What Do You Need To Learn To Play Guitar

How Long Does It Take To Learn To Play Guitar?

They once asked Eric Clapton if he practiced much and he said no, he just opened the case and threw in some meat once in awhile. The man was lying, of course, he has obviously spent a lot of time on the Blues Scale. The Gurus of Music don't promise you that you will learn to play the guitar overnight but, an experienced music instructor can certainly shorten your journey by guiding you past any pitfalls you might be apt to fall into. In really answering this question of how long, you should give some careful thought to the style of guitar that you would like to learn. Classical style guitar, for example, requires quite a bit of independent finger picking with the right hand. It is a bit more of a complicated style, you might say. Pop styles tend to have their own schools of technique and are heavier on scales, chords and other movable patterns.

Should You Use Tablature Or Written Notes To Learn To Play Guitar? 

Pop styles of guitar playing tend to use tablature to read music, which many regard as a favored shortcut and think that it is easier than reading notes on a staff.   Whether it is truly easier or not is matter open for debate but it can have a drawback since sometimes it doesn't show the rhythm and this can lead inexperienced players to play without a definite beat which will severely compromise their efforts to make music. The other thing to take into consideration is that musical styles are seldom clear-cut; they contain many elements from other styles. If you listen to very good guitar players in pop groups you will often hear them employing some very sophisticated right hand fingering techniques as if they had been schooled in some classical techniques. As we say, in the Gurus of Music, nothing beats the basics as a short cut to learn how to play the guitar.