« | Home | »

The 10 Golden Rules Of Learning Guitar

By Mike Hayes | November 18, 2008

Learning guitar can be a very relaxing and rewarding pass time, in fact just about everyone would like to play the guitar. Many people have tried to learn and have given up in frustration …


why don’t more people succeed with their guitar playing? …after 38 years of playing the guitar (33 years as a professional guitarist), I’d like to offer some common sense tips to accelerate your progress on this fascinating instrument.I’m sure no one started playing guitar to play scales … however in the learning process common sense all too often goes out the window and ten years of intensive guitar practice goes by without the guitarist being able to play a simple recognizable melody.

Rule #1: Music is 99% feel, 1% Technique - Let the music take you to the technique! The pursuit of technical excellence is a never ending process. More importantly than how fast you can play something is your ability to communicate with your listener.

If you where to pick twelve different pieces of music, preferably in the style(s) of music you like, the music will tell you what you need to practice.

This is a much more sensible approach than relentlessly
practicing scales 24/7.

Rule #2: Learn Melodies - This seems pretty obvious to everyone except the guitarist. Why did you take up the guitar in the first place? To play melodies (tunes),

Think about it, when was the last time someone requested you to play a scale?

Rule #3: Tap Your Foot - people respond to music in the following order. (a) firstly to the rhythm, (b) secondly, to the melody & (c) thirdly, to the harmony.

If you don’t concentrate on developing your groove, it won’t
matter how many chords to know, you won’t connect with your audience.

Rule #4: Learn To Play By Ear – try and play music without the printed page. Play anything you hear on the radio or in your head. It Doesn’t matter if it’s a nursery rhyme, or classical, try to play it.

Rule #5: Set Goals - you must set goals and be prepared to work at your goals at least 3 times as hard as you think you have to!

Simply, never give up … everything in life has a price, if you
want to play guitar, set your goals and focus on them.

Rule #6: Practice, Practice, Practice - professional musicians have a very simple approach to their craft… if the phone rings they go and do the gig, if the phone doesn’t ring their practice.

Side note:(and the more they practice the more the phone rings – that will probably tell you something).

Practice, practice, practice that’s the only thing that will make you a good player.

Rule #7: Tape Yourself Often - By taping yourself you will (a) have record of your progress on the guitar, (b) simulate a performance situation, it’s called the “red light” syndrome …as soon as the record button is pressed the player gets nervous and usually can’t play or remember anything, even their name.

Rule #8: Tone - despite the PR blurb from musical instrument manufacturers over 85% of the tone you produce on a musical instrument comes from you, not the instrument!

Make a list of your top five favorite guitarists, listen to them
carefully paying close attention to their tone.

Remember, music exists in our memory, we want to bring the memory of what we consider to be a great guitar tone to our next practice or performance.

Rule #9: Learn To Read Standard Music Notation - I know it’s popular to skip reading standard music notation and simply go for the TAB, but reading music has many advantages over guitar TAB and is definitely worth the effort for the serious guitarist.

Rule #10: Learn The FingerBoard - Learn the names of all the notes and their location on the fingerboard.

There’s many things you can practice to improve your guitar
playing, these there golden rule are the most important, if you skip any of these it’s a recipe for disaster … apply them and watch your guitar playing skyrocket.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com

Topics: Guitar Tips | No Comments »

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.