When a person picks up a guitar for the first time, he does not know how difficult it is to press fingers on the fretboard, how to make transitions between chords or play a fight. And to top it all off, the more a novice performer trains, the more his fingers hurt until corns form on them.
But training itself should not be difficult at this time. And there is good news for those who are wondering how to start playing the guitar from scratch: with today's development of the Internet and smartphones, everyone can have at their disposal a much easier and faster level of mastery of playing any musical instrument.
But the great thing is that if you work hard and continue to learn the basics of playing the guitar, you can lay down an excellent base for yourself and improve more and more, achieving virtuoso performance.
Guitar anatomy
Before any driver learned to drive a car, he was told about what all the handles, buttons and mechanisms in the vehicle are for. The same goes for musical performance. To understand where to start learning to play the guitar, you need to get acquainted with the instrument and find out what it consists of.
The guitar has two main parts: the body and neck. Acoustic and electric guitars have many identical parts. However, there are some differences.
- Guitar neck. At the end of it there are pegs that are used to connect and tune the guitar strings. The fretboard also has frets - thin metal stripes along it. Most guitars have fret markers that can add aesthetics to the instrument and also help the musician track where his fingers are.
- Body. The rest of the guitar is the case, and here the acoustic and electric guitars may vary slightly. The acoustic enclosure consists of an upper and lower deck. On the top there is usually a pickguard - a plastic overlay on the deck that protects against scratches on the instrument during the game. Most acoustic guitars have a cavity in the middle, although some may or may not have such a hole elsewhere.
On the body of the electric guitar are pickups humbucker and single. Volume and tone controls. They can be one, two, three or four, depending on the type of guitar. Volume controls control the volume or output power of the sensors. Tone controls adjust the tone for the pickups, which means the guitarist can control the amount of treble. Another type of control on an electric guitar is a bridge. Most guitars have a three-position toggle switch, and it controls which pickup is active.
What guitar to start learning to play?
Choosing the right guitar to start learning how to play this instrument can be very difficult. With so many sizes and styles, it's very easy to get lost. Learning to play the guitar is one of the most useful hobbies, and from the very beginning it is very easy to improve the possibilities of quickly and easily mastering this skill if you select the right instrument.
A simple guide to facilitate this decision is the following two steps.
Step 1. What songs does a musician want to start playing guitar with?
This is a very important issue. It’s the same as trying to choose cookware before you understand what you need to cook. It is very important to choose the right tool for the game. A novice guitarist should consider what kind of music he likes to listen to and what kind of music he would like to play. There are many types of guitars that suit different musical styles. You need to revise your musical preferences and select some favorite songs.
Step 2. Choose your size.
Guitars aren't universal. Choosing the right size is most important, because if the instrument is large and the musician is uncomfortable playing, he will have less motivation to learn. Electric guitars are much smaller than acoustic ones with steel strings and classic ones with nylon, and can be used by most people, but extra weight must be taken into account. An electric guitar can weigh 5-6 kg. The correct size is most accurately determined by the growth and age of the performer.
How to hold a guitar?
This may seem like an elementary action, but when we learn to play the guitar from scratch and have never picked up an instrument before, you can feel completely lost. Learning how to hold the guitar correctly by holding the neck in your left hand and placing your right hand above the resonator hole is very important to create the best sound.
What if the novice guitarist is left-handed? Do not worry, there is a solution for him! One of them is to turn over the strings of the guitar, having completely dragged them, and take the instrument with the right hand by the fingerboard. Another option is to flip the guitar itself without pulling the strings. The second option is more suitable for people who are easily given a Rubik's Cube and puzzles.
How to tune a guitar?
Nothing prevents a person who learns to play the guitar on his own, to master the instrument faster than training on an upset guitar. The learning process, as a rule, comes down to mastering chords, but not how to tune the instrument. That is why it is recommended, first of all, to learn how to tune the tool.
It’s best to buy a tuning fork or use the free online tuning fork to tune your guitar by ear. If you don’t have the Internet or tuning fork at hand, you can try using the 5th fret technique, but here you will need experience and good hearing.
How to replace strings on a guitar?
