Mastering Your Guitar Playing

There are only 3 essential elements on how to learn to strum your way through guitar lessons.

First, purchase your own guitar. Borrowing can bring so much fuss considering the fact that you might destroy or ruin somebody else’s guitar. If the price isn’t reaching the money at hand, go for something cheaper. Better yet buy a surplus. You could save a lot from buying a second hand guitar. Aside from its low price, it also reduces the anxiety of being used up in a couple of days. Hours of practice can bring about so much exhaustion on the part of the guitar.

Another element would fall under choosing the right guitar to play with. This would be influenced by your own judgment. How do you see yourself playing? Are you the sensitive or the hard core type of personality? Although a lot of guitarists started their career by playing the acoustic. Aside from its wide-range availability, an acoustic guitar is more trigger friendly than that of the electric. Why? Because you can play it anytime, anywhere you want to.

Last. Have someone listen to you. Sure you can learn on your own and there are a variety of resources to help you start playing but having someone stand by you and comment on how good or sloppy you are is a must. Improves your ability to work on those mistakes. Make it a point that he knows how to play so that when you fingers go out of its proper strings, that person can correct you. Furthermore, he can teach you techniques that books and online tutorials can’t provide.

After you have all these elements packed together, you can now sit down and engage on strumming. How would you get it started and master without anybody’s assistance? Easy.

1. You have picked the right guitar. Upon handling your guitar, you must see to it that it is placed on a comfortable position. Basically, the sitting position would do. Rest the base of the guitar on your right thigh, your left fingers must support the other end of the strings and are responsible for tuning and for changing of notes. While the right hand fingers are used for strumming and plucking. This creates proper body mechanics. Remember to maintain good posture to avoid muscle straining.

2. Reach each step on your reference carefully. Follow its course. Memorize the ABCs. Each chord and note has its own fingering. Try to play slowly and focus on the easier basic patterns. Once you have mastered the basics, you can progress to the harder ones which contain frets and power chords.

3. Have a couple of songs to play with. For beginners, pick a song that only repeats four or five easy chord sequences. A typical example is Lifehouse’s “You and Me”. It’s just a repetition of four chords namely G, C, E-minor, and D.

4. Sing while you’re playing. This helps a lot by setting the mood for inspiration and staying attuned with the proper melody. Singing along can also help you determine if you’re strumming the right chords or if you’re out of tune.

5. Be patient! Never give up on yourself. You have to be determined even though you’re on the verge of giving up. If you develop blisters, it’s a sign of good, dedicated practicing.

Be the master of these steps. Handling a guitar is not hard if you have the proper and positive attitude.

Easy Lessons with an Acoustic Guitar

An acoustic guitar is a wooden instrument that’s shaped like the number eight and has a hole at its middle part. Often mistaken as a classical guitar, an acoustic guitar is hollow and is composed of six strings made of steel. These strings, when struck, produce sound.

Enough of the slight introduction. That just gave you the idea of what an acoustic guitar looks like and what is its purpose. Enumerated in lessons are steps on how to play an acoustic guitar successfully without the thought of giving up that easily.

1. Before starting, be sure you have a guitar. Acoustic guitar to be precise. It doesn’t matter if its old or new for as long as its acoustic.

2. Choose the best website that can provide you with all the options on the how and what of handling a guitar. There are tons of websites designed to offer a great amount of resources and knowledge regarding instruments. Catching up those sites can also provide free online lessons.

3. Have an idea on whom to patronize. Some musicians play for the sake of popularity while some play for an artist’s sake. Choose someone who plays for good music. Artists like John Mayer are most popular on this category. Remind yourself that acoustic guitars aren’t exclusively for the mellow ones but for all sort of music.

4. Memorize the physical parts of your guitar. Remember every angle and functions built with it. Understand how they produce such sounds and how it turns out bad. You might think this isn’t vital. But fact is, this is one of the most important things you should remember when handling and playing an acoustic guitar.

5. Learn the basic chords first. Aside from that, learn the different ways to play those chords. Example, C has more than 6 different hand positions. This will add more flexibility on your hands when moving from one fret to another.

6. Master your chords by not looking at them every once in a while. Practice the muscles of your hand while talking to someone or listening to the radio. The purpose of multitasking is to help you avoid looking more often on your hands while playing. This is a good strategy for easier retention of the different chords and to make your hands familiarize itself with the different frets.

7. Practice at least 5 days a week for at least two to three hours. If you’re really itching to be on the pedestal, learn to be patient. Everyone has to start somewhere. And that somewhere is from the very basic. Apart from that, practicing daily entails proper body mechanics. Meaning you have to learn to position your body in a manner that won’t strain your muscles and body parts.

8. Build up those callous on the tip of your fingers. This is painful, very. But as you go on with your lesson you’ll realize that calluses are with good use. Calluses make your fingers numb. Thus, making it easier for you to play.

9. Upon learning the easy part, put extra effort on learning the hard parts of the chords. Barre chords are considered the most difficult part of playing an acoustic guitar. Most beginners skip it. Word of advice, don’t.

