Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

The new guitar player manifesto.

Okay, I am always saying my peace about stuff and I was sitting at the guitar store last week talking to an old friend who was starting her 12 year old at guitar lessons. She had found this beat up guitar at a rummage sale that would hardly stay in tune. She was proud that she bought him a guitar and she was paying for lessons. The sad thing was she was going to pay more in the first week than she paid for the guitar, hence the reason for the new guitar player manifesto.

Selecting a guitar.

Don’t start out on a guitar that is crap. You would not teach someone to drive a car with a flat tire that doesn’t drive straight. Be reasonable and invest in the proper tools the first time. A playable guitar will be easier to learn on and maintain, that’s just the way it is.

Don’t start on a guitar that is super tricked out. In the same manner, if you start to learn to drive with a Porsche you might find yourself in a wreck. The same manner with guitar, if you are flying without any training you will crash hard. Unfortunately, with guitar the hard crashes can be enough to quit playing.

Follow up:

Make a goal on what kind of music you want to play. If you are wanting to play country music an acoustic guitar is more logical than a shredder guitar. In the same manner, if you want to be a rock star, there probably is little logic in starting out on an acoustic guitar. If you are not sure, it is probably better to start on an acoustic.
Find a mentor who is not a salesman. If your mentor is someone who can make money by selling you better equipment you are going to either get frustrated or go broke. Have your mentor give you pointers. Your mentor may be your guitar teacher, or not.

Find a good guitar store that is honest. This is as important as finding a mentor. The wrong guitar store will sell you something you may not need. Again, this will either make you frustrated or make you broke. Start at the smaller music stores and work your way up. Building relationships is as important for a musical career as it is for your job.

Set up a daily practice routine. If you only practice once a week, you might as well not even start. The more you get into a practice routine the more that you will increase your learning. Learn things that you are interested in and things that you are not interested in. If you never learn things you are not interested in you will never grow as a player, if you never learn things you want to learn, you will get frustrated.