Guitar Lovers

by Jamey Andreas

If we are dedicated to our growth as artists who play the guitar, we must be very smart to get the best out of ourselves. Part of the difficulty in doing so lies in combating the forces and conditioning of the world around us. The world around us tends very strongly to condition us in ways that will lead us far from our goals as artists, as people who have the power to express a deeper level of reality and convey that to other people through their art, in our case, music and the guitar.  One of the most destructive mindsets we can have is a hurried and worried attitude about our daily work, our daily practice. We are conditioned in our schooling, and later in our life in the working world, to a fearful attitude which tells us we need to perform to a certain standard, or else! We need to get those high marks, or else we fail our class. We need to finish that project, finish that report, or else the ax will fall!

This is why we have the word “deadline”. It means “if you do not finish this required work on time, you’re dead!”

Some people become so used to this feeling that they begin to believe they “work best under pressure”. They need to feel they have a gun pointed at their head, so they believe, to even get any work done!

Well, I want to tell you that if you wish to develop as an artist, you must get very far away from this belief system. You must discover a whole new way of motivating yourself to perform that does not depend on the fear of some terrible thing happening to you.You must find a way to give yourself completely to your daily work, your daily practice, that is motivated onlyby the pleasure you are getting from every moment of every day’s practice.

I have often had a student tell me that the reason why they did so poorly on the 4 different things I gave them to practice was becausethey were worried about”getting everything done perfectly in time for the lesson”, so they rushed through the material, hurried and worried. Of course, rushing through the material meant they missed just about everything that was important, like the fingering, and whether or not they were actually able to play to a steady beat, or even whether or not they were playing the correct notes! And as far as being aware of all body tensions, forget it!

So, I have to break the news to them that their entire week of practice was worthless, and must be done over. I also have to explain that the very attempt to “get it perfect” is what lead them to “get it very imperfect”.

Understand this: there is no such thing as perfect. “Perfect” by itself, is not a goal that your mind can grab hold of and set itself to accomplish. The word “perfect” must be used in connection with a given, knowable, and obtainable goal in order to do us any good. Otherwise,”perfect” is a big fat scary word that can only be used to intimidate and rattle you so much that you will probably accomplish very little.

We must learn to think in terms of goalines, not deadlines, when we practice. Week by week, you or your teacher must set out the proper “next goal” for you to accomplish with any given piece of music you are working on. For instance, if I am working on a scale with a student, I will say something like “next week, I want to hear this scale at 60 to the quarter note, withyour fingers working exactly the way I have shown you. I want you to work it up every day using the Basic Practice Approach, to that speed throughout the course of the week. Don’t worry about any faster speeds, just get it as perfect as you can at that speed”.

If it is a song, or a solo that needs to go at 120 bpm, I might set out the goals this way:

1st week: get the notes and the fingers right. Start to walk through the notes no tempo, and discover the most challenging parts, and start to analyze why they are difficult, and what you are going to do about it.

2nd week: test yourself by playing small sections of the music at 60bpms, taking 4 clicks for each note. Make sure all the movements can be done smoothly at this speed. If they can’t, there is no chance of being able to do it any faster. Then, start to work those sections up in speed using the Basic Practice Approach.

3rd week: begin to play to the actual rhythm of the music, giving all the notes their true rhythmic value, not all equal time as before. Discover where the problems are now. Start to work on them, and find what tempo you can play everything at with no mistakes, section by section.

4th week: here, I will begin to assign specific tempo goals for different sections, as I see the student is ready to accomplish those goals.

All along the way, I am giving out other goals as appropriate. “Your pick is going too far out from the string on your up-pick on that scale. Fix it this week with correct practice.” The next week, when that student walks in, I look at the notebook to see what goals I have given, and I’d better see at least some movement toward that goal.(The worst thing a student can do is not look at their notebook, not look at the goals I have set forth.)

This constant process of setting the nextappropriate goal, and setting it out clearly along with making sure themeans to accomplish itare understood, is what brings constantprogress in our study ofthe guitar. The lack of doing so is why there is so little progress for so many people.

People often go for avery inappropriate goal. If they are working on a fast solo or piece, they try to play it almost right away just like the guy on the record, whoprobably spent ten years practicing it before recording it! By reaching for this very advanced goal right away, we usually guarantee failure and frustration. Progress as a guitarist, as Segovia said, is a step by step process, and no step can be missed. If I am standing on the ground looking at a staircase going up, and I try to jump up to the 10th step instead of walking up the first nine, what do you think will happen? I will fall flat on my face or fanny, and may be too black and blue to make another attempt.

