How to Learn To Play The Guitar

Learning the guitar takes time and dedication, but with the right practice techniques, it's easy to see major improvements in only a few weeks or months.

Scheduling Guitar Practice Sessions

Many amateur guitarists only practice their instruments on an irregular or infrequent basis. By planning a practice schedule, it's easy to avoid this mistake.

New guitarists should practice for at least 20-30 minutes per day. Intermediate and advanced guitarists should practice for longer sessions, but when practice sessions get to about 60 minutes per day or so, it's important to start scheduling different blocks of practice to ensure steady progression. For example, a guitarist might spend 20 minutes on finger exercises, 20 minutes learning songs and 20 minutes on ear training.

Practice with a metronome whenever you can. It can be frustrating to play with a metronome at first, but doing so will drastically improve your sense of time. A metronome is especially important when running through scales and arpeggios to build hand speed.

Watching Your Technique

Technique is very important when playing the guitar, because poor technique will limit your speed and can lead to wrist or hand pain. Always pay attention to the way you're holding the guitar and how you're plucking each string. Make sure to alternate between up and down strokes of the pick unless you're practicing an exercise that specifically calls for only up or down strokes.

Keep the guitar high on your chest when playing with a strap and rest the body of the instrument on your thighs when playing seated. This will give you greater flexibility and avoids a common source of wrist pain.

Many guitarists learn new songs through tabs, which are simple fret diagrams. Tablature can be very useful, but spend time learning to read music. Tablature is limited and cannot show the rhythms of a song. Learning to read guitar music will allow you to play with other musicians and will greatly expand your musical repertoire.

Always pay attention to how you're holding the guitar and plucking each string