Great Musical Instruments at www.greatmusicalinstruments.net likes what the author says about the reasons for playing a guitar – which could be the same for any musical instrument a beginning musician chooses to play.
6 Reasons to Learn How to Play the Guitar
There are many reasons to learn how to play guitar. These reasons range from something as simple as picking up a hobby to something more profound such as developing self-confidence and discipline. The benefits to picking up guitar-playing can lead to great improvements in your mental health and teach you to establish routines and stick to them. Today, we will go over some of these benefits in detail.
Learn the Songs You Love
I think it is safe to say that just about everyone who picks up a guitar for the first time, decides to do it because they want to learn some of their favorite songs. This is easily the most entertaining and motivating aspect of learning to play. Few things are more rewarding than being able to demystify a song you have loved or wanted to learn to play. Imagine learning a song you have wondered about after hearing it on the radio. It is not only possible to be able to play these songs with some practice, but it can come much sooner than you might think.
Improve Focus and Discipline
These days, we live our lives 10 seconds at a time. Several studies seem to suggest that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Picking up a guitar and developing a practice routine can help a great deal with this.
Becoming proficient with your guitar-playing means that you have to develop a daily regimen and follow through with it. This does not necessarily have to be for several hours at a time, but setting aside time each day and working on your craft can help improve your focus and discipline tremendously. Training yourself to do this each day without fail will teach or remind you what it is to be disciplined. This will prove to be beneficial in other areas of your life where you might need to stick to daily routines.
Relieve Stress
All too often, folks get home from work or another daily routine stressed and, well, wound up. We have all got different ways of dealing with stress, but far too many of us simply do nothing and let it bubble up inside of us. This approach tends to boil over eventually in the form of outbursts, or worse, health problems. Now, I am not saying playing guitar will prevent heart disease, but we all need some sort of cathartic outlet. We all need to disconnect from our daily routines and the stresses of everyday life and simply put our attention to something; be mindful.
What greater way to achieve that than by playing guitar? Some people like to unwind after a long day of work by going out for a jog, drawing a picture, or taking a long bath. These are all great and perfectly healthy. Others, however, take arguably less healthy measures to relieve stress. Picking up your guitar can be a great approach to relieving stress. Surely, this can be achieved via many avenues like other instruments, artforms, and even sports, but the guitar is such a relatable and available instrument, that I prefer it to any other.
Develop Confidence
There are not many things more important to our psyche than self-confidence, and unfortunately, many of us struggle tremendously in this aspect of our lives. For those of us that struggle with our self-confidence, becoming a proficient guitar player can be a great boost. Setting goals and plans and following through with them are not only great ways to improve discipline and focus as previously mentioned, but they can also lead to improved confidence.
The act of knowing that you are able to set a goal and follow through with it does great things for your self-esteem. At the end of it, you are able to do something you were not previously able to do. Whether that is playing a whole song or a specific section of a tune, you will have achieved something and that confidence will permeate through every aspect of your life. Being able to play songs is also a great ice-breaker, which leads me to our next point:
Meet New People
Playing guitar is a great way to make new friends and meet new people. It really does a great job of breaking barriers based on culture and age. This is especially true in group situations, such as parties or other social gatherings. Many of us are wallflowers at social gatherings and there seems to be no way to break out of it. We have trouble with initial interactions and don’t really know how to break the ice. Being able to play songs on guitar is almost surely a great ice-breaker in most social situations.
“Hey, do you know this song?”
“Sure do!”
Just like that, you are talking to the cutest girl or boy at the party or simply making new friends. Speaking of love interests, it never hurts to be able to serenade someone with a lovely song!
Learn About Other Cultures
Being able to meet new people is, of course, great. However, it gets even deeper than that. To follow the history of music around the world means to follow migration patterns throughout time. Take, for example, the music of Spain. Do you notice any striking similarities to some of the music of the Middle East region? Now, if you paid attention in history class, you will remember that the Moors invaded Spain and brought a lot of their culture with them. This same scenario has played out many times throughout history. Another great example is the influence of African music on the music of the Americas as well as the Caribbean. Just about every genre of music in the west has been influenced, either directly or indirectly, by African music. This is including but not limited to jazz, salsa, samba, and many more.
The reasons for picking up a guitar are endless and the benefits are many. I recommend it to all of my friends and family who are looking for a hobby, a way to pass the time, or a way to relieve stress and unwind after a hard day’s work.
About the Author
Marc-Andre Seguin is the webmaster, “brains behind” and teacher on JazzGuitarLessons.net, the #1 online resource for learning how to play jazz guitar. He draws from his experience both as a professional jazz guitarist and professional jazz teacher to help thousands of people from all around the world learn the craft of jazz guitar.
