Learning Guitar – Practice Schedule

Realistically, to start improving on guitar, you’re going to need to set aside a bit of time to practice. Developing a daily routine is a good idea… planning to spend at least 15 minutes daily practicing all you’ve learned will really help. At first, your fingers will be sore, but by playing daily, they’ll toughen up, and in a short amount of time, they’ll stop hurting.

The following list should give you an idea of how to spend your practice time:

Get your guitar in tune. Make sure you’re sitting, holding the guitar, and using your pick properly. You’ll have to correct your natural bad habits at first, until it becomes second nature. Play the chromatic scale several times. Try playing it backwards. Play each of the three chords you’ve learned. Check to be sure each note is ringing. If not, find out why, and correct the problem. Try moving from one chord to another. Before switching chords, mentally picture exactly where each finger is going to move in order to play the next chord. Only then should you switch chords.

This is the key to switching chords quickly. If you’re having trouble getting your chords to ring clearly, read this feature on getting your chords to ring clearly. Try playing some, or all of the songs listed above. At first, try only to think of the songs as a way in which to practice playing chords. Don’t get discouraged. This is hard stuff at first, and you’ll probably feel like you can’t do it. You certainly can. Everyone struggles, so just put in your 15 minutes, and then don’t worry about it until the next time you play. This is supposed to be fun! That’s it for now!

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Troubleshooting Speed Problems

Is there a riff/solo you can’t play? This happens quite a lot when you hear a new cool song and you tend to blame your cheap guitar or something and throw it away and look at signature models for the whole week and decide you can’t play worth crap.

This guide will help you speed up and play that thing faster than the original.
So lets troubleshoot.

Note: This lesson does not include any tablature of any sort and is just to refine your technique of playing songs. Sometimes, you do the correct thing in practices but not in playing songs.

This lesson is divided into two parts :

I – FOR THE LEFT HAND (when your left hand lets you down)
II – FOR THE RIGHT HAND (when your picking hand lets you down)

Problem 1: Using all fingers

There can’t be a single hero to fight villains for the whole world. Yeah, using all fingers is very important. You might be able to go faster with just three fingers at once, but in the longer run, practicing with all your fingers is very important. There are a lot of chromatic exercises which can help you. You just know where you can use the other finger.

Problem 2: Distance of fingers from the frets

The biggest and most common problem I get to see with guitarists is that they raise their fingers too high from the fretboard when they just used that finger to play a note. Keep all your fingers very close to the fretboard, just enough to get them inaction when required and not to close to mess up or mute the string. This is very important. This is the main problem when you can’t play a riff or lick. So go check yourself.

Also, check the action of your guitar.

Problem 3: Barring a fret in a solo

Yea, this is a bad thing to do. Give your fingers as much freedom they can get. For those of you who don’t get what this means, Barring a fret means sticking your index finger all the way up to two or three strings when playing a solo. This happens a lot while playing the basic pentatonic when the index finger doesn’t have to change positions. Don’t bar the fret and try again. Maybe you can do it this time. Do some stretches and you can hopefully conquer this problem

*Note : Sometimes you have to bar you finger when tapping on multiple strings together.

Exercises:

Stretch your fingers, use all the above methods and keep on practicing the same thing. Boring but gives great results.

If nothing else works, use the good old slow-it-down method. Use all the techniques given above while playing slow and increase your speed by practice.

Problem 1: Picking style

I know this old crap but if you can’t play a thing just use economical picking. No harm is done. Sometimes even alternative can’t even do it. Some songs do use a specific picking pattern but to most listeners, there is no difference. If you don’t know what alternative or economical picking is, it is explained in one good lesson I read. Go check it out.

Problem 2: Right hand movement

OK, when you strum quick patterns which require great right hand stamina, make sure that you are moving just your wrist, not you whole goddamn arm. YEAH, seriously, just move your wrist. Most of these riffs are palm-muted so go rotate your wrist.

Exercises:

Use a metronome and stop at specific beats. If you are playing 32nd or 16th notes at a great speed, its is important that you know when to stop or fret.

Just start a metronome, play sixteenth notes for half a bar then start playing again after a quarter beat.

Thats all, if you don’t find this lesson helpful at all, maybe you are picking a song too fast for you. It is very important that you proceed in a orderly fashion picking easy songs first. You can’t play Malmsteem at your first go, its true, they don’t call them GUITAR GURUS for no reason.

