Guitar Daily Companion

This Guitar Lesson sponsored by Jamorama

By By Ralph Serpe

Find a Good Teacher - There is no substitution for a good guitar teacher. You can buy all the books and videos you want, but in order to really become a good guitar player, you need to learn from a pro. A professional guitar teacher has the experience and wisdom necessary to teach you how to become a proper guitar player. Books, videos, and the Internet for that matter, lack in their ability to provide you with feedback and advice. A good guitar teacher will correct you if you are doing something wrong so that you don't form bad habits or techniques. A good guitar teacher will also encourage you when you are doing something right.

Do Not Get Discouraged - When first learning the guitar, or any instrument for that matter, you may find yourself getting discouraged, or perhaps saying to yourself "this is just too difficult". You may find yourself practicing the same song or chords over and over again, and never getting any better at it. Do not let this discourage you. Sometimes are brains just need a little rest, or need to be occupied with something else. Take a break and come back to your practice with a fresh mind.

Practice - The more often that you practice your guitar the more familiar you will become with the instrument. Your playing will become easier over time. Try and free up at least 20 minutes of time every day to practice your guitar. Find a time and location where you know you will not be interrupted. Interruption can really kill your concentration and snap you out of a good rhythm. Warm your hands and stretch your fingers before you play. Talk with your guitar teacher to develop the best practice exercises that are right for your style of playing.

Create an effective practice schedule - The length of your practice is not necessarily the most important thing. Usually it is the quality of your practice that is most important. Make sure your guitar teacher is giving you a well-rounded approach to guitar playing and helping you make the most of your practice sessions.

Slow Down - One great bit of advice with your practicing; don't play too quickly! Many new guitar players will rush through a lick or a song in the beginning, trying to play it exactly as they hear it and only wind up butchering it. Before you can play anything correctly, you must learn to slow down and play it right at a much slower speed. You can then slowly increase your speed as you improve.

Watch your posture - Guitar playing should not be extremely painful and uncomfortable. If you find yourself with various aches and pains in your shoulders, your neck, your back, etc., chances are you are not in a correct playing posture. Ask your guitar teacher to demonstrate a proper playing posture, then do your best to stick to it. Tell your teacher to observe you during practice and correct you whenever you fall out of the correct posture.

Get a metronome - A very important part of guitar playing is the ability to keep good timing. An instrument, which will help you become better at timing, is called a metronome. You can purchase this at any guitar center. When working with a metronome, in the beginning, you should start off at a slow speed. This will help you build your muscles and develop better control and good playing habits.

Change your strings - Your guitar strings are very important to the quality of sound your guitar produces. How often you change your guitar strings really depends on how often you play. Professional guitar players may change their strings before every gig. Others who don't play as often, may change their strings every 2 months or so. Again it really depends on how often you play, and how well you take care of your guitar strings. Don't wait until your strings break before you change them and you should change all of your strings at the same time.

Try new things/experiment - If you feel uninspired in your guitar playing why not try something fresh and different? If you have mastered a particular song on your electric guitar, why not try the same song on an acoustic guitar? If you only play your guitar using a pick, put down the pick and just use your fingers. Perhaps you only enjoy playing blues guitar. Why not try some jazz or classical?

I hope these guitar tips were helpful. The most important thing is to never get discouraged and never give up. Persistence is key when it comes to playing the guitar. If you really have a sincere desire to learn, and you continue to practice, you will become a better guitar player.

You can learn how to play guitar free online. Visit http://www.artsymmetry.com/Category/Guitar-Lessons/199 for more great articles on guitar playing.

Another Guitar Lesson sponsored by Jamorama

When you take a look at the guitar fretboard you may ask yourself if it is possible to learn the notes there! Can you find the notes you want to find? Let's start to conquer the fretboard by taking the first step!

When you are playing your first melodies on your guitar your teacher will probably let you begin by learning the notes in the first position on your guitar.

We will begin this guitar lesson by taking a look at three notes on the first string. The first open string is an E, the first fret an F and the third fret a G.

The second string open string is B. On the first fret you'll find C and on the third fret a D.

Now we will make up an exercise with the before mentioned notes. Play the notes slowly and with concentration and with the purpose to learn the notes:

E G F E D F D G C B D G E

You will also learn the names of the notes if you play them on your guitar as you try to say the note names aloud or in your mind.

When you know these notes by heart you can try to play a melody as a test. Let's try to play
Mary Had A Little Lamb with the use of these notes:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I guess you recognized the melody, right!

We will proceed with this guitar lesson by learning some notes on the third string.
The third open string is G and the second fret is A. Now, let's play the notes we have learned in consecutive order from the third string!

G A B C D E F G

Starting with the G on the third string and the other notes we have learned we will try to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

G G D D E E D C C B B A A G
D D C C B B A D D C C B B A
G G D D E E D C C B B A A G

I hope you'll recognize this melody as you play. The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on to many notes at the same time.

