Learn How To Play The Guitar Quickly

When you first start out to learn to play the guitar, your first objective will probably be to be able to play a recognisable tune, fairly quickly and without too much effort. To reach this first milestone, you must get away from thinking with your conscious mind and let the unconscious or subconscious mind take over. To get to this point requires a journey through 4 stages of learning…

If you have read any other of my articles, you’ll notice that I am a big believer in the mental aspect of guitar playing and practice. Mental techniques have played a massive part in lots of other areas of skill, but instruments, and guitar in particular has been overlooked. Even a little awareness of how the mind works will pay huge dividends further along the line.

The fastest way to make great progress in your ability to make fast chord changes is by using the skill of anticipation. I call it a skill because it is usually something we develop without being aware of it. It can get better with practise..

I would say the biggest single reason that beginner guitarists struggle is tension. Letting go and flowing along is something that develops over time and with practise, but there are ways to speed up its development..

Just take a quick look at some of the all time great guitar players, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Marvin or any other world famous guitarist. They are all extremely relaxed whilst playing. They will have developed this laid back easy style through years of practise, but the process of relaxing whilst playing can be worked on and improved.

Good preparation is the basis of a good practise session on the guitar. Take it easy, and spend sometime getting the body and mind right for productive practice before sitting down to play.

Sore fingertips are a common problem for the beginning guitar player. Dont worry about it though, there are things that you can do to try and make your playing less painful…