Santa Brought me a Guitar-Now What???
So you've got a guitar for Christmas. You've always dreamed of being able to play but never got round to it. Well now you have an instrument, you'll probably want to learn to play it. The early stages of your guitar playing experience will either make or break you. This is going to be a challenge regardless of any natural talent you may have. I am going to suggest a few things that will make a difference and will give you the best chance of succeeding. The first thing you need to do is check out the guitar you were bought. Obviously, it is going to feel difficult to play at first but there are things that you should look at to see if the instrument is not going to hinder your learning.
1. Check that the guitar sits comfortably on you. There are many styles of guitar and not all of them will give you the best chance of learning. Take the Flying V style for example, a guitar literally shaped like the letter V. You may have always dreamed of owning a guitar like this and there is no reason why you shouldn't, just don't learn to play on one initially. The reason for this is that they don't sit on your knee very well and you will spend more time wrestling with it rather than playing it. Sit your new guitar on your knee, if it stays there with the minimum of effort, you are on to a winner.
2. For the younger guys reading this, the next step is to check that you can reach the first fret comfortably without over stretching. If you can't, you need to swap the guitar for a smaller scale. These guitars are readily available from music stores and are referred to as either 1/2 size or 3/4 size. They tune the same so you can still learn your favourite tunes and then upsize as you get bigger.
3. The next thing to check is the action. The action of a guitar is a term used to describe the space between the strings and the frets (the metal bars on the fingerboard). This space can be altered on good quality guitars and the preferred distance changes between experienced guitarists making it a personal choice. However, If the strings are so high that you could pass a cigarette lighter through it, or so low that you couldn't pass a piece of paper through it, you could be in trouble. Take the guitar to a well respected guitar shop or repairer for them to adjust it for you.
4. Make sure the guitar is in tune. It always shocks me when a student comes to a Stringstocks Guitar School for their 4th or 5th lesson and the guitar is wildly out of tune. If you practice out of tune, you'll find it hard to realise when the guitar is in tune. You can buy a digital guitar tuner that is pretty easy to use from almost any musical instrument store.
I believe that if you have the 4 points above checked then you are ready to start learning productively. There are many routes to learning to play the guitar. You can teach yourself, get a tutor, learn from books, videos, DVD's or even the internet. Which is the best one? Try and think about how you learn. Do you like to explore things for yourself? Do you like to have someone take you through the process step by step? Do you like to study books? Or do you like to be visually entertained whilst learning? Your answer may point you to one of the options I have mentioned. However, there are pitfalls to each method which I will briefly highlight.
1. Check that the guitar sits comfortably on you. There are many styles of guitar and not all of them will give you the best chance of learning. Take the Flying V style for example, a guitar literally shaped like the letter V. You may have always dreamed of owning a guitar like this and there is no reason why you shouldn't, just don't learn to play on one initially. The reason for this is that they don't sit on your knee very well and you will spend more time wrestling with it rather than playing it. Sit your new guitar on your knee, if it stays there with the minimum of effort, you are on to a winner.
2. For the younger guys reading this, the next step is to check that you can reach the first fret comfortably without over stretching. If you can't, you need to swap the guitar for a smaller scale. These guitars are readily available from music stores and are referred to as either 1/2 size or 3/4 size. They tune the same so you can still learn your favourite tunes and then upsize as you get bigger.
3. The next thing to check is the action. The action of a guitar is a term used to describe the space between the strings and the frets (the metal bars on the fingerboard). This space can be altered on good quality guitars and the preferred distance changes between experienced guitarists making it a personal choice. However, If the strings are so high that you could pass a cigarette lighter through it, or so low that you couldn't pass a piece of paper through it, you could be in trouble. Take the guitar to a well respected guitar shop or repairer for them to adjust it for you.
4. Make sure the guitar is in tune. It always shocks me when a student comes to a Stringstocks Guitar School for their 4th or 5th lesson and the guitar is wildly out of tune. If you practice out of tune, you'll find it hard to realise when the guitar is in tune. You can buy a digital guitar tuner that is pretty easy to use from almost any musical instrument store.
I believe that if you have the 4 points above checked then you are ready to start learning productively. There are many routes to learning to play the guitar. You can teach yourself, get a tutor, learn from books, videos, DVD's or even the internet. Which is the best one? Try and think about how you learn. Do you like to explore things for yourself? Do you like to have someone take you through the process step by step? Do you like to study books? Or do you like to be visually entertained whilst learning? Your answer may point you to one of the options I have mentioned. However, there are pitfalls to each method which I will briefly highlight.
posted by Sabbath at
4:54 AM
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