The main mistakes beginner guitarists make when learning to play the guitar. Misconceptions and mistakes of novice guitarists Electric guitar is much better than conventional acoustics

In this article we will consider the mistakes and misconceptions of people who have only recently begun to master the guitar.

Misconceptions

Absolutely any guitar is suitable for a beginner.

Following this rule, you can hardly achieve anything good. From such an instrument you can only get a clear understanding of a bad sound. Therefore, you won’t be able to get far with such a guitar. Another thing is a new, good guitar, on which a beginner will make his first successes.

A beginner needs to start playing classical guitar

Indeed, it is a little easier to play, since it has soft, nylon strings. But such a guitar was created specifically for classical works that need to be played according to the notes. It lacks the liveliness and sonority of conventional acoustics. Of course, you can play such a guitar, but you will just have to put in a lot more effort to really want to practice it.

Learning to play is very difficult.

At first, almost all beginners think that learning to play the guitar is very, very difficult. But it is not so. Those who truly love the guitar and music will do anything to learn how to play. Try it, learn the guitar, and you will understand that it is not so difficult. Moreover, you will become interested.

A guitarist must know musical notation

This is partly true. But, in fact, only a professional musician should know musical notation. A novice guitarist or amateur should not bother himself with this and train himself on notes. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to move forward.

An electric guitar is much better than a regular acoustic guitar.

This is probably the most controversial issue. An electric guitar allows you to try yourself in a number of musical styles. But this guitar has a lot of disadvantages, which makes it difficult for a beginner. It is better to start playing the electric guitar when you already have musical experience.

Now let's talk about mistakes

Learning a song in fragments and fragments

This is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners. It will be much better if you take the time and try to learn one song completely than if you know several songs in fragments.

Refusal of the mediator. Playing with just your fingers

This is pure psychology. The fingers are ours, but the pick is a foreign object. But, on the other hand, the mediator is different in that it gives a clear and bright sound. Therefore, you definitely need to make friends with him and actively use him.

Playing an out of tune guitar.

It happens that beginning guitarists get lazy or simply forget to tune the guitar. This will greatly impair your learning ability. After all, this way you will not only reduce your hearing, but also greatly spoil the impression of your game. That is why you should not neglect checking your guitar before playing.

Sing more quietly than play

Those who have already gotten the hang of playing and singing at the same time very often make this mistake. They play louder than they sing. Never do this! Otherwise, you will at least look ridiculous.

No warm-up before the game

Many beginners don't like to stretch their hands before playing the guitar. This is another mistake of theirs. After all, the guitar is a traumatic instrument, thanks to which you can get sharp pain in your fingers. Therefore, do not neglect warming up!

All guitarists - both beginners and experienced ones - face difficulties while playing the guitar. Some are not good at playing with a pick, others play unrhythmically, cannot maintain the duration of notes, others experience delays when changing chords, etc. Such problems need to be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise the guitarist may simply get used to playing incorrectly, and in the future mistakes will be difficult to correct.

So, what should you do if you are not good with a pick or have a poor sense of rhythm? The first thing to remember is don't try to play very fast songs. Play at a speed that allows you to make as few mistakes as possible (playing false notes or missing strings). Don't try to outdo yourself. You will only waste your time. For best results, play to the sound of a metronome. Mechanical metronomes are quite expensive, so if you can't afford one, just install metronome software on your computer (or even your cell phone). To begin with, play compositions consisting of notes of the same duration (for example, eighth notes), then, when you can clearly play under the beats of the metronome, move on to more complex compositions - with notes of different durations (even sixteenth notes). Do not try to play notes of shorter duration yet, because It is unlikely that you will strictly observe their duration.

Play slowly at first to get into the rhythm as clearly as possible and play in sync with the metronome beats. Gradually increase the pace. When you get good at slow playing, try playing without a metronome - the musician must develop his own sense of rhythm, and the metronome is only an assistant in this. Create a rhythm for yourself either by lightly tapping your feet, or tilting your head, or simply keep a mental count. Place maximum emphasis on developing a sense of rhythm, because everything else is much easier to learn than developing rhythm. Don't think that this is a matter for a couple of hours. This needs to be done as often as possible. The more effort you put into developing a sense of rhythm, the better results you will achieve. The main thing is not to despair if nothing works out for you. Real musicians must devote their entire lives to their instrument.

