Learning to play guitar by first learning to read guitar tabs, is by for the quickest way to begin playing guitar without being slowed down by huge amounts of theory.

Don’t get me wrong..  Music Theory and Guitar Theory can be extremely rewarding, but we find so many potential guitarists are put off because they are forced to learn large amounts of theory, rather than starting with the fun of actually playing guitar.

So, what’s the quickest way to start playing guitar in a musical and enjoyable way: Learn Guitar Tabs.

And it’s not that hard.  It was designed to be easy to understand and follow, and shows you exactly where to place your hands on the fretboard. 

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But..

You might find that it’s not turning out to be as much fun as you thought it was going to be.

That may be because you are having to learn a lot of chords, and lot of theory, and you haven’t been able to get down to the base, primal level of pure enjoyment that playing guitar can offer.

But imagine that you could play at a level that gave you the satisfaction that you are looking for.  No one is watching… Close your eyes and in your minds eye, play your guitar, just like you want to.  Just spend a few seconds and do it now..

If you can close your eyes and do this small amount of practice (in your mind) for a few seconds or even a few minutes a day, you will always have the drive to do some guitar practice and maybe even a little theory, because you know where that relatively small amount of work will take you.

So whether it be trying to get a better sound from your chords, or trying to learn guitar tabs, you can always give yourself the feeling that you will have once you can play guitar.

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Playing chords – strumming.

Playing notes – plucking.

Of course, both types of playing are usually required to play in almost any style of music.

If we take rock guitar as a starting point, strumming is usually referred to as rhythm guitar, whereas plucking is a technique that is usually required for lead guitar.

Most people do start out playing chords, and hence play a rhythm guitar style.  But you need to be careful here.  Keep your eye on your ultimate goal, and if that is to play lead guitar, or some other style that requires picking, whether it be finger picking, or using a guitar pick (plectrum), try to begin working and practicing in that style early on.  If you don’t you might end up getting entrenched in the rhythm guitar style, and you may find it more difficult to move over to the picking style.

Playing chords is the fastest way to begin playing guitar.  But if your aim is to master the guitar, playing notes, and playing them well is going to be high on your list of priorities.

Either way, if you learn guitar tabs, you can play either type of guitar, in whatever style you want, as most music written for guitar can be found written in guitar tabs.

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There are three main methods of tuning your guitar.

1. An Electronic Guitar Tuner – These are relatively inexpensive and can show you how far away you are on each string from correct tuning.

2. Guitar Pitch Pipes – Very cheap pipe you blow through for each string, and you tune each string to the same pitch as each of the notes the pipes play.

3. Using the 5th (and 4th on the G string) frets to match the tuning to the next string up.  This will get all of the strings in tune with each other, but you won’t be sure if the guitar is tuned “overall” to the correct pitch.

The best device is the electronic guitar tuner.  You can use it to check your tuning in the middle of a gig, without having to “hear” the pitch pipes, or the tuning between each string on your guitar.

Just one item to take note of here.  Some electronic guitar tuners have In and Out jacks so you can put them in line with the signal coming from your guitar, and your effect pedals, or amp.  The only problem is that some of them do introduce a small amount of noise (hiss or hum), so you should really have your tuner at a point where you are switch it in our out of the circuit that runs from your guitar, to your amp or other effect accessories.

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Standard Frets are quite low, and allow your finger to sit on the fretboard while you are playing a note.

Jumbo frets are much higher, and keep your finger from toughing the fretboard.  Jumbo frets are popular with rock and metal guitarist, as they are generally regarded as having a faster action and allow easier not bending.

If you are just starting out, you will find that playing a guitar with jumbo frets causes the tips of your fingers to hurt sooner, as there is more pressure applied to the fingertips, with none of the finger pressure going to the fretboard.

But, that is not the right reason to think that you should get a guitar without jumbo frets.  Your fingers will soon get used to the string pressure, and you may well find that playing a guitar with jumbo frets suits your style and you will end up with a better result for a small amount of pain in the short term.

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Picks come in many different shapes and sizes.  They are a very personal thing for most guitarist, and trying to use the wrong pick will make most guitarist feel that they are not connecting with the instrument.

If you are starting out, try buying a few different picks (you might find that the type of pick you actually end up liking the most, is not anything like the type of pick you first “picked” up).

Just to add – As you learn more guitar techniques, and your style changes, you may find that you change to a different type of pick.

