Electric Guitar for Beginners
April 15, 2009 by RockOn
Filed under Buying an Electric Guitar
When the electric guitar first made its way into the universe in the 1930s, I’m sure no one at that time thought it would be where it is today. No one ever thought that there would be classical music compositions where the main star was the electric guitar. The guitar gets its electronic sound from the pick-up body and is magnified when it’s plugged into the amplifier. So can you learn how to play electric guitar?
Yes! But before you make the investment to get an electric guitar and starting composing masterpieces, you need to get an acoustic guitar to practice on. Learn the chords and get your fingers used to the metal strings. The strings on an acoustic guitar are a lot nicer on your fingers than the steel strings on an electric guitar. Your acoustic guitar doesn’t have to be anything exceptional, and it certainly doesn’t matter if you buy the guitar on Ebay or at your local music store. You’ll just need something playable to get started with.
When and if you start taking guitar lessons, one of the most important pieces of advice anyone who plays guitar can give you is to: take your time and relax. If you feel you’re trying to push yourself too hard to try and be the next Slash or Brad Paisley, then all you’re going to do is get yourself flustered, frustrated, and get your fingers and muscles aching. Slow down- your music composition will still be there. If you choose to teach yourself and not use a guitar (acoustic or electric) instructor, then consider using books or better yet- make use of Google. There are videos and DVDs you can buy to help teach you how to play guitar as well. Online courses or courses taught at the local community college are also great options. Either way you want to learn how to play guitar, there’s a great world of knowledge at your fingertips (pun intended).
When you feel that you are ready to graduate up to an electric guitar, the first thing you may notice is that electric guitars can be quite pricy. If you haven’t done your research to see which guitar would be good for you but would still like to practice on an electric guitar, consider buying one from your music store or local electronics store. You can still get the feel and sound from the inexpensive electric guitar that you can get from the expensive Fenders and Gibsons.
Along with your guitar, go ahead and get a decent amplifier. Some electronic stores will carry electric guitar with a 5-watt or a 10-watt amp–these are fine to buy if you want and are fairly inexpensive.
After you get home with your electric guitar, consider how you will hold the guitar so it is comfortable to you. If you want to be any good (and you will be), then you must practice every day. Therefore you will need to figure out how to hold the guitar so it doesn’t wear out your neck, shoulders, and body.
Other essentials for playing electric guitar are a tuner and a metronome. Getting into the habit of tuning your guitar every time you play can mean the difference between being too low and being too flat. A metronome is a device that produces a regulated pulse to establish the steady tempo in a song. These come in handy when you’re trying to learn a song but have a hard time keeping a steady beat or tempo.
Learning how to play guitar can seem like a frustrating thing. Your fingers and shoulders may hurt, and you may feel like you will never learn the “Freebird” solos, but if you practice every day and keep with it, you will be well on your way.
