• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Getting Started Guide – Beginners Guide to Starting to Learn Guitar

So you’ve decided you want to learn to play guitar! Congrats, it’s a fantastic instrument one that allows you to learn to play almost any pop song you can come across.

Now comes the difficult part, deciding what to do first and how to learn.

There are a lot of different alternatives to learn to play guitar, especially as a beginner. Someone who has picked up a guitar before and maybe watched a few youtube videos or something would have just enough knowledge to be dangerous and possibly over look a good quality self study program that otherwise might teach them a ton about playing guitar.

This Get Started Guide is going to be broken down into a couple of different sections.

1. Choosing your Learning Goals
2. Deciding How you Learn Best
3. Choosing the Best guitar lessons method for you to Learn Guitar

You see contrary to what some websites might tell you not every method will work for every individual, some people have varying expectations for how good they expect to become on the guitar and others learn in different ways. It’s important that you know what you want to learn and how you learn best before you decide.

Your Learning Goals & Expectations

I know you just want to learn to play guitar for fun right? Why do you need goals? Ok, let’s not call them goals let’s call them expectations. You need to know what you want to achieve from learning guitar. Do you expect to become the next Eric Clapton or John Mayer? Or do you want to be able to strum along with friends around the camp fire and at parties?

Don’t panic you don’t need to decide now what you want to accomplish forever as a guitar player you can change your mind later but making some sort of decision now will get you to your goal faster, and give you a handle on how long it will take you to achieve your desired level of playing.

So do you primarily want to:

• Learn other peoples songs so you can sing and play them with friends and at parties? (about 6-8 months)
• Write your own songs eventually or play in a band? (about 1 year)
• Become a good lead guitar player and have great technique? (2 years +)

The varying degree of what you need to learn to accomplish each of these three alternatives is different, as is the time frame. Beside each point there’s a time frame in brackets. The time is the my estimated time from a complete beginner to the point where you

Example: To learn to play other peoples pop songs with friends you need to master basic chords and strumming and probably learn to read tab. Once you’ve done that you’re set to go. Versus if you want to become a more technical player and focus on lead guitar then theory, keys and scales are going to play a big role in getting there.

So take some time to decide what your expectations are. This isn’t a final decision by any means but it may play a roll in choosing how you take lessons or learn as a beginner.

How do you Learn?

Most beginner guitar players learn best by watching someone else do things. As a beginner I tried to do things via a lesson book but it was very difficult since I was never sure if I was following the correct techniques.

Today video guitar lessons are by far the more popular alternative. You can purchase a great dvd or video guitar lessons course that will be the next best thing to having a professional guitar instructor at home with you.

For some of you, you may want to take it a step further and sign up for private guitar lessons. I don’t think I’ve ever met a beginner guitar player who said they didn’t get some benefit from taking a private lesson. How ever I also know lots of players that learned to play at home using self study programs and videos.

Don’t feel like the only alternative to learn guitar is taking lessons from some one in your home town. Of course if you know that you like to ask questions to reassure you’re doing things right or you have a difficult time being disciplined enough to learn on your own by all means private lessons are probably the best option for you.

Choosing the Best Method for You

I personally enjoy self study programs. I like the freedom that I can learn at my own pace (slower or faster), refer to materials later on after I’ve learned them and over all just knowing that I did it on my own. I’ve tried online video memberships how ever I found that unless there was a clear and concise lesson plan for which videos I watched and when there was just too much content in the membership areas. I found myself becoming overwhelmed.

For most of you as beginners you will probably also enjoy using a self study program. The program we recommend comes with a ton of lesson content that is divided up into a logical lesson plan and it also comes with some great supporting materials.

For those of you ready to get started check out our Recommended Guitar Lesson Program for Beginners

For those of you who feel a little unsure about learning to play guitar on your own terms at home you might want to look into local music schools and private teachers in your home town. Often times music stores will have a listing of local guitar teachers or they may offer lessons right in store. Be prepared to pay about $15-$20 per lessons and probably take one 30-60 minute lesson each week.