List of Things to Know If You’re a Beginner Guitar Player

1. Practicing: Learning to play the guitar certainly isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, dedication, perseverance and above all, tons of practice. You’ll have to be prepared to put in a lot of practice hours in order to become an accomplished guitar player – and by practice, I mean working on certain skills and working on specific areas of your guitar-play, keeping your goals in sight. You’ll have to make time for practice if you’re really serious about developing and enhancing your guitar-playing. I personally recommend working with a good guitar instructor, or signing up for online lessons such as those on GuitarTricks. Practice is extremely important, for the many reasons mentioned in this very article.

2. Technique: You might try to copy or replicate a sound, a riff, chord or a guitar sound. However simply ‘copying’ the sound, rather than trying to know how the sound was produced and the technical details that went into creating the sound will be counterproductive. Instead, work on your guitar-playing technique by understanding the different techniques involved in the guitar-playing process – things such as scales, vibrato, pull-offs, improvisation, guitar chops, licks, balancing speed and accuracy, working on your agility and dexterity, strumming and the like. Here’s a good piece by Tom Hess on improving your guitar technique. In addition, I recommend heading on over to JamPlay, as they have tons of lessons on skill building.

3. Strength: As a beginner, you will most certainly have problems with finger, arm and wrist strength, as well as dexterity, agility and nimbleness. One of the biggest problems beginner guitarists seem to face is the inability to hold down the guitar strings properly. This becomes a bigger problem if you’re on an acoustic guitar, since these usually have steel strings which are harder to hold down, as well as a large action (distance between the string and the fretboard). Finger and muscle strength, as well as nimbleness and agility all comes with practice. You can find tons of exercises (here’s what a simple Google search brought up) that will allow you to specifically work on this aspect of your guitar-playing.

4. Creativity: Creativity is an essential, vital aspect of being a good musician. As a guitarist, it will be important for you to show a certain level of creativity and flexibility, and perhaps most importantly, ability to improvise as well. As Tom Hess puts it, developing a certain sense of creativity takes time, and working with a good guitar teacher will certainly help you in this matter. As Hess puts it, creativity (or the lack of it), is not because a person is not creative or is less creative than others, lack of creativity, inspiration and expressiveness usually stems from not knowing fundamental musical skills, such as theory problems or lack of guitar-skills or techniques. You can read more on this in detail on Hess’s website here.

5. The Instrument: In order for you to play well, your guitar should play well. A large part of what makes your instrument play well is that it should always be well and properly tuned. Intonation is critical to good guitar-playing, and keeping your guitar in-tune is something you should learn to do yourself. As a beginner, I recommend buying and keeping a guitar tuner handy at all times; here is a guide on how you can keep your guitar tuned. In addition to a chromatic tuner, you can also look into getting a tuning app for your smart phone (plenty apps available on the iPhone, for instance) so that you always have a tuner handy. You can also find free guitar tuners online, or do what I’ve done and buy something like this clip-on tuner for your acoustic or electric guitar. Make sure that your strings are in top-shape and don’t need any replacing. Make sure that the electronics on the guitar work well, and that your cables and amp function as intended, and are well taken care of at all times.

6. Aural Skills: Your aural skills, ear training and the ability to ‘listen’ will be one of the most important skills in your guitar-playing arsenal. Some might even say that it is the most important skill a guitarist (especially a beginner guitarist) can develop and work on (Tom Hess certainly seems to agree!). For a lot of people, it certainly will be one of the tougher skills to learn and master. However it is essential to train your ear as a musician, as it will allow you to become a better, a more well-rounded musician, as well as help with certain aspects of your guitar play, especially your creativity, improvisation and expressiveness.

