Learn The Guitar To Improve Your Songwriting
Those who learn the guitar can enhance their songwriting tremendously because of the infinite possibilities this instrument can bring through its unique sound and ease of finding new chords to harmonize songs. But beware: Far too many aspiring guitarists invest in a decent guitar only to abandon their quest to learn guitar after quickly losing interest. The reason is usually a simple one: their guitar lessons frustrate them!
The only way to learn guitar fast is to make it an enjoyable activity, and the easiest, cheapest method to accomplish this is going to surprise you:
Buy a guitar tab/chords sheet music book of your favorite guitar-based artist, learn one song at a time by learning each song’s chord shapes, and keep practicing different scales for finger dexterity and note familiarity. Huh? Let me explain!
1. Start with one favorite song. It’s important to choose your favorite one so you don’t lose interest.
2. Practice fingering the chords with your left hand (if you’re a righty) and begin slowly switching from one chord shape to another. When you feel comfortable enough, if you have a metronome, start with a slow BPM (beats per minute) and increase it as you go, challenging yourself to quickly change chord shapes. When you start to stumble, drop the BPM’s back down a few then repeat the process until your significant other starts yelling at you to get off the guitar and spend some time together. By this time, though, you probably will have become very excited—no, not about your significant other, I’m talking about the prospect of being able to really play the song!
3. Next, when everyone’s asleep, go back to fingering your favorite song’s chords, then use your other hand to start either strumming with a thin pick or slowly begin fingerpicking even if you use one finger at a time at first.
4. Now play your favorite song and try to keep up with the chord shapes while lightly strumming or fingerpicking with one finger.
5. With each successive practice session (try for 30-60 minutes at a time), the song will become easier to play until you have it down pat.
6. Move on to the next song and repeat the process. With each song you learn, the previous one becomes easier to play. Why? Because of finger memory (that beautiful connection established between your mind and fingers).
By using this method you will not only learn guitar fast, but you will probably be able to quickly dive into the world of songwriting with your newfound knowledge of song structure and chords even if you’re a complete songwriting novice!
After a while, once you’re fairly comfortable holding the guitar and once you can at least hold a few chord shapes and strum the guitar, you can supplement your guitar playing with an online course or package such as Jamorama, Guitar Alliance, or a few other reputable learn the guitar courses out there. Using these courses is the closest thing to having a guitar instructor at your side at less than a fraction of the cost, and many claim it’s actually more fun!
There’s an endless stream of helpful, and many times innovative, free songwriting tips and techniques to talk about, much information regarding the business side of songwriting including how to pitch and promote your songs, and an abundance of encouragement and support for the songwriting community. 
