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Archive for July, 2009

So, You Want To Learn To Play Guitar?

Posted on July 31st, 2009 by guitarbiz in Music - Play Guitar
Liz posted:

Maybe you are a Guitar Hero game player, but now you think you want to learn to play a real guitar? The guitar hero game is fun, but it doesn’t teach you to play the guitar. Maybe you’ve been thinking that to be able to play the guitar and perform for others would be something you’d like to do.

Learning to play an instrument takes work – you don’t really get to “play” at it until you learn the basics and practice. Then, after you’ve learned to play some chords and you’ve learned a song or two, the fun starts. I know because I learned to play the guitar when I was ten years old! I learned to play some chords that you can use for many songs. That is a good way to start – you’ll feel that you accomplished something. For example, if you learn these chords: C, G. and D, there are many, many easy guitar songs that use them.

Online videos teach you various things such as tuning the guitar and changing strings (and look up the parts of the guitar – it’s good to learn that). There are beginner lessons on videos that can teach about guitar chords.

How hard is it to learn a song?

When I learned to play guitar, I had a guitar teacher and used some guitar chord books. Now that was quite a while ago and today there are so many other options to get guitar lessons for beginners. I know that the online lessons are good. But this has not changed: a quick way to learn is to learn one song. After that, learning the second and third song will be much easier!

What kind of guitar should you have?

Lots of beginning guitar players start with an acoustic guitar and many start with what is considered a classical guitar.(See this article about guitars).  A basic difference between those two types of guitars is the kind of strings – acoustic guitars have steel strings and classical (or folk) guitars have nylon strings. Believe me, the nylon strings are much easier to start out with because they don’t hurt your fingers as much!

Either kind of guitar is great to learn to play with. Some people start with electric guitar, especially if their goal is to play electric guitar in a rock band. For some kinds of music, an acoustic guitar is better, you’ll just have to decide what kind of music you want to play and get the guitar that is best for it.

So, go get a guitar, but don’t get a really cheap one. Make sure you hear the guitar played first. If you have to get someone in the guitar store to play it, then do that. Or take a friend with you that knows about guitars. Then, start learning your first song. You will become your own guitar hero!

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Learn to Play Guitar in a Way That your Patrons Will Unwind and Relax

Posted on July 30th, 2009 by guitarbiz in Music - Play Guitar
Muna wa Wanjiru posted:

With so many things to do in our lives we need to find ways in which we can unwind and relax. Of the many different activities that can be found, guitar playing is found to be popular. To learn to play guitar can take lots of time and practice, or you can find different courses that will help speed up your playing style.

These various courses are perfect for the person who feels frustrated by the lack of progress that they may be going through using the normal channels to learn to play guitar.

Regardless of the reason for choosing to learn to play guitar, you have a good chance of being able to master the many different chords, scales, rhythms, and the various riffs that are used in guitar playing as well.

When you are looking at these different forms of music that are used in guitar playing you might at first feel overwhelmed. This however will change as time passes and you feel more confident about your ability to learn to play guitar.

The first step to achieving this is to choose a guitar that will feel comfortable in your hands. Once you have found your guitar you will then need to find an instructor, or a place where you will be able to learn to play guitar without feeling uncomfortable or shy.

After all, the various people who are learning to play the guitar with you are also there to learn. This means that they too will need to learn the various techniques, tips and methods of being able to play the guitar, so don’t feel embarrassed about to learn to play guitar alongside them.

From your instructor the very first step that you will learn about is the placing of your fingers on the guitar strings. You will then be told what the name and the chord of each string is called.

This is very important as when you are playing guitar music you will be manipulating the guitar strings to help you produce great music. For your first guitar playing lesson you will be shown a small song that will help you to see how to place your fingers on the chord to make the sounds that are needed in the song.

From this step you will then proceed to the next step which is to learn to play guitar scales. These scales are important too as you will become familiar with the position of these many notes, and when you are playing any piece of music your fingers will be familiar with finding the scale before you are even aware of that fact.

