So you got yourself a guitar (or thinking of getting one) and wondering how long will it take to learn to play? A week, a month, a year? How long does it really take to learn to play a guitar? What is the best way to learn?
In 3 months of consistent practice on the guitar you can expect to learn to play simple songs and melodies. It will likely take 1-2 years to get good enough to start playing in public albeit with limited repertoire. It might take 5-10 years or longer to really master the instrument.
Let’s talk about what you can do to to make the most of the 3 months of practice, so you can make the most progress in the least amount of time.
Let’s talk more about what you can learn to play on guitar in 3 months and how to make the most of your time and make the most progress in the least amount of time. We will cover the setup, practice routine and things you should focus on!
Why does it take so long to learn the guitar
Guitar is a rather simple but also versatile instrument. Guitar can be used to play very simple accompaniments (singer-songwriter style) by one musician and it can replace a whole band in the hands of another. There is a variety of playing styles and techniques available for guitar, and some are way easier to learn and master than others. For example, it is much easier to learn to strum chords than to play finger style, and it is much more difficult to learn tapping or sweep picking.
Depending on your goals, you might be perfectly happy with being able to play a song or two. There is actually a lot you can do with knowing some basic chords! Even when you get those chords memorized and can switch between them easily, you’ll still need time to develop musically so you can play in a way that others would want to listen!
No matter what your ultimate goal is, you’d start from the basics. And I would say it takes only 3-4 months of consistent practice to lay a solid foundation for your future growth as a guitar player.
Learning to play a guitar is about developing fine motor skills, and there is just no way to shortcut that process. Regardless of your ultimate goal, you will need to develop coordination and strength in your fingers before you can play guitar with confidence. And it takes time.
There are other musical skills that you’d want to develop at some point, like playing by ear and reading music. Well, maybe not reading music 🙂 But those definitely go beyond 1-2 years that we are talking about here.
Whether you already started learning or just considering to start, I’d ask you to commit to at least 3 months of regular practice. No quitting allowed until 3 months are up! You can learn a lot in just 3 months! Most importantly you should gain some confidence that you can learn to play guitar!
How much guitar can you learn in 3 months?
There is a popular TED talk by Josh Kaufman where he argues that it takes only about 20 hours to learn any skill. He talks about learning to play ukulele from scratch in 20 hours and at the end of his presentation he demonstrates his newly acquired skill by playing a popular 4 chord medley.
Of course, learning to play ukulele is not really the same as learning to play a guitar, but it is close enough to make this point. I highly recommend you watch that presentation as Josh provides some useful insights into how to make the most of the learning time. There is also a great book he wrote called The First 20 Hours (affiliate link). Check it out too!
Josh learned 4 simple chords well enough to play a whole bunch of songs on stage. I believe you can learn at least 4 chords too. It might not seem like much, but trust me once you can play a song or two your motivation to learn will increase 10 fold. Also once you have the basics down you should be able to progress much faster.
Of course your mileage may vary, and you might move way past 4 chord songs.
Why 3 months?
So why 3 months? Why not 4 or 5?
It is simple. 20 hours spread over 3 months roughly translates into 15 minutes of practice a day. 15 minutes a day is a very good and reasonable practice time for a complete beginner. By the way, it doesn’t have to be 15 minutes in one sitting. It can be two 7-minute sessions, or three 5 minutes sessions…
If you can’t invest 15 minutes a day to practice guitar perhaps reconsider learning to play a guitar. I am serious. You can do more than 15 minutes a day if you have time, but give your hands (and mind) a good break between each session. Expect to make faster progress if you do that! Just don’t over do it!
It might seem like 3 months is a long time, but playing a guitar does require developing new motor skills, and for that you need time. 3 months also seems to be a good time frame for a longer term planning. In business, goals are often set and reevaluated ever quarter (which is every 3 months). It seems to be a very manageable time frame which is long enough to make good progress and yet short enough to make meaningful adjustments.