My father was a guitar teacher and he taught mostly classical guitar playing. I was one of his students and I learned my first guitar pieces in a short time due to a system he often used that is similar to tablature.

His system showed the frets and strings to play along with the sheet music. He said that his system didn't prevent children from learning to read guitar sheet music and that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway.

In my guitar teaching experiences I have found out the same thing. If you are not motivated to learn sheet music notation for guitar you will not learn it even if you only use sheet music.
If you learn the notes on your guitar fretboard first you will find it much easier reading guitar sheet music notation and I hope that this first step will help you!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and guitar lessons at http://www.capotastomusic.com/

This Guitar Lesson sponsored by Jamorama

For many guitarists, playing for hours may seem an impossibility. Pain and fatigue can limit a players ability to jam all night long. The cure for this is to properly warm up before playing. Have you ever seen an athlete go out to play a game or run a race without warming up first? Well guitarists need to warm up also.

Here's a great exercise that serves as a great warm up:

Use 1st finger in first fret, 2nd finger in 2nd fret, etc.
Also, alternate picking down then up.

E------------------------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4-----
A--------------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4---------------
G----------------------------------0-1-2-3-4-------------------------
D------------------------0-1-2-3-4-----------------------------------
A-------------0-1-2-3-4----------------------------------------------
E--0-1-2-3-4---------------------------------------------------------


Then reverse.

E--4-3-2-1-0----------------------------------------------------------
B------------4-3-2-1-0------------------------------------------------
G----------------------4-3-2-1-0--------------------------------------
D--------------------------------4-3-2-1-0----------------------------
A------------------------------------------4-3-2-1-0------------------
E----------------------------------------------------4-3-2-1-0--------

The key to using this as a warm up is to start SLOW. This may seem like a waste of time at first, but believe me, it works. Start this exercise at about 1 note per second. Go through the whole exercise at this tempo, using as little pressure on the strings as possible to sound the note. The next time, go a little faster (only a little faster). Do this 10 times, taking small breaks in between to allow for increased blood flow to the hands.


Beginners can try one string at a time to build up finger strength:

E--------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------etc--
D--------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4-3-2-1-0-------
A--------------------0-1-2-3-4-3-2-1-0-------------------------
E--0-1-2-3-4-3-2-1-0-------------------------------------------


This is a great warm up exercise that many professionals use before a long night of playing. A good warm up will help your endurance and enjoyment as a player tremendously.

Bill Chambless

This Guitar Lesson sponsored by Jamorama

How quickly can your fretting hand switch from one chord to another? The speed and confidence you have in making chord changes is key to mastering the guitar and successfully playing the instrument.

The key to learning any instrument, like most intricate human activity, is to develop brain and muscle coordination, more commonly called, muscle memory needed to play the instrument. If you picture a basketball player, for instance, the key to a good shooting performance is the proper hand-to-eye coordination in order to bring the ball up, prepare, aim, and throw it towards the hoop. The different muscles of the arms, wrist and hands will learn the right movements and strength needed to score. Constant practice will condition the brain, eyes, and entire body to know the routine of shooting the ball.

This is similar to guitar playing. The muscles involved would be the arms, wrists and the fingers, with the eyes, ears and brain working in unison to relate the movements to the music being read and the notes produced by the guitar. This is the mechanism that works when a guitar player starts to change chords.

Luckily, there are simple techniques that can help the beginning guitar player to develop these muscle memories and ear training for proper chord changes. Read below and you will see that chord changes are not that difficult to do.

When changing chords, first memorize all the chords involved in the song, and then visualize exactly which fingers of the fretting hand are involved in playing the chords. When playing simple barre chords, the most important finger is the index finger, which will squeeze all 6 strings across the fretboard. So as you move towards playing the chord, you have to position the index finger across the proper fret, or place, along the fretboard before positioning the other fingers of the chord. When playing a broken or simple chord, it is usually the index finger that is the most important finger. Primarily, the index finger and the thumb will form a stable anchor on the guitar neck in order for the other fingers to press the other strings of the chord. The index finger is usually played on the lowest fret and the highest string (by pitch, or string 1), where it could more easily find the proper note, and the other fingers can follow to complete the chord.

When playing a particular song, keep time with the music, but anticipate in which bar and on which beat the next chord will continue. For beginners, it would be preferable to practice the entire song slowly from beginning to end, taking care to change to each chord on time and on tempo. When the student can play the entire song like this without chord errors, he can start increasing the speed to the song’s proper tempo. It would also be helpful to identify particularly tricky chord changes. For instance, 2 consecutive bar graphs would be a relatively simple change, because the guitar player needs only to slide his index finger (which is already in the barre position) to its proper position on the fretboard and quickly press in the other strings of the chord. Changes from simple chords to barre chords – and vice versa – and chords that are positioned at a far distance from each other along the length of the neck are more difficult to perform. Isolate these difficult changes and practice those chord changes.

