Chances are pretty good that if you’re reading this article right now, you’re probably wondering if learning the guitar is right for you.
Learning how to play the guitar has many benefits and is a great way to express yourself once you get the basics down.
Do you often find yourself playing air guitar to your favorite songs? Or have you ever heard a really cool guitar riff and just imagined in your head that it was you up on some stage playing that same riff?
If this is something you find yourself doing, chances are pretty good that you should give some serious thought to learning the guitar.
In this article, we will discuss if playing the guitar is the right option for you and what you can expect. We will also cover the benefits and the very few drawbacks that learning the guitar has in store for you.
So if this is something that interests you, keep reading so you can really find out whether learning the guitar is the right thing for you.
Table of Contents
Benefits of Learning How to Play Guitar
There are so many benefits in learning how to play the guitar that I cannot imagine being able to identify all of them completely within this article. But we will discuss the major ones that come to mind.
Playing Guitar Is Fun – This is the most obvious benefit that I see when learning to play. There is nothing more satisfying than when you finally learn that awesome riff you used to play with an imaginary air guitar.
Emotional Benefits – Playing the guitar can make a bad day feel so much better when you can just grab your guitar on the fly and play some upbeat tunes to make yourself feel better. It also makes the good days even better.
Exercise for the Brain – Playing guitar engages almost every area of your brain at once, enabling you to keep your mind extra sharp. This is especially important as you start aging.
Impress Your Friends – Playing guitar is a great way to impress your friends. Simply stated, when you play your guitar around people who have no clue how to even strum a guitar, they will be impressed. It’s human nature. You’ll be the cool guitar player friend that’s so talented.
Confidence Booster – After you learn how to play a few songs, you’ll have the confidence to learn even more songs. And the harder songs you learn, the more confidence you will have. You’ll be unstoppable when it comes to learning whatever song you have the desire to learn.
Drawbacks of Learning How to Play Guitar
There are a few drawbacks to learning the guitar, especially when you are first starting out. They do get better, however, and every person who has ever learned to play the guitar has had to go through them. So you’re not alone.
First things first, your fingertips on your fretting hand will hurt at first. How long will they hurt? The answer to that really depends on how often you practice.
You’re better off practicing for a little bit each day, and playing through the pain, than you would be if you gave it a rest for 3 days.
After you practice more and more, the pain will eventually fade away and as long as you don’t give the guitar up for weeks at a time, you’ll never have to deal with that again. Build those calluses! And keep them!
Another drawback of the guitar is that you will definitely need to restring your guitar on a regular basis. That’s just how it is, and it can’t be avoided. Well, you can try to avoid changing your strings, but your tone will suffer dramatically.
The biggest drawback in learning to play guitar is that it can be frustrating in the beginning. But please understand that this is normal for almost everybody. Do not give up.
If you’re having a really difficult time trying to conquer certain techniques, set your guitar down, take a deep breath, go outside for fresh air – whatever it is that you need to do to calm your frustrations.
You may even need to stop for the day and come back to it tomorrow. Whatever the case is, don’t give up in the beginning. Practice, practice, practice.
Should I Learn On Electric or Acoustic Guitar?
You might be wondering which type of guitar would be easier to learn on. The answer to this could differ depending on what your goals are.
For a majority of beginners, learning on an acoustic guitar is the best way to learn the guitar. With an acoustic guitar, simple notes and chords will sound better outright and that can give an aspiring guitarist the confidence to keep going.
An acoustic guitar will also build up your finger calluses quicker, lessoning the amount of time that your fingers will be in pain.
You can still learn to play on an electric guitar. Electric guitars give you a lot more options when it comes to sound, and this added variety might be what you need to keep on practicing.
For example, you can get so many types of effects pedals that you’ll likely never get bored experimenting with the various types of sounds you can make from distortion, reverb, chorus, and the many other varieties of pedals.
It’s important to note that there are ways with which you can make your acoustic guitar generate the same sound as an electric guitar.
This is usually done with a special inexpensive pickup you can get that takes the sounds and vibrations from your acoustic and electronically modifies them to sound electric. Keep in mind, however, to do this you will still need a guitar amp.
Other Helpful Tips
- Practice a little bit every day – even if it’s only 15 minutes a day.
- Tune your guitar with an electronic tuner.
- Bring your guitar in to a music shop to make sure it is set up properly.
- Start off by playing songs that are easy for beginners to play. (This is where Google comes in handy.)
- Set goals for yourself – this can be anything from learning one song in a week to mastering your favorite rock guitar riff.
- Find your favorite songs and learn to play them on guitar.
- Learn the basics for free at JustinGuitar.com
- Consistency is the key! You will get better if you keep practicing. It’s a univeral law.
- There are so many songs that use the same few chords so you should definitely learn all the common major chords.
- Keep extra guitar strings on hand – they will break and they will get dull sounding.
- Buy a string winder to make restringing your guitar a whole lot easier.
- Learn to read tabs. This will make learning your favorite songs so much easier.