7. Confidence: Confidence and self-assurance will be important for you as a musician, especially if you intend on playing live and making money as an artist/musician at some point in time. For this, you’ll need to work on certain elements, most notable ones of which are stage-presence, personality, charisma and the ability to engage an audience. If you’ve worked on developing your skills and put in a sufficient amount of practice time, you’ll find that you’ll automatically be more confident and up for it! Pro tip: I suggest being in the company of good guitar players as much as you can – if there’s someone from your friends, family or your circles who plays the axe and plays it well, try to be in their company as much as you can. The small things that you pick up and the tips that you get from being in the company of such people will help you improve as a guitarist and give you the confidence to become better. Go to concerts, watch the best perform and play live. Above all, learn whatever you can from them.

Important Things to Know Before Buying an Electric Guitar

1. Wood Type

While the type of wood used in the construction of an electric guitar has a much less bearing on its sound than an acoustic guitar, it still remains an important factor in its construction and also contributes, in particular, to its tonal qualities. However it should be noted that it depends on what kind of wood is used in which part of the guitar.

Electric guitar bodies are usually constructed using one of the following wood types:

(i) Agathis – Similar to mahogany but inferior in many ways. Used in cheap, entry-level or beginner guitars mostly.

(ii) Alder – Similar to poplar, used by Fender to construct their Stratocaster product-line. Alder body guitasr produce a much fuller sound.

(iii) Ash wood – Swamp ash is a light wood that is used in the construction of Stratocasters, and produces a reasonably balanced tone. Hard ash, on the other hand, produces a bright tone and a good sustain.

(iv) Basswood – Basswood produces a warm, deep tone (full of bass), and is used to construct rock and metal guitars. However it is extremely fragile and damages easily. It is superior in quality to Plywood and Agathis, but is still considered to be a mid-level wood.

(v) Hardwood/Plywood – Probably the cheapest (and hence the most inferior) wood type used to construct guitars. It is found on ultra-cheap, beginner Squier Stratocaster guitars, as well as some cheap Epiphone guitars, in order to keep the build cost at a minimal.

(vi) Maple – Produces a bright tone, and is one of the most commonly-used guitar wood types out there.

(vii) Mahogany – Produces a warm sound

(viii) Rosewood – Rosewood is used to construct the fretboards of most guitars. It is very heavy, and rarely used to construct the bodies of electric guitars.

(ix) Korina – A very warm-sounding wood, not very heavy either.

(x) Walnut – One of the more expensive, high-end woods (along with rosewood), walnut is quite heavy (like rosewood). Unlike Maple, doesn’t produce a very bright tone either (once again, like Rosewood).

(xi) Poplar – Very light but very hard. Used in high-end and expensive guitars. Produces a bright and crisp sound.

2. Body Types

The most common type of electric guitars today have solid-bodies, which means that these guitars are carved out of a solid piece of wood. For instance the Telecaster is a single piece of ash wood, along with a bolt-on neck made of maple wood. This combines to produce the guitar’s bright sound.

On the other hand, guitars such as Gibon’s Les Paul feature a mahogany body with a maple spruce top, and a mahogany neck, that is glued on (instead of being bolted-on) to the body. This helps the Les Paul guitars produce a fat and warm sound.

Guitars using basswood produce a heavier sound (as the name ‘basswood’ probably implies), and is used by companies such as Ibanez as well as many different Fender guitars.

Hollow-body guitars, also referred to as semi-acoustics or acoustic-electric guitars, are essentially acoustic guitars with electronic pickups on the body. They sound just like an acoustic guitar, with the added advantage that they can be connected to an amplifier, if for instance you intend on playing in a large space.

Semi-hollow-bodied guitars, such as the Gibson ES-335, are electric guitars with maple-wood in the center of its body with hollow spaces above and below it. This allows the guitar to sound like an acoustic guitar.

3. Pickups

Pickups can be generally divided into two categories: single-coil pickups, and humbuckers.

(i) Single coil pickups – Used in all the electric guitars of yesteryear. Provides a thinner sound, have a lower output than humbucker pickups, with less gain. Suitable for genres such as country, blues, blues-rock, and funk, to name a few.

