For any beginner starting to play guitar the question is often raised whether you should start on acoustic guitar or electric guitar. For some, this will be a simple choice as they will be drawn to one or the other based on the type of music they like.

But the question still stands about which provides a foundation in technique that will form a basis for improving guitar skills? If you are going to teach yourself guitar then which guitar type does not hide your faults?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both at different stages of a guitarist learning so any assessment needs to take into account the short and long term benefits of each. Over the years I have taught other guitarists using whatever guitar they had to hand. I noticed that you can nearly tell from a guitarist's technique whether they started on electric or acoustic just by watching them play.

So here are the pros and cons we saw of each approach.

Beginning On Electric Guitar

Pros

* Easier to play using the narrower gauge strings and narrower guitar neck.

* Develop a subtlety of playing. Amplification of what you play highlights various effects and nuances in your play (for hammer ons, vibrato, etc.).

* It is possible to practice using earphones (neighbors will appreciate this).

Cons

* Muscle strength in the fingers does not build up as strongly as when playing acoustic.

* Using effects/distortion hides a multitude of sins.

* Strong tendency for incorrect placement of the left thumb on the guitar neck.

Beginning On Acoustic Guitar

Pros

* Lower startup costs.

* An amp is not required, which allows you to play and practice anywhere.

* Finger muscle strength builds up from day one.

Cons

* Temptation is there to strum through all songs. Beginners should take the time to learn finger picking styles.

* Guitar solos can get 'lost in the mix' if playing in a group which may put off some beginners.

* Using earphones with an acoustic guitar is not an option.

From my perspective, guitarists who start out on electric build up a speed of playing (solos, chord changes, etc.) which is admirable, but it is often at the cost of good playing technique. Playing the electric guitar hides a number of faults such as incorrect placement of the thumb and not holding down strings solidly that results in strings buzzing or being muted during play (this is highly noticeable when recording an electric).

In comparison, the acoustic guitarist builds up the finger strength, learns better hand placement on the frets and fosters clear sounding play.

That said, if you can handle the bill for buying both electric and acoustic guitars then you could split out the beginners training on both instruments and they will benefit from both approaches.

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Learning to play the guitar can be such a thrill. There are a lot of different things you need to learn including how to tune the guitar, how to play lead guitar and how to read music. Learning the guitar scales is a very important electric guitar lesson, one that must be mastered before you can play properly. It can certainly be confusing at first but as you continue along and progress you'll find it a lot easier.

There are also other scales important to learn about including the blues scale, whole tone scale and pentatonic scale. The minor, major, blues and pentatonic scales are the most common. To make it easier when you're first learning, make sure to break it down into smaller chunks. This helps to make things simpler and keep your mind from getting overloaded.

Most beginners find it very difficult to find their way around the fret board, and it is surprising that even most experienced guitarists hesitate when asked to find the notes on any strings, hence take your time to understand the fret board well. For any guitarist, the guitar pick is one of the most important tools, and these picks are usually made of bone, metal, plastic and wood.

Scales on a guitar move progressively in order of sharps or flats. For this electric guitar lesson an effective drill is to play through all the sharp scales first starting with C major and then memorize the fingering for each one. Again, with practice you're going to start noticing the differences in sounds as you go along from one scale to the next and recognize which scales need to be used during a song. Drills are necessary to help you gain skills.

It can certainly be confusing at first to learn about the different scales on a guitar and how to use them for playing. With the different scales, notes, tuning and strokes it's not hard to see why playing the guitar is so difficult for some people. No matter what age you are, you can learn to play the guitar. For some people it takes longer than others but if you have patience you can become skilled.

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Beginner Guitar Lessons Online – Learn Acoustic Guitar Online

It is very important to be familiar with the guitar before learning how to play on it. As you already know, the guitar is one of the oldest instruments in the world.

The acoustic guitar was invented in the late 1700’s while the electric one is almost 200 years younger being officialy unveiled in the 1930’s. Both acoustic ad electric guitars share the same attributes and the only difference between them is that the latter will need an amplifier to rock.

A guitar consists of a headstock, tuners, nut, guitar neck, sound hole, body and bridge. If you take each one of these parts out, then the guitar won’t sound the same because every little part play its role to produce the perfect sound.

A guitar player must know how to hold the pick. If you don’t use a pick you might hurt your fingers very bad. You must keep the picking hand open with your palm facing you. While keeping your thumb beside the index finger you should make a loose fist. Then rotate your hand while your thumb’s knockle faces you.

Next comes tuning. Every guitar player must know how to tone a guitar before playing it. You can find various online tutorials on the Internet that will help you tune your guitar without using an electronic tuner.

After tuning the guitar you should learn the scales. Any beginner must know which finger (except for the thumb) should press which string.