And yet, that is what many people do when practicing guitar. They do it because of two reasons, the same two reasons responsible for most of what is wrong with the world: ego and ignorance. Don’t be this way. As far as ego, remember this: be humble, don’t stumble. Don’t try to play that solo at 120bpm right away. Spend a monthgetting it perfect at 60. That way, thepath to getting it at 80 is simple. Then 100 and 120 will follow, and be solid, not shaky.

As far as ignorance, I often tell students “the only reason you are practicing badly is because you actually think, deep inside, that you WILL learn this music successfully doing it your way, and skipping so many steps. You are wrong, you won’t. And your faulty playing, when put to the test, is the proof. When you become wise enough (and honest enough) to see the truth of this, you will practice correctly.”

When attempting to set the next best goal for yourself in any situation, ask yourself this question: “if I apply everything I know, up to this moment, about guitar and how to practice, and I apply it to this music I am working on, AND I give it my very best effort, what level of improvement can I reasonably expect?” Ask yourself this question, and pick short term goals, ones that can be obtained in a week to a month.

If you are practicing your lesson material during the week and you start to feel pressured to “get it right” in time for the lesson, don’t start hurrying through things and getting sloppy just to cover everything. Adjust your goals. Forget that scale for this week, and just work on those chord changes. Re-focus your goals and re-focus your efforts. That way, at least you will accomplish something instead of nothing. Better to juggle 3 balls in the air successfully than to drop 5!

Remember, the achievement of each goal IS the way to reach your final goal, just as taking each step up the stairs is the way to the top. Have fun, and don’t make yourself crazy. Even if you do progress correctly, as you should, people move at different speeds. I tend to work hard and move fast, but I like to sit on the steps every once in a while, and just play my guitar while I look around!

5 Tips for Selecting Guitars as Gifts

The main things in choosing guitar gifts are experience level, style of music preferred, and what gear and learning material they already own. Try to find as much out about these as possible. Or better yet, get the lucky gift recipient to drop a few subtle hints on what they want. If you
you really don’t have a good handle on any of this, no worries, here are some tips for different situations:

1. Preferences- Learn as much as you can about the guitar player’s stage of development, gear they own, and
musical styles they prefer, and tailor the gift accordingly. Consulting a Guitar Buff will help you with this, as will checking with a family member or friend close to the lucky recipient.

2. Gift Certificate- Don’t have a clue on what to get? No problem! When in doubt, give a gift certificate
for guitar gear, online lessons, or music. Price range: however generous you feel!

3. Guitar Package- For a beginner who does not have a guitar , packages are available starting at about $100
that include a guitar and all the accessories needed to get going “out of the box” (including an amp if it’s an electric guitar.)

4. Online lessons or instructional products- Every guitarist wants to learn new skills and move to the next
level. These include “Learn to Play” lessons, interactive lessons to learn songs, and in-depth lessons on particular
techniques. These are usually in the $20-40 range.

5. Books and videos – For a reasonably priced gift, books are a great choice and can easily be
tailored to the recipient. Some categories: history of a style of guitar music (rock , blues, jazz); biography of favorite
guitar players; instruction books; guitar song (tab) books for a favorite band or style of music. Price range $15-30.

It is possible to select the right guitar gift. The key is to spend a little effort to find out about the recipient’s skill
level, gear they have, and musical preferences. If you don’t know much about guitar playing, or otherwise aren’t able to
pick a specific gift, a gift certificate for guitar gear, lessons, or other products should do the trick.

When you learn to play the guitar your first stock in trade is the number of chords you can play. To get any decent sort of repertoire you need to learn as many guitar chords as possible. For the beginner it can be very confusing and overwhelming because there are literally thousands of chords. Using a printable guitar chords chart for reference is very useful for the first year or so.

Learn the main forms of the chords

There are obscure versions of chords that you can ignore at first. So for the chord of A you only need to learn 3 versions. A major, A minor (Am) and A seven (A7). So when you come across a piece of music that asks for A two or A nine just ignore this and play one of the 3 main chords. This will usually be the major version of the chord.

Second Stage Of Learning Guitar Chords

Once you have mastered and remembered the 3 main chords in each key you can then start treating yourself to some of the more unusual guitar chords. If you forget your standard chords you can just refer to your guitar chords chart to jog your memory. The second stage of learning chords will have you sounding much more interesting. There is a music phase or fashion at the moment of replacing the Major version of a chord with the 2 chord. What this means is that you replace A Major with A two (A2). The other very popular chords are the bossa nova guitar chords such as the major sevenths. For example C major seven (CMaj7). As soon as you add these bossa nova chords and other variations your playing will change and become much more interesting.

