Can I learn to play guitar... in just one day?

Katie Russell playing guitar
Katie Russell tries to learn Sweet Home Alabama on the guitar. There are mixed results. Credit: Rii Schroer

As part of our new #extraday series, which encourages readers to use 2020's leap day to try something new, Katie Russell picks up her dusty guitar to (finally) learn to pick a tune

It’s the skeleton in my closet. For 13 years, my guitar has been gathering dust in the back of my wardrobe, after I gave up trying to learn at school before I'd even made it to Grade One.

But my six-string would be idle no longer. As part of The Telegraph’s #extraday series, in which we attempt to learn something new in a day, I volunteered to take my guitar out of its hiding place and try to achieve in 24 hours what I barely managed over weeks of lessons all those years ago: to successfully play a single song.

There’s only so much you can do in a day, of course – as my colleague Tom Ough found out when he attempted to solve a Rubik’s cube within 24 hours. It takes approximately 10,000 hours to truly master a cognitively complex task, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s famous theory. That’s equivalent to 20 hours a week over a 10 year period.

With only 24 hours to play with, I set a simple goal: to learn to play a song that someone else could identify without prompting.

Sounds easy enough – although it was made significantly harder by the fact that I couldn't remember any chords, or even how to hold a guitar. I realised I was approaching this as a complete novice. It was going to be a long day.

Katie Russell uses YouTube to learn to play the guitar in one day
Katie Russell uses YouTube to learn to play the guitar in one day Credit: Rii Schroer

Before I could begin, there was already an obstacle: tuning the instrument. Thankfully, there’s an app for that. Guitar Tuna (real spelling) has an audio recording function that can listen to the note you’re playing and tell you how far away you are from the perfect note. Then, you twist the nozzle (which is highlighted on the screen) until you reach the right note. It only took 10 minutes.

With the guitar now tuned, I needed to pick a song. I Googled “easy songs to learn on the guitar” and browsed several websites. Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and Eric Clapton’s The Way You Look Tonight were both strong early contenders, but I opted for Sweet Home Alabama, as it’s one of my dad’s favourite songs. He would be my audience later.

Heading to YouTube, Erich Andreas’ account YourGuitarSage taught me the three key chords of the song (D, C and G) which, within half an hour, I could play – albeit slowly. Still, I felt smug and reckoned that, within the hour, I could give Lynyrd Skynyrd a run for their money. 

That dream came crashing down when I remembered the Sweet Home Alabama introduction: a complicated, swift compilation of chords that was not covered in this YouTube video. I found an explainer from YouTube account GoodGuitarist and inwardly panicked as the instructor’s fingers glided seamlessly and speedily over the guitar. 

Thankfully, he broke the chords into chunks, which I gradually learned before moving onto the riffs – which were my downfall. Unlike chords, riffs need to be fluid and fast to work, and I just couldn’t achieve the speed. 

It might sound frustrating but the intense concentration of the task at hand was initially akin to mindfulness. There was no space in my brain for anything other than the strings and my plectrum, and hours passed before I had time to think about anything else.

But then the euphoria started to sour. My mind was exhausted from the non-stop concentration. I felt helpless because I couldn’t achieve the speed, and my fingertips were starting to bruise. 

I practised for six hours in total, with the video mostly on pause, before I tried to strum alongside the YouTube instructor. Within 10 seconds I’d missed a chord, forgotten where to put my hands for the next one, and got lost in the riff. I turned off my laptop.

Even so, in the space of one day, I had learned to play the most stilted version of Sweet Home Alabama you’ve ever heard. To celebrate the achievement, I recorded myself strumming and sent it to my dad. His response? “Give us a clue – sounds lovely”. 

It’s a work in progress. 

How to start learning guitar today

Online tutorials make learning musical instruments easier than ever before – at least for novices (beyond that, you may wish to seek the input of a professional teacher). There are umpteen videos on YouTube explaining, with varying success, how to play famous songs. Just search for yours and get clicking.

For a more structured approach, Fender Play offers online courses in how to play a variety of guitar styles, including pop, blues, rock and country, starting from scratch. The monthly subscription costs £9.99 a month.

Many guitar tutors also conduct lessons over Skype, making them easy to access wherever you are in the country.

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