How to Play Guitar?

Music can be like a slow flowing stream down the valley or a cool breeze brushing against your face on a hot summer day. Though there are a lot of people who considered music as their career, yet there are some who pursue music as a hobby that is more like therapy in their busy lives. Knowing to sing or play an instrument is always equated to a happy feeling. Most of the parents happily encourage their children to take classes for singing or learn a good instrument. Either they can pursue a good career out of it or they can take it up as a hobby.

The guitar is one of the most favorite instruments of all time. It is mainly because of its simplicity. The guitar is a string instrument. It is a fretted instrument. It is played by strumming or plucking the strings while pressing the strings against the frets. One has to use both hands for playing the guitar. The sound of the guitar comes from the movement of those strings. Guitars have evolved drastically over time. It is believed that people all over the world had different forms of today’s guitar. The Greeks, Arabs, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Romans all played guitar in the form they used to have in their times.

There are broadly three types of guitars acoustic guitars, classical guitars, and electric guitars. Nowadays, there is an electric-acoustic guitar that is used more popular than any other guitars. In an acoustic guitar, the music is generated from the movement of the strings, which in turn is amplified by the hollow body. Whereas classical guitars are played mainly by finger-plucking technique and songs are played by plucking individual strings. The electrical guitars use amplifiers and a speaker to make loud sounds. The type of sound produced can be modified by an equalizer.

The main parts of the guitar that are common in all types of guitars are body, neck, headstock, strings, frets, pegs, nuts, fingerboard, bridge, and pick guard. Nowadays, there are guitars for both left-handed and right-handed people. Mostly wood is used to make the body of the guitar. Then plastics, nylon, synthetics are also used to make guitar parts.

Holding a Guitar

A guitar can be held both in sitting and standing positions. To hold the guitar while sitting, one has to find an appropriate chair and then place the waist of the guitar on your right leg (for right-handers) then hold the back of the guitar to the chest and stomach and then the neck of the guitar should be parallel to the ground. In standing position, we can use a strap to sling it on the shoulder. The strap should be adjusted so that it will be easy and comfortable to strum and fret. A professional guitarist is comfortable to play guitar sitting or standing. One should be relaxed and be more present to the music than be stiff figuring out how to hold the guitar.

Tuning a Guitar

A guitar should always be well-tuned. Tuning a guitar is the most integral part of playing the guitar. So learning to tune the guitar should be prioritized similar to learning chords or songs. It can be tuned by hearing and by a tuner. For turning by hearing, many methods can be used and the most common method is called standard tuning, where it is tuned from the low E to high E and when the strings are all well-tuned, then the resultant chord is Em7/add11.

A tuner is an electric device used to tune the guitar. It is usually a small battery-powered gadget that has an in-built microphone and it can be attached to the guitar. Once the tuner is on, we have to pick each string and adjust until the tuner gives a message that it is good to go. There are tuner apps also available nowadays.

Playing some Easy Chords

To begin with, a beginner should start by learning some easy chords. Chords like E minor, C major, D major, G major will be adequate to sing simple songs. It is wise to choose simple chords as they will be easy to learn and we will be saved from disappointment. Learning each day one chord and practicing it throughout until learning to play those fluently is the way one should learn guitar. Mastering the above chords will boost our confidence and will push us to achieve the next levels of playing the guitar.

Guitar Scales

Guitar scales are a series of descending and ascending sounds. They are known as music alphabets.

Learning to Strum

What is strumming? Strumming is a movement of the hand up and down or sweeping many strings together to create sound. One can follow an irregular strum pattern or an alternating strum pattern. Most of the songs use an alternating strum pattern.

How to Play a Song?

Once you have learned to play some chords, it will be easy to learn simple songs. Playing a series of chords in a row is called chord progression and that is how we play a song. To start with, one has to choose the genre of music he would like to play. Some of the easy songs to learn to play guitar are as follows:

• Bob Marley: “Waiting in vain.”
• John Legend: “All of me.”
• Carry Underwood: “Blown away.”
• Elvis Presley: “Hound dog.”
• Also hymns like “How great Thou art,” “I surrender all,” “Day by day.”

Conclusion

Learning any instrument including guitar needs a lot of practice and dedication. Finding a good teacher who can help you to guide through the process will be way easier than learning by yourself.

The person who disciplines themselves to learn regularly will master the talent of playing guitar easily. But all the while, be patient. No person has learned guitar overnight. It takes some time to learn the chords, strumming, and different styles. Set small goals and give yourself credits when you achieve the goal you have set.