November 25th, 2009 §
Let’s say you practice five hours a day on your guitar. What happens when you become a father with children around your feet. Can you still be a guitarist and practice?
As a father and a guitarist I have some advice. The story on how a mother can continue playing guitar has to be written by an expert on that subject.
I guess the problem is that many guitarists think that if they can’t practice the way they are used to they might as well quit.
What happens with you as a guitar player when you become a father with small children?
1. You will still have time to play guitar but not when you expect it.
I have many times wondered why people that practice a lot on their guitars as they become parents suddenly stops completely to play guitar and become desillusioned with this part of their lives.
It’s like a person who wants to train on a gym two hours a day. If this doesn’t work he quits completely. Why?
To make ten push ups a day is better than doing nothing. I takes maybe ten seconds to make this exercise and it will have positive results. The most important thing is that you are still trying to work with your body and the time will probably come when you can increase the amount of training.
Of course the same principle applies to guitar playing. Change the way you play but don’t quit. I’m sure your children don’t want that.
2. Time to play guitar will come in small portions.
As you don’t always know when you have time to play on your guitar you have to have your guitar or guitars extremely accessible. Have the guitar on your bed or somewhere else very close at hand. Maybe you have to buy a cheaper guitar in order to feel comfortable with this arrangement.
Personally I have an very expensive classical guitar but I mostly play on my less expensive guitars as I have them nearby all the time.
3. You might be interrupted in the middle of your guitar playing at any time.
I suggest that you give yourself a reasonable amount of homework to practice on your guitar. Try to learn this homework by heart as soon as possible so you don’t need pieces of paper around as you practice. I guess you know that small children like the taste of paper..
If you give yourself just one task to perform as your guitar lesson homework you will even with small amounts of time to practice spread all over the day see yourself progressing. The important thing is to focus on this task long enough to see results and long enough for the skills to become part of your playing.
4. You will have to concentrate on more things than your guitar playing.
If you have a long term goal with your playing you will always be able to look back on what you are doing as a guitar player and can see yourself progressing. I suggest that you put your long term guitar playing goals on a place out of reach for your children but within reach of your eyes.
5. You must feel that your guitar playing is of benefit for your wife and your children.
Is it selfish to play guitar when you have children? Let me give you an example from my own childhood:
My dad was a musician playing violin, cello and guitar in our home. He was working as a guitar teacher and I heard him play classical guitar pieces, cello pieces and violin pieces everyday.
I can still remember some of those melodies and they invoke a feeling of peace and memories of childhood in my heart. I have a special relation to those pieces of music and they have certainly enriched my life.
In other words, you will need to have a repertoire of nice melodies to play for your children. Focus on learning melodies to play and try to find opportunities to play them for your wife and children.
Having a family has certainly enriched my life and made me a better musician and guitar player.
November 16th, 2009 §
With children trying on extracurricular activities at the speed of light these days, it’s hard for parents to decide what to allow them to try and what to forego. This is where computerized guitar lessons can help cut the costs for parents while their children try on this pursuit for size.
The truth is computerized guitar lessons can be very beneficial not only for the parents’ wallets, but also young learners, as well. There are some very big advantages to checking out PC-based lessons for youngsters and even teens:
* The lower cost and commitment of this type of guitar lesson can save parents a lot of money in the long run if the child decides the guitar isn’t their instrument of choice.
* Computer-based lessons are comfortable for kids. While most parents might not have grown up learning via a PC, their children have. The truth is a lot of children are very, very comfortable learning from computer programs. Math, reading, science and even music can be taught quite effectively through computer programs.
* Privacy. Some youngsters just aren’t very comfortable taking their first few music lessons with “strangers.” There’s a fear of performing poorly, sounding bad or just not “getting it.” Computerized guitar lessons can remove some of these fear factors and free youngsters to learn and enjoy. They do this while also offering solid instruction and the correct building blocks to help them advance if they so choose.
* Time. If a youngster decides lessons aren’t for them, there isn’t a huge time investment lost in hours and hours of paid instruction. On the converse, if a child thrives on guitar lessons, the PC based programs enable them to take as many hours of instruction as they want at no additional charge.
* Visual assistance. While it’s true nothing replaces a human instructor for lessons, computerized guitar classes come close. Since the lessons can and generally do include video clips, as well, young learners will still get to see the chords, where their fingers should be placed and so on.
* Pacing. By taking computerized lessons children are free to go as fast or as slowly as they’d like. This provides an individualized spin to learning that can be very important for building confidence and skill level while encouraging a child to keep on learning.