If it is still to difficult with the slow tempo, don’t play the last beat of the last chord and use the time to move your fret hand into position for the next fret. Keep practicing these changes until the short passage can be played without error. Afterwards, go back to playing the entire song as discussed above. When you can play an entire song properly, try different strumming styles to accentuate parts of the song, or a particular beat; or alternate strumming and light plucking to give volume and variety to the music of the song. First, it is best to complete the song by actually copying how the original artist played it on the guitar; then you can add your own twists and extra technique according to your ear and taste. This will help you develop your hands for more difficult chords and finger playing techniques.

Do this for every song, and before you know it, you’ll be playing a new song like a seasoned guitarist in a short period of time.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Guitar Warehouse the best place to Buy Guitar and learn Guitar Playing Techniques. Both sites offer free lesson and product sales.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_McRea

This Guitar Lesson sponsored by Jamorama

Changing your guitar strings might make you feel a litte uncomfortable if you have never done it before, but it's really quite simple and should become a regular part of your guitar care routine. Before you do anything, first take time to make some personal observations such as:

1. Which way do you have to turn the tuning keys to tighten or loosen the strings?

2. How are the strings aligned from the nut to the bridge?

3. Which is the heaviest string?

Taking mental notes will probably save you some frustration and make the job much easier.
Below you will find some helpful steps to follow for changing your strings. Once you've changed your guitar strings a couple of times your confidence should begin to grow and you won't need to refer to these steps any longer. I like to remove all of the guitar strings in order to give my guitar a thorough cleaning, but you can remove and replace them one at a time if you prefer.

Guitar Care and Maintenance Tools:

- Needle-nose Plyers (to cut string ends)
- String Winder
- Soft Cotton Cloth
- Guitar Cleaning Polish (do not use furniture polish, oils, or wax)

REMOVING THE STRINGS

Acoustic Steel String Guitar-

1. Using the string winder , begin slowly loosening the string(s) until completely slack.

2. With the needle-nose plyers, carefully grab the string from the capstan (the part it winds around) and pull through the hole until it is free.

3. Taking the string winder again, use the cut-out at the end of it to grab the pin at the bridge. Gently pull the pin until it comes out of the hole.

4. Continue this process until all the strings are removed.

5. Clean guitar surface thoroughly.

Classic Nylon String Guitar-

Follow steps one and two above. When you come to step three, take your needle-nose plyers and carefully loosen the figure eight knot at the bridge. Pull the string free.

Electric Guitar-
Follow the same procedure as described for an acoustic steel string guitar. However, if you have an electric guitar with a movable bridge you may want to take it to your local music store and have them show you how to do it safely. If the bridge is moved from it's correct position you will not be able to tune your guitar after restringing it.

RE-STRINGING YOUR GUITAR

Acoustic Steel String Guitar-

1. Bend the ball end of the string slightly and place it inside the hole below the bridge. Some steel string guitars do not have pins. When this is the case, just pull the string throught the hole.

2. Line up the string with any grooves in the pin. Insert the pin into the hole, making sure it is secure.

3. Take the other end and insert into the hole on the capstan.

4. Pull the string through leaving a fair amount of slack between the capstan and the bridge.

5. Bend the string at the point it comes through the capstan to keep it secure.

6. Watching out for your eyes, begin turning the key with your left hand. Once you get it started it may be easier to use the string winder. (For safety reasons, you might want to cut off any excess string. I usually wait until after they're all on to do this).

7. As you are winding, apply some tension to the string with your right hand to help keep it taught. Make sure you are winding in the right direction! On the bass strings you will be winding counter-clockwise (away from you). On the treble strings you will go the opposite direction.

8. Continue to wind each string until all the slack is taken up. Do not worry about tuning yet.

9. Cut off all excess string length.


Classic Nylon String Guitar-

1. Put the string through the top of the hole found just below the bridge.

2. Pull about 3 inches through.

3. Bringing the string up over the tie block, pass it underneath itself at the original point of entry.

4. Come down over the tie block again and wrap the end of the string around itself in a figure eight type pattern.

5. Insert the other end of the string down through the hole on the capstan.

6. Wrap the string around the back and then underneath itself in order to secure it in place.

7. As described above, begin turning the key with your left hand while maintaining some tension with the other until all the slack is taken up. With a classical guitar you will wind clockwise on the bass strings and the treble strings.

8. Keep the string as straight as possible as it continues from the capstan through the nut and down onto the neck.

9. You should not have any excess string length, but if you do, cut it off.


Electric Guitar-

Follow the same procedure as described for the acoustic steel string guitar.


I hope you found this information to be helpful. Remember, establishing a good guitar care routine will insure many long years of musical fun and enjoyment!



Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. For free guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting, recording and creating a music career, please visit: http://www.abclearnguitar.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Unruh

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