Learning how to play guitar is a very fulfilling and fun challenge to take on. But like all instruments, there is a right way and wrong way to learn the guitar. What is the best way to learn guitar?
The best way to learn guitar is as follows:
- Choose the right guitar for you
- Familiarize yourself with your guitar
- Learn the basic chords
- Learn simple strumming patterns
- Don’t get discouraged if your fingers hurt
- Learn a song
- Practice regularly
- Follow a learning system
- Use a guitar lesson app
- Watch YouTube videos
- Sharpen your ears
- Learn music theory
You’ll learn how to play the guitar faster if you get a guitar that you like and feels right to you. After getting a good guitar, familiarize yourself with it. Then learn the basic chords and strumming patterns. Follow a consistent practice routine and you will learn guitar quickly.
For an excellent acoustic guitar for beginners, take a look at the Fender CD-60SCE Acoustic-Electric Guitar. It has an easy-to-play neck, built-in tuner, and you can easily switch between acoustic or acoustic-electric.
Click here to see it on Amazon.
For a great electric guitar for beginners, take a look at the Fender Player Stratocaster Electric Guitar. It is light, easy to play, and has that beautifully-rich Fender sound.
Click here to see it on Amazon.
Read on to learn more about the best way to learn guitar, including the 12 tips for learning it faster.
Best Way to Learn Guitar
The best way to learn guitar is by choosing the right guitar for you first. Then, get the hang of the basics and practice regularly. It will also help if you use online learning resources such as YouTube to learn faster.
If you want to master the guitar faster, get a guitar you are most interested in. An electric guitar is also easier to master compared to an acoustic guitar.
The strings of electric guitars are thinner and lighter than acoustic guitars. You will need firmer fingering and picking with an acoustic than an electric one.
Today, it is much easier to learn how to play the guitar because of the many teaching resources available on the net. They are freely available on YouTube and other online video platforms. You can select the ones that you think will provide you the best instructions.
The best tip to follow is to practice regularly. If you really want to play decent guitar, you really need to schedule a regular practice time. The length of time depends on your daily schedule.
Conducting practice is very important because this is where you will apply the instructions that you will receive from your ‘teachers’. Put in at least 15 to 20 minutes a day. Always remember that there are no shortcuts in learning the guitar.
What is the best way to learn guitar? The best way to learn to play guitar is by following the below 12 tips. If you follow all these tips, you will learn guitar in a shorter period of time.
1. Choose the Right Guitar for You
The first tip on the best way to learn guitar is to choose a good quality guitar that you like.
You will only look forward to your everyday practice if you get a guitar that you really like. Of course, as a beginner, you can’t buy the latest Gibson, Rickenbacker, or Fender strat. Pick the one you can afford that you also like to caress.
Your first guitar will have an impact on how you can learn it easily and fast. An electric guitar should fit the bill because it is much easier to learn than an acoustic guitar. Its strings are generally lighter, and the action is lower than the acoustic so that you can depress them easily.
Thus, your fingers won’t hurt so much at the start as they would if you will use an acoustic guitar. But it really depends on your preference. I’m just recommending the guitar that is easier to play as a beginner. When your fingers are already heavily calloused, it won’t really matter.
Most beginners choose to buy an acoustic guitar since they can take it anywhere. So, it’s your pick, really. Just choose one that sounds really good and stays in tune for a reasonable time.
For an excellent acoustic guitar for beginners, take a look at the Fender CD-60SCE Acoustic-Electric Guitar. It has an easy-to-play neck, built-in tuner, and you can easily switch between acoustic or acoustic-electric.
Click here to see it on Amazon.
For an excellent electric guitar for beginners, take a look at the Fender Player Stratocaster Electric Guitar. It is light, easy to play, built to last, and has a clear, rich sound.
Click here to see it on Amazon.
2. Familiarize Yourself with Your Guitar
Now that you have your guitar, familiarize yourself with it. The best way to learn electric guitar or acoustic guitar is to know its parts.
If you still do not know its parts, this is the time to Google them. The basic parts of a guitar are the strings, the neck and fretboard, the body or sounding board, the bridge, the nut, and the tuning mechanisms on its head.
Most probably, you bought a 6-stringed guitar. So, it should have six tuning mechanisms. First, you need to learn is how to tune them correctly. You are lucky because today, there are small electronic tuners that you can use to tune your guitar strings precisely.
In the past, guitarists had to tune their guitars using their ears. They do it by plucking the strings into two sets and ensuring that one of the strings is an octave of the other string. Since there are 6 strings in the guitar, this process is repeated three times until the strings are properly tuned.
Now that your guitar is properly tuned, start fretting your fingers on the fretboard. If this is your first time, your fingers will hurt. But go on until you can’t really stand the pain any longer. Be sure to hit the center of each fret to produce pleasant sounds.
In time and if you practice regularly, your fingers will develop callouses. Eventually, they won’t hurt anymore as you progress in your learning.
3. Learn the Basic Chords
What is the best way to learn guitar on your own? The best way to learn acoustic guitar or electric guitar on your own is to learn the basic chords. By learning the basic notes and chords, you will be able to play thousands of songs. Most songs use simple, basic chord patterns.
You will be surprised that you can already play a song and sing along with your friends with only a few chords. The first chords you need to learn are the chord combination of G, D, and C, where G is the base chord.
Another chord combination for beginners is the C, F, and G, where C is the base chord. And then another is the E, A, B, where E is the base chord.
With these three-chord combinations, you will already be able to play scores of songs on the guitar. Play here is loosely defined as accompany. In other words, you will be able to play the guitar to accompany songs just using these three-chord combinations.
