“That is so huge, and I wish somebody would have told me that when I was a kid”: Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar

Jason Isbell plays a Martin dreadnought onstage in Norway.

One of the great things about learning the guitar is how much progress you can make in a short space of time. You learn one chord, then two, three, and then you can write a song. But it isn’t all just one big walk in the park.

Steel strings on young fingers can hurt, especially during long practice sessions (take a break if they do). And even though there are plenty of great acoustic guitars for beginners on today’s market, sometimes entry-level instruments are not the most forgiving. They fight back.