(ii) Humbucker pickups – Aka. double-coil pickups, have a fatter, distorted and a more warmer tone and are ideal for (but not just restricted to) hard rock and heavy metal guitars, and in some cases, for country and jazz guitar playing. Feature a strong mid and treble, have more gain and output than single-coil pickups.

4. Guitar Necks

Guitar necks are usually constructed using either one of maple, mahogany, rosewood or ebony. Maple is the preferred wood-of-choice for many-a-guitarist; is a hard and strong wood with a bright sound and tone and is usually lacquered, while mahogany produces a warm and fat sound. Rosewood, most commonly used on Gibson guitars, is soft to the touch, while Ebony is an extremely expensive and premium wood type which is used one some of the most quick, high-end guitars out there.

5. On-board Electronics

While this may vary from guitar to guitar, generally, the knobs on electric guitars control the pickups in a similar way. Every guitar has either a single or dual volume controls; in case of the former, the knobs control the master volume, while guitars with dual volume knobs control each pickup (such as guitars with humbucker pickups).

Similarly, the tone knobs controls the treble; 1-5 for more mids or lows, and 5-10 for high-end treble.

Some electric guitars also have a switch this allows you turn off and toggle between pickups, or combine both to create a different kind of a sound.

6. Pickup Positions

Pickup position vary greatly – from neck pickups (which provide a lot of bass, and ideal for sustain during solos), middle pickups (which are used in single-coil setups and provide a more acoustic tone), and finally, bridge pickups (high-gain very prominent and strong riffs!).

7. Beginner Electric Guitars

Here is a great selection of 5 beginner electric guitars, thanks to About.com.

Best Places to Buy a Guitar On the Internet

Buying your next guitar online can be quite a fruitful experience, and I strongly recommend you look into buying online whenever you’re in the market for a new axe the next time!

Buying online is good for many reasons. First off, it is convenient. You can easily browse through the store’s inventory at any point in time – whenever you may like and wherever you might be. Just a few clicks of the mouse button could get you the guitar of your dreams, delivered to you right at your doorstep. And you also end up saving money on gas, and of course, saving some valuable time.

Speaking of money, buying a guitar online can actually be cheaper than doing so from a store. Unfortunately, owing to inefficient supply chains and rising transportation costs, these can be quite high, especially when you go pick one up from a store.

On the other hand, buying online can be pretty cheap, since the guitar is usually shipped to you directly from the factory (as opposed to going through and stopping at various avenues before reaching a store), thanks to the more efficient distribution method.

Plus physical brick-and-mortar stores have to pay rent, utility bills and salaries, which they end up charging the customer by adding them to the cost of the products they sell (guitars in this case). Not a problem with online stores!

And of course, buying online is, in my opinion pretty cool since it provides you with access to a large selection of all sorts of guitars, amps and accessories – including all kinds of brands (the bigger, more well-known ones to the smaller ones), types, and of course, for all kinds of pockets and budgets. In my experience, if you look around a bit (and have a bit of luck going for you too!), you could find some excellent signature and vintage guitars (maybe even a rare axe) for some amazing prices online!

Here are some of the best places to buy a guitar online (list is in no particular order, all links are direct links, and no affiliate links at all):

1. Musicians Friend: One of the biggest and best stores on the internet, for anything music. And certainly, a guitar-heaven! They have a large selection of guitars – all sorts of guitars from acoustic, semi-acoustic, electric and bass, to name a few. They have a large inventory of both new and used guitars, as well as tons of fantastic deals on their Deal Center. A word about the website itself: it is pretty well designed, easy-to-navigate, and very user-friendly. You can easily track your order, or order a gift certificate straight from the website. If you’re a guitarist or a musician, you’ll find anything and everything under the sun here. Simply a must-check!

