Free Guitar Lessons For Beginners – Common Questions Answered

Oct 6, 2009 Electric Guitars
Posted by Mike Jones

Your friend Mike here from KillerGuitarTips.com with another Free Guitar Lesson

This week Id like to answer some questions I get asked quite frequently.

Very often I’m asked “Do I have good guitar playing fingers?” Or “What is the best guitar for me to learn on?” and “How should I practise?”

Well in my years of teaching guitar, I have seen probably every shape and size of hands and fingers there are, from short and stumpy to long and thin but I have not yet found anything that has prevented a pupil from learning to play successfully!! Its all about practice and practice will gain dexterity in anybody dedicated to learning to play the guitar. So don’t worry about the perfect guitarists fingers just keep practicing and adjusting your hand position when you hear a muted (duff) note and slowly but surely you will become proficient enough to play all your favourite tunes easily and smoothly.

What is the best guitar to learn on?

This question revolves around money and personal choice. If it’s rock music you’re into then maybe consider an electric guitar to practice and learn on. If you prefer the sound of an acoustic guitar then learn on an acoustic guitar. there are no hard and fast rules. It’s you that will be learning and to learn you must enjoy yourself and to enjoy yourself you need to practice on a guitar that you love the sound of either electric acoustic or classical.

Now of course the better guitar you can afford the easier it will be to play and consequently easier to learn. If you can afford a better quality guitar then go for it but do not despair if your pocket cannot stretch too far, there are plenty of decent quality budget guitars on the market that are definitely good enough to learn on.

An electric guitar will be easier on the hands than an acoustic so if you learn on an acoustic the transfer to an electric is a delight, vice versa and you will have to put in extra effort to hold down even the simplest of chords. Which ever your choice you will need to practice regularly to obtain good results.

Practicing.

In my personal experience I have found it better to practice for short regular periods rather than trying to cram it all in on a Sunday afternoon!! Half to one hour sessions everyday are best. As well as trying to master new pieces and exercises go over your older stuff just to ‘keep your hand in’. Divide your practice time into sections for exercises, scales and chord work not neglecting some time to play your favourite songs. Try and restrain yourself from just messing with chords and ditties, construct a regular practice workout and stick to it!!

Just another note to expand on the importance of practicing I cannot stress this enough

Learning to play the guitar is a combination of knowledge (What to play) and physical motor skills (being able to accurately and quickly move your fingers). The two together create great killer guitarists.

To develop motor skills repetition is essential. Too many budding guitarists give up too soon because if they cannot play a piece they blame themselves as not being good enough when their friends stick at it and eventually succeed. The main difference between the likes of you and guitarists like Eric Clapton is that he stuck at it and you can do exactly the same.

It takes time to develop the necessary skills to play a guitar well. But heres a killer tip: You should learn in your head before you start to practice, the passage, chord sequence or riff you desire and then practice it slowly so there is no possibility of making a mistake and increase your pace as you improve.

It is better to practice for short periods everyday rather than trying to cram it all in when you can.

Remember ‘repetition is the mother of skill’ the more you practice the better player you will become.

There are no short cuts, no free rides, you will get out of it what you put in. It is vitally important to practice good technique and motor skills shown to you by someone who knows what they are doing, not your friend around the corner as they will probably only teach you bad habits which are very hard to get rid of.

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