5 Things I Wish I Knew As A Beginner Guitarist

so I think we can all agree that things right now are kind of crazy and my hope is that if you're watching this video at some point in the very near future this intro seems kind of weird and out of place to you but currently with the way things are going every day is a bit of an adventure we'll call it now I'm trying to stay positive with everything that's going on right now and trying to find the silver linings of our current situation and I've noticed something with everyone staying at home there's a lot of new guitar players people are picking up guitar either for the first time or they're dusting off that old guitar they've had sitting in the corner or the back of their closet for several years and this got me thinking about the mistakes that I made as a beginner guitar player when I was first learning the mistakes I made the things I wish I could have done differently and would do differently if I could go back and do it all over again so in today's video I'm gonna share with you five things I should have learned when I was a beginner guitar player these are five things that had I learned when I was starting out I truly believed I would be a better guitar player today now the first thing on the list is something I still struggle with today as a guitar player and it's a habit that I've found almost impossible to break it's something that happens to me every time I sit down to play guitar but it's especially prevalent whenever I'm onstage performing and that is don't play so hard now I remember when I was starting out on acoustic which was my first guitar like many of you out there it was so unbelievably hard to play chords your initial reaction is to grip the crap out of the fretboard in order to get the notes to ring out properly your instincts are telling you to keep the note from buzzing you have to play harder you have to grip the neck as hard as you can and many of us out there do that with some success you play harder and you get the note to ring out but I want you to try something take your first finger and play G the sixth string third fret and I want you to see how little effort it actually takes to play this note the reality is it actually doesn't take that much pressure to get a cord to ring out clearly but so many of us myself included never break out of this habit even as we get better and we're able to play chords cleanly and even transition between chords nice and easily we never really move past the point of playing too hard now I still struggle with this today and in fact if you look at a lot of the guitars that I play the most you can tell just by how much fret where is on them that I have the touch of a blacksmith and this really isn't ideal other than wearing out your frets prematurely playing too hard can cause things like pulling notes or entire chords out of tune but if you can lighten your grip up you'll notice a few things first of all it's easier to play transitioning between chords is much smoother and faster if you're playing single note lines you'll play smoother and more efficiently the notes will have more sustain and your intonation will be better you won't be pulling notes and chords out of tune now the second thing on my list has to do with Capo's or capo if you drive on the wrong side of the road now Capo's are great tools and I use them all the time it allows me to use open chord voicings and shapes in different keys that I wouldn't normally be able to without the capo but as a beginner it's very tempting to essentially use this as a crutch now this is another thing I was guilty of for way too long and I understand why when using a capo it's really exciting because it seems like it opens up the entire guitar to you you take a few basic cowboy chords that are easy to learn like G D a minor minor and slap the capo on and now you can play in all 12 keys [Music] [Applause] [Music] and it does work and there's a lot of songs that are written this way just cabling on a certain fret and playing open cowboy chords but so many players get to this point and stop they don't know that for instance right now I'm capo on the third fret and if I play AG major shape this is actually a b-flat major chord and this is a problem because you don't actually know what you're playing what do you do when you have to transpose a song for the first time to a different key but don't worry the solution is actually relatively simple take some time to learn the note names on the fret board and learn the difference between major chords and minor chords now this is pretty simple and it shouldn't take you that much time and if you can manage to do it the guitar neck will make a lot more sense to you you'll know that if I throw a capo on the 2nd fret and play AG chord shape that's actually a major this is also where the dreaded Barre chords come in if you learn your Barre chord shapes especially your major chords and minor chords and combine that with being able to tell the note names up and down the neck all of a sudden you can play just about any song in any key now this isn't always perfect some songs will require you to use a capo to play the right chord voicings the way the song was actually recorded but you want to know what's actually going on you want to understand what chords you're actually playing not just the shapes that you're used to in open position without a capo now the third thing on my list is something about truly regret not getting into earlier on as a player and that is learning the basics of music theory now hold on don't click away from this video just yet and run for the hills I mean the very basics of music theory now the reality is this can seem intimidating for a lot of players and it was for me for a really long time even while I was at music school now as a beginner don't worry about stuff like this unless you really want to and are into it this will come whenever you're ready if you're into that but there are a few basic things that I would recommend you have some knowledge of as a beginner the first thing to understand and know are your major scales doremi facility doe reality is the major scale is sort of the foundation upon which the household of musical theory is built so if you understand what the major scale is you've already have a leg up the next thing that I would tell you to know is some basic chord theory triads triads are just three note chords like a triangle has three sides a triad like this C major chord has three notes that come from the major scale from there understanding the difference between major triads and minor triads and how to play them in a few different positions on the neck and once you're comfortable with those two things moving on to seventh chords the seventh chord is basically just a triad with an extra note