Everyone seems to have their own best way to learn guitar, but when you are first starting out it can be a little frustrating not knowing what to practice or how to make progress. So below I will outline 3 tips that will help take your guitar playing to the next level. They are all pretty basic and straight forward, but when done in conjunction with each other they really do form the best way to learn guitar.
Warm - up: This is so important I cannot overstate its importance. Your warm up does not have to be anything complicated. Simply stretch your fingers for two to five minutes. Then press your four left hand fingers down on a string, hold and release. Repeat this a few times until your fingers start to limber up.
As an extension of this, I like to do some basic alternate picking and four finger exercises. For the alternate picking I just pick a string and pick down and up on it for about 30 seconds or so. The four finger exercise is basically just starting on the first fret and playing that note, moving to the second fret with my second finger and playing that, then adding the third fret with my third finger and fourth fret with my fourth finger. I then repeat this pattern on the A string and continue up the strings to the high E. Then I reverse the process and come down. I then move up a fret and repeat the pattern until I get to the 12th fret.
Practice fundamentals everyday: This is another powerful idea that I cannot overstate. You need to put together a routine of the most basic aspects of playing that you can work on, on a daily basis. This will include a few basic scale patterns (the CAGED scales are excellent here), as well as the most basic and common chords and progressions, and maybe a few basic techniques like slurs, as well as a strum pattern or two. Make a list and then cycle through it throughout the week.
You don't want to spend too much time on this section though. Maybe ten to fifteen minutes will do. Sometimes people get bogged down on this part and you end up spending two hours running string skipping exercises and never get on to playing actually music! This will short circuit your progress faster than anything, and believe me there is no value in being able to rip harmonic minor scales like Yngwie Malomsteen and not being able to play a song all the way through. So ten minutes or so and then on to songs. You got tomorrow to work on scales and fundamentals again
Learn to play by Ear: Ok this is probably the hardest part, but it's also the most important. This is hands down the best way to learn guitar. It is also the most difficult way to learn guitar. To start off pick a very simple melody you know by heart. I mean simple...like Mary had a little lamb simple. Then pick a starting note and sing the melody, and try to match it with your guitar. This might take a bit of time to work out, but don't stop until you have it! It is too important. As you work through basic songs like that you will find your ability to pick out melodies increasing, soon you will be able to hum or sing a line you made up and immediately play it on the guitar, and that's the real goal of this exercise.
So now we've covered three ways that illustrate the best way to learn guitar. One thing I did not cover was going through a course or method that teaches you each of these skills. Following a course that covers all these basics really is the best way to learn guitar. To find out about some of these courses check out this site.
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