Practice Tips for Guitar Beginners

Practice Tips for Guitar Beginners

Before you start practicing on the acoustic guitar, it is important that you have your guitar put in a comfortable position for you. You probably will feel quite leisurely but you should also bear in mind that you should sit upright so as to protect your back from straining. 

It is not a good idea to cross your legs as it will put too much stress on one hip as well as your lower back. Overtime, it will cause back pain, hip and leg pain.

Most people would prefer to sit rather than to stand. Either way, keeping a good posture will save you from muscle strain especially when you practice for an hour or so at a time. So when you are in the sitting position, rest the base of the guitar on your thigh, your left fingers must support the other end of the strings. The left fingers should be in a comfortable position to tune and change notes. Your posture should allow the he fingers of the right hand to strum and pluck easily. 

Before you play, like an athlete before running, it is sensible to do some warm-up exercise. For guitar playing, the warm-up is finger stretching exercises. It may sound a strange idea to you but once you have started, you will feel the benefit. 

How should you go about it? It is quite simple, really. It is like doing a hand massage yourself and should take about 5 to 10 minutes. You can start with putting your hands together, with the finger tips of both hands pressing against each other. Your fingers should feel some pressure. The finger tips should hold the pressure for about 8 seconds at a time. You can then lock your fingers and do similar pressure exercises. You can also bend each finger upwards, just enough to feel the pressure, for also about 8 seconds at a time for each finger. Then you can massage your palms and wrists and shake your hands and fingers about. Such practice can get your fingers and wrists to be more flexible and to perform better.

Now, we have finally come to the practicing. To start, focus on the easier basic patterns. As each chord has its own fingering, it is better to play slowly to get the hang of it. Then practice again and again until you can memorize it. When your fingers can play the different chords, then you can move on to the more difficult parts like frets.

Most likely your teacher or the online course will give you a few simple tunes to practice on or play with. These are usually tunes that repeat a few, say four or five simple chord sequences. When you can play a few tunes, you will feel a sense of achievement and feel more confident for the next level.

As some teachers or learners hum the beat when practicing on the piano, you may hum or sing along when you are practicing the guitar. It helps you to keep attuned as well as setting the mood for playing. 

You may want to be reassured that finger pains and blisters are inevitable. You should practice until you get finger calluses. You will then be able to play without the pain on the strings. If your fingers are really sore, I would advise you to take a break for a day or two. But you must promise yourself that you will not give up no matter what.

Enjoy practicing! You can only get better and better at it.

Here is some information on guitars for people with small hands: 


The Best Acoutic Guitars for Small Hands

Guitar sizes for people with small hands