How long does it take to become good at guitar? What does it take to become competent when learning a song by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses, Oasis, David Bowie etc.?

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If you want a structured course to speed up your learning instead of learning random songs, this one is good.

40 Answers

Justin Rothberg

Justin Rothberg, Full time musician since age 21. Degree in music performance. Record collector. Composer, educator, perform...

Answered Feb 17 2012 · Upvoted by Ethan Hein, music technology and music education professor

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Thats a good question that a lot of

beginners or people thinking about playing guitar often ask.

From years and many lessons of teaching

guitar and practicing I've come to the conclusion that it all depends on the

following things.

1.

How much time you spend practicing and playing the guitar.

2.

How you spend your practice time.

3.

How fast you learn and your natural ability.

4.

Your goals and what you consider "good".

How much time you spend practicing and

playing the guitar?

This is probably

the most common answer someone will give you.

“Practice makes perfect”.  The

reason people stress it so much is it's true!

There's no doubt about it.

Someone who practices 4hrs every day will be A LOT better than someone

who practices 20min 3 times a week.  No

matter how much natural ability you have!

The reason is because of repetition.

The more you use your fingers trying to play songs, chords and melodies

the easier it will get in time.  In the

beggining this is especially important.

Later on, once you develop great technique you can get away with

spending less time just doing technical stuff.

Every time I want to learn a new style of guitar or music I make huge improvements

by sitting in my room or in the park playing guitar for hours consistently.  The more I get busy playing gigs teaching the

less time I have to practice and the longer it takes me to learn something

new.  Very often I've seem students have

great interest in the beginning, practice all the time and improve quite fast

(as long as they do what I say) Then they often reach a period where they get

kinda burnt out and slack off a little.

The rapid improvement stops right there!

Bottom line is, to be good at any instrument you have to practice and in

general, the more the better.  To keep up

the practicing you have to enjoy learning things and improving.

2.

How you spend your practice time.

This is more about

the quality of the practice than the quantity but it makes a big difference in

how fast you improve.  Imagine two people

learning how to shoot a basketball?  One

person spends 2 hrs a day shooting a jump shot from the same position in the

court while the other person tries all possible angles, different shooting

situations and different ways to shot the ball.

Obviously the 2nd person will be more prepared to play a

better game of basketball.  The same

thing works for learning a musical instrument.

In the beginning it helps to slowly work through every aspect of guitar

you’re working on.  Constantly trying to

improve the areas you’re the weakest in.

If you’re really awesome at playing fast alternate picking after one

week for some reason but have a really hard time changing from even the most

basic chords then spend a little less time doing the alternate picking and a

lot more time changing the chords.

You’ll be a much better and well rounded player with this type of

attitude.  It’s also important to make

the distinction between playing and practicing.

If I had a dime for every player who could only play the intro

blackbird, smoke on the water, or stairway to heaven?  Which are all great songs by the way.  Picking up the guitar and playing blackbird

perfectly over and over again for 30min is not exactly practicing because

you’re not working on your weaknesses or learning anything new.  I had this problem myself and most students

do when they learn their first couple of songs.

Obviously, playing guitar is fun and thats why we practice but you’ve

got to make the distinction between the two.

3.

How fast you learn and your natural ability.

This has a lot to

do with the quality of practice we just discussed but it’s true.  Some people learn faster than others.  Most people are stronger in specific areas

and lag in others.  This is because music

uses so many different parts of the brain.  I find that mathematical people catch theory

and reading music quickly but have a hard time letting loose and just playing

what they feel.  I’ve met 8yr kids that

have almost perfect rhythm or can tune a guitar the first lesson but it seems

like it takes them forever to learn how to play a chord.  However, most of these skills can always be

developed in time.  Whomever tells you

that music is all about talent and “you either got it or don’t” is clueless and

has never really spent the time to try to learn themselves.  I know because I’ve worked on my own

seemingly impossible weaknesses and taught people how to learn theirs.  It may take more work and you may have to do

some really fundamental exercises over and over again but everything can be

developed eventually.  You also feel a

great sense of accomplishment and a bit smarter after you’ve done it.  I personally think its better in the long

term to put in the work than to have natural ability because it gives you a

sense of dedication.  Most of the child prodigies

I’ve met or heard about have stopped playing a lot by the age 30.  This is probably because they have no work ethic

and everything just came naturally.

Eventually, anyone can work on their weaknesses enough until all the

skills are developed.  Then only the

people who keep practicing move further.

It’s very hard to teach people how to practice if they’ve always learned

things without it.  Putting in more work

and practice time also makes you a more experienced and mature musician just

because you’ve spent more time the guitar.

So if you feel like you’re learning slower than your friend who got it

in a couple days or weeks think about that.

4.

Your goals and what you consider "good".

This all has to do

with where you’re trying to take the guitar and music.  Think about it and maybe even write them

down?  Set short and realistic goals for

yourself.  If your goal to be able to

play “blackbird” then with about 30min of practicing a day 5-7 times a week you

could probably archive it in about 1-3 months.

If your goal it to be able to learn how to play a bunch of your favorite

rock/pop songs and read basic music then it might take you about a year of

practice.  If you want to be able to play

advanced rock/pop music, solo, play great rhythm and lead, read decent music,

and have decent technique it might take you about 3yrs.  If you want to be an amazing jazz or

classical (or any style really) player who reads music great, plays with a pick

and fingers, learns things by ear quickly, has perfect rhythm, perfect

technique, understands advanced theory, and has a huge repertoire memorized

then you’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of you.  When I started playing guitar I just thought

it was cool cause I saw a 80’s rock guy shredding on tv.  Then as I slowly learned how to play some

basic tunes I already listened to and I started to enjoy it more and more.  I wanted to learn to play like Hendrix, then

Clapton, metal, blues, turned into a jazz freak, classical, flamenco, banjo,

uke, mandolin ect.....  It’s just so fun

to learn that it never stops.  There’s

always something to learn out there.

Learning music and guitar is a very rewarding skill.  It makes you appreciate music more and is a

great way to use a part of your brain you never thought you would.  Most people love playing guitar on their days

off and find it very relaxing, love playing for friends, starting bands, and

the feeling of learning a new song that you’ve always wanted to learn and

enjoyed listening to.

Bottom line is, if you want to get good

at guitar quickly you have to practice a lot and practice well.  But more importantly you have to like

practicing, learning and never stop because it’s fun to get better!

Happy practicing!

-Justin Rothberg,   For more musical advise and questions

answered check my website at www.justinrothberg.com

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Related Questions

More Answers Below

On average, how long does it take to learn a guitar song?

How long does it take to become an average guitar player?

I m learning guitar how much should I practice on daily basis?

How long will it take me to get decent at electric guitar?

How do I, as a beginner at 30, become a pro guitar player?

Judith Cox

Judith Cox

Answered May 15, 2019

#Question name: How long does it take to become good at guitar What does it take to become competent when learning a song by The Beatles The Rolling Stones The Stone Roses Oasis David Bowie etc?

TOP 15 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN WAYS TO LEARN THE GUITAR FASTER!

I learn guitar from 1996. Now I play guitar solo, fingerstyle, sing with guitar…I want to share with you some tips to help you learn guitar faster as below:

1) Practice in the ideal learning environment

The room you choose to spend so much of your time practicing and learning the guitar will make a big difference to how easily you learn.

Researchers from the University of Washington and UC Berkeley combed through scientific literature to find the physical components that mattered the most to students in a classroom setting.

They found that there were multiple important factors that make a big difference.

These are:

• Light – daylight is crucial. Make sure you learn in a room where there is plenty of it and keep the curtains and blinds open in the day

• Noise – Unsurprisingly silence plays a big part in concentrating. If you live in a noisy household, find a quieter room, ask your family members to politely hush or do a Bob Dylan and go electric – this way you can use headphones. Do what you can to make sure your practice time is ideal for you.

• Temperature – Students learn best in environments between 20°C (68°F) and 23°C (74°F). It`s wise to keep on an eye on the thermostat or air conditioning unit you use and don`t let the room get too hot. I prefer things cooler than hotter, about 20°C is ideal for me. It`s very difficult to concentrate on anything with sweat pouring into your eyes.

