Acoustic Guitar for the Beginner

Ever admire a musician that can pick up his guitar and slide his fingers between cords gracefully? Would you like to be able to do that? Instead of daydreaming, you can start today! Guitars can be quite expensive if you don’t know where to look. An acoustic cutaway guitar is a good guitar to start out with. The reason the guitar is called cutaway is because you can easily hold it on your leg as you play. Some go for $30.00+ but on EBay you won’t believe some of the deals you’ll be able to find. I’ve seen an entire acoustic guitar set with extra strings, pick, guitar case and tuner starting at only $0.01 bid. The shipping costs around $30.00 via UPS Ground.

Buying a guitar and playing one are two entirely differently items. If you’re tempted to go out and start buying every guitar book you see at the local music store. Stop! There are plenty of places on the net to find free lessons, riffs, guitar tuning and more. But if you don’t have the time to research where this great informative websites are, read on to find out.

Tuning your guitar: You’ll need to tune your guitar to be able to play it. Playing un tuned won’t sound pleasant. There are two types of guitar tuners. An electric one that shows on a scale when your cords are correct. Or the hand held where you blow air into it. This could become a tad tricky when starting out. While the non electric is more affordable, you could be spending excess time trying to figure it out. http://www.musiceffect.com/store/tuners.html is for hand held tuners while http://www.soft32.com/download_10395.html offers a free trial of an online guitar tuner. Before downloading anything, remember to always run a spy ware program and check for any viruses before opening.

Picks: When strumming your guitar you could use your thumb, but this may cause your thumb to become sore quickly. Using a pick protects the skin on the thumb. When you are strumming, gently bring your pick down. You don’t want to go roughly. By doing so could cause the strings to snap causing injury.

Strings: When you snap a string which happens to many, you have to use another one to replace it. This can be done by a professional at your local music store. Or you could do it yourself with help from this website: http://www.daddydoodle.com/str1.html

Guitar case: When choosing a guitar case, don’t get a flimsy one. Yes, it’s less inexpensive but your guitar could become damaged very quickly without proper padding. A good case will run you around $30-50. Many cases offer pockets in front to hold extra strings, your tuner and picks. Some offer a small lock to keep out middling hands.

Below are some websites that offer riffs, lessons, tuning, jam sessions and more all for free. You’ll need either Real Player- http://www.realplayer.com , Windows Media Player http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player.aspx or QuickTime http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

At free guitar videos http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/ you can view free lessons in video format. Guitar Tricks – http://www.guitartricks.com/ teaches you how to play guitar. You can choose by style or artist. Registration is required. You’ll need a user name, password and e-mail. If you already know how to play guitar well, you can actually get paid to teach others!

Guitar Noise http://www.guitarnoise.com/ offers a good selection of articles to check out in between playing. Cyberfret is another good place for articles. http://www.cyberfret.com/ If you’re a musician who plays more than one instrument, 8notes is the website for you. 8 Notes http://8notes.com/ isn’t just for guitar musicians, it’s also for Cello, Flute, Oboe, Percussion , Piano, Trumpet and even Voice. They even have more resources to check out for the instrument of your choice.

When you start to play any instrument, having a friend to support you can help you get through the tough times. Maybe online websites offer community forums to share your frustrations and successes. So what are you waiting for? Check out EBay or other online places and start playing today!