How to Play Beginner's Electric Guitar
Have your guitar set up properly., Listen and repeat., Mix up the hard stuff and the easy stuff., Avoid stomp boxes when you practice., Learn music.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Have your guitar set up properly.
Getting your guitar set up correctly is one of the main keys to having a good learning experience.
You can get this done by the guitar guru at the music store, a professional musician, or the owner of your local guitar repair shop.
There are a couple primary benefits to having your guitar set up properly:
Good intonation.
This is maybe the most critical thing.
Your guitar should be accurate so that when it's in tune (and you're playing the right notes), it will sound right.
If your guitar has bad intonation, it may be in tune on the lower strings, but terribly out-of-tune when playing higher notes.
This will be discouraging, and make it much harder to learn.
Ease of playing.
A guitar that's set up too high can be nearly impossible to play, as it can take an enormous amount of finger pressure to press down the string onto the frets.
Not only will this cause intonation problems, it will hurt, and it will slow you down! In time you will develop calluses on your fingers to ease the pain, but it will still be difficult to play fast runs or switch up chords easily. -
Step 2: Listen and repeat.
Virtually every song you like has a recognizable melodic pattern, some sort of memorable turn of notes.
Don't limit yourself to just the guitar solos—though that's always good to learn—but also listen to the singer, to the bass lines, little fills and noodles from the guitarist.
Anything that catches your ear will work—the simpler, the better, as you are learning.
For example, the melody to Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars is fairly simple, and has little vocal hooks and phrasings that you can try to imitate with the guitar.
Call Me Maybe from Carly Rae Jepsen has a catchy melody, but it also has a distinctive string backup pattern that would be a good challenge.
Gangnam Style by Psy has an insistent synth line that starts right at the beginning, and runs throughout the song.
While you can't get all the "synthy" tone, you can get the basic lick down and then have fun with it! The key here is not to become a guitar legend by learning solos—it's to become a guitar legend by learning to listen and be able to play what you hear.
If you have trouble catching part of a tune, try watching the YouTube video for it: often times, there will be shots of the band playing that bit. , Give yourself a "mental" break after working on something difficult by playing something easier, something you're comfortable with.
This will keep your fingers moving, keep you improving steadily, and help keep you from getting discouraged.
Make sure you always have hard stuff to work on! This is how you will grow as a guitarist.
Work the things you have a hard time with more frequently than the things you have an easy time accomplishing.
For example, if you find you are good at playing fast single-note solos, that's great! Keep practicing that skill.
If you have a hard time with chords, then make sure you practice those at least as much as you practice single-note solos. , Sure, a stomp box will give you awesome shredding tone, and sustain forever, but it also does something else: it masks errors in technique.
A pure, clean guitar tone will expose every flaw in your playing.
Save the shred tone for when you're jamming with your friends, or just cutting loose on your own. , As you develop as a guitarist, you will learn to appreciate the "shortcuts" music theory can give you.
For example, Instead of having to fiddle around to find the right chords to a song, a knowledge of music theory will enable you to know what the likely chords are in any given key.
It will also let you converse musically with other players—especially useful if you start a band.
For example, a keyboardist will not be able to interpret your finger positions when you say "play this chord." A keyboard and guitar are not at all alike in how the notes are presented.
However, if you say "Play an A7 then a B7 then back to E," he will be likely to understand you. -
Step 3: Mix up the hard stuff and the easy stuff.
-
Step 4: Avoid stomp boxes when you practice.
-
Step 5: Learn music.
Detailed Guide
Getting your guitar set up correctly is one of the main keys to having a good learning experience.
You can get this done by the guitar guru at the music store, a professional musician, or the owner of your local guitar repair shop.
There are a couple primary benefits to having your guitar set up properly:
Good intonation.
This is maybe the most critical thing.
Your guitar should be accurate so that when it's in tune (and you're playing the right notes), it will sound right.
If your guitar has bad intonation, it may be in tune on the lower strings, but terribly out-of-tune when playing higher notes.
This will be discouraging, and make it much harder to learn.
Ease of playing.
A guitar that's set up too high can be nearly impossible to play, as it can take an enormous amount of finger pressure to press down the string onto the frets.
Not only will this cause intonation problems, it will hurt, and it will slow you down! In time you will develop calluses on your fingers to ease the pain, but it will still be difficult to play fast runs or switch up chords easily.
Virtually every song you like has a recognizable melodic pattern, some sort of memorable turn of notes.
Don't limit yourself to just the guitar solos—though that's always good to learn—but also listen to the singer, to the bass lines, little fills and noodles from the guitarist.
Anything that catches your ear will work—the simpler, the better, as you are learning.
For example, the melody to Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars is fairly simple, and has little vocal hooks and phrasings that you can try to imitate with the guitar.
Call Me Maybe from Carly Rae Jepsen has a catchy melody, but it also has a distinctive string backup pattern that would be a good challenge.
Gangnam Style by Psy has an insistent synth line that starts right at the beginning, and runs throughout the song.
While you can't get all the "synthy" tone, you can get the basic lick down and then have fun with it! The key here is not to become a guitar legend by learning solos—it's to become a guitar legend by learning to listen and be able to play what you hear.
If you have trouble catching part of a tune, try watching the YouTube video for it: often times, there will be shots of the band playing that bit. , Give yourself a "mental" break after working on something difficult by playing something easier, something you're comfortable with.
This will keep your fingers moving, keep you improving steadily, and help keep you from getting discouraged.
Make sure you always have hard stuff to work on! This is how you will grow as a guitarist.
Work the things you have a hard time with more frequently than the things you have an easy time accomplishing.
For example, if you find you are good at playing fast single-note solos, that's great! Keep practicing that skill.
If you have a hard time with chords, then make sure you practice those at least as much as you practice single-note solos. , Sure, a stomp box will give you awesome shredding tone, and sustain forever, but it also does something else: it masks errors in technique.
A pure, clean guitar tone will expose every flaw in your playing.
Save the shred tone for when you're jamming with your friends, or just cutting loose on your own. , As you develop as a guitarist, you will learn to appreciate the "shortcuts" music theory can give you.
For example, Instead of having to fiddle around to find the right chords to a song, a knowledge of music theory will enable you to know what the likely chords are in any given key.
It will also let you converse musically with other players—especially useful if you start a band.
For example, a keyboardist will not be able to interpret your finger positions when you say "play this chord." A keyboard and guitar are not at all alike in how the notes are presented.
However, if you say "Play an A7 then a B7 then back to E," he will be likely to understand you.
About the Author
Larry Wells
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow cooking tutorials.
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