How To Learn Guitar... Fast!

Learning guitar fast is like taking a road-trip. You start at point A (home) and end up at point B (your destination).

But if you want to reach point B fast, you must plan your route so you can get there with the minimum hassle in the minimum time at the least expense. You need to find the shortest distance between point A and B.

The fastest way to learn guitar is to know where you are going and how to get there with the least fuss, effort, time, and money. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle... you need all the parts to complete the picture. Most don't have all the parts so become confused as to what the big picture is.

Let's look at some basic facts and pieces to the 'puzzle' that you need to be aware of that will help you learn guitar fast.

1. The Basics: It doesn't matter whether you want to play rock, blues, metal, funk, jazz, folk, reggae, or any other style. You have to understand and learn the basics first! Every style uses the same basic skills and knowledge. So don't fall into the trap of thinking you will only try to play blues, or rock, or whatever your favorite style is. Learn the basics first and it is an easy matter to play any other style you like. That will make you a versatile and very popular guitarist.
2. Be A Musician First: Realize that what you need, is to be a musician first and a guitarist second. You need to be adaptable to many styles and you need to be able to play any song in any key. Understanding how to do this will save you countless hours of frustrating and time-consuming trial-and-error 'fiddling'. What you need to focus on is developing skills all musicals need. That you have chosen guitar is secondary in that you just need to learn the fret board and discover how to apply your musical knowledge to the guitar.
3. Music Theory: Learning to play a musical instrument is a combination of the head and the hands. Most guitar players focus too much on the hands and fingers and not enough on the head. To make the fastest possible progress you need a map you can follow to reach your destination. Some basic knowledge and understanding of simple music theory is your map. This simple theory demystifies how music works and makes learning it much faster and easier. In particular, an understanding of how scales and chords are made, and what 'keys' are will put your learning on 'super-steroids'.
4. Muscle-Memory Skills: This is the part most guitarists focus on to the exclusion of the other puzzle pieces. But they still get it terribly wrong! You need to 'train' your fingers to play chords, scales and guitar notes easily without even thinking about it. You need to train your fingers to play perfectly on 'auto-pilot'! That means, slow, perfect practice with minimal finger movements (shortest distance between 2 points) and as relaxed as possible.