There are very few things in life as rewarding as learning to play a musical instrument, and there are even fewer things as beautiful as an electric guitar. However, learning to play the guitar takes a lot of patience and can be very frustrating at times. While it's very important that you stick to some sort of structure if you want to make good progress, it's just as important that you learn an easy song every now and then so you don't feel like you're going nowhere slowly.
Most how to play electric guitar for beginners articles offer a step-by-step guide, including steps such as "buy a guitar", "learn the chords" which quite frankly are pretty redundant if you ask me. The most valuable advice I could give someone learning to play the guitar is to be patient, find some type of course (there are tons online now, stick to the free versions until you're 100% sure you want to learn how to play the electric guitar) so you avoid making long-term mistakes, and learn a new song every now and then.
Learning to play the electric guitar is exactly the same as learning to play the acoustic/classical guitar with the exception that the steel strings hurt your fingers and the fact that it's electric. It's advisable that you begin learning on a nylon string guitar first, but it's up to you.
While learning how to play electric guitar for beginners there are a few picking songs to try that I learnt in my beginner stages, and I'll list them below for you to have a look at. When learning to play the guitar it's important that you follow a structured lesson plan, and there are plenty of online courses available, rather stick to the free versions though until you're sure about learning to play the guitar.
How to play electric guitar for beginners songs: (sorry I can't include the links, but you'll find the tabs at www.ultimate-guitar.com)
Blink 182 - Adam's Song
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Bloc Party - Biko
Blink 182 - What's my age again (intro)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Will You Be Able to Play Guitar? 4 Golden Rules to Help With Your Beginner Guitar Lessons
Wanting to learn to play the guitar is one thing, but knowing whether you'll be able to play guitar properly is another. If you think you've got what it takes but the first few lessons don't go to plan, you might rethink the whole idea entirely. Here are some quick pointers to give you the best chance of getting to that all important stage where you know that you're good enough to do it for sure.
Learn to play guitar tablature properly: Many beginner guitar players will get a basic idea of guitar tablature very quickly and then move onto playing simple guitar chords and melodies. If you forget to come back to the 'music theory' because it doesn't involve playing exactly what you want, you are much more likely to quit for the wrong reasons. If you make the time to practise learning guitar tablature with exercises to find the different areas on the fretboard quickly, it will take much less time to see whether you can play new things yet.
Experiment with songs you know: It's good fun to find a song that you know and see how far you get with it. When you have practised guitar tablature exercises and done the 'groundwork' you can search through the endless free guitar tabs that are available online and quickly play around with the songs you know and love. The better your understanding of tablature, the quicker you will be able to sift through many tabs to find good beginner guitar songs that you can play easily. Before you know it, you wil have been practising for an hour or two without even noticing.
Play to your friends: It's great to get feedback from people and show off some new skills. If you get a bit of real praise from your friends, it will keep you motivated and add a bit more juice to your enthusiasm. There's nothing like a bit of positive feedback.
Ask for help: If there is anything you can't quite figure out, ask a guitarist that you know or, probably even better, ask online. There are so many videos on YouTube and plenty of experienced players that are members in forums, the help you need is sure to be out there somewhere. Often times, there is a split screen showing a close up of both hands, so it's can be a great way to improve your guitar skills online.
If you learn to play the guitar, remembering these four rules will give you the foundation to go on and conquer. Remember, if you are struggling, go back to square one and improve your guitar tablature knowledge increase your speed in translating it from the page to your guitar. The less time you need to spend looking at the tablature to figure something out, the more enjoyable it is to learn new songs on your guitar.
Learn to play guitar tablature properly: Many beginner guitar players will get a basic idea of guitar tablature very quickly and then move onto playing simple guitar chords and melodies. If you forget to come back to the 'music theory' because it doesn't involve playing exactly what you want, you are much more likely to quit for the wrong reasons. If you make the time to practise learning guitar tablature with exercises to find the different areas on the fretboard quickly, it will take much less time to see whether you can play new things yet.
Experiment with songs you know: It's good fun to find a song that you know and see how far you get with it. When you have practised guitar tablature exercises and done the 'groundwork' you can search through the endless free guitar tabs that are available online and quickly play around with the songs you know and love. The better your understanding of tablature, the quicker you will be able to sift through many tabs to find good beginner guitar songs that you can play easily. Before you know it, you wil have been practising for an hour or two without even noticing.
Play to your friends: It's great to get feedback from people and show off some new skills. If you get a bit of real praise from your friends, it will keep you motivated and add a bit more juice to your enthusiasm. There's nothing like a bit of positive feedback.
Ask for help: If there is anything you can't quite figure out, ask a guitarist that you know or, probably even better, ask online. There are so many videos on YouTube and plenty of experienced players that are members in forums, the help you need is sure to be out there somewhere. Often times, there is a split screen showing a close up of both hands, so it's can be a great way to improve your guitar skills online.
If you learn to play the guitar, remembering these four rules will give you the foundation to go on and conquer. Remember, if you are struggling, go back to square one and improve your guitar tablature knowledge increase your speed in translating it from the page to your guitar. The less time you need to spend looking at the tablature to figure something out, the more enjoyable it is to learn new songs on your guitar.
Power Chords and Bar Chords Explained
It sounds quite cool to say you can play power chords and bar chords on your guitar, but I played bar chords for years without realizing that I was actually playing power chords. Here's the simple difference.
A bar chord is when you take a regular chord, for example E major, and you use your index finger and move that shape further up the neck of the guitar to make another chord. So, E major can be expressed as 0-2-2-1-0-0 and an A major bar chord would be expressed as 5-7-7-6-5-5 and you would play across all six strings and get sound of the full chord.
A power chord is played in exactly the same way with the bar across the strings etc, but you only play the 6th, 5th and arguably 4th strings, which are the 3 thickest strings on your guitar. This may give you the impression that it will actually sound weaker than a bar chord because you are playing less strings and you would be correct, but there is one secret ingredient ro add:
Overdrive
This gives a distorted sound to the chord and when you play a power chord on an electric guitar with overdrive through your guitar amplifier, there is no better demonstration as to why a power chord gets its name.
There is only ever going to be one winner when it comes to power and bar chords, but you may be surprised to learn that a power chord is actually easier to play too.
A bar chord is when you take a regular chord, for example E major, and you use your index finger and move that shape further up the neck of the guitar to make another chord. So, E major can be expressed as 0-2-2-1-0-0 and an A major bar chord would be expressed as 5-7-7-6-5-5 and you would play across all six strings and get sound of the full chord.
A power chord is played in exactly the same way with the bar across the strings etc, but you only play the 6th, 5th and arguably 4th strings, which are the 3 thickest strings on your guitar. This may give you the impression that it will actually sound weaker than a bar chord because you are playing less strings and you would be correct, but there is one secret ingredient ro add:
Overdrive
This gives a distorted sound to the chord and when you play a power chord on an electric guitar with overdrive through your guitar amplifier, there is no better demonstration as to why a power chord gets its name.
There is only ever going to be one winner when it comes to power and bar chords, but you may be surprised to learn that a power chord is actually easier to play too.
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