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Rhythm of the Blues: difference between straight and shuffle beat

THEORY:

The eighth notes (straight by definition) divide time into two equal parts, i.e. you play two notes, of EQUAL duration, per beat.The shuffle eighth notes divide time into three equal parts. The first note occupies the first two thirds and the second note occupies the last third. See figure I.

EXAMPLE:
Here are two popular songs. One uses straight eighth notes (Are you sleeping brother John?), wheras the other uses shuffle eighth notes (My Bonnie is over the ocean.). See figure II.

If you have doubts as to the accuracy of your rhythmic interpretation, do not hesitate to consult the part entitled “How to play the rhythm” of this guitar course.You will recognize the pieces which are interpreted in shuffle eighth notes thanks to the presence of this logo at the beginning of the piece.

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Acoustic or Electric?

Probably the most important consideration, when choosing what type of guitar to learn on, is what type of music will be played on the instrument. If you’re a fan of rock music, and want to learn to play rock guitar, starting on electric guitar is a logical choice. If, however, you’re a fan of acoustic music, and want to learn to strum your favorite songs, an acoustic guitar is probably best for you. The importance of the above philosophy can’t be stressed enough. If you get stuck with the wrong type of guitar, you’re going to have much less motivation to pick it up and play it regularly.

Note to parents: this same principle applies when picking out a guitar for your child. Try to realistically assess what they’dlike best, as opposed to what you’dlike them to play. Their progress will be noticably better when playing a guitar they like.

Ease of Learning

Depending on your personality type, this might either play a major factor in deciding which guitar to start on, or might be irrelevant. Some people find if they don’t see results quickly, they get discouraged, and lose interest in playing guitar altogether. If you think you (or the person you’re buying for) are one of those people, an electric guitar is probably the instrument to start on. Electric guitars have smaller bodies, smaller necks, and it’s much easier to press down the strings. Essentially, you can start playing the *basics* of guitar much more quickly and easily on an electric guitar, than you can on an acoustic. Having said that, there are a few knobs and buttons on an electric guitar that can complicate using it somewhat.

Budget Considerations

Understandably, paying a whole lot for a first guitar isn’t very desirable, especially if you’re not even sure if playing guitar is something you (or whomever you’re buying for) will stick with. For this reason, acoustic guitars are more often the choice for a first instrument, since they tend to be slightly less expensive. Electric guitars require the purchase of an amplifier, and a guitar cable, so they can end up costing a little more. If you want to learn on an electric guitar, but budget is a serious issue, many guitar stores offer starter electric guitar/amp packages at very reasonable prices.

Making the Decision

Now I’ve given you some things to consider, it’s time for you to decide which type of guitar is best suited for you, or for whomever you’re buying for. Let’s summarize – if the person in question frustrates easily, or listens to and wants to play “hard rock” music, definitely think electric guitar. If, however, the person in question wants to learn songs to sing along to, and can handle a slightly steeper learning curve, then an acoustic guitar might be in order.
Once you’ve made a decision, take a look at the following page for a few recommendations on specific guitars to buy.

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A Guide to Playing Guitar

Just a little bit more technical talk before we get into playing more chords and songs. Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes to memorize!

Every note on the guitar has a name, represented by a letter. The names of each of these notes is important; guitarists need to know where to find these notes on their instrument, in order to read music.

The image to the left illustrates the names of the six open strings on the guitar.

The strings, from sixth to first (thickest to thinnest) are named E, A, D, G, B and E again.

In order to help you memorize this, try using the accompanying phrase “Every Adult Dog Growls, Barks, Eats” to keep the order straight.

Try saying the string names out loud, one by one, as you play that string. Then, test yourself by pointing to a random string on your guitar, then trying to name that string as quickly as possible. In following lessons, we’ll be learning the names of the notes on various frets on the guitar, but for now, we’ll just stick with the open strings.

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How To Impress Others With An Easy Guitar Song To Learn

Learning guitar can be a bit difficult. It can be even more difficult to learn if you are musically challenged or do not have the best finger movements. However, instead of taking hours upon hours of guitar classes, why not look like a guitar professional and impress others with an easy guitar song to learn?

If you find an easy guitar song to learn and practice it a few times where you have it down to memory, people will gawk in amazement because of your skills they did not know you had. You can also show off to a member of the opposite sex with an easy guitar song to learn.

