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Playing Guitar With Others in the Beginning

During that initial period when a student is learning the music fundamentals, playing publicly often can be the last thing on their minds. If nothing else,  they would tend to be fairly insecure and lack confidence in their ability to play for anyone other than their music teacher or their bedroom walls. It is a  good thing really.

Learning to play your guitar is a very personal journey. Some of us do so quickly, seemingly able to master the basic skills necessary, without much  effort. There are some in every group that have to spoil it for the rest of us  slow learners. Truth is that most students must take their time to become  comfortable and proficient with their guitar. Learning chords, scales, some  theory maybe, practice methods, and perfecting simple songs take time and  practice. But, as time passes, we have all experienced how it starts to come  much easier. The sounds emanating from that old acoustic become pretty good  actually. It is at this point that I believe the budding guitarist should  consider branching out somewhat; teaming up with a musical friend or friends for  that matter.

Out of the Comfort Zone

Those of us with any playing time under our belts can probably clearly  remember the feelings of those first few jams that took us from the safe confines our bedroom practice areas. The nerves or excitement is palpable. The  palms of our hands get a little sweaty. Almost none of us felt we were really  ready to do this. What we didn’t know was that the rest of the jammers felt exactly the same way. That said, this next step is very essential in your  progress as a budding musician.

As I mentioned earlier, practicing alone is just not the same with a buddy or small group. In this scenario, it’s not just about you but how you can blend in  with others. Although your timing may have seem spot on, you quickly realize the  syncing your timing with others science as well as an art. Each of us learns to do things differently whether that is the way a chord is formed or how to phrase  a particular section of a well known song.

Keeping in Tune

Tuning was never as important is it now becomes. If you are out of tune even slightly it will either be noticeable all or one of the group will make a point of bringing it to your attention.

One of the things you will notice quite soon into the process of playing with and in front of others is how your confidence begins to grow. You will find that  your abilities will sharpen. The fundamentals will become second nature and more challenging abilities and capabilities associated with your guitar playing will  become increasingly part of your everyday playing.

I know, in my experience, making some extra coin didn’t hurt either since every guitar player I’ve known can’t resist the urge to acquire that one more  addition to their stable of instruments.

Move Forward by Playing Guitar With Others

This is why guitar players should gig. It is not until you begin doing so  that you can truly move to your next level as a guitarist and truly increase  your playing enjoyment. Sure you can progress through each theoretical level of  lessons but that’s not really why most of us pick up the guitar.

We do it to play it. Play it with others in front of others!

Best Guitar  Player (BGP) is about you! We are committed to giving you access to the  players, role models, lessons, products, services, suggestions, videos and opinions  that will facilitate your journey towards being the best guitar player you can  be.

Defining Guitar Practice

Before getting into the setup itself, let’s take moment to define practice and address why it is an ongoing necessity.

Practice is defined as “repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency: Practice makes perfect.”

Pratice Makes You Good

Unless you are a five year old prodigy, the only way that you will become a proficient guitarist is via practice. For those basketball fans among you, “it’s only practice” is a famous Allen Iverson quote and the complete opposite of what is being said here. Practice is part education, muscle memory empowerment, creative development and individual expression building, to name a few of the benefits. It requires a love of the instrument, application of self discipline, planning and repetitive execution.

Requirements for Ideal Guitar Practice Setup?

Does a basic guitar practice setup require a Fender Telecaster or a Gibson Less Paul? NO! Does it require a Marshall full stack or half stack for that matter? No! Do you need pedals? No! Do you need a drum machine or comprehensive group of backing tracks? No!

Certainly for some, the preceding is not popular. They always prefer the most expensive, best logo, biggest, loudest with the most “bells and whistles” toys, but it just doesn’t enhance the learning process.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, some of these things will actually hamper your practice experience. So, put your wallet away and listen up.

Your Commitment

You are the most important component of a basic guitar practice setup. You must be committed; you must be motivated; you must be tenacious. Let’s assume you are all of these things. What’s needed next?

