Hello, I recently bought an acoustic guitar, and this is my second attempt at learning to play.
I made some progress, teaching myself basic chords and strumming, but I’m having trouble following sheet music/chord patterns and similar resources. Sometimes, when I’m watching a YouTube video on how to play a song, they don’t provide the strumming pattern or other details.
I’ve only been playing for a month, and I really enjoy it, but I feel like I’m starting to slow down again. I did download a book on how to improve my playing, which I plan to read later today.
I was wondering if anyone had a few resources they’d be willing to share.
Thank you!
Practise by accompanying your favourite music. That way you don’t get hung up on the strumming pattern and focus on enjoying, which is what keeps you coming back for practice.
There are abundant beginner videos on YouTube that teach strumming. I think the important thing is to mix learning technique with just enjoying making music by any means.
(Source, self taught playing 20 years)
I don’t wanna be a buzzkill, but if you’ve only been practicing for a month so far, I’m not sure there’s gonna be any particular resource that’s going to make you improve faster, short of taking formal lessons. It sounds like you’re already making good progress, so just keep doing what you’re doing! Read that book you downloaded, add new finger exercises to your daily routine, and drill the chords and scales and such into your muscle memory so you can do them in your sleep. But this all takes time.
The biggest factor, at least for me, was consistently practicing for years. I’ve been playing for about 17 years now and, by the end of the first year, I had spent hundreds of hours with the guitar in my hand (it was my primary hobby). I’m no rock star, but I got pretty decent by just practicing the stuff I wanted to play and learning the basic fundamental concepts like scales, arpeggios, chord structure, etc.
One good piece of advice my old man gave me: even when you’re not actively practicing, just having the guitar in your lap when you’re working on other stuff winds up making it extremely comfortable to handle. I’d sit with the guitar in my lap while doing homework, or using the computer, and would end up fiddling with it here and there, gradually getting better at navigating the neck, getting more familiar with the distances between the strings, etc.
And use. the. pinky. A lot of guitarists shy away from fretting with the pinky finger if they can avoid it, but they’re doing themselves a disservice. Put in the effort to train your pinky to fret and it will pay dividends when you start tackling more advanced stuff. Even if you can easily hit a note with your ring finger, hit it with the pinky to give the pinky more practice so it becomes second nature.
Find some finger exercises that help teach finger independence. I learned a great one from a Chet Atkins VHS tape back in the day, but I can’t find it anywhere online at the moment; I’m sure there’s a million similar exercises on YouTube though.
If you’re learning a song through a video on YouTube and it doesn’t tell you the strumming pattern or the tuning or whatever, you can probably find that info on Ultimate Guitar. I’m not affiliated with them, just been using their site for basically the entire time I’ve been playing. Has an absolute mountain of chord charts, tabs, yada yada. Very useful.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 🎸
Keep at it! The learning curve is not a straight line, just like with any skill. You’ll see fast progress, just to be followed by a long plateau of no progress or even feel you’re getting worse. And then you notice possibly big improvement again. And again.
Don’t worry about following sheets/chords initially. If chords are not in your muscle memory, you’re basically doing three complex tasks simultaneously, reading, figuring out chords and fingering chords. I’d try to memorize one or two simple pieces first, to get the chords under your belt. Start simple and stay patient, it’ll take time.
Don’t forget the rhythm. Play on top of recordings. You can be pretty liberal with the harmonics, but if you keep a steady beat it’ll probably still sound good.
If you want to get better, you have to practice every single day.
You’re going to suck at first, but then you’re going to suck less. You have to learn enjoy the process, which it sounds like you do, so great! I like to break up my play time into practicing something new and having fun; they’re both important.
One thing I’ve found is that keeping my guitar out and on the wall makes it a lot easier to get started playing, even if I don’t feel like it at the time. Once I’m about five minutes into playing, I’m into it.
Oh, and practice with a metronome. Most guitarists suck at rhythm (myself included). Using a metronome beats it into your head.
Don’t give up.
