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Beginner Guitar Lessons – How to Survive music experts and the arrogance of ignorance
By Mike Hayes | June 11, 2009
Guitar players of all levels have to constantly be on the lookout
for potential blocks to the progress. In fact, the whole process
of guitar playing is a course in “problem solving”.
How far you progress down the guitar playing path depends on your ability to clearly identify and overcome obstacles. Firstly, let’s identify the type of common obstacles guitarist’s encounter.
Guitar playing obstacles:
1. physical
2. mental – data
3. psychological
Physical obstacles can be overcome by (a) making certain your
guitar is set up properly by an experienced repair person and (b)
remembering that your muscles need to develop over a period of
time, most importantly we don’t want to train ourselves to make
mistakes. Simple things like warming up slowly will help.
Mental obstacles should be approached with as much care as the
physical aspects of playing. Write theoretical information on
question and answer cards to clarify the information you want to
know.
Keep in mind 50% of guitar playing is physical and the other 50% is mental. You can learn so many important things about music without the guitar in your hands.
Identify and overcoming the psychological problems of guitar
playing is the most important area, your success is largely dependant on sorting these issues out and putting them in there proper place once and for all.
There are many types of musician related psychological problems
however the most dangerous is the “music expert”.
Music experts come in all different shapes and sizes, here are
three of the more common varieties:
1. friends and family,
2. other guitar players,
3. suspect Internet instruction sites promoting guitar TAB.
You see, all these people consider themselves “experts” in music, therefore they are well qualified to “help?” you.
Picture this scenario … let’s say you were riding on a bus and
someone made a comment about dentistry hardly anyone would make a remark about what was being said, since dentistry is considered a specialist field therefore unless you were a fellow dentist you would figure it would be best to say nothing.
Now, if you were in the same bus and made a comment about Elton
John, Elvis or Greenday everyone would be climbing over each other with something important to say about a each artist.
Why … because music is everywhere, radio, TV, Internet … you
name it, it’s there …Music is to human beings like water is to
fish it’s everywhere therefore the general public consider
themselves self appointed experts.
Very few would think of opening their mouth if the discussion was
about accounting or the medical profession yet music is a
specialist field that requires years of dedicated training just like all other professions.
Here’s a few tips to safeguard your guitar playing when next you
come in contact with these “experts”.
Tip 1 - family and friends (music expert) this species of expert
means well however the comments can be fatal to the sensitive
guitar player.
Comments such as, can’t you play “Smoke On The Water” etc., yet? you have been learning for months … everyone knows how to play “Smoke On The Water!
Solution - don’t say anything, just ask yourself what degree of musical expertise has the person making this comment ever achieved.
There’s a good chance their only musical achievement is to be able to turn on a CD player. By the way … not every person wants to play “Smoke On The Water”, it’s a good rock song but if “your” musical preference is jazz you would be better off listening to someone like Charlie Christian or Louis Armstrong.
Do I make my point clear … you are learning the guitar for your own musical enjoyment … you don’t have to entertain everyone by playing “their” favorite tunes.
Tip 2 – guitar player (music expert), this variety of expert is
quite hazardous to your guitar playing career.
Sometimes these well meaning “experts” can easily set your guitar playing back 50 years! Remember a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous … and with these part-time experts you have to be careful.
Solution - always check the source of the information before you
take it on board. Has this player ever played in a professional
group … I’m not talking about a messy, jam session where
everyone gets to play for a cut of the door takings.
Beware of where the advice is coming from otherwise you could end up just as confused as them!
Tip 3 - Internet – (guitar guru/music expert) possibly the most
harmful of all the self appointed “experts”.
My favorite cartoon about the Internet comes from the 2000
edition of The New Yorker Collection @ cartoonbank …
it’s a cartoon with two dogs typing on a computer, one dog says
to the other “On the Internet, nobody know’s you’re a dog.”
And that sums it up … anyone and everyone is an expert on the
Internet and boy when it comes to guitar there’s no shortage of
musical geniuses.
You know the type … learn the guitar in 5 minutes, play like a
star, promoting guitar TAB.
Solution – An important distinction I discovered with offline
music stores was that they are essentially “paper merchants” not
information givers… that’s not their role.
This applies to online products as well … are they simply well
marketed digital products or do the actually teach you something
of value?
As with our previous tips check out the vendor’s musical track record … quite often the course was “ghostwritten” by some other hot shot player.
Keep in mind, good players don’t always make good teachers and
visa versa.
Bonus Tip 4 – like everything else in life, it’s always “buyer
beware” … learn to read music, become musically literate then
you are in control of your musical progress!
I invite you to use these tips and tools when you play the
guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
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