If you are thinking about learning to play a musical instrument, playing an acoustic guitar is an excellent choice. With some basic understanding of the mechanics of the guitar, you can start playing your favorite songs in no time.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Start Playing
Step 1. Choose the guitar
Even if you've already decided you want to learn how to play on an acoustic guitar, there are other things to consider. Choose the guitar considering that both the size and the price must be suitable for you and your lifestyle.
- Avoid buying a cheap acoustic guitar, as these guitars are usually built of poor materials and are very difficult to play. You should choose a guitar that costs no less than 250 €. This type of guitars are of better quality and sound better than cheap ones.
- Find a guitar that has low action. The action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard of the guitar. If the action is high, you will need to press harder on the strings with your fingers to generate the notes, which can be painful and difficult for someone who is just starting to play the guitar. Finding a guitar with a bass action will make it easier and more comfortable for you to play the guitar.
- Always buy wooden guitars. While you may find guitars made of mixed structure materials, the sound is not as good as that of acoustic guitars made of wood.
- Avoid a guitar ¾, even if you feel like you have very small hands. The sound of these guitars is not as good as those of normal-sized guitars, and practice is enough to allow even small people, or even children, to play a full-sized guitar.
- If you are left handed, look for a specific left handed guitar. Otherwise you will have to play a guitar with the strings upside down.
- Don't worry if you have an old or used guitar, rather than buy a new one. If the guitar is in a good condition, and it has a nice sound, you can safely play that.
Step 2. Get to know the parts of the guitar
Before you start playing, it is important to know what the main parts of the guitar are. Of course, certain parts of the guitar, such as the soundbox and strings, are easy to spot and learn, but you should know all the smaller parts as well.
- The neck of the guitar is the long, narrow part where you find the strings. The neck is the back, while the front is the fingerboard. The fingerboard is the flat part on which you press the strings.
- The headstock is that part of wood that you find at the end of the keyboard, where the mechanics are mounted, to which the keys are connected to tune it. Here the ropes end.
- The ferretti or frets are metal rods arranged crosswise along the keyboard. A key is the space between two wires. The first key is the one closest to the headstock, the others are willing to follow towards the sound box.
- The bridge is that small piece of wood or plastic on the soundboard, to which the strings are attached. When you need to change strings, you start here.
- Know the ropes. The largest, the one with the lowest sound, is the low E. Moving down from the low E, you find the A, D, G, B, and E sing.
Step 3. Tune the guitar
Before you start playing, you need to make sure your guitar is in tune. If it isn't, the sound will be unpleasant. Even if you buy a brand new guitar, you should still check that it is in tune.
- To tune the guitar, you need to rotate the keys located in the headstock of the guitar. As you twist them, the string will be stretched or loosened, changing the pitch of the sound.
- Always start tuning the guitar from the lowest string, and work your way up to the highest. Since the thicker a string is, the less likely it is to forget, you should always start with the low E.
- Buy an electronic tuner to find the right notes. These tuners have a microphone that detects the sound of the string you need to tune and tells you if the note is too low or too high.
- Tune the guitar with a piano or keyboard. These instruments remain in tune for many years, so the sounds of the notes they produce can be used to compare them to those of the guitar strings. Play the note you want to tune on the guitar on the piano, and turn the key until the string produces the same note as the piano.
- Try using an online guitar tuner or a guitar tuning app, which produces the sound of the string to be tuned, allowing you to compare it to it.
Step 4. Get in the right position
Once you've got your guitar ready, get in the right position to play. If you're just starting out, you'll find it easier to sit down than stand up.
- Place the guitar on the knee opposite your dominant hand. If you are right, place it on your left knee. You may find it helpful to lift that foot on toes, to get the guitar at the right height.
- Grab the guitar neck so your thumb rests on the back and your other fingers rest on the fingerboard.
- Keep shoulders, elbows, and wrists relaxed.
