Tradebit Tips: Learn to Play The Guitar

Welcome to the Guitar Tips section! In this informative article Learn to Play the Guitar you'll learn the basic tips for playing a guitar - whether you want to start your own professional band or just hang with your college buddies and strum some chords to the latest pop hits on the charts. The guitar is a beautiful and soulful instrument, and learning how to play the guitar is a challenge that can be conquered with persistence and practice. If you are a complete beginner, you'll need to know a few terms first. You of course know what songs are, and that a chord makes up parts of a song. Also, familiarize yourself with major and minor keys. Do you want to play blues? Jazz? Pop? Soul? There are basic songs that can teach you everything that you'll need to learn, but you have to start somewhere and the guide below is an easy way to make sure that you are prepared.

About the Guitar
The guitar is a string instrument (strings made of nylon or steel) with a long fretted neck upon which strings are plucked while frets are held to denote different keys and notes. The standard tuning of guitar strings is: E,A,D,G,B,E, which allows chromatic movement from each note on a fret, through the string, to the next string. Before you being to play the guitar or take lessons you should get to know the instruments and its parts- from the body, head, neck, frets, fretboard, soundhole and bridge. Once you know the parts of the instrument, you can begin learning how to play the guitar.

Guitar tip #1
Tuning: Before playing for the first time, you'll want to make sure that all of the strings of the guitar are in tune. Unless you have perfect pitch, this might not be easy so you'll need some help- otherwise knows as technical assistance. Using either an electric tuner or a keyboard/piano as your guide, slowly tighten or loosen the strings by manipulating the tuning keys (also knows a peg heads). You'll appreciate this first step so that your first strummed chord doesn't sound like nails on a chalkboard!

Guitar tip #2
Tablature: Guitar tablature, or tabs, are the primary way of reading guitar music that is available online and from sheet music providers. Unless you a playing classical guitar, in which each note will be written out in a score, you will need to read a tab to guide your chord and hand movement. Once you understand the work concept and setup of tabs, you will know both how to strum the strings and where to place your fingers on the fretboard to correctly tune into some great chords for cover songs, bands, in any style and genre, major or minor keys- from pop, classical, funk, rock, jazz, blues, reggae, and more. Beginners can learn about how guitarists use tabs in a lesson, but you should also look online since many musical people have posted their tabs and how-to guides for finger work and reading tabs on the internet

Guitar tip #3
Practice: Practice makes perfect is always a good policy and this is an instrument that definitely takes some fine-tuning before it can sound good. Even if you sound decent enough to be playing through some covers at home, you'll want to make sure that you learn to play in time, that is, tempo. Also that your rhythms are correct for more experienced players. Make sure to take the time to figure out chord changes and the technique of finger-placement on the frets. Your sound will be a lot clearer and both you and the audience can appreciate that precision if you approach your sound like a professional each time you practice. You'll want to become adept at sight-reading both tablature/tab pieces as well as note-for-note pieces in sheet music. Practice a scale, arpeggios, chords, and rhythms- over and over until you find a smooth way to play them all. Don't be alarmed if most of your time is spent on technique rather than just diving into 'fun' stuff like playing songs. You'll thank yourself in the long run and for any future lessons in guitar that you have, that you spent time on technique, finger placement, scales, rhythms, and all of the technical exercises that assist you instead of just playing games by half-learning new songs.

Guitar tip #5:
Picking and Strumming: You'll definitely want to become familiar with the many types of finger-picking and string strumming that are available on all guitars. This choice not only has to do with the genre of music that you are playing on the guitar, but also with the type of guitar you have and how skilled and at what level you are reading the sheet music that you'd like to play. There are some amazing pros out there that show online tutorials for strumming, picking, finger-board movement on the frets and much more. So watch and listen to everything that you can and you'll pick up a great technique and learn what works best for you in the music.

Guitar tip #6:
Chords: There are two types of chords in guitar tablature, open chords and bar chords. The easiest ones to learn are the open chords: These are comprised of the C, D, A and G chords. Sure enough, because these chords are the 'easiest' to play, there is a huge number of popular songs from every genre and style going back to the 20s and 30s even that only use these chords! Get familiar with them and your song repertoire will immediately increase exponentially! Once you've mastered open chords, you can get a 'new' sound by using a capo. What is a capo' Well, it's basically a way to 'retune' the key of your guitars without having to turn any of those little knobs or re-adjust the strings! Basically it's a metal or wooden bar that lies across your fret board that immediately moves the key higher or lower depending on its positioning. Using a capo you can sing along to your own strumming in a key most comfortable for your own voice. In great news, a capo can help you write really interesting music of your own that you can share. It's also good for exercises in playing in different keys so that you can learn your stuff and sound as professional as possible in any key - treble or bass clef!

In Review:
Once you get familiar with your new guitar and all of its technical aspects, you'll of course want to learn how to string, tune, and play your first few chords of your acoustic or electric guitar. Try not to skip any of the early steps because it's easier to build up your technique correctly rather than accidentally skip something you don't like and have that come back to haunt you when you try to tackle a really difficult song! Stick to the basics- open chords and then barred chords. Stay rhythmically correct with your patterns, in tempo as much as you can.

Strum evenly and you'll see how quickly you'll be getting better and where you want to be on the right page as a great player. Count off the beats when you are sight reading sheet music. Feel the inner pulse of the music and the instrument within you and the ways that you can use the theory that you have learned for years to change the music you are making from when you just started to learn it. And just when you think you're starting to get the hang of it all, take a deep breathe and free yourself to just play and feel the groove of the music- feel it's rhythm take hold, and remember to just go with the flow.

It takes a lot of practice, but if you approach learning the guitar with an open mind, enthusiasm and a willingness to adjust to the learning curve, you'll definitely be able to master this beautiful instrument! Remember- you don't have to buy anything extra except for your instrument- and maybe lessons if you get good enough. You can find a site that you love for tabs, videos of finger picking, a video of how to play chords, and many more learning sites that are good for tips on how to rock out when you play, learn basic chord structure for guitar, offer good finger-pick advice, and figure out what notes you need to complete your own composition. Have fun whilst you learn to play the guitar!