What I’ve Learned In My 3 Years of Playing Electric Guitar

I’m around the 3 year point for playing guitar. My timeline may be a bit confusing, but to summarize, I first picked up guitar in 2017 and played for about 8 months. I was on a pretty good path as a self-learner but decided to invest in private lessons, and lets just say, my teacher pushed me to do many new and hard things on the spot, which wasn’t possible, and I got discouraged, putting it down.

In 2020, I picked it up again as my new year resolution, and practiced through the year pretty seriously for about 10 months. With the pandemic and having internet to try out Guitar Tricks, I made a lot of progress. I also started to put my rookie band together, but with lockdowns, it was impossible. I spent the end of the year and beginning of 2021 focusing on trying out business ideas and making money, so I really didn’t play.

In 2021, I was eager to get the band together, so we started planning auditions and gave everyone songs to learn. After finding our final member in June, I started practicing a lot as we had a lot of songs on our list, so a good 8 months of steady practice.

Took a break for a while as I was ahead of the band’s setlist and wanted to focus more on building this blog which I started building in September. I heard advice that you should get your first 30 articles up asap, and since work was slow, I was on a mission.

In 2022, I started practicing again around March, as we had our first acoustic gig at Pretty Heroes coming up in August and the songs were quite advanced for me. We then got our official full band debut the following month in September, so I was quite occupied for a good 6 months.

Point is, I’ve been an on and off player. It’s very easy for me to go weeks or months without practicing if my focus or priority is on another project, like blogging or creating a business. Guitar is such a long term goal that it’s easier for me to just focus and finish up something that will take less time….but don’t think my off-time went to waste.

I’m always listening to music, watching videos on theory and the music business, connecting with other musicians and so on. But when it comes to actually consistent practice, I’ve only been playing for about 3 years at this point.

As I did a few recent Japanese concert reviews, it occured to me just how much I’ve learned over this time. Being able to recognize guitar brands, understanding why they swap guitars mid performance (I assume it’s for different tunings), and even just being able to understand techniques like funk strumming or bends, like, it really shows how far I’ve come.

So in this article, I want to share some categories of things I’ve learned, why I learned them, maybe some struggles and so on. If you’re a beginner, it may be a good list of things you should learn or expect to learn as you grow.

1. What I Want To Play

Honestly, the only reason why I’m not at an amazing level at this point is because I took a long time trying to figure out what I wanted to play and focus on. There’s just soooo much to learn on guitar that you can’t possibly master it all, and I didn’t want to be a jack of all trades like I’ve been all my life.

I initially started playing lead like many do, so my first year I was working a lot on scales, soloing, and improvising. I did learn my basic open chords and power chords, but I never really worked on my strumming or transitions.

After a long 2 year break, I did pick up guitar and was working on that for a bit, but I also had internet at this point and as able to dig more. I also invested into Guitar Tricks and the beginner courses forced me to get my rhythm underwraps and that’s when I realized I really like rhythm. I was able to see the light and see it’s possibilities. But even then, I wasn’t sure if the band thing could happen, so solo styles like fingerstyle still interested me and I spent time exploring a lot.

When I feel lost and unmotivated, I just don’t really feel like playing. Not that I don’t like guitar or that I don’t want to practice, I just don’t like practicing aimlessly and without a goal. But by the time I got my band together, around mid-2021, I found my place in rhythm and that’s all I wanted to play. I thought it’d be cool to be really great at it especially since it’s underrated.

2. The Parts of Guitar & Guitar Gear

Compared to other instruments like the keyboard that just has keys and pedals, or clarinet that just had a bell and a reed, the guitar has the fretboard, nut, tuning pegs, pickguard, pickups, and so on…and you better know what they all mean if you were to follow lessons, buy guitars, or discuss guitars with other people.

After learning about your guitar, you gotta learn more about strings materials and gauges, amp brands, styles, and wattages, also good to know about things that may need repairing, like the truss rod and pick up switches. If you want to record, you got interfaces, software, and sound terminology like reverb, delay, attenuation, compression, and so on. I was so clueless two years ago.

