Starting with guitar: how long before I can play guitar?
Is Taking Guitar Lessons Really Necessary?
It all seems so simple: you find a guitar in the attic, learn a few chords in minutes, find a drummer, bassist, and singer, get discovered during your third rehearsal, and two weeks later, you’re on the main stage at Rock Werchter with a major record contract! While this scenario sounds more like a comedy TV movie (who remembers Spinal Tap?), many people ironically have this image of playing music. They think, “If you know two chords, you can play everything, right?” Playing music can’t be that hard, can it?
Unfortunately, reality is quite different. Why is it impossible to learn to play guitar and music quickly?
I frequently hear and read about people claiming they can learn to play guitar in two weeks through self-study. Online, there are often advertisements from dubious sources promising, “Learn to play guitar in 10 days.” What these ads don’t mention is the pain in their fingers, their inability to keep the beat, their struggle with rhythm, their indiscriminate playing without understanding, and their lack of dynamics or feeling. They often play in a cramped, ineffective manner, without truly grasping what they’re doing.
I advise beginners who are starting with guitar to play for at least 5 to 15 minutes a day; longer sessions are, of course, also allowed! At the beginning, focus on repeating lessons until you’re sure you’ve mastered them. Don’t think, “I’ll try it on my own and through the internet first, and then I’ll take lessons.” While a few may succeed, the vast majority of those who attempt to self-teach and later seek lessons often become a challenge for music teachers. They miss out on essential basics, like trying to run a marathon before learning to crawl. Such students frequently become demotivated and frustrated when they’re told they need to revisit basic exercises.
Starting correctly is crucial: well-structured and appropriately paced information, the right exercises, and a fun, engaging approach to music theory are essential. Moreover, musical experience is a kind of life wisdom that you cannot rush; it develops with age, through practice, playing music, listening, collaborating, studying, and analyzing. For example, technically, you might play like B.B. King after 4 to 5 years of practice, but to truly play with the feeling and dynamics of B.B. King, you’d need to have played music for at least 75 years!