You just bought your new guitar and you are super excited about it!
Congrats you passed the hardest hurdle to getting started, owning a guitar!
Now you have your guitar you maybe asking yourself what do I do next? It’s a valid question!
In this article we will be going over some advice as to what you can do or buy to help ease your journey as a beginning guitarist.
The topics we will be covering are as follows:
What To Expect After You Get Your First Guitar
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
What is meant by this quote is that you have taken your first step but don’t stop there keep walking and you’ll get where you need to go.
The same is true for guitar and your journey to your enjoyment with the instrument.
I would say that guitar isn’t an easy instrument to learn because of the nature of it having an X and Y axis of notes ascending/descending vertically as well as horizontally.
Getting used to playing on the guitar takes several months before you feel it can click and work for you so keep at it and keep taking step after step towards your achievements.
What Other Accessories To Buy
Depending on what type of guitar you have (electric or acoustic) can influence what accessories you may need to go along with your first purchase.
I will list a few good starting items to help you:
1. Extra strings for all strings
2. Metronome to practice with
3. Guitar strap
4. Cables (if electric)
5. Guitar bag for transport
6. Practice amplifier (if electric)
7. Guitar Tuner
8. Extra Plectrums of varying sizes
9. Guitar Strap
10. Peg winder (not entirely needed but good for changing strings)
All of these items will help you when you are picking up your first instrument as they will be useful throughout the learning stages.
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Learning To Tune Your Guitar
If you bought the tuner from the list above it really makes a difference in helping yourself tune quickly.
There are many different types of tuners you can plug in the cable if its electric or if its acoustic and has a built-in tuner that recognises the pitch, either through a microphone or a direct cable.
There are newer versions of tuners that attach themselves onto the fretboard to feel the vibrations.
You then want to match the notes of E A D G B E as these are the notes of the open strings on the guitar.
Turning your Tuning peg on the guitar sharp makes the light go to the right of the screen and flat in the opposite direction you want to make it settle in the middle until the light goes green to give you the correct note.
Getting Familiar With The Anatomy Of The Guitar
It really helps knowing the name of each part of your guitar so that when it’s referenced in later materials you can get a feel for what they are referring too.
Below I will show some photos of each part of the guitar.
There are 3 main parts to the guitar you can also, if you like, think of the guitar like a giraffe.
You have the head, the long neck and the body. Then you can break it down into further details.
The Body
Depending on if you have an electric or acoustic this can be different. On an acoustic you have a sound hole which as it suggests produces the sound and where it projects from.
On an electric you have what’s called pickups because they pickup the sound through wound magnets through the cable into the speaker.
Some guitars have more pickups than others and it also comes with a pickup selector which changes the flavour of the sound from the pickups by switching them to different pickups. At the back of the body there will be a bridge that will control the tension of the strings these also vary depending on if the guitar is classical/acoustic or electric.
The strings also need to be threaded through the back of the guitar over the neck and towards the head.
You also have a jack where you plug in the cable as it will take the sound from the guitar to an amplifier.
Next to the jack you will see 2 or sometimes 3 control "pots" that control the volume (how loud it is) and tone (how treble it is) of the pickups if they are electric.
The Neck
The neck has on the front side the fretboard with the metal lines called fret wires. And in between the fret wires are frets. This is where you place your fingers.
At the top end towards the head of the guitar you have the nut.
The nut is a part of keeping the tension with the string’s conjunction with the bridge. The nut serves as keeping tension towards the tuners.
The Head
On the head of the guitar stores the tuners or machine heads.
They have a lot of names but these are the most common ones.
This is where you would tie off the strings and wind them and to use the tuners to change the tuning of the strings to keep them in tune.
Finding The Right Teacher
After you have the right accessories and the guitar, I would strongly advise finding the right teacher local to you as you need someone who can be there to correct any bad habits that you may develop.
I would advise to find a teacher who can demonstrate what they teach as not all teachers are equal.
Qualifications do help and will give you a higher chance to find someone who can teach reliably but it isn’t 100% required it just increases the chances of better-quality education.
Also ask for references from their students and ask there students how well they have been progressing as this will give you a gauge of how good they are as a teacher.
I hope this gives you a clue as to what to do after you receive your first guitar and I hope that it becomes a really enjoyable hobby for you.
This article was written by
GuitarGuyNick
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