Your fingers are going to hurt.

There. I've said it. And just like any new physical skill, your body will need time to get strong and adapt. Many guitar players wish they'd been warned before they started learning just how sore your fingers get at the beginning.

You've heard of famous guitarist callouses right? Well, you'll get these hard areas of skin on your finger tips the more you practice your guitar. This means playing will hurt less over time.

Not many people tell you this next fact though...

It's not just your fingers that get sore. Be prepared to feel it in your hands, arms, even your neck if your posture isn't good (more on this in a bit).

A pain in the behind isn't it? The silver lining though is the more you practise, the less your bits will hurt. Happy days. 

3. You have to tune every time you play

There's nothing more hideous than hearing someone banging away on an out of tune guitar. Urgh. Just like the sound of nails scratching down a blackboard, it's not a sound anybody finds nice.

So what's the solution?

Get into the good habit of tuning your guitar every time you play it. Because no matter how good you're playing that G major chord, it'll sound rubbish if your guitar isn't in tune. Unfortunatly, even slight temperature differences can knock guitar strings out of tune, but fortunatly, you can easily remedy this by regularily checking your tuning.

Because we know tuning can be a bit of a bore, you should get yourself some tools to make light work of it. From a cheap and cheerful clip-on guitar tuner, to a fully automatic tuner and string winder in one, you'll soon get the knack of it.

Over my years teaching I've discovered that many beginner guitar players don't know that you have to change the strings on a guitar. I'm here to tell you: you do. 

I'll explain...

The deal is, over time guitar strings go dull and oxidise from gunk building up on them. As a consequence, old strings don't sound nice, they're harder to play and they break easier than new strings. Now, if you're wondering how often your guitar strings need changing, the answer isn't that straightforward, as it depends on a number of factors such as:

•  the make of strings on your guitar
• how long the strings have been on the guitar
• how often you play your guitar

I recommend you read our indepth article How Often Should You Change Your Guitar Strings which will be able to answer that question for you as an individual.

Furthermore, there are some things you can do to prolong the life of your strings such as using string cleaning maintence kits to keep them in tip-top condition for longer.

5. Always use a metronome

Speed should never be your prime goal when you start learning to play guitar. Playing in time consistently without speeding up and slowing down should. The trouble is, many self-taught learner guitar players don't know this and so waste time focusing on trying to shred at lightning speeds without ever using a metronome.

It's only ever going to sound an out of time mess if you do this.

What's the magic formula to help you execute perfect timing? Luckily, it's quite straight forward: you should be using a metronome everytime you practice. Be it scales, chord changes, or strumming - always use one. 

Before we go any further you need to understand something else:

The aim of using a metronome isn't just to help you play faster, it's also to make sure you don't play too fast, too soon. Furthermore, using one is a great way of measuring your improvement.

With that being said, from metronome apps to mechanical metronomes, whatever your weapon of choice, just make sure you have it nice and loud so you can sync your playing properly with it.

Play along to audio recordings

A further tip in the same vein of using a metronome is to play along with any piece of music you're working on. Experiment with using software to slow the song recording down to make it easier - try starting at 50% speed. ​

For what it's worth, you're not alone if you find slowing the music down makes it feel harder to play. This is because you need greater control and strength to play perfectly at slow speeds. 

Gradually increase the speed till you get to the end goal - being able to play the piece at 100% speed at, or as close to, performance standard you can get.

6. Divide and conquer

When learning a piece of music never tackle it as a whole. Divide it up into sections and work on each section before adding on the next. Many self-taught guitar players make the mistake of trying to learn too much too soon, and it results in them throwing in the towel.

The aim of dividing a song and/or riff into sections is to help you:

a) memorise the arrangement without the need to read from tablature or chord sheets,

b) improve your timing, rhythm and playing dynamics,

c) work on ironing out mistakes in particularly tricky parts.

When getting familiar with brand new shapes (chords, melody arrangements, scales etc) to start with, don’t use a metronome. Why does this work? It enables you to habituate building up muscle memory for the new shapes and fingerings before adding too much into the mix to think about. 

Be Warned: Don’t stay in this first phase for too long. Start using a metronome and/or playing along with audio recordings as soon as possible. This avoids laziness and boosts playing progression by forcing you out of your comfort zone.

In short - If you want to improve faster, play along with a metronome, backing track and song recording.

7. Your posture will make or break you

Hands up if you're guilty of  slouching back on the sofa when you practice. Stop it, all of you!

Here's why: 

How you sit when you play guitar can make a huge positive or negative impact on your playing gains. I'm not joking - proper posture will help you play guitar better.

From standing up to save your back, to keeping your fretting arm close to your body - get your posture correct and you'll make your practice sessions more productive. Get into good habits early doors.