You won't get a good sound, no matter how expensive the guitar is. After all, it’s just an instrument in the hands of a guitarist. But if a guitarist loves his instrument, lives with it, and cannot imagine his life without it, then in his hands the guitar can “speak” or even “cry.” A true professional guitarist does not pay attention to how complex the composition is, his hands themselves produce the necessary notes, and the guitar simply transmits the messages of his soul to the world. All of the above will seem like empty phrases to you until you feel and understand it yourself. If you want to become a good guitarist, you must share all your joys and sorrows with your guitar, pour out your soul to it. – this is the only creature (yes, exactly a “creature”!) that, in the hands of a real guitarist, is capable of feeling and understanding its owner. Therefore, treat her with love and respect.

Can't quickly change chords? Do you find it difficult to solo? Sound dirty? Fingers don't obey?
No problem. In this post we’ll talk about how you can overcome the “whims” of coordination in a couple of independent lessons.

As a teacher, I often encounter the problem of “unruly fingers” among students. About every third beginner experiences difficulty changing chords and playing musical pieces with individual notes. There is nothing wrong with this; if done correctly, this problem can be quickly solved. I usually give everyone the same exercises (I will post a video of them below). The only difference is how many times these exercises need to be played out for one or another student - usually this is individual.

The real problem is this:
It is not the degree of lack of coordination that is the main factor in a guitarist’s unsuccessful start, but the INITIAL WRONG HANDS POSITION!

When a child comes to my lesson who has never held a guitar in his hands, everything is simple and clear. Even if I have to tinker with his motor skills now, I know that very soon he will be, moving his little fingers to play simple children's songs, and then simple etudes, then build chord forms, play classical pieces, etc. Further more. Working with children is not that difficult. Difficulties arise with older children and with self-taught adults. When a student who has started learning on his own comes to his first lesson and says that he has a problem with sound and delays when changing chords, everything immediately becomes clear to me. I even know why it doesn’t work out for him even before he plays anything for me. The mistakes are usually the same, there are rarely exceptions. But I’m already thinking: this will be a little more complicated.
Why? Yes, because you need to relearn.

But don't be alarmed. If you have a similar problem, just think a little, and you can easily understand how to correct your own mistakes.
So let's start with the most important thing:

1. USUALLY IMPROPER POSITIONING OF THE GUITARIST'S HANDS IS A CONSEQUENCE OF IMPROPER SEATING.
2. THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE OF A BEGINNING GUITAR PLAYER IS THE DESIRE TO PLAY YOUR FAVORITE SONG IMMEDIATELY.
3. A GUITAR PLAYER WHO STARTED LEARNING BY PLAYING CHORDS WILL BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN A GUITAR PLAYER WHO PRACTICES PLAYING MELODIES WITH INDIVIDUAL NOTES AT THE BEGINNING.

You need to understand that there are two categories of beginning self-taught guitarists:

1. Those who immediately try to learn a song by chords, and at the same time try to play STRONG (the largest number of practitioners belong to this category).

2. Those who try to first learn a melody or solo by playing individual notes, or try to play PICKUP (arpeggio).

These two groups have completely different categories of inherent errors.

Let's start with the first group:

The most common mistake a guitarist makes when starting with chords is the desire to immediately play his favorite song.
Instead of first learning exercises with basic chords, then basic strumming, and then putting everything together, a beginning guitarist often takes a song that he likes, looks at its analysis on the Internet, and usually fails to learn it properly.
Usually the hardest part is coordinating the strumming and chords.
Even those who have good sound and transitions from chord to chord often cannot learn this or that battle when watching song analysis. They just don't get into the rhythm. I'm not even talking about singing.
This happens because they often do not understand how to approach this correctly and practice the rhythmic pattern of combat.
What is a rhythmic pattern? I'll explain now.
There are four main types of combat (I don't mean overkill - that is an exception). Using these types of combat you can play almost any song. Each battle has its own rhythmic pattern (rhythmomodus) which must be understood and not be confused with the rhythmic pattern of another battle. Here are the names of the rhythm modes, and hence the types of combat (names generally accepted among the people):

1. Fight four (rhythm modus “four quarters”).
2. Figure eight (rhythm mode “eight eighths”).
3. Three-piece fight (rhythm mode “three quarters”).
4. Fight six (rhythm modus “six-eighths”).

