Best Ways To Improve Your Guitar Playing
photo credit: James JordanWhat grooves you? Why do you want to improve?
Regardless of your intentions - whether to get started playing, learn a few licks of your favorite tunes, or want to expand your repertoire to include blues, funk, or rock and roll music, on your way to recording yourself, there are resources out there that can help you.
Here are a few ideas that may help you better understand your guitar playing and some solutions you can consider.
Guitar videos
You can purchase guitar playing videos, either for home or computer watching, that include hand position, strumming technique, rhythm and timing, and finger exercises that take through various type of songs. Essentially these become a mirror for you in learning to play as you mimic what you're watching on screen and then reproduce this on your own. With commitment and determination, this can be a good one to go - especially for the visual learner who likes to learn primarily on their own.
Guitar lessons
You can find a community of guitar instructors in your surrounding area who are either private tutors or work through a community college. You'll want to consider their expertise, the type of students they work best with, their flexibility with your schedule, success stories, and of course their fees, in considering working with them. In pursing guitar lessons, you can either do one on one or group - both have their plusses and minuses but either can work for you.
Playing partners
Find someone in your local community who plays. You can do this through asking the local community college, posting online to a resource like craigslist, or asking the guitar shop. The idea is to develop a friendship with someone who is a bit better than you who wants the accountability of practicing weekly. What you can provide is the commitment to meet up with them weekly and practice. In return, you can learn from their techniques or methods what works. Of course, you always need to be aware of learning bad habits in situations like these, which is why it's important to have a foundation in guitar technique before starting.
Guitar theory
Related to guitar technique is developing a basis in guitar theory. Chord patterns, minor and major chord progressions, note scales, and overlap with piano and percussion instruments can all give you a basic structure upon which to layer in the knowledge and technique you gain in your guitar playing.
Playing guitar can be a wonderful expression of one's musical and creative talent. And with a commitment to constant improvement, it can provide a lifetime of enjoyment for yourself, friends, and family.
Electric Guitar Lessons - The Hunger Returns
Do you have an electric guitar under your bed silently reminding you of a dream which is for the moment, buried? Did you fantasize about fame and female attention or was your dream about the music? Did you believe you could make a lot of progress in your musical education without much effort? Maybe you even spent a little too much money on your first electric guitar, hoping it would somehow fast track the learning process.
Well the guitar by itself isn't really much help. The most effective input has to be from you, the aspiring guitar player.
But wait a minute! It was you who put the guitar under the bed, leaving it alone and wondering what it had done to incur your displeasure. What happened there? Why did you bury your dream? Did the fame and female attention arrive by some other route? Well obviously they weren't what you expected or you wouldn't be reading this. I think the issue is that you just need to look a little more closely at the process of learning the guitar.
The most obvious things to look at are firstly, did you give yourself enough time and space to practice, and were the guitar lessons you tried really suited to your needs?
If you live in a busy household you are going to have to fight for time and space. Your family or house mates may be willing to cut you some slack at first but the time will come when you pick up your guitar you will hear groaning noises from the people who a short time ago were so encouraging. You are going to need to examine your day. The hours you spend working or studying. The time you need for household chores. Are there TV programs you just can't do without? You need to include those. If you practice in the living room you need to do it when other people aren't using the area. You get the idea. If you end up with much less time to devote to guitar lessons than you thought you had, don't give up. Just use the time you have available. As your guitar playing progresses you will begin to make more time for yourself.
So what kind of guitar lessons do you feel you could derive the most benefit from? The fact is learning to play the guitar will flow much more smoothly if you feel comfortable and receptive. So give some consideration to what works best for you.
So let's look at the simplest solution - buy a guitar lesson book. Too simple? It might be all you need. Some people can't do without the input of a face to face teacher or the experience of seeing their guitar lessons on video, but there are many people who do quite well with printed instructions and music.
If you need a more intense experience, but you have a live guitar teacher near where you live then give online electric guitar lessons a shot. With online lessons, you just sit in your room and absorb the teacher's instructions, and then do your practice. No time wasted travelling to your teacher, and no putting up with a teacher you do not care for!
Some people do better without a teacher standing over them, encouraging them to play it until they get it right. Online electric guitar lessons are more student-friendly in this respect. You can approach any obstacles in your own individual way, in your own sweet time.
One of the most outstanding advantages of online electric guitar lessons compared to tuition with a live teacher is the expense. You can get even the very best lessons on the internet for a fraction of what you would pay your local guitar teacher!
You can also buy your guitar lessons in video format. Video lessons are available for students of all genres of guitar music whether they be beginners or advanced students. With videos you can review your lessons as many times as you want, and even if you lose your enthusiasm for learning the guitar, your video lessons will be waiting for you when your muse returns.
Four Ways To Learn Guitar
With the increasing popularity of rock music during the last few decades, playing the guitar has become very appealing for many people. While there are many teenagers out there who dream of becoming rock superstars, there are also many people that want to learn how to play the guitar just for the sake of it. However, many of them don't find the best way to learn guitar and after a few unsuccessful attempts, they finally give up.
Different people have different learning needs. In addition, we also have different resources, different jobs, different errands to run and different schedules. If you're not at the level you want, maybe it's because you haven't found the best way to learn guitar yet. There are several ways to learn how to play the guitar. Listed below are only a few of them.
Theory Books
There are thousands of theory books on the market that teach you how to play the guitar. Some of them are even very good and can provide you with all the information you need. Books are an inexpensive and comfortable strategy to learn how to play the guitar. Unfortunately, experience shows that for many of us they just don't work. However, if you are a very patient person, a theory book might be the best way to learn guitar.
Video Lessons
Video guitar lessons are available on DVDs and video tapes in almost any music store, as well as on virtual shops. In addition, there are also some video lessons available online. Some of them are even free. Video lessons are more dynamic and have a better chance of keeping you focused. They have the advantage of allowing you to practice at home whenever you find the time to do it. However, the inconvenience is that you can't benefit from the personalized attention and useful feedback a teacher could provide.
Private Lessons
If you are willing to dedicate a lot of time as well as some money to this, private lessons are definitely the best way to learn guitar. A good teacher can design a customized teaching program to suit your learning style and provide you with individualized attention and positive feedback to get you motivated. In addition, he/she can also spot and correct your mistakes very fast.
Learning by Ear
Learning the guitar by ear can be very fun, especially if you have some sort of musical bone in your body, and that bone is humming with lots of vibration, you might find that this is the best way to learn guitar for you. With the modern slowing down technology, it is much easier now than it used to be for our parents' generation.
You should always keep in mind that playing the guitar should be fun. If you find it difficult or stressing, your learning strategy might have a lot to do with it. Sometimes you need to try several learning methods before finding the one that works best for you. However, if you really want to play the guitar like a pro and have enough time and money, taking up private lessons is probably the best way to go.