The most important ingredient you need to learn to play guitar however, is nothing other than your enthusiasm and your commitment. With these two things and a guitar in your hands the music world can become your oyster.

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Guitarists – Learn To Play Guitar Fast

Posted on July 29th, 2009 by guitarbiz in Music - Play Guitar
Carlie Edwards posted:

Several novice guitarists out there impatiently want to learn to play the guitar effortlessly. Regardless, many have a somewhat vague conception about what this really means. Lets see if we can clear up some of this misconceptions about playing fast, assert various fundamental rules about learning to play the guitar fast and at the same time provide you with some comprehensive ideas about the way this style of playing ought be used.

Playing the Guitar Fast and It’s Misconceptions

In spite of this increasing obsession regarding playing fast, speed by itself is really not pertinent. Despite that, speed is definitely a good thing when used in the context of good music and with taste.There are additional misconceptions about speed that in order to learn to play guitar fast you need to practice fast. It is in actuality correct that at some level you will want to practice fast. Still, the first undertaking is to develop various techniques before you can work on playing fast. Step by step is really the only way to learn these techniques and this needs to be done slowly.

The Key Question – How Do You Learn To Play Guitar Fast?

One important factor to playing fast is you must think before you play. A well-known guitar teacher, Aaron Shearer, promoted the “aim directed movement”, which means you need to know exactly where your fingers have to go before you move them there. This can only be achieved by slow practice.

Another important factor is developing your finger strength. You need to practice not only flexing the finger, but extending it as well. We have used our hands to grab and hold things since birth, thus developing our flexors. It’s important to train your extensors in order to learn to play guitar fast. Practicing Rasgueados is a great way to do this.

Building body energy will help you hold out during the fast playing periods by practicing speed bursts. With a speed burst you need to take small pieces of a scale and play it backwards and forwards using the eighth note as the rhythmic value for every note. Using the sixteenth note instead, play the same part of the scale backwards and forwards without stopping. Consequently you can isolate the problems in playing a scale, such as string crossings or shifts.

Using The Speed the Right Way

Pumping Nylon, a book by Scott Tennant, has a great statement about speed. Scott states when you are looking at a good piece of music, you’ll note that the Fast-playing parts only last for a couple of measures. Although knowing your scales and being able to play them quickly is always a good thing, it’s not essential to use this speed for long periods of time.

You will find many articles online that will help you to learn to play guitar fast. Just don’t expect this to come too easily. You will definitely find there is a lot of work involved. The best way to get started is to learn about the various strategies you’ll need to develop your finger strength, speed bursts and Rasqueados.

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Can You Really Handle Learning to Play Guitar?

Posted on July 28th, 2009 by guitarbiz in Music - Play Guitar
Bernice Eker posted:

The guitar is an incredibly appealing musical instrument. It is easy to understand the popularity it enjoys because irrespective of the music genre, the guitar usually plays a critical part in any song.

The lead singers in most bands also know how to play the guitar. So, if learning to play guitar is something that interests you, read on. Many thousands of people before you have learned to play the guitar, and most likely thousands more will want to learn as well. But learning to play guitar will require several things from you so think carefully, wanting to play the guitar will be hard going if you cannot handle the following facts, you will be wasting your time and money.

Learning to play guitar is far from easy; no short-cut exists to enable you to play like a professional, there are no magic spells or brain implants either. And yes, you will see guys on TV playing their 3 minute songs that make it look so easy, but what you need to remember is that they put thousands of practice hours into learning the guitar before they joined a band or even got to that point.

Learning to play guitar is going to take time and you should not expect to pick up a guitar and have it mastered within a week. You must expect to put the work into it and that means you have to practice. You must learn how to tune your guitar, learn simple chords, then learn how to play simple songs and improve from there.