So, the rhythm mode of each such fight is a kind of rhythmic turn (eng. Loop), which is repeated all the time. In musical language we can call this a beat. Well, of course many people know this. But how to remember such a beat, and not confuse it with the beat of another fight, and then also connect several beats together without confusing up and down blows, so that you get a solid, stable fight, for many this is not an easy task.

So, we talked about the first problem of guitarists who start learning by playing songs by chords.
The second problem this group of beginners has is difficulty in transitions between chords and poor sound. In principle, these are two problems, but let's combine them into one, since usually this all happens together.
Let's start with the left hand. Watch the following video, in which I will show how the left hand of a guitarist who plays chords WRONG usually works.

Please note - the hand is tense, “squeezed”, and the fingers seem to “stick” together.

In this case, the fingers do not “stand” on the strings, as required, but “lie” on them, thereby blocking the strings located below and muffling the sound.
Now look how the left hand should work, and what the sound should be:

So, let's try to understand why the left hand “does not listen to us.”
Let's start with the fact that many guitarists have an INCORRECT FITTING INITIALLY.
I already explained in one of the videos how to sit with a guitar correctly.
There is a “classic” position where the guitarist holds the guitar on his left leg.

This is usually how you sit with a classical guitar.

And there is “free style”, when the guitarist holds the guitar on his right foot.

This is how they usually sit with an acoustic or electric guitar.

So, it doesn’t matter what landing you choose. The most important thing for your LEFT HAND is that the bend angle of its elbow joint when playing is approximately 90 degrees.

It is precisely because novice guitarists sit incorrectly that the neck of the guitar goes far to the left, the elbow bends, and because of this, the fingers cannot properly pinch the strings, and most often become warped.

If you find yourself with a similar problem, simply raise the neck of your guitar up a little. Try to bring your left hand closer to you and bend your elbow. The fingers of the left hand should line up perpendicular to the strings and pinch the frets STRONGLY.

Loose fit (guitar on right leg)

Classic fit (guitar on left leg)

Please note that if the fret is not clamped properly, you can change the elbow angle dozens of times without making any sound. Your fingers should grip the frets from above and not twist.

I hope you understand this.
In order for the sound to be of high quality, sit correctly and play the chord sequence first. Take the simplest chords first. Don't strum straight away, just strum each chord four times from top to bottom and work on the transitions, like this:

When the transitions start to work out well and the sound becomes clear, take some easy song consisting of three or four chords, without a bar. Learn the fight separately, on open strings. Then play the chords of the song sequentially, with the simplest strumming, from top to bottom (as in the video), and then connect the strum and chords together.
I assure you, you will see excellent results. If after this nothing works, follow the link I gave above.

So now let's talk about the second group of beginners. About those who first learn solos, fingerpicking, or try to play classical pieces and fingerstyle. In general, even a guitarist who starts playing strumming sooner or later tries to play a solo melody or fingerpicking, so this information will be useful for everyone. Look, here is the most common mistake a beginner guitarist makes when playing solo or fingerpicking:

I call it "spider". Pay attention to your right hand. It is clamped, the hand is pressed to the deck. The fingers are strongly bent and move with difficulty.

Why do you think this happens? The reason is simple, and we have already talked about it: INITIALLY WRONG LANDING.
Watch the following video. This is how the guitarist's RIGHT hand should work correctly:

Look closely at the elbow of your right hand:

THE HAND IS ON TOP OF THE GUITAR, AND THE FLEX ANGLE OF THE ELBOW JOINT IS ALSO ABOUT 90 DEGREES.

Now look at the BRUSH of your right hand!

Its angle is also approximately 90 degrees, and it is NEVER PRESSED TO THE DECK! THE PHALANGES OF THE FINGERS ARE PERPENDICULAR TO THE STRINGS!

So, usually, when a beginning guitarist picks up a guitar, he immediately lowers the neck and, as it were, “hugs the guitar” with his right hand.

At the same time, the guitar does not hold the hand, and as a result, the guitarist loses support; his hand does not lie on top of the guitar’s shell, as it should, but dangles in the air:

And now ATTENTION: It is precisely because of the lack of support for her right hand that her hand seeks support on the upper deck. The palm is pressed, the fingers are curled, and this creates a “spider”.

