Learning the Guitar - What Does it Involve?

Q) How long until I can play ____________? (insert your favourite song title here)

A) As long as it takes.

A bit glib, but a true answer nonetheless. It’s unlikely you will be able to play like Jimi Hendrix without a lot of dedication to the instrument (It’s said that Hendrix slept with his guitar, and played from the moment he woke up until the moment he fell asleep). Alex Van Halen (brother of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen) tells how he used to go out early every evening and leave Eddie sitting on the edge of his bed practising. When he returned home in the early hours Eddie would still be in the same spot practising. This happened most nights for many years

Of course, not everyone has the desire or time to be a guitar god. For most, gaining a good basic understanding of the instrument is a sensible and achievable short-medium term aim. If a guitar player can do the basics, and do them well, then they will sound like a good guitar player. You will still be using these basics in one way or another in 20 years time!

You may be surprised to hear that in your first lesson you will see enough information to be able to play millions of songs. The challenge is to take this information, absorb it on a mechanical level, and become familiar enough with it to turn it into music. The guitar is quite a physical instrument to play, and you will probably encounter some discomfort in the early stages as you are discovering what your left hand can do. However after as little as a few weeks, any discomfort will be replaced by a sense of real achievement as you play through your first full song.

Q) How much should I practise?

A) As much as you want to.

There isn’t much point in practising if you aren’t enjoying it. However, making time to practise is an important part of improving as a guitarist. Arguably 2 hours a week (half an hour 4 times a week) should be an absolute minimum target, and if you don’t think you can set aside at least this much, expect progress to be slow. However, 5 minutes of good practice can be more beneficial than 2 hours of noodling around, so making sure you are focused during your practice time is important.

Q) Should I take Guitar Lessons?

A) Here’s an excerpt from an article on this subject by Jamie Andreas, author of

    The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar.  Click on the picture frame to open the full article in a new window.

Let's really look at this question, "should I take guitar lessons?"   ...

When I hear this question, I think "why on earth

would it ever be a bad idea to learn a very complicated

subject from someone who knows a whole lot more that you do,

and has years of experience with the subject?"

Why on earth would it ever be a bad idea, before beginning

a journey to an unknown place,  to ask for help from a guide,

who has travelled the route many times?

I’m completely self taught, but I estimate that if I had been able to teach myself the way I now teach others, what has to date taken me 25 years to achieve as a player would have been achieved in somewhere between 5 and 10 years.  I’ve probably “practised” an average of 15 hours a week for those 25 years which makes over 18,000 hours in total.  So if my estimate is good, I’d have  got the same improvement in 4,000-8,000 hours.  A saving of at least 10,000 hours of effort!

Q) How often should I have lessons and long should my lessons be?

A) It depends entirely on the student.

Everybody learns differently, and it is for you to choose how much supervision you need to  progress at the pace you desire.  Although I see most of my students on a weekly basis, some come fortnightly, and others on a much more casual basis, ie. they ring when they are stuck on a particular something.

Re. Lesson length, a 50 minute session works well for most students, giving time to assess progress, examine problems and seek solutions, introduce new topics, and make recordings to highlight problems or progress.  Most lessons will contain some form of supervised practice, where you will effectively be made to become better, by having your mental and physical muscles correctly exercised.

You may prefer a longer (75 minute) lesson, allowing more time for each of the above areas, but in particular extra time for an “in lesson workout”.

Shorter (35 minute) lessons are ideal for children who may not have the attention span for the longer length slots, and are happy to be coaxed at a more leisurely pace through their first steps on the guitar.

Anyone can play a guitar. It is a 95% mechanical skill. The biggest natural talent is having patience and dedication.  With these qualities, 2 - 3 months should be enough time to master the basics and become good enough to accompany yourself singing.  6 months should give you enough knowledge and ability to play with a band. After that, who knows?