How to Play Guitar - Beginner's Secret Unleashed - How to Learn Guitar Without a Guitar!

If you have a desire to learn the guitar, however, you currently do not even own a guitar yet; there are many things that you can learn about the guitar before you even begin to own and practice the guitar.

Obviously, at some point, you will want to go from the process of thinking about learning guitar, to actually buying and learning how to play your six string instrument.

Let's take a look at some simple steps that will help you to prepare for learning how to play guitar when you don't even own an instrument yet.

1.  Watch:  There are many great opportunities these days to watch some great guitar players play live. Whenever you have an opportunity to watch a great guitar player, look for the finer details as to how the player is utilizing their instrument. For example, take a look at how the musician is holding their guitar. Is the neck angled upwards, downwards? Watch how their left hand fingers are placed on the guitar. Try to look for similar finger positions that the guitar player is always playing. Chances are that the musician you are watching is playing similar chord or scale shapes that you can imitate once you own your own guitar.

2.  Actively listen: Although it is fun to listen to music as a whole, when you are listening to your favourite guitar players, go beyond just passively listening for fun. When listening to your favourite six stringed hero, actively listen to what they are playing. For example, does the guitar player do a lot of lead work. Lead work is basically developing a guitar solo creating a melody unto its own within the entire body of the song that has been written. Listen to how the guitar player utilizes dynamics of sound with in the song being played. For example, the guitar at the beginning of the song might be really quiet, however, by the end of the song the guitar is super loud and passionate in how it is being played.

3.  Play Guitar Hero: if you own a modern video game system, and you have anything related to the guitar hero phenomenon, then you're one step closer to learning how to play the guitar. The controllers used to play these music video games are based on a four button controller triggered system. One way you can look at this four button controller is that the controller represents a giant string. The four buttons represent four frets on the guitar. Playing music video games are also a great way to establish basic rhythm patterns that you will utilize when you learn to play the guitar for real.   

4.  Rent: If finances, or, or lack of knowing what kind of guitar to purchase is the issue preventing you from learning to play the guitar, then you will want to consider renting. Renting your instrument will allow you to try out different kinds of guitars without having to worry about being committed to buying just one guitar, or realizing later on that you have made the wrong kind of guitar purchase. Make sure if you decide to go the rental route to ask if there are any rent to own packages. Rent to own packages will allow you to rent an instrument while at the same time allowing some of your rental costs to go towards your final guitar purchase.

Interested in learning to play the guitar? Click here for: FREE GUITAR VIDEO LESSONS!

With a passion to teach guitar, Jeremiah La Follette helps beginner and intermediate guitar players unlock the secrets of learning guitar in a snap!

Guitar: Can You Learn To Play Guitar Without Goals?

In many articles on the net on learning to play guitar you will find many article authors stressing the importance of setting goals. Well, it would be interesting to find out if you can learn to play guitar without goals. Let us investigate the matter!

I have many memories of my first attemps to play the guitar. Like many boys I had many interests like reading, playing piano, singing, listening to music, athletics, chess, stamp collecting, painting and other things at different times. Playing guitar was just one of them.

I remember that I had my own way of practicing guitar playing. I always had my guitar on my bed waiting for me. I sat down on my bed many times everyday playing for a while and then starting to do other things.

Sometimes I felt inspired to play guitar for an hour or two and other times just for a minute. Did I have goals or not?

I know that I was developing as a guitarist quite fast and I think it must have been something in my way of playing and practicing guitar that was good.

I believe that some of the reasons for my progress during those early days of my learn to play guitar career were:

1. I felt no pressure to become an accomplished guitarist. I just felt the joy of sitting down with my guitar trying to find out the treasuries in the land of music.

2. My father was a guitar teacher giving me lessons at times and I always heard him play guitar in our home. Other guitarists visited our home many times and these visits inspired me a lot.

3. I never felt a pressure to play fast and thereby building tensions by playing too fast. This is one of the big mistakes beginning guitarist and even accomplished guitarists sometimes make.

4. As I mentioned previously I did a lot of other things besides playing guitar and I guess all these things I was involved in kept my mind quite healthy and helped me retain my joy when I learned to play guitar.

I guess in a sense I had goals that was not so apparent to me that directed me towards somewhere even if I was quite content being on the road of progress towards guitar land.

Can you learn something from my early guitar experiences? At least you can learn the following:

1. When learning to play guitar always remember to enjoy the act of playing without thinking too much on what you can or cannot do as a guitarist.

2. Try to associate with good musicians and guitarists that inspire you to play musically and that give you the motivation to learn to play new things on your guitar.

3. Beware of playing too fast on your guitar. There is a risk of building up muscle tensions and thereby actually reducing your ability to play fast. A remedy for this and a way to tame yourself is to use a metronome at a low tempo to reduce your speed to a level where you can play your guitar in a relaxed manner.

4. To become an interesting guitarist and musician you might benefit from being involved in other activities like listening to good music, having another hobby, reading good books, assiciate with other people and more.

Do you have to have goals to become a good guitarist? Well, even if you don't have learn to play guitar goals in the ordinary sense you can help yourself to play everyday by having easy access to your guitar.

I had my guitar on my bed. Maybe you want to have your guitar in your favorite armchair. I guess you understand the principle....

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com