Can I Teach Myself Guitar? While learning to play the guitar under a professional instructor is an excellent option, it isn’t a viable option for everybody. Perhaps, your budget doesn’t allow it, especially as guitar lessons can be expensive. Perhaps, your schedule doesn’t allow for other activities aside from work and school.
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Fortunately, you can teach yourself to play the guitar! You have numerous resources to become a self-taught guitarist, from books on guitar techniques to audiobooks and video tutorials. You will not only save money on professional guitar lessons, but you can also learn at your own pace.
Learn To Tune Your Guitar
Let’s assume that you already have your guitar. Your first step should be learning to tune it. It is a must, considering that you will be learning the chords and notes next. Your guitar must also be in tune with a greater appreciation of the music you can make with it.
You can tune a guitar using your ears, but you may also use an electronic guitar tuner, such as the KLIQ UberTuner, for this purpose. By tuning your guitar, you’re also learning the proper way to hold it against your body. You’re also learning picking, plucking, and strumming, must-have skills in playing the guitar.
Start Building Your Chord Skills
You have to learn the basics first and then build on them slowly but steadily. Your second step then is to learn the basic chords, particularly the open-form chords and the open-form minors. These include the A, C, D, E, F, and G major chords and the Am, Em, and Dm, perhaps the easy 7th chords.
You should be able to learn these chords within a week, as well as improve on your muscle memory. You’re well-advised to refer to comprehensive manuals, such as the Classical Guitar Technique or the Guitar Techniques. Your progress will be faster, too.
If you are a learner who likes listening more than reading, then you should consider audiobooks. The Guitar Styles and Techniques of Jerry Reed audio CD is a good example.
Learn the Chords to Your Favorite Songs
You’re learning to play the guitar so you can play music! You don’t have to master the chords, scales, and notes before you can play your favorite songs, too. You shouldn’t be intimidated, especially if you’re into rock and country music, which have simple chord progressions.
But don’t limit yourself to songs! You have to practice chords and chord progressions that are more challenging, so your skills become better over time.
Aside from the chords, you should learn picking and plucking techniques, scales and arpeggios, and chromatic exercises. You may want to set aside an hour or two every day to practice your skills. You will feel more confident about learning advanced techniques when your basics are in place.
Conclusion
To summarize, learning to play the guitar on your demands patience, perseverance, and practice! You may be discouraged once in a while because the guitar can be a hard mistress, but it is well worth it. You may not be able to play like Prince within a month, but you will get there, and that’s what matters most.
