Some General but Key points on Guitar Learning

I know very well how you feel when the thought of learning to play a guitar comes to your mind for the very first time. The first time I touched a guitar was around 8 years back. The look, the feel , the sound of those 6 strings were incomparable to anything else in my life then. This feeling is also accompanied by an image in our minds. The image of a "Rockstar" for most of us. I for one do not like that word, because it has a grave tendency to mislead masses into accepting the popular "Rockstar" image without any insight into the life of the person we call a "Rockstar". Truth is far dissociated from the image and its very very important for an aspiring guitar learner to understand this.

I had to mention the above stated fact here because I have seem many of my friends and many of their friends as well, lose enthusiasm towards learning to play the guitar in just a few months after they have bought one. And it was quite evident to me that it happened because of their wrong reasons to learn guitar in the first place.


I was no different . However, at some point in time in during our breakup (me and my guitar), I happened to come across a random piece of music, very simple in structure, probably just a couple of notes clubbed with a play of timing. One thing peculiar about all such pieces was that all of them had the capacity to give me goose bumps, the moment their waves touched my ears. Such instances always brought a question to my mind "How could one play such a beautiful piece so simply over a couple of strings?". And I would be back with my guitar trying to figure out how it was done. After a couple of such breakups and re-bonding sessions, I learned that playing the guitar is not a world in its own, but a part of a bigger universe called Music. The concepts of which are very simple and the the reason it seems so difficult to the beginners is a mere "not being used to" factor and the vastness of the possibilities of arrangements of the basic ideas of music.

As a conclusion to this small article, I want to press on few facts which I would summarize in the points below:

1. Learn Guitar for the right reasons - Don't be mislead by the "Rockstar" image !!!!
2. Develop a feel for music and LISTEN to every note and combination of notes in any musical piece you come across - nothing else can inspire you more to learn the guitar than an AWESOME arrangement of simple musical notes.
3. Have patience with your guitar practice and start learning the basics of music theory alongside developing a comfort with the instrument - this will make your guitar learning real real faster

I understand this is a small article and will require elaboration on a lot of points stated therein. I will be posting more articles explaining how's and why's of guitar learning. Building a good foundation A.K.A "Philosophy" for whatever you want to learn in life will take you to great heights and that is what all geniuses have done in the past. It makes the learning process more efficient and lean, leading to quality and timely results. It may have sounded didactic - but - THATS THE TRUTH until you figure it out ... :-)

Till Then .... enjoy the experience..