How to Play a Guitar

                                                                               

I’m writing this post in the hopes that I can convince 1 or 2 of you to pick up a guitar and start making your own music. Below I describe a basic theory and method for getting started with the guitar that I’ve taught in real life to many friends with success.

Before I picked up the guitar, I was operating under a lot of false assumptions about how difficult it is to become a musician.

1. I believed I was too old to start to learn music.
2. I believed I had no musical talent and that I wasn’t a “musical” person.
3. I thought you needed to learn to read music to play an instrument.
4. I believed to overcome these barriers it would take too much time and effort

Tips for playing:

1. To get good touch in your strumming hand, it’ll take longer than 10 hours. It’s about reps. Try to consider the amount of finesse you are hitting the strings with. Do a little research on palm mutting and other useful strumming techniques. If it sounds nasty at first, that’s cool. Your fingers and wrists will start to adjust. Focus on getting quality sounds out of the guitar.
2. With your left hand, fret the strings as close to the frets as possible. This will reduce buzzing and the chords will ring clearer.
3. You’ll need to press the strings down firmly to ensure they ring out well. One of the toughest parts for beginners is ensuring you aren’t “muting” the strings that you aren’t fretting (credit natasha at www.dresshead.com). These small touches get programmed in to your fingers after hours of time, so don’t worry too much about it. Just focus on getting the best sound out of your guitar.
4. Your fingers will hurt, don’t worry about it too much.
5. It’ll feel weird for the first few days. This is normal. At the beginning a G chord feels like it was purpose designed to give you wrist cramps, after a month of playing the guitar it’ll feel like coming home.

A little faster, perhaps after a week or so of jamming out….

• “Runaround” by Blues Traveler – Chord Map | Youtube Performance (play C instead of Cadd9)
• “Lonesome Johnny Blues” by Cracker – Chord Map | Youtube Performance
• “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows – Chord Map | Youtube Performance(notice you’ll need to learn A!

Question: “Is it better to start with an electric or acoustic guitar?”

It doesn’t really matter. What counts most is finding a guitar you’ll want to play. You could base the decision on the type of music you aspire to play. What I was starting out, my motivation was to play Dave Matthews songs, so an acoustic guitar was an obvious choice.

I do think playing an electric guitar is slightly easier but not so much that it’ll matter that much (basically, it’s easier to push the strings down). So the best answer is: the guitar you’ll play the most. Eventually you’ll have both :)

“What is the best guitar to start with?”

I get this question a lot, and the best answer is ‘whatever you got.’ But if you want to get something good I’ll make some recommendations. My first guitar cost less than $50. And that was just fine for me to learn on. Problem? It was a total piece of crap.

So what I’m going to do is recommend guitars that are mid-range and that you can grow with. Although these guitars aren’t that expensive, you could easily play with them in a band and in front of audiences. And as your skill progresses, you won’t be thinking “this thing sucks.”

Acoustic: I recommend a Yamaha solid top acoustic guitar. This guitar plays just as good as some that are many hundreds of dollars more expensive. It can be difficult to manufacture quality acoustics at low prices due to the importance of a solid top finish. When I was in college I scratched together the cash to buy a handmade acoustic guitar that was over $1,000 (I won’t mention the brand) but that guitar was nowhere near as good as this Yamaha.

I actually gave my original Yamaha to a friend and former bandmate, and a few years later when I settled into a new apartment in a new city, I went out and bought the same damn guitar. So yeah. That’s as good a recommendation as I can give. If you want an acoustic, go get the Yamaha.

3/4 Size Acoustic: I also have a 3/4 Scale Guitar in my apartment because they are awesome to sit beside your couch and just pick up easily and jam with. I bought the guitar a few months ago, and when I was playing it a concerned shopper came up to me and reminded me “that’s for kids you know.” I laughed. Fair enough, but I think little guitars are cool to have around the house, so if you do too (or if you have really small hands) perhaps this could be the guitar for you.

Electric guitar: Well the world of electric guitars is in some ways more complex, as there are all kinds of different looks and technologies. And it’s not good enough to just have a guitar, you need to buy an amplifier as well. I will just recommend mid-level stuff that’s worked for me based on my preferences, but if you like “stuff” and collecting gear, you’ll find playing the guitar to be a deeply satisfying hobby :)

So what’s the coolest electric guitar there is? Well, that’s for you to decide. But for me it’s the classic Fender Standard Telecaster (that’s what I’m playing in the video above) or the Fender Standard Stratocaster.

My heart rate just went up 10 beats a minute just looking at these things!

I love love love these guitars. No gimmicks. They are pure class (but are capable of absolute fury!) :) Think a Telecaster can’t rock? Johnny Greenwood respectfully disagrees. Check out Bonnie Raitt using a Strat to lay down some nasty slide licks. SRV nearly tears the strings off his Strat. Would you prefer something a little funkier? Here’s Prince playing the greatest guitar solo of all time on a Telecaster.

One problem, particularly if you are just starting out. They are expensive! So perhaps just something for those of you who know you’re in this for the long haul. But these guitars are the type that you could have for your entire life!

And also remember: it’s not always true that a more expensive guitar is better. I had one “knockoff” brand Stratocaster in high school that to this day is one of the best guitars I’ve ever had. Sadly, it was stolen some years later :( Oh well.

If you like these guitars but don’t have that kind of money, Fender has an “entry” level brand called “Squire.” Now, when I was young Squire guitars were junk, but nowadays they are much much better. I think the entire guitar industry has upped their game. You can see Fender has created a simple “beginner’s” pack here.

Not bad! The only downside to a setup like this is that you’ll start to feel the “limit’s” of the rig, if you play a lot, within the first year. But it’s also affordable so you can’t argue with that!

Now many people are going to ask about other brands, like why don’t I suggest Gibson guitars? It really is a personal taste thing, and it’ll ultimately depend on yours. Perhaps by the style of music you play or the artists you admire. For me, Fender guitars represent the best in quality and feel. Many Gibson style guitars have fatter necks, bigger frets, are heavy, and feel and sound “muddy” to me, whereas the feel of a Stratocaster– light, slender, classic– feels, plays, and looks fast.  :)