What Beginner Guitar Players Should Practice Daily

In today’s lesson, we are going to learn what beginner guitar players should practice daily.

I believe the best thing that a beginner guitar player should practice in their practice sessions is the fundamentals. I recommend focusing on mastering the fundamentals.

 

Master the fundamentals

As a guitar teacher who has taught for many many years, I see this being overlooked by many self-taught guitarists. They jump ahead to learning songs and eventually run into a roadblock.

Then when I meet them, it is very clear what the problem is. They skipped over the fundamentals. And by then, it is hard to get them to go back and learn them. So I suggest you focus on these.

 

Now, what are the fundamentals?

These are the core concepts and principles of the instrument that you can build on as time goes on and you learn new techniques. I very much like sports. If you look at sports, they focus heavily on mastering the fundamentals of the game.

In basketball, it’s certain jump shots. In baseball, it’s pitching, hitting, and catching. In football, it’s running, catching, throwing, etc. There are more to these games but you get the picture of what I’m saying. When a famous player gets off of their game, the coach always tells them to go back to the fundamentals.

 

Chord shapes & switching between them

Start with your open natural chords. These are the ones closest to the nut. The chords that you see people strum while they are singing. These are the fundamental chords you will build off of. Chords such as C, Am, G, Em, D & F. There are more, but these should be learned first as they are most common in guitar songs. Once learned individually, you’ll need to learn to switch between them.

 

Notes along the fretboard on all 6 strings

Make sure you learn all the notes on the fretboard on all six strings. There is a musical alphabet that you want to learn (just like the regular alphabet) and it relates to chords, scales, key signatures, and everything else in music. So make sure you take the time to learn these. Practice daily, and it will help in the long run tremendously.

 

Finger exercises & hand warm-ups

These are important because when learning the guitar, your hands are going to be doing things (like forming chord shapes and holding down strings) that seem foreign at first. And being so, the muscles in your hands, wrists, and fingers will need time to develop. Growing pains as they are sometimes called. By doing finger exercises and hand warm-ups it will help you to get through this phase.

 

Strumming & arpeggiated picking

Once you learn to form chords and switch between them, you need to learn to strum and arpeggiate pick them. This is what brings them to life. One hand (your fretboard hand) creates the chords and chord progression. Your other hand (picking hand) strums and picks the chords to create the rhythm.

 

Learn to stay in tune & on time

Staying in tune and on time are the most crucial in music. If the guitar is not in tune the chords won’t sound good and if your rhythms are not on time (not switching chords where they need to be and strumming is off) you will defeat the purpose of creating music that is pleasant to the ear.  But for this to happen, you must practice daily.

 

Lesson conclusion

There are many more to add to this list, but these are the ones I recommend focusing on first. It is these things that are going to build a solid foundation in your playing to build on in the future. If you need additional help with these concepts to get you going, I suggest you grab one of the books that I have authored to help you in this area.

 

Learn To Play Acoustic Guitar

Learn To Play Acoustic Guitar will teach you everything you need to know to get started having fun with your acoustic guitar.  Learn to play natural chords, read chord diagrams, and put these chords together to form songs.  (write more)

 

Learn To Play Electric Guitar

Learn To Play Electric Guitar will teach you everything you need to know to start having fun with your electric guitar.  From what kind of guitar to purchase as well as an amplifier, cables, and anything else needed to get started.  (write more)

 

These books will give you a head start on learning the fundamentals and building a solid foundation for future learning. And if you have any questions about what I teach, feel free to contact me here or at my website Dwayne’s Guitar Lessons where you’ll find all the books that I have authored.   They all can help you further your guitar-playing education.

Best of luck with your learning,

Dwayne Jenkins