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Most people that have not yet done so have a romantic vision about learning guitar, with visions of following a few instructions and becoming the next guitar guru that everybody will worship. Here are ten things to tick off that include not only qualities that you will need in order to become a good guitar player, but also what you will have to study and become proficient in before you can call yourself a guitarist.

1. Realism - Many newcomers to playing guitar are unrealistic in their expectations. They believe that learning guitar will make them the new rock god, and that all they have to do to achieve that is to purchase a good guitar and spend a couple of weeks learning how to jam it. Not so! You have to be realistic and appreciate the fact that were it that easy, then everybody would be a guitarist.
2. Motivation - When learning guitar you must have goals: either written goals or those in your mind. Without a goal you have no means of assessing your progress and nothing to motivate you. It is essential when learning anything that you have motivation and a goal in mind. Fail to set your objectives then you will likely fail to learn.
3. Creativity - A guitarist should be creative. If you want to learn guitar, you can't spend all your time playing other people's music. Create some of your own. That will not only give you a lot of fun while doing it, but also a sense of achievement. The problem is, if you can't write it down how can you remember it? A good reason to learn how to read and write music.
4. Flexibility - You have to be flexible when learning guitar; and if you find that your preferred style is not as glamorous as you believed, you should be able to switch. Many people start off wanting to be rock stars but end up classical guitarists or playing bass rather than lead.
5. Application - Learning guitar is hard work, and you must be prepared to apply yourself to carry out the practice needed. You will not become expert in a year, but with hard work and application you should be able to play to a reasonable standard in that time, if not yet capable of appearing on stage.

   The next five relate to the lessons you will have to take and the skills you will need before reaching a reasonable standard of play.

6. Your Guitar - You must understand your guitar. Learning guitar involves learning ABOUT your guitar. You have to understand how it is built and how each different part of the instrument affects the quality. Each part of your guitar has a part to play in how it sounds, and you must understand what that part is so that you can use it to your advantage.
7. Scales - Scale practice is something that all guitarists must do. Even the heavy metal lead guitarists know their pentatonic scale, because the majority of riffs and licks are composed around sequences of pentatonic scales up and down the frets. The pentatonic scale should be practiced continually until you can play it automatically without thought.
8. Chords - Many guitarists abhor chords as being for wimps: rhythm guitar is not the domain of certain rock and metal guitarists, or so they think. If you think that way, what do you think many riffs and even blues riffs are constructed from? Observe the best guitarists' fret hand, and how they are playing the individual notes of not only pentatonic scales but also of chords. Chords are a number of notes that are played together to produce a good sound. Play them individually and they will also produce a good sound.
9. Techniques - Learning guitar, particularly how to play lead guitar, involves learning a number of techniques that enable the guitarist to play fast sequences of notes without having too much fretwork to do. Techniques such as pull-offs, hammer-ons, tapping, sliding and bending have to be learned and played naturally without thought, and also the right hand techniques such as alternate picking and sweep picking. These take a lot of practice and the old adage is true, that practice makes perfect when learning guitar.
10. Reading Music - The ability to read music is a definite advantage in a guitarist, although few can - at least when they first learn. The better players eventually recognize the advantages and take the time to learn; but even if not, it is generally necessary to learn tablature, or tab. That is the shorthand method used to represent guitar music by means of finger positions on the frets: in fact it is more longhand than shorthand. However, any ability to read music, whether in the traditional way or in the form of tab, is an advantage to any guitarist who can then play the music of others rather than having to practice and copy it by ear.

Keywords: learning guitar, learn guitar, become a good guitarist

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Andre Sanchez,