• Layout – How tidy the room you learn in makes a difference too. It should be fairly organised without clutter. This may be difficult for some of you younger readers but what you mom always says about tidying your room will actually help your guitar playing!

• Plants – Having plants in the room you learn in makes a positive difference too. The presence of plants has been shown to have a calming effect on people, regardless of age or even whether you like plants or not.

2) Use guitartricks model

This is number one guitar source online now.

GuitarTricks has over 11,000 lessons and a huge range of songs available.

Source: GuitarTricks

3) Workout and train regularly

A lot of guitar playing for newbie’s and experts is about spatial awareness, remembering a lot of things and the ability to think clearly in the moment. Great news, there is a whole host of research that shows exercise helps in large amounts for all of the above.

It`s a heavy read but here is some evidence as shown through science.

Ever wondered why so many guitarists who are superstars look in decent shape?

Well, most of them have a good old workout every night up on stage. Look at guys like Angus Young, 60 years old and still running around like a maniac with an axe. He is doing great for his age without a doubt.

I`m not recommending you do impressions of Angus at home in your practice room, there would be a few broken windows for sure if you did, but start doing a bit more training.

It`s good for you health in general and will make you a better guitarist.

Also, a guitar plus a great body = sex appeal for most males and females.

=> Useful materiial: Top67GuitarResources (plz searcch Google with no blank).

4) Know your chronotype and practice accordingly

A Chronotype is a person’s propensity to sleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period. It`s basically our body clock. Many of us describe ourselves as either `night owls` or `early birds`.

Over recent years there has been a number of articles in the press that claim school times start too early as people and young people in particular learn better later in the morning.

This study from the University of Toronto have disproved this theory. The researchers showed how test participants learn better at their own particular chronotype.

Therefore if a person is a night owl, he or she will indeed learn better later on and if someone is an early bird then yep, you guessed it, they will learn better in the morning.

Don`t listen to the over-generalizations of others who tell you what and when to practice, but instead tailor your practice to your needs.

I say to students it`s better to practice twice daily – ideally once in the morning and once later on in the evening if possible.

For many this isn`t possible (apart from on weekends or days off), but picking up the guitar before work can be very handy especially if you are an `early bird`.

If you can do the early and late practice, great, you can make it even more powerful by making one a `primary` practice where you will be very focused and one a `secondary` practice which can be a bit more relaxed and fun.

Choose whichever your chronotype is to make that one the primary practice.

5) Chew Gum

You might not believe it but those little breath fresheners can actually help your guitar playing.

So, not only will you have minty fresh breath to help mask the smell of all that festival beer and wine you may have been guzzling this summer but you will also be improving your guitar playing too.

Seriously.

How does it work?

Well, according to a study in 2009 by Baylor College of Medicine, researchers found a positive effect of chewing gum on academic performance as gum stimulates the brain by increasing blood flow.

When learning anything new, chew some gum as we all know how difficult it can be to process, store and retrieve any new information. Every little helps.

Researchers have also found that chewing can help reduce stress, improve alertness and relieve anxiety.

Wow. Along with improved memory that`s pretty awesome.

It ALSO might explain why, when the times I have chewed gum on stage I have felt that little bit more at ease when playing gigs.

6) Sleep

Not only is sleep good for our bodies and health in general but it is absolutely critical when learning anything new.

Many researchers agree that time `lost` by having an early night is more than made up for by the advantages that our brain gains in return.

In other words, if you`re are really keen on learning/improving your guitar playing quickly, staying up late into the night to get more practice is counterproductive.

Instead, have a quick, highly focused ten minutes of practice and then put the guitar down and get some quality sleep.

If you find that you can`t get to sleep, maybe put on some nice relaxing ambient music or even the longest song ever released (at time of writing) according to Guinness world records.

It`s a cool piece but if I was to listen 1 hour 59 minutes of the same song I may end up being just a little sleepy.

Ensure good sleep is a priority.

7) Keep On Achieving

Guitar playing is incredibly fun and the way to keep on being motivated enough to learn it and learn it well is to achieve something every day.

If you don`t keep your motivation levels up high especially in the complete beginner stage of learning guitar then you may find just like the running enthusiast that suddenly quits to go back to old habits of smoking, drinking and cinnamon swirls you may find you suddenly quit the guitar.

We don`t want that.

Ask yourself:

“Why am I doing this?”

There has been so many times in the past when I was learning guitar I would purchase Total Guitar magazine and start learning some crazy Paul Gilbert shred lick that I just knew deep down I would never use, but still wasted time on it anyway.

Duh!

If only I would have asked the question:

“Why am I learning this?” I would have saved so much time.

I could have spent all that time learning the things I truly loved. The things that made me pick up the guitar in the first place.

You can use SMART goals as a guide to create a personal learning plan (PLP).

This study by Geisel School of Medicine OF Virginia shows how effective and extremely powerful they can be when learning anything complex.

If that sounds too organised for you (I urge you to try) then try the following instead.

Instead of learning random stuff, make a list of ten songs you really want to learn and order them in terms of what you would think would be the easiest to the most difficult.

Go through and learn song 1, then 2 and then 3 and so on.

That way you will learn the things YOU want to learn and not what other people think you should learn.

All this will keep you motivated and ensure that your practice time is focused and not half-arsed as it is when you are learning something you couldn`t give two hoots about.

8) Enjoy the Dopamine High

There are plenty of studies showing how just listening to music can help you release dopamine which is a chemical that gives us huge amounts of pleasure.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain which is released in response to rewarding activity and is linked to reinforcement and motivation – these include activities that are biologically significant such as eating and sex (just ask Motley Crue about this one).

You can become addicted (in a good way) to playing the guitar just like many others become addicted to drugs, alcohol, exercise and junk food.

Let`s face it though, playing guitar is much healthier than drugs, alcohol, junk food and it`s more fun than exercise, so the guitar is not such a bad thing to become addicted to.

Your spouse might find it frustrating when you are out spending some quality time and all you can think about is getting back to pick up your little 6 string.

Well, I`ve been there a few times, but to be honest these days I try to be more in the moment and not focus on things that aren`t around me at the time. I find this a more healthy way to live.

There are other things in life that also release dopamine such as socializing, learning a new hobby and achieving goals.

Unless you are a social hermit or a bedroom guitarist, learning to play the guitar incorporates all of the above.

The moral here is make sure you don`t completely learn on your own, DO jam with a teacher, other friends, a band or other musicians at an open mic gig.

Also, keep on enjoying music whenever you are playing or listening, and keep striving to get better.

All of this leads to more pleasure which will lead to more desire on a sub-conscious level for you to improve as a guitarist.

Now, when you decide to play a cover of `Feeling Good` on guitar you might well mean it.

9) Listen to Music While Taking a Nap

Everyone loves a nap. Nobody more so than me when I get chance.

Every time you nap (which of course is great for re-charging your batteries) you can now get a double whammy of benefits.

Research suggests that by listening to the music you are learning when napping you will remember that piece better.

This study from Northwestern University, Illinois, shows how Information acquired during waking can be reactivated during sleep, promoting memory stabilization.

The subjects learned to play two melodies in time with moving images and the researches played one of the melodies while the subjects were taking an afternoon nap.

This produced an improvement in performance – as long as the music did not disrupt sleep.

This might mean that if you choose to use this method then it might be wise to consider which of the music you play to yourself when napping.

Slipknot might be out of the question, but Simon and Garfunkel might be in.

Either way, if you can nap while listening quietly to the music you have been learning you will learn it faster.

Time well spent if you ask me.

10) Get Tested

One of the major benefits of having a good, experienced guitar teacher is a benefit that no one ever mentions.

It`s the fact that they will test you and assess you regularly. I ensure I do this all the time, always in a fun (mostly informal) way of course.

Sometimes it will be done very casually like asking a student to play a piece, chord progression, riff, etc.

Sometimes it will be done in a slightly more formal way, such as when using my 3 month period checklist.

I always ask the student about testing and this particular 3 month review system and not one has ever declined this which is great.

