PERFECT PRACTICE
MAKES
PERFECT
you CAN teach yourself to play guitar
There are some people who think that to be able to play the guitar well expensive private tuition is required, but i do not belive that this is the case. Yes, these people are experts but there is another way to get this expert tuition, through books and dvds. There are countless teach yourself books and dvds on sale, each one of them wrote by an expert, and all of this knowledge has been reviewed and edited to make it even better and designed for the beginner.
I would recommend a book as an essential tool for self learning and a dvd as a secondary tool.
So you have everything you need to start, so lets start to practise. The best way to practise and the best way to keep up interest in playing is to do it little and often. It is far better to play for 20 mins a day once or twice a day than to play for 3 hours on a sunday. playing for 20 mins at a time will not only be better for your brain but will also be much better for your fingers, because let me tell you no matter what guitar your are playing it will hurt, it will probably hurt after just 10 mins at first, but as you start to get caluses on your fingertips you will be able to play for much longer pain free.
This may sound like a stupid thing to say but go through the book in the order it is written (unless sections are for specific guitars). It is very tempting to skip to pages that look more interesting but the basic fundamental knowledge carries through out and is essential to learn. The best books take the approach that you have never even seen a guitar before and start by just telling you how to hold it and what all the differnet parts are called, and they teach you another very important thing, posture. Having the correct posture whilst playing is important for a number of reasons. Firstly you do not want to get back ache everytime you play and it means what you learn whilst sitting you can also play standing which i had real trouble with as first. So sit on a chair with a straight back rest with a foot rest is possible and have your guitar strap a the correct length. This sould be that it rests the same when you stand up as it is when you sit. You do not want to be holding your guitar when standing, this means you cannot play the guitar. Also when sitting down do not rest your left arm (for right handers) on your left leg, this will only cause confusion when playing standing up and your leg is not there.
So your practising little and often, you have the correct posture. What next?
Patients and hard work, it is slow going at first (well at least it was for me) but as you get better, you start to get better faster and before you know it you can play your first song. And songs are my only negative point when it comes to tuition books, the songs they have you learn are old fashioned and can be boring. You can get round this by learning the chords from the book but as well as learning “come by are” use the internet and learn songs like “wild thing” which both have the same three chords, but as soon as you start to play a song you know and like your interest will go through the roof.
So there you have it a little hard work (not really work if you enjoy it) and patients and you will get there. Ok not everybody is going to be Eric clapton or even Noel Gallagher (including me) but you can learn to play!!!
Thanks for reading
Chris Harrison