Please understand, The guitar journey is so worth the initial difficulty of the beginner phases of playing. Take your time and enjoy the ride. Keep at it and practice in order to develop good technique and muscle memory to level up and move from “beginner” to “intermediate”.
When you first start playing the guitar, you are going to face many obstacles. Although learning basic aspects of playing the guitar can be easy, there are other aspects that make it seem hard. What are the aspects that make playing the guitar hard to learn?
The guitar is a hard instrument to learn because of the physical requirements and different techniques that you need to learn. As mastery requires a major time commitment, learning the guitar takes a lot of patience and determination.
As a beginner, you probably want to prepare yourself for the harder techniques to learn. From learning how to synchronize your hands to picking the best first song to learn, we can help. We have put together a few of the most popular reasons that beginners find playing the guitar hard to help you prepare yourself for what lies ahead.
Guitar Is A Big Time Commitment
Many people who start the process of learning how to play the guitar do not realize how much of a time commitment it is. Even if you just want to be someone who can play a few different easy songs, it will take a lot of time to learn how to do this. It could take a few months just to learn a few different chords.
The more you practice your guitar skills, the faster you will learn how to play, though. The less you practice, the more likely you will forget what you have already learned, setting you back to square one. Therefore, you should try to practice at least ten minutes each day, rather than for an hour once a week.
However, we live very busy lives, making it hard for people to set aside time to learn the guitar consistently. This poses a challenge for many people who do not have the self-discipline to set aside time each day.
Guitar Is Physically Demanding
There are many aspects to guitar playing that can be physically demanding for most.
For starters, if you are young and the guitar is large, you may have difficulty playing it. Even if you are just a small person, a large guitar can be very uncomfortable to hold and position correctly.
Another physically demanding aspect is the act of training your fingers to move to reach the different notes. If you have smaller hands, it makes stretching your fingers that much harder, especially if you are using a larger guitar.
Overcoming Finger Pains
Playing your guitar requires your fingers to:
- Be able to stretch
- Be strong
- Be tough
Applying pressure to the guitars’ strings can be painful at first until you build up their strength and necessary calluses. Looking back, most guitarists think of those initial blisters that develop into calluses as a “right of passage” that each and every playing guitarist went through. Lets not make light of them. They are painful but keep going and you will be happy you did. This can dissuade some beginners from practicing as often as they should.
Also, your fingers need to be able to stretch to reach certain notes and move quickly from one stretched position to the next for the song to flow. As you practice, though, you will build up the necessary dexterity that will make playing easier over time.
Finger Exercises to Keep You Going
Finger exercises can help you develop the necessary muscle memory more quickly. Doing so will help you learn notes more quickly and strengthen your fingers so that they are not so sore after each lesson.
The “1234” exercise involves using all four of your fingers to play four notes on each string. There are variations to this exercise that can be helpful as well.
Another common exercise is the “wide stretching” exercise, which involves playing three notes on a string, holding down each finger as you play. At the end of the exercise, you have all three fingers pushed down on the string.
Synchronizing Your Hands
Playing the guitar requires your left and right hands to be synchronized while making different motions. This can be difficult for some people at first.
Your picking hand needs to learn how to strum different strings, while your fretting hand needs to be able to hold down the strings and move from one position to the next.
Learning About the Fretboard
Most guitars have either 22 or 24 frets. With six strings, that is equal to about 144 different notes. Learning all these different notes and combinations can be very tricky. Especially if you do not practice often.
Recognizing different patterns and positions will help you better understand the fretboard. This simply comes with practice.
Changing Between Chords
Once you learn about the different notes and start to understand how to play a chord or two, you may find it hard to change between chords. Changing between chords can be tricky for beginners because learning a single chord can be very difficult.
Take your time at first to make sure you correctly switch between the chords. Do not rush the process. Learning how to switch between chords takes time and lots of practice. One trick to make the learning process easier is to play the chord transitions slowly without stopping.
Learning How to Skip Strings
Sometimes you need to pluck two strings that are not next to one another. This can be challenging for beginners who have not built up the correct finger dexterity to achieve this. Most of the time, they end up hitting the middle string. Do not get frustrated. Keep practicing, and you will master the technique.
Understanding Barre Chords
Many beginners might not even know what barre chords are, not to mention how to play them properly.
Barre chords are when you use one finger to press down all the strings on a single fret. By doing this, you are making a movable capo that allows you to play open chords with your remaining fingers.
The key to barre chords is keeping applied pressure to the neck of the guitar. Keeping this pressure can be difficult for beginners whose hands have not built up the necessary strength.
The more time you put into learning barre chords, though, the better you will get at them. Don’t be discouraged if they don’t sound right off the bat. Even experienced guitarists can have difficulty with barre chords.
Skipping Songs
Many beginners will jump from song to song before truly mastering the first song. You may run into a problem in the song and then just move on instead of figuring it out. As a result, you will feel like you have played every song and have not improved at all.
By skipping from song to song, you are not mastering the techniques in each that are meant to improve you and make the next song that much easier to master.
Stick with one song and completely master it before moving to the next. Even if it takes you weeks to do, don’t get discouraged. You will master it eventually, and it will help make you a better guitarist.
Learning the Guitar Takes Determination
The guitar is a very time demanding instrument to learn that consists of many different techniques that can be hard to master. However, if you practice every day, even if it’s only for ten minutes, you will find that you can overcome all these difficulties.
If you are having a hard time mastering any of these difficult techniques, try reaching out to a guitar teacher for assistance.
With determination and perseverance, you will be a master of the guitar in no time.
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