Learning how to play the guitar can be rewarding and lead to a lifetime of musical enjoyment. Beginning players should focus on some things that will help them master the technique. Here are five tips for young guitar players.
Finger Dexterity
Learning to navigate the fretboard and master difficult chords, especially barre chords, requires good finger dexterity. Young guitar players should work on a few suggested finger stretching exercises, as well as simple techniques to build finger strength.
Study the Notes and Chords
While there are numerous stories of people learning to play guitar by ear, it is extremely helpful to study sheet music and chord charts. Understanding how the songs are composed and memorizing finger diagrams for chords, will help to expand the number of songs a player can enjoy.
Slow Down
Another important tip for young guitar players is to avoid trying to play too fast. While learning to shift from one note or chord to the next quickly is important, finger technique is a higher priority. Beginners benefit from slowing down their changes and concentrating on getting the finger placement correct.
Keep the Beat
Learning to play by using the correct beat of a song is one of the hardest things young guitar players try to master. To help keep the beat, young players need to learn how to use a metronome. Once a beginner learns some basics about reading guitar music, it will be simple to input the correct beat for any song using a metronome.
Practice, Practice and Practice More
Even the greatest guitar players in the world practice for hours every day. While a novice guitar player may not aspire to reach such a worldly level, learning to play guitar style requires practice; lots of practice.
The finger memory skills needed to play guitar benefit from continuous repetition. It is best to set a practice schedule and stick to it. An excellent way to avoid boredom from repetitive scales is to incorporate popular guitar riffs into the practice session. Riffs are short notes and chord changes that build finger dexterity, plus they help the student learn short segments from their favorite songs.
These are five suggestions to help the young guitar player get off on the right foot when learning to play the guitar. Finger work and an appreciation of how to read sheet music are essential. The best players started slow and studied the beat. However, one thing is for certain, every great guitar player practiced and then practiced some more.