How To Learn Guitar Fast By Practicing Right

Your guitar instructor tells you to practice. Practice – what and how exactly should you practice?

Does this mean to go home and play everything that you covered in your lesson in one day? Maybe it means to dig out your most impressive song or riff and play it over and over.

Practicing guitar is an art form all to itself. Everyone has their own way of guitar practice, and what works for one student will not necessarily work for another.

Like most guitarists, you probably have a few things in your tool belt to work on: scales, arpeggios, chords, picking technique, soloing, exercises, songs, theory, etc. How do you juggle everything and feel like your moving forward and not stepping backward?

Plan a Learn Guitar Practicing  Strategy

What do you want to accomplish today? If you can set aside 30 minutes or an hour and focus on 1 or 2 of these tools you’ll be able to focus better than thinking of a dozen things you need to cram into your practice session.

The operative word here is “Focus”. You can “play” for 3 hours and get nothing accomplished because you’re just “playing” guitar and not committing yourself to a “focused practice” routine.

What happens if you get to a couple notes on that 2nd string that don’t sound right? Play ONLY THE 2ND STRING. This is so important because many, many students will play the WHOLE passage or exercise again. This wastes A LOT of time because you already know the rest – it’s just the 2nd string that’s a concern.

After practicing the 2nd string problem, back up and play a note or two before the problem area to transition smoothly. Another big problem now is working transitions, so after working on any problem area – practice transitioning INTO the problem area. Practicing slow will teach the fingers exactly what they need to do.

Ok, so DAY 1 maybe you work on scales and exercises. Memorization might be on your list. If the scales are 2 octaves, just focus on the 1st octave and memorize that part.

Be sure you can play smoothly through the exercises and/or scales you are practicing even if it’s only 1 or 2!

Day 2 – Attempt these scales and exercises with a metronome. Start slow and write down the tempo you can play comfortably.

This tempo marking will only be temporary because you’ll be getting more comfortable with the fingering. You may also want to start creating melodies with these scales today.

Mixing them up and making music is the best way to understand these scales. This is also a good time to work in your arpeggios if you have them.

Day 3 – Review scales and exercises and get into your reading. The only way to be a better reader is to practice reading.

Read anything you can get your hands on. If you’re still working out the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd string notes in open position – read them and write your own ideas that use these strings. Writing your own ideas and playing them is a GREAT way to relate to the notes quicker.

Day 4 – Review what you’ve been doing this week, maybe spend 15-20 minutes on review and jump into a song you’re working on. If there is an area in the song that you have problems with, begin there. You don’t have to start at the beginning. Start at the end and work backwards if you want.

Day 5 – You know you have chords to work on.first, review everything to this point. It doesn’t have to be laborious like previous days, just run through your tools so you don’t forget them. Start with some easier chords and work your way to the difficult chords. When dealing with complicated chord progressions, take your strumming hand out of the equation and just focus on what your fretting hand is doing.

Observe each finger as it transitions to the next chord. Do this many times until you see the responsibility of each finger. With this knowledge, you can minimize the movements of every finger resulting in a smoother transition because the fretting hand is now moving as a precision tool.

Day 6 – You guessed it, quick review. Cover everything in roughly 20 minutes or so and work on your theory. You may have written work to complete or apply to the guitar. Spending time with the written work will give you new perspectives into the fingerboard, so really take your time here! This is a vast subject, so take your time and make sure you understand each phase because everything builds from the basics.

Day 7 – Oh, it’s your lesson day! Depending on the time of your lesson you may be able to practice and you may not. If you do, great! Go over everything thoroughly and touch on any problem areas a bit longer.

Ok, this is a nice way to organize your practice sessions, but what if you don’t have the time to commit to a 6-day practice schedule?

Any teacher who is worth your time will be flexible. If you have 3 or 4 days to practice and you can only realistically practice one – three concepts or tools, than that’s what you work on in your lesson. Believe me, you won’t be working on EVERYTHING in a typical 30 or 45 minute lesson.

Usually the teacher selects 1 or 2 tools to work with. You may even have a couple questions that take up 15 minutes of the lesson, which leads to examples and discussion if necessary!

The above schedule is only a suggestion and will hopefully give you a great guide to tailor for yourself on your musical journey.

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Do you play the acoustic guitar and want an in-depth course just on the acoustic technique?

Acoustic Guitar Methods gives you the tools you need to be an acoustic guitarist.

The information in the course covers both finger style guitar & playing with a pick plus there is something for all level of guitarists.

Acoustic Guitar Methods is a great learning platform to branch off and learn acoustic guitar.

You find it at http://www.guitartips.com.au/acoustic

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Learn Chord Progressions For The Acoustic Guitar

In this lesson you will learn a couple chord progressions. Songs are full of them! This is simply a series of chords that sound good with each other played over and over again. Below you’ll see 3 chords: G, C and D. The idea here is to play these chords in any sequence you want and create a “Chord progression“. Why do these chords fit so well together? They all belong to the key of G major. ……G……C……D E |—3——0——2—| B |—0——1——3—| G |—0——0——2—| D |—0——2——0—| A |—2——3——x—| E |—3——x——x—| - Down stroke - Up stroke This lesson was taken from Acoustic Guitar Methods. Learn how to play the acoustic guitar in an easy step by step format with audio, video and easy instructions to guide you. Acoustic Guitar Methods shows you how to play the acoustic guitar, strumming techniques, notes, scales and a lot more. With video and audio clips that play instantly, you’ll learn with ease as you play along with the instructor and start jamming on your acoustic guitar within minutes of completing the material. Check it out at: http://www.guitartips.com.au/acoustic/

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Guitar Chord Diagrams: How Guitarists Learn And Master New Chords

Guitar chord diagrams are essential for all guitar players of all levels to learn how to play new and exciting chords. Learning new chords with chord diagrams is not only simple and straightforward but it also helps in visualizing the chord shapes on the fretboard of the guitar.

