This is the third post in the series, Guitar Tips for Beginners – Getting Started – Playing Guitar Part 3.
Step 5. Play songs all the way through. When you get to the point that you can play a complete song, play and practice the song all the way through, meaning from beginning to end. Many people that are beginning to play want to demonstrate their abilities by playing small sections of popular songs that they have mastered. For example, your friends come over and you want to show them some new things that you have learned. So you play the beginning to one song, the chorus to another song, etc… There is nothing wrong with this as you are proud of what you have learned and you want to show other people that you can play. However, what I have learned is that the learning curve for playing the guitar is shortened when you begin to learn and play songs from beginning to end. Something happens when you go from playing fragments to complete songs.
For example: I remember when I began playing; I was the king of the fragments. I knew this cool intro to a great song, a chorus to another song that wasn’t that difficult to play, but it looked and sounded complicated. My friends were impressed and I was proud that I could play these licks.
At that point, I decided to get together with a friend who could sing and we would put together some songs to showcase at parties or social situations. I realized then that I needed to learn songs from beginning to end to be able to perform them with the singer. I was accountable to him to learn the songs.
Once I began to learn songs completely, my friends and friends noticed that my playing vastly improved. I wasn’t doing anything different in my practice routine except for playing complete songs instead of fragments. My playing continued to improve after that point just by incorporating this one step into my routine.
Step 6. Be patient!!!! Again we asked the question “how much do you want to learn guitar?” Learning the guitar, as with learning anything new requires discipline, dedication and most of all patience. Everyone started somewhere. So get started today!
