Four essentials to learn how to play the guitar

 

In this article we shall try to demonstrate that to learn how to play the guitar, you only need 4 things: desire, a guitar, a good teacher, and fingers. Many  people think that learning guitar is “complicated”. But it in fact boils down to 4 very simple essentials:

1. Desire

You need to want it. And want it bad. You need to picture yourself playing your favorite tunes, improvising or writing your own songs (whatever it is you’re after) and imagine how amazing you are going to feel when you get to do that. It also helps to know why playing guitar is so important to you, what it brings you that other things do not bring you in life.

 

2. A guitar

Or you can play air guitar. But having an actual guitar in your hands really helps…

3. A good teacher

A good teacher will help you define what exactly you want to learn on the guitar and how to get there. They will create a personalized plan for you which will take you where you want to be with in most fun way possible.
When looking for a teacher, it is a good idea to look for someone who has already proven that they can get students to progress very fast and have a lot of fun. If you are thinking about teaching yourself, you can ask yourself: “how many people have I already successfully helped become great guitar players?”. If you haven’t successfully taught many people, then there is no objective reason for you to think you will be able to teach yourself, and you might want to consider learning from a qualified professional.

 

4. Fingers

You don’t need to have 5 fingers, but you need some. One of the best guitarists of all time, Django Rheinhardt, could only use 2 fingers (+ his thumb in the back of the guitar neck) because of an accident he had. So if you have 2 fingers on top of your thumb, you can play really well. If you have more, there really is no excuse.

 

 

  

 

What do a lot people think they need? “Natural talent”. This is completely false and often used as an excuse for not having enough desire to become a great guitar player. A lot of people reading this article will say “it can’t be as simple as need desire, a guitar, a good teacher and a few fingers”. They want other “uncontrollable” obstacles to stand in the way, so that they can justify to themselves their own lack of action.
But the truth is that things ARE that simple, and that is very good news because it means that you can start learning and progressing today, and get rid of all the excuses you have made for yourself for not progressing the way you want and can!

About the author

Matthieu Delage is the director of the Escuela de Guitarra de Madrid, which is considered as providing some of the best guitar lessons in Madrid. It uses a proven method which has produced significant results for many guitar students.
Matthieu es el director de la Escuela de Guitarra de Madrid, donde se imparten unas de las mejores clases de guitarra en Madrid. Usa un método probado, que ha producido importantes resultados para muchos alumnos.