2. GuitarGuitar: UK’s largest online guitar store, GuitarGuitar caters to the European guitar market, and guitar players on the other side of the Atlantic. You can find a large selection and variety of all sorts of guitars here – acoustic, electric, bass, left-handed, and of course, a ton of some of the most amazing used guitars as well. Like Musicians Friend, they also stock other musical instruments, which makes it the perfect one-stop-shop for the modern musician. They offer free next-day delivery in the UK, and you can also easily check the location of any of their physical stores in the UK (they have 5) if you want to. They accept all kinds of payments (VISA, MasterCard, etc.), and update their inventory very quickly. In fact, GuitarGuitar will be one of the first places where you’ll be able to find some of the best guitar equipment!

3. Sweetwater:  Another good online store, which carries electric and acoustic guitars from Fender, Gibson, Martin, Taylor and PRS, amps, pedals, strings and accessories. The site also offers special deals, and of course (like any good online guitar store), a whole slew of other musical instruments and accessories.  You can shop by budget, shop by color, sort guitars by the bestselling ones, and use the compare tool to do a side-by-side comparison of your favorite guitars. Sweetwater also offers some fantastic deals like 0% interest for the first 18 months on Pigtonix guitars. Sweetwater’s ‘Guitar Gallery’ feature offers you to see each instrument in detail, they ship straight from the factory, each guitar comes with a 2 year warranty, free shipping, as well as some great customer support.

4. Zzounds: On Zzounds, you’ll find a huge selection of electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars and a large inventory of accessories for these guitars. The website does a good job to keep its inventory updated and well-stocked, and also offers easy-payment plans and the ability to pay in installments. The store stocks some amazing guitars from brands such as Gibson, Fender, Taylor, Yamaha, Peavey, and Epiphone, and all guitars come with the 30-day no-questions-asked return policy. Payment options include VISA, MasterCard, Amex, and Wester Union. The guitars ship straight to you from Zzound’s warehouse, and shipping destinations include the US and Canada. The whole process of buying a guitar off the website is super-easy, and you can even track your order on the website.

5. GuitarCenter: Last, but by no means the least is GuitarCenter, which for me, is the pick of the stores on this list! They have tons of acoustic and electric guitars to choose from, and a fantastic-looking online store to boot! You can browse through their selection of new guitars and accessories, as well as the huge inventory of used gear – including guitars and amps – easily. They also offer some pretty great deals (such as the weekly ‘Big Cool Deal’), a large selection of guitars on sale, some fantastic new arrivals, and just about any guitar accessory or add-on that you might possibly need! You can also have any guitar listed on the website shipped to one of their stores near you (without paying any shipping costs!) and pick it up from there, in case you want to check before buying. They accept all the usual payment methods, as well as via PayPal. But perhaps the best thing about GuitarCenter is that they ship to as many as 90 countries all over the world!

Notable mentions:

Guitar Bitz

GuitarTrader

Ebay/Amazon/Best Buy

The Guitar Amplifier Buying Guide

The importance of a good guitar amp cannot be understated.  As a guitarist and a guitar-player, it is (and it will be), without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most important pieces of equipment in your arsenal.

Getting a good, quality guitar amp is as important as the guitar itself. It is unwise to pair up an excellent, expensive guitar with a shoddy amp, and this is a mistake that a lot of guitar players out there, beginners mostly, tend to make.

For starters, make sure that you hook your guitar up with an equally-good and an equally-capable amplifier. Because a good amp will be instrumental (no pun intended) to how good your guitar sounds!

According to Musician’sFriend, some good amps for beginners include the Fender Pro Jr (15W) for its great tone, the Fender Blues Junior which is essentially the same as the Pro Jr. but with a larger speaker, the Squier Sidekick, which is cheap but matches up to its expensive counterparts, and the Vox Cambridge 15, which provides some classic Vox tone, solid state 15W power. You can check the complete list here.