Music is an important part of life and many parents would love to see their children learn to appreciate it. The problem is there are so many after-school activity choices, some kids never find their groove.
For those with an interest in the guitar, computerized lessons can be just the ticket to help them learn without a huge risk for their parents’ bank accounts. Plus, if these lessons are successful, there are lots of other learning opportunities parents and their children can pursue without concern the interest isn’t really there.
November 14th, 2009 §
You can learn to play melodies on your guitar even if you do not know sheet music notation. We will instead use easy to learn guitar tab or guitar tablature. Let’s learn Yankee Doodle!
Yankee Doodle “Yankee Doodle” is a well-known American song, today sung patriotically. Originally it was a satirical song.
The first verse and refrain goes like this:
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-Riding on a pony
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy
What is guitar tab?
We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music notation. You will only use the four thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string.
Tablature is a form of musical notation, often with numbers and letters, which tells the player where to place their fingers on the guitar fretboard rather than which pitches to play.
I will use my own type of guitar tab notation today to make sure that the guitar tab is correctly displayed on article sites. On my site you will find many popular melodies with the more common guitar tab staff notation.
The six strings on your guitar is numbered from the one with the highest pitch. This string is called the first string.
Look at this guitar tab notation:
11 12 03
As you can see the numbers are organized in pairs.
The first number in the pair tells you what fret to press down and the second number what string to play.
11 means that you press down the first fret on the first string. 12 that you press down the first fret on the second string. 03 that you play the third open string which means that you pluck the string without pressing down a fret.
Let’s start with the first part of the melody with guitar tab:
Yankee Doodle went to town
12 12 32 01 12 01 32
12 tells you to play the first fret on the second string. 01 means that you play the open first string.
This type of guitar tab doesn’t indicate the length of the notes. If you sing the lyrics you will better feel how to play the notes.
The names of the four notes you have played are C C D E C E D
How do you play guitar tablature with your left hand?
If you want to use your left hand in a professional way I suggest that you play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, the notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.
Let’s proceed with the next words:
A-Riding on a pony
03 12 12 32 01 12 02
The names of the seven notes are G C C D E C B
How do you play guitar tab with your right hand?
Well, there are many ways to pluck or play the strings with your right hand. The easiest way is to use your right hand thumb. I suggest that you use your right hand thumb and concentrate on your left hand fingerings.
Here is the next lyrics and guitar tablature:
He stuck a feather in his hat
03 12 12 32 01 11 01 32
The names of the tablature notes are G C C D E F E D
And called it macaroni
12 02 03 23 02 12 12
The names of the guitar tab notes: C B G A B C C
Learn to play guitar tablature part 2
Here comes the lyrics and the guitar tab for the refrain:
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
23 02 23 03 23 02 12
Guitar tablature notes: A B A G A B C
Yankee Doodle dandy
03 23 03 34 24 03
Guitar tab notes: G A G F E G
Mind the music and the step
23 02 23 03 23 02 12
Guitar tablature notes: A B A G A B C
And with the girls be handy
23 03 12 02 32 12 12
Guitar tab notes: A G C B D C C
Where can you find more guitar tab?
Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tab staff has six lines representing the six strings.
