10 Reasons To Play Guitar

1. It’s Great for Your Brain

Guitar is a great way to keep your brain in shape. The unique parts of your brain that control things like memory, concentration, and even your ability to listen can be improved by simply learning guitar.

Studies show that making music can increase fancy things like your neuroplasticity. According to a study published in the JNeurosci Journal of Neuroscience, “Musical expertise shapes functional and structural brain networks…”

The act of attempting to learn guitar creates healthy brain waves and strengthens neurons leading to greater cognition and a better awareness of patterns in the world and in music.

Long story short: Music = good for the brain.

2. You’ll Discover More Music

Think about why you picked up a guitar in the first place…probably because you heard someone play it and thought “I have to do that,” or you want to expand your horizons with a new hobby. Regardless of your intent, picking up a guitar will inspire you to seek new musical influences and explore all there is to know about your new favorite activity.

If you have a specific favorite band, dig back into their catalog and try to locate their influences. Explore genres outside of your usual listening rotation. You’ll learn more guitar sounds, techniques, and styles if you seek them out.

Think about what inspires you and immerse yourself in it. Even if you can’t play a note on the guitar, remember that every player you admire started in the exact same spot.

3. Learn Your Favorite Band’s Songs on Guitar

Speaking of inspiration. If you absorb a ton of different kinds of music as suggested above, you’ll be able to learn your favorite songs! It’s common to go into lessons with a “goal song” in mind. For some people it’s Stairway to Heaven, for others it’s London Calling. Whatever your background in guitar or music, you can reach your goals through lessons (if you’re in the East Bay Area, guitar lessons at ModernTone Studios are definitely the way to go. You’re on the blog, aren’t you?). One of our pro instructors Daniel Nervo likes to keep the goal song in mind during the lesson process while working on your fundamentals. It’s the best of both worlds.

Starting with a goal or aspirational sound in mind when you pick up an instrument is a great way to discover your passion for it. Who are your favorite guitar players? What makes them unique? Those questions can ignite a whole new avenue for you to explore through playing guitar. Those questions can be answered by taking guitar lessons in the Bay Area.

4. Learn More About Music Theory Through Guitar Lessons

Obviously when you pick up a guitar you’re going to learn some fundamentals like standard tuning, finger placement, strumming styles, rhythm, common chord progressions, open chords, bar chords, and lots and lots of scales.

That all may sound intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, this information is pretty great to have in any situation, whether it’s writing your own songs, or trying to play other ones by ear.

Through learning guitar you will learn a little bit of music theory and hopefully get the basics you want to play in your own way. We recommend lessons for beginners for that very reason, a great foundation can help lead you to become the player you really want to be.

5. Your Confidence Will Go Up

Guitars are cool, what can we say? Every little kid thinks they want to be a rockstar at some point, and whether your style is punk, pop, country, rock, rap, r&b, world music, or any other genre – you can probably find a guitar line in it.

Being able to play songs that people love and recognize will make you feel great and could even give you the courage to start your own band. Who knows! Picking up a guitar for a hobby or a career enables you to choose your own adventure.

6. Guitar Improves Hand-Eye Coordination

When the body starts doing very specific movements that it’s not used to doing, it creates muscle memory that can improve things like hand-eye coordination. When playing guitar, your hands are doing things that they definitely don’t do at your 9-5 job.

By utilizing both of your hands at the same time, doing different coordinated riffs and melodies can really help with your hand-eye coordination. You’re basically dribbling two basketballs at different heights and speeds at the same time when playing guitar. So, once you’ve mastered something simple, be proud! You’re working out a brand new set of muscles.

7. You Can Start Writing Songs

Have you ever wanted to write a song but didn’t think you had the tools to create one? Guitar is a foundational instrument that many songwriters use to create the basis of their melodies, chord structure, and even overall sound.

Think of the guitar as a storyboard, you can create the structure of the song, the points of tension and the releases through that base melody and then build off of it with lyrics and vocal melodies.

It sounds complicated, but once you take guitar lessons and get the important foundational skills, writing songs may even just come naturally.

8. Take Guitar Lessons to Start a Band

So, you’ve taken guitar lessons, practiced, and written a few songs. Now that you took that bold step into learning guitar, you can do something to take your playing to the next step.

By creating a band or finding a group of people to just play songs with, whether they’re your own or covers, is a fun experience that can lead to a lot of creative benefits as well as good times. You don’t have to be a virtuoso to start a band.

We recommend lessons at whatever level you choose to function in, they can be helpful to keep you sharp on stage and encourage regular practice that you might not get outside of your normal routine.

9. Guitar Produces Happy Chemicals

We touched on the brain a little earlier, and if you’re still reading you’re super interested in getting on the guitar train, so here are a few more fun facts about how your brain benefits from playing guitar:

• Happy chemicals like Oxytocin, Serotonin, Dopamine, and Endorphins are released when you learn a new instrument.
• Learning new things stimulates the brain in general, so picking up a new instrument from scratch at any age can create new neural connections.
• Studies show that guitar players’ brains are different than those who don’t play guitar. It’s wild. You can change your brain chemistry by picking up this instrument!

10. You’ll Have Fun

Most of all, when you start learning guitar, you’re going to have fun. Yes, it will be hard at first, and you’ll want to give up, and your hands will start to hurt – but when you’re able to bust out your favorite song everything will fall in line.

With any instrument, you have benefits like the brain and the cool factor, but at the end of the day, guitar is fun. You should play it. We can teach you.