Learning Guitar

You would probably agree that the best way to learn guitar is to have lessons and practice, practice, practice. If you are a rare genius you may be able to skip the first one but even Hendrix had lessons. You can also accelerate the learning curve with your own study and amaze your tutor with your additional knowledge. Tutorial books aren’t a substitute for a good teacher and you probably won’t learn enough from them alone to play much at all. On the other hand, you can get to grips with the theory at your own pace and learn a few licks, riffs and chord sequences from books and downloads. There’s plenty of material to help you.

Beginners need to build up callouses and loosen up their fingers. There’s only one way to do this – play, play, play. You must also develop a rote memory for chords and scales. Again repetition is the only way to achieve this. Understand the theory of chords and scales, of course, but you don’t have time to think about that when you’re playing. These early stages are the most difficult and, apart from the sheer pleasure of progressing and overcoming difficulties, potentially tedious at times. It sorts out the determined student from the remainder.

Finger nails need attention if you are to play comfortably. The nails of the fretting hand (left hand if you play right handed) must be a short as you can make them. Get them right down and file every day to keep them that way. The nails of the other hand can be whatever you want but if you intend to finger pick they will need to be a little long.

We have selected a range of material to help you improve your knowledge – books, dvd’s and download. Browse our selection and enjoy learning!

Keen To learn Guitar