12 Tips For Beginner Guitar Players

First of all, you have to admit that the guitar is a serious musical instrument that requires patience and orderly work. In particular, you need to know that at the initial stage you need to face exercises that require constant repetition. These exercises are important for their hands to take forms suitable for the guitar. Otherwise, you can be sure that the basics of the guitar will not be laid well.

Before you start playing the guitar, it should be well thought out. Starting any instrument, not just guitar, requires good research. A good understanding of this journey, which will last for years, will ensure that the guitar works are successful.

Playing the instrument is a matter of process. For a better understanding of this process, by reading the 12 items below, you can get a good start to the guitar and reach your goals in a shorter time.

1. Can I Learn Guitar on My Own?

Of course, you can learn guitar without a lesson. It is possible to reach countless sources about guitar lessons on the Internet. But at this point, there is a situation that should not be overlooked. Information pollution, or irregularity of the information provided, can slow down your work and drag it to an approach that jumps from branch to branch.

The second alternative is to try to progress with the help of guitar methods, which are sold on the Internet or in bookstores.

Finding the right method that will take you to your goals may require proper guidance and some time. When it comes to learning guitar, examining many methods together will make their work more efficient.

Understanding your goals correctly and working with instructors can help you progress more systematically and save time.

2. What Type of Guitar Should I Start With?

The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world. It can be played both as accompaniment and main instrument in the performance of almost all types of music. The guitar, which is so popular, has been divided into many genres in hundreds of years, in every type of music it is used, according to the sound colors needed. Knowing what kind of guitar to start will save you a lot of time.

Unlike many guitar instructors, we answer the question “Which guitar type should you start playing?” You can start your work with the guitar you want. Because; The person who wants to learn how to play the guitar should determine the style of music he is mainly interested in and choose the type of guitar suitable for this style. The right choice is very important in terms of enjoyment and motivation.

For example, if you are interested in rock, blues, jazz, music genres, you can start working with a guitar directly from the electric guitar (electric-guitar) family or a guitar from the acoustic (steel string acoustic) family.

If you wanna learn more about main guitar types and body shapes, you should check our Main Guitar Types and Features – Body Shapes article

3. How often should I take guitar lessons?

If you have decided to start your studies with a guitar instructor with a similar frequency, it will be enough to take lessons 1 day a week and 1 hour a week. Regular practice should be carried out for the rest of the week to improve the techniques and information reinforced by the instructor in the one-hour lesson. With regular practice, you may notice that it progresses every week.

However, the weekly lesson hours can be increased in order to gain the habit of working regularly for people who are just starting to play the guitar. Even if you need to take more than one lesson per week, these lessons will take a few days apart, giving you time to practice.

4. How Much Time Should You Practice Each Day?

How many hours of guitar you need to practice per day will change in relation to your love for music and your goals. For example, if you want to be able to play some guitars for yourself and your loved ones by creating a small repertoire, working 1 hour a day on average will be enough to get you closer to your goals every day.

However, if you have a goal such as preparing for the entrance exam of a particular conservatory, guitar department, your working hours will increase. Depending on the intricacies and technical difficulties of the works to be performed in the exam, you may need to work 4-6 hours a day.

If we have a purpose to understand music and guitar deeply, it is not important how many hours we have worked at this point anymore, but how qualified and sincere you are trying to understand.

Our suggestion, regardless of your goal, is to gain serious time by taking care of qualified guitar work.

5- Do I Have To Learn To Read A Note?

People who want to continue their work with a limited understanding of music do not have to learn notes. For example, if you want to play verbal tracks with rhythm and arpeggio techniques with the help of chords, learning to read chord diagrams will be a great help. Or, with the help of your music ear, you can learn to read tabs, which are a different representation of guitar notes, to some extent you can advance your guitar practice.

If you want to understand music and always move your guitar work further, you should definitely learn to read notes. Although it is quite easy to learn to read notes, most people think it is quite difficult. By learning to read notes, you can advance guitar work more easily.

6. How long does it take to learn guitar?

This is a relatively relative and relevant subject. While music is an infinite phenomenon and guitar is a complicated instrument, it would be pointless to think that there is an end and duration of what can be learned. The reason it is relative is that as the situations listed below change, the learning time to play the guitar will also change.

• Interest and love for playing guitar
• Regular work
• Qualified work
• Size of the targets
• Regular training
• Structural difficulties of the type of music of interest

If the interest in playing the guitar was set up with the right motivation, it will move faster. If the habit of working regularly is gained, it will move fast. If regular and careful work is done as well as regular, it will be progressed fast. Small targets are set at the beginning, and if the targets are gradually enlarged, they will move fast. Thanks to the regular trainings to be taken, fast progress will be made. If the structural difficulties of the music genre of interest are understood and overcome in order, it will be progressed fast.

