Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Your friend Mike here from KillerGuitarTips.com with another Free Guitar Lesson
This week I’d like to go over the most common frequently asked questions I get asked on a weekly basis.
Sometimes I’m asked questions like “Do I have good guitar playing fingers?” Or “What is the best guitar for me to learn on” and very often “How should I practice?”
In over 2 decades of teaching guitar I can say without question I have probably seen every shape and size of hands and fingers there can possibly be. From short and stumpy through to long and thin. I have not yet found anything that has prevented a student from successfully learning guitar. What matters is practice, with practice comes dexterity in anybody dedicated to learning to play the guitar. So please dismiss the fact that your fingers make a difference, it’s not your fingers it’s all about practice and dexterity. Just keep practicing and adjusting your hand position when you hear a muted (duff) note. Slowly and surely you will build up the skills and technique in order to play all your favourite tunes both easily and smoothly.
What is the best guitar to learn on?
This question is about money and choice! If your favourite music id rock music then you may wish to consider an electric guitar to learn and practice on. If your bag is the sound of an acoustic guitar then this is exactly the type of guitar you should learn on. There are no rules. The way we learn guitar is the same no matter what type as a beginner. Sure, there are different styles but that comes later in your learning progression. For now play what you like to listen to because there is one thing for sure… If you don’t enjoy what you are doing you will seriously hinder your progress.
There are certain things you need to consider when choosing a guitar. The better guitar you can afford usually but not always the easier it will be to play and ultimately easier to learn on. If you can afford a better quality guitar then my advice would be to go for it but please don’t get despondent if your pocket cannot stretch that far, there are lots of budget guitars on the market that are plenty good enough to start out on.
An electric guitar will be easier on the hands than an acoustic so if you learn on an acoustic the transfer to an electric is a delight, vice versa and you will have to put in extra effort to hold down even the simplest of chords. Which ever your choice you will need to practice regularly to obtain good results.
Practicing.
In my personal experience I have found it better to practice for short regular periods rather than trying to cram it all in on a Sunday afternoon!! Half to one hour sessions everyday are best. As well as trying to master new pieces and exercises go over your older stuff just to ‘keep your hand in’. Divide your practice time into sections for exercises, scales and chord work not neglecting some time to play your favourite songs. Try and restrain yourself from just messing with chords and ditties, construct a regular practice workout and stick to it!!
I cannot stress the following point enough about the importance of practicing.
Learning to play the guitar is a combination of knowledge (What to play) and physical motor skills (being able to accurately and quickly move your fingers). The two together create great killer guitarists.
Any guitarist needs to develop their motor skills in order to progress. Way too many guitarists give up way too soon because they struggle to play a particular piece blaming themselves for not being good enough. Their friends stick at it and succeed purely through stickability. One of the main differences between you and the likes of Eric Clapton is they stuck at it. You can do the same, don’t give up at the slightest obstacle.
To play a guitar well takes time and practice to build up the necessary skills. Here’s a great tip: Learn the piece you want to play in your head first before you start to practice. Then practice it slowly so there’s no possible chance of a mistake, then increase the speed and pace until you are up to speed.
As mentioned earlier in this article, it is better to practice for short periods of time as oppose to cramming everything in when you can.
Remember ‘repetition is the mother of skill’ the more practice you can fit in the better player you will become.
There are no short cuts, no free rides, you will get out of it what you put in. It is vitally important to practice good technique and motor skills shown to you by someone who knows what they are doing, not your friend around the corner as they will probably only teach you bad habits which are very hard to get rid of.
About the Author:
About The Author: Mike Jones is a Professional Guitar Teacher. Offering Guitar Lessons taylored to bringing the beginner through to an great player in the shortest possible time, using amazing speed learning techniques developed over two decades of teaching and playing guitar as a professional. To find out more about Mikes teaching program and receive FREE tips and tricks each week visit his website at:
Guitar Lessons
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
It’s Mike from Killer Guitar Tips with another Mini Guitar Lesson for you.
Great guitar players do not just happen out of thin air. Great guitar players have practiced their art and practiced on a regular basis! But be WARNED… Many people practice the wrong things. They actually practice BAD habits. In order to progress you need to practice the right things. I know this sounds blatantly obvious but many, many people get this wrong. They practice things that they actually like which could be reinforcing their bad habits they have already acquired.
YOU’RE in the minority! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You’re in the select 5% of people who will be practicing the CORRECT methods and techniques that will catapult your guitar playing into hyperspace.
So stay tuned…
Let’s get straight on with this mini guitar lesson…
We will start with a really cool chord progression that’s great to play pentatonic riffs over when you are jamming with a friend, it will make you sound like a great player with no effort whatsoever!
So here we go:- Play one bar each or A,G,D and A. Now keep playing this over and over while your friend plays a solo over the top using the key of Am (pentatonic at the fifth fret)!!
Then you could swap parts and you solo over this sequence in Am and listen to yourself sounding like a top pro.
Now now have a progression you know that will fit in at any jam night or venue. You will be able to get up with a friend and sound like a real pro guitarist. It just takes a little practice ideally with your friend.
Another great little progression that goes along with this nicely and is the backbone of many great songs is a 4 bar sequence that repeats itself over and over again and is commonly known as the ‘turnaround’.
Lets take a closer look at this so here goes:
Play the 1st bar G, the second is Em, the 3rd is C and the last is a bar of D.
Play the rhythm of 4 beats to a bar and repeat this turnaround to your hearts content.
Its a great jam sequence of which you can get your friends to jam along to in the key of G.
Oh, and dont forget that my full guitar audio/video program is loaded with lots of amazing chord sequences that will allow you to lay down great sounding rhythm guitar that will astound your friends and rock your audience.