While learning to play the guitar, the time comes when new shiny strings lose their luster. This can be understood by noting that they have become discolored. The guitar is harder to tune, and the sound becomes jagged. Knowing how to replace strings is an important skill and ensures that the instrument will always sound great.
In the local music store you can get advice on how to start playing the guitar, which strings are suitable for the first steps and for a specific instrument, playing style and skill level. Despite the fact that the process is quite simple, you should learn the skill of replacing strings at the very beginning of the path.
How to hold a pick?
To learn to play the guitar, it will also be useful for beginners to master such an additional adaptation for the game as a pick. There is a huge variety of them, they are inexpensive, but this item is very often and easily lost, so you should immediately purchase a few pieces.
And although the pick is not always used when playing the guitar, its correct application is a very important skill in playing the instrument. Basic rule: place it between the tips of the index and thumb. Of course, each musician will decide on his own holding style as soon as he starts playing.
There are different styles and forms of mediators to choose from from thin to thick. It is recommended to start with a thinner one, as it is much more convenient for a novice musician.
Tablature, chords and sheet music
Many beginners ask where to start playing the guitar: chords, tabs or notes? Guitar chords give the least amount of detail. They simply show the sequence of harmonies in the song. Tablature file will tell you where to put your fingers and in what order. It does not provide information about the rhythm, key, or chords you need to play.
Notes provide great detail. They set the key, rhythm, dynamics, etc. However, to study musical notation, it will take some time, and it may be difficult to find a song for performance in a certain style.
So still, where to start playing the guitar? You can start with a combination of notes and chords. If a person learns on his own, it will be easiest to start with an understanding of chords, and then go on to study tablatures. This does not mean that chords are easy to play. It will take some time to practice the equipment. But the concept of setting the hand using the image of the fret, which is a tab, is quite simple.
A great way to learn how to play chords on the guitar is to learn simple compositions, such as many well-known songs of the Kino group.
How to play open chords?
Simply put, open chords are ones where all the strings are not clamped. They are often one of the first that a guitarist masters when he begins to learn to play an instrument.
The first lesson in teaching such chords is to start with a very simple open consonance, such as G. You should practice playing it on a guitar until you hear a pure combination. Once you have mastered one open chord, you can move on to the next. Then practice the transition between the two.
You need to continue to replenish your library of chords, until it becomes easy to switch between all the main harmonies.
How to learn to play a fight?
After learning a few chords, a novice guitarist may find that he does not get into the rhythm. No worries. Everyone goes through it when they learn to play the guitar. The best advice on how to start playing guitar in a fight is to use a metronome and slowly train in the game on one or two chords, getting into the rhythm. When it turns out, you can pick up the pace.
How to play power chords?
Power chords are two-note chords that are used primarily in rock music due to their strong and powerful sound. Since only two or three fingers are required for such harmonies, playing them is easy and simple while learning to play the guitar. In addition, a large number of rock songs are built on power chords. Cocaine by Eric Clapton and Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple are just a couple of awesome songs where you can try out power chords.
As with regular harmonies, you should make sure that when playing power chords, the fingertips are used, and not the entire surface of the finger. By doing this as it should, you can get a good clear sound of the extracted note. There is one common problem that many guitarists face, it is that certain parts of the fingers block other strings. This can often lead to chaotic chords. Using your fingertips, you can avoid this.
What the main power chords for the guitar look like, you can see further.
How to play songs on a guitar?
When a novice musician has already mastered chords and understands how to read a tab, he wonders what melody to start playing a guitar with. The first song that the artist learns is usually remembered forever.
It’s best to find a song with two or three chords. Something like the "Battery" of the group "Beetles" or "Pack of Cigarettes" by Viktor Tsoi. It may be easier to start by simply learning the chords in the song individually. Then you should practice the transition between different harmonies. And when confidence is already felt, it is worth trying to sing the words.
Everyone wants to quickly learn how to play the guitar, but it requires patience and perseverance. The more a person tries to speed up the learning process, the more likely he is to end up disappointed. However, constant practice does not mean that you need to train several hours a day to become a good guitar player. If everything is done correctly, classes of 20 minutes a day guarantee rapid progress.