It is More Than Just Playing Guitar

Do you want to play your favorite song on the guitar? You seek to learn this musical instrument and experience an inner rewarding feeling. You need to have your own guitar to learn to play it. It needs lots of patience and daily practice. You have to keep practicing to keep getting better at playing the guitar.

Guitar is a popular musical instrument that people learn due its portability and economical accessibility. Guitar is used in most music forms like the folk, country, rock, jazz and pop etc. Before playing the guitar you need to understand the instrument itself. The instrument is similar to the Indian sitar and another instrument called the mandolin in quite close to it. However, learning to play a guitar is best done with a music teacher.

Getting back to playing the guitar, a general guitar has six strings. Some may have even more, may be even eighteen. There also electronic guitars that we see rock singers playing. The strings are divided like EADGBE – 654321. These are strings named that produce thicker to thinner sounds and that is what creates the different sounds.

Firstly, sit in a comfortable position. Sitting on a chair is preferable. Now hold the end or neck of your guitar in your left hand. The back should touch your chest. The right hand over the guitar. Keep it afloat the guitar and stay light. Do not tense the muscles. Relax and play. Everyone makes mistakes and that is how you will learn.

You have to play the strings with the help of something called a plectrum. A plectrum is a triangular shape of plastic that helps you play the guitar. Now you can begin by stroking the strings from thinner scale E, A, D, G, B to thickest scale E. The strings on the guitar are called scales - major and minor scales. Major – thick sound and minor – thin sound.

Getting Down Playing The Guitar:

Place your left hand fingers over the frets. Frets are metals strips that are opposite the metal strings. Press your fingers between metal strings and not on them. Play on your finger tips. Do not press the entire finger. Placing the finger closer to the fret produces crisp notes. With the other hand keep strumming with the plectrum on the same string. This requires a lot of mental agility and ability to balance the frets and strumming with the right hands. Now play notes from a music book on the major minor scales that you have learnt.

Tuning Your Guitar:

Once you start practicing on your guitar, you will develop a sense of the sounds and notes. The days your notes are not playing correctly you need to tune it. A guitar can be tuned with the pegs. Pegs can be seen at the end of the guitar to which the strings are attached. Tightening and loosening these pegs at the optimum level produces the right notes. Tuning your guitar is an essential part of playing the guitar. Tune your guitar regularly to produce perfect notes.

Things To Take Care Of Before Playing The Guitar:

You can buy a good guitar from brands such as PRS, Gibson, Dean, Gretsch, Ibanez, Martin, Jackson, Fender and Schecter. Here are some basic things to look after when you begin to play a guitar.

1. Trim your nails. They may interfere how you play the guitar.
2. Get a music book to learn to play the guitar.
3. Arrange for a comfortable seat.
4. Keep spare plectrums.
5. Your fingers may ache so take breaks between practice sessions.

Playing the guitar can be painstaking. Well, good things do not come easy. If you have decided to learn to play the guitar then nothing can stop you except yourself. Your passion for playing the guitar and your love for music will take you places. Try it now.

Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for Polomercantil.