Learning to play guitar doesn’t have to be an expensive new hobby to take on. In fact, it can be done on a pretty small budget. This blog post will go over the 7 things you need to start learning to play the guitar. Let’s jump in!

#1 A guitar

There are so many options to choose from when buying a guitar and we hope to narrow that choice down for you. The idea here is to find a guitar that is affordable and good quality. Maybe you (or a family member/friend) already have a guitar and all you’ll need is new strings to get started. If that’s the case, great! Take it to a music store (or someone who knows how to restring) and get some new strings. If you don’t have a guitar, check out this post on choosing an affordable guitar that plays well and sounds good!

#2 Picks

A guitar pick is what you will be using to strum the guitar. There are a lot of different types of picks to choose from online and in music stores. So just pick some that jump out at you! You can get guitar picks in all sorts of colors and thickness. We recommend these Dunlop picks. They have great added grip and the .60mm sounds amazing on acoustic guitar.

#3 Tuner

It is very important to have a tuner for your guitar. It doesn’t matter if you know how to play chords or songs if your guitar is way out of tune. We have posted about the top tuner in three different styles and price ranges already, so check that out if you don’t have tuner! We also have a video on how to tune your guitar if you’re having trouble getting the strings sounding right.

Some acoustic guitar have built-in tuners, these work well enough but you will most likely want to upgrade to a clip-on tuner or pedal tuner when you start playing in front of an audience/congregation. The onboard guitar tuners can be tough to dial in sometimes and aren’t always as accurate as other options.

#4 Metronome

Working with a metronome is something that can be really frustrating at first but the benefits, in the long run, will be bountiful. In an era where a lot of churches are using digital tracks with live band it is becoming more and more important to be able to play along to a metronome (also known as a “click” or “click track”). Check out this post on the basic functions of a metronome and how to use them.

#5 Capo

A capo is an acoustic guitar players best friend. If a song is in a heavier bar-chord key, like Bb or Eb (B Flat or E flat) you can place a capo on the neck of the guitar and play that song using more open, easier chords. It can be tough for beginners to play bar chords on the acoustic guitar, so a capo comes in handy! I go into detail in our guitar course on how to use the capo in each key ( G A D E and C ). The go-to capo would be the Kyser KG6B Quick-Change Capo. There are certainly other options but Kyser makes a great product for not a lot of money. If you search out other options make sure you get a 6 string capo if you’re playing a six string guitar.

#6 Time

Time is an important piece to the puzzle when it comes to learning to play guitar. However, you don’t necessarily need to have hours and hours per week to practice. One approach that seems to work well when learning to play a new instrument is taking small bits of time every day to go over your new material. It’s a lot easier to add 15-20 minutes into your daily routine than to find 60-90 minutes every few days. You might wonder if learning will be slower this way but I’ve found that playing in small increments daily produces good, if not better, results than playing for two hours once or twice a week.

#7 Lessons

Ok, you have all the things needed to play guitar. Now you need to learn how to play the guitar! At Multiply Worship we have a “Worship Guitar for Beginners” course that will get you from not playing at all, to being able to play in different keys and time signatures. Our course is broken into 6 classes. The first five classes are specific keys (Key of: G A D E C) and the last class is an introduction for bar chords. By the end of our 30+ video course you will have the tools needed to play worship songs alone in your living room, with a group of friends, or on the worship team at your church. It doesn’t matter if you want to play acoustic guitar or electric guitar. This course will teach you how to play guitar whether that is on acoustic or electric.

So these are the 7 things you will need to go from not playing guitar, to joining your worship team. So grab a guitar, pick up our guitar course, and we’ll see you in lesson one!