There is a lot to do if you want to “up your game” at playing guitar. You can take lessons from an instructor (which I, of course, think is a great idea). You can learn some things from YouTube or from tablature. There are scales, chords, and arpeggios to learn. There is theory, ear training, sight reading, and improvisation. How does one make time for it all? Frankly, it’s all pretty important to one’s musical development — so how do you pick and choose which things to spend your time on when you have school or work, family, and a social life to take care of?
I believe that there is one thing that is fundamentally more important than all of the others:
LEARN SONGS.
Simple, isn’t it?
Learning songs is the whole reason we pick up the guitar in the first place. Maybe you dream of doing that thing that you saw your favorite guitarist do at a concert, or perhaps you found Guitar Hero fun and thought the real thing might be fun, too. Whatever your reasons for picking up the instrument, I bet that at the heart of it is a song or songs that you love.
So learn them.
“They’re too hard,” you say?
Then learn just the chorus, or whatever is the easiest part. Play along with the recording on the parts you can, and just listen and enjoy the rest — or try to find some notes that sound reasonably good during the parts you don’t know. If you have trouble with the chords, play the bass notes only.
This is where a decent teacher can do the most good, because they can help you find an achievable version of the song to work on.
I will be following up soon with some ideas about how to implement this, but for now, let me just clarify what I mean when I say “learn songs”:
• Whether you’re learning to play the melody, the chords, a solo guitar arrangement, playing and singing together, I’m talking about memorizing the song. Whatever version you want to learn, I’m talking about knowing it “cold” — no sheet of paper or screen in front of you, no hunting and pecking for notes, no wrong notes or chords, and no hesitations. I’m talking about taking the song (whether beginner, intermediate, or advanced) to performance level.
• For those who haven’t done much of this, it might take a lot more time (even on an easy song) than you might think. I can guarantee you this process will be humbling, but ultimately rewarding.
Stay tuned for more information on some of the best ways I’ve learned to get this done.
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Wes Freeman is private guitar lesson teacher in the Atlanta metro area of Georgia. He teaches lessons primarily in the cities of Lilburn, Snellville, Marietta, Decatur, and Brookhaven. Learn more about taking lessons with Wes on his Lessons page.
Wes Freeman Music 