So, You Want to be a Guitar Player?

Now that you’ve played guitar Hero, you might be thinking you’d like to play a real guitar? Guitar Hero is a fun game to play, but it won’t help you learn to be a true guitar player. Maybe you’ve been thinking that playing the guitar and performing for others would be something you’d like to do.

Until you learn the basics and keep practicing, guitar lessons may feel more like “work” than “play”. If you can just learn a few chords and learn to play one guitar song, you’ll feel so much better and practicing will become more fun. I know because I learned to play the guitar when I was ten years old! I first learned three basic chords that could be used to play a variety of easy guitar songs. Those basics will help you feel you’ve accomplished something and you can build on those things as you learn more. Learning a few chords will help you a lot – try learning G, D, and C chords to start. There are many, many easy guitar songs that use those three chords.

You can watch videos on the internet to learn how to change guitar strings, how to turn a guitar, or even what each part of the guitar is called. There are lessons for beginners on DVDs, online and on videos that teach you to play guitar chords.

How hard is it to learn a song?

My first guitar lessons were with a teacher, but I also learned songs from guitar books. But that was before the Internet (I know – a long time ago) and today there are so many other options to find guitar lessons for beginners. There are some good guitar lesson videos online. But this has not changed: a quick way to learn is to learn one song. The second song you learn will be far easier than that first one!

What kind of guitar should you have?

Most often, beginning guitar lessons are taken with acoustic guitars or sometimes a classical guitar. Here is an article that shows the three main types of guitars. A difference between classical, acoustic and electric guitars is the kind of strings on them – electric and acoustic use steel strings while classical or folk guitars have nylon strings. Those steel strings can really hurt your fingers – starting with nylon strings is much easier!

There are benefits to learning to play on either kind of guitar. Some people start with electric guitar, especially if their goal is to play electric guitar in a rock band. For some kinds of music, an acoustic guitar is better, you’ll just have to decide what kind of music you want to play and get the guitar that is best for it.

So, go and buy yourself a guitar, just don’t get one that is made of plastic or is really cheap. Make sure you hear what the guitar you think you want sounds like. Even if you have to ask someone to play the guitar right there in the store, go ahead – you need to hear it played. If you have a friend that is knowledgeable about guitars, try to get them to go with you. Just start by finding one easy song you can learn to play. You can go from a game player to a real guitar player – and a true guitar hero!