2022-01-18
Learn To Play Guitar and Master Your Fingers With These Simple Tips!
"As long as you're excited about what you're playing, and as long as it comes from your heart, it's going to be great." Such a profound thought, isn't it? And this usually is one of the ways musicians keep themselves motivated and grounded to create soul-stirring music.
Today we will discuss one of the most popular musical instruments - The Guitar! We will speak about learning guitar and tips to master your fingers. S0, without further ado, let's get into the exciting world of guitars!
About Guitar:
The guitar is a plucked stringed musical instrument. In the 16th Century, it had four strings, and over time, two more strings were added to it. The modern-day guitar is either six-stringed or 12 stringed instruments.
A guitar belongs to the range of a chordophone, where the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points.
Guitars can be divided into two types - Acoustic and Electric. Each is further subdivided into other categories based on the number of strings and the structure of the guitar.
Learning to Play Guitar:
Learning guitar is no rocket science, yet like every skill, it requires patience, determination, and practice to master the art of playing guitar.
Following are some of the tips to learn guitar efficiently:
- Pick the right guitar: There are a variety of guitars available. Choosing the correct type is essential. The many factors that would affect buying the guitar are the tone or sound or the genre you would play, the cost, size, etc. Also, it is equally essential to choose the right guitar with the right accessories like guitar strings, a plectrum, guitar tuner, amplifier, and a guitar stand.
- Learn to hold your guitar correctly: You have learned 50% of the guitar when you hold the guitar correctly. One crucial tip to keep in mind is that while strumming your guitar - your wrist should be doing all the movement and not your whole arm.
- Understand how your guitar is structured: Knowing the structure and the different parts of a guitar is essential to understand each part's role in the music.
- Learn to read notes or tabs: Learning notes or tabs of the guitar is an important aspect, as it shows which string to play for how long.
- Learn some chords: Typically, there are two different types of chords - open and barre chords. Starting with open chords is suggested as they are simpler to understand and play.
- Play scales on your guitar: Scales are another critical part of learning a guitar. A scale is a set of musical notes arranged in an order. These scales help you learn a new song on guitar.
- Practice your guitar: Like every other skill, learning and mastering a guitar is all about patience and practice. Twenty minutes to half an hour a day of training is suggested to gain confidence in playing the guitar.
- Take care of your guitar: While dancing, singing, or even yoga, even though we gain confidence about the art, we still take care not to harm or stretch our body out of its comfort zone. Similarly, it is necessary to take care of your guitar. Essentially, it should sound right and stay in good condition. To do this, you should tune it regularly, change the strings (either once or a few times) and keep it clean.
Now that we know how and why we must understand our guitars and master the notes and scales. Let us now move to a crucial factor that helps us play the guitar - our fingers! Plucking the chords at the correct speed, in sync with the song, notes, and scales, can be done by mastering our fingers. But while doing so, we should see that we don't hurt our fingers in the process or overstress them while practicing.
Below are a few tips to master your fingers to play the guitar effortlessly, to make the music more appealing and pleasing to the ear.
- Correct posture: The guitar can be played either while sitting or standing. However, the placement of fingers and the way the guitar is held is crucial to avoid getting hurt while playing. Poor placement of fingers can cause buzzing, muddy pitches, or muted notes. It is essential to hold the guitar correctly without straining fingers, arms, and wrists to play the notes clearly.
- Use your fingertips: Beginners tend to use the finger pad instead of fingertips. No, it's not their fault, as we unconsciously tend to use the finger pads. However, finger pads can dull the notes or press an extra string. If you don't get it right away, that is fine! Practice, and you shall become perfect.
- Hold the fingers down as you go: Using the little finger while playing guitar can be tricky. So, when you put down the little finger, ensure that all fingers are pressing the correct fret.
- Practice: As we say every time, practice is the key to success! But do not go over your comfort zone to practice, or else you might hurt yourself. And we don't want that, correct?
As Jon Bon Jovi rightly said – ‘Success is falling nine times and getting up ten times.’ We are sure with the techniques shared and guidance from the best guitar teachers at Antara you will be able to fulfill your dream of playing the Guitar effortlessly. And on this note, we end this fantastic theoretical learning journey to play guitar. If you are interested in learning guitar and wow the world with your incredible skills, call us now to book an appointment to learn the most famous instrument - Guitar!
