Questions And answers
The most important thing about starting to learn the guitar is to have the proper mindset. Understand this is going to take a lot of time and effort. You will have to learn the language of music and train your fingers to move in a way that is completely unnatural at first. If you practice daily and you overcome the obstacles, you will develop skills that will enable you to communicate musically, and you will develop your own unique style and voice.
The type of guitar you choose (acoustic or electric) should depend on the type of music you want to play. If you want to be a singer/songwriter then an acoustic would be a good fit. If you want to rip into some metal then you would want an electric guitar that you can plug into an amp you can crank. Look at the artists you would like to emulate and find out what instruments they play. Choosing the wrong type of instrument could cause you to lose interest or leave you unfulfilled.
It is not necessary to read music to play the guitar, Most guitarists read “charts” or chord sheets which are a type of shorthand for music. Also Guitar has its own more visually based notation called tablature which tells you what fret to play on a certain string. The drawback with tablature is that there is no timing or rhythm elements and requires you to know the song. Learning to read sheet music is a huge advantage to a guitarist and is a requirement to being accepted into a music school like Berklee College of Music.
Learning on your own is much easier in this current environment of You Tube and other social media platforms. Also almost every You Tube guitarist offers courses you can purchase that will teach you their system in a very linear fashion. There are guitar lesson websites which offer many different teachers and subjects that you can pick and choose your lessons for a monthly subscription. But there are drawbacks to learning on your own and you will be better served by taking live lessons from a guitar instructor. Here are some advantages over learning through pre-recorded video content:
You will receive instant feedback.
You can ask questions.
The instructor will assess your progress and make corrections in real time.
You will be motivated to practice because you will be assessed every week.
Lessons will be tailored to your progress and interests.
Bad habits can be avoided and will not have to be unlearned later.
You will progress faster by having tailored exercises focusing on your specific learning path.
You can miss crucial information when piecing together lessons on social media.
Pre-recorded video courses are one size fits all.
Daily practice is absolutely vital to progressing on the guitar. But it should not become a burden or a chore. You should try to practice at least 30 minutes a day. Practice does not need to be regimented. For example, you can practice 3 times a day for 10 minutes or 2 times a day for 15 minutes, you can practice techniques while watching a movie by running exercises over and over again until you can do them without thinking. Learning guitar is all about muscle memory, so focusing on an exercise and repeating it three or four times a day for 5 minutes is more beneficial than doing it for 15 minutes once a day. For instance, when learning chords, if you switch between chords once a second, in 5 minutes you would practice that chord change 300 times. Do that 3 times a day and you will master those chords quickly. You will need longer blocks of time for learning and analyzing songs. Of course, the more you practice the faster you will progress. Keep your guitar close by on a stand next to where you like to spend your time and you will pick it up more often. Practice daily whenever possible, letting too much time pass between sessions can cause you to lose abilities you have learned.
All beginner guitarists should learn to play the 8 open chords and the 4 barre chords. I usually teach them in this order:
First 4 chords – G major, C major, D major, and E minor.
Second 4 chords – A major, E Major, D minor, A minor.
F major and F minor Barre chords.
B major and B minor barre chords.
Finger strength and dexterity are two very different things, but can be improved in the same way. By practicing the guitar. You don’t need stress balls or other gimmicks, your fingers will strengthen and move correctly after repeating exercises hundreds of times. Your fingers will develop calluses, strengthen, and become more agile in as little as a few weeks if you practice like I explained in question 5.
Absolutely not! It does not matter how old you are. The ages of my students have run the gamut from low teens all the way to their 60’s. I find they all struggle to overcome the same obstacles the same way, the only variable is the amount of practice they put in directly affects the speed at which they progress. Everyone is terrible at guitar at first and the fingers have to learn to move in a way that is completely foreign and unnatural. Some people do develop dexterity quicker than others but this has nothing to do with age. Natural ability is a real thing, and if you have less than someone else, it means you have to work harder and drive through the hurdles. If you invest time into learning a skill, whether it is an instrument, sports, or for example, lets say you choose painting: If you start today and paint a picture every day, after a year you will have undoubtedly increased in ability. After two you might be good enough to sell some paintings. But if you never start, you will accomplish nothing. Time is precious and we have a finite amount of it. Whatever your age, or endeavor, seize that time.
