Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Teach Yourself Guitar - 5 Amazingly Easy Steps For Newbies

Before you teach yourself guitar, there are 3 main things that you have to take into consideration.

The first and most important consideration is to find or buy your own guitar. If you do not have cash yet, you can borrow first but try to get some part-time work to save enough to buy your very own guitar. If you do not mind, you can always get a used guitar since you are just a beginner. You can borrow a guitar the 1st few weeks but it is recommended that you have your own guitar so that you will be able to learn faster. When you use the guitar so often, it will naturally see some signs of exhaustion. Therefore if you use a used guitar, you won't feel so sad to see your brand new old getting a bit old so soon.

The next thing you have to consider is choosing the right guitar to play with. This would be depend on you own preference. Which type of songs do you like to play? Are you the sensitive type and prefer to play ballads rather than playing pop or rock songs? Many guitarists started playing the acoustic guitar before going on to bass or electric guitar. Acoustic guitar is easily available in the music shop with various brand such as Ibanez or Taylor Acoustic Guitar and it is more flexible in the sense that you can play it anytime, anywhere you want to and even on American Idol.

The 3rd consideration is to find someone to listen to you. It will be easier if you have someone who can support you and to give you their honest opinion on how well you are playing the guitar even though the truth might sometimes hurt you. This will fast track your effort to teach yourself guitar. It will be a plus point if he is an experienced guitar player so that he can correct your techniques and give you tips on how to improve your techniques which books and online tutorials can't.

Once you have that in place, you can now start to learn strumming the guitar. Can you teach yourself guitar strumming? Is that possible? Of course, just use Goggle and YouTube for free resources for a start.

1. You have found the right guitar. Place the guitar in a comfortable position. It would be easier if you are sitting down and then rest the base of the guitar on your right thigh. Use your left fingers to support the other end of the strings and for tuning and changing the notes. Your right hand fingers is used for strumming and plucking. This will create the proper body positioning. Try to maintain a good posture and also a comfortable position to avoid straining your muscles.

2. Put the notes and books in front of you and follow each step carefully. You need to be familiar with all the basic chords and then try to memorize them. Try to play slowly and focus on the easier basic chords first. Once you know the basic ones, then you can go on to the harder ones which contain frets and power chords.

3. Choose some easy songs to play on the guitar. It would be good to choose songs which repeats only four or five easy chord sequences. A good example is You and Me by Lifehouse. It consists of just four chords namely G, C, E- minor, and D which is repeated.

4. While you are playing the guitar, you can also sing along or hum together. This will help you to get into the mood and be a source of inspiration and staying close to the correct melody. As you sing, you will notice whether you are strumming the right chords or if you have gone out of tune.

5. Take your time. Never give up on yourself. You need to be persistent although you feel like giving up sometimes. Do no worry if you see blisters on your fingers, it shows that you have been practising hard.

Rome was not built in one day and so it will take time to teach yourself guitar. If you persist, you will master it in no time. Playing guitar is not hard if you are persistent and have a positive attitude.

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