Five Guitar Beginner Mistakes To Watch Out For

Learning to play guitar and more so for the first time is as rewarding as it is challenging, as you shall find in this post. You are excited that you can finally play the instrument you love, but there are steps to help you get here. Most of the time, the process is made hard by some of the mistakes that most people and more so beginners make. Thus, to make the process smoother, you need to put effort into avoiding such mistakes. Below are common mistakes made by beginners that make the guitar learning process harder than it should be.

Avoiding The Theory

When enrolling for a guitar class, you are probably looking forward to learning this quickly. Thus, going through the theory part will not be as enjoyable as you would want it to be. However, as dull as the theory may be, evading, it is one of the biggest mistakes as a beginner in the guitar class. The theory that you learn will help give you a better understanding of music, thus making you a better player. Therefore, the time you learn the theory is worth it since it will help you specialize in your guitar playing skills better. Additionally, if you have a trainer who advises you to skip the theory part and go directly to the practical, this is not a reliable trainer.

Applying Too Much Effort To Play

Putting too much effort into the instrument is a mistake that people make in most musical instruments, and the guitar is of no exemption. That is primarily because of a belief that you have to strenuously press down the strings for the guitar to sound good. However, this is a common myth and a mistake that you should not make if you want to play your guitar. Placing your finger on the guitar and strumming the strings should be done swiftly. To help you achieve this, work on your finger positioning. That means placing your fingers near the fret wire, as this is the point that needs the lowest pressure to produce sound.

Practicing Without A Goal

When practicing without a goal, you will never know whether you are learning or not. That is one of the worst mistakes that you can make since you will not know what you have already learned and what you need to learn next. As a result, you will find that you cannot play a single node after a long time of practicing guitar since you have been practicing haphazardly. Therefore, set goals and fit them into the practicing time that you have. Additionally, before moving to the next goal, ensure that you are well conversant with the previous one to see your progress.

Holding The Guitar Incorrectly

For you to play the guitar well, one of the skills that you need to work on is not to hold the guitar. Although this may seem obvious, holding the guitar incorrectly is a common reason why most beginners take a long time to learn how to play it. Therefore, take time in your first lesson and ensure that you are holding it right. The right way to hold this guitar is sitting down with your knees at a right angle. When at this position, place the guitar’s waist on top of your right thigh. Your upper right arm should be resting on top of the guitar to move your forearm freely. When in such a position, then learning everything else about the guitar to be a breeze.

Practicing What You Already Know

It is fun to have a tune that you can comfortably play on the guitar to the end. Thus, it is tempting to keep on always playing this tune during all your practice sessions. However, if you aim to learn how to play the guitar, then playing the same tune that you are good at during your practice sessions is doing you any good. It is good to play these tunes for warm-up before you start the actual practice session. However, start practicing other tunes after this to help keep you motivated and notice progress. Additionally, when learning a song, ensure that you learn it all the way through before moving to the next one. Otherwise, you will be the kind of guitar player who cannot play a song to the end.

Practicing to play the guitar is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable process. However, some of the mistakes you may make during the practice session may make the guitar learning process a nightmare. Above are some of these guitar mistakes that you should watch out to make your guitar learning process smooth.