Learn Guitar Online – Practice Traps & How to Escape It

August 29th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

On exercise for the next thing can be a trap because it may lead to information overload, burnout and reduced physical performance. Practice makes perfect right? We've all heard that phrase before music teachers, parents, etc., with so many people who say we have to be correct.

Actually, the popular phrase is only half true. To achieve our performance objectives that we need an important distinction. Instead of the phrase.

Here is what we need to know…

"Perfect practice makes perfect."

You see, this is an important distinction, just practice for the sake of the practice will not cut it! You need time to practice a time where mistakes and fine tune your skills to make.

Remember, your fingers are not the thinking part of your body, this is the part, … and they will keep on "doing it" the way they have always done (even it is wrong) until you make a conscious effort to the error corrected.

Do youever practiced relentlessly fifteen hours a day, day after day, driving you and your neighbors stupid, only to completely botch things on the day of the performance?

Well, you're not on your own, 85% of the guitarists find themselves in the same situation! And we all know how it feels, our confidence shot to pieces, all you would do at the end of the night in your guitar case, search and hope that nobody notices not.

And then you can begin a never ending cycle, poorperformance means back to the studio for more relentless practice more "on exercise" to compensate for last thing disastrous consequences, burnout, and the inevitable … Another weak performance and the further loss of motivation and enthusiasm.

Here's your escape plan:

Correctly diagnose the problem.

(A) In the first place to determine in general if it is a motor skill problem or data memory problem?

(B) Then, dig deeper into the problem to find out how we specificallyThis glitch can be overcome.

Let's say if you really get down to it, you'll find that it is not a case of fat, stupid, slow or old fingers (physical and motor skills), it's just that you can not look the chords of the songs reuse (data memory problem).

Now, we begin to get somewhere and you may begin to see why it is necessary to continually review the quality of your practice and the results you achieved.

To you an analogy, let the image for a momentyou were driving down the highway without a map and you think you had the right of your destination to reach, just turning left and go so fast you will get.

You should focus on your first goal and continuous practice sessions that will achieve design goals.

Now, back to our problem of forgetting the chords of our songs, just write the chords down to practicing a data card.

Write the chords four bars to a line as follows:

C / / / |C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

There are two reasons for this (a) in the first place, it provides clarity and allows you to take small amounts of information to remember, (b) with only four bars per line very repetitive phrases obvious where you can immediately recognize and torque current material with information you already learned.

Let's say for example the next 16 bars with a new composition of your bass player, your problem is that you drive to learn the chord forTomorrow a performance.

C / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / | F / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

F / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / | C / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / | |

At first glance it seems hard, when the project is divided into four-bar units are clearly there are sections that are repeated.

Line 1:

C / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

Line 2:

F / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

Row 3: (same as line 2)

F / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

Lyn4: (same as line 1)

F / / / | C / / / | G / / / | C / / / |

I know it looks easy, and it is not, but you will be surprised to know how much practice time may be saved by breaking things down into very do-able pieces of information.

Never caught …

In a nutshell, it is the quality of your exercise sessions, not the large amount of practice time. Remember before you sit for your next practice session, decide whether the problem is motor

skill problem ordata memory problem.

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Getting the guitar to know Faster than you thought possible

August 26th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

Are you ready to learn the secrets to good guitar as quickly as possible? The answer is correct practice. This is the number one thing you can do as quickly as possible to improve. Everyone has their own learning curve when it comes to learning the guitar, but in order of improvement to maximize your rate, you must practice proper techniques master. If you do I promise that we will learn the guitar as quickly as possible.

Here are some tips onhow to correctly exercise. I teach these disciplines to all my students and saw how it works. In the first place if you practice you should pay attention to what you do. No exercise while on the TV! It falls under the "play around" category. You should now pay attention to how your fingers move, how they feel, and how it sounds. You will only improve on the guitar to focus.

