The past year in college really made me realize I needed a new hobby to fill up my time- and what better hobby than learning to play guitar? Honestly, this started from all the TikToks swarming my for-you page of people doing covers of “Sailor Song” by Gigig Perez and, my personal favorite trend right now: Fetty Wap’s “Again” acoustic style. Regardless of what songs you want to learn, here’s the 3 most important things I learned over the past couple months as a complete beginner to this instrument.
1. the first song is the most important
I think this is something that people don’t really talk about, but picking your first song to learn is so, so, so, crucial to how your guitar journey will go. If you pick a song that’s too hard, then you’ll feel like giving up before you even get started, but if you pick a song that you don’t love you will feel bored and likely won’t want to learn more songs. The first thing I would recommend you do is get a list of 5-7 songs that you are truly obsessed with, and will forever and always be obsessed with, and start looking at the chord charts for each song. Make sure they consist of the basic chords like C, G, Em, E, D, Am, A, etc.
Once you find a song with these simple chords, start practicing how to read a chord chart and how to play a chord properly and accurately. I recommend using Fender or another teaching app that will customize your learning experiences. You’ll want to start learning the strumming pattern for that song and once you’re ready sing along! The best part is when you finally master that first song and anytime someone asks you to play a song, you’ll have your favorite ready to go. Personally, my first song was “I Love You, I’m Sorry” by Gracie Abrams and that song has become muscle memory, and my favorite go-to song, plus it feels amazing to play a song you really love.
2. you cannot just learn from tiktok tutorials
Obviously when I first started, I immediately went to TikTok and did a search for basic guitar tutorials. And while it did work and I learned a couple new songs from this platform, it’s a lot more beneficial for you to find a teacher, but I know as a self-taught learner myself that’s not always realistic, or find a youtuber that really helps you understand what you’re doing. I remember I was learning the intro to “A Million Dreams” by Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, and Ziv Zaifman, and I did not know what I was doing at all. But I found a couple channels that really broke the song down into the basics, and not only did I learn the intro riff, I learned fundamentals that helped me become a better player overall.
3. don’t give up!!!
Even if it takes you weeks to learn one song, DO NOT STOP TRYING! It is so important to keep on going and continue learning the songs you want to. Guitar wouldn’t be as fun and impressive if everyone did it, but everyone CAN do it. This isn’t a talent most people are born with. It’s a skill that absolutely anyone can strengthen with more practice, so keep on practicing your strumming, finger placement, or adding vocals on top. Whatever it is, the payoff will be so incredibly worth it when you can add another song to your “songs I can play” list in your notes app.
And don’t forget: all the greats practiced for hours a day. Taylor Swift practiced 4 to 6 hours a day and if someone with as much natural talent practiced so intensely, I think it speaks volumes to what us “normal” people should expect with our time and efforts. All this to say, keep on playing and trying new things – you won’t regret it.