I can’t think of a better piece of furniture than the acoustic guitar! It looks great in any room, almost like a precious artwork. It is also so popular that at some point, almost every house had one, unfortunately … covered with dust 🙂 How many times did you hear this conversation ‘… so, you play the guitar?’, only to hear the response ‘No, it is my flatmate’s guitar’ or ‘my brother/sister gave it to me when he/she left’.
Interestingly, even though the acoustic guitar is one of the most easily accessible instruments, not many people choose to learn it. Typically, this is because they think it is too hard, they are too old, or because they tried in the past and failed.
I firmly believe that everyone can learn the guitar … but my caveat is that not everyone learns in the same way. We are all unique, and how we learn and memorise things is unique, specific to us and our personalities – this is why you should never compare yourself to others. Your progress is unique to you and only to you.
What Can You Learn On Acoustic Guitar?
Here are a few examples of acoustic guitar techniques that you can learn. The video examples are a little old – I think back from 2013 – but … the message is still the same. In the first example, I use the fingerpicking technique.
Fingerpicking means that I use my fingers to get sound from the guitar. Another way of getting sound from the guitar is by using a guitar pick.
Here, I play the same chord progression twice but arrange it with two different fingerpicking techniques to achieve a different feel to the song. The first example has a nice soft sound, and the other one is more percussive:
Let’s move on. How about writing a song? It may sound like mission impossible for the beginner guitarist, but it is not that difficult. I always encourage my students to use their knowledge more creatively.
Just today, one of my students played a song she composed (after studying the guitar with me for two months) - I was so impressed! It was fabulous and such a pleasure to see one of my students being able to express themselves on the guitar in this way.
So, how do you go about writing a song on the acoustic guitar? Just take a few chords that you know, randomly arrange them, and listen to how they sound together. Remember that many great songs consist of only a few simple chords!
In this example, I took four chords: Cmaj7, Amin9, F and G and tried to arrange them into a song. Here is the result:
I always stress that even the best guitarists were in the same place that you are now. Nobody becomes great overnight. Because we learn differently, some things come easier to you, and others may be a bit more difficult to learn and memorise, but if you persist, you will learn the acoustic guitar. Good guitar skills are just the result of practising and having fun with the guitar.
In this last example, I improvised using different strumming variations and arpeggios. It is a more advanced way of playing the guitar and requires some experience:
Some of these examples are slightly advanced, but I wanted to show you what you can aim to achieve on the guitar. It all comes down to practising the right things in the correct order.
So, which songs do you want to learn to play? Get in touch if you would like to study with me on my one-to-one guitar lessons in London or have a look at my online guitar lessons available worldwide. Playing the guitar is fun and the best way to spend your free time. Undust your guitar, and let’s rock 🙂
Darius | Guitar Couch Lessons
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