Playing guitar is an enjoyable and fulfilling hobby and is an excellent way to express yourself creatively through music. The guitar must be one of the popular instruments people opt for while diving into music.
Playing the guitar brings with it much astonishing physical and mental satisfaction. It gives you a positive outlook on life and helps you strengthen in other areas.
However, as rewarding as the hobby sounds, it takes work to learn guitar. It also takes patience to master, as you must put much time and practice into the instrument.
Must learn: 15 Guitar Tips and Advice for Beginners
Here, in this article, we will discuss a few actionable Guitar Tips and Advice for Beginners and Experts which will help you in your learning and improvement journey.
1. Buy a quality guitar
A good-quality guitar will sound better than a cheaper knockoff, even if it is subtle. It is especially noticeable to trained ears.
However, another reason to buy a good quality, the fair-priced guitar is its durability. It means you would not have to replace or repair them repeatedly and be frustrated about it.
Thus it is always better to invest in quality long lasting guitars.
2. Choose the appropriate strings gauge
Different guitars have different strings of thickness and gauges. It is essential, especially for a beginner, to choose a thinner gauge, as guitars with thicker gauges can grate your fingers.
Even experts opt for a guitar with thin to medium gauge strings as they would be comfortable to play for a long time.
But the best time to change the setup of your guitar and experiment with it would be when your skillset reaches a professional level.
Hence, take the guitar to a legit instrument shop for a professional setup.
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3. Always play correctly Tuned guitar
Always play the guitar that is in tune! Sometimes, it is hard for a beginner to realize whether the guitar is in tune!
In addition, it requires many sittings with your instruments for your ear to catch the sounds.
So, Use apps such as GuitarTuna or sound corset to tune your guitar before you start playing. Then, with ear training, you’ll be able to tune your guitar without the app’s help.
4. Play guitar lightly
This tip is for everyone who wants to play their guitar without discomfort. Unfortunately, playing guitar can cause bruising on the fingers, especially as a beginner.
It is inevitable. However, you can make it less awful by placing each finger behind the fret for the notes you have to play.
You can also put your thumb finger over the fretboard for some comfort. These tips can ease the pain; however, fingertip bruising is a baby step in learning and playing guitar.
5. Start using guitar picks
Guitar picks are essential for beginners unless you intend to play guitar casually. Picks give ana amazing sounds for rhythm parts.
It gives you a more consistent and bright tone than using fingers. So they are much more suited for performance and public playing.
However, fingers work fine and give you much more control over your guitar.
6. Maintenance
Just buying an expensive guitar won’t do. You need to put time and effort into properly storing the guitar after every use and handle it delicately. Also, check the strings and tuning on the guitar regularly.
Another good practice is to restring your guitar once every 6 to 9 months. It keeps the strings fresh and in good condition. Please do not wait for any string to break to take it to a professional.
7. Practice scales daily
Practice makes a man perfect. As a beginner, you should make a habit of practicing scales; however, even as an expert, keep practicing them and experiment.
They are the foundation of playing guitar. It is good practice for a beginner guitarist to start by playing scales as it is one finger control at a time and then slowly move into chords.
8. Choose songs based on what you learn
Everyone wants to play their favorite song first after learning the most basic chords. But it could be more practical and can demotivate you.
So it is essential always to choose songs that are within your capability as every moment is a learning one. So start with easier songs and move higher up the difficulty chart as you learn new tricks.
9. Do not avoid difficult chords
Our habit is to skip difficult things and then procrastinate about learning them later. But it will prove to be harmful in the longer run.
If you want to keep improving, you need to start practicing techniques you don’t know.
For example, knowing 12 basic chords and just playing around with them will keep you stuck in a loop for a longer time.
This realization hits late for a self-learner.
Hence, try to learn different chord shapes on different positions of the fretboard and think about how to use them in a song!
10. Experiment with different styles and techniques
You’re inspired by an artist of a particular genre and want to play like them. For that, you need first to learn the basics and practice until it becomes muscle memory.
After a while, you start experimenting with it.
Start diving into different styles. Expand your knowledge. If you truly want to master guitar, it is essential that you play different styles and techniques and mix-match things. It will also give you a creative outlook as a musician.
It might sometimes get frustrating as you might not find any good tune; however, it is an amazing starting point for exploring YOUR music.
11. Put equal practice for both hands
Playing guitar engages both hands. Therefore, right-hand/left-hand strumming and rhyming are essential.
However, sometimes depending on which hand you are as a beginner, you are so engrossed in learning the chords that you need to remember that you still need to perfectly time the strummings to create the actual flow of music.
So, ensure to put equal effort for both hands and overall practice.
12. Be actively engaged in a community of guitarists
There are numerous things to know once you start playing guitar. Even if you have a private tutor, it may mean something other than that he will teach you everything in your tuition. However, being in a community gives you exposure.
It allows you to have people to help you if a problem ever strikes you. It will enable you to have people who might teach you a trick or two.
Be it an online or offline community, being with people of your hobby will enable you to learn something new daily.
You can ask queries, help others, get recommendations, discover music and much more by just being a part of a community.
13. Record your playing
Being your judge is crucial once you reach a certain stage. Record yourself playing when you practice in your free time and listen to it.
Pinpoint the errors and practice them over and over again to perfect them.
As a beginner, it is always advised to look for a tutor, but if you’re a self-learner, then ear training and asking for suggestions from experts in your guitar community will help you a lot!
You can keep repeating this process repeatedly for the same song unless you see considerable improvement. This trick works like magic.
14. Do not be discouraged by your mistakes
Mistakes are meant to happen when you are learning something new. Even as an intermediate guitarist or an expert, you can make mistakes.
However, ensure that you keep track of your mistakes and work on them, so you do not repeat them in the future.
15. Remember the 3 P’s: Practice, Patience and perseverance
Every new skill takes considerable time and dedication to learn and master, so it is the same with the guitar. Learning any musical instrument requires a lot of patience.
A habit of practicing your guitar every day, even 5 mins out of your busy schedule, builds consistency.
With consistency comes discipline. And it is when the artist in you takes shape. So take it slow and invest your time and effort.
Just make sure to be consistent and never give up.
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Conclusion:
That is all there is! You can do these things to improve your guitar skills and learn faster. Many tips are pretty obvious and applicable when you want to learn any hobby, but these are an essential part of learning.
Also, the foundation is the key. Take your time to build your foundation and learn the chords. It will come in handy in the long run. I hope that this article will be of help to you.
