The first thing you need to do to learn to play guitar is to buy a good guitar. I don’t mean this in a sarcastic way at all. When I suggest buying a good guitar, I do so to help you avoid the frustrations I know the frustration that comes with buying a cheap, poor quality guitar. I did it myself on more than one occasion when I was starting out. I was so eager to play that I didn’t wait to save up. As soon as I could afford a pawn-shop reject I bought it. The strings were so high off the neck I had to sit on them to get them to go down, and the tone was hollow and dead. So, yes, that’s my first bit of advice on how to play the guitar. Save your money and buy a decent one. You have lots of choices at a mid-level price point that will save you loads of frustration and time that could be spent on actually learning to play.
There isn’t a single right way to learn how to play the guitar, but I can offer a basic strategy for teaching yourself to play that most guitarists would probably agree on. Besides learning about the basics, like how to tune your guitar and how to change the strings on the guitar, you should start teaching yourself chords right away. A large library of chords in your mental storage facility (your head) will come in handy as you develop your guitar-playing. Chords are fundamental to playing guitar. Whether you buy a chord book, chord app, view Youtube videos, or visit a guitar website, find a method for learning chords and try to commit to one or two new chords a week.
Don’t neglect your strumming hand while you’re working on chords. Find a couple of basic strum patterns like the one below and develop your rhythmic skills from the start. No matter how many chords you know, if you can’t strum your guitar properly, they’ll do you no good. One example shows X markings, which indicate that you should mute (deaden) the strings with the side of your hand. This keeps strings from ringing out and adds rhythmic variation to your playing.
I also want to give you a video lesson on strumming on an electric guitar, check it out!
If you want to learn how to play the guitar, make sure you choose a method that’s right for you and try to devote regular time to practice. That really is the key. Listen to as much music as you can and try to mimic what you hear until you begin developing your own style. If your patient and persistent, you’ll reap the rewards of your effort.
And let me recommend you a good course in DVD which will help you to learn tons of songs and chords…
