A JAW-DROPPING PERFORMANCE

Here's another video for you to enjoy. This is a stunning performance by Justin King. He's pretty amazing, isn't he?

Memorizing Music

When you perform later on, you would need to memorize the chords and the notes that you need to play.  Thus, you would need to learn how to memorize music effectively. Below is an article that gives great tips on how to memorize music.

When memorizing music there are several things you can do that will make your job that much easier. Memorizing music is important as most people know you play better when having the music in your head rather than having your head in the music. So where to start when memorizing music effectively?

I agree with Fred Noad, when discussing memorization in his book, Solo Guitar playing, he states...Learn to play a piece from beginning to end with absolutely correct fingering and with complete continuity (however slow) before committing it to memory.

To learn music in this fashion helps with an overall visual memory of the piece and it helps with continuity rather than have the piece sound disjointed and fragmented. If you think about it you will realize that our thoughts and memories are nothing more than powerful images or, pictures, if you like.

To prove my point let's say I ask you to think of an elephant. What do you see? Is it the word elephant written down (which could be a picture) or is it a picture or part picture the animal itself? I bet you I know the answer. Another test would be to ask how you dreamed at night. Do you dream in words or are your dreams a series of pictures rather like a scene from a movie?

You need to work with your brain rather than against it. Why not utilize the natural operation of your memory? It's crazy not to!

I also know from my days at Teacher's College that most people have different strengths when it comes to learning something new based on the body's different senses. Some people are visual learners, some learn better with their tactile (touching) sense and some are strong auditory learners.

What is clear in most literature about memory is that a combination of as many of your senses as possible is a stronger way of learning anything. Because of this we should employ most of our senses when learning a new piece of music. Of course we can't include taste and smell to any great degree (unless you want to eat your music!) but we should definitely try to use our other senses of sight, hearing and touch.

So, having established a method of learning a new piece of music what comes next? What are the nuts and bolts, so to speak?

I would actually take a step back. That is, start not with playing a piece of music but rather just reading it, just like a book, on its own. What I would be looking for is how it is put together. I would look at the key, form, and structure of the music? What about sequences and repetitions? What about dynamics, articulation and tone?

Breaking a piece up into its component parts first before you start to play it and get a visual memory of the piece allows you to take a ¡§short-cut¡¨ of sorts. If you understand where the repeats are, for example, you have already cut down on the amount of bars you have to memorize. If you know about the dynamics of the piece before you play it physically your brain won't have to deal with too much information at once.

As Sharon Isbin says in the Classical Guitar Answer Book..."The more you understand the language and structure of a piece, the easier it will be to memorize."

I liken it to driving to an unfamiliar place or suburb in your car and using a roadmap. If you just turn up and expect to find the street it would be very difficult indeed. But if you look at the map beforehand you stand a much better chance of finding your destination by noticing the signs along the way. You recognize where you are, with much less stress!

Of course, I'm talking about reading the music AWAY from the guitar. This should be your very first step. I would then employ the Noad method after this.

Next I would test my memory by playing the separate phrases in the music. If you definitely know a phrase, try to string it together with the next phrase in the piece and so on until you get to the end of the piece. If you are not confident to play phrases try playing one bar at a time and going back to the printed music when a bar is forgotten.

In this way the music can be overlapped until the whole piece can be played by memory.

I would leave the piece for several days to a week after that. Then I would test my memory again by trying to play the whole piece, making note of where I faltered or needed to consolidate. Leaving it for a period of time allows your subconscious brain to keep "working" on it for you. The subconscious is really quite powerful and when you get out of its way, you'll be amazed at what it can achieve.

Studying a new piece in this fashion should yield results. And remember, the more you practice (properly) the easier it will become. Good luck!

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20 Easy Tips That Will Put You on the Path to Being a Guitar Hero

By Justin Sours

Practice how you play

When you practice guitar chords, scales, songs, etc., make sure that you focus on quality and not quantity. The guitar sounds a lot better if all the notes in a chord ring or you hit every note in that scale with perfect timing instead of rushing through a scale or playing a chord and having some notes be muffled. Just remember to focus on playing things slow and with good technique (This is Key!). Learn whatever you are trying to learn slow and then increase the speed little by little until you get where you want to be. That's how you guitarists learn to shred or solo extremely fast. They start playing a scale or riff slow and then gradually speed it up with a metronome.

Keep your guitar out of the closet or storage

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes that a person learning guitar could make. KEEP YOUR GUITAR OUT IN THE OPEN!!! Keep it next to your bed or in your family room on a stand or anywhere where it is out of the closet or out from under the bed. If it’s out in the open, this will force you to play it and force you to mess around and practice.

Memorize the fret board of the guitar

Memorizing the fret board of the guitar can turn out to be an interesting task. There are little tips and tricks that allow you to find notes really fast. The reason why all guitarist who would like to get good should memorize the fret board is because it allows you to play create chords in different shapes, find notes in different areas of the neck and allows the guitarist to familiarize and open up to playing in different parts of the neck. Memorization of the fret board is also very beneficial in soloing and improvising.

Jam with other people with different styles and techniques

You will not believe how much your guitar playing will improve when you jam with other people. If you ever feel like you are reaching a "plateau" (you feel like you're not getting any better) in your playing, jamming with other people will definitely open you up to new tips and tricks. There's always something to learn from someone else that plays guitar no matter how good or bad they are. Also, everyone's individual style is different and the more open minded you are to other styles, the better player you will become.