The thumb is only used by proffesional guitar players but for the beginners it is only a support. At first you must learn how to make your other four fingers get along with the chords.

Once you’re ready you should play your very first chord. It might help you if you follow the instructions on the illustrated chord charts.

All the above mentioned tips are only the basics. In order to become a professional you must learn a lot more. The beginner lessons are very important and if you’re really committed and if you want to become a rockstar then you’ll learn all kind of tricks in no time.

Practice makes it perfect and you must keep that in mind all the time.

About the Author

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In this article I am going to show you how to play hammer o's and pull off's.

In the last article/mini guitar lesson you learned how to move the pentatonic pattern 1 around the neck. In this lesson we will expand on that to bring a technique called the "hammer on".

So, for this example we will take pattern 1 at the 5th fret (Am).

OK, to play the "hammer on" you need to hold down the 6th string at the 5th fret and then pluck it. Then bring down your 4th finger hard onto the 8th fret with enough force to allow the string to ring out as though you had plucked it!

In order to master thus technique you need to practice. Practice playing the hammer on on all the strings in the scale pattern... This is known as "hammering on"!!!

You now need to build up your speed and over time you will find that you will be able to play the "hammer on" effortlessly playing notes quickly without having to pluck each string individually. Practicing this technique will speed up your overall paying ability...

To practice, try to play your guitar EVERY day, play every day even if it is only for a few minutes it is better than not picking it up at all. Eventually your fingers will become on autopilot without you realizing...

Following on from the "hammer on" we are now going to take a look at the "pull off" The "pull off" is another 'must know' technique and runs side by side with the "hammer on". This is a technique you have got to master if you wish to progress to becoming a great player!

We will start off again using pentatonic pattern one at the 5th fret (Am). Hold down the 8th fret with your 4th finger and also the 5th fret with your first finger on the 6th string.

Now pick the string sounding the note at the 8th fret (C)

Here's the great part: Pluck the string while the note is still ringing with your 4th finger (pull off) to sound the note at the 5th fret (A), do not use your pick at all whilst doing this.

Make sure you practice this on all the strings up and down pattern 1.

These great and widely used techniques (hammer on's and pull off's) is a regular feature in fantastic sounding solos.

The only way to get good at these techniques is to practice and practice until your fingers bleed! Only joking!!! Regular practice is essential in order to master these skills.

About The Author - Mike Jones: Mike has been teaching and playing guitar as a professional for over two decades. He has created a unique guitar tutoring professionalgram created using his very own amazing speed learning techniques to get the beginner through to accomplished player in the shortest possible time. For more information and receive some super FREE tips and tricks why not go to his website at: guitar lessons

Hi Mike here from Killer Guitar Tips.

I am now going to show you a couple of mini guitar lessons in this article that you really should know to help get your guitar soloing of to a great start and stop you from sounding shall we say mediocre!

OK, let;s get started...

This weeks mini guitar lesson is on how to use the Pentatonic Pattern #1 scale for major and minor solo's.

The first thing we need to understand is that every pentatonic pattern can be used for major and minor scales.

So, if you look at pattern #1 at the fifth fret we see that the two keys are A minor (Am) and C major (C). These are know as the relative major and minors.

Therefore to get a real cool bluesy rock sound and knowing that we can use this pattern for BOTH minor and major keys, Am and C maj, we simply play the Am pattern over a backing track written in A major!

Now here's the best part...

Using the very same pattern, move the whole pattern down the neck (towards the tuning pegs) 3 frets and play the very same pattern, this will put you in A major which will produce a melodic, tuneful soloing sound!!!

Moving onto the next little mini guitar lesson continuing the theme of moving pentatonic pattern #1 around the guitar neck to crete great solo's.

If we play in the key of A by playing pattern 1 at the 5th fret (Am) we can create a really cool bluesy rock solo.

Now here is a great little tip... Move the whole shape up the guitar neck by 7 to Em and continue playing! This will produce a great melodic sound using exactly the same pattern but played at a different part of the neck, try it, it's a mainstay in the guitarists bag of tricks.

If you make a place on your hard drive and create a folder for all the little mini guitar lessons I will be giving you over the coming weeks and practice them regularly you will build up an awesome bag of tricks that when put together in a solo will produce a killer sound. Your friends will be amazed at your skill!

Remember these mini guitar lessons are just a very small fraction of what you will receive if you subscribe to my killer guitar course, that will be released shortly.

Mike Jones - The Author: Mike is a Professional Guitar Tutor and has been teaching and playing guitar for over two decades. He has created a unique guitar tutoring course constructed using his very own amazing speed learning techniques to bring the beginner through to great player in the shortest possible time. To find out more and receive some super FREE tips and tricks why not go to his website at: Learn Guitar