Here is a list of the basic things to look for when choosing an amp:

1. Power (wattage): Lower wattage amps are ideal for practicing or playing in smaller spaces, such as a small studio, a garage, a room or a bar, as they create a harmonic distortion at lower volumes. Conversely, higher wattage amps usually pack a punch, and distort at a higher volume. Large wattage amps usually tend to be larger in size (physically) as well. For a beginner, I would almost always recommend getting a smaller amp (anything less than 30W will do just fine!), with good tone, rather than the other way around.

2. Solid-state Amp: Solid state amps tend to produce a better, cleaner sound and tone, while being cost-effective and affordable. They use transistors for the pre-amp and power, and hence produce a clean tone. They are usually very durable, sturdy and reliable, and can also take a knock or two.

3. Tube Amp: Tube amps, due to the material used to construct it, generally cost much more (and tubes also need to be changed after a while), but are usually preferred by professional guitar players. Tube amps are considerably louder than solid-state ones, produce a warm tone and have an organic distortion (most of these amps have separate channels with the ability to switch between clean and distorted tones), however they are quite delicate as compared to their solid-state counterparts, and should never be physically abused.  

(Thanks to modern technology, there are a ton of ‘hybrids’ now present out there as well, which provide the best of both worlds in a single package.)

4. Combo Amps: There are 3 main types of amplifier configurations out there: combo, head and cabinet, and rack-mounted and cabinet. Combination amps combine amp electronics with one or multiple speakers in a single package. Sub variants include (i) micro amps (1 to 10W) – small amps with just enough power to practice when alone and make for great amps to play in small places, (ii) practice amps (10 to 30W) – which pack a little more punch and are ideal for playing in the bedroom, living room, a small studio or a similar place, and (iii) full size 1x12/2x12 combo amps (50W+) – now these really pack a punch, and are perfect for large settings and playing in front of an audience. They feature either a single or a dual 12” speaker.

5. Head and Cabinet Amps: A cabinet refers to a standalone speaker enclosure that can be hooked up to a head. A stack refers to a head and a set of cabinets (which means a multiple number of speakers) connected together. These are used for gigs (especially if you play in a large stadium or an arena) as they pack some serious power and can be very loud and pretty heavy too.

6. Rack-Mounted Amps: Racks are amps inside a metal box whose front and read panels can be removed. A rack mounted amp is similar to a head since they have to be hooked up to a speaker. Subvariants include a pre-amp or a power amp.

7. Amplifier Construction: This refers to the thickness of the wood used to make the amp cabinet, which has a profound effect in the sound quality of the amp – a thick wood will produce a stronger sound and keep the speaker in place, while the speaker will tend to vibrate more if a thinner wood is used. Make sure that the amp you get has good build-quality, is sturdy and well-constructed. It is also preferable to buy a closed-back amp since they produce a better bass response.

8. Speaker: Practice amps (10-30 watts) usually come with small speakers such as 8” or 10” speakers. 12” speakers are also ideal for practice, and in particular for playing at smaller venues. For larger venues and when you would ideally want a lot of horsepower under the hood, go for a 100w combo amp (with 2x 12” speakers), or a stack (as discussed above).

9. Price: Price should never be your priority when you’re in the market for an amp. While it is never a good idea to settle for an extremely cheap, unbranded and underpowered amps, some lower-priced amps do provide a great sound and tone while packing a considerable amount of punch under the hood. Do your research – ask around, especially from people who’ve been in the business, and read up on some reviews online before taking the plunge.

10. Brands: Some of the popular amp brands include Vox, Fender, Peavey, Roland, Line 6 and Marshall. You can browse through and look at various amplifiers on MusiciansFriend.

11. The Best Amp for Beginner: Modeling amps with onboard effects are usually excellent ‘jack-of-all-trade’ amps, especially for beginners. These amps do a fairly good job or replicating the sound of the other kind of amps with a fair amount of accuracy as well as give put a ton of effects (delay, reverb, etc) at your disposal (which can make any newbie sound like a rockstar on his guitar!). And of course, goes without saying but make sure that you take the amp out for a spin before you buy.