Tips for beginners?

I am "rebeginner" and this time is the time! I have took it up as a new years resolution and been getting some good practice in every day.

Everyone loves an acoustice guitar, but I found that also having an electric is very helpful to aid in learning, especially for us beginners struggling with chord shapes, transitioning speed and of course the strumming patterns.

I am still only doing the "made easy" songs, but I have about 6 down so far. I learned it is all about having a guitar in your hands as much as possible and not getting divorced because of it- especially if your bad at it.

So, I start out with my UNPLUGGED electric (Telecaster) and get the chords and strum pattern down. You can hear your mistakes. I can pull this off "most nights" sitting on the couch and watching some tele (haha) with the spouse on the other couch (I have a cheap LED book light clamped on the headstock to show light on the frets). I then plug into the small amp with clean tones and put in earbuds in for the next level.

Once I get that down, I move can play pretty decent on the acoustic and then show the progress to the spouse without every really knowing how bad you were.

This is working so far, and it allows more hands on time with a guitar and your spouse not so upset that they are being ignored. The electric does not have to be expensive, just get one that you will want to pick up and practice. I have the acoustic in a nice case and bring it up when I'm ready, but the electic is always ready to go.

Also - don't say outloud "up down, down up, up down" unless you want to annoy everybody. I found a great tip where I print out the 4 sets of up/downs (so 8 arrows). I color in the correct strum pattern and leave the "ghost strums" not colored. It helps me alot.

Would love to hear other tips like these 2 from others.

Remember, your investing in yourself - that will always pay off. I think of it as very cheap therapy.

Hi Adam,

This is really great! I'm glad you're enjoying the made easy version of songs and you're learning at your own pace.

This is pretty helpful, too. Thanks for sharing and let us know if you have any questions!

Having a guitar out that is easily excessible is very helpful. I grab my electric guitar and play unplugged all of the time. When I'm at home, throughout the day I may find 5 or 10 minute bits of time where I can grab my guitar and run through some things. When I am trying to really nail a lick, or firm up a song in muscle memory, I'll run through that stuff. Other times I'll just play whatever I feel inspired to play at the moment. Time with the guitar is time with the guitar.

When I play my guitar unplugged and my wife is in the room it annoys her. It's loud enough that I can't do that while she is watching TV. When I was single, I'd practice sitting in front of the TV all of the time...running through stuff trying to get it into muscle memory.

I use a Vox amPlug 2 AC30 to practice on my electric guitar without annoying the rest of the family - been very impressed with it.

What I really like is it has an input socket as well, so I can plug the audio in from my laptop/iPad with GuitarTricks playing, and my guitar is added into the mix.

Here is a video showing the different effects you can get..

https://youtu.be/3c3ozcECfe4

I’m there with Guitartricks playing the lessons + my guitar both at a decent volume, and the wife is next to me watching TV 👍 😀