Acoustic guitars have a mystery and allure about them. There's something about seeing one that makes you want to pick it up. Just to give it a try. Just to see what you look like holding it. You know that if you just had the time to learn, you'd probably do okay. You've wondered if it's hard to learn and if it takes a long time before you're good enough to play in front of anyone. You may have even looked at some beginning instruction books or called around about lessons. They're either too much time, too much money or too confusing. So you put it back for now. Maybe after that big project is done. Maybe next summer. Maybe when the kids are older.

Most people who are drawn to acoustic guitars, but who have never played guitar, are a little star-struck by them. They sometimes believe that the guitar is much more than what it is. Being able to produce music seems like magic in a way. Music is such a powerful, universal language that it can be overwhelming to think that you could make that happen. Feeling this way can make people feel skittish with an acoustic guitar and treat it too gingerly.

There's one thing you should remember about acoustic guitars. They aren't magic. The music is magic, but not the guitar. The guitar is simply the tool that creates the music.

Start learning acoustic guitar here!

A good way to think of an acoustic guitar is the same you think of a pencil. When you first picked up a pencil as a child, you scribbled with it. You saw that if you moved your hand one way, the lines would do one thing, and if you moved it a different way they would do something else. When you got a little older, you learned how to hold the pencil correctly and you learned to print. At first your writing was a little shaky, but as your teachers helped you and you practiced, it got better. It wasn't long before picking up a pencil and writing didn't require any thought at all. The pencil just became an extension of your hand, and your thoughts began to flow right through it.

This is the same way the progression of learning to play an acoustic guitar works. At first, before you learn to play and you're just messing around with one in the store, you're kind of scribbling with it. Seeing what happens when you move your hands one way, and then the other. When you start learning to play the acoustic guitar, you learn to get comfortable with it and your fingers begin to move the right way on their own. Before long, your acoustic guitar is an extension of your hands, and your thoughts flow right through it.

Remember that acoustic guitars were created to be played. Whether you always linger over the acoustic guitars in the music store at the mall or you've got one gathering dust in the corner, you will never regret the time you spent learning how to play.

FREE PREVIEW OF ACOUSTIC GUITAR COURSE HERE

If you are looking for a new acoustic guitar, it's a good idea to look at acoustic guitar reviews before you buy a guitar. There are two types of reviews that you should look at - those that are written by experts who have the opportunity to try a wide variety of guitars on a regular basis, and user reviews, which are written by people who just want to let people know what they think about the guitars they use.

Expert acoustic guitar reviews would be reviews that are written by someone who has several years of guitar experience. They should also have several guitars from different manufacturers that they have reviewed. They should be able to point out the good points and bad points of any acoustic guitar, despite personal preference. Any biases should be admitted to and explained. You aren't looking for someone with a Bachelor's Degree in music. You're just looking for someone who knows their stuff, and tells you why you should take their opinion into consideration when looking for a new guitar.

When looking for user reviews, you should find a site that has several reviews of each guitar by a variety of different kinds of musicians. Many music store sites have user reviews. Each guitarist has his or her own style of music, types of venues and configuration of bands that they are in. A guitarist who plays classic guitar at a lot of wedding receptions will have different needs and instrument preferences than a guitarist who plays in a rock band at clubs. Be sure to find reviews from people who are in the same genre and performance level as you are, or hope to someday be.

FREE PREVIEW OF ACOUSTIC GUITAR COURSE HERE

One of the easiest ways to learn how to play a guitar quickly is by reading guitar tablature. This is commonly called tab and learning how to read guitar tabs is very easy.

Guitar tab resembles sheet music. The difference is that guitar tabs have six lines while sheet music has five lines. The six lines represent the strings of the guitar with the bottom line being the thickest string. Here is an example of how a tab will look.

E--------------------------Thinnest string

B--------------------------Next thinnest string

G-------------------------Next thinnest string

D-------------------------Next thinnest string

A-------------------------Next thinnest string

E-------------------------Thickest string

Numbers are placed on the lines. These numbers tell which fret to play on that string. A number "1" would mean 1st fret, a "2" would mean 2nd fret and so on. If you see a "0" it means the string is played "open" or with no fingers positioned on the neck. An "X" means the string is not played at all.

