While one can never fully “learn the guitar” completely many beginners ask how long until they’re good enough to play a song or jam with friends. Because each person learns a little differently, and not everyone uses the same method it can vary from a few months to a couple of years before a beginner considers themselves good.

This article will give you some basic guidelines on what you need to learn when starting out, how long it can take to learn these particular skills and what options are available to you for learning guitar.

Starting Out

Beginners have to build a solid foundation. Learning to hold the guitar properly, having correct left and right hand positioning and how to tune your guitar are just some of the basics you’ll need to learn. These techniques can all be learned in a couple of days but it’s going to take some consistent practice for it to feel comfortable.

Learning the Strings

Knowing the names of each string and the basic notes on each of the first few frets should be your next step. Again, the basic learning here doesn’t take long but the memorization and practice of the notes that will take some time.

Basic Chords

Most songs are made up of very simple chord structures as you’ll learn once you know the basic chords. This is the beginning of the real “meat and potatoes” of learning the guitar. It can take anywhere from 1- 6 months to master basic chords, switching between them and different strumming techniques.

For beginners this is where practice becomes very important. The only way to get good a switching between chords and strumming is practice, practice, practice.

Scales

As you’re learning chords you should also begin to learn the major and minor scales in the first position. Learning scales is a matter of memorization, and playing the notes well takes practice. Scales are the key to later being able to play lead guitar parts in songs you may want to learn, and understanding how a chord is constructed.

Barre Chords

Barre chords are the next step after basic chords. Beginners sometimes have a tough time with barre chords because the technique takes practice for it to sound right. Sticking with it will reveal a whole new variety of sounds and options.

To this point it will likely take a beginner about a year or more to master this material. Of course how often you practice and take lessons has a lot to do with how quickly you learn.

Options for Learning Beginner Guitar Skills

Thanks to the Internet we now have more alternatives then ever for learning to play guitar. Guitar lessons for beginners are offered in dvd, online video, books, cd’s and of course through private one-on-one lessons as well.

Self study has some advantages over taking private lessons such as freedom to practice and learn at your own pace as well as lower costs. Of course it takes a disciplined individual to stick with what ever program they choose to learn with.

I’d suggest using a quality guitar lesson dvd course or online video membership so you have a lesson plan to follow if you choose to learn on your own.

Private guitar lessons are very structured and keep you on track when learning. One of the biggest problems self taught guitar players have is they don’t learn important techniques such as theory, scales and advanced chords in the beginning. Because of this they plateau in their learning much sooner.

Private lessons offer the benefit of giving you one-on-one attention with a guitar professional, and someone to ask questions to if you get stuck. Of course with today’s busy lifestyles, adults especially might find it difficult to be able to attend a private guitar lesson each week.

For those people I’d suggest a program such as an online video guitar lesson membership site or DVD home study program. Both of these alternatives will ensure you’re learning what’s important at the right time.

No matter how you choose to learn it’s going to be at least one year before you’ll feel confident as a guitar player. Remember the learning never stops so it’s important to continue to practice and learn new concepts, techniques and styles.