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 If you have read my previous posts, it might seem like I’m naging you about this one major point, but I can’t stress enough the importance of buy the best quality guitar and other accessories you can justify.

So today, we are going to talk about your guitar setup.  For many people, that will be an acoustic guitar, maybe a set of pitch pipes, and a guitar stand.  For others, it will be an electric guitar, some effect pedals (or effects processor), and a guitar amplifier.

Acoustic Guitar:

Once you have purchased your acoustic guitar, I would recommend having it setup by a quality guitar technician.  Especially when starting out, this is can make the difference between the learning guitar experience being one of pain and frustration, to one of fun.

Next, I’d recommend buying a set of pitch pipes, and a guitar stand.  You’ll need the pitch pipes so you can make sure your guitar is always in tune, as it’s hard to play a piece of music with an instrument that is not in tune.  The guitar stand is a must also, as you can’t leave your guitar lying around where it can be damaged.  You will also find, by having your guitar on a guitar stand, that you will be more likely to pick it up and play it during the day.  This means you are getting more practice (without having to lock yourself away for a set number of hours each week – and putting in the “hard yards”).  You will enjoy these impromtu sessions more than your regular practice times.

Electric Guitar:

The same theory goes for electric guitars, as for acoustic guitars.  Buy the best you can justify and have it setup by a quality guitar technician.  By the way, many guitar shops will throw in having your new purchase setup, just to get the sale, so ask if they will throw that in.  You may find they will.

Once again, you will need a way to tune your guitar, using either pitch pipes, or a guitar tuner.  And you really should consider a guitar stand here too.  It will keep your instrument in great condition compared to if you leave it lying around.

Now, if your interest is electric guitar, there will be a huge number of additional accessories including effect pedals and amps.

Please make sure you buy a good quality amp if you can afford it.  This alone will make the biggest difference to the sound you here when you play.  One of those tiny little $100 amps will not give you any satisfaction when you play.

Once you have a good guitar and amp setup, it’s time to think about effect pedals.  This choice is totally up to you and the style of music you  are learning to play.  Start off with the one effect that will give you the closest sound to suit your style.  You can usually try these out at the guitar shop before you buy, so you know how your guitar setup will sound.

In future posts, I’ll go into a little more detail about some of the effects that you may concider for your style of music.

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When starting out, too many players buy a $200 comb of guitar and amp, and end up missing out on the great please that comes from playing a guitar with beautiful action and sound, and an amp that can deliver that sound in it’s most true form.  I know I’m assuming you are going to learn electric guitar when I talk about an amp, but I can’t leave that out for those of you who are starting out learning to play electric guitar.

My suggestion is to start with the best guitar you can afford, and have your guitar setup by a guitar technician.  I’d go as far as to say that if you are buying an electric guitar, that you don’t buy one with a tremolo bridge, if you cannot afford a really good one.  Cheaper tremolos will go out of tune, and end up being more of a pain, than a joy to play.

Start with a basic, solid guitar with good action and good sound.  You can save up to buy an amp a little later, and then effect pedels or effects processors later.  But learning on a good instrument is going to start you down the right road to successful playing.

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Learning guitar is not a 5 minute exercise, it will take some time.  Everyone is different, so understand that your own road to playing guitar may be longer or shorter than someone else.  That’s cool…  The most important thing is to enjoy playing, that’s why you started, right?

But, there are several things that I will talk about in future posts that can help you move forward more quickly, and without a lot of the pain that so many new guitarist go through using older teaching systems and without knowing some key points about their instrument.

Here is a short list of things that I highly recommend you look at sooner, rather than later, if you are just starting out, or even if you have been playing for some time.

• Have your guitar inspected and “Setup” by a qualified guitar technician.  Ironically, it’s almost more important for a beginner to have his or her guitar setup correctly with the “Action” set to suit both the instrument and the player.  So many beginners try to play guitars with bad action and intonation, and they struggle to get good sounds from the instrument.  More on this in a later post…
• Choose music that you love to listen to, and start working on playing it. Start with music that is near to your level of playing.  You may have a teacher who is teaching you styles that are not in your favorite music style.  It’s OK for you to start having fun playing the music you enjoy.  Keep up your enthusiasm.
• Learn Guitar Tabs. There is so much music written for guitar using guitar tabs, that you will probably be able to find some of the music you like to listen to, already written for you in tab format.

I’ll go into more detail a little later, but for now, you can have a think about the type of music you like to listen to, and try to get a feel for how you might play it on guitar.

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