November 8th, 2009 §
In the process of determining the best guitar course it can boggle the mind just looking at all the different options open to you. The advent of the internet has made it possible for ordinary people like you and me to get access to valuable information at almost no cost. So you owe it to yourself to shop for the most ideal guitar course for your playing style and for your pocket.Obviously you want a set of lessons that deliver top quality guitar instruction for lowest possible cost. This is the absolute best advice I can give: obtain a straight forward guitar lesson course. You can get so tied up in the whole ‘theory trap’ that you learn really bad habits that wont help you improve as a guitarist. Always strive to acquire working knowledge of the guitar and music; things that you can ‘pull out of the bag’ when it matters.It’s been a long time since I started learning to play guitar, and since then I’ve helped lots of others to do the same. When I performed regularly I played in country, jazz, and covers bands. I studied lots of legendary guitarists in spanning a wide array of musical genres including rock, country, blues, jazz, fingerstyle, acoustic, and electric style. I think you can tell that I was absolutely obsessed with this instrument.I should be playing more and I do feel a little guilty about, but these last few years I’ve gotten busy with other things. Still, my level on the guitar is still pretty solid, you never really lose it because it becomes second nature or muscle memory as some experts put it.In all the thousands of hours that I have spent playing I have seen just about every way there is to learning guitar. I got a hold of every guitar couse, lesson, and manual that I could find. But the majority of training packages that I bought wwere not worth it because they contained a lot of abstract exercises that you would never really use in real guitar playing. The outcome was that my playing consisted of a lot of skills that I couldn’t really utilize effectively.Even though I don’t get on my guitar half as much as I know I should, I still make it a point to keep abreast of all the guitar instructional courses available. My general conclusion is that there is a lot of rubbish on the internet, and you have to be careful of what you purchase. As a result of my personal experience, I want to save you some hassle and give clear pointers on what to look for. At the very least make sure you get a guitar instructional package that has these things:1. Lots of content for low cost (pay as little as possible to get a good course)2. Well thought out guitar techniques3. Guitar coaches who know what they are talking about4. Use backing tracks5. Thel lessons entail guitar music that you want to learn6. Tablature (guitar music) that you can use for clearly understanding the lessons7. Access to an online community to share your thoughts with other guitaristsConsidering these factors, I highly recommend two guitar lesson packages above any other options:a). Guitar Tricks – the most complete guitar course to be found on the planet! Contains over 3000 guitar lessons by 45 instructorsb). Learn and Master Guitar – is the other super premium guitar course. Covers all users from absolute beginners to ultra advanced. This is one guitar course that will take you all the way babyFollow this link to view my detailed reviews of the best guitar course. For more top quality guitar information: 6 Qualities of the Best Guitar Course
Karm plays and teaches guitar as a side line hobby. Favourite music includes Chicken Pickin, Country, Slide Blues, and Classical guitar. Writing new and interesting guitar songs keeps Karm’s fingers moving when he isn’t working hard on other projects.
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November 7th, 2009 §
Well guitar for beginners can seem like a monumental task. There are many different ways to learn Guitar and practice. What’s needed is top quality, natural step by step video guitar lessons and instructions that take you from beginner guitar or intermediate all the way through advanced guitar instruction.
Practicing in front of a video all of the time is boring, so to Learn & Master Guitar from a Home workbook that includes all of the songs and exercises shown on the accompanying video guitar lessons allows you to keep practicing at your own level, and speed for as long as needed before progressing on to the following lesson.
Important Note 1: Comprehensive Guitar Tuition should give Instructional practice in a wide range of musical themes, and take students all the way from guitar for beginners through to highly advanced guitar play instruction.
Learn Guitar Online
The best online guitar lessons approach all seem to employ pretty straight forward step by step systems, and you normally receive feed back on instruction which is excellent, one of the one of the most common first comments read from the top Learn guitar systems is that the level of communication is very high which makes it a lot easier for learning Guitar, also the Idea of Jam-Along CD’s, Having a CD to play guitar along with while learning your guitar songs will make the Guitar lessons a lot of fun
Important Note 2: Look for Online Guitar that provide this.
Teach Yourself to Learn Guitar
The fundamentals of the Best Award-Winning Learn & Master Guitar Home Study Courses are the Easy Guitar video instruction. This comes to you either as a fully-produced Learn Guitar DVDs each packed with Guitar lessons, that guide you every step of the way on your path to guitar mastery, or thru an instant download to get you started immediately
Important Note 3:Look for Online courses that offer both A physical product and a Instant download.
Guitar Tutorial
It is important that guitar lessons have an instructional area where the professional instructor teaches you the day’s core basics in detail, followed up with a workshop where you practice them altogether. On-screen graphics make it easy to keep up, and an extensive menu should be available to refer to any subject or assignments you may want to consider.
When purchasing a video guitar course, you should gain access to some sort of Support or Community to complete your online guitar lessons. It is important that professional instructors participate online, offering encouragement and answering questions.
Important Note 4: Top Online Guitar Courses have Email, Phone, and Forum support.
The complete Learn Guitar course.
If you are serious about Learning Guitar than make sure that the main points are covered, remember you pay for what you get. A Course that costs more than Other Guitar Tutorial systems should have the following, great support (Email, Phone, Forum), a money back guarantee, Professional DVD Set, Jam along CDS, and A comprehensive workbook.
read more Learn Guitar.
November 7th, 2009 §
Do you really know the name of the notes on your guitar fretboard? You can learn the notes well and in a short time if you put a little energy into the project!
