How To Play Guitar

I know that you will be wanting to pick up your guitar right now, and start playing. We will get to that soon, but for now, your Guitar has more important things to tell you. Now obviously your guitar is not going to start talking to you in plain English, but there are things you must know about it before even thinking of playing it.

Firstly, let me make your mind ponder a bit. You play your guitar, but what actually makes the sound?

Your strings!

Every other part of the Guitar is merely a platform for the strings to stand on.

A big problem some people come across is making their Guitar sound and feel good. When all they need is new strings. What a lot of people don’t realize is that strings don’t live forever, and there are so many factors in how often you should change them.  Your Guitar strings may have one or more of these symptoms…

-          Your guitar sounds ‘dull’

-          Your strings are rusty or corroded

-          Your strings are black

-          Some strings start to snap

-          Your guitar is harder to play

These of course are not the only symptoms that mean you should change your strings, but they are the most common ones. People change their strings at very different times, whether it is because of one of the symptoms above, or simply because they want that new ‘bright’ sound you get when you put new strings on.

How can I lengthen my strings life?

Simple, after every time you play your guitar, wipe down the strings and the fretboard with a dry cloth, you will be amazed at the dirt, sweat and grime they have accumulated. Keep your guitar in a dry, warm place and never leave your guitar in direct sunlight.

Another thing your Guitar might tell you is that it is not set-up properly, these symptoms could include…

-          Strings ‘buzzing’

-          Your guitar is hard to play

-          The strings are far away from the frets

-          Your guitar goes out of tune easily

Obviously, you need your guitar to be set-up. I would recommend taking your guitar into your local music store, ask them to set it up for you (this shouldn’t cost much at all so don’t fret!) and also ask if you can watch and get them to tell you what they are doing as they do it so next time you can do it yourself. You will need to set your guitar up at least 2 times a year, usually once in summer and once in winter. The reason for this is simply because the wood in your guitar reacts differently to different temperatures and actually moves. With a proper set-up, you can literally make a $200 guitar play and feel like a $3,000 guitar.

This is the end of lesson 1, but before I go here is an exercise to get those fingers moving!

E|--------------------------------------------------|

B|--------------------------------------------------|

G|-----------------------------5-----------5--7--9--|

D|-----2-----------2--4--5--------5--4--------------|

A|--------3--2--------------3-----------5-----------|

E|--0-----------3-----------------------------------|

 0    1  2  1  2  1  3  4  2  4  2  1  2  1  3  4

Click on the play button to hear how it should really sound…

This Lesson Brought to You By Guitar Burning Speed