So what should you do to avoid this problem?

The answer is simple: Raise the neck and place the FOREARM OF YOUR RIGHT HAND ON TOP OF THE GUITAR BACK:

In case anyone doesn't know or doesn't remember: The forearm is NOT the part of the arm from the shoulder to the elbow, it is the part of the arm from the hand to the elbow. This is exactly the place we put on the shell.

You can check yourself, if you relaxed your right hand and it fell off the guitar, it means you are sitting incorrectly. The guitar should hold the hand and the hand should not fall.
Of course, if you are used to sitting incorrectly, the new position may seem unusual to you at first and it will be uncomfortable for you to play, but it is better to relearn now than to “pay for it later,” believe me. If you play incorrectly at a certain stage, you will slow down and will not be able to move on. And relearning at that stage will be much more difficult.
And be sure to try the classical position, with the guitar on the left foot, if your guitar is classical.

You may find it more comfortable to keep the bar raised this way. Do not forget to place a support under your left leg if you are sitting in the “classic” position.

In principle, there is no special, constant point of support for the right hand; everyone finds it individually for themselves, in accordance with the length of their “lever,” but remember that you should not “hug” the guitar and move your right hand out to the side. The hand lies on the shell from above, the fingers are perpendicular to the strings. Usually, if a guitarist moves on to strumming after playing a solo or picking, the right hand drops a little and the elbow moves closer to the side.

For those who want to properly learn how to solo, combine solo and bass, and also sight-read using tablature, I give a link to my free video course - “LEARN TO PLAY BY TABULATURE, AND ALSO THE BASICS OF CLASSICS AND FINGERSTYLE”:

The course is ABSOLUTELY FREE, the only request is to like it and forward it to your friends.
The course consists of eleven video lessons with analyzes of famous melodies, such as: “The Pink Panther”, “Evil, Bad, Good”, “Minuet in G Major” (J.S. Bach), and much more. All melodies are given in order from easy to difficult. After completing this course, you will be able to properly learn how to solo, play in two voices (with bass), and read tabs from a sheet.

All beginner guitarists (and not only) have once made mistakes when playing the guitar, when learning, and in general when approaching learning. Let's look at the common ones guitarists mistakes(beginners). Try to understand these mistakes in order to avoid them in the future and learn correctly.

We will talk about an acoustic guitar, but, in principle, beginners also make the same mistakes when learning to play other types of guitars.

First, let's say a few words about how to understand whether you have any mistakes when playing the guitar or when learning. If you have been playing and learning guitar for a long time, but still:

1. You have made no progress (or very little).
2. I can't play the chords correctly (see " ").
3. My fingers don’t obey me and I can’t move them quickly.
4. Rapid hand fatigue when playing the guitar.
5. And other similar reasons.

In this case, most likely, you are making exactly the same common mistakes that we will talk about. There are, of course, other reasons, for example, an incorrect approach to learning, the absence of a teacher or self-teacher. But this is a topic for a separate article.

1. Poor time planning. Many beginning guitarists think that the more I play and practice, the better. But this is not entirely correct. If you have no free time except weekends, and you take the guitar only once a week and play for several hours, then this is not right. It’s better to devote at least 10-20 minutes every day to practice than once a week - and several hours at once. In short, it’s better to play a little time, but often.
2. . When learning, you don’t need to immediately start playing too fast, as your idols do.

   

   This is not only useless in the early stages, but also harmful. When learning, it is better to play with a metronome, and at a slow and comfortable tempo. And the speed will develop during the learning process. Start small and move on to something more complex, there is no other way. You can’t immediately learn to play super fast.