It will really help you as a guitarist if you know the names of the notes on your guitar. Let’s see some of the benefits you reap from learning to know your guitar:
1. It will be much easier to learn to play sheet music notation as you already know where to find the notes on your guitar. The only remaining task is to learn the names of the notes on the sheet music staff.
2. You will find it much easier to understand chords and remember chords as you easily can see where to put your fingers to play the required notes.
3. It will be easier for you to understand guitar lessons on the net or in guitar instructional books as you understand an important part of the language used in guitar instruction.
We will start with something you can learn as your first task if don’t already know this. It is to know the names of the notes on the open strings of your guitar. An open string is a string not pressed down by a left hand finger.
The first string with the highest pitch on your guitar is normally tuned to an E. If you press down the twelfth fret you will find an E one octave higher. I will now give you the names of the open strings beginning with the first string:
E B G D A E
You can practice the names of the strings by playing the strings from the sixt string down to the first and back at the same time saying the names of the strings aloud or in your mind.
An easy and effective exercise to use to learn the notes on the fretboard is to concentrate on one note at a time trying to find the note on all the strings beginning with the sixth string.
Let’s start with the note E. On the sixth string you will find it on the open string. Can you spot the E on the next string? This exercise will also help you develop your ear.
Listen to the E on the sixth string and press down a finger on the fifth string and slide it until you will find an E on this string. As this is not a test but an article I will tell you that you will find an E on fret 7.
On string four you will find an E on fret 2. On string three it’s on fret 8. On string 2 on fret 5 and on string one on the open string.
Now you can practice the E notes by playing one string at a time from the sixth string down to the first and back again until you can do it automatically.
Do the same with the note G for example trying to find the right fret by listening. On the sixth string you will fing G on fret three. Of course the notes will be found in different octaves and this will be a great exercise to hear the notes and recognize them by listening.
There are many more exercises you can use to learn the notes on the fretboard. The message is that you will learn the notes on the guitar fretboard in a short time if you make a conscious effort to learn them.
November 6th, 2009 §
In high school, did you ever dream about starting your own rock band? Want to duplicate the soothing sounds of folk tunes for family and friends? Does your favorite musician work magic with a Gibson ES 335? Is Jimi Hendrix your idol? It doesn’t matter the reason why you want to play the guitar – a seed has been planted and now it is time to nurture the desire.
Where to begin? Playing guitar (whether for fun or professionally) takes patience and determination. By following a few tips, you can harness your passion or interest for the instrument. You will also find that fueling your creativity and developing this new form of expression will take time. Great guitar players do not blossom overnight.
Purchasing a Guitar
Before you start learning the ropes of guitar playing, you’re going to need an instrument to carry out your lessons. The type of music you wish to play will determine the kind of guitar you require. For example, an acoustic guitar is used to generate the sounds of country, ragtime or folk. The body of the guitar is large and hollow, creating a sound that many deem “natural.” Rock music often utilizes an electric guitar, which offers a rather distinctive amplified sound. Additional guitars to look into include the steel, solid body, archtop, resonator, bass and twelve-string guitar.
With the purchase of a guitar, there are other necessary pieces of basic equipment. A guitar pick is required to help play the chords of your instrument. The size of guitar pick is quite small, prompting easy breakage and it can also be easily misplaced. This is why beginners should have a good number of guitar picks on hand. When purchasing picks, the medium gauge varieties are suggested because they are less apt to break. You should also invest in a comfortable chair.
Getting Lessons
While some guitar players are able to naturally experiment with chords by ear and strum along with less guidance, others require the assistance of structured lessons. There are numerous ways to learn how to play the guitar. If you are able to afford a private tutor, you can take advantage of one-on-one instruction, which may speed up the learning process. Sometimes, beginners benefit from group learning, which provides a wealth of constructive criticism. The Internet also offers a way for beginners to privately learn online. Some websites offer a computer keyboard lesson on learning scales, which some beginners find quite easy.
Whichever approach you take in learning to play guitar, you should know that setting goals for yourself makes the process more rewarding. Achieving personal milestones further motivates your desire to find a common ground with the instrument and who knows how far your lessons will take you.
Recognizing why you want to play guitar in the first place will also help you to better accomplish your goals. Some people want to learn to play for fun, peaking with a performance in front of family and friends. Others would like to share their talents with a slightly larger crowd, probably visiting a few coffee shops or open-mic nights. Then there are the masses of learners who have bigger dreams of taking to a stage in front of thousands. No matter what the goal is, you can’t get there without loads of practice.
