One of the most popular pursuits for kids and adults is taking up guitar. It’s wonderful for too many reasons to list. Whether you are just starting out or if you’ve already begun, it might help to consider objectively where you are in your overall development so that you can understand what you’ve done and what you need to keep doing in order to improve. Sometimes mapping these things explicitly can help clarify your accomplishments and future objectives.

The first stage is getting accustomed to the instrument and reading chord charts and notes. This will be a new world for you and your mind and fingers need time to adapt. The biggest challenge is getting used to it without feeling alienated. However long this takes is ok, but during this stage it’s necessary to practice regularly so that psychologically you can wrap your head around the instrument. Sometimes, it might seem like a daunting task, but the more regularly you come into contact with it the more reasonable it will seem. You just need to overcome this first mental hurdle with practice and an encouraging teacher. It’s all about patience and persistence. Once you can play some melodies and start getting sounds out of your guitar you have entered a new stage.

Next, you’ll start playing full melodies and sounding open position chords. Your job is to learn to play with deliberate rhythmic emphasis and control, melodically, and harmonically to start connecting your chords so that you can play recognizable songs. Your strumming may still be basic, but that’s fine! It’ll sound musical, and you’ll notice an improvement. That makes all the difference. Sometimes you’ll improve so gradually that you won’t notice yourself moving into the second category, but take a minute to appreciate how far you’ve come because it will help you and you deserve the recognition!

Once chords and basic melodies are down, you can play with a little more style and flair. Learn some unique strumming patterns, do hammer-ons and pull offs, put some bass notes into your chords. After a while you can bounce harmonies and melody back and forth, combining them to make your music more sophisticated. When you’re in this stage, your music can really take off and you can focus more on the style of music you want to play. Acquaint yourself with the conventions of your genre, and listen a lot to the best musicians in this style. If you like country, then learn those fast flat picking techniques, or if you like blues and jazz learn some scales and chords to practice bouncing.

In the final stage, you will learn the biggest and most unusual chords as well as the theory behind them, and you’ll start mastering scales so that you can use the notes for your own soloing purposes. Scales are no longer a finger exercise, but a structure you can play from to make music. But even in this final stage, and this is perhaps the best and most challenging thing about music, there’s always more you can learn!

Long & McQuade’s Musical Education Center offers guitar lessons Regina and piano lessons North Vancouver. When trying to learn a musical instrument be sure to visit the professionals at Long & McQuade – one of Canada\’s largest music stores.

Long & McQuade’s Musical Education Center offers guitar lessons Regina and piano lessons North Vancouver. When trying to learn a musical instrument be sure to visit the professionals at Long & McQuade – one of Canada\’s largest music stores.
http://www.long-mcquade.com

Author Bio: Long & McQuade’s Musical Education Center offers guitar lessons Regina and piano lessons North Vancouver. When trying to learn a musical instrument be sure to visit the professionals at Long & McQuade – one of Canada\’s largest music stores.

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