What are some tips for playing acoustic guitar?
TealEyes asked:
Hi, I have just started playing guitar. I am just working on chords and am having a lot of difficulty. I have small fingers and I am having a hard time stretching my fingers that far. Does anyone have any tips on how to play chords better? Actually any guitar tips would be fantastic because I am teaching myself. 10 points to the best answer. Thanks!
Hi, I have just started playing guitar. I am just working on chords and am having a lot of difficulty. I have small fingers and I am having a hard time stretching my fingers that far. Does anyone have any tips on how to play chords better? Actually any guitar tips would be fantastic because I am teaching myself. 10 points to the best answer. Thanks!
Yeah, it’s hard at first.
Like you said, you just started. With that in mind, I need to tell you that you are mistaken, and it’s not your small fingers that make it hard. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some things on guitar that big hands such as mine are an advantage, but the basic chords that you start with, open chords, and simple major and minor chords, are not where my advantages lie.
It’s not the stretch that’s hard, it’s the awkward shapes that you need to teach your hand. When I began playing guitar, I was 8 years old, and these sausage fingers I have now were little links in comparison. What you need to work on is called muscle memory, which is the ability to contort your hand into those awkward shapes with a minimal amount of thought. The only way to do this seems to be through repetition, and eventually the difficulties will melt away and even the most awkward chords will be second nature.
My only advice is to practice often. When you’ve mastered something that you’ve been working on, move on to the next thing. I play my guitar every day, sometimes for hours, sometimes only for a few minutes. But, rarely does a day go by that I don’t pick it up. Don’t get discouraged. When it becomes frustrating, channel that frustration into your fingertips and turn it into determination.
You can totally do this. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and guitar is no different. Take it one small challenge at a time, love what you do, and eventually you might be playing your guitar, and from almost a third person perspective look down at yourself playing and think to yourself, “Wow, when did I learn to do that?” Sal Chaech
it takes about 3-4 months for most to play chords fluently. what Sal said is very true all around, but focusing on the muscle memory aspect, this is the single most important thing in being able to play chords. Muscle memory takes approx 3000-5000 repetitions for you brain to stop thinking about the action and your body to do it on its own.
My advice for hasting the process is simple: play more. You should learn chords in the following process, open chords (your C, G, D, etc), barre chords (all 4 types), 7’s, and the other tension chords (chords w/ 6s, 9s, 11s, etc. you NEED to study theory. you want to understand what you’re playing instead of blindly playing which will hinder you progress in the future. you wont always have a chord chart near you, so learn how to build your own chords via music theory)
Are you doing warm ups, which helps loosing your hands and fingers up b4 serious playing? You should work on your scale patterns (which is sooo very boring). I neglected this before, and a yr and a half later im just finally doing my modes (a music theory term for a playing through a major scale starting on different degrees; theres 7 in total), whole tone, diminished, the 3 minor types (natural minor {this is actually the same thing a the mode that starts on the 6th degree/note of a major scale finishing on the same note 1 octave higher} harmonic minor, and melodic minor), your pentatonic types (blues, minor, major, etc), and chromatic
Every chord correlates to a scale, so its best you learn your scales (major is the most important one to know, all western music is based on the major scale).
Finally work on as many different song styles as possible and dont stick to one artist, especially if its taylor swift or paramore; they dont use enough chord variation or complicated chords for you to grow much. A great person for those trying to take that first step in the great door of chords, Jack Johnson; with most of his songs you pick up several chord forms (some easier than others) with really simple yet musical songs.
try the following:
sitting waiting wishing (uses barre chords, open chords, and dominant 7s)
banana pancakes (uses barre and 7 chords played with moving lines)
better together (you’ll pick up probably ur 1st split chord)
angel (you really dont need a capo but its up to you)
go on (this song is not in the key of C which is a good change for beginners)
breakdown
staple it together (this song is a different style so you get to play w/ rhythms and picking)
and these last two are rather hard for beginners:
taylor (has a bluesy intro which is kinda difficult but once you learn it you’ll feel pretty good)
belle (uses jazz chords (major and minor 7s and 6s, but most are played using your thumbs with the rest of your fingers, and its fingerpicked instead of strumed. its a great song and opens a door for jazz and a lil bossa)
once you conquer Jack Johnson’s stuff go ahead on to john mayer, dave matthews, and whatnot
guitar is alotta work, but once you start racking up those milestones, things become easier……but harder at the same. now ur building ur foundation with your basic chords and getting ur fingers under you; in the future you’ll be able to pick up chord forms faster and faster. your progress is grow tenfold as long as you practice the right stuff. so make sure you vary your style (although play alotta chords based songs, i make sure to play things like metal, prog, classical (really hard), flamenco, jazz, song w/ and w/o fingerpicking, etc). BUT you can only get so far before some lil obstacle pops up hindering your progress. mine rt now is improvising within the rt chord changes, reading music fluently, and playing those hard chord changes (im learning “How Insensitive” and bout to finish “My Funny Valentine”). so yea keep it up and remember to have fun. u have time so dont get frustrated Devon
Along with the recommendations given by Sal, here is what I offer:
Start by visiting your local music store and pick up a booklet for beginning guitarists, such as Hal Leonard’s Beginning Guitar Method Book One. Inside are instructions in tuning, maintenance, basic chords, and, most important, basic music theory and accompanying exercises that will get you into learning music notation.
While at the music store, pick up a comprehensive chord book of at least 2,500 chords and how they appear in music notation.
Learn the Chromatic Scale for each string and the moveable chords, such as F, Fm, Bb, Bbm, Ab, C#, etc. These chords, all beginning in the first fret, are moveable and become new named chords as you progress up and then down the fretboard.
There is no instant success at guitar playing; just a steady, on-the-course pursuit of improving each day until you have mastered quick changes of chords, produce good tones in those chords, and have developed appropriate rhythm techniques.
Last, but crucial to your learning process, is building up the needful calluses that must come if you wish to play the guitar. Expect about two weeks until the fingertips begin to toughen up for you. Without them, chances of progressing on the guitar are almost negligible.
You will have to spend a little money to get started, primarily for a beginner book and a quality chord book. If you can move beyond the painful fingertips and still feel determined to play the guitar, then you can do it.
Best wishes. Guitarpicker