When thinking about taking up learning guitar, many people will consider the option of teaching themselves. I would say yes, you can teach yourself guitar, but you do have to know what you need to learn. There are several facets to playing guitar, and they should be learned in a certain order.
With the Internet, it is now possible to find nearly all of the information you need to teach yourself guitar, as long as you know what to look for. I would suggest learning some basic chords first. You can obtain plenty of information on the Internet for this. You will need to learn how to read a chord diagram first, this is what is used to show how a certain chord is played. The first chords you should learn are the open position major and minor chords. These chords are the basis for all other chords you will learn.
Chords to learn: Major: C, A, G, E, D Minor: Amin, Emin, Dmin
These chords alone will enable you to learn hundreds of songs. When learning chords make sure to pay attention to what strings are used. Not all chords use all six strings. A chord diagram will show which strings are played for that chord. The second thing you will want to start learning is basic strumming patterns. Strumming guitar is the act of playing a chord. The strumming pattern is what will determine the rhythm of the song. When practicing strumming patterns you want to pay close attention to your timing. In music timing is everything. When first starting out I would suggest counting out loud and tapping your foot. However the best method of improving your timing is to use a metronome. Lessons on different strumming patterns can be found easy enough on the Internet. Learning the notes on the guitar fretboard would be the next step to teach yourself guitar. When it comes to music theory this is where a good number people that are trying to teach themselves will get lost. At the very least you should learn the names of the notes for the first five frets on all six strings. I would learn what a scale is and then learn the C major scale. This will help you understand what music theory is about and how to pursue learning it. An often ignored aspect of learning guitar is watching other guitar players. Go to some open mic nights at a local coffee house or bar. Talk to other guitar players. Most guitar players love to share their knowledge of guitar playing. Remember, everybody started at the beginning. Listen to a lot of different guitar music. Once you start to teach yourself guitar you will be able to listen to the guitar parts in a song in a fresh way. The last piece of advice I’ll give you is to set up a good practice routine. Practice as often as you can, but keep the sessions short. You will progress a lot faster by practicing 30 minutes every day, than if you practiced for two hours once a week. Trying to teach yourself guitar is not the easiest task, but it can be done. As I said, there are plenty of resources on the Internet, you just need to know what to look for. Good luck in your pursuit to teach yourself guitar.
Ed Haas is the webmaster of learnitguitar.com