Second, you need to slow the practice. Here's how it works. Let's say that Bill practices a guitar riff 100 times in a row. He was too fast and just practice doing it correctly 30 out of these 100 times. Jill practices the same riff 100 times. His practice it slowly and get it right 80 out of 100 times. Who do you think the most progress? Another way to think about this is so. If you have more bad than good practice, practice, you are essentially bad practice on the guitar. I do not know about you, but I prefer the good practice> Guitar.

Third, make sure you create and follow a practice schedule. Write your goals. Be aware of the finger exercises that you do. Make sure your exercise covers many different aspects such as music theory, sight reading, technique, improvising, song writer, chords, scales, styles, along with anything else you can think of.

Finally, make sure you spend time just playing the guitar. This is the whole reason for the practice in the first place. Youworking with the game balance. What good will to practice in any case if you do not get just enjoy playing?

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Learn Guitar Solo – everyone here to do it!

August 12th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

To learn guitar one would be, if not the most difficult to learn with a guitar. This means that the solo should be good fun even just yourself. Unless a man would showman has a special eye for change and to learn the guitar solo will sound a task. One of yesteryears favorites Chet Atkins and still not fail to impress with his solo guitar performances. Some current favorites are UlliBoegershausen and Igor Presnyakov. A sensational young guitar solo performer was the 12-year-old Korean Sungha Jung. Seeing and hearing them perform is just amazing. Which this guitar solo is an idea about what to give.

A good high quality acoustic guitar is a must and the main instrument solo guitar lessons. It has the edge over regular classical or Spanish guitar that may not be able to mute the split-second string plucks produce made . Yes, the key is to go solo guitar pick also called single grip. Guitar Here are differentiated or music band lead guitarists do little solo for an entire song. Carlos Santana is an extraordinary guitar solo, but most of the time he has other instruments that his guitar. To permit this, it is necessary to be patient, because it is slowly learning the best way. It will not be as good as you would try to speed the way to imitate> Guitar virtuosos do it.

Beginning would be the chords that you would already know. The more varied range of chords and will certainly help. A good wide spread of the fingers create the chords needed to press strings and Frets far as necessary. Beginners without any knowledge at all on guitar playing, the first basic guitar lessons. Play guitar solo ingenuity required for its own versions. This may mean choosingnotes of another series or angry that sounds better or improve. For a couple of songs or music that would break when it will be possible for a few ad-lib or insertion.

Improvisation is the key to learning guitar solo. There are many good guitar players who eventually improvised and extraordinary guitar soloist. Chords, many variations on how they play the guitar. It is the differences that will help guitar soloisttheir own version to the song. Other guitar players sometimes use their "angry" finger pressure to pluck the string it is. Others deliberately press the fret separator a dull sound of the knowledge creation. Something done regularly and have learned to learn the guitar solo on the Frets slipping and tweaking of the string. These styles add a little spice to a note or the completion of the message of the music. There are a lot more that can be done to improvise onGuitar solo. Tapping on the strings, gives a unique sound, whether in Frets or strumming. Life to add also would be tapping the guitar itself sounds imitate drum.

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Learn Guitar – 5 Ways to Fix Finger Fumbles

July 31st, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

Do your fingers fumble when you play guitar? It’s a common problem for guitarists of all levels, but here’s a simple five step programme to fix fumbling fingers.

Here are the steps which are described in this article.

1. Focus on one hand only.

2. Practice very slowly.

3. Build finger independence.

4. Practice in your sleep.

5. Develop a patient attitude.

Let’s take a look at each of the steps in more detail.

1. Focus On One Hand Only

Your brain has to learn to control hundreds, thousands even, of tiny muscle movements to finger chords or scales. If you load it with even more tasks, like reading tab, strumming, listening to a metronome and tapping a foot, all at the same time you are headed for trouble.

Your brain will be rushing around like a plate spinner in a cabaret show, eventually when there are too many plates in the air there will be broken china. Your brain just can’t keep up so your fingers will be left to themselves and will crash just like plates.

Give your brain a chance by concentrating on only one hand. As you master a movement you’ll need less conscious effort to control it. Forget strumming, forget reading the tab or music at the same time. Work only with one hand, or even only one finger if necessary, at a time.