What Is A Chord Diagram?

A chord diagram is essentially a square/rectangular grid consisting of 6 vertical lines which correspond to the 6 strings on the guitar and a number of horizontal lines which represents the frets on the neck. More specifically the left most vertical line is the Low E or 6th string and the right most vertical line is the High E or 1st string on the guitar. The rest of the lines obviously correspond to the middle strings. The top most horizontal line correspond to the nut on the guitar while the lines there after correspond to the 1st fret, 2nd fret, 3rd fret, etc. There are usually 4 of 5 horizontal lines but sometimes you may see more if the chord is exceptionally large and requires considerable left hand stretching. Thus a chord diagram is essentially just a graphical representation of the guitar fretboard, as if you pointed the fretboard of the guitar towards the sky and had the fretboard facing you.

How To Read Chord Diagrams.

By adding dots and other markings on the empty grid, we have information on where to place our fingers on the fretboard. For example, as already discussed the left most vertical line is the Low E or 6th string, by adding a dot between the 1st and 2nd horizontal lines (which represent the nut and the 1st fret) on this string, it indicates to place our finger between the nut and 1st fret on the Low E string, or more easily described as playing the 1st fret. If we move that dot between the 2nd and 3rd horizontal line, you then would play the 2nd fret on the 6th string.

As chords have more then one note, we can add more then one dot at a time on the chord diagram. But for every dot on the chord diagram, make sure you fret the corresponding note on the guitar. Chord diagrams also use circles above some of the vertical lines or strings. These circles represent that the string is to be played open or without fretting.

Other Markings

Chord diagrams will also use numbers below the strings which indicate which left hand finger frets which string. For example a 3 below one string would indicate to fret that string with your 3rd finger. An X above or below a string would indicate not to play that string at all. Unless there is a dot or circle on the string you wouldn’t play that string anyways, but an X is sometimes used to make that point clear. An arched line may sometimes appear on chord diagrams. This is done to indicate that a “barre” (when one finger frets more then one string) is to be used. Sometimes a number is applied to a fret on the right hand side of the diagram. This is done for chords that are played much higher on the neck. A number 7 for example would indicate to fret at the 7th fret.

With this information you should be able to read and play any chord diagram that you will come across. Not only are chord diagrams easy to read but they also give you the ability to learn new chords on your own without a teacher.

Jonathan Dykerman is a professional guitar player and instructor. He also operates http://www.guitarwarp.com. Copyright 2008.

Article Source: Article Alley This article was written by: Jonathan Dykerman from Guitar Warp

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Learn And Master How To Train Your Ear

What do we mean when guitar players say that someone “has a good ear?”

Actually, the term can mean several things. When someone has a good ear, they can accomplish at least one of the following:

1) they can identify, usually by note name, the various pitches that they hear, and sing those pitches in tune;

2) they can identify chords by name; and/or

3) they can identify instruments or a combination of instruments within a musical work.

Having a good ear is something that most musicians strive for and an important skill for everybody who wants to learn guitar. Having a bad ear means that you can’t recognize or label the music you are hearing.

I know how important a good ear is for playing guitar. If you are a songwriter or guitar player, having a good ear is vital because the best way to improve your songwriting craft is to listen to the music of the professionals. But if you can’t really identify what you are hearing, you’re missing out on opportunities to improve your guitar playing. Throughout my years as a music teacher, I have observed something interesting and very important. The marks that my students make in music theory studies are usually very close to the marks they receive in ear training. And more than that, I can usually gauge how a student is going to do in one course by looking at their progress in the other. For example, students who do well in theory but poorly in ear training will usually see their ear training marks rise over time. And students who have great ears but weak theory skills will generally experience better marks in theory over time. In other words, music theory and ear training go hand in hand. The first and most important thing you can do to improve your ear is to improve your theory skills. Why? When you understand how music is structured, your ears have a reason for what they are hearing.

Here’s one good example. In any key, there are three or four certain chords that work well to reinforce that key, and are more likely to occur than any other chords. Knowledge of theory helps you know and identify those chords. So when you are listening to music and trying to identify the chords you are hearing, you can focus in the most likely choices. Besides improving your theory skills, here are some other pieces of advice for you:

1) Try some of the ear training websites that are out there. Just do a search for “online ear training” and you’ll find lots of resources that can help.

2) Try purchasing some ear training software. These days, most university aural perception programs incorporate computerized training into their curriculum.

3) Try writing down the melodies that you hear being played. Transcribing music in this manner actually does not require strong music reading skills, and you will find that what skills you do possess will improve greatly and quickly. Take a simple song, and play it on your CD player a bit at a time, writing down whatever notes you hear. Even if you aren’t sure of the rhythms, write whatever pitches you can. If you’re stuck on a note, find it on your guitar, and then write it down. This is the best ear training exercise there is!

Practicing your guitar playing is crucial to becoming a better musician. But be certain that you don’t neglect your ear!

Gary Ewer is the author of The Essential Secrets of Songwriting and Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory. He is currently an instructor in the Dept. of Music, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_26528_48.html This article was written by: Gary Ewer http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com

Occupation: Instructor, Dalhousie University. Gary Ewer is a Halifax born composer, arranger, clinician and music teacher. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Dalhousie University in 1982. He continued studies in composition at McGill University under alcides lanza and John Rea. Returning to Halifax in late 1985, he taught trumpet, theory and history at the Maritime Conservatory of Music. In 1990 he began teaching in the public school system in Halifax, primarily at St. Patrick

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