If you are wondering where to start on the subject of learning to play guitar, the following five steps may provide for you some basic guitar instruction and advice to get you started off.

First you must understand that often we are our own worst enemy, we procrastinate, put things off, try to think of shortcuts (human nature) whilst forgetting that the key to doing anything well, is practice and persistence.

If you want to learn the guitar well, these two personal attributes will be your friend for life as you strive to master the guitar.

You simply cannot buy skill, it takes time.  The best guitar in the world, an awesome guitarist it will not make you.  You must be prepared to practice, practice and then practice some more if you want to become a good guitarist.  Mastering playing the guitar remember, will give you years of pleasure!

Second, check your action. Always make sure that the distance between the fingerboard and the underside of the string is appropriate for your fingers. If in doubt about this, ask any experienced guitar friend of yours to advise you on this issue or pop into your local guitar dealership and ask them for their advice directly.

Third, remember the K.I.S.S. principle which usually stands for Keep It Stupidly Simple.  Don’t make learning the guitar more difficult than it has to be.  Don’t jump straight into the deep end.  Start simple and as your confidence increases and your guitar playing ability improves, then you can move onto the more complicated sounds that you are striving for.

If you start off with the more complicated chords and/or riffs, you will likely get frustrated which will not serve you well at all.

Remember that in all things regarding a new skill, there is a learning curve to go through.  Enjoy that learning.  Have fun learning the guitar and don’t make it any more difficult for yourself than it has to be.

Fourth, try to bear and keep in mind that rhythm is key – to have a good strong, consistent flow to your guitar playing ability you need to keep the beat in the beginning, at the start, if you use a metronome or even your foot to keep pace, this will assist you a great deal.

Fifth, sure you love that guitar classic song, it reaches deep within your soul but it’s no good for you, choosing the most complicated of songs to start you off learning.  Again, keep to simple songs highly suitable for the guitar beginner, limit yourself at first to just two chord guitar songs, then as you gain in confidence, guitar playing ability, then you can step the pace of learning up a bit more to more complicated guitar pieces.

If you put these five simple steps into practice and have a lot of fun doing so, it really will not take you long at all to become highly proficient, learning to play the guitar.