Five Beginner Guitar Tips All Beginners Should Know

There are many beginner guitar tips that an acoustic guitar beginner needs to know.

There are five primary beginner guitar tips pertaining to acoustic guitar care that will keep the guitar in good shape and make guitar playing so much more enjoyable.

These tips will also help relieve the stress and give you confidence that your guitar will be ready to go when you are ready to play it.

1. Do not let your guitar get to wet or to dry

Too much or too little humidity or moisture content of the air is a major problem for acoustic guitars.

Guitars are usually manufactured in an indoor controlled environment or climate. Most producers keep their shops at approximately 50 percent relative humidity and the wood to be used is acclimated to this humidity.

This means that if the guitar goes to a climate that it dry or has a low relative humidity, the moisture content in the guitar can go down a few points without skrinkage or seperation of the joints.

If the acoustic guitar goes to a climate that is wet or has a high relative humidity, the moisture content of the wood can go up a few points without swelling the glue joints apart.

It is very important to keep the relative humidity of a guitar and its invironment around 50 percent.

Gas heat drys out the air in a home or studio which is very hard on an acoustic guitar.

Do not store your acoustic guitar in an attic space. An attic space usually goes through extreme temperature changes which brings me to the next guitar tip.

2. Don't let your guitar get too hot or too cold

Guitar materials expand and contract in extreme temperature changes. Wood is no exception but does not change as much or as rapidly as other materials such as plastic or metal.

Do not leave your guitar in a car during hot or cold periods. This can destroy a guitar.

Temperatures approach 150 degrees Farenheit in the summertime in an automobile.

The extreme heat can deactivate the glue, loosen the joints and roll your guitar up like a pretzel.

Extreme cold can have a similar effect by making the glue brittle. Both extreme heat and cold exposure can wreak havoc on a guitar neck!

3. Always store your acoustic guitar in a good quality case when you are not playing it

Great beginner guitar tips! A good case can go a long way in protecting your guitar from accidental dings, bumps, and bangs.

A good case can help protect your guitar in extreme humidity and temperatue changes.

If your guitar is in the case and is exposed to an extreme change, undo the latches and crack the case open narrowly and prop it in that position.

Let the guitar acclimate to the new climate slowly before you totally remove it from the case. This lets the humidity and temperature of your guitar respond slowly to the new condition.

Make sure the case is a good fit for your guitar with little room to move inside it. Also, make sure your case has adequate storage for things such as a strap, tuner, capo, etc.

4. Get yourself a good tuner and metronome or a tuner/metronome combination

Tuning is very important in beginning guitar. Always try to play guitar in tune.

A chromatic tuner wil help you with tuning until you get your ear fully developed to know when a guitar is in standard 440 tuning.

Many times when there is background noise, a tuner is a must.

A metronome is important in beginning, particularly when you are working on speed or simply trying to play in time. Metronomes work in timing of beats per minutes.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice

Great beginner guitar tips! All great guitar players have done their time and then some! Set a regular time that you can go unhindered for at least 20 minutes.

Always have your materials prepared ahead of your actual practice. Have your music, tabs, chord charts, computer or whatever materials you will need prepared.

Get into a regular routine. It takes a lot of repetition to imprint muscle memory so play the parts over and over until you get it stored.

Break long sections of music, tabs, etc. into shorter sections and learn them one at a time until you get it. Then, put them together to form the longer section.

Concentrate on finger and pick mechanics, clarity and percission. Slow the peice down to a speed you can handle and slowly increase it until you get it up to speed.

Many pickers play and practice as much as 4 hours a day.

Remember, practice, practice, practice!!!

These are just a few things that you will need to know as an acoustic guitar player. You can find many more tidbits of information throughout my-acoustic-guitar.com.

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