As the late great Jimi Hendrix mused: 'Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’re gonna be rewarded.'

As the late great Jimi Hendrix mused: 'Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’re gonna be rewarded.' I have been playing for 6 years and am just now getting to the point where I can confidently say that I "play" guitar. Its a long journey and at times painful. But stick with it as the rewards are well worth it. Here are some tips for the new guitar player from my experience: 1. You don't need an expensive guitar - you just need a good guitar. I know we walk into the guitar shop and dream of owning that Gibson Les Paul 59 Reissue or the Custom Shop Stratocaster or the PRS. But its not the guitar that makes the music - its you! 2. Patience. Give yourself some time to see progress. Practice everyday, even if it is for 10 minutes. Pickup up the guitar and just do it for 10 minutes. 3. Stick with it. The guitar will challenge you. It test your patience, tenacity, discipline, will power and your determination before it will give you anything back. 4. To get the quickest path to start playing and having fun - Learn power chords first, bar chords next. And the minor pentatonic. 5. Learn the notes on the fretboard as soon as you can. In fact start learning them form day one. Do one string at a time. Learn the root notes of the minor pentatonic and where they are in relation to each other. If you do these five things first, you will be surprised how far you are going to get. These are the basic tools of most blues and rock guitarist and 90% of music of that genre can be covered by that. If you have started the journey of learning the guitar, remember its is a journey that won't ever end. So enjoy it!