12 Tips I Wish I Knew as a Beginner Guitarist

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[scottdebruyn]

Best tip I've heard: "Don't just play a piece until you get it. Play it until you can't get it wrong." Nice video! :)

[arleydouglas]

"get the healthy 8 hours of sleep"
*me watching this at 4 am* : O.O

[whitevii]

I've been drumming for 20 years. I AM THE METRONOME.

[anonymous-bhcq]

Dad: "What are you doing sitting a dark room?"
You: "Playing with myself"

[himanshu]

Bought a guitar 3 hours ago, tuned it & now I’m a guitarist

[TheTimeProphet]

I have tried practicing in the dark, but it took me half an hour to find my guitar LOL

[johnbowman]

I just called myself a Guitarist and it made me smile 😂

[alicecooper]

Tip 5. Wow... I don't know, but i never say "I'm a guitarist" Cuz i think that someone will overestimate me.

[thedislikebutton]

Why does she look like so many celebs at once? Emma Watson, Emma Mackey, Jenna Fischer, damn.

[brianmarchetti]

I started playing at the age of 24 and struggled. By my mid-thirties, I was legally blind. My guitar playing improved since I was focused more on sound rather than trying to find spots on a grid. Playing in the dark is excellent advice.



Picking up the guitar was one of the best decisions I ever made. My only regret is that I wish I started earlier. It's one of the few things I can still do. I have a hard time with songs that jump all over the neck, but I've gotten pretty good at cheating. Where there's a will...

[macd]

“Make sure your strap is at a suitable length”

*has guitar at knee level*
... oh

[selfautism]

I played exclusively in complete dark for 1 year. Totally changed everything on a deep level. The motor memory was almost trivial in comparison to the conection to music that happens, you become completely aware of your sound. It becomes like a hidden pleasure you cant wait to experience again at the end of the day.

[kendrakrust]

I play in the dark while tripping on acid to recreate that real 80s rock concert experience.

[neopolythe]

1. Make sure you are comfortable when playing. Keep your shoulders and back relaxed. Keeping your shoulders relaxed will greatly increase your ability to play faster portions of a song.

2. Find your anchor point for your right hand. It is much easier to play fingerstyle when you properly anchor your right hand by either resting your pinky below the strings, our if you prefer, your wrist or heel of your hand above the strings or on the bridge.

3. Learn to selectively mute strings that you do not want to play. Open strings will resonate along with picked strings and this can make playing sound noisy. You can mute with both your right and left hands.

4. Slow it way down. Play along with a metronome and play a slow as you can for as long as you can. This will make your playing sound cleaner, and also build the muscle memory for when you play faster, allowing you to play faster while still sounding clean.

5. Try not to practice in front of other people. Practice on your own, and only play for others once you feel confident that you have the piece down.

6. Learning a new song involves learning the mechanical movements, then doing those movements fluidly and then playing with feeling. The one thing that sets all the guitar greats apart from the rest of the world is that they can play with feeling EVERY SINGLE TIME.

7. This one goes with 6. One of the best things you can do while playing guitar is to smile. Smile when you nail a particularly challenging run. Sure your family will think you are crazy, but this one really really works. Smiling while you play will teach you how to put more feeling into playing.

8. When you play guitar, it is just you and the guitar. You and your guitar are having a private conversation. Learn to make the world disappear and just focus on the two of you.

9. Learn to hear where you are going while playing, rather than think where your fingers have to be next. Jimmi Hendrix said his aim was to ultimately be one with the music, and I personally believe that when you start thinking in music rather than finger movements, then you get closer to achieving this.

10. Tap your foot to keep rhythm while playing. This one imparts a natural rhythm to your playing that listeners will immediately appreciated.

11. Rhythm rhythm rhythm. Practice with a metronome, until you can maintain the beat through-out your entire fingerstyle piece. You will notice that while playing parts you find challenging you will fall behind the metronome. The minute I start playing along with a metronome my wife will often tell me that my playing is sounding better than normal. A persons ear is naturally drawn to rhythm.


12. Don't be afraid to zoom in on parts of a song you are having difficulty with. If you have a chord change you are struggling with, just practice that chord change over and over, and you will find that you very quickly start over coming that road block.



13. Try to think ahead of where you currently are in a song. Once you get really comfortable playing a song you can start thing ahead so that you never end up blanking out on where to go next and losing rhythm while you figure it out.



14. Always make sure that your tuning is spot on while practicing. It does not matter how well you play a piece, if your guitar's tuning is out, it will not sound as could as it could. I tune my guitar every time I practice.



Thank you for your great tips Mary. If I had to pick the most important two above it would be, smile while playing and play with a metronome/tap your foot while playing.

[zoinket]

ive been playing for less than a month and I've already learnt 2 songs already, I know its not much but I'm pretty proud of myself and its my dream to become a pro guitarist. thanks for these though, this is very helpful

[NicholasANappiNick]

Mary when I play my wife says it sounds like I’m playing in the dark

[sadieadler]

'Keep your guitar out of it's case'

Me sitting in my tiny living room with 12 guitars scattered about

... Yep I think we got that one down

[cybo]

"5 minutes a day". Wow I must be pretty into guitar cause right now in quarantine I play up to 7 hours a day.

[akshatw]

Damn! didn't know Maeve Wiley is such a great guitarist, singer and advisor!

[humptydumpty]

I’m a classical violinist why am I here