3. Don’t try to master all the techniques and ways of playing at once.. This is the same as in the second point. Always move from simple to complex. Moreover, until you properly fix the old material, it’s better not to take new one.
4. Play more than just the things you know. This is the most common mistake made by beginners. They will learn a few songs around the fire - and only play them, because they don’t know anything else. This is wrong if, of course, you want to learn how to play normally, and not just plan to sometimes play drunk in the forest. You have to constantly learn something new, constantly! Let it be something small - new, new or some new technique of the game.
5. You don't have to sing with a guitar. Many beginners try to sing directly to the guitar. This is, of course, good if you really need it. But many people simply don’t need this, and they just want to learn to play only the guitar. In this case, you don’t have to force yourself to sing, you can just play.
6. Don't try to play your favorite song right away. If you, just picking up the instrument for the first time, try to immediately play your favorite song (even from a video), then not only will it not work out, but you will also be disappointed in the future and will never pick up a guitar again. It’s clear that if, in principle, you only need to play one song and you don’t need a guitar anymore, then you can try to learn it. And then, at least look at how they come from, look at what it is and. As a last resort, ask a friend who can play to show you how the song is played. But you won’t be able to play the song right away, without preparation, without any knowledge.
7. Incorrect posture and hand placement. Usually a beginner does not know how to sit and hold his hands correctly, because of this he is not comfortable playing, so he thinks that the process of playing the guitar is, in principle, an uncomfortable activity, and quickly becomes disappointed.

   

8. Learn notes on the guitar. Another mistake a beginner guitarist makes is that he learned a lot of chords, mastered a lot of playing techniques - and stopped there. Of course, this is good, but if you are going to become a real musician, you need to start learning notes on the guitar. Look at the article "" on this topic.
9. Don't play an out of tune guitar. Often, beginners play an out-of-tune or semi-out-of-tune guitar because they simply cannot tune it properly. This is very bad and harmful, because in this case you develop incorrect hearing. What to do? You can ask a friend who knows how to tune a guitar. But, unfortunately, not everyone has such friends. You need to learn how to tune the instrument yourself. Read on this topic - "".
10. . Many people think that you don’t need hearing to play the guitar - after all, everyone does the chords for you, the guitar sounds itself, the main thing is to know where to pinch the string. In a sense, this may be correct. But in this case, you will never be able to choose a song or melody yourself.

    

Conclusion

Now you know about the main mistakes made by guitarists. I hope that, knowing these mistakes, you will not make them again.

By the way, these mistakes can be made not only by beginners, but also by experienced guitarists. Often if they are self-taught. They just may not know what they are doing wrong.

What mistakes have you noticed? Write about it in the comments! 🙂

Recently, more and more people are deciding to master one or another musical instrument in order to be able to perform melodies and songs for themselves or a group of friends. The guitar is a particularly popular instrument, and this article will discuss the most common mistakes beginner guitarists make, as well as how they can be avoided.

5 Most Common Mistakes When Learning to Play the Guitar

Most often, beginning guitarists trying to learn to play the guitar on their own make the following mistakes:

The game is too fast. In the absence of sufficient experience and skills, the accelerated pace of playing leads to the fact that some chords are played incorrectly, and fingering or strumming is performed incorrectly. After some time it becomes a habit, and the guitarist always starts playing like this. To avoid this, it is recommended to play with a metronome at a moderate or slow tempo.

An attempt to cover a large layer of knowledge at once. The desire to learn everything as quickly as possible, moving on to studying dominant seventh chords without mastering simple ones, leads to the fact that the guitarist does not learn anything well. It is recommended to always follow the principle from simple to complex.

The desire to learn as many techniques as possible at once. This also leads to confusion in knowledge and does not allow you to learn anything normally. To avoid this, you should follow the principle stated above.

Lack of training for hearing development. In the future, such a mistake by beginning guitarists can lead to the fact that they will not be able to master more complex knowledge, so they should develop their ear at the same time as studying musical notation.

Doing only what you do best. Many guitarists, after learning a few chords and one fingerpicking, start playing this way for all songs, but this is wrong because it leads to a lack of skill development. It is recommended to regularly learn something new.

How to quickly and without mistakes learn to play the guitar

In order to perform your first song with a guitar already in the third lesson, and in the future to acquire new knowledge as easily as possible, gradually becoming a professional guitarist, you should become one of the students of Alena Kravchenko’s guitar video school. Studying in this video school (with the help of classes recorded on discs) is carried out according to Alena Kravchenko’s author’s methodology: a minimum of theory and a maximum of practice. Well-thought-out lesson plans and competent presentation of information allow you to avoid mistakes common to beginning guitarists. If their likelihood arises, then through lessons on Skype, which are also taught by Alena Kravchenko, you can quickly eliminate it.