It`s very powerful because it gives the student something to work for and some direct motivation. This studyexplains just how powerful testing is for any student.

This is one of the reasons doing your grades are so powerful.

It`s not so much the content that is going to rapidly super charge guitar playing as it is the very formal setting of having to learn all this stuff, and then sit in a room with a stuffy, goateed examiner who is going to assess and mark your guitar playing as you feel your heart beating out of its chest while wishing you could fall into a pit of despair.

It`s not really like that at all, but graded exams are a little more formal, and they are fantastic for it.

I just wish some of the examining bodies were a little more fun.

Even RGT who I am a member of is a little dry sometimes although they are making big efforts to make the material more relevant.

If you get the chance and want something to work for, go on and start doing your grades, just choose the most relevant examining body and go for it.

Remember it`s not the content that will make you a great player but it is the desire and motivation gained from the testing.

11) Test Yourself

The affordability of a guitar teacher or paid graded exams are unfortunately not within everyone`s financial reach, but there is another solution.

That is to test yourself.

I have always enjoyed testing myself as a guitarist especially with things that are measurable.

Even if you can and do have a guitar teacher who tests you or you take graded exams, you should still test yourself every day.

There are plenty of ways to test yourself.

You can see how fast you can play a certain technique.

For instance, you can:

• take a simple fingerpicking pattern

• set up a metronome to a tempo you are comfortable with

• play the pattern repeatedly at this tempo

• start increasing the tempo by small increments (about 5bpm) until you reach your maximum speed

Then in your notebook, (yes, I`m old school) create a page called testing, write down your comfortable speed and then next to it your maximum speed – aiming to beat it by small amounts (even just 1 or 2bpm) every day.

Another way to test yourself apart from speed is repertoire.

If you can play scales or barre chords, a great little thing to do is test yourself playing them in all 12 keys.

Most guitarists get a bit lazy and stick to the common keys of G, D, C, F for anything Major and Em, Bm, Am, Dm for anything minor.

What about the other eight keys?

• One way to test yourself playing in all twelve keys is to get a piece of card and divide it into twelve equal sections.

• Then write each of the 12 keys in each section.

• Cut all twelve sections up and turn them over.

Any time you practice anything that is movable or changeable into all keys such as scales, barre chords, arpeggios, simply turn over one card and play that scale, chord or arpeggio, then turn the card over and pick another.

Repeat until you have used twelve cards.

You will then have played it in all twelve keys and your knowledge of the fretboard and your ability to play that scale, chord or arpeggio seamlessly in all keys will rapidly improve.

You can be strict as you like with yourself when it comes to testing.

My recommendation is to self test the things that are measurable – speed, repertoire, theory, accuracy, listening skills, etc as much as possible.

Self testing is a huge subject and one that I write a blog post on about specifically at some time soon.

For now, use those above ideas and see what other things you can self test.

This study shows that getting tested as described above and testing yourself are both very powerful and have a positive effect on your guitar playing – and in different ways.

12) Use Multiple Sources of Media

Whenever you learn anything new, write it down, repeat it, play it, sing it. Memory works best in both auditory and visual formats.

In other words reproduce what you are learning in a variety of ways.

This study along with many others shows that this is a very powerful way of retaining and recalling any information.

For us guitarists, it means simply writing it, repeating it, playing it, and singing it aloud all help it sink in.

If you are learning a song, and you know how to play it but can`t quite remember the sequence of chords, grab your notebook, write the song title at the top and quickly write down by copying all the chords in the correct order.

It will help you remember it quicker for next time you play it, allowing you to move on to something else, or just enjoy playing it even more.

When I teach in person I will always ask a student to bring with them a smart phone and a notebook to every lesson.

This way, whenever they learn something new they can film me playing it and they can write it down in any way that helps or the way I think they will learn it best.

The reason we do both is that some things such as strum patterns work much better when they film it.

This is because rhythms are more difficult to read than they are to hear.

Other things however, usually more fretboard or theory related work better by seeing them in a written format.

For instance, if I am teaching the structure of a song to a student, it helps them more to see that written down in `verse, chorus, verse` style structure than it is for them to go through the whole video time and again.

If they were to watch the video it would take minutes, where as if they look at a simple note, it takes seconds.

This is why I release eBook supplements to go along with the videos and audio of my e-Courses. Having both make them so much more powerful.

13) Use Mnemonics Where Possible

Writers such as Tim Ferriss have taught me some very useful things about learning and increasing one`s ability to learn and recall knowledge at a faster and more efficient rate.

Whenever you learn anything new it`s a great idea to use mnemonics to help you remember it quickly whenever you can.

I always teach new students a little mnemonic to learn what the open strings of a guitar are tuned to.

It goes like this:

• Eddie

• Ate

• Dynamite

• Good

• Bye

• Eddie

It takes a student about 10 seconds to learn that.

Then, all they need to do to remember the open strings is take the first letter of each word E, A, D, G, B, E and that gives you the names of the open strings in a fast, fun and silly way.

Tip: The sillier the better often works. Without that mnemonic, it would take the student far more concentration and more time to remember what the open strings are tuned to.

Another simple mnemonic is Big Cats Eat Fish.

This is used to help a student remember which notes don`t have sharps or flats between them.

I will say:

“Every note has a sharp or flat between them except for:

• Big Cats which is B and C

• Eat Fish which E and F

So basically, the notes are A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#.

Use simple, silly mnemonics to remember everything you can and you will find that the information you are learning sinks in easily and can be recalled with much less concentration than it would take otherwise.

Even if you don`t use the information you have learned via the mnemonic you will find you can leave it months and it come back to you quickly. Without the mnemonic most guitarists would really struggle to remember it.

14) Laugh…a Lot

Life is funny and learning should be fun.

Many people are way too serious about learning stuff.

So much so, they kick the fun out of the learning process.

Even when they realise they are being really serious about learning the guitar, instead of chilling out about it and having fun they tell themselves:

“Well it`s ok, I’m learning. I`ll have more fun when I can actually play.” Well, it`s probably too late by then.

A habit of being serious has been formed that is hard to get out of.

This is a big deal. Start ensuring that every day you play you not only achieve something but you have fun and laugh a lot.

If you make a mistake don`t be like this guy, instead laugh about it.

There is ample evidence that shows that humour facilitates creative problem solving which for us guitarists is fantastic. A lot of the learning process with anything complicated and especially learning the guitar involves:

• Doing well

• Hitting a brick wall when a problem arises

• Being aware of the problem

• Finding creative ways to overcome the problem

Using laughter to solve these problems will be a massive help to you.

It can be a problem such as having a chord not quite sound correct, what chord should come next in a song you are writing, how to perform a certain technique better.

It doesn`t matter what the problem is, use laughter to help.

I always push students hard to make them the best guitarist possible, but I like being able to break up their lessons with a quick anec-dote, story or joke to take their mind off what they are learning for a few seconds.

I find this works if they are struggling to grasp a new concept.

Instead of trying to hammer it down, I try to make them laugh and switch them off from what they are doing for a few seconds.

This acts like a `reset` button and allows them to go back to the learning.

After a bit of light hearted humour I find they then usually learn whatever we are doing with less time and less tension involved.

If you are struggling with something, do your best to laugh about it or even just remember a funny story.

If it helps learn some Tenacious D guitar parts, you have to be pretty serious not to see the funny side of these guys even if you don`t like their tunes.

If the guitar is frustrating the hell out of you, put it down for a bit and watch a bit of Spinal Tap, school of Rock or Wayne`s World, or any other classic comedy with guitars in it.

15) Meditate

When The Beatles went to India they arrived being pop superstars. While they were there they discovered mediation, Ravi Shankar and other things. They came back music pioneering legends.

In my opinion the later Beatles stuff is incredible and most rock, pop, prog and indie music that we have heard since just wouldn`t sound the same if it wasn`t for the Beatles trip to India.

Meditation wasn`t the only thing they discovered there, but it was something that they used to create better, deeper and more spiritual music.

Apart from helping in a creative sense, mediation will also make you a better guitarist from a technical point of view too as it helps increase brain efficiency in an attention task i.e. attention span.

A more obvious but important benefit as well is it reduces anxiety which is great for any sort of performance.

