Taking the plunge and finally allowing yourself the time to learn a musical instrument has a plethora of benefits, both to your physical health and your emotional well-being, as well as the obvious enhancement to your extracurricular skills.
With that being said, whether you have not even invested in your very own guitar yet, or else have been learning for a couple of months or more, then this is for you.
Continue reading to discover five things to remember when learning the acoustic guitar.
1. Patience, Patience, Patience!
Good things certainly do come to those who wait. When it comes to learning to play any instrument, especially the guitar, it is important to approach the experience with as much patience as you can muster.
If you do find yourself becoming increasingly frustrated every time you attempt to play a piece of music, take the day off and return to practice with a new attitude and a fresh start.
2. Buy a Guitar Tuner
A must-have purchase for anybody learning to play the acoustic guitar is surprisingly affordable yet incredibly useful, and that item is a guitar tuner.
An electronic guitar tuner ensures that your guitar is always accurately in tune and will help to separate what you think to be incorrect finger placement but is actually an out-of-tune guitar.
3. Start with Mastering the Basics
As soon as you hold your new acoustic guitar in your hands, the temptation will naturally be to master playing your favorite tracks on the guitar, and in this excitement, you may forego the learning of the fundamental basics.
The fundamental pieces of knowledge you need to make sure you fully understand include the following:
• Correct strumming technique
• Correct fingerstyle technique
• How to hold your guitar
• How to fret
• How to use your pick correctly
4. Every Guitar is Entirely Different
Even though aesthetics alone indicate that one style of acoustic guitar varies, sometimes even drastically, from the next, and it is entirely accurate to state that statement, beautifully crafted types such as the Gibson Orianthi do produce a richer and deeper sound, a poor player blames his instrument.
When choosing your next, or even your first, acoustic guitar, it is always preferable to go for a guitar with a solid wood top. If you intend to buy a secondhand instrument, ensure everything from the strings to the handle is in excellent condition.
5. Consider Taking Professional Lessons
Like any other endeavor, everyone learns how to play an acoustic guitar in different ways, at different times, and at different speeds.
Logically, choosing to take a professional lesson or two, even if just for the beginning of your journey, will teach you the basics in a way that you can truly understand and process.
Professional lessons are guaranteed to ensure you truly know the chords, the notes, the strings, the fingering positions, and the correct posture you should adopt while playing. This can be particularly important if you are a left-handed player, as tutorials online for left-handed guitarists are not always as common, so finding a good teacher who can show you the basics will be valuable.
