LAYMAN'S GUIDE TO PLAYING GUITAR

'Without music, life is not worth living' - Gramophone slogan.

How true this is. Many of us listen to music everyday - radio , I-Pod, Music Videos so on and so forth.

Wouldn't you like to be able to play the favorite songs that you hear every day? Many of my friends I have encountered want to learn how to play the guitar... simple songs that can entertain... I myself have been playing the guitar for fun and entertainment since 13 years old, when my cousin introduced me to it... And have performed at a few gigs, just for fun... sec 2 at the RGS PSL carnival, at my secondary school's prefect activities and sec 4 graduation ceremony, in Mongolia for some middle school children, at Basic Military Training as part of my platoon's item during Recruit's evening... etc etc. I can't say that my guitar skills are very good... but I can assure you that playing the guitar isn't very difficult... and the benefits of learning it are great indeed!

WHY LEARN THE GUITAR?
The guitar is a versatile musical instrument... It is ubiquitous and portable... it can be used to recreate the sounds of many favorite bands from many genres ... acoustic, rock, alternative, punk rock, jazz so on and so forth. In my opinion, its learning curve isn't as difficult as say, learning the piano, since by strumming a few chords you can actually come up with a song good enough to be sung along by your friends! It is useful at informal gatherings and formal functions alike... to break the ice and create a nice, soothing and relaxing atmosphere... (though the quality of singing is another story altogether ;) ).

How to go about learning guitar?

Let me recount my experience... I went to stay at my cousin's place during the holidays and he was already playing guitar at that time... He taught me how to play a few chords... and from there, I progressed...

LEARN SIMPLE SONGS
You could start learning by playing a few simple songs... Catchy songs, fortuitously, consist of only 3-4 chords that are repeated, save for the bridge... (the presence of such few chords is why they are so catchy)... The websites available for such songs are www.ultimate-guitar.com...
You can search by song name and band name... The few simple songs I started with were :

SONGS THAT SOUND DECENT WHEN THERE'S ONLY STRUMMING
Pearl Jam - Last Kiss (G Em C D)
Green Day - Warning (A D G D)
Semisonic - Closing Time - (G D Am C)
Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing at All - (G D C D)
The Calling - Wherever You Will Go - (C G Am F)
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life (G D C)


You can just learn the fingering of these few major chords:
CDEFGAB
C=do, D=re, E=me etc...

and the minor chords...

Em, Am

After that, you can progress to songs with more chords, e.g.

Cake - I Will Survive Am Dm G C F B E
Eagles - Hotel California, Love Will Keep us Alive, Desperado
Beatles - Let It Be.... etc

FINDING CHORDS ON THE WEB
At Ultimate-guitar.com, once you have searched for the song, several versions will appear:


followed by : or .

click on the chords for purely sing -along stuff, i.e. lyrics with the chord on top.

Click under 'show chord diagrams' to see the fingerings for the various chords...

The guitar consists of 6 strings.
EBGDAE(Every Bad Girl Deserves An Egg)
from thinnest to thickest.

PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE
Practise makes perfect. You must be willing to invest time and effort into perfecting your skills, just like any other art. Perhaps guitar is one of the easier instruments to pick up, as compared to piano, for example...

You should practise the fingering every day... and initially it will be quite painful as the soft skin of your fingers have not adjusted to brushing against the hard metal strings of your guitar... you must play for a few weeks to months for the callus (dead) skin on your fingertips to grow, such that you would be immune to the 'pain'...

Another difficulty is 'Barring' the chord... ie using one finger to cover several or all six strings... You must perservere in learning this skill, for it is essential in playing chords like F... and certain minor chords, e.g. B-minor.. and also power chords...

You must be able to transit from chord to chord instantaneously and effortlessly to be able to play a decent tune, so just focus on the simple songs above first...

Practise strumming the songs above... Strumming in itself is enough to get you sufficient entertainment... because most sing-alongs or other communal activities revolve around one or more people strumming the guitar and the rest singing along...

BUYING A GUITAR

BENEFITS
Also, it would be a good investment to purchase a guitar. It might be expensive at the start, but it is a worthy investment. Most guitars can last you a lifetime, and you can bring it anywhere you go... I brought mine overseas several times already, ensuring that it was kept in a hardy case... My friend owns a guitar that was passed down to him from his father's time! Owning your own guitar would mean that you have access to it 24/7, and can practise at any time... initially, you might want to borrow a guitar from a friend to try... but I recommend that if you are serious about learning, you should get one of your own, for every guitar has its own 'feel' and 'personality'... and it is important that you like to play yours...

TYPES OF GUITAR IN THE MARKET
Moreover, there are many kinds of guitar out there in the market. There is the classical with nylon strings (the kind you hear people playing Greensleeves with), the acoustic with metal strings, electric guitar, bass guitar etc. I suggest you start off with an acoustic guitar first, before progressing onto others, like electric guitar. Acoustic guitar can be played by itself, but if you are thinking of performing in future, you should get one with a socket for an amplifier... Also, buying a good quality guitar (which might cost more) is better than buying one cheap one... after all, you will be keeping it for a long, long time, might as well get a long lasting one... an electric guitar is a nice addition, but it is slightly more expensive...

After you have learnt these main chords, you can progress to power chords for the same notes,
so you can play rock songs...

Power chords are those with a fixed fingering... eg 355, 466 etc. Learning them would prove useful as they are flexible. If you can't play the original chord, simply use the power chord by finding the first note and playing the other two correspondingly.

Blink 182 - All the Small Things (C Am G Am-F (intro), C G F G verse & chorus)
Third Eye Blind - Never Let You Go - E B Am

After you have completed with strumming, you may want to progress to plucking.

PLAYING RIFFS (plucking on strings)
Beginner's songs include:
Green Day - Time of Your Life
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All

Again, you can get the tabs from ultimate-guitar.com... and look for 'Guitar'

You should see lines:

____
____
____
____
____
____

These correspond to the guitar strings.
____E (thinnest)
____A
____D
____G
____B
____E (thickest)

And there will be numbers on the lines:
____2___
____3___
____2___
________
________
________

The numbers correspond to the frets on the guitar. The example shown above is the 'D' chord.
To play a riff, simply follow the directions given. I.e. use your finger to press down on the number given for that fret, and play in sequence. N.b.: '0' denotes that you pluck the string without holding down any string.

The best is to engage a teacher to teach you, like some of my friends have done. Or any siblings/friends who play the guitar.
You can then progress faster.
Or you could learn by yourself if you prefer, but you need more perserverance. '
Books and e-learning are also another possibility.
but what matters most is that you practise whenever you can, especially on the basic chords...
You can also learn other more challenging skills like hammering, sliding (electric guitar rock songs), etc. in order to play like Jimi Hendrix or Guns n Roses for example.

Where to PRACTISE?
Initially, you should practise by yourself at home, to get the basics right.
once you are done, you can head to Jamming studios (average about SGD 12.00 per hour) with your friends. This is when the fun starts. You could start your own band with your friends - same instruments but each playing different parts, or different instruments harmonizing together - keyboard, drums, bass, electric, acoustic guitar, singer... This is the best part of learning as you get to harmonize with your friends and create nice symphonic music (hopefully!) with your friends..and you could even record your own album... :)

Hope this has been useful food for thought to those of you who are thinking of picking up guitar as a skill. Feel free to approach me if you got any questions on basic guitar-ing.
Good luck and happy jamming! :)