For instance, to play a "G" on the thickest string, the tab would look like this.

E-------------------------

B-------------------------

G-------------------------

D-------------------------

A-------------------------

E----3---------------------

Assuming that you are a complete beginner AND that you are right handed, let's make sure you know what a fret is.

As you hold the guitar, your right hand is the picking hand. The other hand holds the neck (also called the fret board) and is the one you will use to finger notes. If you look at the neck, you will notice that there are bars that run across the neck. There are usually 22 (some guitars have more) of them and they get closer together as you move up the neck closer to the body.

In the tab above, you would place your third finger of your left hand just behind the third fret of the thickest string and pick the string with the right hand.

CONGRATULATIONS!! You just played your first note on the guitar! Wasn't that easy?

Now let's look at a tab for a group of notes. We'll start with the lowest string (E) and go up to the highest string (G).

E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------0----1----3-------------

B---------------------------------------------------------------0----1----3-------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------0----2-----------------------------------------------

D-----------------------------------0----2----3-----------------------------------------------------------

A-------------------0----2----3---------------------------------------------------------------------------

E----0----1----3-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now here is the same tab with the names of the notes instead of numbers.

E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------E----F----G-------------

B---------------------------------------------------------------B----C----D-------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------G----A-----------------------------------------------

D-----------------------------------D----E----F-----------------------------------------------------------

A-------------------A----B----C---------------------------------------------------------------------------

E----E----F----G-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK. Now you know how to read single notes in guitar tab, so let's see how to tab out a chord. By definition, a chord is at least three notes played together and sound harmonious together.

The tablature rules remain the same except that the numbers will be stacked together. When you see this, you will play all the strings at the same time.

For our purpose here we will look at a "C" chord tab. Here I will name the notes next to the number tabs for convenience.

E------0--------E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B------1--------C----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G------0--------G----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D------2--------E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A------3--------C----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E------X-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the example above, you would strum the C chord once. Each time you see the chord tabbed, strum it. For instance, a tab that tells you to strum the chord four times would look like this.

E------0-----0------0------0---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B------1-----1------1------1---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G------0-----0------0------0---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D------2-----2------2------2---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A------3-----3------3------3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E------X-----X------X------X---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, guitar tabs are an easy way to learn to play quickly. The one shortcoming is that tabs don't really give you a rhythm pattern or timing or note/chord durations. While some tab writers try to represent these things, tabs aren't meant to replace sheet music, but just reference how and where to play the note/chord on the guitar.

If you want to learn a song using tabs, I have two suggestions for you.

1. Listen to a song and get an idea of how it should sound. Then go to the tab and replicate the song the same way.

2. Use written music that has the tab under the sheet music. While you can read the music off of the sheet, you can also reference the position on the guitar with the tab. This is a great tool and very powerful.

There are quite a few notations that can be made as well. Things like bends, slides, hammer ons and pull offs are quite common. Here are a few of the most common notations you should make it a point to learn.

b=Bend

r=Release bend

h=Hammer on

p=Pull off

/=Slide up as in 5/7

-Slide down as in 7/5

PM=Palm mute

T=Tap

There are lots more, but these will get you started for the time being. These notations are written in guitar tab as follows.

E---5b----9r7-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B--------------------12h14---7p5---------------------------------------------------------------------------

G---5/7----7/5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A------PM5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-------------------------6t7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above is not any song that I know of. It is simply a random presentation of the notations.

By combining the knowledge of reading music with reading guitar tabs, you can virtually learn any song. All you need is an idea of how the song should sound, a decent guitar, a little initiative and some practice. In no time at all, you will be amazing your friends with the ability to play songs they have heard on the radio.

Teaching yourself how to read guitar tabs is fun and easy. Once you learn this skill, you will be unstoppable... a virtual musical juggernaut.

Go ahead. Get started. Time's wasting.

Source