Learn to play the guitar the right way

If you want to get a new hobby that will also make you the life of the party, I recommend trying to learn to play the guitar. It’s a very relaxing activity, and you can also sing for other people. Or even give your significant other a romantic show. The best part is that you don’t really need any previous skills to learn. Even if you are completely disconnected from music and don’t have a musical ear, you can still learn to play the guitar. You only need two things: perseverance and this article.

My singing Road so far

I started playing the guitar when I was 16 years old. I really wanted to learn how to play Latino music on my classical guitar. And, of course, I wanted to learn Nothing Else Matters and Smoke on the Water. It took some time before I was able to sing the latter two, but it was a fun road.

When I first started I was obsessed. I used to sing for hours and hours, unaware of what that would do to my fingers, which is shredding them to pieces. I still remember how my fingers looked at the end of each day, the tips of my fingers were red and swollen and it was painful to do anything with them. I had a few days in which I sang and then had to take a break for a few days because I couldn’t touch the strings any longer due to the pain. This is one of the lessons I will teach you a bit later.

In the first month, I also started going to a teacher so I could learn how to sing. It was horrible and I hated every minute of it! I started learning how to read musical notes and sing from a piece of paper. The songs were annoying, and reading and learning musical notes was horrible. I quit after the first month as I hated even the thought of going there.

I then started teaching myself through online videos and lessons. In the online space, people are using something called a Tablature or Tab. That is when I started loving to play the guitar again. I started with simple songs and then started building up the skill to sing my favorite songs.

When I started Highschool, I also found out that other boys in my class liked music and would want to learn to play an instrument. One of them was playing the Violin since he was 7. That is when we decided to start a band together! And that is when I also started playing the Bass guitar — which was a lot of fun. We sang together for 4 years, all through the high school period. We even had some concerts, in school and outside of the school. The time I had with the band and my good friends was one of the best times of my life.

After the Highschool, our violinist left, but we kept going at it for 2 more years. We found another guitarist and started playing Rock and Metal music. Sadly, we never found a good vocalist for our band, so we eventually gave up and went on different paths.

I still however like to play the guitar in my spare time, as it is very relaxing and it makes me feel better. There’s nothing better than going out in the garden and singing a bit.

This was my singing road, so now, let’s get to teaching you the best way to learn to play the guitar.

Read Tabs not musical notes

If you don’t plan on being a big opera guitar singer, then I highly recommend using tabs not musical notes for your singing. They are more intuitive and extremely easy to learn. Here is a good site where you can see multiple tabs and you can start looking for your favorite songs.

Start Small

This is the first lesson you need to learn before starting to play the guitar. Play for a maximum of 1 hour each day. Do this in the beginning for 1–2 months, and then start adding more time each day. This is because in time, your fingers will start developing calluses and your fingers won’t feel so swollen after singing. After 2 months of singing 1 hour each day, you can add 30 more minutes each month. After around 1 year of singing, your fingers should be ready for you to sing all day if you wish to do so! Also, remember to listen to your body. In the first 3 months, if you feel like your fingers can’t take singing that day — take a break until they heal. Even a few days of break. Let them heal and then go at it again.

Play what you love

If you make playing the guitar a chore, you won’t keep singing for too long. You need to make it fun. You need to love what you do. So choose to sing what you love. In the beginning, you will be very very bad at it. But in time you will get better. That is why you need to sing every single day — no exception. Even 30 minutes a day is enough. You will clearly see the progress in a few months. If you have a bad day and don’t feel like singing, at least do it for 10 minutes each day, so that your fingers can keep in shape. If you take breaks, your fingers will be more and more sensible.

Practice the Barre every day

Barre means putting your index finger over all the chords of the guitar, and getting a clean sound by strumming all of those strings. It’s something that seems easy, but it really is not. It will take over 3 months for you to learn how to do a perfect barre. If you want to speed things up, you need to practice it every single day for at least 5 minutes each day. I highly recommend doing this. Here is a short video tutorial that will help you.

Conclusion

Remember that learning absolutely anything in this world is a marathon, not a race! This is especially true in the case of learning how to play the guitar. If you play for too long each day, you will make a wreck out of your fingers. You don’t want that!

So play a bit every day and be consistent. Love what you sing and love the process of learning. In a few months, you will see how far you’ve come.

Good luck and stay safe!