The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments around the world. You can play a variety of genres of music using a single guitar. It is not difficult to start playing guitar, so don’t worry. In this article, we guide how to play guitar for beginners.
Contents
1. Choose a guitar that’s right for you
Before you begin your journey of learning the guitar, you’ll need an instrument that suits your own taste and musical style. We suggest to you the three common guitars which are perfect for beginners such as:
- Classic guitar, also known as nylon string guitar, possesses smooth, gentle, and warm melodies, suitable for melodious, lyrical, and deep songs.
- Acoustic guitar, also called steel string guitar, is the perfect choice for those who need to play music genres such as pop, folk, and rock because the sound of the acoustic guitar is somewhat more resonant.
- The electric guitar is a more modern guitar type, suitable for those who have the purpose of learning to perform on a professional stage. Because electric guitars have a powerful sound and personality.
Let’s pick a guitar that’s right for you and begin your musical journey.
2. Understand the parts and how to hold the guitar properly
In order to play the guitar better, you should have a good understanding of the parts of the guitar and correct handling. This is an important step and the basic knowledge to support the learning process.
Every guitar is a little different, but there are three fundamental parts — the headstock, the neck, and the body, illustrated below:
Holding the guitar properly helps you to build the fundamental skills necessary to play what you want to play comfortably, quickly, and with the right technique. Good guitar players take the time to build habits that will allow them to become even better. Learn how to hold a guitar through the Two Fundamentals for Guitar Players article.
If you are right-handed, hold the neck and fret the strings with your left hand, and use your right hand to strum the guitar. Furthermore, to make it easier to learn basic guitar, you should sit on a flat chair with a straight back position, so you don’t have shoulder pain, arm pain, or neck pain. Easy to get acquainted with the standard way of holding the guitar.
3. Learn how to tune the guitar
Tuning a guitar properly is one of the first and foremost skills that any musician has to learn when starting to play the instrument. If the guitar goes out of tune, it’s not going to sound right.
A guitar has six strings tuned EADGBE – from low to high. Click on the How To Tune A Guitar article to learn how to get your guitar tuned.
Download Guitar Tunio – Guitar Tuner to tune your guitar fast and accurately.
4. Learn to combinate your right and left hand
Practicing playing with both hands is one of the important steps to learning to play the guitar. It helps you know how to hold the frets and play notes and coordinate smoothly between the two hands. During the first week of practice, your left fingers will be sore. However, if you try to practice for a while, it will be easy to get used to, and no more pain.
5. Practice the basic guitar chords
A chord is a collection of musical notes. The structure of each chord will depend on each different music genre. Normally, the name of a chord will be as follows: In the order of the notes La – Si – Do – Re – Mi – Fa – Sol, it will correspond to the letters: A – B – C – D – E – F – G.
After each letter will have accompanying letters such as:
- m: Minor
- ♯: Sharp
- ♭: Flat
- 7: Seven
Learn the 10 basic guitar chords through the article 10 Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners and see more guitar chords in the chord library in the Guitar Tunio.