The basic guitar practice setup is comprised of two components: Core and Delivery.

Core Component to Guitar Practice Setup

The core component is the bare essentials. Keep in mind that most of the talented, famous and wealthiest guitarists through time, began with even less than what we list here.

If you want to be a guitarist you will need to find yourself a guitar; your choice electric or acoustic. Electric would be best but it really doesn’t matter. Check with relatives and friends. Closets across this country house many a fine, ignored and forgotten instrument. It is probably yours for the asking. Just make sure it is not a toy but an instrument in good standing. Have it setup at your local guitar shop.

Next, if you have an electric guitar, you will need an amplification system of some type, although some newbies have become quite proficient on an electric guitar without ever plugging into an amp. Your amp should be very basic. You will require an input jack, volume, treble and bass controls, and an 8″ speaker if possible, for decent sound and a six foot guitar cable.

A comfortable chair is needed. Don’t laugh! You will be spending many hours in that chair. Make sure it is comfortable and skip the arm rests. The get in the way and will unintentionally “relic” your guitar finish.

A foot pedal/stool also helps quite a bit. By elevating your thigh, your guitar definitely feels more comfortable.

The next piece of the core component is the music stand. Whether you choose to actually learn some music theory or not, you will need a stand for tab printouts, a place to store picks and song books. If possible, stay away from the “skeleton” stands. If you can afford it, choose the solid, “L” stands. It is worth it. Stands take a lot of abuse and the cheaper ones have a way of constantly tipping over, spilling all that it holds, to the floor. On its way down it will inevitably strike your guitar (read scratch).

Finally, find a spare room and a nook to practice in. You want to reduce or eliminate distractions such as busy family members, televisions, blaring iPods, etc. Any room or space will do so long as you are not disturbed and can leave your equipment intact for the next practice session.

Delivery Component to Guitar Practice Setup

Learning to play an instrument has become a great beneficiary of technology. Our delivery component recognizes this and details how to take advantage of it. In fact these components would not have been a part of this article five years ago. Most of the tools were either non-existent, weren’t as robust or the gadgets necessary to access them were as inexpensive and available as they are today.

This component provides access to the incredible bounty of “how to” videos, song tab sites, music channels, instructors and backing tracks. All of which, will help you in your goal to practice productively and becoming proficient.

The first element is a computer or access to one. Add a fast internet connection and decent speakers and you are on your way. Having a DVD player, either standalone or within your computer, are great for the many instructional DVDs still available. MP3 players and Apple iProducts are advantageous for backing tracks and access to many other tools.

The final piece is a YouTube account. Whether you are looking for the “how to” version of Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones or simply wanting to construct a C, F and G chord progression, you will find it here. The reason for an account is that you can save these videos as favorites in playlists. This is very handy indeed, for playback referral.

Well, there you have it, a Basic Guitar Practice Setup.

Best Guitar Player (BGP) is about you! We are committed to giving you access to the players, role models, lessons, products, services, suggestions, videos and opinions that will facilitate your journey towards being the best guitar player you can be.

Feel Those Lyrics to the Song Mood

There’s a great example of this in the song “Walking on Broken Glass” by  Annie Lennox. The title of this song is a cool visual that relates the idea of  heartbreak to walking on broken glass. In itself it’s a nice lyric because not only is the idea of walking on broken glass easy to visualize, but it’s  something you can feel when you hear it described. The sensation of  hard glass against your bare feet is easy to imagine, so it’s good imagery. It  does a good job of bringing you into the scene of the story.

On the other hand, underneath those lyrics is a musical bed (or the  arrangement of musical instruments being played under the melody) that has a  very staccato feel to it, for a lot of the song. The synthesizer and piano is  played in a very chopped up and broken fashion.

