I remember well when I first learned how to play the acoustic guitar; a friend of mine offered to give me lessons after I’d fallen in love with the guitar during a Pink Floyd concert. Another friend loaned me his old, beat-up Harmony 6-string that was serving as a doorstop and I headed off to learn how to play acoustic guitar.
The First Acoustic Guitar Lesson
After that first lesson, the most valuable thing I learned about how to play acoustic guitar was that I should have had it set up properly. Remember that line in the old “Summer of ‘69” song by Bryan Adams, “played it till my fingers bled”? Green as I was, I thought that was normal but when my friend saw my fingers covered in Band-Aids at the next acoustic guitar lesson he immediately adjusted the action. You could’ve flown a 747 between those strings and the neck!
After that first acoustic guitar lesson and learning how important it was to properly set up the guitar, things went a little easier. Although it was no walk in the park, once I learned the names of each string, the names of the notes and how they were placed, I was able to construct a few simple chords and by the end of my second acoustic guitar lesson I could put together a few chords into a decent melody.
One of the most important aspects of learning how to play acoustic guitar is picking out the guitar itself. Obviously, that old Harmony had seen better days and when I’d saved enough money I bought my own guitar. The most important thing is the sound; once you find one that pleases you, hit a harmonic on the seventh fret and listen to how long it rings. That is a very accurate measure of the quality of an acoustic guitar. I chose a Fender, you may prefer a Takamine, a Gibson or other quality make.
Learn How to Play the Acoustic Guitar Tips
It’s important when you learn to play acoustic guitar that you not get bogged down in theory. Although theory is very important if you want to compose your own songs and learn different disciplines, when you are first learning how to play the acoustic guitar the bare essentials are all that is necessary. Once you get the notes and intervals under your fingers and in your muscle memory, then you can get into the more complicated nuances of music theory.
It’s rewarding to learn to play acoustic guitar; it opens up a whole new universe of expression, conversation and undiluted pleasure. You can have a friend that gives you lessons, pay an instructor or take each acoustic guitar lesson from an internet site.
There are few things more rewarding in life than learning how to play acoustic guitar. You can be creative and compose your own songs or enjoy playing the work of others. You can start a band or just learn to play acoustic guitar for your own pleasure. Either way, you’ll find it hard to put down. Learning how to play acoustic guitar can give you one problem, though—you won’t want to put it down!
