Guitar How-To

How To Play Acoustic Guitar – The First Steps

Most people who want to learn how to play acoustic guitar visualize themselves as fully fledged guitarists, holding audiences in raptures. This article looks at the “baby steps” you will be taking in your career as a guitarist.

Let us step back and take a look at the field before us as we contemplate learning how to play acoustic guitar. There is the task of buying our first guitar, choosing between nylon strings or steel strings. Do we see ourselves as a fingerstyle guitar player or strumming the guitar with a plectrum? How do we keep the guitar in tune? How much do we need to practice?

Buying an acoustic guitar is not as complicated as choosing between all the variations in necks, bridges and brand names of electric guitars, but the choice needs to be taken seriously. The guitar you choose will be producing your first attempts at playing music so you need to pick a guitar that sounds good in your ears. Nylon string acoustic guitars sound very different from steel string instruments and require different playing techniques.

Nylon string guitars can be played using the nails of the right hand or, if you prefer, just the fingertips. There is difference in tone and if you decide that you prefer the sound made by the flesh of the fingertips, then go ahead and learn to play that way. At first it will seem more difficult than using the fingernails but once you get used to it, you will be able to play anything you want without a problem.

If you choose to play steel string guitar then you must make the choice between “flatpicking”, which is playing with a plectrum held between your fingers or fingerstyle guitar which might involve using a combination of thumbpick and fingerpicks or just a thumbpick and fingernails.

As a beginner you do not have the experience to pick a guitar that plays well. Only someone who plays the guitar can say that one guitar has an action that is too high or that the neck is warped. For this reason, either find a friend who can go to the guitar store with you or join a guitar forum. After you have tried out a couple of guitars and listened to what the guy selling them has to say, go to your forum and ask any questions that have arisen in your mind. Most guitar players on the forums will gladly help you as much as they can.

Once you have your guitar at home, you will be anxious to start playing, but there is one thing you need to take care of first. You need to be able to keep your guitar in tune. I have seen guitar students who ask their teacher to tune the instrument for them when they go for lessons but in the age of the internet, there is no excuse for not being able to tune a guitar. There are tutorials on tuning, plus online guitar tuners. There are even guitar tuners you can download for free.

If you are ready to play music now, you should go looking for some guitar tabs. If you do not read guitar tab, there are many guitar websites that have comprehensive guides to reading tab, and it really only takes a few minutes to get the general idea. If you want to go the whole hog and learn music theory and learn to read sheet music, your teacher will guide you. If you cannot afford a teacher, it is possible to learn music by yourself, but be prepare to take it slowly. The good new is if you do learn music theory, you will be very glad you did!

Even if you do learn music, there is a wide range of acoustic guitar music available for free on the net in tab form. The variety of individual arrangements of acoustic guitar songs and classical guitar music uploaded to the web by acoustic guitar players and composers makes it worth your while to learn to read guitar tablature.