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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Learning How To Play Acoustic Guitar

By Chris Lake


Anyone can learn how to play acoustic guitar. While most musical instruments require a major commitment to learn, learning to play the guitar well enough to entertain yourself and your friends is not difficult. You can begin playing simple songs your first day of practicing guitar.

The guitar, like the piano, is among the few instruments that play chords. A chord is a cluster of notes played simultaneously. There are four types of chords:major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Each chord type produces a distinct sound. Music has three basic elements: melody, rhythm, and harmony. The harmony consists of chords.

Each chord type has a specific finger pattern on the fret board of the guitar. You can strum smoothly from chord to chord with a little practice. You will be surprised at how easy it is and how quickly you will be doing it well.

Popular songs use standard chord patterns or progressions. When you have been playing for awhile you will recognize standard chord patterns even if it is a song you have never heard before. This makes figuring out new songs by just listening to a recording of them easy.

Playing melody lines on the guitar is a little more complex than strumming chords but there are also patterns involved. If chords form the harmony then scales form the melody. Melodies are based on standard major and minor scales. You will, after playing awhile, learn to recognize the standard scale patterns. This will enable you to improvise melody lines over chords. Learning the standard scale patterns will make it easier to play melodies by ear.

A good teacher can get you playing the guitar faster than trying to teach yourself. While some people do teach themselves, a teacher will have you playing better and quicker. It is easy to develop bad habits when learning any musical instrument. A teacher will help you not develop those bad habits. A guitar teacher will also show you how to maintain your guitar by teaching you how to change strings, tune, clean and other maintenance tasks. A good teacher can inspire you and you can hear what good guitar playing should sound like.

Find a teacher who plays the style of music that you want to learn. There are many musical genres and styles played on the guitar. Learning how to play the acoustic guitar will involve mostly folk, country blues and low key styles of music. Acoustic guitar is used for playing classical guitar. Classical guitar is much more difficult to play than strumming chords and playing simple riffs. A lot of pop music uses acoustic guitar and so does country western music. The Electric guitar is not that much different than playing acoustic guitar. If you can play one then you can play the other.




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