Ask HN: How do you learn to play guitar? I just started learning to play guitar by watching some guitar lessons from YouTube. If you have done this before, what are the tips and tricks to progress faster? Are there any pitfalls along away that I should avoid? |
Show up daily. Even if it is only for 5 mins. Which means your Guitar should be handy. Pick it up every time you pass by it and give it go.
You will be managing three things all at once: Strumming, chords and singing. It will be an absolute mindfuck for a bit. The name of the game here is muscle memory. The only way to develop it is with practice. There are no shoutouts.
Most important is to have fun along the way. You don’t want the misery to break you down. I recommend targeting some fun songs with just 2 chords and simple strumming. Mine was “Rudolph the red nose reindeer”. The timing will work for you as well given that we are in Oct.
Once you develop the muscle memory it starts getting fun. But you have to persist.
I would also recommend learning tablature.
Go slow and steady, practice daily. Follow justin guitar or pebber brown, sit back and practice over and over again.
It's an odd thing giving advice from the perch of mastery. Justin emphasizes the "key" is transcribing songs. Similarly, as a go/baduk acolyte, I'm told by dan players to study tesuji, but most of my practice is playing actual games, just as it is playing actual songs.
Masters fall into the trap of thinking well, what would I do to get better? Because of their own preternatural talent and a 360 view of the discipline, they don't quite see that the less talented, casual learner needs practice to be a non-chore to stay motivated.