Article by J Foster
Acoustic Guitar for Beginners
If you are just beginning acoustic guitar, then you have taken the first step towards a very rewarding and interesting hobby. I have been playing acoustic guitar for nearly 20 years, and I can honestly tell you, looking back, I have never regretted the hours of sweat and toil I have put into it. "Sweat and toil?", you ask. Well yes, I'm afraid so. But it's different for everyone. In this article I will attempt to help you understand more about whats required for this fantastic pastime, and sometimes even profession (for the lucky few).
The first thing you need to understand is that even if you are a natural, you are not perfect. Yet. If you are one of the lucky few (like me), who can just pick up a guitar and start to jam, I guarantee you will still have bad habits that will actually restrict you from becoming better than you actually are. Remember that there are pros in the world who are only pros because of the hours, days and months spent refining and perfecting their technique. To give you one example, I play for 2 hours a day where I can, and I know that I am still far from perfect. However, I love my guitar, and nothing could ever separate me from it.
My guitar is my best friend, and thats how you should treat yours. Look after it, clean it daily, change the strings regularly, even if they still sound ok to you. Believe me, after changing them a few times, you will start to notice the difference in the quality of sound, between a set of strings that are say, 4 weeks old, and a brand new set. As a beginner, you can probably get away with changing your guitar strings once every two months. Myself, I like to change them at least once a month. A little tip for you here: If a string breaks on your guitar, I would recommend you change the whole set, other wise you will end up with spare strings lying around everywhere, and for some reason, I always find there is a difference in quality of sound when I only change one string. Maybe I'm just a perfectionist, who knows?
As far as practice is concerned, there are a couple of ways to approach it. The first thing I will say to you is this: Unless you are practicing to be a professional, don't pick up the guitar unless you actually want to. The most valuable part of a practice session is that you actually enjoy it. If you want to be in a band, or want to play on the jam circuit, then I would recommend picking up your guitar once a day and spending at least an hour with it. There are tons of great resources on the web for practice, including videos, tutorials, chord finders and much more. A note of caution here though. Learn the whole song. It's pointless just being able to play the beginning, middle or end of a song, and it's also very frustrating in the long run.
When you are learning a song, it's great when you know you have gotten something right. The feeling of reward is fantastic. However, be wary of "pros" on video sites. While they are generally very accomplished players, it's easy to pick up bad habits from them. It may be that this pro is a natural like you, but one that didn't take lessons, or spent months and years perfecting his technique. So I recommend you get a teacher.
Before you get a teacher, remember that you are going to give this person your time and more importantly, your money. So make sure the teacher is a good one before you invest. Go online, see if you can find any write-ups on them, check the papers, ask around, talk to friends. But make sure the teacher is a good one and has a good reputation. Your teacher should be patient, understanding and above all else, professional!
To wrap up I would just like to say thanks for reading, and I hope this article helped you understand what it takes to get there. Hard work, patience, and most importantly, a teacher. It's all very well learning from the internet, but the internet can't stop you and say "Hey, that's great, but you might want to look at changing the way you do A, B or C…..", neither can it tell you when you are doing something exceptionally well.
So, pick up that phone, get yourself a teacher, and get learning now. It's worth it in the end, believe me.
About the Author
My name is Joe, I've been playing acoustic guitar for nearly 20 years, and I'm here to help new players understand more about this fantastic hobby.
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