Published By: Shreya Ghai

All strings attached - Things you need to know before you plan to learn guitar.

Learning to play the guitar may sound very exciting, but you are surely clueless before you start your Guitar lessons. Here are a few tips for you to remember before you jump on to your guitar lessons as a beginner.

If you are planning to take guitar lessons but confused about whether or not you should go for it,we must tell you, there is no hard and fast rule to learn guitar or how to play it. There is no roadmap to follow, but there are a few basics you must know before starting your guitar lessons in order for smooth and better understanding of how to play it. Here’s a beginner’s checklist for anyone who is planning to learn the Guitar.

  1. Read about music notes and tablatures.
Don’t read too many things together. Take it very slow. Learning how to read music is the basic you need to make your lessons less complicated. It might appear very difficult but if you give it time, you will get better with it each day. It's simply about how to play a piece of music on your guitar. You will gradually figure it out. Try and read it to understand the notations and tablature. Understanding it is the key!

2. Focus on the techniques at the earliest stage.

You need to know not just one skill but many skills when it comes to learning a guitar. You will have to get acquainted with scales, chords, arpeggios, fretboard, rhythm, training your ears, theory of music. Better early than late. Learn these basics at the earliest stage before you deal with the actual execution of playing the chords. Hitting notes with the right fingers, right positions of hands, picking up the melodies and tunes. Check if your hands and fingers are in the correct position and well synchronized. Beginning techniques are very important for a guitarist.

3. Practice and never Quit

There will be times where you will just want to quit with seeing no progress in your learning curve. These are called plateaus and are usually the points where many students want to quit because they feel they are just not able to learn it well or as planned or thought. Remember, practice is the key! If you have learnt the trick to switch the chords fluently between one another, start practicing it with songs that have similar chords.  Doing so regularly will not only make your guitar learning fun but you will also keep getting better at it with time. Practice everyday.

As a beginner, learning guitar can be very challenging and you might lose focus through the entire journey. It is not a one night’s task, it will take a lot of time, patience and practice to achieve your guitar learning goals. Make sure you learn and get skilled at basic fundamentals before jumping into major technicalities in order to keep your journey smooth. Follow these basics that you need to understand as an aspiring guitarist.

We hope to see you rocking a concert one day!

Good luck!