I would like to emphasize the word "regular," i.e., practicing the right things for at least 1 hour every day (or at least most days of the week). The moral of the story is that learning to play the guitar is a never-ending process, but getting to an acceptable level, where you will actually start enjoying your music (and won't drive others crazy ? ), can be reached after about 6 months of REGULAR practice. Out of your 20 guitars, you only play 3, your favorite ones. You'll be playing and entertaining others all the time. Your guitar collection will reach a yearly average of 7-12 guitars. You'll realize how much you don't know yet, and want to learn even more. You can call yourself an advanced guitarist, you'll be able to play anything you want. If you learned guitar theory during your guitar journey, you'll be able to improvise on the guitar as well. 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. If you practice enough, you could be playing most songs in 2 years. You will probably start getting a more definitive feel for barre chords at around this time as well. Play intermediate-level songs, including many very popular guitar songs, riffs, blues, and so on. For example, songs requiring easier hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other easier lead guitar techniques. Play a bit more difficult songs, which require more technical elements. Play easy guitar songs (changing between and strumming of basic chords, single-string plucking songs with not much string jumping, chord arpeggios) Given that you practice regularly (1+ hours per day) and in the correct way, you can reach these stages within the given amount of time: Playing level The only way to learn these movements, improve your hand muscle memory, and really progress at playing the guitar, is to practice regularly.īut let's get back to the original question of how long it will take to learn the guitar? You will need to strengthen hand muscles that you didn't even know existed, and on top of that, you'll have to learn very precise, coordinated finger movements as well. Playing the guitar will mean learning totally new hand and finger movements, almost like learning to walk. Sure, having a talent for music and a good ear will help you achieve results, but in the long run, the guitarist that practices diligently and in the correct way will win over the lazier, yet more "talented" musician. Well, it depends on several things, not just how talented you are. The question lots of people ask me when they start thinking about learning to play guitar is, "How long will it take me?"