Even if the only reason you want to find an easy guitar song to learn is to prove to yourself that you can learn it, mark off playing guitar on your life’s to do list, or be able to listen to the song over and over, there are a few added benefits with learning an easy song. Since most of us do not have the patience to sit through basic guitar training, finding an easy guitar song to learn will aide in those who are musically ADHD.

Start Out Slow And You Will Learn More As You Go

Once you learn the easy guitar song, it might also encourage you to get down the foundations of guitar playing so that you can expand in your guitar playing and guitar knowledge. Learning an easy song in the beginning may also show you if you even life guitar. After you learn the song, you may realize how much you hate all the time that goes into it. On the other hand, you may discover a hidden passion and talent. This new passion may even lead you to your dream career.

Another benefit of finding and easy guitar song to learn first is that you will get your hands use to the guitar. With any new hobby that uses the hands, such as knitting or even writing for the little ones, using the object with your hands may seem very awkward at first. By learning the easy song first, your hands will get use the feeling of the guitar and be able to play more easily.

What Is An Easy Guitar Song to Learn?

Now that you know some of the benefits in learning an easy guitar song first, you may be asking yourself, “Which song is easy enough to start with?” Sometimes the difficult level of the song will depend on the person and their musical ear.

Some people just cannot pick things up through sound or they cannot read music, so even playing the alphabet song one learns in kindergarten can be challenging for them. Obviously, you will not start with a guitar song that is by someone like Santana. An easy guitar song to learn would consists of very few chords or chords that repeat themselves over and over. Some other great songs to learn to practice would be children songs or worship music because they tend to be repetitive.

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What You Need To Know To Learn How To Learn And Master The Guitar

Guitar Basics

Knowing most of the basics about a guitar will make learning how to play the guitar easier; the basic parts are the headstock, the nut, the neck, the body, the sound hole, the bridge, the strings and the keys. Most of these parts are pretty self explanatory; the strings run from the bridge over the sound hole, up the neck, are secured by the nut, and attached to the tuning keys to achieve the desired sounds.

The next difference is between the types of guitar, there are several, however most novice guitar players would only be concerned with the two very basic types, the acoustic and electric. Which someone would decide to learn guitar songs on, would depend on which type of music that person wanted to play; if the kind of music a person likes is played with mainly an electric guitar, the logical choice would be an electric guitar, or the same would be true with an acoustic.

Learning Guitar Songs: Pieces of a Song

Just like the guitars themselves, learning guitar songs, requires one to learn at least the very basic parts of a song; there are two ways to read music from a song, in the form of sheet music and in the form of tablature. Something a beginning guitar player can expect to learn is the three chords G, C, and D first. These are some of the most frequently used chords in learning guitar songs; and in formal lessons these are usually the first chords taught.

Trying Out a Few Songs

When someone is first learning chords and their way around a guitar, learning guitar songs can seem impossible; but once a player has mastered the three basic chords mentioned above there are actually several songs that exclusively use these chords, especially from the 1960′s or 1970′s. Trying to play songs can keep a new player interested in the instrument, although beginners likely won’t be able to change chords fast enough to make it sound quite right, just being able to get down the general idea can instill confidence in a student.

Practice

The old saying practice makes perfect holds true with any instrument; for the guitar, besides remembering the position of the chords, one must also practice strumming, rhythm, changing chords, and how to recognize the correct sounds the guitars are supposed to make. Achieving a strumming rhythm is just as important as learning the chords, when learning to play guitar songs.

Choosing a Method of Instruction

A person makes the best teacher, they would be experienced and able to give constructive criticism, and be an active participant in the guitar song learning process. A close second for learning guitar songs are DVD instructional programs, these allow the student to watch and listen as if there were an actual instructor present. Also the DVD systems, allow the person learn at their own pace.

The next best method of learning is through a CD system; these systems may not have video instruction, but will often have good illustrations that are simple to follow. The least constructive, yet still somewhat effective method of learning is over the internet; learning over the internet is virtually the same as CDs, with the exception of an online teacher may have a forum, and some music or video clips, as a point of reference. The major downfall to learning guitar songs over the internet is that one must practice in front of their computer.

Free Blues Guitar Lessons

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Free Blues Guitar Lessons

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Want to play guitar? Don't know how to go about it? Here are your options! We'll help you go through the easy steps!

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Want to play guitar? Don't know how to go about it? Here are your options! We'll help you go through the easy steps!

Vital Tips on Learning Guitar Songs Online

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Vital Tips on Learning Guitar Songs Online

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