Posts Tagged ‘playing guitar’

The Irresistible Attraction of Guitars

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

How to select a Resonator Guitar and Bottleneck Slide for Blues

The guitar is probably the worlds best known musical instrument. Maybe a drum is really the most well known instrument. There can’t be many people who have never seen a guitar and don’t know what a guitar is.

One thing that makes guitars so appealing is their accessibility. Unlike a Piano, or a drum kit, a guitar is portable and almost anyone can pick one up. But creating a tune on a guitar can be a struggle.

I’ve met some exceptionally talented people who, within weeks of picking up a guitar, were good enough to start a band and begin to gig. Then there are other people, myself included, who have been playing for many years and still learning.

But this is one of the reasons why guitars are so compelling. There is always a new tune to learn, a new guitar to buy or a new guitar gizmo to try out. If you are planning to learn to play guitar, be warned because its a hobby that can take over all of your spare time.

Not only do I love to play the guitar but I also love to collect them. I am a great lover of vintage resonator guitars. These are a form of acoustic guitar that uses a resonator cone made of spun allumnium to give the guitar extra volume. The design originates from the early part of the 20th century before electronic amplification became commonplace. The sound of the resonator guitar is very much the sound of the blues, the music that I love.

If you’re a guitar player or if you are lucky enough to know any guitarists you will already understand how obsessive they can become. Playing guitar, collecting guitars, listening to guitar music and going to gigs to see guitarists play can often take over their lives. And if you are lucky enough to have a guitarist as a partner you can sometimes find yourself feeling that you are in second place to their guitar obsession, which is probably true.

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Even You Can Learn how to play Guitar Easy

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Do you think learning how to play guitar will be too hard?  Fear not.  When you have mastered a few basic things, you will soon be on the way to developing your very own style of playing. 

Whatever music you are going to be creating, with a few steps you may build a powerful starting point towards becoming a well-rounded player. It really can be easy to learn to play guitar.

The first thing that you’ll have to do when you learn to play guitar is to become familiar with your instrument itself.  Familiarize yourself with frets, pickups, machine heads, the volume and tone controls and all the basic components of a guitar at first. Once you know the way the instrument works and what each piece does, then you’ve already made an excellent start while you learn to play guitar. 

You may also have to be certain you’ve got the right instrument for whatever particular brand of music you need to create.  While it’s best to learn a few varying styles ( therefore making you a far more experienced all round player ), you will be most fitted to a particular type of guitar. As an example, while you learn to play guitar, if you’re desiring to play country or indie, you might like to try out some telecaster style guitars. If you need to shred and play lightspeed metal, try some Ibanez guitars.  If you are into hard rock, look into testing out some Washburn guitars.  Classic rock?  How about a Gibson Les Paul?  Try a few makes of guitar and find out what feels the best for you, and what most closely suits the genre of music you most want to create. 

once you have the guitar and some basic know-how about the instrument, you are able to start with learning how to play guitar.  Many players find that works best to start with learning the basic chords as well as the main scales. once you have familiarized yourself with the concept and use of the basic chords, move onto barre chords and power chords.  Once you are able to confidently swap between these techniques of striking notes, you can then begin to put together your own compositions while you learn to play guitar. 

When you start to draft your very own music, don’t attempt to be flash all at once.  Start off with something straightforward that you are confident you’ll be in a position to perform comparatively simply.  Once you are used to basic structures and chord progressions, you can add a new element of difficulty to your composition. Make it barely more complex and harder to execute.  You will soon learn that your guitar playing is getting better and you are mastering these harder pieces much faster. The key while you learn to play guitar is to push yourself a little further with each thing that you learn.  Guitarists all over the world state that they’re still learning all of the time, even after playing for years on end. 

The guitar is a versatile instrument that it is just about very unlikely to run out of new ideas to attempt to new things to master. There are lots of comprehensive resources online to help conquer the basic parts of learning to play guitar fast in any idiom.  Discover what you can learn from these great places!  While many folks would advocate a guitar mentor to help learn, this is not ideal as a long term plan. Sure, get a tutor to help with the fundamentals of learning how to play guitar, but after the fundamentals, you should try and continue the journey for yourself.  This way you are able to build on your lessons each time, and create a style that is all your own while you learn to play guitar.

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Discipline In Practicing

Friday, May 8th, 2009

More Guitar Practice Tips

Discipline is very important when you are practicing the guitar. one of the hardest things I have even done in my life was learning to play the guitar but it was also the most rewarding. It is easy to understand why I became proficient at playing guitar. I practiced a lot from the time I was 16 everyday in my bedroom until now. When I practice, improving my fundamentals like changing chords, improving my repertoire of songs and running up and down scales is where I spend the most of my time.

When I was in a good mood or I really wanted to play, was when it was easy for me to find time to practice. There time when I could spend hours simply changing from a D chord to a G chord because it sounded so cool. But on other days it was my discipline and desire to play and improve that made me practice and develop as a player.

Practicing regularly and practicing well are the two main factors when it come to the discpline of playing guitar. It is important to address both of these issues.

Practicing regularly is the most obvious and easy to do. You must play guitar everyday. You don’t need attention draining three or four hour long sessions. 30 minutes will generally be fine if you are focused during that time. Doing regular, small amounts of practice is far better than going all out for hours once a week. I know that in a busy life it can be hard to make the time to practice but honestly 30 minutes a day is achievable for anyone. There is no set time that is best to practice but I prefer to do it in the evening simply because I find playing the guitar is a relaxing way to wind down after a stressful day.

Poor practice habits are the most difficult and most common problem to address. This is something that affects even the most experienced player. There are several causes and solutions to the problem.

  • Playing the same thing over and over every time you play. It is important to play something perfectly before you move on. BUT, once you know how to play something you need to move on and keep challenging yourself.
  • The opposite is also a problem: moving on too quickly. Practice a certain piece till you can play that piece well before you move on the to next thing. An excellent habit for any musician to have is playing perfectly and accurately.
  • Not focusing on developing all parts of your musicianship when you are practicing. I prefer to split my practicing into parts. For example I might spend 5 minutes practicing new scales or chords, 10 minutes working on writing new music for myself and maybe 15 minutes learning a new song or part of a song.
  • Playing things too fast when you first try and learn them. This can cause you to become disillusioned with your playing when you are trying to learn a new song. Most guitarists, including myself try playing a song at a slow speed before trying it a fast pace.

When playing guitar, in order to get good, practicing properly and regularly is the best way. This requires discipline. Discipline to stay focused and on track while practicing as well as discipline to practice regularly. Remaining disciplined in your practice will ensure you become and excellent player.

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