How To Become a Self Taught Guitarist

Guitar players probably belongs to the group of musicians that has the largest percentage of self taught musicianship. In this article I define "self taugt" as lacking formal musical education. Some of the greatest guitarists of all time has been self taught. Including Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour,Nick Drake and many many more. I think the fact that these player are self taught is partially responsible for their success as guitar players. Being self taught gives you the freedom to think outside the box musically and produce unique sounds. Self taught guitarists have also been responsible for some major innovations in guitar playing and techniques and sometimes helps define whole new genres of music. Eddie Van Halen and Kurt Cobain represents complete opposites when it comes to sound and technique but are both great examples of how being self taught is contributing to music. Eddie Van Halen although not entirely self taught, moved on to being self taught at a new level when he introduced the guitar technique "tapping" Kurt Cobain, altough not a techniqual genius created a whole new and raw style of guitar playing and is indeed a genius when it comes to song writing.

I myself am a self taught guitarist, although I don't even come close to even compare to these guys, I love the freedom of experimentation being self taught gives you. You are not confined to a predefined set of rules and this makes it even more fun to play because you are constantly discovering new things. I don't read notes but do read guitar tablature, this is essential for any guitarist so you can write down your riffs and licks in order to remember them. Tablature really has nothing to do with music theory, it is only a numerical representation of the fretboard of the guitar and it is quite easy to learn.

After learning the basic chords and scales the way I learned was by getting together with other guitarists and jam at the local pub every friday night. Young and old got together and exchanged tips and techniques and taught eachother what we knew. I also bought guitar magazines whenever any of my favorite artists was featured, these came with a CD with backing tracks and of course tablature to all the featured songs within the mag. This was a great way of learning for me because you where able to play your favorite songs with full band backing. I also practiced a lot of scales and fingering exercises, but the one thing that taught me the most was the time spent half drunk with a bunch of other guitar nerds at the local pub every friday night. This is where I developed the most as a musician and it was great fun too.

There is really no single trick or strategy on how to become a self taught guitarist, this fact is however the very essence and advantage of being self taught because there are no rules. It's all about experimentation, you play by your own rules and eventually find your own voice. My final advice is simple, simply go out there and teach yourself how to play the guitar. That's right, just do it! The only thing you need is enthusiasm and creativity and you'll get there eventually.