A lot of students get anxiety when playing on stage but also when playing guitar in front of a few friends or family members. A bit of mediation beforehand will help.

The pro`s use it to calm their nerves as well as a tool for creativity.

Give it a try.

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Curtis Evans

Curtis Evans

Answered Feb 3, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I would say 3 months if you are keen and aiming to get to the

point where you can strum along to and play most basic songs. I’ve played

guitar since I was 11 and over the years I’ve seen various flatmates pick it up,

almost by accident. If you are starting, here are a few of my tips:

* Don’t be pedantic and buy an expensive guitar and keep it locked away in a case. You will never play otherwise. Buy a cheap one and leave it lying around the house  – on the couch etc - so you even practice while watching tv

* Start on a nylon string guitar as it’s easier on your fingers, it won’t go out of tune as easily, plus you won’t have to change strings as often.

* Learn songs you actually like (this is why most kids start and then give up so many instruments)

* Make sure you have an electric tuner so that your guitar is always in tune - this will subliminally get your ear in (you can get an electric tuner via an iPhone app)

* When learning a song or say a chord progression, practice by playing along to the song you are learning, rather than playing by yourself. The music forces you to keep pace and creates some urgency for moving your fingers. I think this is a very under-rated trick - really helps to develop feel and get a better grasp of timing

* Learn bar chords, the sooner the better - then no chord or song will be an obstacle. I want to shoot myself when I see people constantly using cappos. Bar chords also help you to understand and visualise the theory (which could be useful later down the line).

Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride - it’s never to late to

start.... And once that is done, you can then start on the piano (even more

enjoyable!)

5.9k views · View 9 Upvoters

Harald Fivelsdal

Harald Fivelsdal, Gibson Player 25 + yrs

Answered Aug 2, 2015

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

First, let me say that Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours theory is not scientific and has been debunked. Second, I think the only answer to such a vague question is, "It depends." The first variable is what do you mean by "good". I recall how in the gospels a disciple called Christ "good teacher" and Jesus asked him "Why do you call me good? Only one is good, my father in heaven." Obviously, these two individuals had a different degree of goodness in mind. The second variable is you. What do you bring to the equation?

So, for our purposes, let me establish a few levels of goodness:

1.  You are good enough to play simple songs without stopping and cursing in the middle of them (i.e. change chords quickly). This should happen, with sustained practice, relatively quickly. This is also the point where you will have formed callouses and your fingers will no longer feel like crap when you play. Moreover, this is the level where you can play in front of close friends and they won't think you suck.

2. You have enough of a musical vocabulary to play with others. This means that you not only know some songs, but, if someone tells you the song form and names the chords you won't freeze even if you haven't practiced the song before. At this stage, you also should know some scales or modes and be able to improvise over chord changes. If you don't read music, you will have to be familiar with a lot of song melodies and be able to play them by ear. You also must have a decent sense of time or rhythm.

3. You have some chops. By this I mean that the musicians you play with will find your playing interesting and enjoyable and won't laugh you off the bandstand. Suffice it to say that your audience will be even more appreciative.

4. You can contribute something innovative and original to your field. Think of this as the Jesus level. Many musicians are able to make a comfortable living without reaching this level.

5. God.

Now, your question is "when will these things be?" It all depends on the second variable - you. Remember, Wes Montgomery didn't start playing guitar until he was twenty and he didn't really read music. Yet, he achieved at least level four. Could you do that? I don't know. Ornette Coleman was probably a level 5 and yet he struggled to learn music in the classical sense and had such bad fortune that when he found a proper teacher he was only told to play in front of a mirror and stop making faces.

Your question, despite being vague, is a good one and one that we have probably all asked ourselves at one time. I would say that the sooner you can get past levels 1 and 2, you have a good chance of getting to level 3, provided you open your ears and challenge yourself. Will you get beyond that? Perhaps, but, only if you are never satisfied. Think of Sonny Rollins, who quit recording and performing while at a career peak, only to play alone while walking across the Williamsburg bridge at night in order to reach the next level.

13.6k views · View 17 Upvoters

Related Questions

More Answers Below

How long will it take me to get decent at electric guitar?

How do I, as a beginner at 30, become a pro guitar player?

How much time does it take to learn guitar basics if a person starts from scratch and practices daily?

With 2 hours of everyday practice on the guitar, how long would it take to master it to the advanced level?

What are good guitar songs to play for advanced players?

Max Holloway

Max Holloway, Marketer, Jazz musician

Answered Jan 31, 2012 · Author has 105 answers and 174.8k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Guitar is one of those awful things, like singing, which has an extremely low barrier to entry.

i.e. anyone can pick it up and 'play' something. Which they do. Unfortunately.

I have a very polar view of guitarists. There are strummers, and there are musicians.

99% of guitarists are strummers. Anyone can get to this level with some practice and *shudders* TAB music.

The good percent, the 1%, can play tunes. They can pick out individual notes in sequence ONTOP OF maintaining a chord progression to play some absolutely blindingly fantastic music. Think Wes Montgomery

Now to get to this level?

That takes your 10,000 hours and then some.

Musicians of this calibre would practice for several hours daily on top of any performances and rehearsals.

Not twenty minutes twice a week between battle of the bands concerts....

The high-end of musical practising I would say is John Coltrane (Saxophonist) who purported to practice up to 10 hours a day. He would also often step off the bandstand during live performances after his solos to practice then would return to play the head. Much to the annoyance of his band members.

But it's that obsessiveness that created his genius playing. People like to say words like 'talented' but those a lazy people who would rather explain someones brilliance as 'a gift' or 'talent' rather than what it was. Bone-breaking hard work and nothing else!

EDIT:

I found this image and it sums it all up perfectly...

23.3k views · View 47 Upvoters

Matt Squire

Matt Squire, B.S. Music & Physics, University of Washington (2007)

Answered Sep 16, 2018

The answer to this question is very subjective… Since all you need to become good at guitar is…

willingness to learn,

dedication

systematical approach to learning

It really depends on how all these factors come together…. I can provide some insight into the last step

GuitarTricks offers that systematic approach and they are currently providing a 14-Day Free Trial. And they include lessons learning real-life songs from bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses, Oasis, David Bowie etc.

There are several reasons why GuitarTricks are the most popular and successful online guitar learning platform, which I’ve listed below:

There are several reasons for this:

Guitar Tricks has over 2.8 million people who have and are currently learning to play guitar on the platform, making it the largest platform on the web.

Guitar Tricks has Beginner lessons, Intermediate lessons and Advanced lessons, so you’ll always have the opportunity to progress in your playing. Alongside this, it has useful tutorials on important aspects besides from playing, such as guitar maintenance, which can be often overlooked.

Guitar Tricks has a range of different music styles lessons available, which is important as we all know, as every guitarist should be versatile in his/her playing style.

Guitar Tricks has over 11,000 lessons, and a huge range of songs available for students to learn. Everything from Blink 182, Pearl Jam, Clapton to Poison (This even includes those classic songs that every aspiring guitar player wishes they could play)

All video tutorials are shot in 4K resolution, making it so much easier for you to see what exactly the teacher is playing, to replicate their positioning.

Guitar Tricks has a proven step by step learning system that makes learning guitar not only incredibly easy, but enjoyable as well.

Due to the prestige of Guitar Tricks, they have some of the best online teachers of any online guitar learning platform, these teachers have a more methodical approach to teaching guitar, hence you’ll be able to learn faster because of this.

Check out the link at the top of the answer to get access to the 14-Day Free Trial

Disclosure : I’m a professional reviewer and receive compensation from companies whom I review.

795 views · View 39 Upvoters

Garrick Saito

Garrick Saito

Updated Sep 8, 2016 · Upvoted by Nathan McElwain, I've been a professional musician for over 15 years. and Judy Ranelli, 30+ years playing electric guitar and bass · Author has 24.5k answers and 95.6m answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Although I do not play the guitar, I'll offer you some thoughts on playing a musical instrument that might help to get your head around it.

This was my first question four years ago, when I began taking piano lessons.

"Teacher, how long will it take me to get good at this?"

