Learning a Guitar — 101
Hello again,
Just to give you a context, Have you ever had a dream from childhood that you never wanted to let go? For me, it was learning a guitar. My journey with the guitar started very early on when I started to recognize it in every other song. The harmonies, the strings and the acoustic sound made me fell in love with it. But, I never really had the courage to start learning as it seemed very-very daunting.
Then came, 2017, when I decided that let’s give it a try. And I went to a local shop in Bangalore and picked a basic metal stringed guitar for beginners. And this is where I will tell you the steps to follow and take you along with me on this journey. Hopefully, you will be with me throughout consistently as this is just Guitar Lesson 101.
Know your Guitar
The first step to learn guitar should be to understand guitar and music jargon — string, fret, bridge, pick, strumming, tune, rhythm, beat, tempo, chord etc. This gives a good idea to the player what he or she is doing.
Learn how to tune your guitar
The next step is to tune the guitar. There are numerous apps to help. I use GuitarTuna which is very easy to use and closest to getting accuracy in tuning so that when I pluck the guitar, all strings are in harmony.
Easiest chord to learn: Chord A
Chord A is the most basic chord to learn and believe it or not, you can actually play some songs with just that. Being a Hindi music fan, I just picked up some youtubers who provide simplest tutorials for best hindi songs which can be played using single chord A. Though, everyone has a specific interest and it is best to start with the one we enjoy most as it keeps us motivated.
Find one complete course from start to end
Being very keen on learning guitar, I downloaded multiple apps, tutorials, videos and what not to practice but I couldn’t reach anywhere. So, I decided to go minimalistic way — finding one simplest solution for each challenge I faced.
For Tuning, I used GuitarTuna.
For beginner to intermediate tutorials, I picked a physical teacher who can teach me stance, holding guitar comfortably and basic techniques which you can only learn from someone having a background in music. Trust me, you can never replace a physical teacher with the app because he or she carries years of mastery.
For practicing songs, I used UltimateTabs (free version).
I have created this guide as I follow through these steps to learn my favourite musical instrument but a basic 101 course like this can be used for any other instrument as well. I will try to update more in this series as I progress with my guitar practice each day. If you have more ideas for beginners like us, feel free to post you comments below and let’s go crazy with this
See you in the next post.
