Article by Arthur M Daniels
Most people should start learning to play guitar with a good acoustic. Why?? … Weeeelllll ….
1.They generally tend to be more affordable than electric guitars.2.You don't need to buy an expensive amplifier.3.The things you will learn playing an acoustic will lay a solid foundation for later if you decide to move on to an electric or a bass.4.Most players who start out on an acoustic will be comfortable with both electric or acoustic whereas people who start on electric tend to never "get on" with an acoustic.5.They are funHaving now decided you will learn acoustic guitar let's look at the process more closely.
When buying your first guitar, please go to a music shop, and don't let them talk you into an expensive brand like Gibson or Taylor. There are plenty of good quality acoustic guitars for between 0 and 0. No one needs to be spending 00's on a beginner instrument
When I was learning to play, back when no one had more than 1 car and 1 TV and only the rich had color TV's, there were no good student instruments available…. You couldn't afford Gibson or fender and cheap guitars were like cheese slicers…you ended up with bloody fingers. Happily those days are over, now you can find quality cheap instruments everywhere. There are still plenty of awful guitars out there so be careful and go to a reputable music store and if you have a guitar playing friend …. Take them with you.
Another thing to keep in mind is the size of the guitar you will be buying. They come in all sorts of sizes for all sorts of people. For example a 10 year old girl should not have grand auditorium style guitar…. She could probably sit in it and paddle down the river… conversely a 6'4" football quarterback would look and feel silly playing a Baby Taylor which is ½ scale. a good "rule of thumb" is "if it feels uncomfortable then try another one".
OK …. so now you have a nice shiny new acoustic guitar and you need to learn how to play it.
There are lots of different ways to learn acoustic guitar.
Back when I was learning to play with my "cheese slicer" guitar I would listen to my vinal 45's or LP's and just try and work out what they were doing then copy it (if you don't know what a vinal 45 or LP is …. Ask your mom)
Today there is more choice.
Most music shops have guitar lessons and can do a good job but they can become expensive charging .00 per lesson… this adds up over the years
Then there are the independent private tutors but you need to be real careful when selecting one. Some are very good and have put a lot of time and effort into developing a curriculum and care about their students but a lot are just semi Pro guitarists making a bit of extra money in between gigs who, whilst probably very good at actually playing the instrument, cannot teach!!!!
Lastly the approach I prefer.
Online guitar lessons allow you to learn acoustic guitar when and where it is convenient for you. This has inherent good and bad points. Firstly you need to be more disciplined in your approach to the course as there will be no one to answer to on a weekly basis if you don't practice between lessons. On the positive side the online course will work out a lot cheaper than private lessons and can be as good if not better. Once you have purchased the course you can revisit a lesson (usually on video and in print) as often as you like until you "get it" and if you "get it" faster than you expected you can go on to the next lesson sooner, instead of waiting until next week for your lesson.
A good online guitar course will have an array of different teaching tools including diagrams, pictures, and videos, and can be a great way to fully understand your guitar. usually you will pay one upfront payment for the whole course (usually between to 0) then you have options to buy further specialized instruction. For example: Advanced lead guitar techniques, acoustic finger picking, blues riffs etc.
Whichever method you choose please have fun and be the best guitarist you can be
About the Author
Arthur Daniels has spent over 40 years touring the world as a professional guitarist, Now settled in Texas spends his time teaching guitar, Building and repairing guitars and running his website.
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