My teacher, who had been playing since childhood, has recorded 3 CDs, played professionally for 20+ years and now in his 40s said, "When I find out, I'll let you know."

This was a secret code, of course, which I did not understand until a few years later. It meant that if you are serious about your instrument, you will not look at this as a destination (i.e. "hey, today I achieved the status of good"), but a never-ending musical journey.

You will not be "not good" one day and "good" next. You never "arrive," so to speak.

Continued practice and consistent study will yield increasingly favorable results. One skill will build upon the other. It's cumulative. What you put into it, is what you'll get out of it. For most people, this is not as easy as it sounds. Practice every day for an hour or slack off for six months -- you get what you get. There will be a rough correlation of effort to results.

Think of it as a journey, one that never ends. That's about the best advice I can offer you.

Am I any good after four years of study, you ask? "When I find out, I'll let you know."

[edit 9.4.16] It’s now been nine years of study. I thought I’d update my answer from 2012. My revised answer is "When I find out, I'll let you know."

61k views · View 244 Upvoters

Stanislaw Rutkowski

Stanislaw Rutkowski, learning to play guitar

Answered Jul 17, 2017

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

My oldest friend was always passionate with guitars. When we were kids he was the only one who could play it in our neighbourhood. Almost every evening in the summer we gathered outdoors to listen to him playing and sing some songs. Then he immigrated. Haven’t seen him for 8 years and he came back to our town for a vacation just 2 days ago. He borrowed an old acoustic guitar and have been playing all the evening yesterday. It was so cool it brought all the memories from my childhood back. Sorry for being sentimental, heh. Since I knew he never attended any lessons I was curious how did he managed to become such a good guitarist. He always looked very confident while playing. So I asked him:

Dude, you never read any literature about playing, did you?

Nope

Youtube videos?

None of them

Was there somebody helping you?

Nah, I used to watch other guys playing and tried to copy their style and that’s it.

So basicly what he did was playing by ear. Listening to songs and trying to immitate them. He is 100% self-taught. It took him approximately 1 year to learn the basics and play simple songs thus creating groundings to improve. It took him 3 years total to become a confident guitarist.

1k views · View 2 Upvoters

Quora User

Anonymous

Answered Feb 13, 2016

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

When I started playing guitar at the late age of 19, I heard John Petrucci  and i was a big fan of the band Dream Theater

I practiced a lot of hours per day for a year, and by the end of that year I was able to play Dream Theater songs, Symphony X songs, Periphery Songs, Metallica Songs, and a little bit of ANimals as Leaders songs. I had developed the technique to play that stuff.

The first year was spent learning songs, and developing techniques

I then stopped playing because I lost interest.

Then after a whole year of playing guitar I heard ALlan Holdsworth, and practiced hours, and hours a day. I would come home at 9:00 pm, and practice til 3 am. On the weekends I would practice all day, and on breaks I would practice all day.

All the techniques I use now I had in 3 years of playing. There is still lots to learn about the instrument as having technique is not enough.

2.2k views · View 3 Upvoters

Sayan Sarkar

Sayan Sarkar, CEO at InvigorateNOW Health Sciences

Answered Feb 3, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Practice as much as possible! At least put in a hour every other day (or every day for quicker success).

Most importantly, spend that first year (or few months if you play often) learning open chords, barre chords, and the different pentatonic scales and whanot. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. I still practice my pentatonics up the fretboard as a warmup, and I've been playing for almost 11 years now.

A great way to learn soloing is to record yourself playing a typical 4 chord blues progression. Then, as the recording plays in the background, use your newfound knowledge of pentatonic scales and practice away! Feel the music, stay in tune with chord progression, and you'll be on the way to great guitar skills in no time.

21.1k views · View 7 Upvoters

Larry Baker

Larry Baker, Principal (2003-present)

Answered Feb 9, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I've been playing a long time, but am competent, not great. What has worked for me is to have a practice routine - spend some time practicing what you have just learned, some time with new material, some on "technique" and some just playing or jamming, which is very easy to do these days given the technology and resources on the internet. You can be playing basic songs in a few months if you are diligent and take time to practice as much as possible. There is no shortcut. Forget any "try this one weird tip to play the blues!" ads that you'll see online. There is no shortcut - just a lot of hours. I have had numerous teachers, and again, the technology today enables one to begin guitar without a human teacher. One of the best resources I've found is a site called justinguitar (you can search it on youtube also - he has 100's of free videos). His beginner course is one of the best I've seen. Also, get a metronome - it's very important to play in time. And have a lot of fun, learning to play guitar is immensely rewarding!

5.3k views · View 4 Upvoters

Jim Morrow

Jim Morrow, Player for 50 years

Answered Aug 9, 2015

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

If you mean Jeff Beck good, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, etc. then you're talking about a serious commitment. You become married to your guitar, sell your video games and become a recluse for a few years. To just learn to strum a few chords, play along with friends or form a garage band, it all depends on how much time you can devote to learning chords, scales, etc, and how much time you spend practicing. If you can give it a couple of hours a day, and don't quit because your fingers are sore (that goes away pretty quick) or because you are frustrated, you'll be pretty capable in about a year. From that point on it is simply about expanding your understanding of the instrument and challenging yourself to learn new things. It doesn't happen overnight, and you never really master it.

7.7k views · View 9 Upvoters

Mary Bennett

Mary Bennett, Learning guitar and music theory.

Answered Apr 18, 2012 · Author has 301 answers and 928.4k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I just want to add my recommendation for JustinGuitar.com. He has put thought into an overall structure, rather than just putting up a bunch of stuff. It is fairly easy to find what you want to learn, at the level you want and there is a reasonable variety of styles.

(I am not associated with the site at all, but it was useful to me particularly because it is one of the few sites that's genuinely free.)

12.4k views · View 11 Upvoters

Jon Garner

Jon Garner, Guitar is my religion.

Answered Mar 8, 2016

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

It all depends on what you think "good" is.

The bands you listed, with the exception of a few beatles tunes, are pretty easy. That's the good news.

You could play those songs in about 3 months. You must play at least an hour a day, and have good source material. A good teacher could really accelerate you. Not faster than 3 months though.

Learn by ear, too. You will reap huge rewards.

To play them well, with good feel/time, could take longer.

I have been playing over 30 years, and am a professional guitarist. I do lots of session work mimicking styles and players.

Learn whole songs, not just your favorite little parts. There are tons of guitarists that know lots of half songs. I hestitate to call them guitarists. Right, I take that back. There are tons of guitar owners that know lots of half songs. Don't be that.

Learn whole songs, chords and leads, then you'll be good.

And have fun! Playing guitar is the best thing in the world.

j

3.9k views · View 4 Upvoters

Victor Cadavid

Victor Cadavid, 16 years with the axe. Gigging musician. Hate guitar amps by

Answered Nov 16, 2016 · Author has 186 answers and 283.6k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

The answer lies in what do you think is a “good” guitar player. The more higher your goals the more you got to invest.

If you’re playing for fun at home and wanna play a tune or two for your girl or friends, then just some minutes daily for just a year will do it. But if you want to be a great top player then a few minutes won’t gonna be enough. Don’t even think about it. Its not gonna happen. You got to invest at least one or two hours daily with a very good plan (Rock Discipline by Petrucci is a very good example) for several years to see some real progress, otherwise you’ll gonna end frustrated seeing your skills about the same month after month.

So, there you have it. It deppends what you think “good” is. The lower the standards the sooner you get there. For other people its a lifetime work, some people (like me) are never satisified. I don’t care anymore to be “good”. Just becoming “better” than yesterday.

1.4k views

Kevin Lang

Kevin Lang, 30 year guitarist, primarily focused on acoustic.

Answered May 14, 2015 · Author has 1.4k answers and 1.1m answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

like golf, it takes a lifetime.  You will never stop learning.  Les Paul continued to play every week until he died, and he was in his 90s.

practice, practice, practice.  Author Malcolm Gladwell claims that breakthroughs on anything you practice really pays off at 10,000 hours.

