Playing Guitar: Starting At Any Age

If you are thinking about learning how to play an instrument, the guitar is the easiest. The following will never be barriers to learning how to strum a guitar:

1. You don't have a right hand.
2. You are tone deaf.
3. You cannot read music.
4. You don't have much money.
5. You have no sense of rhythm.
6. You can't sing.

We'll assume that you have a right stump or hand, so let's start with tone deafness. To tune a guitar, you can get a guide to doing so on the Internet . I also use my piano, and I use my little electronic tuner. The electronic tuner will indicate exactly when your string is in tune. You might not be able to hear that it's on or off pitch, but the tuner will tell you when it is. A tuner is $14.

You also don't need to be able to read music. Any song you want to play can be found on various websites for free. I use Chordie.com. This shows you the chords and how to situate your fingers on the strings in order to play them. I can read music, but because I have only been playing since December 2008, I cannot play chords from piano music on the guitar....but I can play many of the chords as presented on Chordie.com. Some chords are extremely difficult. I have a solution to that to. Don't play those songs. A huge number of songs have super easy chords. Or better yet, find a way to cheat a little bit. For example, if you have a chord that you can play correctly only on the last three strings, just strum the last three strings. The guitar police is not going to come into your living room and catch you at this. I have tiny fingers (size 3.5 ring finger) that will not cover more than one string at a time. I have to work with the hands at hand. Look, I see children playing guitar. I took classes at Brookhaven with a fifth grader in it. This is very very doable. As always, practice is highly desirable.

You don't have any money to spend on a guitar? A decent guitar is $100. A respectable classical guitar is $200. And I bet Craigslist.org has used guitars for less. If $100 is what you think of as an expensive hobby, better stick to embroidery (which we will get to in a month or so.) Guitar classes can't hurt, and I took them at http://www.brookhavencollege.edu/ in Dallas, but it's not necessary to take lessons to learn this. Anything you want to know can be learned from watching videos on U-Tube, including stringing the guitar. There's TONS of books out there. If you don't care about learning beyond strumming at parties, the best way to learn is to practice a few of your favorite songs off Chordie, and then add some songs each week with a few new chords to learn. The best alternative for saving money on this hobby: Take the money your kid wants you to use to buy him a Guitar Hero ($119) and buy yourself a really nice little guitar for $100 with a songbook and a tuner.

I would discourage you from buying a guitar online. You can save a few bucks, but all guitars sound different, even the same make and model. Play a few in the store (Guitar Center in Dallas) until you fall in love with one of them.

You have no sense of rhythm? OK, I lied. You do need a sense of rhythm. Otherwise, you can't strum rhythmically.

You can't sing? This won't be a problem in your own living room. However, keep in mind everybody sounds better when they are accompanied by a guitar. A lot of people with weak voices have made it by having a guitar to keep them on pitch. Neil Young falls into that category. A capella he would have been considered downright bad.

Within the first few days of buying a guitar, I could play for hours lots and lots of songs I found online. Not perfectly, not fast, but well enough to have a lot of fun. This takes no brains or skills at all until you get into picking!