Beginners

what does it take to play guitar

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Frankly speaking all you need for playing guitar is 90%  practicing and 10% talent , so its all about practicing practicing is the secret.

How to hold your guitar

one photo worth thousands of words so just look at the photos.

Classic guitar

Electric guitar sitting

                  Electric guitar standing                         Folk guitar sitting

How to hold your Pic

Left hand position 

In fact there is two ways for placing your hand on  guitar neck the first is called hook position (i consider it wrong) the other is called classical position.

 

   
         Hook  position                                               Classical 

The hook position is commonly used by rock guitarists specially rhythm guitarists it's useful if you are going to have some bends or you will remain playing minor pentatonic or caged or zoned notes cause the notes in this cases the  will be too close to each others , this position doesn't provide you with neither a full stretch of your hand  nor elasticity for your left hand.

The Classical position is the one to the right and it gives you the maximum stretch for your fingers and flexibility and its the one that i recommend .

Left hand fingers position

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1- Use one finger per fret.

2- Place your fingers right behind the metal fret so that you leave a tiny space between your finger and the metal fret.

3- Do not put your finger right over the metal fret.

4- Do not put your finger far away from the metal fret.

5- Allow your fingers to have a curvature that makes the fingers contact the finger board in 90 degree angle.

6- Keep your fingers lined up the way that the green line shows.

Perfect fingers

The first thing you should know about guitar

is the names of the guitar strings

they are called EADG BE

you should learn its names by heart ascending and descending 

The basic picking technique

The basic picking technique is called alternate picking the word alternate means that you should pluck the string once down and the other is up always alternately , i have provided you with a video here to see whats it all about.

How to read Guitar TAB

one of the most important tools you have to study is to read guitar TAB , guitar TAB is a system that shows you where to locate the notes on guitar and what fingers you use to play it and sometimes it shows the time values of each not.

here you are an example 

Your first exercise

Guys i know when u pic up your guitar u want to play these beautiful melodies u heard , its the same feeling i had when i started playing guitars 30 years ago i was only 15 years my advice to you is to be patient i started with one of my friends to play guitars at the same time but my friend was not patient enough so he gave up and i continued , he still contacts me from time to time to play the songs he likes for him so be patient and you will reach your goals.

Now u are able to read Guitar TAB as i showed u how to do so already let me post for you your first exercise down.

Good luck

Mohamed Sharara 

Guys some exercises are boring i know but the boring ones are very beneficial so stay tuned and i'll show u the way.

regarding the symbols above the diagram i showed, the one resemble square means a down stroke with your pic the other resemble triangle means up stroke i recommend to practice this exercise 15 minutes everyday its your daily fingers food nd you will c the results. 

Reading rhythm slashes

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Musicians use a variety of shorthand tricks to indicate certain musical directions.

They use this shorthand because, although a particular musical concept

itself is often simple enough, to notate that idea in standard written

music form may prove unduly complicated and cumbersome. So they use a

“cheat sheet” or a “road map” that gets the point across yet avoids the issue

of reading (or writing) music.

Rhythm slashes are slash marks (/) that simply tell you how to play rhythmically

but not what to play. The chord in your left hand determines what you

play. Say, for example, that you see the diagram shown below.

this rhythm slashes chart shows that you have to play the first chord shown above four times 1,2,3,3 then second and third chords two times for each.

Practicing and getting good

It may sound obvious to say that the more you

practice the better you’ll get, but it’s true.

However, perhaps even more important is this

concept: The more you practice, the faster

you’ll get good. Although there’s no set amount

of practice time for “getting good,” a good rule

of thumb is to practice a minimum of 30 minutes

every day. Also, it’s generally agreed that practicing

at regular intervals is better than jamming

a week’s worth of time (say, 31⁄2 hours) all into

one practice session.

If at first you find a new technique difficult to

master, stick with it, and you’ll eventually get the

hang of it. To get even better on the guitar, we

suggest the following:

Set aside a certain time every day for

practicing.

Get together with your guitar-playing friends,

and get them to listen to what you’re doing.

Create a practice environment where you

have privacy, away from distractions (TV,

conversations, your mother bugging you to

come to dinner, and so on).

Watch videos of guitar players who play the

kind of music you like and that you’d like to

learn.

Good practicing habits 

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1. Warm up before you start practicing .
2. Get used to tapping your foot while practicing or use a metronome.
3. Make a daily practice routine.
4. Don't keep repeating the whole exercise just focus on that part that you have problem with.
5. Get together with other guitar players or players for other instruments.