Connecting Music with Song Mood & Words

The connection that’s made between the lyrics and the music is that while the  lyrics are discussing someone walking on broken glass, the music has a  melody that sits on a broken up, staccato musical arrangement  underneath it. You can almost think of the melody as the lead character while  the musical bed underneath is the broken glass, if you wanted to think of this  connection in terms of an analogy.

Sure, there are moments in this song where the music isn’t staccato and  broken. But most of the times when the phrase “Walking on broken glass” is sung,  it’s attached to a “broken” musical bed underneath. This is a nice gesture and  sets an appropriate mood for the song. So not only are the descriptive lyrics  helping to pull us into the story, but so is the feel of the musical  accompaniment.

The only critique I can make here about how to music ties to the meaning of  the song, is that this song is in a major key. You can hear it in the “happy”  sound of the music. However, the lyrics are about heartbreak, so perhaps this  song could have benefited from music that sounded a bit more melancholy.

But that aside, this song shows us a good lesson in prosody and tying our  songs mood to what the words are saying through the use of a staccato sound  attached to the concept of “broken glass.” I recommend trying to create moves  like this in your own music whenever possible. It’ll help create a fulfilling  listening experience for your audience.

To learn more, download my free EBook here: http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/freeoffer/

Anthony Ceseri is the owner of http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com, a website dedicated to the  growth and development of songwriters of all skill levels. Anthony’s writings  appear as examples in the book “Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing  Exercises For Finding Your Voice” by Pat Pattison, an acclaimed lyric writing  professor at Berklee College of Music.

The Internet & Video Guitar Lessons

Not so long ago, if you were trying to teach yourself to play the guitar, your only option was to rely on books. Books can be a great resource, and you can learn a lot from them, but they have many limitations. They can be expensive and hard to find, and it’s difficult to translate what’s written in a book into actually playing something on the guitar. Today the internet, and high speed connections, has changed all that. Thanks to modern technology such as digital video cameras and powerful computer software, anybody can create high quality videos and post them to the internet, on sites such as YouTube, for all to see. There are millions of videos across the internet about almost any subject you can imagine. Learning guitar is one of them.

Where to Find Video Guitar Lessons?

As there are literally thousands of video guitar lessons on the internet it can be hard to know where to begin looking for the ones you want. There are several different options available to you at this point. Your best bet is simply to type ‘video guitar lessons’ into Google or another search engine. Amongst the results you are likely to see two or three different types of website. The first type is the generic video hosting site like YouTube. These sites can be a fantastic resource, and are completely free, although the quality of some of the guitar lessons on offer is not always that great. The second type of website is a dedicated guitar lesson website. These tend to have better quality guitar lessons but some require a membership fee to access them. The third type are sites that offer downloadable video courses, which can be a fantastic way to learn, working through a complete and well structured course.

Finding the Best Video Guitar Lessons Online

But with so many videos available, how do you know which ones are good or bad? Well, what you’re looking for are videos which actually show, in detail, how to physically play something. A lot of videos, especially on YouTube, are just people showing off their skills. Whilst these videos may be entertaining to watch, they’re not particularly helpful for learning, so watch out for those. The best videos are the real instructional videos, with close-ups, and multi angled cameras, showing both hands along with clear instructions from the player or teacher. These will be the most effective for learning from.

Benefits & Advantages of Video

So, we’ve dealt with what to look for and where to find them, but now let’s look at some of the benefits and advantages of using video as a way of learning the guitar. Being able to see what somebody is doing, and copying them, is a far quicker way of learning something than having it explained to you. By being able to actually see where each finger goes, and what strings to play, you’ll be able to learn things on the guitar much quicker than you otherwise would. Particularly with more difficult techniques, such as hammer-ons and pull-offs, string bending, vibrato, and tapping, having the ability to see exactly what your hands should be doing not only makes it easier and quicker to learn them, but it also ensures you don’t learn improper technique, or develop bad habits that might hinder your playing later on. It really is almost as good as having a private tutor. Plus you’ve got the ability to pause, rewind, and replay the videos as many times as you need, until you’ve got it.

