Like any skill or talent, learning how to play a guitar should be fun and rewarding on many levels for you. With each measured step of progress you achieve there should be a sense of excitement and accomplishment.
Nobody ever thinks to themselves, “I’d like to spend countless hours plucking repetitive notes and scales” when they think about learning guitar. Instead, they think about how much fun it will be to strum along to their favorite songs, lead campfire sing-a-longs and perhaps even write some songs of their own one day. Maybe this even describes you?
Fortunately, many modern learn guitar courses have adopted an approach that I have been taking for years in teaching; to start with easy to play contemporary songs that the student will be familiar with and enjoy learning.
In doing this, the student learns the fundamental mechanics of playing the guitar without it seeming like work or learning at all, which encourages them to continue further and ultimately learn to understand the theory behind those mechanics. That’s the primary benefit to this approach over traditional teaching techniques which focused first on theory.
So, for those of you who have been considering taking up an instrument, and specifically those who wish to learn how to play a guitar, my advice after more than twenty years of providing music lessons is to find a teacher or course that focuses on having fun first, and learning to play songs you know and enjoy right away. This will not only keep your interest and enthusiasm high, but will also help drive you to learn the fundamental theory behind music scales and chord progressions on your own later.
