How long will I need to take guitar lessons to start performing?
That depends greatly.
1-2 months: Students will be able to play easy guitar scales.
3-6 months: Students will start playing pieces that require more technical elements.
1 year: Students will be able to play intermediate-level pieces. These include many popular guitar songs, riffs, blues, and more. Students may have a more definitive feel for barre chords around this time as well.
2 years: Learning a song at this stage is very quick since the student would have mastered most technical elements by this time.
2-3 years: If the student learned enough guitar theory during their musical journey, the student will be able to improvise on the guitar very efficiently.
5-6 years: After 5-6 years of guitar lessons, most students can call themselves advanced guitarists. By then, a student could be able to play anything they want.
Should I buy a guitar pick and a slide?
The use of picks depends on what style of playing a student wants to do. For example, flamenco guitarists rarely use picks. An alternative could be to use fingerpicks. Some guitar students never use picks at all and prefer to use their fingernails.
Slides usually come in glass or metal. Choosing one material over the other comes down to figuring out the sound and feel. Glass slides have a mellow sound, but they are more fragile and can break. Metal slides are sturdy and produce a sharper sound.
How long should my fingernails be?
For the fingers of the fretting hand (the hand that holds down the strings on the fret), it is useful to keep the nails trimmed short. This way, as the student plays, only the calluses will touch the strings. With long fingernails on the fretting hand, playing the guitar becomes more difficult.
On the hand that is plucking the strings, it may be useful to maintain relatively long nails; it may help with plucking the strings. Fingernail length on the plucking hand is not as important if the student is using a guitar pick to play.
To learn more about our guitar lessons, call us at 954-321-1850.