The Best Ways to Learn a Guitar

Lots of people want to learn the guitar but they aren’t always sure where they should start. For beginners out there who don’t know the first thing about a guitar or playing one, here some tips so you can be playing like Jimi Hendrix in no time. After all, playing a guitar is a great way to relax and reduce stress.
First, get a good guitar that will not impede your playing or learning ability. I have seen many instances where the guitar is the problem, not the student. Make sure the “action and playability” (distance of the string to the neck) of the guitar are good and that it is correctly intonated (the bridge adjusted so the strings are the correct length) or you will have tuning and playing problems that are not your fault. Also learning on light gauge strings is advised to stop finger strain it is worth paying a few extra dollars to have the guitar ’set up’ before your start to play.
Second, get a good teacher or at least a good DVD that explains the methods of learning in a simple and easy manner and will ensure you are playing ’songs’ or at least ‘riffs’ within the first lesson. Avoid learning boring scales and exercises that will de-motivate you. These can be done later. Try to learn individually (one on one) rather than in a group situation.
Third, practice every day for at least 10 minutes, and always practice what you cant play rather than what you can otherwise you will not progress. Try to learn simple versions of songs you know so you can sing along (even if it’s just in your mind) with the song.
Fourth, learn a mixture of chords, single notes, scales and riffs even at the first stages of learning. This is important to develop your technique and strength in the finger and wrist. Moreover, have the guitar, if possible, on a stand where it is easily accessible, so you will want to pick it up often. If it’s in a case under the bed you will forget about it. If it’s next to the TV you will pick it up more often.
Fifth, know how to tune your guitar and always have a tuner or at least a pitch pipe to ensure you are in tune otherwise you will sound horrible. Use a metronome or even a basic drum machine so you can stay in time and develop a sense of rhythm. This is one of the most neglected areas of learning and often the biggest cause of bad habits later on in a student’s progress.
Sixth, try to learn songs you enjoy and in a style you like. It is no use playing Metallica songs if you like Bob Dylan. However its not a bad idea to learn new styles but stick to what you know and like at least in the beginning. This way you will keep your interest in playing the guitar up while you are just starting out.
Finally, record yourself and listen back to it. No matter how awful it may sound it will improve both your desire and your ability to play better. Also if you want to play lead guitar, play over a recorded rhythm part so you have a musical backing to play to. This will improve your solo ability dramatically.
By using these tips, you will keep your interest in the guitar up and help you learn much better than you normally would have otherwise. Learning a guitar is great and you want to make the experience as enjoyable as possible.

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Easy to Learn Guitar Tabs for Peter Gunn

It is easy to learn guitar tabs. Only one basic idea needs to be understood, the rest falls into place. To illustrate this idea I will be using tabs for a simple piece of music called Peter Gunn. Guitar tabs are seen by learning guitar players as an easy way to start playing guitar right away. That is true but it is wrong to think that guitar tablature just needs to be read. Like all languages it needs to be understood. So if you have an idea that you would like to become a guitar player and tabs would be a great way to sidestep any difficult learning, there are a couple of things you need to get straight.
For somebody who just wants to play along with the singing around a campfire, it must look like a fairly easy job to play the guitar. Lots of people can do it and many of them are idiots. But when you look at a piece of guitar tab it looks kind of scary. Well, look again. It is just a picture of a guitar. Visualize it in your imagination. The tuning end of the guitar is to your left, the body of the guitar is to your right. The thinnest string is on the top, the thickest string is on the bottom. Nothing scary about that.
Moving on, we see numbers on the guitar tab. What are they? The numbers running down the left side are the notes sounded when you play the open strings, the numbers that run along the strings represent frets. Frets are the metal strips on the neck of the guitar. You put your fingers a fraction behind the frets to alter the length of the string, so that when it is plucked, strummed or picked the sound is higher or lower depending on how far up the fingerboard you are. So the number one, for example, indicates that one of your fingers must be placed behind the first fret of the guitar. This is the fret closest to the tuning gear on the end of the neck.
Now let us look at a section of guitar tab. This is a short riff from a piece of music called Peter Gunn. It was written by Henry Mancini who probably wrote most of the orchestral music that most of us have ever heard, and it has been recorded by many artists, notably The Blues Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Emerson, Lake And Palmer. The first recording of it was a hit for electric guitar pioneer, Duane Eddy.
All the notes are played on the sixth string - the thickest string, remember? If you play the piano, try it out, the notes are E E F# E G E A G# played as one bar in 4/4 time.
e------------------------------
B------------------------------
G------------------------------
D------------------------------
A------------------------------
E--0--0--2--0--3--0--5--4--
To play the tabs use down strokes with the pick or your thumb. Once you have played the notes once, go back to the start and play them again until you are tired. Congratulations, now you know first hand that it is easy to learn guitar tabs. Really you have all you need to go on and learn your favorite songs. Not many songs have not been put into tab form, so it is just a matter or searching on the net. As your technique gets better, you will find that there are symbols that represent any left hand guitar technique you will learn. If you find tabs for a song that you like, and it contains symbols you do not understand, the tab often has an explanatory key at the top or the bottom. Or you can just look on the popular tab sites for explanations of any symbols you do not know.

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Learn Guitar Easy: Truth or Fiction?

Ok, this all depends on the angle that you decide to look at it. For the people that are naturally music inclined, it would be easy. But for those that are not, it might not be so easy. Despite this difference, guitar is really not as easy or as hard as people may think.
Think back to the day that you came across a guitar for the first time, what went through your mind? Bet it was something like, "boy! Is that a cool instrument or what?" Regardless what you thought, guitar playing is what it is.
If one takes it as being difficult, then that is exactly what it is going to be. But if they take it as being easy, then that is what it will be. To take this a step further, let us look at the two separately.
Guitar is Difficult
The one surprising thing that you might come across, if you have not already, is the fact that some people want to learn guitar without having to deal with everything that comes with it. Things like learning tabs, chords, notes, the fret board, practice techniques and the list goes on.
Learning Tabs
If you want to play the guitar but don't want to learn to read guitar music, it would be wise to know your tabs. After all, how do you expect to know what you are doing on your guitar if you can't read tabs.
Chords and Notes
Then there are the rare few that think they can magically skip learning or knowing the chords and notes. How can one play the guitar if they do not know what A flat (Ab ) or A sharp (A#) are. Playing the guitar is not a magic trick, hence it deserves it due diligence.
Fret Board
Now tell me, who has ever heard of playing the guitar without the fret board? No one I bet, unless there is a guitar out there that has no fret board then I guess that the people that are avoiding learning their frets have a big chance of learning guitar the easy way.
Practice and Practice Methods
Each and every person knows that practice is one of the requirements for improving at anything. You can't expect to get better at playing the guitar by simply looking at the instrument days on end. That just won't cut it. You need to do your part as a guitar player.
Guitar is Easy
If you are nothing like the guys in the above scenarios, then you have nothing to worry about. By the way, the things mentioned above are not the only things that are needed to learn the guitar, there are many more.
The only thing that you need to be armed with is the desire to put in all the effort and learn some or all the cardinal things needed to be a guitar player. Then and only then will you be closer to having learn guitar easy.

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