Learning to play guitar, as with any musical instrument takes patience and you will make mistakes. You will experience days when you just want smash your guitar against the wall out of pure frustration. If you are the type of person who gives up at the first problem or difficulty, then learning to play the guitar will probably be hard work for you. Try to envisage your guitar hero quitting the first time they ran into adversity while learning. Would they be a star now, perhaps not?

If you possess realistic expectations about how difficult it can be learning to play guitar; the time commitment; the patience to overcome any trouble you may encounter while learning; then you are probably ready to learn to play the guitar. How you make up your mind to learn to play guitar will be up to you.

Learning to play guitar quickly and easily can be achieved by using online guitar courses and most of these sites offer everything that you need in one convenient place to learn how to play the guitar. Of course, the better quality sites will charge a fee for the material, however the relative cost is insignificant compared to the cost of lessons. And of course, you will be able to learn at a time that suits you from the comfort of your own home.

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How to Play Guitar Books

Posted on July 27th, 2009 by guitarbiz in Music - Play Guitar
Ricky Sharples posted:

There are so many tools for learning how to play guitar that you can get on the internet, it makes you wonder whether how to play guitar books have a place in the world of technology. When you used to have to learn to play guitar from a teacher you always had to have a book that you learnt out of. It was a way of making sure you and your teacher understood where you were in your guitar playing. And if you did not have a teacher you possibly learnt to play guitar by copying what you heard on the radio or on records. Even then you probably had to go out and buy a guitar tutor or at least a chord book.

The advantage of books is that the printed page is a record of information that you might learn today but need to refresh your memory at some time in the future. Video guitar lessons are a fantastic way to learn to play the guitar but the written word has its own way of expressing thoughts or helping you with your approach to music, and you do not have to go through the laborious process of fast forwarding through countless videos to remind yourself of something the teacher said. Also a book can be read when the power is down and you have to practice on an acoustic guitar by candlelight!

So let us look at a few really excellent how to books for guitar. An example of concise, easy to understand, useful guitar info is “The Guitar Book” by Chris Lopez. This book not only contains all the solid information you need to begin your life as a guitar player, you will find it is an inspiration to share in the author’s obvious passion for the guitar. This book has everything for the beginner guitar player: basic chords, changing from major chords to minor, chord progressions, playing blues guitar through to slightly more advanced but extremely useful stuff like transposing a chord progression if the original key is not right for your voice. If you are sticking with playing chords to accompany your singing or if you want to get into solo guitar, this book should be by your bedside.

“The Everything Guitar Book” by Ernie Jackson promises to have you playing like a pro in no time. It certainly contains all the basic information like some history of the guitar and the names of all the parts of the instrument, and all the basic chords. This is the kind of stuff you would expect to find in a how to play guitar book. You also have a reference guide for the information you will need to keep in your head as you learn how to play guitar. The circle of fifths is covered,as are scales and arpeggios. You are introduced to playing songs by getting to know what you can play on the treble strings first, then you are introduced to bass patterns.

“The Everything Guitar Book” also introduces you to guitar players you should know about in whatever musical genre you are interested in whether it is classical, jazz, blues, flamenco or whatever is in between. The book then gives you an intro to playing electric guitar, buying an instrument and finding a teacher. Like any book that covers everything, there are some spots that you will need to explore elsewhere but this is a good first book for a beginner guitarist.

Frederick Noad is a classical guitar player and teacher who wrote a famous classical guitar tutor called “Solo Guitar Playing”. He also wrote a book aimed at the wider world of guitar players called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing the Guitar”. This book carries a heavy classical guitar orientation but it also gives a good start for playing blues and flamenco. So it is a book for acoustic guitar players, but it is by a guy who know how to get the best from his instrument without causing severe injury to his hands and back and without using amplification. If you are a rock guitarist, do not skip past this book. There is a bunch of stuff in here that will help you become a great guitarist, and you probably will not find this kind of material anywhere else. Get it.

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