Were you recently gifted an acoustic guitar? Great! But do you know how to play? You might be scratching your head trying to find good guitar lessons, and wondering how to play guitar chords, how to keep a good rhythm, and how to set up a good practice routine. In this article, I’ll outline the best acoustic guitar lessons for a beginner, like yourself. You’ll be strumming with ease before you know it.
Create a Solid Foundation
It’s important to create a solid foundation and taking online acoustic guitar lessons can help you practice in the comfort of your own space and on the timeline that you need. But where do you start? When I first started learning to play guitar, I realized the importance of good technique. Like many people, I live with hand and wrist pain and have to watch how much I play. However, learning good techniques from the start will help you avoid new pains and trouble down the road.
Did you know it’s important to stretch before you play? There are certain exercises you can do that will help you stretch your fingers so you’re ready to play. Terry Carter’s instructional guitar website Rock Like the Pros has many different courses you can take including the Guitar Practice and Technique Bootcamp.
You will learn a great warm-up routine that can help you loosen up and increase your strength and dexterity. You’ll gain confidence and learn how to tailor the exercises to your needs. This is the first step to becoming a great guitarist!
Read more: Easy Riffs You Can Learn Today!
Learn the Basics
The next step is to learn the basics of playing acoustic guitar. You might hear “basics” and think “boring”, but that’s far from the truth, especially since Terry Carter has created engaging material. In the Strumming Mastery course, you will learn beginner chords and have the opportunity to play along with a backing track. You will use these chords in songs that are in the style of famous songs.
For example, in Blowin’ Away, you will learn about movable melodies like the ones in Dust in the Wind. Two basic chords you’ll learn, C and Am, are made into new sounds by just moving around one or two fingers. This will open up a whole world of possibilities for you. This is also a great way to add some “spice” to songs that have simple strumming patterns. The different melodies make it sound far more interesting to the ear.
Find Your Style
The blues is a great place to start when searching for a style to play on acoustic guitar. If you have listened to the blues before, you know that blues songs have catchy licks and fills which are elements that you can add to your songs to make them unique and memorable. Blues songs can be as easy or as difficult as you’d like them to be. A blues turnaround is often toward the end of a song and signals a shift in the music. It often leads the player into the next verse.
This Blues turnaround in the key of A can be found on the Rock Like the Pros YouTube channel. In this example, Terry Carter uses the turnaround as an ending. There are so many possibilities when you play the blues! You can also watch this video on how to solo using the blues scale as another example of what you can learn with Rock Like the Pros:
Learning a specific style of music on acoustic guitar can not only help you learn that style, but you will also gain the knowledge necessary for any style of music. When you learn the blues on acoustic guitar, you learn different strum patterns and scales in different keys. You’ll also gain tools for improvisation which can be applied to any style.
Conclusion
Rock Like the Pros doesn’t end there. You will learn to play fingerstyle guitar, create solos, and learn how to read music. You’ll have access to the Community Forum where you can ask questions and rub shoulders with other players. You can buy courses individually or in packs. You can also become a Premium member on a monthly or yearly basis. The Rock Like the Pros YouTube channel has a wide assortment of videos on how to play guitar as well as song tutorials, challenges, and guitar reviews.
