You may as well drop an A-bomb on your musician friend. The biggest and most difficult question anyone can answer easily is “How do you play a guitar?” Although difficult it’s not impossible to answer.

A couple things to consider when asking this:

What Appeals To You?  Why Do You Want To Learn To Play?

          What kind of guitar related music appeals most to you? This is the best response to anyone asking, as well as the most important in regards to getting a positive start, setting goals, achievements, etc. for anyone with the spark of desire to play.

As the great Bert Casey once said, you’re training your fingers to do something they’ve never done before. This is especially true to those who’ve never played an instrument or have never had previous musical experience.

Where Do You Want To Show Off Your Talent?

Campfire or Bar-gig? As I’ll explain, what your future consists of and what your interests are correlate heavily on how you should start.

Commitment

          Do you have the time to commit? Like anything, learning something new takes time. Interestingly, with the guitar it’s better to sit down for one day for an hour straight drilling your fingers on the fret board versus sitting down for 10 minutes each day of the week.

Eddie Van Halen described his practice sessions as reaching a meditative type state after playing for a couple hours, where he would feel the best inspiration and feel the most progress. Good news is your guitar isn’t asking you for 120 minutes every day when you first start.

Practice Until Your Fingers Are Numb

Even if you wanted to this would be difficult as your finger tips aren’t tough enough to handle that kind of work. Once you’ve reached the ‘numb tip’ stage, it’s a good time to call it a hard days’ work.

A Very Popular Learning Guitar Video For You

          Where do you see yourself in a year? Unless you’ve acquired the Pick of Destiny you’re going to have to work.

Good News

Some more good news – if it’s fun, it’s not work. The biggest reason people never get good is because they gave up when they were actually progressing the most, not feeling any gratification from their efforts.

The Best Way To Learn

The best way to learn guitar is with others; you can build off one another, and talk out your difficulties and ultimately push each other to where you need to be.

Not every one will learn as much as they can paying $20/hour for guitar lessons. The best way to start is with an acoustic guitar – not too cheap but not too expensive either. Once you’re comfortable and nimble with the basic chords, it’s time to plug it in.