Method 2 of 3: Learn the Notes and Chords
Step 1. Learn the main notes
The first step is to learn how to find the most important notes. While a chord list chart is useful, you can learn some important notes by paying attention to the strings and their frets.
- To play an F, press the first fret of the low E string (the sixth string, counting from the bottom).
- To play a C, press the first fret of the B string (the second).
- To play an A #, press the first fret of the A string (the fifth).
- To play a D #, press the first fret of the D string (the fourth).
- To play a G #, press the first fret of the G string (the third).
Step 2. Learn to form the C major chord
To play the C major chord you have to put your index finger on the first fret of the B string, the middle finger on the second fret of the D string and the ring finger on the third fret of the A string.
Step 3. Learn to form the A major chord
To play the A major chord, you have to put your index finger on the second fret of the D string, your middle finger on the second fret of the G string, and your ring finger on the second fret of the B string. You will need to arrange your fingers, squeezing them a little, as they all press on the second fret.
Step 4. Learn to form the G major chord
Put the middle finger on the second fret in the A string, the ring finger on the third fret of the low E string, and the little finger on the third fret of the E string.
Step 5. Learn to form the E major chord
Put your index finger on the first fret of the G string, the middle finger on the second fret, on the A string, and your ring finger on the second fret, on the D string.
Step 6. Learn to form the D major chord
To play the D major chord, you have to put your index finger on the second fret of the G string, the middle finger on the second fret of the E string, and the ring finger on the third fret of the B string.
Method 3 of 3: Play the Guitar
Step 1. Learn to play
When you know how to arrange your fingers to make notes and chords, the next step is to play the strings by vibrating them. Playing the strings is quite easy, and it can be done in a number of ways. Basically, you have to move your dominant hand quickly over the strings at the soundhole, making them vibrate in order to produce a pleasant and harmonious sound.
- You can use your fingertips, fingernails or a pick. What you decide to use depends on personal preferences.
- There are many different ways to pick strings on the strings, but among the main ones there are two very common ones: quickly alternate the picking one down and one up, or proceed in one direction only.
- If you're playing a chord, you don't have to play all the strings. You can decide to play only the ones that make up the chord.
- Don't worry about picking the rhythm of the strumming until you are able to make the chords accurately. It is better to be slow to play and make clear chords than to play quickly with your fingers in the wrong frets or with the strings not producing a clear sound.
- Plucking the strings means playing the individual strings, and, generally speaking, it is more difficult for beginners. Save this technique for a later period after you become comfortable with the chords.
Step 2. Set the pace
Rhythm develops with practice, and it is quite difficult to develop in the beginning. When learning chords, you will obviously have to take a lot of pauses to get your fingers in the right position. But over time you have to give the right rhythm to the strumming, to play the music better.
Step 3. Play real music
While putting together chords and strumming in time can take some time, the best way to practice both the first and second is to play songs you know. Many books that teach guitar for beginners contain songs for children, but you can also start by learning famous songs.
- "La Canzone del Sole" by Lucio Battisti, "L'Isola che non'è" by Edoardo Bennato, "Sapore di Sale" by Domenico Modugno, and "Generale" by Francesco De Gregori are all fairly easy songs to play, which you may have heard over time.
- When you feel more comfortable playing full songs, search the internet for your favorite music.
- Search the internet for "guitar tablature" to find the music of your favorite songs to play on the guitar. You will find the chords of the songs, and even on some sites you will also be able to see how to arrange your fingers.
Step 4. Practice every day
The most important thing when learning to play the guitar is regular exercise. This will help you get used to the position your hands have to assume, to the rhythm, and you will learn new songs.
Advice
- It is quite difficult to play the guitar at first, so practice about 15 minutes a day, every day, and you will see that you will learn pretty fast.
- Your fingers will likely hurt at first until calluses have formed, but don't let that discourage you from exercising. If necessary, take short breaks from time to time to get over the pain.
- Use a lectern to place the papers where you have the music, notes or chords, so that you don't have to waste time turning around or picking up the papers and constantly consulting them.
