10 essential Guitar Practice Tips For Beginners (2022)

For beginners, the guitar has a pretty steep learning curve. When I first decided to learn to play the guitar, it was followed by a lot of disappointments. There were plenty of moments when I just wanted to give up.

It’s not that I wasn’t practicing enough. The problem was I didn’t know the proper techniques. I had to learn them the hard way through years of practice and failure.

In this article, I am going to share some essential guitar practice tips for beginners. This will make learning the guitar much easier and help you avoid the most common rookie mistakes.

Best Guitar Tips For Beginner Guitarist

Here we discussed some guitar practice tips for beginner guitarists, let’s see them one by one:

1. Get A Good Guitar

Although it is possible to learn the guitar on any type of guitar, it is much easier (and more fun) to play a good quality instrument.

Though a good guitar does not have to be expensive, you can find decent acoustic and electric guitars for under $300 to start with. If you are serious about playing the guitar, I recommend investing in a good quality instrument. It will make your practice sessions more enjoyable and help you to progress faster.

On the other hand, A cheap but poor quality guitar will produce cheap sounds and rarely be in tune. It will seriously limit your learning capabilities. Choose a reputable brand like Yamaha or Fender and spend on a better acoustic or electric guitar.

2. Learn Guitar Systematically

Start by learning the basics. Do not try to learn everything at once and forget things like riffs, scales, and lead guitar. It will only overwhelm you, and you will end up forgetting most of it. Learn one thing at a time and master it before moving on to the next concept.

Guitar teachers can teach you guitar systematically then your progress will be much faster by learning the correct techniques from the very beginning. They can also answer your questions and give you feedback on your playing.

A guitar teacher will make sure that you practice regularly and keep you accountable. If you are serious about learning guitar, I recommend finding a guitar teacher in your area. If you are in Dublin, We are happy to help you out.

3. Practice Properly And Take Breaks

Practicing the wrong way would not give you the desired results no matter how much time you spend on it. There is no magic number of hours you should practice guitar every day, but make sure that your guitar sessions are productive.

Have a goal in mind and focus on that. If you want to learn a particular song, start by breaking it down into small pieces. Learn the intro, the verse, the chorus, and so on. Focus on one part of the lesson at a time, and once you have mastered it, move on to the next part.

Most importantly, do not forget to take breaks. Overexerting yourself will only lead to frustration and make you want to give up. Allow your brain and your fingers some time to rest. If you’re unable to concentrate for a long time, break your guitar practice sessions into smaller chunks and take breaks in between.

Also, pressing down on the strings can be pretty painful for a beginner guitarist. But don’t let that stop you. You’ll eventually develop calluses on your fingertips and the pain will go away. But don’t go overboard and practice till you bleed.

4. Use A Guitar Practice Routine

When I started playing guitar, I would just randomly play whatever came to my mind. It led to me repeating the same mistakes again and not making any genuine progress.

Nowadays, I use a guitar practice routine that helps me focus on specific areas that need improvement. It has helped me progress much faster and avoid wasting time on things that I am already good at.

If you are not sure where to start, here is a guitar practice routine that I recommend for beginners:

Warm-up exercises (5 minutes): Start by playing some easy guitar exercises to warm up your fingers and get the blood flowing to your hands.

Scales (5 minutes): Practice and playing scales will improve your finger dexterity and proper technique.

Chords (5 minutes): Work on some guitar chords and play chords to build up your strength and accuracy.

Songs (5 minutes): Play along with some of your favorite songs to help you learn how to apply what you have learned in a real-world setting.

Cool-down exercises (5 minutes): Finish with some easy guitar exercises to cool down your hands and relax your muscles.

5. Be Patient And Go Slow

In The Beginning, one of the most common mistakes is that people want to learn too many things within a short period. They are impatient and want to progress as fast as possible. When you first start playing guitar, it is essential to start slowly.

You might be able to play a few chords and strum some basic songs within the first few weeks. Trust me that you are still making progress even if you feel like you are not progressing as fast as you want.

Rome was not built in a day and neither is guitar playing mastery. Since learning to play the guitar correctly is not a racing competition or not playing Need for Speed 4, you shouldn’t speed up at the initial stage. It is most required to learn accurately, practice correct fingering, and be capable to hit the right notes with good technique rather than go super-fast with poor techniques.

It takes time, patience, and consistency to get good at this instrument (or any skill). And when you get those things right, you can speed up, or speed will increase instinctively.

6. Practice Regularly With Keeping Track Of Your Progress

Regularity is an integral part of learning to play the guitar properly. Practicing a few days and then suddenly stopping is the worst thing you can do. My advice is to set 15 to 20 minutes in your daily routine for the guitar practice session and maintain that schedule.

Also, practice new things or hard stuff along with the older ones you have already learned to play. It will boost your growth as a guitar player when you push yourself forward to practice and learn new things without practicing the same stuff repeatedly.

Prepare a practice schedule for yourself and make sure to track your progress. It will help you stay motivated and see the results of your guitar practice sessions.

7. Don’t Avoid Hard Chords And Strumming Patterns

In the beginning, it is natural to want to play only easy chords and strumming patterns. That is perfectly fine but do not avoid the hard ones altogether.

I am not saying that you should start your guitar journey with barre chords but try to work on them as soon as possible. The same goes for the strumming pattern.

At the early stage, it is essential to build a strong foundation. Once you have that, you can expand your repertoire and play more challenging material. Avoiding certain complicated chords, chord progressions, and complex strumming patterns will limit your playing. Practicing them over and over again will help you to develop your technique.

8. Train Your Ear

One of the most critical things for guitar players is to be able to play by ear. It means being able to hear a song and then play it on guitar without reading the music or tabs.

This skill takes time and patience to develop, but it is well worth the effort. There are many benefits to playing by ear, such as being able to improvise and write your own songs.

There are a few things you can do to help train your ear:

Listen to music: This may seem obvious, but it is important to listen to a variety of music genres to help develop your musical ear.

Play along with songs: As you listen to songs, try to play along with them on guitar. It will help you to start recognizing the different chords and melodies.

Use a guitar tuner: A guitar tuner can be a good tool for helping you to identify notes by ear. Play a note on your guitar, and then match it up with the note on the tuner.

Take guitar lessons: A guitar teacher can help you develop your ear training skills and give you feedback on your progress.

9. Set Some Realistic Goals

When starting out, do not set goals that are too high or unrealistic. It will only lead to frustration and make you want to give up.

Yes, it is essential to have some goals in mind but make sure they are achievable. For example, a realistic goal for a complete beginner might be to learn a few basic chords and strumming patterns or to be able to play a simple song within the next month.

10. Do Not Compare Yourself To Other Guitarists

In the guitar world, there is always somebody better than you. There is no shame in admitting that because we all have to start somewhere.

The most important thing is to focus on your guitar journey and not compare yourself to other guitarists. Every guitar player has a different story, and they started at a different point in their lives.

Final words

These best guitar tips will help you make the most of your guitar practice sessions and improve your skills quickly. Though these guitar tips are conspicuous and well known to every guitar player, beginners fail to follow the directions in the excitement of learning new stuff.

Remember to focus on quality over quantity, and don’t be afraid to try new things. With regular practice, you’ll be surprised at how fast you progress!

If you are serious about guitar learning, we recommend finding a guitar teacher in your area. A guitar teacher will help you learn systematically, give you feedback on your playing, and keep you accountable for your practice routine.

We offer guitar lessons in Dublin for beginners to advanced students. Contact us today to schedule a trial lesson! If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends!