Teaching Yourself To Play The Guitar

Learning to play the guitar is a lot of fun, and new people are taking up the instrument all the time. But when you’re first getting started, it can be a bit hard to know which is the best route to take – should you get lessons, or teach yourself?

In an ideal world, it’s best to learn from a teacher. This will ensure you get started on the right footing, and learn the correct posture, hand positions etc – these are vitally important and it’s easy to fall into bad habits if you’re learning alone at home. On the other hand, lessons can be expensive, and sometimes it can be hard to find a teacher, depending on where you live. Travelling to and from classes can also be a problem. For these reasons, many people choose to teach themselves to play.

If you teach yourself guitar you can learn to play well, so long as you get hold of a good guitar lessons course, and follow it closely. You could try a traditional tutor book, but many people these days prefer to learn with the help of video lessons, and online guitar lessons can be a great source of these.

It’s important to practice regularly, and to be very diligent about maintaining correct playing habits. Make sure you practice scales and other technical exercises, and don’t just play songs all the time. Having said that, it’s also important to play music you enjoy, to keep your motivation up, and there are lots of easy guitar songs for beginners that are fun to play while you’re learning.

The most important thing is to be patient. A lot of people give up the guitar because they’re not progressing as fast as they’d like, and it can be especially easy to be discouraged when you’re teaching yourself. But this is a skill that takes time to master, so enjoy the journey rather than being too impatient to reach your goals.