2. Practice Very Slowly

If you follow the first step you give your brain some chance to keep up while it coaxes your reluctant fingers into obeying its instructions. If you try going too fast though you will still have an overload and make mistakes.

The more you make these mistakes, the more your finger muscles and brain will learn to repeat them.

So, slow down. A lot. Practice movements as slowly as needed so that you get them right. It doesn’t matter if it takes you two minutes to change chords. You have to get it right before you can get it faster.

3. Build Finger Independence

You can give yourself an extra boost with exercises to build your finger independence. Many of these exercises can be performed without the guitar, so you can put loose ends of time you have to good use.

4. Practice In Your Sleep

Visualization exercises are another good way to make use of spare time, like when you are in bed or waiting in the supermarket queue. Visualization is a great way to reinforce muscle learning.

5. Develop A Patient Attitude

It takes time to develop agile and accurate fingers for guitar playing. The movements are not natural and you will need patience to master them. Sometimes it feels like you are making no progress, but if you persist you will improve.

Let’s recap.

1. Focus on one hand only, give your brain a chance.

2. Practice very slowly, accuracy before speed.

3. Build finger independence, gain individual finger control.

4. Practice in your sleep with visualization.

5. Develop a patient attitude, you will need it.

Now you know what to do to fix your fumbling fingers so you can master chord changes and enjoy playing guitar. Remember that patient attitude, even with the best approach it takes time to build agile and fast finger technique. So don’t be too hard on your fingers, and on yourself. Relax and enjoy yourself and you will progress.

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DJ Styles to avoid

July 29th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

Mobile DJ's are often organic, they learn by doing and copying. Many have degrees in mass-com or have not been to a DJ school. Sometimes they pick up techniques that terrible, but they simply do not know better. If you find yourself in one of these categories, do not worry … just correct it, move on, and watch your earnings Skyrocket reputation and referrals.

The Puker

Hopefully you've heard this one before. If not, you are not aDJ, or if you have a bad one. To a puker is similar to a man with a comb over. He thinks he has fooled anyone yet, but everyone was laughing at him behind his back and no one wants on the one to tell him that he looks ridiculous.

A puker is someone who fake DJ voice that what people do when they try to imitate a DJ uses. It sounds like they speak with half a yawn with the movement of inflections are all over the place. It kind of sounds like a cross between Bill Clinton and HarryCarey. The term "puker" comes from the sound that someone would make if they are vomiting and at the same time. (Do not Do it!)

Although a bit difficult to accurately describe Puking, it's not hard to recognize. It is used in common with radio DJ's in the 50's through the 70's. I think that is ultimately effective in eliminating even the smallest of the markets. The only time you hear it now at carnivals, the carnies who operate the rides and have access to amicrophone … and mobile DJs.

If you still do not know what the sound is, call your local radio station and ask to speak with one of the DJs. Tell him you want to know what is meant by 'Puking. " He would like an imitation do for you.

To find out if this or any other bad DJ technique, you must get yourself a record of your live gigs. Give yourself a fair criticism, and then correct it!

The Yucker

A "Yucker" is similar to a puker buttalk like he's ready to crack about a minute laugh, but he never does. The best example is a comedian doing an impression of Bill Clinton. Or, just listen to the Bill to him the idea.

The grumpy

It is easy to figure this one out. It is ok to grunt once in a while to focus … like maybe twice a night. Otherwise, do not growl.

The mumbler.

Usually a mumbler have a problem with articulation. He is nothis mouth open quite enough his speech clearly. While it is not a good technique to sound like a high school English teacher, you still need to understand. One way to clean your articulation is a tongue twisters to practice. Another is to talk with a mild smile. Emphasis on the word moderate. If you drive, you run the risk …

The Smiler

Somewhere along the way decided that someone must be smiling DJ, because it makes them sound happy.This technology is still very strong and the pro-troop smile will almost stone if you even suggest that their smile back mode. While a very moderate smile is ok to help you keep from sounding like a mumbler, a big smile on sound as sincere as a used car dealer and screams "fake."

