4 Step Guide to Start Learning the Guitar

Guitar is easily one of the most popular instruments around. The Guitar is easy to carry around, looks cool and is a great way for you to express yourself. So, to fulfill that desire, we are going to tell you our 4 steps to how you can start your guitar learning journey.

Step 1 - How to Choose the Right guitar for you

The first thing you do is to look online and see the tons of options and get confused! So, how do you know what to buy? Let’s begin by discussing the two main types of guitars that you can choose from - first is the Acoustic Guitar and the second is the Electric Guitar. What’s the difference between the two? The difference is simply that the Electric guitar as the name suggests, needs power to work (it is plugged into an amplifier with a cable, and the amplifier needs power to work) and the Acoustic guitar can be played by itself (it does not need power). Now, the electric guitar looks really fancy and the acoustic guitar looks very beautiful. 

So, the question becomes - where do you need to start as a beginner?  Ideally, it’s best to start with an acoustic guitar. The reason is simply because if you buy an electric guitar then you need to buy cables and an amplifier available so it becomes an expensive proposition to begin with. That’s why we always recommend beginners to choose an acoustic Guitar. And the best part about the acoustic guitar is that you can actually carry it easily. You can take it to parties, play and create amazing memories with this wonderful instrument. Now, if you have an electric guitar then there is nothing wrong with that either. It’s just a little bit more bulky as you will have to carry several items along with it.

So, let’s now discuss the kind of acoustic Guitars available. There are two kinds of categories one is the basic acoustic guitar second is an electro-acoustic guitar. The electro-acoustic guitar can be used like an acoustic guitar and can also be connected to an amplifier - so there are advantages of buying an electric-acoustic guitar. Now, let's say you buy a guitar right now which is an acoustic guitar and you start practicing it once you become a little bit more comfortable after six seven months. Now, you want to perform, with the acoustic guitar, you won't be able to connect your guitar to a speaker - that's where electro acoustic guitar comes in the picture. The only reason you won't use an electro acoustic guitar instead of an acoustic guitar is because of price differentiation. The  electro acoustic guitar is a little bit on a higher side. 

So, make sure you choose your next guitar wisely. At the time of purchase, you might be only concerned about the present situation. However, in just a few months you'll be playing the guitar so comfortably and you won’t want to invest again it might be 2k to 3k  rupees extra but it's worth that price. 

Step 2: Where to Buy your Guitar from?

So, now that you have decided which guitar to purchase, where should you buy this next guitar from? There are several options here, you can go to a Musical Instrument Store and you can purchase it online. It’s really nice if you can actually get a feel of the guitar before you buy so that you can see if it fits you right, and  it sounds good etc. However, that is not always possible. So, if you don’t have access to a good, safe instrument store, make sure that you check out reviews online and on youtube before you finalise the model. If you're purchasing online you can purchase it from www.Bajaao.com or Raj musicals  - all these websites are safe and do really good packaging so you don't need to worry about damage to your instrument during shipping.

Step 3: Which Guitar model to buy? What Accessories are required?

So, you have decided to purchase an acoustic guitar - which one should you buy? We highly recommend buying Yamaha guitars. The reason is that Yamaha Guitars are good quality in terms of both sound and build. They are long lasting and are typically made from sturdy material. The model numbers to consider are Yamaha F280, F310 and FS280C.

In terms of Guitar Accessories, there are some accessories that are essential when purchasing the guitar. You would need to purchase a guitar strap, one extra set of guitar strings, a guitar tuner (clip-on is better) and some plectrums. These are all essential items when it comes to using and maintaining the guitar, so make sure you buy them along with your guitar.

Step 4: Where to Learn from - Music School or Online?

Now that you have chosen your guitar, figured out where to buy it from and what models to choose - you have come to the final step that is how to start learning to play. If you don't get a good place to learn from, you will end up wasting all  that money that you spend on the guitar. And most important of all, you will not be able to realise your own dream that is of playing this amazing instrument. So, you gotta make sure that you learn from a good place that will help you develop into a good guitar player. 

