How to Play Guitar – Guitar Lessons for Beginners

You can play anything from metal, country and blues to classical and pretty much everything you can think of on a guitar. Learning guitar is usually easier than learning other instruments, once you familiarize yourself with a few basic notions. Practice a lot. Before you know it, you’ll start playing great no matter if you play on an acoustic guitar or an electric. Here is our short Guitar Lessons for Beginners guide on how to play guitar. Enjoy.

Guitar Lessons for Beginners – Playing Your Guitar

1. If you are right handed, use your left hand to hold the guitar by the neck and hold your right hand close to the bridge. If you’re left handed, do the opposite.

2. Move your fingers up and down the fret board and practice by pressing down on different frets.

3. Make a fist with your right hand and hold the pick between your pointer finger and thumb.

4. Pick each string to produce notes.

5. Play chords by strumming multiple strings together.

6. Practice the basic chords and play very simple melodies.

The Basics

It’s very important to know how to correctly hold a guitar before trying to be the next big rock star. Sit in a stool or a chair and hold the guitar. The thinnest string should be pointed at the ground, while the thickest one should be pointed up.

You should hold the guitar on your leg and keep it close to your body. Your left hand should be used to hold the neck. If you’re holding the guitar in a correct position you should be able to move your hand down and up the griff (neck) of the guitar without any problems.

Keep in mind that this takes a lot of practice and even if you hold it correctly, it may not be very comfortable until you get used to the guitar.

How to Tune Your Guitar

First, you need to learn the names of the strings. From the thickest string to the thinnest, the strings are called E, A, D, G, B and E. These are the notes of each string without any fingers touching them.

You can use a tuner to properly and accurately tune your guitar. Tune each string individually. Make sure that you’re in a quiet environment as the tuner’s microphone should only pick up the sounds created by your guitar.

How to Play Chords

A chord is a combination of at least three notes. The most important major chords are the D Major, E Major, G Major, A Major and C Major. Practice these chords before moving on to the minor ones. Make sure you play them correctly and you will have no problem switching between them.

Practice Getting Clean Sounds

When placing your fingers to get a chord, play each of the strings to make sure none of them sound muted or muffled.

If the notes don’t really sound right, there is a chance that you’re not pressing hard enough on the fret board or that your other fingers are touching the strings you need to play.

How to Strum Correctly

Strumming consists of up strokes and down strokes in different combinations. Make sure to keep your elbow close to the body of the guitar while playing chords. You should mostly strum from the wrist and keep your elbow still.

Lean to Play Songs

Playing the guitar is a lot more fun when you’re not just playing random chords. There are a lot of great simple songs out there. Just make sure you start with the simpler ones like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” before moving on to more complex ones. I know you’re very excited to start playing Metallica, Led Zeppelin or songs from other bands but the fact is that if you try to sing something complicated and ends up sounding completely wrong, you will get frustrated and quit playing altogether. Try to find simple songs that you’re happy with.

You may notice that the sounds you produce sound mechanical but don’t worry because as you will get better at switching between chords and notes, you will slowly start to play a lot better.

Try learning Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama as it’s basically just a repetition of the chords D, C and G.

Learn From Other People

You will learn the guitar a lot quicker if you watch and listen to other players. It’s not completely necessary to get professional lessons. But, if you have friends that play the guitar, ask them to share their tricks and give you suggestions.

You can also learn from YouTube tutorials as they can be extremely helpful for both beginners and advanced guitar players.

If you wish to play jazz guitar or classical, you should probably get professional lessons as a great teacher will give you lots of pointers and will help you master the guitar. You can develop your own style of playing by being your own teacher but the fact is that a professional will help you play the right way.

Guitar Lessons for Beginners – Tips

Don’t be disappointed if the chords you play don’t sound very good the first time. Make sure you practice in order to strengthen your fingers.

Search for songs you love, and start learning them. Practice those songs until you have them down pat.

Picking tabs with your fingers is extremely important. So, make sure you search for patterns online or try to make up your own.

If you encounter great difficulty when forming chords, you should familiarize yourself more with the guitar and build finger strength and dexterity.

So there you have it. This was our short guide on how to play guitar. We really hope you enjoyed it.

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