Carlos Santana once said to play for at least 45 minutes.  He said anything after 45 minutes will be pure you.

this, to me, is what makes guitar so cool.  A football player is done for life by 30.  as a musician, you are just barely getting started at that age

4.6k views · View 8 Upvoters

Kyle Harris

Kyle Harris, talentless musician

Answered Feb 2, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

All these answers are good and very informative but they seem to lack specific instruction.

You will meet guitarists of all ages and abilities because of 1.hours of practise

and 2.technique.

Improper technique and effort make a world of difference.

Musicians near perfection can do amazing things but the main thing that makes a good musician is proper tone control and consistency of sound.

To achieve this you must stop all bad habits and put in full effort all the time until it becomes second nature.

Even "strummers" can sound good with perfect control

6.1k views · View 4 Upvoters

Michael Gorman

Michael Gorman, Music creator, observer/analyst of music culture

Answered Nov 23, 2015 · Author has 3.4k answers and 2.3m answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I'm very sorry but that question is just about impossible to be prescriptive about, the variation of aptitude and talent among people means that each person will take differing times, may not ever attain a decent standard or will give up within one week of trying to learn.

I think to be able to fluently put a rhythm guitar part together for a popular song will take a minimum of a several months and a maximum of years from 'ground zero'. You will need to firstly learn chord shapes, then develop the agility to change chords within the time signature of the song - this stage can take a long time.

For a person who has a good aptitude for guitar playing within 6 months to a year they will have a good number of songs basically mastered. For those with less aptitude it will take longer. Yes, it takes aptitude to play, a good ear, sense of rhythm and dexterity - people have these innate skills in different measures, this is why it is not easy to answer your question.

3.9k views

Michael Crutcher

Michael Crutcher, Twenty+ year career includes stints @ Berklee College of Music and UMass. Lowell

Answered Feb 11, 2016 · Author has 312 answers and 151.1k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

How long did it take to get good at speaking? Reading? Math? If you are trying to put a time limit on it, you are doing the wrong thing. If you don't love it, do something else.

225 views

Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy

Answered Nov 8, 2014

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I've been playing guitar for seventeen years. Although I am in many ways technically proficient, and can generally play most of the sounds in my head that I want to express via the guitar, I still would not consider myself "good."

Generally, when people first learn that you play guitar, their first question is, "Are you any good?" My typical response is, "Eh, I'm okay." I've been in many bands, I can play in many different styles, but I always strive to be MUCH better than I am currently. I imagine that, even as I eventually become better than I am now, I will still strive to be much better than I am at that point.

5k views · View 5 Upvoters

Mike Huff

Mike Huff, Music Teacher, Bassist for The Late Saints (Hometown Heroes Best Band 2016)

Answered Mar 6, 2016 · Author has 113 answers and 127.5k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

My advice to my students is typically this:

If you practice 30 minutes a day for a month, you will be able to play the guitar. You might not be Jimi Hendrix, but you'll be proud of what you can do on the instrument.

Then you get good! Learn any song you can, but be realistic about whether you can play it or not. Pick songs you like that challenge you, but not something that is beyond your current ability. I'd recommend having either a teacher or a method book. Keep practicing, and you'll get better and better. Songs will come easier and easier. Good luck!

23.6k views · View 35 Upvoters

Dylan Galvin

Dylan Galvin, Berklee College of Music Grad, Award Winning Songwriter and Guitarist

Answered Aug 26, 2015 · Author has 118 answers and 441k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

It depends on what you define as "good"

The learning curve is pretty high at first, it's not a very user friendly instrument until you have some pretty developed muscle memory but if your goal is learning chords and strumming them so you can sing along, a couple months of regular practice will let you get there.

If you want to be able to really express yourself and improvise, think of it exactly like a language and how long it would take to speak a language fluently, it will be almost an identical learning process.

10.5k views · View 5 Upvoters

Sounak Moulik

Sounak Moulik, Application Developer at IBM (2016-present)

Answered Jan 4, 2018

I bought a Fender Semi-acoustic guitar in July 2017 and started learning how to play the chords A-G and simple rhythms. I practices for 1 hr everyday and by September I could play nearly majority of songs. And finally in December 2017 I performed on live show in front of a large audience. I sang and played the guitar along. People applauded and my near ones were amazed by the feat that I had achieved. If you have passion you can learn anything. Now, I am learning finger-style arpeggios and though now slow I would be able to play in next 4–6 months. Passion and Perseverance are the things needed to accomplish anything.

332 views · View 1 Upvoter

Tom Mullin

Tom Mullin, Played music pro for over 50 years in over 30 working bands

Answered Mar 9, 2017

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I'm 64 going on 65, started piano at age 4 and guitar at age 13. I've played professionally in over 30 working bands and have covered some technically difficult lead guitar parts, with significant study and practice. I'm still trying to get good. If you go on YouTube you are likely to come across videos of young children with more technical ability than most of us so innate ability plays some part in the formula. It is a journey not a destination, and 'good' depends on one's perspective. Do you bring joy into your own and the lives of others when you play? You'll always run into someone who plays 'better' from a purely technical standpoint, but technique isn't everything.

1.3k views · View 2 Upvoters

David Virgil

David Virgil, CM (2004-present)

Answered Mar 28, 2017 · Author has 3.2k answers and 5.9m answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Some of the answers read like a book and were truly written by a teacher. I have been playing for 40 years off and on and I still am not what I'd call good. I can play decent on songs I write but not so much with the music of others. That said my old lead guitarist was a natural and self taught and from an early age fantasic. He also taught and had one student that was a protege and af only a year could play Van Halen songs with ease. This is not typical but some just have a gift and pick it up very easy while others may struggle for years. Some never get really good while others master it. I remember Sammy Hagar saying he doesn't think he's a good guitarist and compared to other guitarist he's worked with that may be true. So to answer your question it depends on your altitude for playing. You could be a natural or may have to really wo at it for years.

372 views

Jerry Whalen

Jerry Whalen, Rhode Island Council of the Arts 1982: creating new music.

Answered Apr 27, 2018 · Author has 2.7k answers and 409.4k answer views

Competency in music as well as any endeavor is based on determination and patience. A musician friend of mine once said that to learn a song or group of songs, you have to live with them for a while. That was a great way to look at it. I had learned a classical tune that took a long time to get a handle on. Living with it was the only way to truly understand it. When it was over and done, I would use it to be my go to composition when my technique needed a tune up.

Pick your tunes and think of them as roommates. As you get to know them you can understand them and appreciate them for what they are. You finally become the music that you want to play.

Rock on!

188 views

George Mcallister

George Mcallister, Jazz Pianist at Jazz Harmony and Theory (1989-present)

Answered Apr 23, 2017 · Author has 51 answers and 7.2k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

No matter how much of a guitar genius (Or any other instrument)you are.Music is infinitessimal.No matter how much or,how long you play,you will never learn everything.The more you learn,the more it will lead to.All music is (Apart from creating beautifully structured classical and jazz pieces,from the simple to the most extreme compositions)so complicatedly mathematical,you can find out so much by studying the mathematical equations that are prevalent in all music.All the most advanced composers and musical genius's are aware of this.

588 views

Ted Boucher

Ted Boucher, studied Communication & Music at Michigan State University

Answered Feb 12, 2016 · Author has 1.4k answers and 795.4k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

A lot of good and thoughtful answers here.

One thing I can add is something that I always told my students--It doesn't matter how long it takes to learn something--once you've learned it, you've got it for good.

It's actually counterproductive to think about how long it takes to learn a piece, because learning is a process of repeating and refining, and if you're in a hurry, you tend quit before  you've got all the details are worked out--that means you'll have trouble whenever you get to the rough spots

2.1k views · View 2 Upvoters

Vulgaris Magistralis

Vulgaris Magistralis

Answered May 11, 2018 · Author has 56 answers and 68.4k answer views

I don’t know how long it takes, I guess it depends on the learner. What I DO know is that you won’t get anywhere unless you put your mind into learning chords. I had two guitar teachers and none of them thought me chords. I was frustrated, I spent a long time unable to play anything.

