Learn guitar on your own, online

This article is mainly for beginners: it gives you a few tips to get the most out of learning online. You can enjoy lessons on demand, as many times as you like.

It is then up to you to set yourself a pace and a duration so you become as effective as possible. The more you practise, the better you get, that goes without saying ;-)

Here is how to learn effectively:

MAKE TIME FOR IT

The first piece of advice we can give you is to set aside time in your week for guitar practice.

The only way to learn and progress is to make time for yourself and stick to it.

If you can do it several times a week, even better, but if not, it does not matter. Don’t feel guilty: what matters most is practising regularly, and even once a week is very good. All it takes is wanting it.

Others have done it, so why not you?

To sum up: block out a time slot dedicated to practising your instrument and stick to it!

CHOOSE ACCESSIBLE SONGS

Don’t pick songs that are too difficult, or failure and loss of motivation are guaranteed.

Even if you keep in mind the songs that thrill you, set them aside for now; you will come back to them later.

That doesn’t mean giving up on them. Quite the opposite: they will help you stay motivated, move forward and progress faster (a quest for the Holy Grail, in a way).

The goal is not to discourage you and make you want to put the guitar away after a few lessons, but to get you playing what you love.

Starting with difficult songs is like running into a wall.

Choosing simple songs at first lets you learn step by step without putting pressure on yourself (which would be the case with complicated songs). It also builds your self-confidence, gives you more assurance and keeps you motivated.

In short: pick easy songs and keep the ones you have always dreamed of playing safe and warm… for later!

WORK ON CHORDS AND RHYTHM

This is very important to remember, if not THE most important thing: whatever style of music you ultimately want to play, you must focus on two things, chords and rhythm.

Without them, you won’t get anywhere.

1) Learn the basic guitar chords, the handful of chords you will use all the time. Whether you are a beginner, an intermediate player or a pro, you will never need to relearn them and they will always be useful, so you might as well master them perfectly.

It also helps to set yourself challenges, for example deciding to learn a given chord within a set time (a week, a month or two): the point is to give yourself a challenge.

You will of course learn these basic chords (you will find them everywhere by searching the internet for “basic guitar chords”), but your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to play them as often as possible to improve and become as fluid as possible. What we want is for them to sound perfect, and once again this is not wasted time, since you will use them for life.

And by the way, you will find almost all of these basic chords in your favourite songs… Tempting, isn’t it?

2) There is of course a multitude of different rhythms, extremely varied, yet all the artists you admire (and even the ones you don’t) have one thing in common: rhythmic precision!

Every single one of them plays perfectly in time.

So you will practise the famous basic chords we just talked about, tapping your foot and focusing on your strumming hand (here again, you will find tutorials dedicated to how to do it and how to practise).

Once again, don’t start learning guitar with difficult songs. Choose simple songs and, little by little, once you can play perfectly in time, you can move on to more complicated things.

Keep in mind that it is precisely the rhythm of a song that gives you energy and makes you want to play it, so be rigorous about it and make an effort to devote time to it.

The more time you spend on it, the prouder you will be of yourself and the more you will want to progress and spend even more time on it.

Learning new basics is always rewarding and never wasted.

What’s more, and this is very good news, you will find that your favourite songs contain the basic chords you have already learned. You will only have to learn the few chords you don’t know yet and then put it all together.

And just like that, you have a new song under your belt.

To sum up: apart from a few very particular styles, you will find the basic chords almost everywhere, so you might as well know them by heart, and don’t skip rhythm, because it is the foundation.

Start with simple songs, otherwise you risk giving up very quickly, and practise as much as possible.

The point of the game is still to enjoy yourself and progress, so don’t put pressure on yourself.

There is work at the beginning, no point pretending otherwise, but you will quickly develop a taste for it and keep coming back, because you will be really satisfied with your investment and the time spent learning.

Give it a try and you’ll see! Here is a reminder of the 8 basic guitar chords. Learn them by heart and make them sound right. You can then go on to play these 10 easy songs to play on guitar.