The 3 Biggest Myths About Learning Guitar

While people often express enthusiasm at the thought of learning how to play guitar, they can quickly get discouraged by the dauntingness of practice commitments, expensive guitar lessons and complicated music theory.

In actuality, developing the ability to play guitar can be quite accessible when you look more closely and confront some of the basic myths that surround learning.

Myth #1: It's Too Difficult to Get Started

Most people decide to learn guitar so they can have the ability to accompany themselves while they or someone else sings songs they enjoy.

Despite the incredible amount of beginner books and video courses that overstate the skills required to achieve this level of guitar playing, called rhythm guitar, essentially all you have to learn is:

1. How to read a guitar chord chart
2. How to place your fingers on 6 chords: G, D, Em, C, Am and F
3. How to strum a count of 4
4. How to change chords according to the 4-count

The skill set, that you can teach yourself, is the key to playing thousands of songs and even writing your own. Anything beyond this foundation is just more advanced and is an unnecessary distraction for a player with little or no experience.

Furthermore, you can make practicing this skill set more fun by searching for and trying to play your favorite songs as soon as you can start applying this knowledge to the guitar.

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Myth #2: I Won't Ever Have Time to Practice

Sometimes — often — life gets in the way of practice, and in a real-world situation, it's absolutely fine.

The thing is, playing guitar should be nothing but fun, and even though there are all these rules of thumb about how long people should practice, there's really nothing wrong with just working at your own pace. There are more students who take guitar lessons and only practice 10 minutes a day, three times a week than you would think, and many of them are quite happy with their pace of progress.

Instead of looking at practice as a daily, timed chore, try to focus on the bigger picture — studies show that people can become pretty good at new skills in around 20 hours of total practice time, and if you hit benchmark and decide you want to get better through guitar lessons, you'll have a really solid head start.

Myth #3: I Have to Take Lessons

Nowadays, it's easier than ever before to teach yourself to play, and plenty of people never take a guitar lesson in their lives and become really proficient musicians.

Beginner guitar players can find years of enjoyment and see plenty of progress just by watching YouTube video lessons, playing songs themselves or even reading articles.

Another really great way to learn or get better at guitar is to seek out other people to play with, especially if they are better players than you are.

Guitar players always seem to be willing to help less experienced players get better so they can have more people with whom to play.

The main advantages of taking guitar lessons are that you have an experienced player dedicated to making you better, coaching you through mistakes and encouraging you through rough patches.

Plus, a teacher in step with you and your goals can be a guiding light through the waves of opinions out there just waiting to make things more complicated.

Are You Thinking About Getting Started with Guitar?

Guitar doesn't have to be difficult to understand or seem like a chore to practice. In fact, the route to success should be enjoyable and accessible. Contact us today if you are interested in starting the process of learning guitar.