How To Play Guitar

So, you would like to know how to play guitar!

I congratulate you on your decision to do so and I hope you will learn much from this article.

Clearly, you're not going to learn how to play guitar in an article of this length, but there are important things you can learn before you even pick up a guitar.

WHY?

Why do you want to learn how to play guitar?

Now I know that this may seem like a stupid question, yet it's one of the most important questions you can ask yourself as far as learning guitar is concerned.

* Will you play purely for your own entertainment or as a hobby?
* Do you want to play purely to entertain family and friends?
* Do you want to take formal lessons with a guitar teacher?
* Do you want to learn from lessons contained on DVD?
* Is it your intention to become a professional musician?
* Do you want to become the best guitarist you possibly can.

BECAUSE

The answers to these questions can save you a great deal of time money and frustration.
For example, if you want to play purely for your own pleasure only, spending money on guitar lessons may not be a good idea. On the other hand you may want to gain that extra bit of professionalism if you wish to play at parties or family gatherings.

If you decide to take formal lessons with a guitar teacher, then you will need to find the best teacher that you possibly can, find out how much the lessons are going to cost and how you are going to fund them, taking into account that guitar lessons can stretch out over quite a long period of time.

LEARNING AT HOME

You may want to learn at home from lessons that you download from the Internet or you may wish to buy guitar lessons on DVD and as in the previous example you will need to take account of the cost, both in time and money.

PROFESSIONALISM

Maybe you want to become a consummate professional, if so you will need to take that approach right from the very start. You wont have time to form any "bad habits" brought on by "poor learning" or "bad tuition".

So, it's all a matter of the "Mindset" you create when you make your decision of what "level" of guitarist you want to be and will help greatly towards your motivation to learn guitar.

ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRIC?

O.K. So when you've decided what level of guitarist you want to be, you will need to decide what "type" of guitar you want to play.

In general there are two types of guitar. The Acoustic and the Electric.

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

The main distinction of the acoustic guitar is it's hollow body, recognizable mainly from the round sound hole usually situated in the center of the body of the guitar. The hollow body amplifies the rich, resonant sound that is so familiar with acoustic guitars.

You can learn more about guitars at:

http://www.easy-learn-guitar.com/how-to-play-guitar.html

ELECTRIC GUITARS

The obvious difference between an acoustic and electric guitar is that electric guitar has a solid body and therefore the vibrations from the strings need to be converted into electrical signals via "pickups" mounted beneath the strings and on the body of the guitar and must be sent through an "amplifier" before he sound can be heard.

You can learn more about Electric Guitars at:

http://www.easy-learn-guitar.com/how-to-play-guitar.html

Although these examples provide information on acoustic and electric guitars in general, guitars are not limited to these to types.
For example, acoustic guitars can be electrically amplified and electric guitars can have semi-hollow bodies.
Each of these types can have 6 or 12 strings plus other variations. e.g the Bass guitar which might have 4 or 5 stings.

I hope that this article has given you an insight into the wonderful world of learning guitar and most importantly some things to ponder over when you next think about how to play guitar.