It would help if you learned how the basic guitar chords are formed. The best way to learn guitar chords is to find chord charts online. For example, this guitar fingering and chord chart displays many of them. From online sources, you will learn how to position your fingers to form the chords on the guitar and produce the right tones and tone qualities.
At this learning stage, pick songs with simple three-chord combinations. At this stage, you need to get the hang of the right fingering techniques that will produce good quality sounds.
Don’t try complicated songs at the early stages of your guitar learning. You’re laying a good foundation that will carry you further as you progress.
4. Learn Simple Strumming Patterns
After learning a few basic chords, the best way to learn to play guitar involves learning how to produce sounds from the strings. The fundamental way of producing sounds from guitar strings is by strumming.
Guitar sounds are made more vibrant and exciting by the way guitarists strum their guitars. There are many ways that you can strum a guitar. These ways are usually called strumming patterns or styles.
Standard strumming style is done by striking your fingers or your pick up and down the whole 6 strings of the guitar. Timing is also important here. You need to keep your strums to the beat of the music or song that you are accompanying.
The best way to learn guitar online is by watching videos. Watch this video to see the different strumming patterns you can use as a beginner.
5. Don’t Get Discouraged If Your Fingers Hurt
In time, your fretting fingertips will ache. They are still not used to pressing the strings on the fretboard of the guitar. You have to bear it if you really want to learn the guitar. If you practice regularly, your fingertips will develop callouses.
And then these callouses will be more or less permanent at your fingertips. By then, you will have no problem doing the chords even after many long hours of practice. At the start, your fingertips will only allow you to play the guitar for 15 to 20 minutes.
But as you go further along, you’ll be able to play the guitar for hours without noticing it.
6. Learn a Song
The reason why you are trying to learn the guitar is to play songs. Why not do it on your first learning day. Just limit yourself to songs with three-chord combinations. There should be some pop songs which simple chord combinations only. An online search will lead you to these songs.
The idea here is to encourage you. If you can somehow fulfill your goal on the first day, you will be wonderfully encouraged to push on, even in a small way. It is essential to keep your brain in a learning mode.
One good trick here is this: after spending some time in your regular practice, spend the closing minutes of your practice learning a simple but new song.
Again, the best way to learn guitar involves choosing the right guitar for you. This is followed by mastering the basics, practicing regularly, and using online resources such as a guitar lesson app to help you learn faster.
7. Practice Regularly
Most guitar players suggest that the best way to learn guitar on your own is by practicing regularly. Learning is not just about knowing the principles and concepts.
In large part, it is the practice of the concepts that enable you to do something properly. Practicing what you have just learned will cement the concept in your mind.
If you can, practice for one hour a day. This will enable you to learn faster. Don’t waste your time watching videos one after another. Just watch enough of them and then put to practice what you have just learned.
8. Follow a Learning System
In the beginning, you need to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes learning the basic rudiments. You will be able to make the most of this time by organizing your practice schedule. Here is a suggestion on how you can maximize your practice time:
- Spend 5 minutes doing drills
- At most 10 minutes practicing guitar tricks
- Spend 5 minutes practicing a song.
If you stick to this practice schedule three to four times a week, you will make considerable progress in a short time. Pretty soon, you will be able to show off your musical talents to your friends.
9. Use a Guitar Lesson App
A guitar app that you can download on your smartphone or laptop will go a long way in learning the proper guitar playing. It will provide you with starting lessons, guitar chords, tabs, notes, and plenty of songs to practice. Guitar apps have helped millions around the world on how to play decent guitar.
An app will also prevent you from acquiring bad habits while you are still in the early stages. This is your next second option rather than attending classes with a real-live teacher guiding you as you take the lessons.
A quick online search can get you the best apps that you can use. Read the reviews of these apps and pick one that will best serve your purpose.
10. Watch YouTube Videos
The best way to learn guitar online is by watching video guitar lessons. There are a plethora of guitar lessons on YouTube, from beginner to advanced level. You don’t have to buy a course or enroll in a guitar school to learn how to play the guitar decently.
It will be a different matter if you want to be a guitar concert performing artist. As it is, you are just trying to learn the guitar for the sheer enjoyment of it. This is the easiest way to learn guitar.
11. Sharpen Your Ears
If you are going to be a good musician, you need to hone your ears. You must be able to hear the color of the notes that you are listening to. Of course, you are just starting.
But it pays to listen intently and carefully to the music that you want to play. Repetition is the key to learning difficult passages in music. This is where you need a lot of patience.
12. Learn Music Theory
If you really want to advance and play the guitar proficiently and perform in front of an audience, you need to invest your time learning music theory. It doesn’t mean you are studying music theory because you want to be a guitar concert artist.
But if you understand music theory, you will be more confident in facing an audience. You will have enough musical background to play in front of an audience, say at a wedding, a special event in your company, or a special music rendition in your church.
There’s a lot of potential if you will learn music theory as you advance in your skill level.
Conclusion: Best Way to Learn How to Play Guitar
The best way to learn guitar is by first choosing the right guitar for you. Then, learn the basics notes, chords, and strumming patterns. Follow a consistent practice schedule and use online learning resources such as YouTube to learn faster.
The best way to learn guitar is by following these steps:
- Choose the right guitar for you
- Familiarize yourself with your guitar
- Learn the basic chords
- Learn simple strumming patterns
- Don’t get discouraged if your fingers hurt
- Learn a song
- Practice regularly
- Follow a learning system
- Use a guitar lesson app
- Watch YouTube videos
- Sharpen your ears
- Learn music theory
Like other musical instruments, learning how to play the guitar should begin with the basics, accompanied by lots of practice. It will also help if you use all the available tools available to you, such as online learning resources.
If you want to follow or be the next guitar virtuoso like Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, or Eric Clapton, follow the step outline in this article. You will learn how to play the guitar in no time.
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