Learning to play guitar appeals to so many people. It can be hard to put the guitar down once you get started. You find that you want to learn more ways to play and styles to pursue. These tips can help you become a better player, whether you are just starting out or hoping to increase your skill level.

Staying motivated is an important part about learning how to play guitar. When you first start out, motivation will be easy. But as time progresses and your skills advance slowly, you may begin to feel like your new hobby is a waste of time. Set small goals, give yourself rewards, or find a buddy to play with that will keep you motivated!

As you progress along your journey to become a skilled guitar player, take some time to determine your favorite style of music to play. No matter if you prefer rock, jazz or classical guitar stylings, having a genre you truly love is the best way to allow your creativity and musical personality show.

As strange as it may sound to guitar novices, it is important to start the process of building callouses on your fingertips soon after beginning to learn to play the instrument. Having a bit of thick skin at the end of your fingers will make playing less painful, and will be well worth the effort as you spend more and more time making music.

Buy yourself a metronome. This is going to help your timing and rhythm. That way, you are not trying to maintain the correct pace on your own. With a metronome, you can begin with a slow pace and increase it as your skills improve. The use of a metronome will increase the effectiveness of your practice.

It is important for new guitar players to spend some time developing the muscles in their fret hands. This can be done by squeezing a small rubber ball, or perhaps even a tennis ball in a repetitive fashion for a couple of short sessions daily. Though it is important not to overuse these muscles, they need to get stronger in order to play properly.

Look for instructional videos online. With the internet, learning a new skill has become exponentially easier. One on one instruction, while ideal, is rather expensive. If you can’t afford classes, look on sites like YouTube instead. Find popular guitar tutors and watch their videos. There’s a lot of helpful instruction out there.

Make a practice routine for yourself. Learning to play the guitar can take even longer if your practice sessions aren’t focused. Plan out your practice sessions ahead of time. Tailor them to your needs. Make sure they’re interesting but focus on your problem areas. Find a nice balance between repetition and learning new things.

Find someone who can be your guitar buddy. Find someone who’s musical taste is similar to yours. It is possible for that person to share some techniques that you have not yet learned. It is much more fun to practice with a person that you like to be with anyway. If your practice partner is of similar skill, then you two can really enjoy the same learning curve.

Even if you only aspire to be a casual musician, only playing guitar as a hobby in front of friends and family, take the time necessary to learn a bit of music theory. If you have a thorough grounding in how music really works, you will be a far better player and will be able to expand your horizons as an artist down the road, should you so desire.

As a beginning guitar player, you should never be too proud to make liberal use of a metronome as you practice. Learning to keep time when playing different types of songs is essential to becoming a solid musician. Therefore, set aside your ego and accept the valuable assistance this tool can provide.

Use a tennis ball to make your fingers stronger. Warm up a bit before your guitar lesson or practice session by taking a tennis ball and squeezing it a few times. This is a great way to work the fingers you’ll need to play the guitar. By squeezing the ball, you’ll make your fingers strong enough to play different chords.

Learn a whole song. It can be simple just to learn the piece of a song that’s really catchy. This bad habit can be fairly annoying. It is important to make yourself work on the entire thing. Learn an entire song before starting a new one.

As you can see, guitar playing can be addictive. Learning to play can be enjoyable and learning new songs can make you feel quite accomplished. But there are always new things to learn as a guitar player. So take what you have learned her and apply it to your practice sessions.