Malcolm Gladwell famously wrote in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” and is more commonly known as: “it takes approximately 10,000 hours of intensive practice to become an expert in any field.” Although the number may just be arbitrary, I think we can all agree that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you will undoubtedly be good at it. Therefore the more time you spend in daily practice, the faster you will progress. Also having a good teacher to guide you, and who will assess your abilities on a regular basis, will speed up the process even more. In my teaching experience, this chart is a good representation of what you can expect to accomplish with the time you are willing to put in.
Level | Hours Needed | Daily Practice Investment | Summary | |||
30m | 1h | 2h | 4h | |||
Introductory | 156.25 | 10 months | 156 days | 78 days | 39 days | Can play simple musical parts, songs and accompaniments, and at least one real piece of music, although likely with a somewhat irregular rhythm and flawed technique. |
Basic | 312.5 | 1.8 years | 10 months | 156 days | 78 days | An expanded grasp of fundamentals, and can play several pieces, albeit imperfectly. |
Beginning | 625 | 3.5 years | 1.8 years | 10 months | 156 days | Basic competence as a rhythm guitar player, and can continue learning and growing independently. |
Intermediate | 1250 | 6.9 years | 3.5 years | 1.8 years | 10 months | Skill suitable for more advanced pursuits such as improvisation, home recording, writing music, and beginning to tackle advanced repertoire and technique. |
Advanced | 2500 | 13.9 years | 6.9 years | 3.5 years | 1.8 years | Starts to take command of the musical performance, beyond merely playing right notes and right rhythms, and into deeper awareness of feel, tone, and dynamics. Most never reach this point. |
Expert | 5000 | 27.8 years | 13.9 years | 6.9 years | 3.5 years | Can start to teach others; guitar skills are quite serviceable. |
Professional | 10000 | 55.6 years | 27.8 years | 13.9 years | 6.9 years | Can teach almost any player, and can perform comfortably in at least one style. Most would describe this as mastery. |
Master | 20000 | 111.1 years | 55.6 years | 27.8 years | 13.9 years | World-class musician. Virtuoso |
Chart is the property of Hub Guitar. Here is the link to original article. https://hubguitar.com/articles/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-guitar
Transitioning between chords will be difficult to learn at the beginning. First of all, you have to train your fingers to move in a way that is completely unnatural. Your brain will tell your fingers what to do and your fingers will say “ I don’t know how.” We use our fingers constantly and they easily perform very difficult tasks without us having to think about it. We do not remember struggling to learn these tasks because we learned them at a very young age and we have repeated them millions of times. Tasks such as picking up objects, holding a fork, writing, and typing, to name a few, are all taken for granted. Learning to play chords, however, takes precision finger movement. Not only do you have to land multiple fingers on different strings simultaneously, you have to do it with such precision not to touch another string. What seems impossible at first will soon become so natural it will require no thought. You have to develop muscle memory, and here is how you learn it.
Step one: Finger the chord, lift your fingers off the neck and place them back on the same chord. Work on placing all fingers down to form the chord at the same time. Each time you finger the chord play through it to make sure all the notes ring out. If some strings are muted, make corrections and repeat. Practice each chord for 5 minutes several times a day. If you finger a chord once a second, in 5 minutes you will have practiced this 300 times.
Step two: Do the same practice but switch between two different chords this time. Again your goal is to form the chords by placing the fingers down all at once. Start slow and as you get more accurate speed up slowly. Practice this for 5 minutes a few times a day, and you will get these chords down quickly. Eventually they will become second nature.