How to learn to play the electric guitar from scratch

It is difficult to imagine a musical instrument that would be more popular than a guitar. Contrary to popular beliefs, playing it is not as difficult as people used to think. Of course, it will take years to comprehend all the subtleties and nuances, but you can master the most basic techniques in 1-2 months, and after a couple of months you can confidently play the songs of your favorite groups. So how do you learn to play the electric guitar?

In general, learning to play the usual acoustic guitar is not very different from learning to play the electric guitar, but, of course, there are still some differences. Acoustics and electric guitars have different sound extraction techniques. Most often they play the electric guitar as a pick, and fingers play the acoustics. And if playing on the acoustics with a pick is also possible, then you won’t especially play with your fingers on an electric guitar, because your fingers aren’t able to give such a sound as a pick. This is to the question of whether it is possible to learn to play the electric guitar, and not the acoustics.

Misconception №1

In order to learn how to play, it is not necessary to splurge on an expensive and good tool. On the contrary, if you study on poor-quality guitar, when you switch to a more sensible instrument, playing will be much easier.

This is a fairly common misconception among beginner guitarists picking up an instrument. It is dictated either by banal greed, or no less banal ignorance. As you know, avaricious pays twice.

The professionalism of the guitarist is never measured by the degree to which the instrument is “killed” by it. Low-quality guitars very often have bulging, unpolished frets, an uncomfortable fingerboard, which can lead to improper arms and even injuries (scratching bad frets is not easy, but very easy, especially when you play something fast).

Such guitars often sound bad, and this is fraught with injuries already for your hearing, and it is more difficult to restore it than scratched fingers. Buying branded guitars of famous guitarists is also not necessary, because it is far from the fact that you definitely decide to realize yourself in this area further.

Now a quality tool for a beginner can be purchased at a very affordable price. For an electric guitar, it ranges from 8 to 15 thousand rubles. We will also talk about how to learn how to play the electric guitar and choose your instrument in this article.

Misconception №2

I can’t learn how to play the guitar because I don’t have a hearing.

Everyone has a hearing. It’s just that for someone it can be better and sharper, while for someone it is not sufficiently developed. Hearing can always be developed, since there are many exercises on the web for this.

Another misconception is that it’s hard to learn how to play an electric guitar without hearing. Yes, if for some reason you do not want or cannot improve your musical ear, you will not be able to pick up a melody by ear or transfer it from sound, but you can play without it - by notes or tabs.

Misconception №3

You need to sing with a guitar, but I don’t know how.

Is it difficult to learn to play the electric guitar without singing? Maybe this error makes sense in the circle of unprofessional guitarists, but basically it is complete nonsense. If you want to sing and accompany yourself on an instrument - please, if you do not want to - without problems, too, focus on the technique, on the complexity of the music itself.

Very often you can observe how the performance of complex and beautiful passages and melodies provokes a very restrained reaction among people ignorant of music, and from the three “thieves” chords that can be mastered in three days, if not less, the crowd will be delighted.

Try not to pay attention to it, if you play really well, musicians will respond positively about your work, and their comments are much more important for professional growth than reviews of mothers, grandmothers, friends, etc. Never let anyone blame you for being unprofessional. due to the fact that you play an independent part and don’t sing - the opinion of the person who made such a comment should not have any effect on you.

Tool selection

The price never determines the quality, but the chance to buy a good guitar for 20 thousand is much more than for 5. Consult your acquaintances guitarists. For starters, you can choose an electric guitar for a small price, but a well-known and trusted brand.

• Epiphone
• Ibanez;
• Fender squier;
• Yamaha
• Jackson

Take the tuner to the store, tune the instrument, make sure that all the strings sound and do not mow up or down the sound. Swipe your hand along the side of the fretboard to see how well the frets are polished, twist the chopp. Make sure that you like the guitar in color and shape, this is a very important psychological point: a pleasant-looking instrument will give motivation for learning.

The first steps

You purchased your first instrument, brought it home, unpacked it, sat on the sofa and thought about how to quickly learn how to play the electric guitar.

First, configure it, even if the store has already been configured. A tuner is used for tuning, it can be purchased at the same music store. Take the guitar in your hands as you like, the main thing is that you do not feel discomfort in the muscles of the arms and back.

