5 Things You Need To Learn To Play Campfire Songs On The Acoustic Guitar
By Maurice Richard
Learning to play the acoustic guitar is pretty awesome and most people desire to do this. Congratulations on going for it!
A great goal to get you started is to learn how to play campfire songs. That way you can play and have fun with your buddies the next time you have a get-together.
The problem is that there are so many things you can learn on guitar that it could take you a very long time to reach this goal. If you focus on the right things, you can shorten the time needed.
Here are 5 things you will need to learn on the acoustic guitar so you can play with your friends sooner and really impress them.
1. Open Chords
This is the basic foundation of all guitar playing if you want to learn to play campfire songs.
Open chords are chords you play near the neck of the guitar. They are considered open because you do not need to use your finger to create a barre across the guitar’s fretboard yourself.
Learning the chords will take time but once you learn half a dozen you will be well on your way to being able to play just about any campfire song.
This is why you need to start and focus on this before any other and the key to your success and enjoyment of the learning process!
2. Changing Between Chords
This is the most important skill you need to learn on guitar to be able to actually play songs.
When you first start learning you want to figure out the best and most efficient ways to change between different chords so that you can do it smoothly and efficiently.
Do not waste your time learning how to play scales or learn music theory or anything else that does not help you physically get better at changing between chords.
If you focus your attention and energy on this skill you will quickly learn how to play campfire songs and be impressing your buddies in no time!
3. Strumming
Obviously, strumming is very important to playing the acoustic guitar.
There are other styles you can use to play acoustic but strumming guitar is the typically the standard.
As you are learning new chord shapes and learning how to change between them smoothly, you should also be developing your strumming.
You should do this in isolation, without changing chords, but the critical component is to be able to integrate this with your actual chords.
This is the part that is most difficult and is critical to your success. If you waste your time learning other things that are not helping you physically it will be difficult to progress.
Notice this is a physical skill once again. Physical skills should be your absolute priority until you start to feel comfortable playing actual songs.
4. Using A Capo
Learning how to use a capo can instantly give you access to songs you can’t play. It’s magic!!!
Ok it’s not really magic but it is a very powerful way to use your existing skills to play songs that would typically be far out of your reach.
One of the most popular uses for a capo is to eliminate barred chords from a song so you can play it with all open chords.
You can’t do this for very song but there are many that will be easy to convert to open chords using this strategy.
Some people will say you are cheating. Ignore them. The capo is a tool, not a cheat.
5. Playing With Other People
This is the biggest and most important factor in all of these points mentioned so far.
Why? Because the goal is to play campfire songs … for or WITH other people.
The best way to learn to do this is to do it before you get to the campfire. You need a different set of skills to be able to play with other people.
You may be thinking you need to learn how to play well before you can join others but that is incorrect. You need to find ways to play with other people as soon as possible.
It’s like learning a team sport. You do not learn each individual technical skill first and then play on a team. It all happens at the same time.
This will help develop your skills even faster.
Focus On These 5 Things To Get The Fastest Results
If you focus on the 5 areas mentioned in this article and avoid others you will progress at a quick rate.
Your time will be properly invested in the things that will get you the results you want at the quickest rate possible.
It is easy to get distracted by other things when you start to learn but they will only slow you down.
Stay on the path, learn those skills well, and you will be the star at the next campfire!
About The Author:
Maurice Richard is a professional guitar teacher that operates out of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has been a member of an elite guitar teaching mentorship program since 2007 and has taught many people learn how to play campfire songs on the acoustic guitar.