About the Author:
About Mike Jones The Author: Mike has been teaching and playing guitar as a professional for over twenty years. Over this time he has developed a unique and amazing speed learning guitar course that brings the beginner through to great player in the shortest possible time. To find out more about Mike’s amazing techniques and to receive some free tips and tricks why not take a look at his website at:
Guitar Lessons
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Thursday, August 20th, 2009
by Payo W Perry
Most beginners are introduced to guitar chords at the earliest stage of learning guitar. They are a foundation upon which not only harmony but also melody are build and derived and so their importance cannot be ignored.
Buy a guitar chord book and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the 1000’s of chords and names contained with the pages. In truth however, you only 10 basic shapes to open up 100’s of songs!
Guitar chords are also divided into families, the family a chord belongs to is determined by it’s type. For all beginners we have 3 main families of chords to learn. They are Major, Minor and Dominant 7 chords. With these in place you have all the necessary elements required to form keys and play through complete songs.
One of the most common problems when learning chords on the guitar is to get them to sound clearly and without any bad erroneous noises. Initially you could be surprised by how hard to need to press down to get to sound properly and this of course is going to result in your fingers hurting.
I refer to this as a kind of ‘pain barrier’ which all guitar players must go through. After a few weeks the skin on the tops of your fingers will harden and once this happens, playing guitar chords will no longer hurt you.
The main distinction we make between chords is whether they are moveable or not. Chord shapes which cannot be moved are normally referred to as Open Chords and generally involve the using of open strings on the guitar. These normally represent the beginner guitar chords we all start of learning.
Barre chords however conversely are movable shapes and simply by transposing the shape to different parts of the neck we can produce different chords. This are harder to perform since it requires using the first finger as a bar across 5 or 6 strings. It requires strength to perform this so all notes sound clearly.
Don’t try to learn 100’s of guitar chords because probably you’ll never use them. It’s far better to stick to the main chords and families and try to put them into action as soon as you can through songs you like. Guitar chords are fun, just have patience to practice and they will come.
About the Author:
The writer is the inventor of Guitar in a Nutshell. A very popular system for
learning how to play guitar. Visit the site for lots of info on
Guitar Chords and free video lessons on how to play acoustic guitar.
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
by Mike Wong
Learning the guitar is a enjoyable hobby that anybody can get into. It is a great way to impress friends, and you will enjoy learning how to play. The first thing you will need to think about is the best way to learn to play the guitar.
Classes at a school might be the easiest way to learn, but not everyone can afford to pay for expensive guitar lessons. Learning from a family member or friend might be another option, but not everyone has access to guitar playing expert. Luckily, there are many great guitar courses online that can teach you the guitar with just a little bit of work.
Studies suggests that everyone learns things in many different ways, and guitar learning is no different. Some people can learn effectively just from a book. Other people need to see someone demonstrating a technique before they can understand what is going on. That is why videos are such a great teaching technique. In order to discover the best guitar course for you, you need to understand what style of learning suits you the best.
Once you have figured that out, you can see what guitar courses other people recommend. Probably the best sites to visit are guitar playing forums. Just make sure the forum is well established and active. Perform a search, and see if there are already any existing threads that talk about online guitar courses. If so, read the user reviews and see if the guitar course seems suited for you. If you have any questions, make sure you ask before you buy.
The other way to pick good guitar courses is to search for them in a search engine. You will find lots of reviews in the results, but make sure the reviews you read are legitimate. Many sites publish fake reviews so you need to be careful of these. When you read a review, try to figure out if the person has actually purchased and tried the product themselves.
Once you have decided upon a guitar course to buy, try it out immediately. Most courses offer a money back guarantee, so make sure the course will work for you. If not, just get a refund and try another one. You will discover that there are lots of enjoyable guitar courses available, so choosing the best one is well worth it.
About the Author:
Now that you have an idea of what to look for when picking the best
guitar course, take some time and do some more research. One of our preferred courses is called Jamorama and you can read our detailed
Jamorama review to see if it is the guitar course for you.
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Friday, July 17th, 2009
by Jaspal Egdaire
Beginning guitarists sometimes experienced a lot of problems in their guitar journey and decided to quit. Some gave up because they never produced good musical tones with their guitar while others complained they could not take the pain.
Some people think that a budget acoustic guitar is good enough for beginners because if they decide to quit they don’t lose much money. This maybe half true but sometimes people forget that beginning guitarists often stop playing because they feel they can’t take the pain anymore without realizing that they picked up the wrong axes.
Cheap guitars are OK as long as they meet the condition below:
The first thing to check is the guitar neck. Don’t buy a guitar with bowed neck. To check this you can press the sixth string at both first and 12th frets. It should leave a tiny gap only between the string and the frets.
The second thing to check is playability. If a guitar has a good playability you can play any chords on its fretboard at different position without problems or finger pains. You should feel comfortable playing all over the fretboard.
To find out an acoustic guitar with good playability you should measure the action. Take a measurement from the bottom of the thickest string to the top of the 12th fret. Ideally 3mm to 4mm distance is needed. For beginners this action setting will help a lot because it decreases the strings tension.
The other important thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means you will get any note at any place on the fretboard tuned right. Have you experienced out of tuned notes when you press your fretboard but when played open chords the pitch is perfectly fine? This is a good example of bad intonation. If you can’t tell the difference between good and bad tuning you can always use a guitar tuner.
It is quite difficult to find cheap guitars that can meet those criteria, especially for beginners. Get an experienced friend to guide you in the guitar store and let him/her recommend some guitars for you to try. Choose one that feels right in your hand and don’t pay attention too much on the guitar appearance. You don’t need a fancy good looking guitar. It may fool you easily.
With a limited budget you are still able to get a relatively good guitar as long as you know how to make the selection. Just follow this guideline to prevent spending money on something you can’t play.
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