10. Rest. Don’t exhaust yourself if you can no longer go on. Do it the next day. Remember, learning doesn’t have to be an obligation but a right. It has to be slow but accurate.

Electric Guitar Playing in Minutes. Learn How Now.

Some say that electric guitars are difficult to play but if you know the right techniques, you can learn to play electric guitar in minutes. You have to prepare yourself for some lessons because you’re about to learn many new things. If you know a bit of the lessons that you’re about to encounter, you can determine your progress.

You see, there are three factors that you need to be aware of before you even start electric guitar lessons.

Number 1 Factor

Once you have the electric guitar, don’t think about your worries in playing such instrument. First, you must sit down and study all the things that you have to know about the guitar’s fret board. Be sure to purchase a diagram of an electric guitar in music stores and choose the one that shows the different notes. You must be able to memorize all the notes. Don’t try to learn it in one day because this will be very boring.

Instead, spend at least ten minutes each day in learning the different notes while playing. You can’t learn to play the guitar unless you’ve memorized each and every note. Ninety percent of beginners achieve success because they memorized all the notes.

Number 2 Factor

The second factor still doesn’t involve electric guitar playing. This time, you need to concentrate on your ears. If you want to learn to play an electric guitar, you have to train your ears to listen. This is essential in the learning process. Ear training involves playing the notes and then singing it one by one. Play the note first and then sing it. Once you’ve mastered this, sing the note first and then play it. Determine if you got the note right. For the ear training, you can do this ten minutes a day, just like memorizing the notes.

Number 3 Factor

The last factor involves muscle memory development. Do some chromatic exercises but only the simple ones first. As you practice, try to incorporate scales as well. If you want to become a good electric guitar player, muscle memory development is essential. Just like the two other factors, spend tem minutes every day for this activity.

These are the three factors that you should know before you take up any guitar lessons. If you are already familiar with these factors, then the upcoming lessons will not come as a surprise to you. You can learn all the guitar lessons easily.

So you see, you have to be patient and you have to devote some of your time in order to learn all the lessons in playing an electric guitar. The three factors seem very easy but if you don’t put your heart into it, you will not learn anything. Concentrate and have the right attitude. Make sure that you’re also motivated so that you can learn the notes or chords. If you have the right attitude, you will learn electric guitar playing in a few days.

Several minutes each day can take you a long way. By doing this, you can have fun while learning. Don’t overdo each of the factors involved in the learning process. Otherwise, you will not enjoy learning to play an electric guitar.

Remember, you shouldn’t focus your attention to playing the guitar immediately. Memorize the notes, do some ear training, and muscle memory development.

Fun Ways to Play an Acoustic Guitar

Beaten up with the conventional way of learning how to play an acoustic guitar without even perfecting a single tune? Are blisters forming on the tips of your fingers and yet nothing’s making sense? Maybe you have to double check your resources or better yet, yourself. There must be something terribly wrong with the way you handle your guitar.

Here are some of the numerous ways to learn play an instrument as lovely as an acoustic guitar. All you need is a piece of pick, your own or borrowed guitar, and a lot of patience. Well, a couple of manuals will do and if you’re not satisfied with that, an internet access.

First, you have to make sure that your guitar is properly tuned. Nobody would dare listen to a complete mess. If you don’t know how, find someone who knows.

Then choose from the wide variety of resources. You could search for a private teacher, go online, or settle on being alone with your references like books and manuals. Examples of private tutors are those whom you know, friends, neighbors, your relatives or someone who is paid. An online opportunity is endless. Some sell you copies of their video recorded lectures others are on the spot. Still, your choice.

After which, find the right spot to play in. It has to be comfortable. Your guitar must be supported, if not by your thighs. Hold it steady maintaining your right hand on the strings just above the sound hole and the left hand on the fretboard.

Now, a lot of suggestions were implied by numerous guitarists who had your position once before, a beginner. They suggested that, above everything else, you have to use those two organs hanging on the side of your head just below your temporal lobe, your ears. Right.

Of course you have to use other important senses, like your eyes. That would be a very positive view. But what about those who are blind? Haven’t it occurred to you that at some way they have mastered the art of playing a guitar without even seeing what it looks like. They just follow their instincts and feel the chords. Yes, they listen.

Listening. One of the most effective ways of learning.

Remember you’re handling an acoustic guitar. It doesn’t require any of those crappy contraptions just to make music work. You need more than an amplifier to change your voltage of music current. All you need to do is effectively listen to the melody and determine whether you’re getting the tunes right.

In the event that practicing goes wrong and absolutely mystified, you could always go back to the drawing board. Memorize the chords. The emphasis on your memorization must be on the basic. The C,A,G,E,D chords are considered as the building blocks to your bountiful success in guitar playing. Not only are these chords easier to achieve but they are included in most of the songs played nowadays. Surprisingly, including R & B.

Keep on practicing with these basic chords. Try it without looking. That would be able to help you figure out if you’re strumming the wrong way. Feel your strings tremble and stop. You have to take control of your music. These various ways of playing isn’t the exact key to learn but only a guide.

