Guitar For Newbies

The fact that you are interested in playing the guitar probably means that you already know, or at least have a rough idea, of what sort of music you would like to be able to play. This really is the most important decision since it will also affect the choice of guitar you buy.

There are many different types of guitar although in the end it really boils down to just three types.

♫ Electric Guitar
♫ Steel String Acoustic Guitar
♫ Nylon String Classical Guitar

♫ Electric Guitar
For heavy metal fans this is the obvious choice but of course having an electric guitar means you have to have an amplifier and sound system to play it through. Don't forget to get a really powerful one - so that you can annoy the neighbors as you learn to play that song over and over again!

♫ Steel String Acoustic Guitar
This is undoubtly the most popular choice of guitar for newbies and experienced players. Useful for all sorts of music from blues, country and western, jazz and for the beginner guitar songs sound great.

♫ Nylon String Classical Guitar
For classical and flamenco styles of playing it is important to have a nylon string guitar to give the correct sound and also, players of these styles use their nails to pluck the strings and a steel string acoustic tends to break them - at least that is my experience.

Whatever your decision on style of guitar you will need good advice on learning guitar for beginners to make sure you are successful.

Firstly, millions of guitar players round the world can't read a note of music - including myself. I know of one famous Spanish player who described printed guitar music as looking like little birds on telephone wires.

If you can read music for guitar then of course it is a great advantage but it is not necessary. You can spend your valuable time trying to learn how to read music for guitar, or you can spend time actually learning the guitar. I know which I prefer to do.

Very often, people claim that it is important for players of classical music to learn how to read music for guitar but this is no longer strictly true. With a computer is is possible to learn to play any piece of guitar music without knowing how to read a single note. Later I'll show you exactly how this is done!

By far, the most popular method guitar players use to learn how to play guitar songs is the tab method of musical notation.

Whatever your decision you still have to learn to play the guitar and that takes practice and then, some more practice.

Tabs is short for tablature and is a simple method guitarists use to record the chords and fingerstyle patterns of a song which does not require the player to know how to read music for guitar.

Instead of the normal 5 lines of normal music notation, tab notation uses 6 and each one represents a string of the guitar. Numbers are written on each line showing which fret that string must be pressed against to get the note.

For more information visit my Squidoo Lens How To Play Tabs

Playing tabs is one of the most useful tools to help you learn to play the guitar and it really can speed up the learning process considerably.

Learning to play the guitar is fun and most people can quickly advance provided they actually practice a bit every day. This is the real secret to learning the guitar and the biggest how to play guitar for newbies obvious tip.

If you really want to learn how to play the guitar you must have lessons. There are two choices. Go and find a good teacher. I did that and it involved catching a train and a bus twice a week. Years later I could play well but it cost me a lot of money, time and effort.

The other alternative that is now available and is the fastest way to learn guitar is to get a quality course with a good "learn to play guitar dvd".

The Team Method I believe is the best system available with 148 videos and a host of other material and information to advance your playing in the shortest possible time.

Even if you are undecided, you can sign up for a free 6 day step-by-stip introductory guitar course complete with audio and video. That's an offer too good to miss.