Successful Tips for Beginner Guitar Learners

Tip 1: Establish Clear Goals

Beginner guitar students should define their aims clearly, as this aids in creating a tailored learning plan and smooths the learning journey. Whether the goal is to showcase a song in a talent show or to join a band, having a clear objective can make every technical exercise feel more rewarding.

Tip 2: Master the Fundamentals

Understanding and practising proper guitar techniques early on can expedite the learning process in the later stages. Since playing the guitar demands high coordination from both hands, mastering the basics, like chord changes, can be a significant challenge. However, the correct playing posture can help ensure note precision and smooth chord transitions.

Tip 3: Design a Consistent Practice Routine

Beginner guitar students should set a realistic practice routine given their daily commitments. Determining how much time one can dedicate to guitar practice daily allows for tailored training. For instance, focus on a single technique for five consecutive days if an hour a day is available. Spend the remaining two days of the week practising a song. Replicating this routine over a month, you'll often find better results than practising multiple techniques each day.

Tip 4: Embrace Patience and Discipline

Much like a weight loss plan, one cannot expect instant results. It takes patience, persistence, and discipline to achieve your goals. Perhaps you might not play "Sweet Child O' Mine" within a month, but you can certainly make progress on its chord progression. The key lies in consistent practice following an effective program, leading to success over time.

Tip 5: Find a Capable Guitar Teacher

Lastly, seeking guidance from a professional, patient, and dedicated guitar teacher can significantly impact your learning journey. A good teacher will provide a tailored learning plan and share efficient practice methods, ensuring you yield the most from your learning experience.

What is improvisation?

Musical improvisation is an immediate musical composition and is often done within the pre-existing chord progression. 

Here is the chord progression in the track:

| Em7 | Am | D | Em |

Step 1: Consider what scale can be used in the chord progression, for example, in the key of E minor, use either E natural minor scale or E pentatonic scale is best fit to the chord progression because both scales harmonize to the chord tone. 

Step 2: choose the position of the scale and choose the notes limited to 5-6 notes within an octave. 

Step 3: Notice the chord tone notes have to emphasis.

For example, emphasis the E note and D note in Em7 chord, A note for A minor chord, D note for D major chord, E note for Em chord. 

Step 4: Restrict the rhythms have to improvise, improvise the guitar solo making of the half, quarter, and eighth notes. 

Step 5: Play with feeling, thinking of just like singing a vocal line.

FAQs for Beginner Guitar Learners

Q1. What is the difference between electric guitar and acoustic guitar? Should I learn the acoustic guitar first? 

A1. The main difference is that the various guitars are used for different types of performances: for example, the tone of acoustic guitar is softer, suitable for playing folk songs and some softer music. Meanwhile the electric guitar with distortion effect is more suitable for playing rock music and heavy metal music. 

But no matter whether you learn to electric guitar or acoustic guitar ,there is no difference in the basic skills to learn at the beginning. But if you plan to learn rock songs, you need to play his unique skills in the long term, such as tapping, bending, and so on.

Q2. How long do I have to learn to learn to play a song?

A2. First of all, you need to clarify the definition of “playing a song”, for example: just playing the monophonic melody of the song, making the audience recognize what song, or just singing the chords is also a song, or even Chord Melody's guitar solo is a song. Everyone has a different goal, so the time each person can "play a song" is very different. In addition, it depends on the number of hours of exercise, the concentration of practice, and the frequency of practice. Practice makes perfect!

Q3.Which types of music notations do guitarists read? Numbered Notation? Chord Chart?

A3. The all music notations mentioned above can be read by guitarists, because guitar is a most  popular instrument in the world that has been involved in different genres across the ages. Different composers or arrangers will have different ways of visualise music in terms of different creative purposes. So any types of music notations can be read by guitarists. 

Q4. Why is F Chord so hard to play? How can I overcome it?

A4. The “F Chord” is usually a barre chord pressing by more than one strings with left index finger. For beginners, if the practice method is wrong, it will be quite painful and ineffective. In fact, try to understand the theory of chord composition and learn to play open chords (open chord: only one tone per finger), F Chord is not as difficult as we think, and there are many different finger placement (different Chord Voicing) ), suitable for students to enter different stages of playing.