After a couple of years I dusted my guitar and set on learning it by myself. The first lessons were strumming patterns and chords. First E chord. Then switching between C and G chords. Then the others. It takes a lot of practice, you have to be very patient and memorise everything and train a lot. But as soon as you learn a couple of chords, you can start playing stuff. Stuff like folk songs, sea shanties, simple things. And being able to play the simplest thing helps a lot improving your technique.

So my suggestion: learn chords as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter how or why it works, just memorise that and get into theory later if you want. More complex musics will use the same pitches of some chords and you can automatically find these after a while. You’ll also learn some of the position of the pitches in the guitar and learn to keep up with tempo.

Just start like that. Memorise C and G, then strum, 2 4/4 measures in C, 2 measures in G, repeat. Get good at that, then try A and D, then E and B, etc. Then learn minor chords, barre chords, power chords, and only after all that you should care about scales, rhythm, techniques, etc.

475 views · View 2 Upvoters

Elizabeth Brown

Elizabeth Brown

Answered Mar 8, 2019

#Questiion name: How long does it take to become good at guitar What does it take to become competent when learning a song by The Beatles The Rolling Stones The Stone Roses Oasis David Bowie etc?

15 TIPS TO BECOME A GUITAR MASTER!

Below are best tips for guitar players. I hope you enjoy it.

#1. Focus your practice time:

We’ve all heard storiies of guitariists with marathon 12-hour or daiily three-hour practice sessions, but for most guitariists, a tiight, focused 10 to 30 miinutes of consiistent daiily practice wiill prove more efficient. There is a diifference in “practiice” and “playing” tiime, and oftentimes the two get confused.

Practiice should involve (after warming up) maiintenance exercises to keep up your chops and emphasize your strengths, and focused work on specific goals that deal with integrating new knowledge and technique. Keeping the time spent on practice to an intelligent minimum, breaking up the topics to be addressed into small chunks, will help avoid wasted effort and will leave time to play.

Related post top 7 frree and paiid guitar courses: Top 7 free and paid online guitar courses

#2. Guitar Playing Success Principle: Get out of your own way.

Stop blaming your lack of progress on:

• Your age

• Size and shape of your fingers

• Your natural talent

• The amount of time you have to practice

• …other irrelevant factors

Your age or finger length do NOT affect your musical progress . Your beliefs, choices and actions do. Focus on your goals and do what is required to reach them.

#3. Guitar Playing Success Principle : Join a community of like-minded guitar players.

Being around other serious musicians inspires and motivates you to reach your goals faster.

Important: such a community only helps you, when its members are:

• Supportive and encouraging (to each other and to you)

• Committed to their own musical greatness

• Knowledgeable about guitar playing and music

• Mature and respectful

#4. Record Yourself:

There is no better way to see your guitar playing objectively and to motivate yourself to work to become a better player than to record yourself. There are countless affordable media for recording yourself on your own, and when you record, you can listen to yourself with fresh ears and hear the things you like and dislike about your playing. You’ll find it’s infinitely easier to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses and focus your practice accordingly.

Record yourself playing rhythm and then record other complimentary parts such as leads, melodies, counterpoints and complimentary alternate rhythms and you’ll learn about composition, production and ensemble performance. When you begin to focus on these complimentary parts, you’ll find that your vision and scope expands, as do your goals, and as you work to create complete songs, your abilities grow exponentially while you work to write and perform to the best of your ability.

#5. Guitar Playing Success Principle: Find the best guitar teacher for you.

Guitar teachers are NOT created equal. Every guitar teacher has different credentials, levels of experience and amount of proof of how good they are. Proof is critical. You want to study with a teacher who has helped many students become great guitar players. Expect and demand the best results from the investment of your time and money.

#6. Develop your ear.

Ear training is just as important as learning to read music. After all, music is a hearing art the only aural art. As such, the ear acts as the intermediary between your musical ideas and the execution of these ideas. A well-trained ear gives you the sensitivity and ability to play what you hear, and feel what you play, without having to rely on sheet music or tablature (which might come in handy with song requests for one.) Dedicate a little time each day to growing your ear and watch how your playing blooms as a result.

To start training your ear, try playing simple songs by the way they sound. Work them out note for note, chord for chord. Again, start simple before shooting for something more complex. Developing "big ears" will help you recognize chords and melodies when you hear them, and will also help you improvise when need be. Another trick is to play along with songs. This method will allow you to clearly hear your mistakes.

Learn to tune by ear as well for the sake of convenience when a tuning aid isn't available. Tuning a guitar by ear also teaches you to hear intervals between strings and notes.

#7. Take Lessons:

As a guitar instructor by trade, I am clearly biased, but the most obvious and productive thing any guitarist can do to improve their playing is to take lessons. While there is an ever-expanding universe of Internet resources, books, instructional videos, etc., available, nothing can compare to the one-on-one interaction with the expertise of a skilled guitar teacher. A teacher will identify your strengths and weaknesses, sharpening your skills and eliminating your flaws. A good teacher also will help you save time in your development by helping you sift through all of the information out there and lead you on the right path toward quickly realizing your goals as a guitarist.

Guitar teachers get paid to make you better, and spending the money will make you take your study seriously. Every story of a “self taught” guitarist still involves some part where they learned a lot from someone they knew who was more proficient and knowledgeable than them who helped shape their development, and even the extremely educated and virtuosic Randy Rhoads (who was a guitar teacher himself) was known to seek out guitar teachers whenever he had available time while making history touring and recording with Ozzy Osbourne, so break out of your rut, accelerate the evolution of your playing to the next level and get some lessons!

#8. Jam!

While it’s awesome to have perfected that ripping 128th note shredfest in your bedroom or basement, perhaps the most important thing for a guitarist to do is to play along with or to some sort of accompaniment.

Obviously, playing with another live musician or group of musicians in the same room is the perfect situation (And you should put yourself in those situations as often as possible), but there are many alternatives that can be just as beneficial. Today we have innumerable options, such as virtual backing bands and tracks through the Internet, computer programs such as EZ Drummer (highly recommended for its ease of use and versatility) or Garageband loops, plus apps on our phones that can act as stable backdrops against which we can hone our performance skills.

Playing with accompaniment such as this will greatly improve your consistency, your endurance, your improvisational ability and your feel for locking into a groove.

#9. Learn music theory.

What happens to a triad if the fifth changes? The fifth found in both the major and minor triad is called a perfect fifth. There are three-and-a-half steps (seven frets) between the root and a perfect fifth. If you take an A-major triad and raise the fifth a half step to E#, you have the interval (A to E#) of an augmented fifth, and the resulting chordA, C#, E#is called A augmented. Raise the high string one fret in a three-note A chord to hear what it sounds like. If this reads like a foreign language to you, point made.

How many times have you flipped through a songbook and been baffled by something peculiar like A7b13#9? It may seem like these names are more algebraic equations than chords, something invented to deliberately confuse you, but in fact theyre trying to tell you very specific things about what to play. Music theory is designed to help you should you suddenly find yourself being asked to play a I IV V in the key of G. You will know what that means and will know how to play it. And you'll look like a genius in the eyes of the uninitiated.

Learn music theory. You should be knowledgeable of your craft. You wouldn't drive without being able to interpret road signs and traffic lights, so why play guitar blindly? Even a rudimentary understanding of how music works can help take your playing to another level. Theory allows you to know what you're doing, and most importantly, why. Invest in a book on guitar theory and do your homework, or bone up online on one of the many websites at your disposal, like this one. Once you start learning the basics, a light will go off in your head. Warning: You may develop a voracious appetite to know more and more and even more still.

#10. Learn the notes on your fretboard.

One of the easiest things to master on the guitar is learning what notes are on what frets on which strings. Strangely enough, while learning the notes on your fretboard may be one of the simplest things to master, it's sometimes little more than an afterthought to many guitarists. Some never learn them at all due in part to a reliance on tablature.

If your aim is just to dabble in guitar for your own amusement, then you can probably get by with winging it. But if you want to be a guitarist of any merit, knowing your notes is as important as knowing the alphabet when you're learning to read. It gives you the power to construct chords, scales and melodies with a much deeper understanding. You begin seeing the fretboard in a completely different light. Patterns and scales will jump out at you. Chords will form before your eyes. You will be able to look at the fretboard and play what's in your head.

