One of the most common questions we get is this: “How long does it take to learn guitar?” or “How long does it take to get good at guitar?”
This is a tough question to answer because everyone who plays guitar has different goals. Some may want to learn how to play a song, or learn how to play a specific chord progression, or play blistering solos. Getting good at anything, whether it’s playing guitar, learning a new language or anything else, requires a ton of practice.
Practicing every day without fail (even for a short time) is far better than having a massive practice session once a week.
Practice Quality
Imagine somebody lazily strumming a few chords while watching a movie. By the end of the movie, he feels good because he thinks he’s been practicing guitar for two full hours.
While you could argue that he did practice for two hours, what would you say about the quality of that practice?
It should be obvious that lazily strumming chords while watching a movie is not quality practice. Almost all of that ‘practice’ was a waste of time and didn’t do anything for the person’s skills.
What makes quality practice?
The simple answer is: focus.
If you can completely focus on whatever you’re trying to do on guitar, that is quality practice.
Neuroscientists found that focus plays a massive role in memory and learning new skills. The more you focus on what you’re doing, the more you will remember and the faster you will progress.
It doesn’t matter what you practice or how long you practice for if you’re not focused 100% on what you’re doing.
The reason I stopped teaching guitar to young children years ago is that they’re unable to intensely focus for long. A young child might only be able to focus for 10-seconds before he gets distracted. That makes it really hard for them to progress.
On the other hand, an older child, teenager, or adult is perfectly capable of intense focus for up to 30 minutes before getting tired.
Key lesson: if you want to learn guitar in the shortest time possible, make sure you focus 100% during every practice session.
What you practice does matter, but the amount of focus you put in is far more important.
Regardless of what your guitar goals are, it’s going to take at least a few months or maybe over a year of consistent practicing before you can confidently say you “know how to play guitar.”
For those that just want to learn how to play a few chords and switch between them smoothly, it’s going to take at least 3 or 4 months of solid practice, maybe more depending on how much you’re able to practice.
You’ve probably seen a cool guitar solo on YouTube or want to start picking up a hobby on the side, and thought you would venture into this musical world.
Now that your interest is piqued to learn how to play, you might be wondering “how long does it take to learn guitar?
While we’d love to tell you that in just a few short weeks you can go from zero to Jimi Hendrix, that’s not the case.
But don’t be discouraged. Guitar playing is much more about deliberate practice than it is about pure talent.
Every person progresses at a different rate, and has differing amounts of time they can dedicate to their craft, so keep that in mind.
With all our years of teaching, we have found that there is a general timeline for what you can expect when it comes to progressing.
Keep in mind, this is a timeline for practising a total of 1-2 hours a week. If you practice more, you can expect faster results and if it’s less you can stretch out this timeline.
The key to success for our students is making practice fun. Pick songs and types of music you actually enjoy playing.
( Only practice songs you love. (This make a big difference.)).
When you enjoy what you’re learning, you practice more. You look forward to practice. You’re excited about practicing!
That will keep you going through the hard times when you need to do certain sections over and over again to get them right.
Let's get back to the original question of how long it will take to learn the guitar. Given that you practice regularly, you can reach these stages within the given amount of time:
1-2 months: Play easy guitar songs (changing between and strumming of basic chords, single string plucking songs with not much string jumping, chord arpeggios)
3-6 months: Play a bit more difficult songs, which require more technical elements. For example, songs requiring easier hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other easier lead guitar techniques.
1 year: Play intermediate level songs, including many very popular guitar songs, riffs, blues, and so on. You will probably start getting a more definitive feel for barre chords at around this time as well.
2 years: If you practice enough, you could be playing most songs in 2 years. Of course, you'll need to practice them before you can actually play them, but learning a song at this stage is very quick, as you'll have mastered most technical elements already.
2-3 years: If you learned guitar theory during your guitar journey, you'll be able to improvise on the guitar as well.
5-6 years: You can call yourself an advanced guitarist, you'll be able to play anything you want.
10 years: You'll realize how much you don't know yet, and want to learn even more. Your guitar collection will reach a yearly average of 7-12 guitars.
20+ years: You'll be playing and entertaining others all the time. Out of your 20 guitars, you only play 3, your favorite ones.
How to minimize the time it takes to learn guitar
I've been playing guitar for 20+ years now, and have been teaching both private students and online for well over a decade. Over the years, I've talked with countless guitarists who have wasted so much time during their guitar journey.
Do you want to know what 95% of them were doing wrong?
They were either:
Practicing the wrong things or
not practicing enough.
The remaining 5% hadn't bought a guitar yet
Now solving problem #2 is "easy" as long as you don't have 3 kids and a dog named Vanilla. You just have to find the time to practice.
Solving problem #1 isn't hard either, but it isn't evident, especially nowadays.
How long does it take to learn guitar? Picking the right guitar can make a BIG difference.
Walk into any guitar store and you’re likely to see a ton of guitars staring back at you. While you might think it’s good to start with the more expensive ones, that might not be the best choice for you.
Not all guitars are built the same!
Your local music store will have guitar experts on hand to help you find the right guitar for your size, hand shape, playability, and type of music you want to learn.
While some guitars look fancy, picking one that is a better fit will make your learning experience much easier.
There are many types of guitar, but we always recommend a steel-stringed acoustic guitar as a beginner guitar.
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