What You Will Learn
Guitar lessons usually start with building a basic foundation, such as how to properly hold the guitar and establishing correct posture when playing. There is a wide range of techniques involved in playing the guitar and after a few lessons, you may start to find your niche.
One of the most important things to focus on when playing a guitar is understanding and mastering the chords. There are books and charts to help you along this important part of the process. There are many different chords to familiarize yourself with and taking them one at a time will lead to better results.
Additional areas of guitar instruction may include learning how to properly hold a pick, memorizing scales, tackling music theory and selecting a music style. Instrument maintenance, such as tuning and caring for your guitar is also of importance.
Sticking With It
Staying motivated is one of the best things you can do when learning to play the guitar. It is easy to become frustrated with a new project and abandon it before truly experiencing any benefits. On some days, you may have to dig deep to reclaim your passion and dedication. Other days, you could be composing the next pop hit. Give the process a chance and remember that it takes time to get the hang of this instrument. The best thing you can do is continue to practice and soon, you will reap the rewards of hard work and focus.
November 6th, 2009 §
If you have come to the conclusion that you want to play guitar the next step will be to choose a guitar to buy. There is a variety of instruments out there at different prices. Let’s look at your choices.
What types of guitars will you find in a guitar shop?
1. The classical guitar. The classical guitar or Spanish guitar has nylon strings which produce a soft and mellow sound suitable for classical guitar music and for accompanying soft songs with finger playing.
Personally I have grown up with the Spanish guitar in my home as my father was a guitar teacher and we had a lot of guitars in our home all of them with nylon strings.
I have played a lot of styles with Spanish guitars like blues and rock music. Yes, it is possible to bend the nylon strings on a classical guitar when you play blues if you get used to it!
2. Steel-strung flat-top guitars. The steel-strung guitar is very good for strumming with a plectrum and for playing solos.
Nowadays I play steel-strung guitars a lot both with right hand fingers and with a pick. I like the crisp sound from the steel-strings. The drawbacks with this types of guitars are that they can be hard to play if the strings have too high action.
3. Electic guitars. An electric guitar has electromagnetic pickups transforming the vibrations from the strings into currents that in an guitar amplifier becomes sounds.
In this type of guitar the direct sound from the guitar is not important which makes it possible to have light gauge strings that are easy to bend. This makes it easier to play blues licks for example.
I usually play on an American Stratocaster because I like the crisp, clean sound and I can play different types of music on it. There are a lot of different types of electric guitars to choose from.
Nowadays you can find inexpensive electric guitars of good quality for example Ibanez or Yamaha guitars that are easy to play. I have a rather inexpensive Ibanez guitar that is very easy to play.
If you are a beginner wanting to start to play guitar my advice would be that you ask an accomplished guitar player to help you choose the right guitar for you. Even two guitars of the same model can differ in playability and tone.
I would also suggest that you buy your guitar in a music shop with experienced musicians and guitarists that can help you find out the best guitar for you.
I would also suggest that you buy an electronic guitar tuner to help you to always have your guitar well tuned. There is no guitar that is nice to play if it is out of tune.
November 4th, 2009 §
If you are interested in learning how to play the guitar the easy, convenient way and in the quickest time possible, then it is advisable to turn to the Internet for help. At present there are thousands of high-quality, dedicated online resources that have been especially designed to meet the needs and requirements of existing and prospective guitar players worldwide, so everyone who wishes to learn more about playing the guitar can find and access a wide range of invaluable guitar playing tips, video tutorials and lessons simply through a few clicks of the mouse. However, in order to have the guarantee that you will only be provided with quality information and online guitar lessons that really produce significant results, it is very important to separate the efficient, properly designed and administered websites from the rest and only stick with the ones that are reliable and can help you improve your guitar playing in the minimum of time, with the least of effort and most important, for less money.
With so many guitar lessons out there (both free and paid), the task of finding the best ones (and more important, the ones that are most appropriate to you) can be very difficult. The best approach to this problem is to do a quick research on the specialized online resources with a good reputation and choose the websites that provide the guitar lessons which best suit your needs and requirements. Before choosing the lessons of a certain online tutorial-providing website over the lessons of another, it is recommendable to ask for the advice of your friends or other persons in whom you trust in order to find out whether those particular guitar lessons are efficient or not. Checking the testimonial sections and blogs of online guitar lesson websites is another way to determine the actual quality of the guitar lessons, tips and tutorials they provide.
