Who doesn’t think that being a great guitarist would be awesome? It’s amazing, the effect of watching someone else play the guitar has on a person. If you’ve never played you become very intrigued, and if you have played before you’ll probably get antsy and want to pick up your own guitar. Of course there are other experiences that can entice us toward the guitar such as hearing a good song on the radio. After you listen to this song you start to think, “Man! I wish I knew how to play the guitar.” So, you bugged your Mom and Dad for one until they finally gave in.
Unfortunately, the story goes on with life’s responsibilities and distractions adding up and you run out of time to play the guitar. This happens to everyone with one hobby or another. As far as my story goes, I had thought it cool to learn the guitar but chose not to ask for one for two main reasons, One: I doubted my ability to learn to play, Two: I had several other interests, and Three: None of those other interests took as much self discipline. So, my life went on as I filled my time with things like comic books, working out, and spending time with friends. However, as fate would have it the guitar was destined to be a bigger part of my life.
A professional musician or expert guitarist, I am not, but this year the guitar has been a much bigger part of my life than ever before. This last Christmas I received my very own acoustic guitar. The guitar I got is made by Johnson and is based on the basic dreadnought style but slightly smaller than standard. It’s built for beginners because it’s smaller, but it definitely helps me in my learning process. My journey so far has been long and at times frustrating. My first few months were the worst and I usually had to remind myself that it would take a lot of time and failure before I was any sort of good.
My favorite way to practice the guitar is to go grab my laptop, set it on the table, and sit down on the couch where I can see it. Then I search for the chords of a variety of songs using the Internet. I’ll make an attempt at anything that has chords, but if it’s not working after a few minutes I usually move on to something else. This is different from my other type of practice which is playing one song over and over so that I can learn it well. It’s amazing how much goes into playing the guitar. There are several different techniques and skills involved. The primary skill of guitar playing is playing chords. In the beginning it’ll kill your fingers, but they’ll get used to it.
I don’t recommend doing what I’ve done by playing for hours a day when you’re still a beginner because it will hash at your fingertips. I’m not saying it hasn’t been worth it, because playing the guitar is a blast. If your goal is to continuously get better and better than playing the guitar will be a definite challenge, but it is definitely worth all of the hard work. If you, or your son, or daughter, or your friend needs or wants a fun new hobby then try the guitar on for size. It’s a great way to learn discipline while having fun, and you can learn to play some of your favorite songs along the way.