Tips for Left Handed Guitar Players

Some people are right handed while others are left handed. There are some activities that left-handers can’t easily do especially playing guitar. But what if you terribly want to learn to play such musical instrument? Is your case a hopeless one? Don’t be downhearted because you can also learn to play guitar even if you’re among the left-handers.

Even left-handed individuals should not worry if they too can play a guitar well just like the right handed individuals. There are some helpful tips that you can make use so that the learning process will be quite easy. Now, you have a chance to play guitar together with the right handed pros.

Well of course, you should prepare yourself for some problems that might arise while you’re learning to play the guitar. Here are the helpful tips that will guide you while you’re learning to play guitar.

1. Most left-handed guitarists are confused when choosing the appropriate guitar. You have to options when it comes to accomplishing this task. The first option is to get a guitar used by right handed individuals and then have the strings’ position changed. If you don’t know how to do this, you can ask help from expert guitarists. Now, some left-handers are not comfortable with this set up but if you can pull it through, go ahead.

The second option is to get a guitar for left-handers. Yes, there are now guitar especially designed for left handed people. Before you make any guitar purchase, you have to determine first which of these two options suits you.

2. Guitar lessons are sometimes hard to understand especially for lefties. You see, most guitarists are right handed and so you might get confused with the lessons. Always have this in your mind – try to reverse the lessons and everything will fall into place.

3. When you’re shopping for a new guitar, make sure that you buy from a reputable store. You see, there are some stores that deliver defective guitars especially if they notice that you’re an inexperienced left handed guitarist. Shop around and you can also ask help form fellow lefties so that they can show you the best stores in your area. If you want, you can also shop online and you will surely have a lot of choices.

4. Are you quite confident in learning to play the guitar? You have to be so that you will not feel ashamed to play the instrument even in the presence of other people. Being a left handed individual is not your fault. Many brilliant and famous guitarists are known all over the world like Paul McCartney, Curt Cobain, and Jimmy Hendrix.

5. For beginners, it would be helpful to not play a guitar for right handed people in a left handed way. You will surely encounter problems with the guitar chords if you do this. Some complicated chords will be very difficult to play.

6. What matters most when learning to play guitar is to have fun. If you’re comfortable with left hand guitars, don’t immediately replace it with right handed ones.

These are helpful tips that you should know especially if you’re a lefty. If you’re equipped with the right knowledge in playing guitars, all the guitar lessons will be very easy to learn and in no time at all, you will be playing with fellow lefties as well as with right handed guitarists.

Choosing a Guitar For Beginners

So you ask, what would be the most appropriate and best type of guitar to use and prove your skills on being an artist someday? Would that be the bass or electric? The answer is within you.

Try to ask yourself what suits your taste for music. Are you the moody type? An alternative type perhaps? Are you more on the jazzier side or just plainly characterized by the Spanish feel? Choosing depends on the kind of music you listen to or appreciate.

Every beginner has some confusion in selecting the finest guitar they could posses. The difficulty in purchasing a guitar is as difficult as deciding who is hotter, Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba? To get over with the hassle, below are some tips on picking the best type of guitar that would fit your desire for melody and tune:

1. Reflect on your music. This matters a lot. This is all that matters. In fact, it is the music that we listen to that influences us to play something. When you hear the strumming of a guitar, do you consider yourself listening to the lighter side of things or more on the hard core part? The music that you listen to is the very basis of your choice.

2. Check your budget. How much would it cost? Is it worth the savings? Try to question your better judgment on how to determine a cheap yet good guitar. If you have a limited amount on your hand, go with the one that matches your money. Don’t settle with something you love yet the price isn’t that friendly. But if you saw something that made your heart melt, and you’d really, really, really like to have it, ask someone who works inside, a saleslady, perhaps, who could help you work out on something, like paying for it on an installment basis. Good communication results in better understanding.

3. Decide on the type of features that your guitar would have. Once you have gathered your resources, specifically financial resources, it’s time for you to get your hands on that guitar you’ve set your eyes for months. With a wide variety of guitars nowadays it’s hard to determine whether you have made a good choice, from electric to bass, acoustic to classical, and so much more to choose from. Most beginners elaborate more on the tune, while others side with the style.

Still, if you can’t decide between two great choices, have a friend who is adept on playing a guitar accompany you and let him determine which one would be more appropriate. Never be secluded on your decisions.

4. Choose between acoustic or electric. There are two sides when choosing which is which. The pros and the cons are oftentimes weighed. Compared to an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar is easier to operate but is more complicated with all those strings attached and buttons to push. Once you play an electric guitar, you need to buy other equipments like an amplifier, cable and pick.

The only disadvantage with an acoustic guitar is that it is harder to manipulate than that of the electric guitar. Aside from that, it is the most advisable type of guitar to play with. No picks needed. You can play with it just by strumming the tip of your fingers on its strings. And, it’s cheaper than an electric guitar.

Now that you have your options, start deciding on what you think will suite you. Choosing is not difficult but you have to consider a lot of principles.