Things Every Beginner Guitar Player Should Know

I am by no means a guitar professional, but I understand how hard it is to get started playing the guitar. I hope this guide will help motivate you and get started on your guitar journey.

What is your motivation?

First of all, what is your motivation to play the guitar? To impress your friends? To join a band? To be that awesome guy on the street busking with a case full of quarters? To compliment your singing skills? To write your own songs?

You can have any reason in the world to learn the guitar, but it has to be a good one. A reason to keep you motivated and help you keep on track. Playing any instrument requires daily practice, and the guitar is no exception.

What do you already know?

The internet has an abundance of guitar resources. Any guitarist should know how to read guitar tablature, use chord charts, read normal sheet music and understand how to tune their guitar. You should also know the names of each strings, what a capo is and have a basic understanding of chord theory. Are you able to play any scales? Do you know how to use a pick, hold the guitar properly and what the proper finger etiquette is?

Learning about how chords work and what a chord progression is couldn’t hurt either, but if you aren’t familiar with anything in the above paragraph, you should look it up.

The next step:

Once you figure out what you know (and what you don’t know) look it up. Through reading about those basic parts of learning the guitar, you may come across some new terminology which will broaden your understanding. Even if you can’t put it into practice, being aware of it will make you a better guitar player.

Learn some common guitar songs, like Stairway to Heaven, and go through your iTunes library for songs you like to sing. Go on a website like ultimate-guitar for guitar tabs or chords and start practicing! Of course there will be many songs you won’t be able to play, but exposing yourself to more songs will force you to learn how to play increasingly difficult chords.

Easy songs for beginners usually contain the following chords:

Dm, D7, D, G, G7 C, C7E, Em, A, Am, A7, F

So if the songs you find have more complicated chords than the above simple chords, it would be wise not to try them until you are more experienced.

Guitar Books and Lessons:

If you haven’t already done so, it would be a good idea either to invest some money in a guitar book, video series or a guitar teacher. The latter really helps improve your guitar skills if you can afford it, but many fantastic guitar players are able to teach themselves just with books and videos. Even if you don’t have any money, if you search hard enough you should be able to learn just about anything on the guitar.

There are a lot of people who play the guitar, so chances are you know somebody who does. Use their knowledge to your advantage and ask them questions. Doing this will help you improve and keep you on the right track.

I hope this “guide” taught you something. If not then you’re at the point where you know enough to play the guitar!