The first option is for you go to a good institute, a reputed institute and try to learn from there. There is one thing that you need to know when you go to an institute is that some places will try to teach you classical base. They will try to teach you Mozart or Bach and there is nothing wrong with it. These are all good musical pieces made by remarkable composers. However, you as a beginner student should not go directly into a genre. This applies to anyone teaching even rock or blues straight away. Don't go into that direction. As a beginner, you have to explore your style and the best way to do it is learn from the fundamentals. Start learning chords, start learning songs that you want to learn. Once you start exploring different different things, then you can make a decision about which genre you really want to go for. A good teacher or an institute will make sure that you are exposed to different kind of genres so that you yourself can make an informed decision. So, make sure you follow this when you're choosing an institute for yourself.

Next, let's talk about different kinds of mediums that you can learn from. One is when you go to an institute or a teacher comes to your place. The second medium is online, wherein you get free recorded lessons so that you can watch it anytime and you get the support from the teacher whenever and wherever it's required. Offline learning or going to an academy/institute is great, learning one-on-one is great but there are some drawbacks to this kind of learning. 

The first and the most important is how long is the teacher going to be available to teach you? You need to really take that into consideration because once you break from a teacher it's very hard to get a good teacher to match the rapport. Next, learning from a one-on-one sessions with instructor is where you will have these lessons designed for you. Once or twice a week, you will take lessons, then go home and if you have a doubt what's gonna happen? You will not be able to clarify all these doubts. You will have to wait for your next session to happen, only then can you clarify these sessions. And how do you know what to practice? The third factor to consider is what if your teacher gets busy with a show/gig or is not in a good mood? How is this going to affect your learning? Finally, the fourth point to really consider is that offline classes happen at a fixed location, so it’s going to be expensive and you will also need to travel to and from that location - this is going to take a lot of your time. And, if you need to reschedule every now and then, it’s not going to be flexible. Imagine if you are running late and reach home at 10pm? Would you have access to the lessons then?

This is where online lessons come in. The best part about online learning is that you have your lessons available to you anytime you want to learn. They are available to you 24/7, whenever you want to practice. Also, practice sessions are available to you anytime, so you can practice anytime you want. Take a simple instance of, what if you wanted to take a closer look at a finger position, you could pause the video anytime and replay it and get the technique correct. And the best part of these lessons is that the teacher is not going anywhere. The teacher takes you through the entire course and is there with you through your musical journey. There are a lot of advantages of online learning formats and you should definitely check out https://musicpandit.com if you want to explore this option.

Summary

So, there you have, your 4 steps to begin your guitar learning journey all laid out for you. Start today and see how quickly you will be playing your favourite songs!

We hope you enjoyed this topic and it was useful to you. If you want to know more about such topics, please comment below and we will definitely address it. Please make sure you follow our blogspot to get access to more such content.

Music Pandit offers you structured step-by-step lessons, short videos so that you can watch them anytime you want. Music Pandit also offers lessons that discuss technique, followed by practice videos to perfect those techniques. A lot of the times as a beginner you won't even know how to practice, so imagine your teacher taking you through what to practice as well? That is the best part! Finally, you can take a video of yourself and submit it to the website and an instructor watches your video and gives you detailed feedback about how you are doing.

Music Pandit brings you the best and the most effective way to learn music online with a complete 360-degree approach to learning music.Music Pandit offers Online Video Lessons with the support of Personalised feedback from our Music Pandits, curated step-by-step lessons, extensive content - you can choose multiple instruments, carefully organised Practice Routines, a Musical Community, Creative Challenges, Goal setting and so much more – so you can learn Anytime, Anywhere at your pace! Sign up today on https://musicpandit.com 

3 Mistakes that are Stopping you from Learning Guitar

There are many factors to consider when we are an absolute beginner trying to learn something for the first time. There are several difficulties that a beginner faces that can slow down progress or result in a complete failure at learning the guitar which is an amazing instrument.

