Learn How to Play the Electric Guitar

If you have been thinking all your life about learning how to play the electric guitar and you've decided to put your dream into action you need to start looking for an electric guitar. Many seasoned guitar players recommend that you never buy new guitars or equipment. There are bargains to be found online and in the music stores, and there are so many new guitars that are of dubious quality that it is better to make it a policy to become better informed about your musical instruments so you can choose from the range of second hand guitars and equipment.

If you are forced to make buy a new electric guitar most of the top brands like Fender, Ibanez and Gibson have basic low price range models for beginners. Bear in mind that some cheap model guitars are difficult to keep in tune and this could take away from any advantage in price. You could take the route of simply getting the same kind of guitar as your favorite artist.

The Vox Pathfinder is a great choice of amp for the new electric guitar player with gain and tremolo built in and enough loudness to satisfy any garage band. The basic guitar effects you need are reverb and distortion. There's a pedal named Big Muff that does the job nicely and you won't need to pay a fortune.

For transporting your guitar a hard shell case offers the best protection even though they cost a lot more than gig bags. When you buy your guitar, also get a range of picks in varying thicknesses.

Once you get your guitar and amp home and set up you will then realize that you are not a natural born guitar player and that you are in need of a lot of practice over a fairly considerable amount of time. You have about seven or so chords that you will consider the basic essential chords for the electric guitar player so start learning them and the songs that you can play using them. Also don't forget to have fun fooling around with trying your chords in different positions on the guitar neck  and making up tunes using your chords.

You need to strike a balance between learning other people's music and creating music that feels good for you. Your own personal style can emerge from day one of electric guitar playing but it will undergo constant change as you learn more over the months and years ahead. But do not let anyone tell you to put your own style of playing on hold.

Whether or not you think that music theory and sheet music are boring and difficult, the truth is that no electric guitar player who has gone through the effort of learning that side of music has ever said, "gosh, I wish I hadn't done it". If you learn guitar without learning theory you will still end up being a guitarist but the sad fact is you will miss out on some gigs if you can't read music.

When you learn to play electric guitar don't be afraid of a challenge. Setting yourself goals to learn riffs and solos you like will keep you getting better. Keep in mind that you want to improve your technique and the way to do that is to try to play stuff that is a little beyond you at the moment. Part of working on your guitar technique is to keep your fingernails on your left hand short. Long nails stop you from fretting notes. To warm up for a practice session spend a few minutes going up the guitar neck in the first position playing frets 1 2 3 4 and then down 4 3 2 1 using alternating up and down strokes with the pick.