Your First Guitar
Your first guitar could probably be the most important factor that will determine your progress with the instrument. When buying your first guitar, it would be a good idea to bring along someone who can already play so he/she can assist you in trying out the instrument.
The most important thing to look into is the playability of the instrument, meaning that it has to be comfortable enough for you to play. Some guitars comes out from the factory with a high 'action' (the height distance between the strings and the guitar fret board) setup simply because some factories agree that it's easier to lower the action than to raise it. If the action is to high than it's harder for you to press down the strings to produce a sound (this will surely be a discouraging factor) while a too low action setup though this rarely the case, will produce a buzzing sound. You can judge this by simply playing a few chord changes or some simple licks and see how it fairs.
In conclusion, make sure you choose a guitar that has a reasonable action setup. If you're buying an electric guitar, you might want to ask the music store technician (if any) to setup the guitar for you. A good playable guitar will encourage you to keep learning and before you know it you'll be strumming along to your favorite songs.
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Know Your Instrument
After getting yourself a good playable guitar, the next step is to familiarize yourself with your new instrument. A good understanding about your instrument will benefit you in the long run. Take a minute to study the picture below which shows the name of the parts that makes up a guitar.
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How To Tune Your Guitar
You can ask a music store staff to tune your guitar when you first bought it, but guitars will eventually go out of tune for various reasons. This is a common thing that you have to deal with especially with a new set of strings (New strings takes a while to settle down properly to hold a tune).
When you need to tune your guitar, here's how you do it.
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Holding Your Guitar
Hold your guitar in a position that allows you a good access to the instrument that is, your right hand(if you're a right hander) can strum/pluck/pick the strings freely and your left hand can press the strings comfortably.
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Strum/Pluck/Pick
The three basic ways to produce a sound on your guitar are:
*Strum = When you brush the strings either with your fingers or with a guitar pick.
*Pluck = Generally refers to a method of playing individual string with your finger.
*Pick = When you play individual string using a guitar pick.
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Guitar Pick And How To Hold It
This is what a guitar pick or
a 'Plectrum' looks like:
And you hold it like this:
Proceed to Lesson 1
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Preparations
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