Well…your fingers will be pressing against the strings…so expect calluses and a bit of soreness during the first few days or weeks. This will truly depend on how much you practice, but the sooner you get your calluses the better. Also, you will not be able to get a clean sound out of the guitar, your fingers have not developed the strength and dexterity needed to make the guitar sound good. You need to have patience when trying to play the guitar for the first few months. Also…if you are right handed, your right hand will be the one that will give you the most difficulty. Your hands have to sync and you will feel and move like a robot. I recommend having a mirror to see your hands, that way you don’t have to lean over to look at your hand and bend your back. You will be reminded to adjust your position multiple times when playing. Hand position changes all the time and fingers move from string to string. Sometimes in the beginning we tend to focus on the fingers that we will be using and forget about the rest. I’ve seen many students placing their thumb on the front of the guitar and their pinky on the back. I can talk about posture for a long time, but I can guarantee you that some times by simply moving your arm a few inches will help you play chords you were not able to play.
Music fundamentals! If you got rhythm you have a song. Think of “We will rock you” by Queen. The song starts with a simple rhythm. Most rock and roll tunes have that beat pattern on the drums. When Freddy Mercury sings, that’s you melody. A melody is just a sequence of notes. All melodies have a rhythm. Lastly, we have harmony. Harmony is the a group of notes played at the same time. When you play chords you are playing harmony and whoever is singing is doing the melody. Those are the 3 pillars of music in plain English. Try to tap your feet or hand when listening to a song. Pretend you are the drummer! This will help you develop rhythm and give you a great understanding of timing. If you want to practice melody, think of a song that you know well, like “Happy Birthday” and try to find the notes of the song on the guitar. Lastly, if you want to create harmony, start playing 2 notes at the same time, if they sound good to you, you might be doing things right! If they don’t sound good move one note to the next fret and try again. 1, 2, 3, GO!