7. Do I have to grow your nails out to play classical guitar well?

People who are interested in nail extension may have drawbacks similar to the ones below.

• I cannot extend my nails because of the work I do.
• Even if I stretch my nails, I can’t take care of them.
• I eat my nails, I do not prolong it.
• I think long nails are not clean.

This topic is related to the style you want to play more. Almost all guitar types can be performed with both finger style and pena. But when it comes to polyphonic playing, it is necessary to use finger style and playing techniques. If it is decided to be stolen with a finger style, the extension of the nails offers advantages in many ways.

If you want to learn this style, we recommend you to extend your nails approximately 2-3 mm. In this way, it will be much easier to apply many techniques while producing brighter and clearer sounds.

8. Should I Take Private Guitar Lessons or Group Lessons?

First of all, we can also mention the advantages and disadvantages of the group guitar lesson.

Advantages of group guitar lessons:

• Social interaction with other people.
• Comparing your skills with other people.
• To improve playing with more than one person.
• To benefit from the knowledge of group friends as well as the trainer in the learning process.

Disadvantages of group guitar lessons:

• Progress slowly
• Missing the details
• Frequent splitting due to in-group speech or situations.
• According to the private lesson, not being able to get enough training due to the shorter interest of the trainer.
• Not being able to concentrate on their work due to the sounds of their group friends from their guitars.

With private guitar lessons,

• You move fast.
• You will find instant answers to your questions.
• Since the instructor will focus only on you, you will learn more.
• You are not affected by the sounds of other people.
• You will have a chance to examine the trainer’s performance more closely.
• Easier to concentrate, you get better results.
• With private lessons, you can ensure that the trainer understands his goals better and can draw the most accurate and practical way.

9. Do I have musical ear?

There are some techniques that can measure the musical sensation, rhythm repetition, tune replay, give back the sounds you hear, or measure whether it can analyze the sounds (chords) together.

The point we want to draw attention to is that even the most inadequate sensory capacities at the beginning can be improved by regular work and careful work.

Before starting your music studies, you can ask the people and organizations you will study to evaluate the music ear. Continuing these studies with your guitar trainer will contribute to faster guitar skills.

10. How long does it take for your fingers to callus?

One of the questions many people have heard and wondered about playing guitar, will my fingers be callus? This situation, which is considered indispensable by many guitarists who play guitar at a good level, is the result of an approach error.

People who are just going to begin playing should know that they will use their fingertips very differently than they use in their daily lives. So your fingertips will do a job they’ve never done before. They will touch the strings to the keyboard by applying pressure. In the first days when you start playing the guitar, minor pain may occur at your fingertips caused by the pressure they apply. These pains are caused by the first time you use your fingertips like this, and it’s normal.

At this point, there is a serious distinction. Going over the pain that will occur on the fingertips or gradually making the fingertips hard. If you choose to go over the pain that will occur in the first days of your work, you will have to watch small water bags appear on your fingertips. When you try to go further, you are likely to face complications that will prevent you from playing the guitar for days.

In the first days when you started playing the guitar, you should pause your work by turning the pains in your fingertips into small sets. You should gradually increase the dose of your studies in the coming weeks. In this way, reasonable hardening will occur at the fingertips to support the guitar playing. Callus not hardening! Callus formation can only be an indication that you apply too much pressure with your fingertips.

11. What is the best age for learning guitar?

Many developers recommend the age range 9-11 as the age to start guitar. We know that the valuable guitarist, whom we have seen many examples around the world, started training at the age of 5 with the encouragement of their families. Of course, it would be correct to start such a serious process with instructors who can apply ideal pedagogical approaches. Otherwise, the person can get cold from music and guitar studies at a young age.

Of course, the suggestion above does not mean that you cannot start guitar if you are 11 years old. The main point is whether the person who will start guitar is ready to do a qualified work in line with his goals.

In short, the person who is ready to play guitar regularly can start playing guitar at any age without fear. We should remind you that there are many people in the world who started playing the guitar at an older age and achieved serious advances.

The question is: no matter what age you are, are you ready?

12. What Guitar Equipment Should I Buy?

After you start playing the guitar, you will need a lot of equipment. However, while some of these equipment are indispensable, some should be evaluated according to the needs. It helps you to save time and money in terms of determining the priority and needs of auxiliary equipment.

We have put together 16 most used auxiliary guitar equipment so that you can choose the auxiliary equipment you need more accurately. By examining the equipment below, it will be easier for you to identify the equipment you need.

We have answered the questions you are curious about who will start playing the guitar. These 12 topics will make you more prepared before starting your guitar work.

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