I continually get asked the question “How hard is it to learn to play guitar?”
Whether it’s family and friends who are thinking of learning, or have a kid who wants to learn, or maybe are retiring and thinking of finally fulfilling their rockstar dream. I’m often getting asked this, or at least some variation on this question.

And how do I even begin to answer that?

The first thing we’ve all experienced is the sore fingers. Everyone is surprised by this, but we’ve all had to go through it. You are not alone. And the first question is something along the lines of “Does it always hurt?” or “Will I ever be able to play without it hurting?”

And the answer is YES, pretty soon the skin on the ends of your fingers will harden and it’ll stop hurting. My advice would be to practice little and often when you first start, and just get through it.

Similarly, beginners often worry that they just have the wrong fingers like:
My fingers aren’t long enough
My fingers fingers can’t stretch like that
My fingers are too small
My fingers will never move that fast
If your brain starts telling you that this is why you are struggling, just ignore it. It’s not true. The length of your fingers doesn’t matter. Your muscles will develop and you will be able to move them in all the ways you need to, it just takes practice.

Don’t believe me, will firstly think about the incredible jazz player Django Reinhardt, who lost the use of the third and fourth fingers in a caravan fire, forcing him to play solos with only his index and second finger. Also Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath lost the tips of his middle and ring fingers in an industrial accident and supposedly created a home made prosthetic by melting down a plastic washing up bottle.

Over 90% of playing guitar is muscle memory. Whether it’s trying to make fingers move to form an open G chord, or ripping through an arpeggio, or playing an intricate turnaround; it’s all the same. It starts with all the individual stiff movements but eventually just becomes a single flowing movement.

So what’s the best way to learn? There’s a lot of options these days.

Whichever method you settle on, nothing beats the time spent actually playing with your fingers on the fretboard. The issue with something like YouTube is that it’s too easy to watch a ton of videos, but not actually spend the time with your fingers on the fretboard.

Enjoy it
I think the most important thing, is to keep enjoying it - even the hard bits. Enjoying striving for that next achievement. Maybe it’s mastering a chord, or a song or a technique or something, Then putting it in a song and enjoying the satisfaction of nailing it.

How Hard is it?
So how hard is it to learn to play guitar? Yes it’s tough but it’s fun and immensely satisfying with each small achievement. Playing a song in front of your friends; or jamming along with your favourite record; or playing your first gig in front of an audience.
What ever it is, it’s a tough road to get there, but well worth it.

And to be honest, do we ever really learn to play the guitar? I’ve been playing for over 35 years, and I’m still learning.


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