What most experienced pick-buyers look for are:

• grip
• shape
• thickness
• graphic

Grip is fairly important. Especially for beginners as there are many times when your plectrum will ping out of your grip and across the room, into the body of an acoustic guitar, or (my personal favorite experience) down the top of an embarrassed female band member.

Many plectrums with graphics on are often smooth and without grip, though that’s not always the case, so it is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Grip on plectrums can come in different forms. Some have grooves and ridges, some have a fine texture, others have just the brand name embossed on it to create grip. It’s definitely worth playing around with different kinds to feel how well they keep in your grip while in a musical instrument store.

Shape and thickness are generally down to personal preference that gets built up over time with playing. As a general rule of thumb thinner picks are more beneficial for those that favour soft strumming, whereas thicker plectrums give more control to a more advanced plucker.

The Jim Dunlop USA Nylon plectrums range their colours according to the thickness. The lighter the colour, the thinner the pick, inversely the darker the plectrum the thicker the pick. Black being 1mm thickness.

Graphics on plectrums, as you are probably aware, make no real difference to how plucking or strumming strings sound. Graphics on plectrums can range from skulls to fairies to lightning to rainbows.

Don’t be afraid to play around in-store with whatever plectrums are available!

Image Source: Wikimedia

SECOND STERLING SILVER GUITAR PICK PLECTRUM BARGAIN US $15.35 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Saturday Jan-23-2010 1:30:46 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Guitars can cost a hell of a lot of money. So when you are making the decision to buy your first guitar I am sure you will be browsing through magazines and catalogs staring at pictures of your dream Les Paul or whatever your are lusting over!

However I honestly believe that your first guitar should be a cheaper model and for me eBay is the perfect place to pick such a thing up. I would also recommend starting with an acoustic guitar as it needs no extras and works pretty much as it is.

The reason I think you should spend less on your first guitar is because I think that it pays to know what you are after when you go after the dream. If you just get a decent stock guitar that is made to work for most people then you can find out what you love and hate about it….. Then once you are schooled go after your dream.

Buying an acoustic guitar on eBay is very simple and if you keep some common sense about you, you will pick up a perfect first guitar.

• Make sure you talk to the seller and find out as much about the guitar as possible
• Set a budget and stick to it
• Study the guitar’s state and make sure there are no damages that will affect play
• Buy some new strings at the same time as buying the guitar
• Make sure the guitar is the right size
• Check out the sellers past feedback and make sure you trust them

It doesn’t look like much but if you play around with the order of these notes or play some of the notes more than once (or even not at all) you can make a melody in that key.

Here’s an example of that idea. It’s a familiar tune that I invite you to play along to.

Click on the image to view in full.

Notice that this entire melody only uses the notes in the C major scale illustrated at the top.

Play around with the scale and see what you come out with. If you don’t like it, try another. If you do like it see what else you can do. Invite a fellow musician over and see if you can harmonise. And most importantly: Have fun!

Tuning seems scary and it may benefit to get a digital tuner but if you don’t have one then this great online flash guitar tuner can be used.

Guitar Tuner courtesy of the folks at Wimpy Player

You may be wondering what this is all about but tuning your guitar is very easy.

Listening, comparing and adjusting to each note played out by the Flash Guitar Tuner will help you train your ears and the series of notes will make you become totally familiar with over a long period of time.

Other alternatives to make sure your guitar is calibrated:

• Compare the low E string with an E played on a piano, or any other instrument available to you.
  Once the E is in tune follow the easy step-by-step instructions suggested by HowToTuneAGuitar.org
• Compare with a song that you know how to play. If the intro of the song starts with E (like most songs on Metallica’s Black Album) and try to adjust according to the recording!

Guitar Hero, as well as imitations and improvements such as Frets on Fire and Rock Band, are great tools in helping any musician practice one of the most crucial elements of music and composition. Rhythm and Timing.

When teaching guitar I have often been told that getting to grips with strumming in rhythm is a difficult task. The only real suggestions I had were to “keep practicing”, or “pat rhythms to songs on your lap to ‘feel’ it more naturally”. But now I can truly recommend Guitar Hero style games.

Unless you’re using a hand controller for playing the game (which makes the game more of a whack-a-mole kind of deal) playing the guitar-style controller comfortably sets your posture into guitar-playing stance ready to strum like the heroes of rock!

Another massive aid Guitar Hero style games can give to the beginner guitarist is the practice needed for left hand / right hand independence.

Quit hating Guitar Hero style games and go play with your mates with the knowledge that it’s good practice for the real thing!

Treat yourself.

Image from xkcd.com A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

If you have no idea what I mean by guitar tab, let me give you a link to wikipedia’s article on the subject.

Here it is, though don’t get too excited. It’s quite a comprehensive and in depth article.

Simply put, tab is a clearer way of reading what note(s) to play than a classical musical score on a stave and also shows what number fret to hold on which string.

To get started I recommend going through About.com’s How to read Guitar Tab tutorial.

Once you’re up to scratch on how to read tab what’s stopping you from playing all your favourite tunes?! There’s plenty of sites that display tab to help you learn songs from Abba to ZZ Top.

Just type your favourite song followed by ‘tab’ into google and hey presto!

Get stuck in!

You can find some amazing videos if you just take a little look around.

Here are 3 amazingly inspirational videos to get you started.

Now go play something….

So, you’ve just bought a guitar but have no idea where to start?

Allow me to suggest a few simple chords that are tried and tested so much that their relation to each other has been the backbone of many much loved pop songs since the sixties.

Learning a few easy chords is one of the best way to get over that frustration of holding the guitar and not knowing what to do with it! So give these a try.

Simply put, these chords are E, A and D.

E, A and D

Reasons to learn these chords:

• Relatively easy to remember.
• They do not require difficult stretches.
• These chords sound in-key with each other.

Guitar Image Source: Wikimedia