How To Play Along With Your Own Guitar The Easy Way !
We all have a latent performer inside of us. Whether we like to be our own audience or not is irrelevant. The ability to be able to Play Along on our Guitar to the current hits or those nostalgic tunes from days past is too often just a dream..
Yet it can be different now with the advent of the internet and technology which now brings a self paced guitar tutor, complete with lessons, into the privacy of our own home. Instead of having to head off to lessons, hiding our instrument so no one will ask us to play something, we can now learn at times which suit us and in the environment of our choice.
We will assume here that you are already the proud owner of a guitar complete with strings and a plectrum (pick). If you are still to get a guitar then there are basically two types Acoustic or Electric.
The acoustic guitar has a large hollow, and often hour glass shaped, lower part which is the echo chamber. This amplifies the sounds of the vibrating strings and, depending on its dimensions, adds tonal qualities.
The electric guitar usually has a solid lower part and comes in many different shapes from hour glass to triangular. On top of the solid part and under the strings are small metal pieces which pick up the vibrations from the strings then feed this into an amplifier. This means that you now need an extra piece of equipment. Sometimes, your personal stereo will have a microphone input where you can plug the electric guitar into.
Guitars will also come with two types of strings - Nylon or steel. The nylon stringed guitars used to be associated with playing folk music and the steel ones were said to be "Rock and Roll" use. At this stage it may be down to preference and what your guitar came with.
Ok, the first part of getting a sound from this exciting instrument you now own is dependent on making sure it is in tune. If the shop did not tune it for you then this is something you must do yourself. Remember that the strings will stretch so knowing how to re-tune is extremely useful. You can tune by using a tuning flute where each segment corresponds to one particular string. Tuning forks can also be used where you give the fork a gentle hit at the pronged end and tune the bottom string to the forks resonating sound. Have someone play the note on a piano or keyboard or try downloading a simple keyboard program for your PC and play the notes from there.
Now you are ready to begin. The fastest way to learn how to play is by setting aside time regularly for practice. 15 to 25 minutes 3 times a week will show good improvement. Try to get somewhere where no one else is around. Hearing the same note over and over for even 10 minutes can be extremely trying for a non guitar player. Any feedback from them will most likely be negative so get your space..
There is a structure to learning anything and the guitar is no different. If you want to make rapid progress then follow the steps and avoid the temptation to jump ahead. Highly rated lessons are available Here to get you started.
About the author: Pick up the guitar and with your first strum have everyone staring at you in amazement.
Play the first chord and watch the smiles as they start to sing along with you..
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