By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer
If you have never played guitar before, we will walk you through some basic steps to get you started on your first lesson. It is not an easy thing to do, and has a learning curve to overcome, but if you persist it won’t take long until you are on your way to being more than just a beginning guitar player.
The Parts and Tuning of a Guitar
It is wise to know all the parts of a guitar, but not necessary to play it. The main parts you need to understand are the tuners so that you can loosen and tighten the strings! The low-sounding fat strings are the bass and the thin high pitched strings are the treble. Pick up the guitar and place it on your lap and hold the long neck with your fretting hand.
Most guitarists fret with their left hand, but this is not the case for those who are already left-handed. To avoid confusion we will simply refer to our fretting hand that makes the chords and picking hand that plucks the strings. As you hold the guitar make sure your posture is straight and the picking hand has the guitar slightly cupped in the arm.
Normal standard tuning starts at the lowest bass string and is EADGBE, it is best to have a guitar tuner (clip-on or pedal) or tuning app/online guitar tuner that also shows you octaves so that you are certain you are on the right note. The low E is an E2 and the high treble is an E4, make sure each note is tuned right in the middle or green area that way your chords sound right. If the tuning is off your playing will sound terrible.
Learn Some Easy Chords
The easiest guitar chords for most new players are G, Em, C, and D. They are not too difficult to play and they are the same four chords that make up thousands of songs. You may not understand the pentatonic scale, chords, and chord progressions, but as you keep playing, patterns will start to emerge. You can play lots of pop rock songs with the sequences of G-C-D-G or even G-Em-C-D.
Of course there may be other chords that are more suitable than these four, it is up to you to find them. You can either use a guitar chord chart or it’s even more fun to just look up songs. Pick from some easy guitar songs and look up those chords, and try them out. If the song is too hard, move on to something else. We all learn guitar with different methods and genres, maybe the power chords of punk and metal are easier than the open chords of folk and rock.
Always start slow when playing chords, make sure every string is pressed properly right before the fret, and that your fingers are not errantly hitting the wrong strings. It can be frustrating and take a few days before your finger strength and muscle memory coordinate. Do not let the frustration get the better of you, keep going even after failure!
Strums and Picking
At the same time we are learning our chords we also want to start working on our picking hand. If you want to immediately start with a guitar pick that’s fine, but not important, it works to just strum with your fingers. Fingerpicking is also quieter so your mistakes will not sound as loud! Our initial worries are forming full chords and making sure the strings sound pleasant when plucked.
Start with downstrokes and play four times each on G, then C, and then D before returning to G. Go as slow as necessary so you avoid mistakes. It is better to practice slowly and correctly, than go fast and do it wrong! As you increase in speed start adding some upstrokes in, don’t worry about reading music or exercises, just experiment with different patterns like DUDU or DD UDU.
As you get better at forming chords you can start using your pick or plectrum more, this will get trickier to make sure you hit the correct string. Again start with down strokes until you feel comfortable playing in a down and up alternate picking pattern.
Focus on Problem Areas
Are your chords all sounding correctly, are there any muted strings? When you pluck the strings with your fingers or picks are there squeaks and squelches? Are your wrists, arms, or sleeves getting in the way? We all have different problems in the beginning and it is up to you to isolate and work on them.
The hard part is to know when you have reached the point of too much pain! Playing guitar is not easy at first and causes sore fingers, cramped wrists, and even back fatigue. You must work through this, but you also don’t want to overdo it. If playing guitar becomes too frustrating, step back and take a break. Perhaps look for some new exercises and approaches that you will have more success with.
There is no gold standard lesson or master plan that will solve all your problems, but different methods may help you get out of a rut. Just remember that bad habits will become ingrained if you do not actively attempt to change them. As a beginner stay focused on playing that sounds good and fix problems as they arise.
Read Everything You Can About Guitar
The best way to go from having no musical talent to being a proper guitarist is to study every aspect of music theory you can. Try new songs, scales, chords, rhythms, read blog posts, and even check out old books at the library. Don’t expect to get it all at first and be ready for some confusion. However, don’t let that stop you from exploring every guitar topic that you can.
Music is a very simple puzzle, when the pieces are all scattered about for a beginner it can seem daunting and overwhelming. But when you keep at it and copy the techniques of others, soon the bigger picture starts to appear. As a guitar teacher you can tell which students will fail or succeed based upon how much they apply themselves to study and practice.
If you are a beginner guitar player your very first guitar lessons will be difficult and maybe even confusing. That is normal and the same hill every guitarist had to overcome. Pick that guitar up every day and practice routine material along with experimental playing and eventually it will not seem so daunting. Keep at it and soon your muscle memory and brain will be playing songs with little effort, we all can learn how to play guitar if we practice enough!