The trouble with learning the guitar for the first time is finding some easy songs to play on the acoustic to keep you interested and not give up.
When I first started to learn to play the guitar I had an old Acoustic steel string that my mum bought for me from a garage sale. It wasn’t the best of instruments but it was still a guitar, and I loved it. I sat down in my bedroom with a tab book of songs, (because i didn’t know how to read music, and still don’t) and tried to play the songs. I just couldn’t do it, IT WAS HARD! I literally had to grab my fingers and place them in the right spots on the fret board to be able to play a Guitar chord. I persisted with this for a while until the muscles in my hands got used to it. Finally getting used to playing some chords. Just wanting some easy songs to get started so it actually looks like I can play.
I guess an easy song to play would be defined as a song with 3-5 basic chords in them, and usually the same strumming pattern all the way though.
Even though there is only a few chords to play, some songs like this may have tricky strumming patterns. EG: up,up, down,up,down, up.
Try to learn as many of the basic chords as possible. This will help a whole lot when trying to learn a song. Practice practice and more practice is the only key to becoming a good guitar player.
I was a self taught guitarist myself, but as I found out later when I started having lessons, trying to better my playing skills, that id learnt everything all wrong! It was like starting all over again. I would highly recommend getting guitar lessons, well at least for the first few months so you don’t make the fatal mistake I made. You could get a tutor or there are some fantastic online lessons out there that are the fraction of a cost of a tutor. All in all
If you are still struggling to get a grips with the guitar don’t give up, keep at it and at until you see some results. Guitar lessons are a great way to learn because you have an actual person showing what to do. The day it all comes to you and you play that first section of a song (and it actually sounds good) it is the sweetest day of your life and it will drive you to play more and more.
Happy Strumming Everyone!