Making the most of your first 3 months
I hope you are determined and ready to learn to play a guitar. I also convinced you that 3 months is a good time frame and a good starting point on your learning journey. Now let’s talk about how you can make the best use of your first 3 months of learning?
Setup your guitar properly
First of all, there are some housekeeping items that you need to take care of to make sure your guitar is set up properly and ready to play. This is super important!
It really comes to 2 things:
- use light strings
- set optimal string action
This is true for any kind of guitar you choose to play: acoustic, electric or classical.
Both of these things will determine how hard you have to work to hold the notes and chords.
1. Use light strings
Light (or even extra-light) strings are generally easier on your fingers, so it might be best to switch to lighter strings especially if you are learning to play an acoustic guitar.
When I learned to play I didn’t have that luxury of having a professional technician (or even anyone experienced with guitars) to look at my instrument. I inherited a guitar from my dad. It had old thick strings on it. The action wasn’t terrible but it was far from ideal. That was literally a painful learning experience.
2. Adjust string action
The action refers to the distance between the guitar strings and frets. If it is too high you will have hard time holding notes. If it is too low the strings will buzz.
It might be a bit tricky to adjust action on your own, so it would be best if you have a professional guitar technician look at your instrument and make necessary adjustments. Many music stores offer guitar setup up services. And if you are buying your guitar there it might be free. It is well worth having a professional set up your instrument.
3. Tune your guitar every practice session
Always practice on a tuned guitar! Always! This is very important!
You might not have an ear to hear that it is off tune just yet. And there is nothing worse than having your ear remember the wrong sound. And believe me it will happen even if you are holding down the right chords.
Guitar tuners are cheap and very easy to use. I like the clip-on tuners from Snark (affiliate link). They seem to be a bit more sensitive and accurate. You can also use a tuner app on your phone, but I find clip-on tuners easier to use.
It might be a bit tricky if you’ve never tuned your guitar before. You can ask music store staff to show you how to tune a guitar.
Your practice routine for the first 3 months
This might sound counter intuitive, but your practice routine for the first 3 months should be fairly light. It has to be regular (preferably every day) but it doesn’t have to be long. Actually, it shouldn’t be long. Period!
I’d recommend starting with couple 5-7 minute hands-on-a-guitar sessions. If you have more time have multiple short practice sessions a day. Avoid having one long one! It will hinder your progress! In other words, I’d rather see you practice 4 times a day for 15 minutes rather than just once a day for 1 hour. If you have time there are other things you can do without a guitar to expedite your learning.
This is very important to keep your practice times short! Spending too much time playing early on might hinder and not accelerate your progress.
In fact, you might find that even 5 minutes is too much in the beginning. That is just fine. Practice for 5 minutes. Take a break. Then practice for another 5 minutes.
What to learn during the first 3 months
There is a ton of things you can learn, but I suggest you focus on these 3 things:
- Basic open position chords. Start with the ones in the key of G
- Chromatic exercises. These are great for developing dexterity in your fingers and hands
- Strumming. Get yourself a thin 0.5mm guitar pick and learn “down down up up down up” strumming pattern really well.
Ideally, you should work on each of these items every day. So don’t wait until you can play chords well to move to chromatic exercises or strumming. Practicing all 3 regularly will move you further faster. Trust me, I’ve been there!
As a bonus you can also learn to play major scale in key of G all across the fretboard, and perhaps start learning to fingerpick too.
Do you need to take guitar lessons to learn?
If you can afford to take some lessons from a guitar teacher, definitely do it. It is fairly easy to find an experienced guitar teacher anywhere in the world. A teacher should be able to help you set up your instrument (or help you buy one) and should help you get started on the right foot.
If you can’t afford one, that’s not a problem. Just expect to be a bit more patient with your learning. There are tons of great free resources online. Just make sure not to fall into analysis paralysis where all you do is watch YouTube videos and read articles, but never really practice. That won’t help you reach your 3 month goal!
Well, I hope by now you have some confidence that you can learn to play a guitar in 3 months. If nothing else these 3 months will lay a solid foundation for your future learning. Wish you all the best on your journey!