3. How To Read & Transpose Guitar Tabs

While some guitarists learn by playing by ear or even following traditional sheets (mainly classical guitarists), the rest of us do rely on tabs and chord charts. When I was a non-guitarist, I thought it was partly laziness, but then I realized, you can play the same pitch E note 4 different places on a guitar so it can be confusing without tabs.

Anyways, when you first look at tabs, you may be able to figure out what the numbers mean, but that’s just the basics. You’ll need to understand what x’s, and ‘p.m.’ and squiggle lines, and bended arrows mean and how to play that.

Different tabs may use different abbreviations and notations as well. It’s certainly a skill worth having when you learn as you may neglect certain skills you can’t hear. When you become a professional, you may be asked to play something a certain way as well. I made an article going over every single thing you may come across on tabs here.

4. Names of Chords and Scales

While I took music through school, we mostly learned how to read and we focused on melodic instruments. I played some chords on my keyboard, but I never learned what they were since I just copied what the screen showed me. After picking up guitar though, my eyes were truly opened.

Like many, you’ll start with the major and minor chords and scales, and that can help you play the majority of songs. But in Japanese music, you’ll need to learn about dominants, diminished, 7ths, and such a lot sooner as those are all common in their popular music.

If anything, while it may have seemed quite foreign and intimidating at first, if you learn to break things down instead of memorizing it blindly, it’s actually quite easy!

5. Hearing Guitar Technicalities

When you’re new to guitar and don’t fully understand all it can do, you won’t realize what a guitarist is really doing nor appreciate all the little technicalities in it. You won’t notice the hammer-ons or the open notes while they’re tapping. Even complex strumming patterns may be dismissed.

When I took lessons in my first year of guitar, the teacher asked me to play a song by ear. While I got the notes right, I was playing it in the wrong section of the guitar, missed the bends and slides, and so on. I also never played with distortion as I shared a room and practiced at night, so trying that then and learning to mute was also new to me.

He somehow wanted me to adopt all these new things on the spot and play it at full speed, and it was quite overwhelming. I did try my best but was unsuccessful, and he said we’d have to start over from the beginning. I felt like the last 7 months of solo practice was a waste and I just put it down. I’m thankful I picked it up again, but that was certainly a deep lesson on all I had to learn. I can certainly hear and notice those things a lot more clearly now.

6. All The Possibilities of Guitar

Adding onto that last note, the guitar can do a whole lot, many of which aren’t possible (or aren’t utilized) on other instruments like bends and muting. I like that a guitar can be enjoyed independently, but shines brightest when with a team. It can be used in rock, blues, jazz, pop, funk, country, surf, classical, and so on.

Some styles have become quite guitar reliant such as Math Rock and Midwest Emo. Some people, like Miyavi, have even found a way for it to shine in electronic music. You can even do some percussive things or play around with harmonics. It truly is a versatile instrument.

7. How To Write Songs

While I haven’t seriously tried writing songs yet since I don’t really have plans of becoming an artist, it’s still something I can do now that I was never able to in the past. Continuing from #4 where I learned the names of chords and scales, you will also naturally learn about keys and (hopefully) progressions.

When you play melodic instruments like clarinet or viola, you don’t get that insight, but guitar being chord-focused just really opened up the world to me. It did take a lot longer to figure out Japanese progressions since they don’t focus as heavily on including the I chord and they have a lot more borrowed chords, but once you dig into theory, it’s like you can understand what each song is doing, and more easily incorporate pieces of songs you like into your own when you’re ready.

7. Guitar Brands & Models

When I was looking for my first second-hand guitar, I just assumed all guitars were the same. I did like the Stratocaster look and could only afford something cheap, so I ended up with a Behringer Strat. When I later picked up guitar again, the pandemic already started so I had to do a lot of research. My guitar didn’t have any stats online, so I had to buy my second blind.

Fast forward a couple years, I can name and recognize various guitar brands like Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Ibanez, Jackson etc, along with different styles of guitar like Telecaster, Semi-Hollow, Acoustisonic, Les Paul, Flying V, etc.

I do understand the kinds of pickups and such, but don’t expect me to know the full extend of the sound differences just yet as I haven’t had the chance to play many of them, and most will use amps and pedals to change things up.

8. How To Play In A Band

Music is a social art. Even if you could play some instruments independently, music is best when you combine many instruments together. But unlike brass band in school, or drum line, everyone is playing something different in a band.

