Before we talk about the guitar accessories that you might need in the beginning, I am assuming that you have got your new guitar and are ready to take on your long time dream of learning to play guitar. Guitar accessories might not be part of guitar integrally but they are quite crucial for both the care as well as ease of playing. Needless to say, guitar accessories should be second on your list after buying a new guitar.
Picks
Pick or the plectrum is a guitarist’s true friend. Unless you are going for a nylon string guitar, you are definitely going to need a plectrum to play guitar. People often pick up the wrong picks and end up complaining about the lesson or them being not able to play. I personally recommend thin light picks for the beginners which are best for strumming and light practice. Then, some medium thickness picks can be bought and used for individual note plucking and strokes to practice scales. The size of the picks should not be very small and they should have at least 1 centimetre of area left to pluck with after holding. As you progress, you can change to thicker picks for better grip and speed over notes.
Strap
The next main thing that you need to get for your guitar is its strap. Even if you are comfortable playing it sitting down on a chair, you should always have a strap for your guitar at hand. A plain black strap goes good with every color and type of guitar. When you’re buying guitar straps, make sure they are strong and durable with lock mechanism. Your guitar strap should preferably be broad which would put less weight on your shoulder when you play while standing up. A good guitar strap can make your learning and stage experience very comfortable while a bad strap can ruin it all.
Tuner
Tuning is the biggest headache for all beginners. Getting that E, B G, etc. right is not really an easy task as you don’t even know where or what E sounds like. Even if you know what it sounds like, you certainly do not remember it and do not know how to begin with it in the first place. Thus, the need of tuner arises. A tuner can easily put you out of your misery and you can get your guitar strings tuned in a matter of a few minutes. You should get some trusted brand’s like Korg or D’Addario tuners with long battery life and durable clip for most accurate string tuning notes and corrections.
Case/Cover
This is a crucial accessory for guitar care and is needed by every guitarist to protect his or her guitar from dust and other foreign objects. A case or cover should be well padded and made shock proof without adding much weight to it so that the guitar is protected in case of a hit, impact or falling down. You can always get a protective case or cover from any online or music store down the road.
Music Stand
To start with the practice and read from the notes, you are definitely going to need the music stand to keep your notes book. Not much helpful in making playing guitar easier, but it certainly plays an important role in the learning process of any guitarist. A good music stand will be cheap and very useful in the long run. You can of course give it a miss if you don’t want to read from music notes book but if you have posture issues, stand is of the utmost importance.
L Keys
L Keys do not seem to be of much use to the beginners but trust me, they are useful. If you have an electric guitar, a good one will have a tune lock would allow tremolo to function. Tremolo often disturbs the tuning of the guitar, which is why the tune lock is used. The tune lock needs to be opened to reset the tuning whenever needed, which requires an L key. Also, if you are not comfortable with the action of the guitar, you yourself can lower it or increase it as you want with an L key of a certain thickness. Using an L key can be tricky which is why I recommend that you use guidance to learn and see how to use an L key once before trying to actually use it.
Metronomes
Metronomes are the best trainers for beginners and instead of buying cheap ones, I would recommend getting electric ones which often come with good features. Almost every established brand in the industry has its own metronome which has a variety of feature to help you with training. However, if you really want to save money, get an application for both the tuner and the metronome which would help you train better.
Jam Buddy
Jam buddy or Recorder is good for practice and learning. If you want to play chords and practice taking a solo, jam buddy can be pretty helpful in all of these. Just get a decent recorder or jam buddy from market and learn to improvise with this smart earning device.
Spare Strings
Nothing beats the spare strings as guitar strings except for the picks. Have a packet of strings as spare always in hand for emergency replacement. For beginner, thin gauge strings are just perfect for easy practice and future learning.
Capos
I saved one of the most important for the last, particularly because it is not exactly meant for the beginners. Capos are transposing devices in guitar that transpose your original tuning with mechanical attachment mechanism. When you’re trying your hand at different type of songs which have been played much differently than normal tuning, capos will come in handy to transpose the scales for you and decrease the efforts to a great extent.
Guitar accessories might not come free with the guitar but trust me when I say this- each one of them are crucial for a good learning and practice routine. If you haven’t already got them, it’s time to improve your practice and get them to speed up your learning.