Changing The Bass Notes

All the chords discussed here will be on any guitar chords chart. What you will not have is the alterantive bass notes. The Group U2 are the greatest exponents of this technique. What you do is keep the same bass note playing all the way through while you change all the other parts of the chord. So in the key of A you can play the chords of A, D & E but leave the 5th string open with the Bass note of A playing for all the chords. This would be written A. D/A, E/A. A good learning technique is to play around with these alternative bass notes when playing guitar chords.

Everything is possible. Even you can play a guitar the rock star way. Those who are still new with this, then you have to learn the basics. Even those who are big names in the music industry started from scratch.

If you are grim and determined to learn the guitar like a pro, it takes constant practice and guidance from the expert. Learning to play can both be physically and mentally draining.

To many, the first step in learning the guitar is by familiarizing the guitar chords. This way, it would help you to strengthen your fingers, wrists, and most specially the hand.

This strength that will be developed will eventually help you in mastering the art of guitar playing. Constant practice on learning and playing the chords will be a big help to coordinate the picking hand together with the hand which is voicing the chords.

Though this may be considered as one of the basic ways in guitar playing, this would serve as your solid foundation in your further endeavors in playing the guitar. If you are now confident that you have mastered the basics of playing the guitar, then you can let some of your friends and families witness your new talent.

By doing this, it will give you greater confidence and inspire you to work hard in practicing.

When planning to play the guitar, remember that the longest journey starts with a single step. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, then do it now.

There are now many free resources on the internet teaching people how to play the guitar. There are also many online guitar learning courses such as Jamorama that provides a step by step guide online. These are prefect for people who are busy and can’t attend a traditional guitar learning class.

You can go online anytime of the day when you are free and learn guitar online. Most online guitar learning courses provides videos and software that makes learning easier than ever before.

 Nowadays with the popularity of the internet and high speed
  internet access, learning how to play guitars with videos are a
  fun way to learn.  Video guitar lessons are popular because they
  are very affordable and you can take them whenever you please.
  Video has the advantage that you can both see and hear what you
  are supposed to be doing.  Video lessons also offer the advantage of being able to skip past
  things you already understand, allowing you to focus on new
  learning.  With video based guitar lessons, it’s possible to
  rewind and replay any sections that you wish to review.  When
  learning how to play guitar with video is combined with a good
  set of written material then you have the best lesson system
  outside of a personal tutor.

  Online guitar lessons are made to allow you to have a great time
  while you are learning to play the guitar.  Online lessons are
  often more dynamic and successful in keeping you focused than a
  theory book especially if you are learning how to play your
  guitar with video clips.

  It can be very time consuming searching for the best system to
  learn guitar. There’s so many options, you look around a few
  websites, Google online guitar lessons and end up more confused
  than ever. Most sites offer a free sample course, this is often a
  good way to get a feel of how each company the task of teaching
  guitar.

  Take your time and check out how the sampler course is
  structured, does it offer you step-by-step instruction? Does the
  course progress slowly or is it simply snippets of random
  information, licks and tricks? It it fun? Are the chord shapes
  easy to play?

  Today, if you’re considering learing guitar online, your guitar
  course should be a full multi-media program, i.e., written text,
  audio and video clips. Learning how to play guitars with audio
  and videos is much more fun than tediously working your way
  though a thick, boring theory book.

  Video lessons are usually rather easy to understand and are
  available to you to play over and over until you have mastered
  that level.  Lessons for the intermediate guitar player: scales,
  chords, modes, arpeggios, everything is there for you to select

  Good quality online lessons are designed around how you want to
  learn, in the style you want to play from rock and metal to folk
  and blues.

  If you are looking for beginner guitar lessons online it takes a
  bit more precaution than having private tuition at a local guitar
  centre or home visit.  As always the buyer must beware, there are
  many online guitar courses that are very limited and the quality
  is often so poor it actually ends up confusing and slowing your
  guitar skill development dramatically.

  Guitar lessons can only produce successful results when the
  people offering the guitar lesson course are 110% committed to
  producing a first class eductational system whereby the student
  grows gradually into music while at the same time having fun on
  their instrument.

  Online guitar lessons give you the flexibility to learn when and
  where you want, at your own pace, using material targeted just
  for your needs.  With proper online lessons your learning
  material it is always there at your disposal night and day,
  whenever you want to take your guitar skills to a new level.

Know the secrets of the guitar masters. The guitar effect pedal is an innovation in music artistry. Transform the sound of your guitar into different kinds of instruments and effects. The reverb effect prolongs the melodic tones to several bars. The wawa effect was made popular by Chet Atkins that allows the sound into “wawa” eclectic sound.

The foot pedals amplify your guitar licks into crescendo mode and they can multiply the effect to make it sound like more than one guitar is playing. One click on the device will change an electric guitar’s sounds into that of an acoustic classical guitar. This amazing device will amplify your guitar skills to make you sound like a guitar master.