The yeller

I know I said five, but this one deserves a place all its own. There is no need to yell. Go ahead and project your voice, but remember, this is not the communitytheater. The microphone can pick you up just fine. If you speak at a slightly louder volume than moderate and not vomit, yuck, smile, yell or mumble, chances are you're pretty good sound.

The real DJ education you need to draw from all this: Keep it natural. Keep the energy up, but not on. Speak clearly, but not announced. Practice at home, so when you go to the action, you have it down.

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Johann Sebastian Bach – One of the Greatest Composers of All Time

July 29th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

On March 21, 1685, a German organist and regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach was born. He came from a family of musicians. His father is Ambrosius Bach who worked as the town piper. His father’s profession included organizing the town’s secular music and participating in the church music. In addition, his uncles were church chamber musicians to various composers and organists for the church. It is believed that Bach started his interest in music at an early age when he started helping his father in his work. During that time, sons were expected to aid their father’s work.

Bach lost his mother when he was just a young boy. When he turned nine, his father passed away. Bach then moved with his brother Johann Christoph Bach who worked as an organist in Ohrdruf. He continued studying, copying, and playing music at his brother’s house.

In Ohrdruf, Bach started to learn the process of building an organ, where he would usually fix the church’s organ. During that time, an organ is considered a very complex machine in the European town. Bach’s knowledge with the innards of organ is believed to be influential to his exemplary skills in playing said instrument.

At very young age of 18, Bach finished his Latin school, which is considered as an extraordinary accomplishment. He started working as an organist in Arnstadt in 1703. He then became a court organist in 1708 where he was given the chance of not just playing the organ but composing and playing varied repertoire of music as well.

Bach gained immense popularity because of his exceptional talent. Some of his works include “Brandenburg concertos,” the “Partitas,” and “Mass in B Minor.” His works have given inspiration to almost all musicians in the European tradition including Mozart.

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Learn Guitar – How to Learn Guitar in a 24 Hour Society

July 25th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

Recently while a student was waiting for his singing lesson to begin he proudly showed me his latest piece of technology, I’m not sure what it was called I’m still having trouble setting the timer on a microwave so when it comes to high tech stuff I’m technology challenged.

Anyway, this guy explained it was a new device for storing music, “How many songs will it store” I asked, after checking the gigabytes or whatever bytes they were he replied “about 8,000 songs!” All of a sudden I felt very ancient as I recalled “the good old days” when you went into a record store and came away with your twelve inch disc tucked under your arm.

My trip down memory lane was brought to a screeching halt when my next guitar student arrived and signaled the beginning of my working day. Later that day I began to review the events of that day… have we really progressed with our technological advancements or have we missed something along the way?

I’m all for technology in science, medicine and transport etc., by I’m not at all convinced we are moving forward in the learning and long term memory recall departments!

We need to understanding ‘how’ we learn; at the end of the day we need to understand human limitations in a world that never stops.

How To Learn Guitar In a World That Never Stops

Let’s see, where are we now; we’ve got…

* YouTube

* MySpace

* Guitar Hero

* Guitar Websites (complete with Guitar experts)

* Guitar learning software

* iPods, iPhones and tons of other “new” “i” storage and retrieval systems some of which can store 8,000 + songs

Boy we must be smarter than previous generations look at all the stuff we have to help us!

Unfortunately the results do not support the theory of technology based learning being superior, in fact quite the opposite.

We’ve been that obsessed with technology we’ve overlooked the obvious

Here’s the facts:

* We have been outpaced by our technology – humans are not built for the world we have designed. Humans beings do not function 24 hours a day, machines can and do!

* We have converted our world into a single technologically integrated, round-the-clock- community… news, learning,food what ever you want 27/7/365

* Machine centered technology verses human centered technology – currently we have machine centered technology and we’re going to have more and more problems until we start creating ‘human’ centered technology… after all we are supposed to be running the show aren’t we?