Connect the guitar to the combo amplifier, if there is none, for the first time you can download a special program on your PC that replaces it and connect the guitar to it. You don’t have to rush to look for the notes of your favorite songs and solos, so far you can still play them, but you can learn to play scales and simple melodies. On an electric guitar, the teaching principle is slightly different from acoustics, but in general there is nothing complicated there.

Right Hand Extraction

The left hand clamps the strings in frets to change the pitch, and with the right hand this same sound is extracted, so all guitarists play: both right-handed and left-handed. There are special guitars for left-handed people, where the opposite is true, but as practice shows, they play great on right-handed models as well, and left-handed guitars are a bit more expensive.

Position your right hand so that the forearm rests on the bend of the guitar, and the brush itself hangs over the strings, like a twig. With your thumb, try to extract sound from the uppermost sixth string. To do this, simply gently pull the string down and a little away from you. The sixth, fifth and fourth strings are considered bass: the sound is extracted from them with the thumb. The index finger is “responsible” for the third string, the middle finger for the second, the ring finger for the first.

Sound is extracted from the lower strings in the following way: with a fingertip, you pull the string from the bottom up and slightly towards yourself. To fix the extraction with your right hand, you can play it out. The simplest is played like this: the sixth string, the third, second, first, second, third. Do not forget that each string is “tied” to a specific finger.

This enumeration is used in the introduction of Metallica's Nothing else matters. After two weeks of classes, when you will feel more confident with the instrument, you can try to learn the introduction of this song completely. They don’t advise a beginner to go beyond the introduction, since this song contains a barre technique, which can cause difficulties for a beginner. Other searches:

• bass (sixth, fifth or fourth), third, second, third, first, third, second, third;
• bass, first, second, third;
• bass, third, second + first (pull at the same time), third;
• bass, third + second + first.

Left Hand Extraction

The thumb is located behind the neck of the guitar and is pressed against it, as if leaning. It’s not worth it to press specially, he himself will lie on the bar when you start playing. Form a kind of dome from the brush, as if holding an apple. It is worth pressing the strings with the fingertips so that when pressed, the finger retains its shape, does not spread out on the neck, does not twist.

Important: to press not with those pillows that we see when looking at our palm from the back, but with those that we see when we look under the nails. All fingers of the left hand should produce sound equally high quality.

Left hand exercise

• “Snake” - you hold the string with your index finger, extract the sound with your right hand, then hold the next finger on the same string with the middle finger, without releasing the index, and again extract the sound. As a result, all 4 fingers should be in a line on the string. Then we do the opposite: remove the little finger, extract the sound, remove the nameless, extract and so on.
• “Spider” - the beginning is the same as in the “snake”, but after all our fingers are on the string we don’t remove them, and we transfer the index finger to the string higher, but in the same manner, while the remaining fingers remain on the same string. So, alternately rearranging the fingers, “crawl” up, and then “slide down” as well. Make sure that in these exercises all the notes you have sounded clean, do not rattle, press the strings tightly. Gradually increase the pace.

How to read tablature?

Every guitarist who thinks about how to learn to play the electric guitar from scratch also thinks about what to play. This can be done either by notes or by tablature. Notation in itself is nothing complicated, but few people manage to understand it on their own, the teacher’s explanation will be the most successful option: this is about where to learn how to play the electric guitar.

Tablatures are much easier to use. It has six rulers, the highest - the thinnest string. On these rulers are numbers indicating frets. Thus, we see from which string and on which fret we need to extract sound. The only significant drawback of the tabs is that it is almost impossible to track the rhythm on them. Yes, the creators of tablatures try to compensate for this in every way: they make spaces between the numbers where longer notes are located, but you won’t be able to follow the rhythm just like by notes or by tablatures.

What to play for a beginner?

• Pop rock bands like Imagine Dragons, Green Day, 30 Seconds to mars, Sum 41 - their songs are very simple and suitable to fill your hand.
• More classic things like Scorpions, AC / DC songs. It’s not necessary to take complex solos, you can just learn some riffs.
• If you want something more complicated, then you can pay attention to Metallica and Megadeth (before four months of classes, it’s pointless to start these songs). Nothing else matters, Fade to black, Muster of puppets (a very beautiful solo, it is simple, and your listeners will appreciate it), Enter sandman, Trust, Promise (one of the few Megadeth ballads).