Guitar Basics - A Beginners Guide to Basic Guitar Playing

There are a few guitar basics that you should learn when you start playing the guitar.  You might not think its necessary but trust me, to be able to play the guitar for years to come without having aches and pains, you need to learn and pay attention to some of those guitar basics.  With each thing that you learn, there are some things that you need to know to make it a fun and enjoyable time.

Warming up is one of the guitar basics that some might snub their nose at when they first learn how to play the guitar.  Maybe because they think it makes them less of a guitar player, I'm not really sure why.  But if you want to be able to play the guitar for years to come without having to worry about arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome or strains, warming up is something you should do.  It doesn't take all that long to do the simple warm up exercises and it will be time well spent. 

Warming up your fingers and forearms is what is important because this is where the tendons are that you will be using when you play.  There are two exercises that you can do that will help you loosen up those tendons, extensions and rolls.

Extensions are simple to do and can help you warm up.  To do an extension, hold your fretting hand's arm out straight and take your picking hand and gently push your fretting hand down.  Making sure that you keep your fretting hand fingers together and the hand straight, do this stretching extension slowly.  If you were to look at your hands from the side your fretting hand fingers should be pointing down.  After you've held this position for a moment, wiggle out your hand and let it relax.  Next you will want to do the opposite and take your picking hand and pull up on your fretting hand.  Remember to keep your arm and fretting hands fingers straight.  Now your fingers should be pointing to the sky.  You will also need to hold this pose for a moment before wiggling your hand loose. 

Another of the warm ups you can do as part of your guitar basics is rolls.  Rolls will be done to both hands but is a little bit simpler than the extensions.  To do a roll, close your hands into a fist and rotate your hands from the wrist in a mini circle a couple of times.  Keep in mind that these will need done slowly and comfortably.  These are done to just loosen up your hands and tendons, not to strain yourself.  After you have done a few circles with your fretting hand, try doing the same exercises with your picking hand.

Once you've stretched yourself out, you need to learn how to hold your guitar.  There are just a few major key points that you need to follow to hold onto your guitar correctly.  First is that you need to keep your back as straight as possible when playing the guitar.  If you slouch when playing the guitar, it can wreck havoc on your back.  Not only will it make your back want to call mutiny, it can sabotage the progress you might be making with your guitar. 

These are just a few guitar basics you need to keep in mind when you first learn how to play guitar.  They can help you get a lot farther than if you just blundered through the learning process.