Here’s what I’m seeing

* Guitar players how can play faster (and louder) than ever before but most have no idea what key, scale or even what tuning they are in? They learnt it on YouTube… must be right…mmm?

How could you ever form a band with these guys… they don’t have the foggiest idea what they are doing but they are doing it 24 hours a day! They don’t speak the language of music.

* Guitar players who can’t remember the song they were learning last week, let alone what band was performing the song… oh, well doesn’t matter we’ll just download another one and forget it just as quickly and yes, I can do that 24/7 too.

Talk about the memory of a goldfish… it’s serious stuff, why bother learning something in the first place if you can’t remember it?

As I said I’m not against technology, I love it, just somewhere along the way we’ve lost a commonsense approach to LEARNING.

Five surefire ways to overcome the 24 learning problems.

1. Turn off the computer – seriously it will save you so much wasted time; wasted hours that you could actually spend learning and playing the guitar.

Try tracking how much time you spend on the computer per week.. you’ll get a shock, I’m betting it’s over two hours per week, now you can become a heck of a good guitar player with two extra hours of focused practice a week… think about that!

2. Learn to read music – “if you don’t know what you are doing there’s no point to doing it!” No matter how much you appear to be progressing with the monkey-see-monkey-do approach at the end of the day the best you can hope for is a musical copy-cat.

3. Learn new material in short time frames – 2 to 5 minutes maximum, set a kitchen timer for five minutes as soon as the timer goes off stand up and take a break. You will develop your long term memory with this approach.

4. Play with other humans – that’s what music is all about, people playing for and with other people. There’s something weird about pressing colored keys down on a fake guitar plugged into a computer pretending to be a “guitar hero”. Whatever it is… it certainly isn’t music.

5. Make sure you learn the names of the notes on the guitar fretboard – if you don’t know this you won’t be going anywhere.

Bottom line: You need to know how to work with your nervous system not against it, people need rest, motivation, enthusiasm and fun… I’m not sure what machines need, but that’s another story.

Now that you know how to learn it’s time to head to the practice room with a fresh approach to learning the guitar.

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Can You Really Learn Guitar "Over 40"?

July 23rd, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

One of the bands I play in was started by a guy who had “always wanted” to learn how to play guitar. It was a dream of his for many years.

But sometimes life has a funny way of getting between us and our dreams, and my friend had to put the guitar on the back burner while raising a family, working a job and chasing a career.

Then one day, well into his late forties, he bought a guitar. He took a few lessons and practiced until he got good enough to play some basic songs that he could sing along with.

In wasn’t too much longer before he and a buddy got together and decided they were going to form a band. So without thinking about it too much, they bought a PA system, knocked on a few doors, booked some gigs, and wound up in the band business.

The pair eventually split up, so my friend went out and found several top local musicians to join his “band”, and next thing you know, it became one of the most popular bands in the area. Nowadays my friend spends his weekends on stage living his dream.

The point is, it’s not really about how old you are when you first pick up the guitar, it’s more about your “mindset” when you start out.

My friend simply went out, learned some chords, and formed a band, without ever considering if he was too old or not – or if he could succeed or not. He just did it.

What’s the number one thing you can do to prepare yourself to learn how to play guitar over the age of 40…50…60 or older?

“Get your head right”!

As we get older we develop a tendency to “over-think” things.

This is really 90% of the battle for learning new things later in life. We somehow need to re-gain that enthusiasm for new discovery that is a trait of youth.

As we progress on the “train of life”, cynicism has a way of creeping in and we sometimes doubt our ability to take on new pursuits or learn new things.

It’s this cynical mindset that, if broken, will free us to enrich our lives in many ways as we mature, including adding the guitar to our list of accomplishments!

If you’ve ever dreamed of learning how to play guitar, why not make today the day you do something about it?

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Learn Guitar Easily Through the DVDs

July 15th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

Yes, as the title says, you can now learn guitar through DVD, which have the chapters covered to become a good player on the guitar. Many people are attracted towards music but do not have the time to learn it. With the guitar lessons on DVD, they can learn the same at home with all the comforts and their own convenience.

