How to Play Electric Guitar for Beginners

Tune your guitar accurately. This is a crucial step for effective learning. You can have your guitar set up by a guitar expert at a music store, a professional musician, or a local guitar repair shop. If your guitar is properly tuned, you'll benefit greatly:

• Good sound. This is probably the most important factor. Your guitar needs to be precise so that when it is tuned correctly (and you play the right notes), it will produce accurate tones. If your guitar sounds off, it might produce the right pitch on the lower strings but will be very out of tune on the higher ones. This can discourage you and make learning more difficult.
• Comfort while playing. If your guitar is too tightly tuned, you’ll struggle to play it, needing excessive force to press the strings down. Not only will this cause issues with sound, but it can also hurt and slow you down! Over time, your fingers may develop calluses to lessen the pain, but you'll still find it hard to play quickly or switch between notes smoothly.

Listen and repeat. Almost every song you love has a memorable melody, often involving a pattern of recognizable note changes. Don’t just focus on the guitar solos, although those are great for learning, but also pay attention to the vocals, bass lines, spontaneous improvisations, and the guitarist's creative chord choices. Anything you hear can be helpful – the simpler, the better as you’re still in the learning phase.

• For example, the melody in Bruno Mars' 'Locked Out of Heaven' is fairly simple with few vocal flourishes, making it something you can try to replicate on guitar.
• 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen has a catchy melody, but the unique strumming pattern might challenge you.
• 'Gangnam Style' by Psy features an electronic sound that repeats throughout the song. While you can’t fully replicate that electronic sound, you can play around with a simplified version.
• The key to becoming a guitar legend is not by mastering solos, but by learning to listen and play what you hear.
• If you struggle with catching a part of a melody, try watching YouTube videos of the song. Often, there will be footage of the band playing that specific part.

Alternate between difficult and easy sections. Reward yourself with a mental break after practicing a tough section by playing an easier part that you feel comfortable with. This will keep your fingers practicing regularly, encourage steady progress, and prevent frustration.

• Ensure you always have some challenging parts to work on! This is what will help your guitar playing improve.
• Practice the things that give you difficulty more often than the things you can easily master. For example, if you can play fast single-note solos well, that's great! Keep practicing that skill. If you struggle with chords, make sure you spend at least as much time practicing them as you do the solos.

Avoid using stompboxes during practice. While stompboxes can provide a fantastic shred tone (a sound created from fast electric guitar solos), they can also hide technical flaws in your playing.

• Clear guitar tones will expose every mistake you make while playing. Save the shred sound for jamming with friends or when you want to perform alone.

Learn music theory. As you grow as a guitarist, you'll appreciate the shortcuts music theory can provide.

• For example, rather than fumbling to find the right chord for a song, musical theory will help you instantly recognize the closest chord in any key.
• It also allows you to communicate more effectively with other musicians, especially useful if you're forming a band. For example, an organ player might struggle to interpret your hand position if you simply say 'play this chord.' An organ and a guitar don’t show notes in the same way. However, if you say 'Play A7, then B7, and return to E,' they’ll understand you perfectly.

Find a great guitar teacher. What makes a great guitar teacher can vary from person to person. Some learn by visual cues, others by listening. You might prefer a teacher who specializes in the type of music you enjoy, or one who excels at getting the best results regardless of the musical style. It's essential to find a teaching style that works best for you.

• The style of music you like is just one factor to consider. For example, someone who prefers blues guitar might choose a flamenco guitar course. While flamenco and blues differ in style and sound, the complex techniques of flamenco could help you become a more sophisticated blues guitarist.

Learn how to read music. No matter which teaching method you follow, ensure you are taught to read music. With six strings and multiple notes on each, playing by reading music isn't easy. Being trained in this skill will be incredibly beneficial to you.

Always have fun. Regardless of the musical style you choose, the repetitive nature of lessons can sometimes lead to frustration – practicing the same things over and over, working on finger positioning instead of creating beautiful sounds. This can become exhausting if you don’t remember to make it fun!

• Practice the lessons you’ve been given, and once you're done, put your books away and play the music you love in any way you want.
• When you’re practicing scales and musical patterns and you feel like you’re about to burn out, try adding some ‘spice’ to those scales. Remember to stick to the right notes in your exercises to learn the required techniques, but also experiment with bending strings instead of pressing frets on closed notes, add vibrato, switch on effects like distortion, reverb, or delay, and try playing a section backwards. The key is to break the standard notes and make it more enjoyable.

Practice. Whether you're self-taught or taking courses, the only way to improve is by practicing. You need to practice regularly and for as long as possible.

• Learning to play the guitar involves many things: building finger strength and dexterity, learning note positions on the guitar, developing 'muscle memory,' playing cleanly, and adding emotion to your playing. All of these take time to develop, and everyone learns at their own pace. Keep practicing diligently, and you'll soon improve.
• Every famous guitarist you admire, whether you've heard them on the radio or seen them live, started in the same place as you. They also share one thing in common: they never stopped playing and practicing!