First guitar lesson: chords
One of the main bases you can’t do without playing guitar is the ability to make chords.
The advice is to start from the major agreements, from the minor ones and from the seventh ones.
Learning on your own and always being alone in playing requires much more conviction.
Playing with friends helps maintain motivation
Then, there will be other types of chords, such as harmonics or the work of arpeggios. But you can only do this once you have well metabolized the former. Already these suns, however, will be enough to play some interesting piece.
Browsing through books and specialized magazines, watching videos online or asking your music teacher, you will understand how and where to place your fingers along the neck of the guitar to perform arpeggios correctly.
How to learn how to play the guitar? Start with the tablatures!
This point echoes the previous one.
Learning to read a tablature, also called tablature, is important to know where to place your fingers, to make the strings of your guitar produce the correct and required sounds. The tablatures are simplified scores: they exist for different musical instruments and, therefore, also for the guitar, electric, funk, jazz or classical.
On the tabs, in correspondence with the notes, you will find numbers, which indicate the finger to use for each key of the guitar: the index corresponds to the number “1”, the middle corresponds to the number “2”, the ring finger corresponds to the number “3”, while the little finger corresponds to the number “4”.
As for the thumb, it is often indicated with the letter “T” (from the English thumb, inch, for the note). Unlike a traditional score, a tablature is a physical representation of the gestures to be performed, so that you can play your song.
This simplification facilitates the learning of the guitar, but also involves the inconvenience of losing information on what it sounds.
The tablature indicates where to play such a note, where to place the fingers on the handle of the guitar.
Here we recommend a rule for reading and playing tablatures: it only plays what is indicated in the tablature itself. If nothing is shown on a string, no number is shown, you must not play it.
How to play the guitar without knowing the rhythm? Impossible!
How can you recognize the rhythm of a piece when it is not indicated on the tablature?
Before you embark on a similar adventure, make sure you know how to play at least discreetly.
Have you already been part of a group?
There are no magic formulas to identify the rhythm of a piece to be played on the guitar. So, you have the choice between two different options: either buy the official songbook on which you will find indicated how to play the song, or alternatively, train your musical ear and your ability to recognize rhythms; you will therefore have to train non-stop to reproduce what you are listening to.
The key to reproducing a song at the level of its rhythm is not to want to reproduce the exact notes you will be listening to. Instead, you will prefer the interpretation of what you hear.
It will be your experience and your ability to focus, which will help you improve on this plan.
First choose music styles, where the rhythm is important, of course, but also relatively simple, as in the case of rock, pop, metal, folk, etc.
Guitar lessons and arpeggios
Playing on the open chords and on the main chords to be known for playing the guitar (C major, E minor, La Major, D major, G major, to name but a few, …), you can train yourself, strengthening your fingers, developing a fluidity in the execution and agility at the level of finger positioning on the handle.
It is also an excellent opportunity to learn to play without looking at the neck of your guitar.
There are two types of guitar arpeggios: the accompanying arpeggios, which are played on a rhythm (instead of plucking all the strings together, you have to pinch them one at a time, one after the other) and the arpeggios used for solos, which are mostly used in jazz.
It is important that you start playing very slowly, managing to relax your right hand, moving only your fingers and not the hand and keeping a regular rhythm, always.
Then, only when you feel more skilled, more experienced and more practical, then, and only then, can you gradually increase the pace.
Learn how to play guitar and play chords
Do you want to play your favorite songs with your guitar? would you strum with your guitar in front of your friends and a nice bonfire on the beach?
To learn how to put all the chords of your favorite tunes in succession, one after the other, there is only one way: continuous, passionate and enthusiastic study.
You will have to repeat the same movement over and over again, until it has become a completely natural mechanism.
The goal is to develop automatisms, reflexes, in the same way as when, as a child, you had learned to write or tie the laces of your sneakers.
Even on the road, it could be a good way to test yourself, in front of an audience.
Have you ever thought about playing in the metro?
To simplify your work, you could take inspiration from the tutorials you find online, on portals like Youtube or similar; or, you could ask for help from your music teacher or directly from the guitar teacher. The important thing is to understand how to execute the agreements in the best way and without taking bad habits.
Start with some simple chords, like the one of E minors and that of C major.
An obvious thing, but one that you must always remember: perform only the agreements you already know; otherwise, before executing them, learn them well.
Work calmly, breaking down the agreement in question and the individual movements. Only later, when you feel ready, can you increase your cadence.
Fundamental guitar course: can you change the strings of your instrument?
Another of the things that you will have to learn to do to become a guitarist in all respects is the replacement of the strings.
The metal strings above all tend to oxidize: at the first signs, it is important to replace them. Watch the tutorials on the internet to understand how to do it or ask your guitar teacher: he will explain to you what the fundamental gestures are to do to correctly change the strings of your guitar.
Depending on the regularity with which you play the guitar, depending on the time your guitar has been idle, depending on the signs of wear you find above, depending on the degree of difficulty or the impossibility of tuning the instrument, you will understand that the time has come to replace the ropes themselves.
Play guitar and develop your technique
Of course, you started playing the guitar, but your technique still remains rudimentary, the gestures, at times, seem timid and unsuitable.
Don’t worry, because this stage is mandatory for everyone! Just like, before you start running, you need to learn to walk, in the same way it works for the guitar.
Electricity undoubtedly gives more motivation to young rock lovers, but the acoustics should not be disdained.
Do you feel more inclined for acoustic or electric guitar?
Play softly, at a rate that is sometimes slower than the one indicated, learn to decompose your songs, to observe or to move your fingers. Repeat the exercise as many times as possible, until you feel like you are progressing.
Repetition and insistence will be your most allied degrees in this technique learning with the guitar.
Pay attention to the smallest details, which can help you, such as taking a correct sitting position, holding the guitar well, placing your hands, fingers and knowing how to properly use the necessary muscles.
How to play guitar without motivation? Impossible!
At the beginning, perhaps, you wanted to play the guitar, you had some songs in your head and you wanted to play them. So you simply wanted the best possible way to learn to play the guitar.
With time, however, you realize that the study of the guitar requires, among other things, the overcoming of various obstacles, difficulties.
You have to learn to keep motivation to play the guitar, don’t hesitate to review the basics to find a second impetus, meet other musicians, ask for advice by taking guitar courses, inspired by other guitarists on Youtube or during live concerts, displayed while you can play the most complex songs with the guitar.