In this blog, we will discuss 3 mistakes that people make that directly impact their guitar learning.

Mistake #1 – Being Stuck on Warm-Up exercises

When you go to a music school or first guitar instructor, the first thing they are going to do is ask you to play guitar exercises. Typically, to master this exercise you may take a month or more. In our experience, most of the time, students complain saying that “I'm stuck at this exercise forever”. Now, if you're stuck at the same kind of exercise for two weeks or more, it’s obvious that you're going to lose interest. And once you start losing interest, the next thing you do will be to discontinue learning this amazing instrument.

So, what’s the Solution?

The right way to learn is to learn chords at the same time. So, why do you need to learn the chords at the same time? That is because chords by itself are going to take more than two or three weeks to master. So, let’s calculate the total time you’re going to take - you are going to learn the warmup exercise for three or four weeks then after that you're going to start with the chords. Chords will take you another two or three weeks so for two months you're just doing some exercise on the guitar

Mistake #2 - Learning Complicated Chords

When you first started learning to play chords on the Guitar, you tend to learn these chords C Major, E Minor, G Major and D Major. Now, while E Minor and D Major are not so complex for a beginner, the other two chords – C Major and D Major can be quite tricky for a beginner.

So, what’s the Solution?

That is why you should learn ‘half chords’. So, what are half chords? Half chords are simplified versions of the full chords – these typically have less notes that need to be played. These notes are typically played on the first three strings. So, we highly recommend first learning the half chords and how to apply them correctly. Playing these half chords and being able to apply them will help build your muscle memory and confidence. Once you have gained mastery over these half chords and are ready to venture into full chords, then you can start with full chords.

Mistake #3 – No Rewards/Motivation

A lot of students end up spending their first few weeks or even months on warm up exercises. They are unable to move their fingers fast enough, not coordinated or just unable to get a grasp of the instrument. The problem is that, if they are unable to achieve anything, they are going to get bored and lose motivation very quickly.

So, what’s the Solution?

The first thing we need to understand is the psyche of a learner. If somebody is trying to learn anything, it's directly related to how enjoyable that learning process is. How much of a reward system is it based on. So, learning and accomplishing things at a faster pace will keep you motivated. This in turn will keep you motivated to learn further. And if the process is really slow and complicated, you will either get tired or bored and you will ultimately stop learning. At the end of the day, with everything you learn, to keep you motivated, you need to have accomplishments. So, while warm up exercises are important, we advise that you don't spend more time on only exercises. Learn to play songs and learn songs alongside which is more rewarding and keeps you motivated to learn more.

In Summation

So, that was our 3 Mistakes that are Stopping you from Learning Guitar and our 3 solutions to counter that problem. So, make sure you don’t repeat these mistakes on your journey of guitar learning to achieve your goals. If you want to see a video demonstration of these topics, please see the video on our YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/XcPYZXhdyt0    
 
If you want access to detailed guided lessons and practice routines, please do check out our Guitar courses on https://musicpandit.com – On Music Pandit, you get step-by-step lessons  that are designed to get you playing your favourite songs as quickly as possible. The lessons cover a whole range of topics including easy chords, popular strumming patterns, how to be creative with your playing and how to apply your techniques on any song!
 
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About Music Pandit

Music Pandit brings you the most effective way to learn music online with a 360-degree approach to learning music.

Music Pandit offers Online Video Lessons with the support of Personalised feedback from our Music Pandits, curated step-by-step lessons, extensive content - you can choose multiple instruments with One subscription, carefully organised Practice Routines, a Musical Community, Creative Challenges, Goal setting and so much more – so you can learn Anytime, Anywhere at your pace! Sign up today on https://musicpandit.com