You can try to assist, and there are some things that align with each other, like rhythm guitar and bass playing the same low note, but otherwise, you just gotta hope everyone learns their part and trust them. It’s crazy how just 3 instruments can sound so full, or even sound like the real track.

9. The Truth About Other Guitar Players

This was definitely one of the biggest eye openers that helped me stay motivated and stopped me from comparing myself to other players. Almost every big musician online has been practicing for over 5, 10, or even 20 years, yet even they get nervous when recording. Even professionals still mess up on stage. With the help of software and tools, many on social media are pre-recording and fake playing on camera too!

On top of that, I think every notable guitarist tends to just master one or two things. For example, they specialize in tapping, or jazz improv, or pop acoustic, or metal syncopations…but they may struggle with other things as they never spent that much time working on it. For example, there’s many lead guitarists who couldn’t play rhythm to save their lives since they’re so used to playing melodies and playing on their own time. Blues players may struggle with jazz or funk which has faster tempos and more complex chord progressions.

But that leads to another thing that also kept me motivated, and it’s the fact that, I don’t need to be good at everything. I just need to be good enough at what I want to specialize at, and good enough to cover songs, play with others, record, perform, etc. If I don’t care for shredding, I don’t need to spend months mastering that skill. I can play rhythm and someone else who is more passionate about that can play lead. If anything, lead guitarists are a dime a dozen ^^” No offense, but it’s true.

10. The Dedication Required To Be Good

Continuing from the last point, I think the biggest lesson I learned from picking up guitar is that you need to be serious about practicing and learning if you really want to be good at guitar or any instrument. The most toxic Western mentality is that some people are ‘naturally talented’, but honestly, most of the times, those people worked their butts off for years to get to their level.

Guitar definitely has one of the highest learning curve I’ve ever come across in any hobby or skill I’ve tried to pick up in the past (and trust me, there’s many). When I try to explain what makes guitar hard, I say that it’s 75% technique and 25% music knowledge. Even for someone like me who has a background playing various instruments and can usually pick things up fast, I still had to feel and sound like a noob on guitar for quite some time.

Even if I memorized the chord shapes in my head, my left hand took a long time to learn to contort into those weird, uncomfortable shapes. Without calluses, it can take a month to be able to play for more than 15 months. When you start, it can take 20 seconds to transition between chords. Then you have to learn how to hold a pick and strum across all the strings cleanly. Forget about up-strumming, coordination, and timing.

If anything, I’m thankful anime was a big influence on me as it showed me that hard work is important, and that I can do anything if I put the time and effort into it. Just because I’m not good at something now…or for the next 2 years, doesn’t mean I’ll never be good at it. I do truly believe anyone can learn anything and be good at anything, as we’ve seen many do.

There are musicians who have been playing for a decade who still struggle and who still need to practice daily. When people nail things on stage, they’ve been playing the instrument for years and been working on that piece for weeks or months, so don’t get discouraged if you just picked up piano and can’t play any complex pieces. It’s not going to be an easy or fun ride, but it will be worth it if you stick to it!

Conclusion

So that’s been my journey. I definitely took a lot of breaks over the years learning about theory, focusing on this blog, and just figuring out what I wanted to do with guitar long-term, but that time was necessary. Now that I have a good foundation and more insight into what guitar entails, I feel I will be able to have even faster progress for years to come.

I hope this article has given other beginners a good idea of what they may need to learn. When you’re starting off, no one prepares you for the massive information volcano ahead and it can certainly be overwhelming, so I hope this gives you more insight along with some valuable tips that can help with your growth and mentality.

It’s hard being a noob when it feels like every other guitarist has been playing since they were 7 and had all the time in the world to learn then, but there’s advantages to being an adult learner. For one, because you don’t have as much free-time, you tend to use it more wisely and you’ll be more motivated to get over those hard skills like barre chords sooner.

Many are surprised by my 3 year progress, but I didn’t want to wait 20 years to bring my teenage band dream to life. I’ve spoken to other more talented guitarists on Instagram and even they’re amazed at what I’ve been able to do and accomplish in such little time.

It’s never too late to start. The faster you get on it, the faster you’ll get better 🙂