How Long Does It Take To Play Guitar

Learning to play guitar is a process, and there is no finish line. How long does it take to play guitar, is a question students often ask their teacher. How long it takes to play the guitar depends on what your definition of guitar playing is!



The last few decades has seen a remarkable growth in the popularity of rock music and guitar playing has become pretty attractive for many.

Today the guitar is everywhere; a versatile instrument -
adapting itself to almost any kind of situation, Victimized by it's own success, it has become something more than a musical instrument - like the swastika before it, it has become the symbol of a social revolution! The ultimate emblem of grooviness! It is now an object unto itself!

Guitar enthusiasts are so often blinded by the symbol that they remain deaf to the world of musical wonders that lie beyond their blinkered six-string field of interest.

Many teenagers exist who aspire to become rock superstars, but there is also a section who wants to learn guitar playing just for sake of it. But many of them end up losing hope of learning
guitar since they don't find the best way to learn guitar.

How long does it take to play guitar?

If you can answer the following questions and make these important distinctions you
will have a good idea.

QUESTION ONE: How do you view the instrument?

Do you want to be (a) guitar owner, (b) guitar player, (c) a musician who uses the guitar for musical expression?

Essentially there's three levels of involvement with the guitar:

1. Guitar owners - to qualify you need only to have enough funds to purchase the instrument, for these people the guitar is simply a toy, like a computer game, or fashion accessory. How
long does it take you to play the guitar if you're in this category? About 5-10 minutes max. The important thing here is to "be seen to be playing the guitar"!


2. Guitar players - players in this category are often very dedicated and speed many hours practicing their instrument. Mostly self taught, they learn almost exclusively from guitar
tab, and their friends. How long does it take to play guitar in this category?... these players understand it's a lifetime journey.

3. Musicians who play guitar as their chosen instrument- players in category two focus on guitar playing skills, whereas level three players understand the whole scope of the musical landscape. A good musician not only plays their instrument well, they understand and can intelligently discuss all music.

These players:

(a) listen to all types of music

(b) read about all types of music

(c) study all types of music

How long does it take to play guitar in this category? Again, it's a lifetime of hard work and discipline. What's the difference between category two and category three?

Level two players must have their instrument in their hands to communicate ideas, whereas, musicians who play guitar as their chosen instrument know and can discuss, the qualities which make Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel a great jazz player; why Duke Ellington is a jazz innovator; Michel Legrand a great composer and orchestrator. They know why good symphonies are good and bad symphonies are bad; they know why good pop or country songs are good (musically) and bad songs are bad.

QUESTION TWO: Are you internally motivated or externally motivated?

Externally motivated players usually give up playing the guitar once they realize that they are responsible for their progress. these players quickly move on to the new 'hip' fad (only to give
up on that as soon as things get a bit challenging).

An obvious example of this type of externally motivated player and their associated problems and disappointments is with the recent popularity of computer games where people pretend to play the guitar.

Despite PR claims from computer games companies that their computer guitar games improve the player's rhythm and hand dexterity, professional guitar teachers worldwide have reported
that guitar computer game veterans have been disappointed when confronted with the real-world requirements of hard work and delayed gratification. They expect to jump into it and learn it as quickly as they learned the game, and they realize that they can't.

I'll assume if you have read this far you're more interested in category two or three!
needless to say that only internally motivated players make it into category two and three.

QUESTION THREE: What is the source of your information? common knowledge or specialized knowledge?

Today it is not a question of information on any particular subject, after all we live in the information age, don't we? To accelerate your progress on the guitar and rapidly decrease the
time it takes you to play the guitar, what we need is specialized knowledge to help us assemble the relevant knowledge to achieve our goals.

The first thing to understand is that learning guitar is something that takes a long time. how long it takes to learn depends on what you want to learn.

Learning guitar is hard work but it's really important to have fun and have your guitar make cool sounds while you're learning all the hard bits. The main thing you have to consider when
learning how to play guitar is who is teaching you how to play guitar.

How long does it take to play guitar? It depends on what you want to achieve.