handy if you decide to try composing new music.

    3. Practice every day (5 out of 7 days minimum) for at least a half hour. If you want to learn quickly, you must force-feed your brain with guitar. This entails learning how to have a good ear for changes in intonation, comfortably positioning your body (including leg, back, shoulder and arm positions), strum-hand coordination and technique, fret hand coordination and technique, and most significantly, fret hand muscle memory.

    4. Carry your guitar every where you go if you’ll be sitting, waiting, watching, etc. Having your guitar with you in those locations will promote your playing ability when starting out. It’s also helpful when establishing calluses. Always have your guitar with you so you can practice pressing down the strings using proper fret hand chord formation.
    Buy an electric guitar tuner, you’ll save yourself many packs of strings and be careful when tuning, especially the first string.

    5. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice makes perfect isn’t just some phrase. When practicing, strive for quality; if you practice sloppily you’ll be making bad habits permanent. A better aphorism in fact might be, "Practice makes permanent." Also, just as weight-training athletes rotate their exercises, focusing on one part of the body one day, it’s possible to practice passages focusing on different aspects – tone, smoothness, speed, accuracy. By concentrating on different practice facets of the music individually, you can hone your skills and improve your overall playing!

    6. Play along with CD versions of songs you are fond of[spin]. The CD player is a great tool for music learners because it is [spin]easy to ‘rewind’ and repeat even very small pieces of a song over and over until you figure out exactly how to do that riff you really like. Just hold down the ‘fast rewind’ button and watch the number counter (the number counts the number of seconds of music). Make a mental note of the seconds-count where the riff begins. Then you will be able to easily backtrack again and again to your start point.

    7. Never put nylon classical strings on a steel string guitar, nor vice versa. They are not exchangeable. However, if you have a steel string acoustic, you can use "silk & steel" strings on the guitar until your fingers are tough enough to use the steel strings, because they are easier on your fingers. Note that the sound will be more subdued and less brilliant.

    The most important part of learning to play guitar is having the right guide to take you through each step professionally and thoroughly. I can recommend a helpful program which is reviewed in the following link:
    http://www.squidoo.com/guitar-like-pro

    Good luck with the guitar!
    References :

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