People often think that to learn guitar is hard.  Let me tell you, it's not.

It might be challenging at first but if you're willing to take an honest stab at it you'll not only learn guitar you can master it. 

1. Learn the Basics

This may sound super basic, but learn the parts of the guitar.  Learn where each of these things are on the guitar:

Head
Tuners
Nut
Fret
Fingerboard
Position Markers
Body
Bridge

2. Be Comfortable While Playing

How you sit is important.  If you don't sit correctly you'll struggle to play. 
Sit on a chair that . hold guitar is on right leg and elevate the left foot and have it resting on the left leg.and use your other leg to support it.

This acts as the best support.  Keep your back straight. do not hunch over.

3. Learn Guitar through Chords and Chord Progression

Even if you've never had a guitar lesson you can absolutely learn guitar finger placement and strumming.

This is a great basic and once you learn it you'll be well on your way to playing guitar like a pro. 

It helps to understand that music, on any instrument, .is simply a set of chords. Once you learn the basic chords and how to play them you'll be able to see how music is actually made.  

Even if you have never taken a lesson you can still learn finger placement and how to strum so you can get the basics under your belt.

Start by getting your hands on a book of basic guitar chords. Then devote just 30 minutes a day  to playing each chord until you know them by heart.  Learning these chords will help you build hand flexibility and memorization.  Doing this will make the next steps a lot easier.

 4.  Problems to Avoid

When people learn to play the guitar they often encounter these problems:

- They don't see any progress
- They don't see the purpose of an exercise or why they are learning a particular thing.
- They don't feel like they're actually making music
- They feel overwhelmed with too much material

These problems often occur because of finger placement.  Look at the trouble parts of your songs.  Where are your fingers, what finger placement is the most difficult?

As you become aware of these things take some time and watch your fingers move as you encounter trouble spots.

For example, Are only the fingers that are supposed to be fretting notes doing the fretting, or are there unnecessary movements that get in the way? 

Also try slowing down when you have trouble and look at exactly what is happening so you can determine what it is that needs changing.

5. Learn from Guitar Experts & take Quality Courses

Learning to play and master the guitar isn't rocket science, but there are lots of methods and guitar teachers that can make it confusing and difficult.

Get involved with a course or instructor that inspires you from the beginning and has the potential to build you up to a master level of skill.

Learning from a live instructor is a popular method of instruction but not everyone prefers driving to lessons or trying to remember what was taught when the lesson was over.    For this reason video lessons have become extremely popular.   If you don't get something the first time you can go over the instruction a second time just by re-watching the video. 

If  you prefer a video course be sure it's comprehensive.  It should get you started quickly but take you to all the up to mastering the skills you need to effectively become a good guitarist. 

For example, the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar study course is the perfect example of a course that gets you started quickly, provides you support along the way and is actually cheaper than taking live lessons from an instructor.

6. Practice Truly Makes Perfect

Practicing guitar is a lot easier if you use your time wisely.  Start by developing a practice plan.

Here's a plan that may help:

- 1. 5 minute warm up. Start by tuning your guitar! Then, play anything you like for 5 minutes.
- 2. 10 minutes on scales.  Work on scales 

- 3. 10 minute Arpeggios - An arpeggio is a group of notes which are played one after the other, either going up or going down, where the notes belong to one chord. Again, visualize and try to remember the patterns you play.

- 4. 10 minutes on Chords - Practice chord progressions with some of the new chords you are learning.
   
- 5. Devote 10 minutes to technique. Work on any technique that you see needs improvement. 
   
6. Take 10 minutes to work on a favorite song.  Work on a favorite song or better yet devote this time to something a bit more challenging that you might be struggling with. 
  
7. 10 minutes to read music. It's important that you keep you skills reading music honed, so work on this about ten minutes a day.