By choosing to use only the lessons and tips of the major, highly reputed online guitar lesson-providing websites, you will ensure that you will be able to learn to play the guitar in an exciting, efficient and simple manner and that your efforts of learning how to play the guitar will pay off in the least of time. Especially if you are a complete novice at playing the guitar (and arenât yet capable of evaluating the quality and efficiency of online guitar lessons you may come across), it is very important to stick with the ones offered by the best guitar learning online resources. By doing this, you will avoid wasting time and money with guitar lessons that donât produce the expected results.
Once you have found the online guitar lesson-providing websites that are right for you, all you have to do is choose the lessons, tips and guitar-playing video tutorials that match your levels of skill and experience and start practicing in order to improve your playing. In case you are a beginner, it is also recommendable for you to decide over what you are interested in learning first or what guitar techniques you wish to master. For instance, if you want to become a pro at playing electric guitar, using acoustic guitar lessons would in most cases be a waste of time, considering that the guitar techniques used for playing the electric guitar are very different from those used to play the acoustic guitar.
Furthermore, it is very important to establish a list of priorities of the things you want to learn and take guitar playing one step at a time. As an example, rushing in at learning advanced guitar playing techniques such as guitar tapping or harmonic picking without knowing the basics behind guitar playing (the basic chords, the most extensively utilized guitar scales) are very likely to get you nowhere.
Another important thing to take in consideration is the genre of music you are interested in learning to play. For instance, online guitar lessons which concentrate on teaching playing rock guitar are very different from those which concentrate on teaching playing jazz guitar. To obtain the best results, it is therefore crucial to decide exactly what you want to learn and also establish a list of learning priorities. After doing this, with the help of quality guitar lessons provided by a reliable, dedicated guitar lessons website, and with a little ambition and practice you will be able to play the guitar like a pro in no time!
For more information about online guitar lesson or even about guitar lesson your can check on this website http://www.guitar5day.com for more guitar related subjects.
November 4th, 2009 §
Have you ever considered teaching yourself guitar without the aid of a teacher. Is it possible to progress on your own? Let’s see if you can help yourself!
There must be a reason for having a guitar teacher! Otherwise, why do so many people pay money to this type of people? Let’s see why it could be a good thing to have a guitar teacher. A good guitar teacher will…
1. … help you set goals that will make you become the type of guitarist you want to be.
2. … give you a decent amount of homework to practice on your level of competence that will help you progress in a sound and solid way.
3. … will give you a deadline to work towards that will help you get on with the work.
4. … will be honest with you and will spot your weaknesses as an aspiring guitarist and give you exercices to work on that really will help you to advance.
5. … will help you progress as a guitarist by learning you to play in a relaxed way and with a correct posture that will not hurt your hands and your body in any way.
6. … will teach you and motivate you by example. It will be a guitarist that loves to play and can arouse enthusiasm in you for the guitar by just being around.
7. … will like you and help you feel confident in what you are doing and he will also help you like yourself and believe in yourself and your capacity to become a good guitarist and musician.
Will you be able to find this type of guitar teacher and will you be able to afford paying for this for a sufficient time in order to really progress?
My opinion is that nothing compare to having a really good guitar teacher. If you can find such a person and pay for lessons it is my advice that you do this.
Just an example from everyday life…
…I know by own experience that it can be a hard time choosing a hairdresser. This type of person can really change your look in a way that you do like or do not like. But hair will grow and you can find someone else the next time.
But, how do you find a guitar teacher that really will help you. Trial and error? Maybe, but I guess that the best way is to listen to other good guitarists. In other words, recommendations.
Well, if you decide to be your own guitar teacher for now, what can you do? There are a few mistakes I would like you not to make that are very common when you try to teach yourself:
1. Don’t play too fast! When you listen to your guitar heroes you will probably feel inspired to play like they do. However, the best way to really progress to a really fast player and also a good musician is to practise within the bounds of your present technical skills.
2. Don’t change exercises to often. When you give yourself homework to practice on it is important to stick to an exercise long enough to really reap the benefits from it. This will happen when your fingers are programmed to play the exercise without problem and you have committed the musical application to your long-term memory.
It will also help you to read about guitar playing in magazines and on the internet. Another very good aid for you as an aspiring “Teach Yourself To Play” guitarist is to buy some recommended guitar instructional books and instructional DVD’s that will give you some of the benefits of having a good guitar teacher.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed with all the information you can find about guitar playing. The comfort is that you will learn best by giving yourself a few things to work with at a time and focus on this homework with concentration, playing the exercices slowly having patience in your ability to grow.