5 Beginner Guitarist Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

If you enjoy music and feel that you have a passion for learning new things, then learning the guitar is one easy way to a whole new experience of your favorite music. It is one thing to be able to listen and enjoy your music, but a complete revelation once you know how to jam along with your very own rendition of your favorite song. Many people pick up the guitar and don’t fully get to learn the instrument and thus sometimes injure them-self, but with these easy steps you can understand the mistakes that make some people quit learning, and to avoid them to become a fully-fledged guitar master.

1. Hold your guitar correctly

Many people don’t understand the importance of having good posture when playing the guitar, and as you are learning it is a crucial time to get into the habit of playing in a comfortable position. Many people will lay the guitar across their thigh when they start, giving them an awkward position to accurately see the fret-board. If you are right handed, place the guitar across your left thigh and tilt the neck of the guitar slightly up to give your wrist and hand freedom of movement to train your brain into playing more comfortably. Here are some quick tip for you:

2. Don’t get too far ahead of your self

Many people pick up the guitar to start learning their favorite songs, but for every beginner, just playing a simple song well is the best way of learning how to play the guitar. Once you have mastered more simple songs, you will be well on your way to learning new tricks, as well as new styles of music as they will come naturally to someone who knows where to place their fingers and how to pick perfectly.

3. Don’t ignore chord books

One of the best resources of any beginner guitarist is some of the many different books available to help you progress your learning. Alongside other forms of teaching, chord books play a huge role in helping you understand the phrasing with your hand to play the chords, allowing you to see which finger rests at which fret, and how the chord may be strummed. Chord books are relatively cheap, and may offer a free CD or DVD-ROM to help you tune your guitar and play along with a few simple songs.

4. Find the right guitar for your learning

Whilst it is natural to want to go out and buy the latest Gibson Robot Les Paul with all of the amazing features that the signature versions offer guitarists, but if you want to learn, the best way is to buy a simple and basic guitar that is the right size and shape for your learning. Try a simple jump acoustic guitar as it has a larger and wider fret-board, unlike an electric guitar and offers you an easier way to see your mistakes and allow you more space for your fingers to find the right strings.

5. Get face to face lessons

If you really want to improve your chances of learning how to play the guitar, then taking lessons by a friendly tutor is one of the very best ways to advance. Having someone to ask questions to, someone to spot your mistakes and correct them before they become a habit as well as a regiment of classes to give your learning a regular pattern is universally known to work for many budding guitarists.


For any beginner guitarist, learning is a process that is determined by a few factors such as your time and dedication to learning, your overall ability with other instruments you may already play and hard ork. If you don’t put in the hard work and follow some essential principles for learning guitar then you may not see the benefits. It takes a long time to become a good guitarist, and a longer time to become a great guitarist. But if you keep at it, enjoy music as a passion and would love to also write songs, then you may make it into the legendary category, with a lot of hark work!