5 Tips You Can Use Today When Learning Your First Chords

Learning your first guitar chords can be very challenging. In fact most beginners quit because playing chords is so difficult at first. So what can you do to stop yourself from quitting? I've listed a few helpful tips that will help to not only keep you on track but also prevent you from giving up on your dream of learning to play guitar.

Tip #1
Practice for no longer than fifteen minutes a day.
Many people when first starting out want to practice for an hour a day. This is a bad idea. Your fingertips need time to build up calluses and might start bleeding if you push yourself too hard. Ideally you should practice until your fingers start to really hurt, usually within first fifteen minutes, and no more!

Tip #2
Never skip a day of practice.
This is very important. In fact if you can't find fifteen minutes a day every day in your busy lifestyle, you might as well save yourself the trouble and don't even attempt to learn guitar. And I mean every day. Why? You need to build muscle memory in your fingers and that takes time and repetition. If you skip even a day of practice it can and usually does send you way back in your progress. So all this hard work you've been putting into it is worthless. Unless you practice every day!

Tip #3
Keep a daily log of your progress.
This is more for motivational purposes. Seeing how much you have improved overtime is a huge ego booster and helps to put the fire back into the whole learning guitar process. It's a good idea to go even farther and video record all of your practices. You will get such a kick out of it when you go back and see just how bad you were in the beginning. That's what I did and it helped me to keep going.

Tip #4
Join forums.
Join guitar forums for support. Guitar forums have hundreds of people going through the same pain as you are. You can get a lot of helpful tips if you run into trouble when learning something and the emotional support you get from your piers doesn't hurt either.

Tip #5
Make sure your guitar is always properly tuned.
This is a no brainer. But for some reason so many beginners, me included, forget about something so crucial to your success in learning guitar. In fact many people think their playing skills suck when in reality their guitar is out of tune. Simple, right?

There is an easy way to learn How To Play Guitar. I get all of my lessons from Guitarzonline. They have a lot of helpful information like Learn Guitar Chords, How Long Does It Take To Learn Guitar and even offer free lessons for beginners. If you're interested in learning guitar you should check their site out. You will be glad you did.

View the original article here

Learn Guitar Strumming and Chords Using a Method Book

When it comes to learning anything new it's always a benefit to have a teacher or a good book or method that would include audios or videos. If you want to learn guitar strumming and chords it's the same.

Start With Easy

When you are learning to play chords and guitar strumming patterns you want to begin with the easiest ones first. This will build your confidence and give you an "I can do it" attitude.

With the guitar, the easiest chords to begin with are Em and A7. The easiest rhythm is down - down - down - down.

Truthfully, guitar is a relatively easy instrument to learn. You can learn a dozen chords and a few ways to strum and have a lifetime of fun.

However if you learn a couple of dozen chords and barre chord positions and a dozen more strum patterns you will be able to play millions of songs. This is not an exaggeration at all.

Find a Good Method Book to Learn From

If you have the right method book you can triple how quickly you can learn guitar strumming. With the right method, as you go through each lesson, each step will build on the last and it will get progressively more challenging but because you are building up to that challenge you'll always be ready to meet it.

The best way to learn guitar is with chord diagrams and photos and diagrams of the strumming motion and an audio track to listen to.

Practice Your Chords and Strum Patterns Over And Over

When you practice the guitar, practice your chords and practice your strumming over and over again. The objective is to get so comfortable that you don't have to think about it any more.

At first, think about what you are doing. When you play a chord pick each note individually. Each note should be clear. You may have to tweak the position of your fingertips. Eventually you'll find that "sweet spot." Keep practicing. Our brains are marvellous. After numerous repetitions your fingers will just go there.

Guitar strumming is the same thing. At first you'll likely stop strumming momentarily as you go from one chord to the next. As you get better, force yourself to keep the strumming going and get your hand playing the chord to keep up with the strumming.

Have Fun

After all it's called playing the guitar.

If you are having trouble getting something to sound right ask another guitar player or go to your local music store and ask them. Guitar players really like showing each other stuff and helping newer players.

And finally let me emphasize that when you see a good player playing and he or she makes it look so easy, don't assume that it was easy for them. We all had challenges learning. It didn't necessarily come easy but it certainly came with practice!

Just keep at it. I've never met anyone who really wanted to learn to play not be able to learn. After all there are guitar players who have no arms and they play with their toes. (Check out YouTube)

We humans are truly amazing creatures. It's amazing what we can do when we set are minds to it. That is why I can sincerely say to you, if you want to learn guitar strumming and chords - You Can Do It!

If you would like to learn guitar strumming and chords faster than you thought possible please check out my website at http://guitar-strumming-patterns.com/. While there, please download my FREE eBook "Guitar - How to Get Started" and the email mini course "7 Useful Beginner Guitar Tips." They're filled with lots of useful knowledge, advice and tips.

View the original article here