Seven Top Techniques That Anyone Getting To know Guitar Has To Know

March 20, 2010 · Filed Under Craft · Comment 

It makes absolutely no sense to commit a lot of time learning to play the guitar if you are finding it hard practicing elements that never get you nearer to your ambitions of turning into a stronger musician.

Below are 7 techniques to practice learning guitar by ear effectively and take your own guitar playing to a whole new level:

1) Always follow a strategy.  For example, if you want to learn to play guitar songs you’ve got to make a plan, and more importantly, stick to it.  You did not go to school and simply “fluke it”.  The fine folks that taught you stuck to a curriculum that you learned from.  Likewise, for you to excel at playing the guitar you will need to develop a plan and keep to it, master it, and then adjust it, so that it stretches you and continues to push you forward.

2) Never put off practicing. To learn to enjoy the guitar you have got to train, and the more you practice, the more effective you will get, it’s that simple.  When you begin your strategy, you must dedicate certain times to allow for practice. Never presume you will “do it later” -  Mainly because most individuals never will.  You need to make it a habit and look forward to practicing guitar the moment you are meant to.

3) Don’t restrict yourself to one type of music either.  A rock and roll guitar player can discover an awful lot simply by looking at what wonderful guitar players there are in other genres.  Learning one or two jazz or country licks could truly spice up your playing to new levels.

4) You must have a base to practice from. While it doesn’t have to be something fancy, it will need to be comfy enough to make it possible for you to train in peace and quiet. It equally needs to have the correct musical equipment like a stand and light, a metronome, a chair or something to sit down on, in addition a TV set and DVD player, if you are learning from a DVD program. Steer clear of the Television unless of course it is being utilized to be trained from.

5) Alter your curriculum. This is not the army, and it needs to be fun. Most people do not get pleasure from studying and memorizing scales and modes, so it is great to slide in some entertaining break time, playing between the more boring tasks, just be sure to get back on track immediately after a short break.

6) Warm-up both hands. Many people overlook this when learning how to play the guitar, but it is extremely important. You will discover that light hand stretches that you do prior to reaching for your guitar will warm up your hands and get blood moving to the the tips of your fingers.

7) Talk about your skills. The easiest way to understand, is to teach, since it tests what you do know already. You could either hook up with a second guitar player now and then, or you can even offer training to someone else. This will make it very clear what you do and do not know, and you can change your own education from there.

Learn Guitar The Simple Way

February 10, 2010 · Filed Under Craft · Comment 

Learning to play a musical instrument of any kind is something lots of people want to do but never get around to, and one of the most popular choices is the guitar.  Did you know that learning to play the guitar is fairly easy if you can learn how a guitar works, and teach yourself how to understand guitar chords and how they are written then there is no reason why you cannot learn how to play the guitar fast.

It makes little difference whether you want to learn how to play accoustic guitar or the electric guitar as the basic learning process is the same, so you can start with either.

Obviously you need to start by getting a guitar to learn on.  An older acoustic one can be fairly cheap and is equally suited to those who will switch to an electric guitar once they have picked up the basics.  The first step is getting to know your instrument, as to start with holding a guitar is going to feel rather strange and unnatural.  They are bulkier than you may think, and it is important that you hold it regularly so that you feel natural holding it and not awkward in anyway.

A guitar has 6 strings and you will need to know what each of them is, as this is important when reading guitar music.  Put your guitar face up on your lap so that you can learn the order of the strings.  The furthest string from you is called E and so is the string nearest to you, just that they are an octave apart.

This is high E and the string nearest you is low E, and from high E moving towards you the strings are as follows – high E A D G B E (low).

When learning the guitar, you will learn guitar scales and chords, which you create with the fingers on your left hand holding down different strings at specific points on the fret board, which is what we call the divisions on the neck.

A tab is the proper name for guitar music, and is a graphical form of music, where six lines have been drawn to show each of the strings. A number is printed on each line and this shows you at which you need to be holding the string – so 1 shown on the bottom line indicates hold low E at fret 1.  It does take time to learn how to read a guitar tab.  However, there is helpful information on the Internet, and you should spend the time learning and practicing until you are confident you could explain to someone else what it means and what is being asked of you.

If the numbers are shown side by side, you should be playing a single note at the correct fret one after the other.  Whereas, if the numbers are stacked one on top of the others, this is a chord and requires you to hold more than one note down at the different frets at the same time to produce the correct chord sound.

It may not be what you want to hear, but there is only one way to get really good at playing the guitar and that is to practice daily where possible, and be disciplined about it.  It might seem that you are not making any progress, and you may get quite frustrated with yourself. However, please don’t give up.

If you are really struggling, take a break and do something else for a few hours and come back to your guitar later. If you stay calm and persevere you will find that you start to make real progress.  Treat yourself to music you like listening to and want to play as you need to enjoy the learning process not dread it.