Guitar has always been considered as the top musical instrument which has attracted many people all over the globe. This is the instrument which makes the crowd scream and go haywire. Learning guitar can be a real fun. Follow these two simple instructions on how to learn guitar lessons on DVD.

1. Attitude makes the difference – this is your first step towards learning your guitar. Though you may have not touched it before, you can still play guitar like a professional within no time. This is possible only when you have the desire and passion to learn guitar. You can also choose from various DVD lessons offered according to your capability and willingness to learn new things. With the evolvement of technology, you have the choice to pick yourself from a wide range of selection of learning lessons on DVD. Looking at the interest people are showing towards the guitar lessons on DVD, many programs have been designed to help people learn more easily and master the play.

2. Look for the best instructor – the lessons which are on DVD are supposed to be made by professional who has good teaching experience on guitar and has mastered every string. Apart from this, the production company has to be a professional one without which you are sure to get yourself into a pit, learning from poorly made lessons.

Choose the beginner DVD always first, as there are many DVD’s that boasts about the basic learning of guitar. As soon as you start these DVD’s, the first thing you will notice is that they have skipped all the basics on how to play a guitar. Look for the ones which offer lessons from basics to beginner and to intermediate level. This will help you gain momentum in playing the guitar.

There are wide varieties of music that can be played on guitar such Jazz, classic Rock, modern day Rock, country etc. Look out for the category you are interested for and choose the DVD that will make you learn play guitar from the basics.

Grab a copy of your own DVD and start learning to play guitar like a professional within no time.

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A Very Useful Music Theory For Guitar Players

July 15th, 2010 by phoenix No comments »

‘Music Theory’ is a term that most aspiring guitar players try to avoid on first sight. It often brings out an image of tedious hours of ‘math’ like studies. If this relates to you, let me change your perception by showing you a very useful music theory that can be used to figure out the chord sequence of a song fast and easy.

‘Scale Tone Chords’

‘Scale Tone Chords’ are chords that are made entirely from notes of one particular scale. These chords will fits naturally together to form a chord progression that will support the melody written from that scale. To further understand this concept, let’s examine how chords are constructed.

Basic chords are constructed by combining at least three notes from a scale. The formula to create a major chord is by combining notes that are a third apart from each other. This can be considered as; I – III – V.

Here’s a C major scale:

*C major is always a good scale..:)*.

C(I) – D(II) – E(III) – F(IV) – G(V) – A(VI) – B(VII) – C(I)By using this formula, we can create a C major chord by combining the note C, E and G from the scale (the name of a chord is the same as the root or ‘I’ note). To test this theory, try forming a C chord on your guitar, and identify the notes that are available, you will always end up with just C, E and G.

The I – III – V formula can be apply to every notes of the C major scale above, and by doing so will create a ‘Scale Tone Chord’.

Here’s how it works:

|_C_|_ Dm_|_Em_|_F_|_G_|_Am_|_Bdim_|_C_| = CHORDS CREATED

|_G_|__A___|_B___|_C_|_D__|__E__|__F____|_G_| (V)

|_E_|__F___|_G___|_A_|_B__|__C__|__D____|_E_| (III)

|_C_|__D__|_ E__|_F_|_G_|__A__|__B___|_C_| (I) = C MAJOR SCALE

As you can see, applying this formula to every note of the C major scale resulted in the creation of a set of chords that are common or most likely to be found in songs that start with C major.

If we take another scale and repeat the method above, we will always end up producing the following set of scale tone chords:

Chords created from scale tone:

Major – Minor – Minor – Major – Major – Minor – Diminished – Major

In a key of ‘G major’, these would be:

(G – Am – Bm – C – D – Em – F#dim – G)

Can you see the benefit of knowing this? Whenever you need to figure out the chord sequence of a song, all you have to do is find the starting chord of the song and figure out the rest of the chords by choosing it from the other ‘Scale tone chords’ from that key.

Figuring out the chord sequence of a song is pretty much a guessing game, but with this method you’ll know exactly what you’re doing. Have fun!

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