Each year, it’s the same story: budding musicians get their first ever guitar during Christmas, only to see the original excitement fade out a few months into the New Year, replaced by frustration due to a perceived lack of progress. Guest blogger Joseph Nicolls highlights 11 bad habits beginners should quit if they wish to […]
One of the first questions that arise when buying your first guitar is: “Should I choose an electric or an acoustic guitar?” Guest blogger Nicky Patterson tries to help beginners make up their minds with this Beginner’s Guitar Guide. Having a hard time deciding which kind of guitar to learn on? You may be concerned […]
There are few things more satisfying for a guitarist than playing slide – you know, proper, blues slide guitar! And guess what? It’s not that hard… if you follow some simple tips! Before we start, it’s important to make clear that the slide guitar technique wasn’t invented for blues, and is not for exclusive use for blues guitarists. The […]
It’s never good enough is it? With every new guitar and each new amp, every acquisition of gear and fancy “toys”, satisfaction always seems to be fleeting. It’s only a matter of time before you ask yourself that familiar question, “what can I do to sound better?!” and then run out to add something to the collection.
“How can there be a Dm chord in the key of C?” This is one of the most common questions I get asked as a theory teacher. In some cases the person has not considered that there must be different chords in any given key or else we would have to stay on one chord for a long, boring time. More often though the student knows that “the chords of the key of C” are C, F, and G (or G7). This last idea is partly true – those are the MAJOR chords in the key of C. However, every major key contains 3 major chords, 3 minor chords, and one diminished chord. And not only does every major key have that same number of chords of the same type – they are all in the same order.
If you are thinking of learning guitar or getting into the guitar scene, one of the important decisions that you will need to make is whether you want to go acoustic with your guitar or electric. Both types of guitar are fantastic and offer a wide range of playing styles to experiment with. Today we are going to highlight the main differences between the two to help you make your decision.
It is pretty much an unavoidable thing that happens in every guitarist’s lifetime. We get in ruts. The difference between great players, and players that tell you that they have pretty much given up, is that great players’ know how to steer out of the ruts.
All music performance is a creative endeavor, whether it’s an original composition or an interpretation of someone else’s piece. Creativity is absolutely necessary to the art of making music, and without it, all we have are meaningless strands of notes trailing across a page or hanging limply in the air. Great musicians nurture creativity, and one of the best ways to do this is with consistent improvisation. How can you give life to someone else’s written music without being able to create your own? It’s possible to mimic musicality, but to own it, you’ll need to create music.
Have you ever watched your favorite guitarist and wondered how they got so fast? You may think you’ll never get there, but that’s not true. With guitar, just like anything else, you get out of it what you put into that. That’s the first and most important thing. But there are things you can do to help the process along and progress faster to the speed licks you’d like to be playing.
If you want to learn to play an instrument or get better at playing an instrument there is a guaranteed way that you can achieve this: practice. Like with anything we decide to learn, the more we do something the better we get at doing it. This applies to everything we do in life. Its obvious that practice is a requirement of becoming a better musician, so you want to set up a good routine that is enjoyable and will keep you motivated to want to continue practicing.
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