The guitar is a instrument that has six strings and is played by strumming cords or notes. This is done by finger picking or by using a pick (a plectrum is used to pluck the strings on a guitar). Playing the guitar is among the more popular pastimes around the world.

This is simply because it's among the least difficult instruments to learn. But not just that, you can play many different kinds of music on the guitar, from rock and pop to jazz to country and even classical.

Learning to play guitar fast can easily be done by yourself or along with your friends. If you've always wanted to learn how to play guitar here's a few tips to help you get going.

Playing guitar requires holding it in the correct playing position. Holding the guitar correctly will not only make learning easier but will allow you to avoid backaches from holding the guitar wrong. There's two ways to play the guitar, sitting or standing.

If your sitting, there's two different ways to play. There’s the classical position and casual position. With the classical position you sit with the guitar resting on your left leg, and playing in the casual position you rest it on your right leg.

If you're standing, you just put a guitar strap over your shoulder. What ever you feel more comfortable with is how you should play. In the beginning you will learn guitar faster if you are sitting. However, what ever way you choose will help you to learn guitar fast.

The way you hold the neck is also very critical in how fast you'll be able to learn to play the guitar. It's very important that your wrists as well as hands are relaxed. Don't press your thumb on the back of the guitar neck with extreme pressure as this may cause some pain to your wrist as well as thumb.

Use your fingers to press down on the strings to the fret board while at the same time using your right hand to strum or pick the strings. It you use a pick, hold it between your thumb and your index finger.

Having your guitar properly tuned is the most important thing of all regarding the sound. Begin by making certain the sixth string (E the lowest sounding and thickest string) is tuned, followed by the fifth string(A), forth string(D), third string(G), second string(B) and the first string(E), the highest sounding and thinnest string.

This is recognized as as the standard tuning as well as the most widely used tuning for a six-string guitar. You can buy a guitar tuner to help make it easier to tune your guitar. These are meant to help guitarists, mainly beginners but they are used by even the most accomplished players. As you become more advanced you can try out some alternate tunings to produce a different chord voicing that will add more color to the rhythm.

Once you have your guitar tuned, it's now time to start learning cords and scales. Chords are three or more notes played at the same time. Scales, however, would be a range of notes played in a ascending or descending order one after the other.

With some time and plenty of practice, in no time at all, you’ll be a guitarist! Now get out there practice a lot and have fun making music.