Teach Yourself to Play Guitar

The guitar is a classic instrument that covers a wide genre of music from rock, blues, jazz to classical. It is also relatively easy to learn to play. But as with any other skill, it requires a lot of patience and practice as well as the desire to teach yourself to play guitar.

I’ve covered the basics of what types of guitar there are, as well as the various parts of a guitar, to give a good understanding of the instrument. This should give a good foundation to allow you to move on to teach yourself to play guitar.

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By now you would have decided on either an acoustic or an electric guitar.
Before buying a guitar you need to make sure you get yourself either a left or right handed guitar.

Left Handed or Right Handed

When starting to teach yourself to play guitar you’re going to have to figure out whether you’re left or right handed. To do this you will need to find out which hand you use to play the guitar. Most people assume that just because you are left or right handed, you will also play the guitar the same way. While playing guitar you will have to use two hands; one for strumming and one for depressing the strings onto the fret board. Consequently it is important to know which hand is to be used for each purpose.

The reason for this is a guitar’s strings are usually aligned with the thickest string (E string) on top when the guitar is held, with the remainder of the strings gradually thinning down as it reaches the bottom. With this setup, the left hand is used to tap the frets forming chords, and the right hand is used to strum the strings. If you feel that your left hand is much suited to handle the strumming and that the right hand for pushing down the string onto the fret board, then the strings need to be attached the opposite way; starting with the thinnest string on top, and the thickest one at the bottom. A very famous guitarist who plays the guitar this way is Jimi Hendrix. Kurt Cobain was also known for this.

Playing Positions

One of the fundamentals when starting to teach yourself to play guitar is the playing position. This can be done either seated or standing. In general you will probably practice sitting down.

Sitting Positions:

There are basically two sitting positions when holding a guitar; casual and classical.
The casual is generally the easiest to teach yourself to play guitar.

To get into the correct position follow the next steps:

• Lift up the guitar and ensure the guitar body is supported by your leg – you will find that the shape of the guitar body naturally positions the guitar into place.
  
• Make sure you position yourself on the edge of the chair.
  
• Ensure that you have a good posture with your back being straight but relaxed.
  
• Slightly tilt the guitar back towards you.

Standing Position:

The standing position is generally used when playing to an audience but there is no reason you can’t practice standing up. It is a good idea to try both standing and sitting to find out what suits you best when starting to teach yourself to play guitar. Remember that when you stand you will need a strap for your guitar.

To get into the correct position follow the next steps:

• Lift up the guitar and put the strap over your shoulder. Make sure you adjust the strap so that your guitar is positioned mid-body and that you feel comfortable.
  
• Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar if you are right handed. The opposite applies if left handed.
  
• Let your right hand rest over the bridge of the guitar if you are right handed ready to strum the strings.

To read on about hand positions, fretting and holding the pick, see Teach Yourself How to Play Guitar (Page 2)