Learn to Play Beginner Guitar Songs

It is hard to imagine someone that starts to play guitar without wanting to learn to play songs, however, many songs simply aren’t playable without years of training and experience.  Learning to play beginner guitar songs using basic guitar chords is important to developing the control to playing more complex songs as a guitarist develops more and more techniques through online guitar lessons.  It is important to know where to focus in order to start playing songs as quickly as possible.  Just diving in and trying to play virtuoso songs right off the bat is going to lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration.

What to Learn First

The single most important thing to learn to play songs isn’t guitar scales or techniques or even chords, it is rhythm.  It isn’t that uncommon a misconception among guitarists that it is the drummer or bass player’s job to keep the rhythm, not theirs, but this isn’t actually true.  It is their function musically, but every musician should be able to keep their own timing just as well.

It is very important to realize just how noticeable it is when a guitarist is out of time and to focus on developing proper timing.  This is the reason why beginner songs are so helpful for developing a guitarist’s abilities to play more complex songs.

Muscle Memory and Songs

Even with the most basic of beginner guitar songs using simple techniques and basic guitar chords, it isn’t really all that practical to hope to successfully play through a song well without being at a level where you can perform the techniques without much thought.  This is why it is important to develop the techniques from online guitar lessons before starting to apply them to songs.  Song riffs might make for good practice exercise, but when it comes to actually performing a song, there is no time to consciously think about what is involved in chord changes or the techniques used.

At first this might seem hard, but with practice, everything you play on the guitar will become part of your muscle memory and become easier and easier.  It does take time and practice to learn a full song, but if you literally have to think just what notes need to be fretted and what fingers need to be used, you won’t be able to make a chord change fast enough.

Play Along with Someone or Something Else

Even if it is just a metronome or a CD track, it is important to practice songs with an outside source.  This prevents you from subconsciously slowing down parts that might be more difficult or awkward for you to play, which can be quite common for some people when they play unaccompanied. 

Just because it is a beginner guitar song doesn’t mean it can be played sloppily.  If you use basic guitar chords, you still need to play them perfectly every single time, just as you would have to with the most complex of techniques from online guitar lessons.

Don’t Stress Out

It takes time to learn to play a song perfectly, don’t stress out about how long it takes you, even if the progress might not seem very readily apparent.  The important thing is to keep on trying until you get it perfectly.  Stressing out can psych you out from performing well, so being relaxed can often help improve playing as well.  Just keep on playing and go at your own pace.