added the seventh note of the major scale and just by understanding major scales triads and seventh chords you've unlocked a huge world of possibilities on the guitar number four get together and play with other people now this might seem intimidating or overwhelming as a beginner and I know because that's how I felt and it kept me from doing this for years I felt embarrassed or shy that I didn't know more on guitar or didn't feel like I was good enough but the reality is you gain so much when you sit together in a room with other musicians and play with them especially if they're better than you I believe music is a communal thing it's something that is meant to be shared and it's something that brings people together now I realize that this is often times easier said than done and you may not be in a position to be able to join a band or even find other people to play with but there's even other things you can do like joining online communities in forums or subreddit and talk to people about guitar and music and harmony in theory and learn from one another I think joining a community of like-minded musicians is one of the greatest things you can do early on to help yourself grow and learn new things about your instrument and help you find your musical voice now the fourth thing on this list for me personally is the thing I really wish I would have done more than anything else as a beginner player and that is find a teacher when I first started out as a player I was completely self-taught I was learning by ear listening to records and looking up tabs online and that was basically the extent of my musical education and I learned that way for the better part of five or six years but now looking back had I taken those first five years arguably the most formative years in my time as a guitar player and found a great teacher essentially a mentor it would have been massive for me and it's more than just taking guitar lessons in learning scales and chords and riffs and how to play solos finding someone who can turn you on to new styles of music that you wouldn't have listened to otherwise or having just a structured practice regimen with someone who's holding you accountable each week someone who's giving you a direction and holding you to that direction each time you visit them it's like having a trainer you could just go to the gym and try and figure out how to use the machinery and work out on your own or you could get a trainer have someone who's experienced knowledgeable knows your goals knows what you're trying to do and I guarantee you you're gonna get to that goal and that point way faster with somebody helping you along the way rather than just doing it yourself now for some players out there this isn't totally realistic and I understand that teachers cost money they take a lot of time but you now have access to one of the greatest teaching resources ever and that is the internet spend a little time online trying to find some practice regimens or schedules that you can stick to each week and do some research on your favorite players some cases you might be able to find a video course or some kind of teaching material that they've put out online that is way cheaper than going to a teacher each week either way having a teacher or finding a structured practice regimen is huge especially when you're first starting out on guitar and finally learn a little bit about your gear my first guitar was a squire strap my first few years of playing I had no idea what any of these controls on the guitar did other than the volume knob I knew that flipping this switch changed the sound somehow but I didn't know what it was doing and also didn't understand why it you would have two knobs the labeled tone but three pickups it just didn't make any sense to me and I played like that for probably the first year and a half or two years now I do have a disclaimer here the world of gear is vast in deep and it's very easy to get caught spending more time on forums or YouTube channels learning about gear that you don't have or can't afford rather than actually playing the stuff that you have we're all guilty of it myself included but when I was starting out I wish I had spent more time learning about how guitars and amps actually worked if I had done this earlier on I would have had a much easier time finding my voice on the guitar and I would have had more fun being able to replicate the sounds of my favorite records and my favorite artists I was a huge Pink Floyd fan when I was first starting out and I would listen to guitar parts on songs like run like hell for example and have no idea how he was getting that galloping guitar sound well now I know he was using a dotted eighth delay effect and with the modeling amp I had at the time using the built-in effects I could have replicated that sound and been playing along to some of my favorite songs early on but I had no idea I also think this is important because when you're first starting out you're gonna be making purchases and you want to be informed on what you're buying there's no quicker way to waste money than to buy something you think you need or think you want that you actually don't so those are five things I wish I knew when I was a beginner in guitarist if you're an experienced player let me know in the comments down below what you wish you would have known when you were just starting out let's help out the newbies out there also I'm really excited to announce that I just launched my first video course available in the description box down below it's the tone course it's basically everything you need to understand about the fundamentals of great guitar tone you can find it linked down below as well as all the other links if you want to support the channel more directly be sure to follow me on instagram at Rhett shoal to keep up with what I'm doing each week in my musical endeavors be sure to subscribe down below if you haven't done so already and click that Bell icon to be notified when I'm going live every Sunday here on the channel and posting new videos anyways I hope you enjoyed today's video I'm Rachel thanks for watching and remember there is no plan B

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 3,453,407

Rating: 4.9314451 out of 5

Keywords: Rhett Shull, Beginner Guitarist, beginner guitar lessons, beginner guitar songs, beginner guitar chords, beginner guitar riffs, beginner guitar songs acoustic, beginner guitar scales, beginner guitar exercises, 5 things I wish I knew, guitar lesson, beginner guitar, how to play guitar, acoustic guitar, guitar tips, guitar tricks, how to learn guitar, beginner guitar lesson, guitar tips for older beginners, guitar tips for beginners, how to learn guitar chords

Id: H0CGYKLhbxo

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020