Of course you should! If you have landed on this post, then you should one hundred percent go for it. Why? You have already shown an interest in it by clicking here. Being able to play along to your favorite songs and/or create your own tunes is a great way to turn your brain off and relax, whether by yourself or among friends and family.
You definitely do not want to be the guy or gal who awkwardly brings out their guitar and “forces” them to listen to whatever it is you want them to hear. No one ever wants that. Trust me. However, you would be surprised at how often I am asked to play a song for someone. If they are asking me to play for them, it’s because they know what they are going to get. A solid performance (no endless riffs or restarts) and a good time is all they want.
Where To Start
As you start looking for your first guitar, try not to get too overwhelmed. You’ll find there are almost endless options for players. Nylon or steel strings, six strings or twelve strings, acoustic or electric, dreadnought or cutaway, solid or hollow-body; the list goes on and on.
My suggestion is to start with a steel-string acoustic, that fits your budget, to start learning open chords. If you really love the instrument and see you are going to keep playing the guitar, then my next move would be to get an electric to really begin to learn the fretboard. You can do this on an acoustic, but your fingers will hate you. Plus, you can start to use effects, which will really get you hooked as you will be able to start making tons of new sounds with your instrument.
You can start with either one though really, acoustic or electric, and should pick the one that inspires you the most. After all, that’s what will keep you learning and picking it up time after time.
Where To Buy
Guitar Center and Sweetwater for instruments of all shapes and sizes. I am in no way sponsored by either of these companies so you can hear my honest take regarding them. I would wait before pulling the trigger on expensive boutique brand guitars. I would also recommend that you buy a new guitar and maybe skip the pawn shop teles for now. As a beginner, you won’t really know what to look for in a used instrument to make sure you are getting a good deal and boutique guitars can be pretty unforgiving to new players.
Stick to the two main players for this first buy. If you have a music shop near you, that sells new, reputable brand guitars, consider them too. Just don’t let them sell you an overpriced or even expensive guitar. You should get your first guitar for well under $1000. More like in the $300-$500 range, unless you have money to blow. The problem with really cheap guitars ($100-200) is that you will be fighting the thing more than playing it. Don’t make this mistake. It will discourage you from playing instead of inviting you to play.
I’m not sure if Guitar Center has this, but Sweetwater offers easy pay options such as 3 and 6 month zero interest payment plans. This is not a credit card, just an easy pay option.
I’ve Got The Guitar, Now What?
Learn your open chords before doing anything else. I’ll link some basic chord charts here to get you started and play these over and over and over again. Get comfortable changing between them and make sure you can play them without accidentally muting other strings in the process.
In my next post, I’ll go over some exercises and tips to get those fingers loosened up!
Y’all have a good one!