While it may be true that in the flow of the moment a musician is not thinking about scales or notes but dreaming the music and playing what he hears in his head and heart, knowing the fretboard cold is a great resource for your development.

#11. Pick types and models

I am obsessed with picks.

Really.

I currently own probably, I dunno, like 90 different pick types, not because I need or even use them (you only really need one pick) but because I’m constantly curious about finding a pick which perfectly suits my playing, something I have yet to find, not for lack of trying.

Currently I use the bad boy below (in 2.0mm), but with the edges filed down for a sharper attack.

I have been using this particular pick since I was 13 and, even though I am seeking to find something better (this pick and I have a contentious love/hate relationship) I have yet to do so, but I am always on the lookout.

My point is that everybody’s either a Jazz II player, a Jazz III player, or a Tortex player, generalizing of course, but that’s definitely what the majority of people are using, in my humble yet vast experience.

I mean, everyone is a unique player, but for all of us unique players to be using the same seemingly innocuous, but vastly important thing is crazy to me.

#12. Hand position

You know your hand moves, right?

You know it’s not some sort of immovable, Sword in the Stone (second nerd fantasy reference. Score.) type of thing, glued down for all of entirety, yeah?

Move that shit.

Your hand and subsequent pick position have massive effects on the sound of your playing.

Play a chord and just move your pick from the bridge to the neck position of your pickups, slowly so as to hear the difference between the two and all of the variations between.

#13. Learn all of the inversions of every chord everywhere

I can think of 20 versions for playing the “E” chord off the top of my head.

Can you?

Learning all of your chords all over the neck will make you utterly invaluable as a side man and composer and will land you every single gig you can think of.

Why?

Because when somebody says, my song is “E-A-C#min-B” and you go “Sure, cool” and bust out some seriously beautiful, tasteful, voice-lead, grooving awesomeness, and then they go “Shit man, you’re a genius” you’ll be thinking to yourself “I hope this band gets on Conan with my dope playing so I can play all of my sick ass, tasty inversions for America and be inadvertently watched by a group of chicks having a girls night, one of whom will be Jessica Alba, thereby cementing our destined marriage”.

#14. Stand when you practice

I mean, really, this one is obvious.

Unless you’re a professional reenactment artist for the US Jazz Museum, recreating the glory days of the Benny Goodman Big Band, you should be standing when you perform, which means you should be standing when you practice.

Ever played anything with a groove sitting down?

Yeah, it sounds like your Dad’s Hall and Oates cover band.

Fuck that.

Stand up and practice like a professional.

#15. Technique is a combination of muscle memory and repetition

OK, sure. Everybody wants to play faster. I get it. Playing fast is cool, makes all of your greasy-haired bros think you’re the shit, makes all of the other guitar players in the world think you’re the Messiah, and makes you feel bad ass (However, against common thought, does not makes chicks dig you. Like at all. Like never. Shredding is like bug spray for hot chicks. Be warned.)

I have built much of my fan base from blazing the shit out of my guitar and melting the faces of much of the first three rows of every concert I’ve given since learning how to pee standing up, so yeah, I get it. I like to play fast.

To me, there are few things cooler to achieve sonically than a massive, epic “wall” of notes, a “sheet” if you will. It’s super killer, especially when balanced with not playing all the goddamn notes in the universe.

409 views

Dean Swiatek

Dean Swiatek, Software Engineer, guitar player, music fanatic...

Answered Feb 25, 2016

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

There is no right answer for this because everyone is different.  The time spent practicing is a big deal, but also some people just pick it up a lot faster than others.

I started when I was 7, and spent almost all my free time playing.  I have met people who were better players after playing for just a year, and I have met people who have played for years and practice regularly but still struggle with things I had no issues with by the time I was 9 years old.

1.8k views

Dan Dean Heaton

Dan Dean Heaton

Answered Feb 15, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

It depends on your natural affinity towards it as well as how much time you are looking to dedicate into it. Oh yeah and don't forget your passion for it. I would say if you are really into it and love it to death you can become a very fluent player within a couple years. Comes easier to some. I would recommend just getting a feel for it and not worrying so much about chords or scales at first. Takes multiple years to become a virtuoso. Main thing it boils down to is not "how long does it take" but "how much time do you have".

69 views

Donald Muller

Donald Muller

Answered Mar 4, 2016

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I generally spend more time listening to the song and having it register in your mind. Then work it out on the guitar, line by line. I mean the guitar riffs. By the time I listen to the song once, I get all the chords. Its the riffs you have to dig out. I had to check the tabs to get Simon & Garfunkels Scarborough Fair. Develop a good ear.

1.1k views

Alex Garcia

Alex Garcia, Guitarist

Answered Feb 7, 2018

While mastering guitar is a lifelong pursuit, learning enough to play a few songs does not actually take too long. The first time you pick up a guitar, it will be extremely intimidating. There is a lot to learn about the strings, frets, and the notes they play, not to mention the very basics of handling the guitar correctly. However, within a couple of months, most beginner guitarists can be comfortable with a guitar and play a few basic songs.

The number one decider in how long it takes a person to learn electric guitar is how much time they put into it. While it is not a good idea when first starting out to play for several hours a day (which can lead to hand or wrist strain or injury), a beginner who puts in at least an hour a day will learn much more quickly than someone who only plays a couple days a week. Most of the basic guitar mastery is simply teaching your fingers the shapes they need to make, which can only be done with repetition.

Practicing smart is also important. Beginner guitarists should look up scales and chords and practice them with a metronome for the most efficient practice. Start out very slowly, and focus on getting each note just right each time. As you gain confidence, speed up the metronome a little bit each time.

by Learning Guitar - Play Guitar Notes

1.2k views

John Thorpe

John Thorpe

Answered Apr 18, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

It sure is a journey. Daily practice is essential, build this into daily life like drinking water. Improvement is painstakingly incremental. Learning scales and chord construction is vital. Playing with others regularly can inspire. This is part of my life.

4.1k views · View 2 Upvoters

Arlene Webb

Arlene Webb

Answered Jun 9, 2019

For people who want to learn and play guitar in short time but you don’t have time to go to guitar class, you should try Imodstyle Guitar Training (please search on google, I don’t remember the link). I’ve got great results with it. I don’t have any spare time in my business (busy pub) but it allows me to fit in fifteen minutes of practice a day and see results.

14 views

Rick Wanner

Rick Wanner, Music connoisseur, guitar player, and sometimes musician

Answered Nov 30, 2014 · Author has 72 answers and 84.1k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

I will add one more thing to this well written thread.  That is that if you want to progress you will need to practice with purpose.  While you can never play too much, and playing will solidify the skills you already have it is practicing the skills you have not yet mastered that will allow you to progress the fastest.

2.5k views

Matt Agresta

Matt Agresta, Been playing 35 years or so

Answered Jul 18, 2017

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

You can become relatively proficient provided you are committed to putting in enough time and repetition. I’d estimate about 6 months to a year, maybe quicker.

There are so many resources on line, many free of charge, that will get you on your way. Start with Justin Guitar, he is fantastic.

THE BEST GUITAR TUTORIALS FREE!! Justin Guitar | Free Guitar Lessons With Justinguitar.com

As a guitar player and someone approaching 50, it is so refreshing to see people still pick up the instrument. I’ve loved the guitar all my life and while it is maybe less than popular right now, new players will keep the guitar music alive.

Take your time and keep things in perspective. You don’t need to be a virtuoso to make music. Just find your inspiration and work towards your goals!

Good luck !

2.7k views · View 1 Upvoter

Alexander King

Alexander King, I've been an independent musician for about 25 years

Answered Jan 31, 2012

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

The guitar is a very easy instrument to pick up and learn, compared to say - the violin, which sounds dreadful until you're reasonably competent.

If you practice daily, there's no reason why you couldn't be knocking out 'WonderWall' in a few months.

3.9k views

Matt Tippett

Matt Tippett, Guitarist, compulsive blogger.

Answered Apr 27, 2015 · Author has 100 answers and 84.4k answer views

Originally Answered: How long does it take to become good at guitar?

Here's an article you might like: How Long Does it Take to Get Good?

2k views