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Master the Guitar in five minutes
By Mike Hayes | May 20, 2010
Before beginning this article I ran a Google search for ‘learn
guitar’ the result was 45,000,000 and you can bet that 90% of
these will be about learning to play guitar in some unbelievably
short time frame.
Sound familiar? Sound too good to be true?
The story: The internet is a good place for stories … there are
literally hundreds if not thousands of guitar ‘experts’ who are
trying to lure unsuspecting newbie (and not so-newbie) guitarists
to buy their ‘instant fix-it-all-in-five-minutes’ guitar course,
software or guitar system, some are very convincing with
impressive sales pages and flashy videos … but do they really
work?
To find the answer we need to step back from the computer for a
moment and take a realistic look at what is really happening
using good old fashioned (but quite rare) common sense.
What we can learn: We live in a ‘microwave mentality’, instant
gratification, quick fix society … that’s a fact we want
everything and we want it now!
Our so-called experts target would-be guitarists with this
‘instant results’ type marketing; any experienced guitarist
knows that you can’t learn the guitar in five minutes any more
than you can learn how to play the piano in five minutes or learn
how to fly an airplane or become a doctor in five minutes.
What do we get for our ‘instant guitar’ program? Lots’ of goodies
or worthless junk? Pandering to the popular idea that more is
better they will no doubt give you piles of stuff … here’s what
you can expect.
* heaps of videos
* lots of licks
* piles of guitar TAB
and the list goes on …
A closer look by the discerning guitarist reveals …
* heaps of videos – chock full of lightning fast, very impressive
show-off style guitar playing which confirms the fact that your
‘instructor’ can play faster and louder than you; unfortunately
that’s the way it’s going to stay because your ‘video star/
guitar expert’ isn’t in the slightest bit interested in helping
you play better, he or she just wants you to watch in amazement
at their Olympic style guitar achievements.
* lots of licks – heaps of ‘chicken-pickin’ fun here; again
played as fast as possible for maximum entertainment value
(unfortunately very little educational value).
* piles and piles of guitar TAB – most of which you could pick up
for free on the internet! Don’t worry about how accurate it is,
you have heaps of them to try.
Why am I being so hard on these guys surely it’s all good fun …
the truth is a lot of people love this stuff, they want to
believe they will be able to play the guitar before lunch they
buy all these ‘easy play’ type stuff and generally they get what
the pay for!
My interest is not in this type of person but rather the serious
player who genuinely loves music and wants to play the guitar
properly; it is tragic when this type of player is messed up by
all this junk.
Principles for life: Anything worthwhile doing is worthwhile
doing well!
Can you plant a tomato seed, water it and expect to eat fresh
tomatoes from that plant this afternoon? … of course not!
Can to buy a guitar, plug it in, watch a video on YouTube and
master the guitar in five minutes? … of course not!
The principle of learning to play apply in the same way as the
‘law of the farm’ works in nature … everything takes time to
grow, develop and mature.
There’s a great saying that applies here “the dedicated take care
of their time and time takes care of the un-dedicated”, I think
that sums things up beautifully for the ‘instant guitar hero’
type player, they will mess around with all types of guitars and
guitar related gadgets but will remain a stranger to music for
their entire life!
To sum things up …
1. If you don’t know what you are doing why bother doing it?
2. You can’t learn flying from a guy who has never been off the
ground … does your instructor have any ‘real world’ credibility
or is their only qualification their ability to set up a
seductive website.
3. Learning little snippets of unrelated information will only
confuse the student, in order to learn anything you need
STRUCTURE! Where fact ‘A’ is learnt and then that fact is
connected to and related to fact ‘B’ that’s how students progress
by connected learning … there is no other way forward; there
never has been nor will you ever be able to by-pass this process
that’s how human beings learn.
4. There’s a great saying that applies here “the dedicated take
care of their time and time takes care of the un-dedicated”, I
think that sums things up beautifully for the ‘instant guitar
hero’ type player, they will mess around with all types of
guitars and guitar related gadgets but will remain a stranger to
music for their entire life!
5. Learning to play a musical instrument is an exciting journey
where you learn a lot more about yourself than you ever learn
about your instrument; but everything in life has a price, if you
pay the price you will get your rewards if you are looking for
shortcuts … you miss the whole point.
Enjoy the journey of playing the guitar.
Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Tips, Learn And Master Guitar | No Comments »
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