Why Learn Guitar?

Before you even decide to do anything, it is normal and common sense to know the reasons behind such an endeavour as it is the very foundation of what you are about to get into. Without this awareness everything would easily give way and your commitment to achieve something would easily waiver and you would have just wasted your time, effort and possibly money in taking several early and discontinued steps.

The following are some non-exhaustive but good reasons to learn and keep on improving to play the guitar:

It makes you smart

This is no exaggeration. Learning to play the guitar involves not only physical but also a lot of mental activities. In order for you to constantly improve each time you practise you need to be observant and be able to analyse and isolate your problem areas. And afterwards you then need to think of a number of possible solutions in solving your particular problem. Of course this only happens in your own practice time and not when in front of your teacher.

Another thing is that when you practise, you also teach yourself how to focus, get organised, and how to do things efficiently. And these also happened to apply to your daily life not only as a musician but as a person in general.

It makes you stand out

Do you know many people who play guitar and are really masters in their style of music? Compare it to the number of people who play other instruments like piano, violin, wind instruments, etc. You can find many in one orchestra set-up alone.

The fact is, the guitar is a very new instrument. So new that itself and how it is played is still evolving and that a very few number of people have truly been able to master it—in their own style of music. These people on the other hand stood out among great players of other instruments. How many people don’t know Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Van Halen, Eric Clapton or Brian May? Not many at all.

It is a very unique and versatile instrument

You can use the guitar to play melodies, chords, arpeggios and even as a percussive instrument! Can you name other instruments that can be used in this variety of ways? Furthermore, a single note, say C for example, can be played in different articulations on the guitar: pre-bend, bend, hammer-on and pull-off, tapping, harmonics, slide-up, slide-down, whammy bar, electric drill, tremolo, vibrato, light-picked, heavy picked, finger-picked (ask your teacher to demonstrate these).

In addition to these, hundreds of real-time guitar effects are on the market and these can enable you to play a single note in many, many ways. Steve Vai can even make his guitar talk and laugh with the use of bending and whammy bar techniques combined with a wah pedal.

It can be a source of living

Once you got some serious skills down you can form a band and play gigs, do your own recording, and get a record deal or become a guitar teacher. In fact you can even do all if you so wish! You simply need to know the steps you have to take and not pure luck.  And there are people who can help and teach you these things. But develop some useful musical skills which are in line with what you really want. You don’t necessarily have to be a master to start but make sure you constantly improve yourself in the process.

It is all fun and nothing risky

This is the very reason why most great guitar-teachers and players picked up the guitar and learned in the first place. Learning guitar is not as easy as learning most other instruments. Let alone learning on your own. But once you’ve got some little skills everything else will follow through and you will begin to ask yourself why you haven’t done this a long time ago. Give it a try, learn from a good teacher and NOT on your own, and see for yourself a whole new and beautiful world, the wonderful world of guitar and music.

It is absolutely risk-free unless you go berserk and try to do some stunts and poses while holding your guitar on or off stage. This used to be how it was in the old days.  But things have changed through time and now guitar-players aim for virtuosity and not all image and attitude. Of course this doesn’t mean that you should play like a statue on stage.

Just like any other form of art, guitar-playing too requires dedication, commitment, focus, and utmost discipline.