Questions and answers about guitar for beginners

Where do I start with the guitar?

1. Buy a guitar! Any guitar will do. Don’t worry about getting a top-end guitar at this stage.
2. Get lessons from a pro guitar teacher to learn the essentials to gain a solid foundation and avoid bad habits that can cause injuries.
3. Continue your musical journey with more lessons and/or with self-exploration.

Is guitar easier than piano?

For beginners, piano is much easier than guitar. With the piano, you can easily press down on the keys with one hand to produce clear sounds. With the guitar, you need to immediately work on hand coordination, which takes more time at the beginning.

Is it too late to start learning guitar at my age?

Yes! 40 and above is actually a great age to start because you probably have more time or at least more control over your schedule. Also, it’s important to keep your brain active at this age, and learning a new skill that can enhance your creativity and well-being is a great idea! Any age between 8-108 is suitable for learning guitar!

How much should I practice each day as a beginner?

Before giving a number, it’s important to actually practice every day, even if it’s for 10 minutes. This is true for guitar beginners and more advanced players. 10 minutes a day is more effective than 70 minutes once a week. How come? Here are a few reasons:

• Learning something new changes your brain, and when repeating it daily, you’re strengthening your neural connections.
• You’re introducing a new good habit to your everyday life, and as a habit, you won’t have to ask how long, you just do it daily.
• It’s likely that 10 minutes will become 20 minutes or more.
• Often, it’s the quality more than the quantity that counts – read the answer below.

Now, I can give you a number: if you can do anything between 1/2 hour to a whole hour a day, that’ll be amazing for your progress!

How much time will it take to learn guitar?

Learning guitar is a never-ending and fun journey. After 30+ years of playing, I’m still learning new things! That’s why you’ll benefit from setting goals and having a step-by-step path to achieve them within the right timeframe.

For example, as a complete guitar beginner, you can learn so much in even just a 1/2 hour guitar lesson! As a guitar teacher, these are my learning goals for the first lesson:

1. Know a few basic chords.
2. Know how to transition between them effortlessly.
3. Know a simple strumming pattern.
4. Play a whole song with what you’ve just learned.

What guitar accessories do you need as a beginner?

None. As a beginner, you don’t need any accessories apart from having a guitar to practice on. Tuners and metronomes can be found online or as free apps. Picks (or plectrums) are not mandatory, and a strap is unnecessary at this stage. Later, as your guitar playing advances, you can purchase accessories depending on your genre and style.

Should I start with an acoustic or electric guitar if I want to eventually write songs?

You can start on any guitar! The main difference is the timbre – how the guitar sounds. For example, with an electric guitar, you can plug it into effects pedals, like delay and reverb. These will give you a different feel and ambience than unplugged acoustic guitars.

Because the sound is different, it will also affect how you play each guitar. For example, you can play more quietly on an electric guitar connected to an amp, which will sound louder than an unplugged acoustic guitar.

Should I learn chords or scales first?

It depends on what brings you more joy at this stage: playing songs (chords) or playing guitar solos and improvising (scales). If it’s both, it doesn’t matter which one you start with. As you progress, you will learn how chords and scales are closely connected. So I recommend learning both at the same time, step by step.

Why do I keep forgetting what I learn after I practice?

It’s probably because of the way you practice. Perhaps you jump from one topic to another and not focusing and repeating the same thing over and over again. An efficient way to practice the guitar is to focus on one thing only, start slowly, and repeat it many times from various perspectives.

Here’s an effective method:

1. Choose one topic to learn, like the C major scale, 1st position (see image below).
2. Play it up and down – slowly!
3. Focus on your fretting hand to ensure you’re using the right technique.
4. Focus on your picking hand to ensure you’re using the right technique.
5. Say and sing the notes you play (important for ear training!).
6. Play the notes in a random way (the foundation of improvisation).
7. Increase the tempo gradually.

How do I know if I’m making progress?

That’s an important question! The honest answer is that you can’t know for sure if you’re making progress if you’re doing it all alone. Without having a pro guitar teacher reviewing your playing and progress, it’s almost impossible to know for certain. The fact is that you don’t know what you don’t know.

That’s exactly why I work closely with students to give them clarity, direction, and proof they’re improving. If you’re feeling unsure about your progress, let’s chat on Messenger: https://m.me/udiglaser or email me.

However, if you’re not able or refuse to learn with a guitar teacher, the next best thing you can do is film yourself from the first time you held a guitar. Then, you can compare the videos and see the progress you’ve made.

I hope you found this guitar beginners FAQ useful. Do you have more questions? Comment below!

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start playing confidently, I offer beginner-friendly lessons online, structured around your goals and creativity. Email me or message me to chat about it: https://m.me/udiglaser