In my opinion, video guitar lessons are probably the best way to learn guitar if you can’t afford, or don’t want, private lessons.

My name is Chris Lake. I’ve been a professional guitarist for 15 years, and a guitar teacher for 10. I also write for several guitar related websites including my own.

If you would like to know about the best way to learn guitar on the internet today, as well as gaining invaluable tips and advice on all aspect of playing, please visit my website – GuitarSkills.net

Blues Rock Guitar Solo Lesson

Guitarists often get so tangled up and side-tracked learning flashy guitar techniques and buying equipment that the most important elements that are required to give that real authentic blues flavor are often overlooked or lost entirely.

Playing the blues is all about ‘feel’; you don’t need a four thousand dollar Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall stack to play the blues, I’ve heard unbelievable blues guitar played on a forty dollar nylon string guitar.

Blues has to be played with ‘soul’ it has to have your own unique musical fingerprint, the neat thing is we all come to this planet with the music inside us the challenge is to find a way for us to get the music out.

Blues rhythm: To play authentic blues rhythm start by playing the sixth string, play eight notes to the bar, begin by playing the notes using down and up picking; start with a down pick.

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & D U D U D U D U

The next step is vitally important, think of the word “shuffle”; visualize what that word means… a sort of lazy, laid back, “I’ll get around to it” type of attitude; a real “back porch” unhurried feel… well that’s the type of feel we want to get in our blues playing.

Now, back to the picking, as you play the eight notes (using down and up strokes) say the word shuffle over and over, break the word up into two syllables… “shuf – fle”.

Let’s play that same exercise only this time instead of saying 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & say…

shuf – fle, shuf – fle, shuf – fle, shuf – fle down – up – down – up – down - up – down – up

Now you have the first step to playing the blues.

We use words to help us remember rhythms because it’s easy for us to grasp and remember the sound immediately.

Often guitar players who are coming from a rock background may initially find this “shuf – fle, type rhythm a little strange because they would usually play eight notes with a “straight” rhythm.

The rock rhythm is more like…

cat – er – pil- lar, cat – er – pil- lar down – up – down – up – down – up - down – up

compared to the blues rhythm…

hump – ty dump – ty, hump – ty dump – ty down – up – down – up – down – up - down – up

Try tapping your foot and saying “hump – ty dump – ty, hump -ty dump – ty” or ”shuf – fle” then without stopping try to switch over to saying ” cat – er - pil- lar, cat – er – pil- lar”, notice how there’s a different “feel” between the two styles?

The blues rhythm has a lazy lilt whereas the rock rhythm is played straight.

Once you have got that blues feel you can decide which way to pick the rhythm either down and up or all down the style of picking will depend on the song you are playing, using all down picking will give you a more forceful sound; either way remember to keep the “shuf – fle” rhythm.

Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed in your guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at: => http://www.guitarcoaching.com

The tone of the guitar, the feel, look and enjoyment you get from playing it is what matters. You are not limited to buying a guitar at a music shop, you could use online shopping but first you should know exactly what you want in a guitar including the brand, model, string type and price.

it is suggested that you go out to as many local guitar shops as possible and ask them to let you play their guitars. After you have tried various models from steel string acoustic, electric, classical acoustic etc then decide which type of guitar you would like to own.

Once you have decided the type of guitar then you can start to narrow your choices down. The next decision should be what budget you have for this purchase? This will narrow your choices down even further and quite dramatically in fact. For example if you decide your budget is between $400 to $700 then this will automatically eliminate many guitars so you can take them out of the equation on your search for a guitar and concentrate on the guitar you need.

You could now start researching on what brands and even models you will prefer. Also, it is worth considering a 2nd hand guitar as you can get some better quality guitars than what you would pay for a new one. But buying a used guitar does require some expertise so you must always take someone with a lot of experience and knowledge in guitars with you before parting with your money.

Buying a guitar can be an enjoyable and enlightening experience. Enjoy it, have fun and use your ears .