A Beginner's Guide For Learning Guitar Persistently
Learning a new musical instrument from scratch is undoubtedly very resistive. In the case of a guitar, the excitement breaks off with painful chords and juggling strumming patterns. One may feel forced to learn it even after being passionate about it unless you have an instructor with you. The online guitar courses also add up to the complexity of the process. The systematic steps they follow goes up to months of training which ultimately brings us to our saturation level and we end up with our guitar perfectly hanged at a corner of the house.
I faced this same problem as a beginner. The torment of memorising new chord shapes, struggling with strumming patterns and the torture of applying ointment to the fingers every night after one hour of practice. But today, the tables have turned & hard work paid off. I can strum my guitar with beats now, learning new chords has never been this easy and achieved a milestone of performing Gratitude (Amin Toofani's fingerstyle Rumba which got him a winning trophy at Harvard University in a talent show) in front of an audience.
I've compiled a list of steps that can ease your journey of learning this beautiful instrument that can be your partner for a lifetime. Take your cup of coffee, note down these steps and be the musician you always wanted to be.
1. STOP LEARNING THE CHORDS:
I remember the day I purchased a new guitar and made the same mistake everyone does. I opened up Youtube, searched for beginner chords, started with the A major chord and after 30 minutes my fringers were crumbling. That's a blunder you might be doing as well. Learning and shifting between chords is a time taking process to learn. You can not achieve it in a week. This might frustrate you and you might lose interest. That is why the first advice I give to any new guitarist is to stop learning chords and focus on strumming patterns. Just two easy chords with a bunch of strumming patterns can create magic. I always recommend either learning G & Cadd9 or Em & Asus2 in the beginning. Combining them with a basic 4x4 strumming can produce music for thousands of songs out there. This easy beginning can build momentum for you and the feel of achievement will keep you going.
2. SHARE SMALL WINS:
Those who have no idea how the guitar is played will appreciate you on even playing single string tunes. Most people don't know how a guitar works. Try to share your progress on your social media accounts even if is pointless because according to those who had never seen a guitar, it's still an achievement. If you learned E minor chord, strum it and share the video online. The appreciation you will get is the second pillar to hold you firm in this journey.
"I've found that small wins, small projects, small differences often make huge differences."
~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter
3. THE CAPO IS MUST:
One of the more common acoustic guitar accessories along with tuners is the capo. It is a small device that clamps onto the neck of a guitar and shortens the length of the strings, raising their pitch. The main advantage of using a capo is that it lets a guitarist play a song in different keys while still using first-position open-string chord forms, which have a more droning and fully resonant tone than, for example, many bar chords. So connecting to my first point, it isn't necessary to learn more than 2 chords in the beginning but to bring versatility in those chords, a capo is a must-have.
4. THE DESIRE:
The most important thing with learning guitar as with learning anything else is the earnest desire to want to play. Don’t concentrate so much on being persistent, that’s important but if your mindset is right you will persist. Always remember, consistency is the key and it only comes if you really want to learn it. The desire must balance the pain you feel. Rigged fingers are a sign of guitarists and over time, you'll get used to it.
“Sometimes suffering is the sacrifice you have to make to achieve greatness, success and your destiny.”
~ Jeanette Coron