How Do I Start Out as a Beginning Guitar Player?

By | Beginner Guitar Lessons | 1 Comment

Beginner Guitar PlayerSo you want to learn how to play the guitar, but where do you even begin? Whenever you start something new it might feel a little daunting, but generally, if you keep these few things in mind, you’ll be off to a great start.

Identify Your Goals

Why do you want to learn how to play the guitar? Do you want to just be able to sit on your front porch and pick the blues? Or maybe you aspire for fame and want to write your own song? Whatever it is, it’s important to know your goals, so that way you know how to best practice the guitar.

Someone who is just playing the guitar for fun will have a different attitude towards practice than someone who wants to play guitar professionally. Different goals require different amounts of work and time. Recognize these things and be okay with them. One goal is not better than another. You have to pick ones that are most realistic and desirable for yourself.

Find a Source of Instruction

In order to learn how to play the guitar, you need to be taught in some form. This does not necessarily mean you have to sign up for private lessons or find a local instructor (although this isn’t a bad idea), but you do have to find some source of guitar instruction. This just might be a friend you know who plays guitar and inspired you to learn guitar, or it might mean searching for instructional videos on Youtube.

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Guitar Games Review: Learn Guitar & Fight Space Monsters

By | Buying Advice, Guitar Scales & Fretboard, Music Theory | 1 Comment

Lately, we’ve had some great lessons about guitar scales, learning the fretboard, and theory. If we’re really honest though, this stuff isn’t always very fun to digest. However, unbeknownst to me until just lately, there is a fun way to put all of this material into practice.

Just recently, I received an email from William Wilson, a classical guitarist from San Diego. William has put together a very fun and interactive resource created to help you learn the guitar fretboard, guitar scales, and theory called Guitar Games. I asked William if he would let me try it out and write up a review, and he gave me the okay.

Guitar Games Features
The goal of Guitar Games is to help you learn the guitar fretboard, guitar scales, theory, and how to read music. They’ve created a variety of interactive and fun games to help you learn all of this information that can often times be very boring.

I was pretty skeptical when I first received William’s email. I was honestly expecting the games to be cheesy and not very helpful. How can you possible make theory and learning the fretboard fun? It seems like a paradox.

However, I was pretty surprised once I took a look. [...]

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Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners: Round Two

By | Guitar Chords, Practice Tips | 12 Comments

This is a continuation of last week’s post of 10 easy guitar songs for beginners. Check those out if you haven’t already. Chords, lyrics, and videos of each songs are included so you can play them!

The best thing a beginning guitar player can do is to apply all the new chords they are learning to playing an actual song. After all, isn’t that why you’re learning how to play guitar in the first place?

So again, here’s my picks of some easy guitar songs for beginners that you should be able to pick up right when you are first beginning guitar (or even if you’ve been playing awhile! These are good songs still!). There’s a mix of some new pop songs and older classics in this list.

Click on the song title to view chords, lyrics, and a video.

Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

1.) House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
2.) I’m Yours by Jason Mraz
3.) Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne
4.) I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash
5.) Viva La Vida by Coldplay

What would you add to this list?

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10 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners with Guitar Chords

By | Guitar Chords, Practice Tips | 73 Comments

When you’re first learning how to play the guitar, the best thing you can do is practice learning a new song. However, it can be hard to find easy guitar songs for beginners when you’re first starting because you don’t know which songs are easy to learn on guitar and which ones aren’t.

Here’s my collection of some easy guitar songs for beginners that you can pick up right away when you are learning how to play the guitar. There’s a mix of some new pop songs and older classics in this list.

I’ve also written up the chords and lyrics. Click on a song to see the video, chords, and lyrics.

Top 5 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

1.) Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
2.) Free Falling by Tom Petty
3.) Yellow by Coldplay
4.) Come On Get Higher by Matt Nathanson
5.) Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynard

More Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

6.) Clocks by Coldplay
7.) Teardrops On My Guitar by Taylor Swift
8.) Lost by Coldplay
9.) Realize by Colbie Caillat
10.) You’re Beautiful by James Blunt

What songs are you learning how to play? What easy guitar songs for beginners would you add to this list?

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So, You Want to Learn How to Play Guitar?

By | Beginner Guitar Lessons | 4 Comments

In talking with a lot of my non-musical friends about music, it’s not uncommon for me to hear them saying something like, “Oh, I wish I knew how to play guitar. It’s such a cool instrument.”

At my university, all students, regardless of your major, are required to take two applied arts courses. Some will take voice, others piano, and the really weird ones will take theatre (kidding of course!). However, most people take at least one guitar class.

What I’m noticing is that there is just something that draws people to want to play the guitar. I’m not sure if it is because everyone and their mother seems to know how to play and they feel left out, or if it’s because it seems cool. And to be real, playing guitar tends to be seen as a cool thing.

I’m not sure what it is, but if you find yourself drawn to learn how to play guitar, there are a few things to keep in mind before you get yourself into it.

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