Articles → For beginners – I’ve never even held a guitar before

What to do if you want to get started…

It happens all the time – you’ve found a guitar and now you want to learn to play it. What now? Perhaps you need to find a good teacher, and then it’ll all be plain sailing. Perhaps…

In fact, the first things you really need to learn to play the guitar are time and patience. A teacher can show you the route to success, and will show you how to do the exercises.

But the best guitar players get to the top through years of continuous practice.

To get the basics of guitar playing, all you need is a few lessons with a teacher (or a friend who can already play).

You just need to get to know the main chords and then it is all down to practice: all you have to do is keep on playing.

After just a month of hard work you are bound to see some progress; then you just carry on improving your technique and broadening your knowledge.

Reading up on the theory is not enough – with just a guitar and a book you won’t get anywhere. You need to watch a live guitarist in action, once at least, to feel the rhythm.

Of course, a bit of theory won’t do any harm, and can be quite useful.

We’ll give a brief outline of some of the main points further on – you won’t need all the detail if you’re simply singing and playing for your friends. So here goes!

Anton Gavzov