Guitar and music in general is personally one of the most fulfilling hobbies you can pick up. Music is blind to color, culture and deaf to language. Any person can simply take pleasure in any style and truly sense it. It’s extremely stimulating when you blast out a power chord through an amp at a rocking decibel. Or singing out songs over your acoustic for family and friends. Releasing your feelings and emotions through sound is a truly mind-blowing moment. So lets jump right into some easy guitar lessons.
So a quick message to all the beginners out there. This does take time and patience, do not give up. I will never forget grabbing my first guitar for the first time knowing I would be jamming to my favorite CDs immediately. Boy was I mistaken. My fingers couldn’t even get one note right and a chord, not even a chance. I didn’t quit, I adjusted my goals and stuck to it.
Your fingers are most likely confused and in pain and it maybe just plain uncomfortable when you first pick up the guitar. Elasticity and agility are keys here and you do this through exercising those fingers. There is no trickery here, repetition is the only way to reach your objective. I know you’ve heard it before, practice makes perfect. When I was just beginning I liked to sit in front of the Tube and just repeat exercises kind of unconsciously just to get my fingers strong.
So you have two hands that need to be on the same page with each other so you will have to do drills that help both of them out. At first your fingers tips will hurt, play through that pain for as long as you can, don’t just take a break right away . Before long you will get calluses on your finger tips and the throbbing will subside. The most horrible part of starting out with the guitar is this just beginning phase. Please just stick with it and battle through it, the rewards will be infinite.
So let’s start with your strumming hand. This is your picking hand and your rhythm hand. You can use a pick or your fingers. Practice picking slowly and steady, alternating down and up. Start slow and play along as you tap your foot to keep in time. Down, up, down, up, down, etc. alternating slowly. Don’t rush this, build up speed as you get comfortable. Practice this on 1 string then move on to 2 strings, then 3 strings and so on as if you were practicing chords. When beginning or practicing in front of the TV you can mute the strings with your other hand to really pay attention to the rhythm.
Ok how about that fretting hand. This is the hand that is going to pick out the notes to be played. This is the hand that also may start to hurt and the hand that doesn’t seem to know what it is doing when first beginning. Again take it slow, take it steady, and please be patient. We need to get all four fingers working with each other. Now it is easy to skip out on the pinkie training because they are the hardest, do Not do this. If something feels uncomfortable when playing guitar it just means you need to practice more.
So here is the nitty gritty exercise to get you smoking on that fret board. On fret one of your low E string press down strongly with your index finger. While still pressing use your middle finger on fret 2. While holding both down press your ring finger on fret 3. And of course the pinkie on fret four . As you are doing this you should be picking, always alternating, down and up, down and up. You then simply back up this process by lifting your pinkie first, then ring, etc So press 1, 2, 3, 4 and then reverse 4,3,2,1 while alternating your picking down and up.
Start this exercise slow and get it precise, do it until your fingers are bleeding. Then as it gets simpler build up your speed. Practice this on all strings, all over the fretboard. This will unlock your fingers and really get them going. Get this down pat and exact then build up. Guitar is my obsession and hopefully this can help you on your way. It truly is an amazing instrument. Videos and photos will really help burn these concepts in your brain. Check out these easy guitar lessons.
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