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This is a little round-up post to help beginner guitar players get started.

It can be pretty overwhelming to start to learn the guitar.

There are thousands of resources available online (some good, some bad).

Here are a few things that will help you get started:

How to Deal with Finger Pain

Playing the guitar is physical activity.

We don’t really think about this when first getting started.

After my first lesson with a new student I ask if they though playing the guitar was easier or harder than they expected.

Every time I ask this I always get the same answer: “It’s not as hard as I thought, but it hurts my fingers a little.”

Over that first week of playing the guitar the finger pain gets more intense.

So how do we deal with finger pain?

The short answer: Practice more and deal with it.

The long answer: In this article I talk about some of the techniques I’ve used for helping my students.

How Long to Play a Guitar

Ah.  The question most frequently asked by beginner guitar players: How long will it take me to learn to play the guitar?

The short answer: Probably a few weeks to get the basics down.

The long answer:  It depends.  In this article I go in to detail about how long it takes most people to play (including some real-life student examples).

Easiest Electric Guitar to Play

All guitars are not created equal.

Just looking at the amazon listing for guitars will show instruments starting as low as $50 and going up to $5000 and higher.

So what should you do?  Which guitar should a beginner buy?

The short answer:  Determine your budget. Go to a guitar store and try a bunch of different guitars out.

The long answer:  In this article I review a few guitars.  Tell you which ones to avoid.  And tell you which one to buy if you’re looking for an easy guitar to play.

(Spoiler: the easiest guitar to learn to play is the Yamaha Pacifica)

How to Teach Myself to Play Guitar

We can’t all afford guitar lessons.

But we also can’t afford to spend hours scouring youtube for decent guitar lessons.

So what should you do?

The short answer: Use JamPlay.

The long answer: In this article I review a few of the teach-yourself-guitar services.  I also go into detail about which services to avoid (scams) and which are free but still good (justinguitar.com).

Best Way to Practice the Guitar

So you’ve started guitar, but you’re not making progress.

Maybe your progress is slower than you’d like.

Maybe you’ve hit a plateau.

The top reason most guitar players hit plateaus has to do with their practice routine.

Too frequently we get lazy and only “practice” this stuff that is easy for us…. this won’t make us any better?

So what should  guitar player do to improve quickly?

The short answer: Implement deliberate practice.

The long answer: In this article I go into detail about what deliberate practice is (and why it works).  I also talk about how it can make you a better guitar player by only practicing for a few minutes each day.

(Jake Posko does in-home and online guitar lessons in the Annapolis, Maryland area including: Annapolis, Edgewater, Severna Park, Pasadena, Crownsville, Arnold and Kent Island, inquire about lessons by e-mailing him at jake@jakeposko.com).