How to Play the Guitar

If you've always wanted to play the guitar, but was never sure how to start, don't worry.  Almost everyone has wanted to learn or get better at something but our goal completely overwhelmed us at some point.  It's like anything else; you just have to decide that you want to do it, come up with a plan to do it, and then start doing it!  So without further ado, here's how I learned the guitar with the courses that I used. It’s like a guitar for dummies crash course.

Obviously, the first thing you need to do before you can learn how to play the guitar is to get a guitar!  This is largely a matter of preference and budget.  However, I strongly recommend deciding on a budget before you start looking.  Otherwise, you'll find one that you really like and end up spending way more than you know you should for it.  Also, look at the price before you start trying out of the guitar.  If it's not within your budget, don't try it out.  You'll only be tempting yourself in the long run.

After you have a guitar, the next thing you need to learn how you should hold it.  This is pretty simple since there are only six strings on most guitars, so it really shouldn't take you too much time.  Learning all of the strings are the guitar is really the foundation for everything else; so this is a very crucial step, because without understanding the strings fully, it'll be very difficult to properly understand the chords.

Once you've fully mastered this, you can go on to the next up of trying chords.  There are many great instructional resources out there, such as guitar for dummies.  Again, simply work one at a time in order until you're completely comfortable.  This way takes a lot of work and time, but in the long run, you're playing will be much better for it.

Once you are totally bored of learning all the chords that you can, you can start practicing songs.  Now, don't feel bad if they don't sound exactly like they should right away, remember that you are just now learning how to play the guitar, so cut yourself some slack!  The key here is to find 3 to 5 songs that you like, and practice them as often as possible.  The more songs you get good at, the easier it will be to learn new songs.

This is obviously not the only way to learn how to play the guitar, however I feel that this is the way that will yield some of the best results.  If you wanted to, you could just jump right in and immediately start trying songs; but I personally feel that this way will sound much better.  Besides, if you're going to spend the time learning to play the guitar, why not learn to play as best as you possibly can?

Here is the course that I used. Out of all the courses that I've tried, this is by far the best.