Keep your thumb in place

Perhaps the single most common mistake beginners of all ages make learning guitar is moving their left hand (or right for lefties) all over the place. Best position is to park your thumb under the first fret and leave it there, pivoting it as necessary. That way each time you play a chord your hand will be in the same position and you'll be practicing just one way to play it, instead of a new way each time.

Picture Your Fretboard

Useful teaching tool here!

Pretty much any scale or chord pattern you might illustrate on a fretboard may be illustrated for free and printed out from the above site. You control many parameters of the illustration, including tuning and how many strings.

"Capo" that Guitar?

A friend on Facebook suggested that all Taylor Swift songs sound the same. The few I’ve heard are constructed similarly, and they are all capoed up a few frets. This allows for easier playing, as the strings are closer to the frets and easier to play. The frets are also closer when a capo is applied, so smaller fingers don’t have to reach so far.

By the way, "capoed" is not a word in the dictionary, though I hear musicians use "capo" as a verb all the time. Perhaps it's because barré can be used as a verb. Barré is shortening all the strings at once using one finger to play barré chords—something children and many adults find difficult to do.

Complete Method Book

I’ve been using A Modern Method for Guitar – Volumes 1 2 3 Complete ( Berklee Press) with some of my guitar students, and I recommend it for helping establish a solid foundation for serious musicians. Like so many method books, it has it’s particular approach, but it’s one that not only emphasizes exercises but also explains technique as it goes and is very inclusive. This method book was first recommended to me last summer by jazz guitarist Steve Jacobson , and I wish I’d discovered it long ago.

Keep the Beat

An absolutely critical aspect of successful music-making is keeping the beat, in particular the downbeat of each measure.

Some of my rock-star students lose the beat because they’re busy filling up space with flashy riffs and fast action. I tell them that no one will want them in the band if they can’t play along with others.

Playing with a metronome helps, especially one that emphasizes the first beat of each measure, tapping one’s foot can help—unless it doesn’t, and especially I think it’s a good idea for a player to do less. The idea is to add elements as the timekeeping improves.

Simplify at first, add the bells and whistles later.

Carry a Pick

I always have a pick in my wallet.

Get a Guitar Stand

Get a guitar stand because one day your guitar, when leaned against something, will fall. When it falls, it will probably not sustain any damage, but it might. If it does, you’ll kick yourself for not having a stand. And if you have a stand but don’t use it, you’ll feel even worse.

And a bruise from a fall is so much less appealing than wear from excessive play.