Hello, my fellow guitarists! This is Joshua Olivieri from guitarcontrol.com bringing you some helpful tips on learning the acoustic guitar.
The acoustic guitar is usually the first instrument that comes to mind when a guitar is mentioned, and is usually the first type of guitar that people learn how to play. Just like any other guitar, however, how well you end up playing the acoustic is dependent on how much practice and conviction you put into it. You won’t play well if you don’t practice and vice versa.
Now that we got that out of the way, here are some crucial tips that are necessary for every budding guitarist to hear.
1. Practicing is the most obvious piece of advice I can give, but it is also the one I say the most. There will be many days when you don’t feel like playing because you don’t feel good enough, you’re discouraged, etc. Even when you have those days, you must continue anyways! You’ll have good and bad days with anything in your life, it’s just a matter of being to push through those hard days.
2. Learning to use a pick and your fingers to strum is another important step you must take. Too often have I met another guitarist who wants to play, but can’t do anything without a pick. While that doesn’t make you a bad guitar player by any means, it will crush your ability to beautiful guitar riffs and fingerstyle techniques. Truthfully, I only use a pick when I need to be louder, and I even do basic strumming with my fingers. For example, try playing this with a pick.
3. Getting a good teacher is the most surprising piece of advice I can give. A lot of guitarists start out being self-taught and never learn from someone else. Now, with the internet, there is a wealth of guitar knowledge available at our fingertips. But having a teacher will benefit your skills more than watching a thirty minute video ever will. They can teach you, on top of properly playing the guitar, some decent music theory and structure. It’ll make you a much better musician.
Check out this COOL ACOUSTIC GUITAR LESSON
4. This is the most important piece of advice I can give: get a guitar that’s perfect. I don’t mean find the one with the best “build” or whatever. Don’t listen to anybody tell you that you need a certain feature or material to sound better. You have to find the guitar that’s perfect for you. Walk into a store, pick a guitar, close your eyes, and play it. Ignore what anybody else says. If the guitar sounds good to you, get it. End of story.
Now that you’re armed with a foundational understanding of the acoustic guitar, get out there and begin your long journey.
I recommend you to check out this acoustic course on DVD: