With the popularity of the internet and instructional guitar websites, lots of ways now exist to learn acoustic guitar.

One of the most frequently asked questions is how long does it take to learn acoustic guitar? Well there are 3 factors which decide this question

What kind of aptitude do you have for learning the instrument? Is the system or website you’re using to learn acoustic guitar of high quality? How much regular practice are you doing?

We’ll examine question one first. You, as every person, were born with a unique learning rate for guitar. This means that you have a maximum improvement rate built in and it varies for every possible thing you could learn. Until you start to learn acoustic guitar you won’t actually know if you have a high, average or slow learning rate for the instrument!

The next important consideration is what system you are using to learn acoustic guitar. Please be aware from the outset that not all methods to learn guitar are equally good. If you choose an out of date and old fashioned method it could slow your progress by months and even result in your failure.

Fortunately some websites really do understand how to teach beginners and have developed a system to learn acoustic guitar which is fast and effective. Take advantage of these improvements to give yourself an enjoyable experience of learning guitar.

Lastly we must not forget practice! The key to practice is regularity and this means doing a little bit each day instead of 2 hours on Sunday and nothing for the rest of the week. To learn acoustic guitar you must make contact with the instrument for a short while each day.

Learning the shapes of the chords and the strumming rhythms is not difficult, in fact you only need a small selection of chords (about 10) and strums (about 3) to play lots of the songs you hear everyday on the radio or in your CD/MP3 library.

With the basics covered you can normally learn acoustic guitar in about 4 weeks to a standard good enough to strum along to songs. For some that will satisfy their ambitions while others will want to learn acoustic guitar to a more advanced level.

It’s important for you to know that when you first begin to learn acoustic guitar, some chord shapes and strumming patterns could feel very difficult, even impossible to you! Take comfort from knowing that ALL guitar players, even the great ones, felt this sensation when they started too. It’s normal. Just keep doing your little bit of daily practice and it will get easier, I promise.

For my last sentence I want to again mention the word ‘practice’. To learn acoustic guitar you must be motivated to do it and find ways to keep motivated. It won’t happen overnight.