How To Learn Guitar (For Beginners)

     WHEN you're in your mid-20s, sometimes you get to miss high school randomly for some odd nostalgic reason. 

     Well I did... So I tried to resurrect the high school spirit within me. Strolling inside a city mall I figured: the best way to revive it was to step inside this gaming center filled with busy people.

     Then I saw it tucked in a corner. Guitar Hero. I never tried these machines before.

Awkward rocker nipslip.

     I picked the thing up, chose the standard setting and picked a song along the 170 BPM range. I play guitar occasionally, so I figured, “how hard could this possibly be? Three buttons for the left hand, one for the right. Let’s do this!”

     With a great spirit of unbelief, I watched the running markers go red one after the other, quite quickly I might add. Poor, poor, poor—the labels read. Man, did I suck big time. Fifty bucks wasn’t enough to get me through 15 seconds of the first level in the easy stage. I vowed to train in digital guitar playing (secluded and in secret) and come back fierce and ready to conquer this machine again.

     That afternoon, I found myself in the shoes of a beginner. and it felt pretty refreshing to learn things from scratch once again. So here's a little article with a few tips how to learn guitar. The tips given here are no way extensive and at the same time, does not claim to have the power to transform regular people into rock stars overnight. But here are little suggestions anyway. 

     Before anything else, desire is a crucial pre-requisite to learning. Ready? Here goes.

Tip one: Get a guitar. 

     It would be best if you had a guitar just lying in your room. If it’s too much to buy one, why not borrow from a friend? Having a guitar just within an arm’s reach from you is a very good way to start. Also, ask help from a guitar-playing friend to tune the guitar or teach you how to tune it for yourself.

My old, banged-up acoustic guitar beside my office desk. Just in case a melody comes around.

Tip two: Print Notes/Chords off the Internet. 

     Everything is on the Internet. Even chord charts that teach you how to "form" your fingers the right way. If you're reading this, open new tab and search, " basic chord chart and patterns." During the ancient times, (that's probably 10 years back), you could get "chord books" or "song hits" from your favorite bookstores.

How can you NOT play guitar?

Tip three: Pick a favorite, easy song. 

     Pick a song that you can’t help but sing. Also, choose one with only three to four chords (Most radio pop songs are written that way). A suggestion you might want to try out is picking a song with the chords D, A, G, and Em (the small “m” is read as “minor”). Practicing these four chords will warm your fingers up. They are also not too hard to press and memorize. And yes, that's not a hashtag. That's a "sharp." You'll get used to it.

Something like this. I think you can play that Notting Hill theme song or something.

Tip four: Play every day. 

     Play. Instead of using a very strict word like "practice," maybe you would want to try "playing" your favorite song. If you follow tip one, it would be very easy for you to play everyday. At the end of the day and right before going to sleep, enjoy a few private moments filling your room with melodies.

Oh boy. Please don't go this far. Check out his "fast hands."

Tip five: Pick another song, except… 

     Now, add another chord to the ones you previously learned. For instance in this article, you practiced D, A, G and Em. Next, pick another “favorite song” but this time, with the chords D, A, G, Em and maybe Bm. Point is this: hasten your learning by adding one new chord after the other. By the time you reach your fourth song, you probably would know enough chords to try out new combinations for other songs.

Follow instructions, and you'll be rocking like this guy in no time!

     Well, hope this helps. ‘Til the next. Cheers.