Listen to new types music and try to play it

I know it’s hard, just force yourself to do it. When all else fails go back to the basics of music. A great way to do this is to listen to some classical music for inspiration. Elton John is an amazing musician and he says whenever he reaches a dull moment or block in his playing, he refers back to church hymns that he learned when he was younger.

Read guitar magazines

Guitar magazines have allot of cool stuff, but they also have allot of filler. The one thing I hate about guitar mags is that they are extremely complex (not for beginners). The articles, stories and advice are cool but some of the lessons are intense! The advanced guitar lingo having to do with intervals of certain modes and technical guitar talk gets to me sometimes. It's nice to know that stuff but ehhhhhhh..... It can be boring.

Go to concerts

Nothings more inspiring then going to a concert and seeing someone rock out on stage and totally impress the crowd. I remember a couple of years ago; I went to Vans Warped Tour. Immediately after the show, as soon as I got home, I ran to my room and tried learning allot of the songs I had heard. When I saw The Eagles back in October of 06', I couldn’t stop learning all their songs. It's amazing to be extremely inspired and motivated once again about playing guitar and going to concerts definitely rejuvenates my interest in playing guitar.

Buy concert DVDs

If you've never seen any ACDC music video or concert DVD.... then we definitely need to talk. Angus Young is an amazing guitarist and It's just amazing to see that this scrawny little Australian guy can play like he does and with such attitude and soul. Seeing that guy rip up the fret board definitely shows us that anyone can play guitar... all it takes is practice, discipline, motivation and commitment. Concert DVDs are great because they show you up close and in really good quality what exactly a guitarist is playing, unlike music videos where bands just dance around and they add in the music later. Concert DVDs are filled with raw footage of guitar playing at its best.

Always use your guitar strap

This is another biggie. When first learning how to play guitar, I never wore my guitar strap. I ended up paying for it later and basically having to relearn guitar standing up instead of sitting down. If you always play with your guitar strap on, there will be no difference to you while playing either sitting or standing. Playing with your guitar strap will also allow you to get to the "show-off" level so you can impress all your friends earlier.

A lot of people who use guitar straps find that they fall off very easy or tend to drop the guitar. There are many different types of locking mechanisms out there (I currently have two guitars that use the DiMarzio locking mechanism and it works very well)). Go to your local guitar shop and check all of them out and see which one fits you best.

Play with passion (Slash)

Have you ever heard a guitar player who is a great player, but you feel that there is something missing...... THERE'S NO SOUL!!! Soul is the emotion, the love, the purpose behind guitar playing. Listen to that same talented yet boring guitar player and then compare him to Gun's and Roses guitarist or Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash. Every solo that Slash plays has so much soul, so much emotion, and so much purpose. What I want you to do is Google "Slash - Godfather theme video" or get on Napster, iTunes, kazaa, etc. and download it. This video is nuts!! Slash plays with such a great amount of solo that it's amazing. I really don't know how to explain exactly how to add soul into your playing, however I will tell you that you will understand if you choose to stick with guitar and stay committed to the instrument. It's basically playing to express yourself and not to just play because you have to or don't want to but feel you should.

Watch the clips of legendary guitar scenes or solos

Here's some instant inspiration.... Go to yahoo or Google and click on the "video" tab above the search bar and type in anything having to do with guitar solos. You will find some amazing solos along with amazing guitar tricks. One really cool guitar clip I remember is of this Asian guy playing the super Mario brothers theme for Nintendo. That guy can play that song like you wouldn’t believe. There's so much inspiring guitar playing footage out there. It's everywhere and anywhere you look, especially online. Also, checkout the movie with Ralph Maccio from the 1980's called "Crossroads"... there’s some amazing guitar playing in it.

Try tabbing out songs by ear

This is extremely helpful. Tabbing songs by ear develops your musical ear very quickly. Choose one of your favorite songs and sit next to your CD player with a guitar and a piece of paper and try to figure out the chords in the song first, and then try to figure out the riffs within the chords. Once you find out the overall "key" of the song it's easy to figure out all the riffs and chords.

Take a college music course (Beatles, history of rock and roll)

While I was at community college for two years studying to get my Associates Degree, I had taken a "History of Rock 'n Roll" course. This course was extremely interesting. There was so much music that this class opened my eyes up to. I gained so much more appreciation for the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and many more bands of that era. Those bands really did change music forever. I definitely recommend taking a class like this anywhere you can; it will definitely open up your eyes to some great music out there and help you grow as a musician.

Read biographies of guitarists you appreciate

Some musicians out there have led incredible lives. The majority of them come from nothing and in the end, become legendary guitar gods. Look at Johnny Cash; he was a rural country boy that grew up almost penniless and turned into an amazing musician through inspiration and practice. There are so many interesting stories behind bands and musicians. Here's some that I find interesting (off the top of my head): The Beach Boys, Def Leppard, Metallica, Van Halen, The Beatles and Thin Lizzy. Do some research online and try to mirror yourself with these artists. It will give you a whole new thought process to playing their songs and guitar in general.

"Steal" riffs and ideas from other guitarists

I know it sounds bad but every great guitarist does it. Clapton stole the "crossroad blues" from Robert Johnson and the Beatles used some of Elvis' ideas and expanded upon them. Every musical generation steals ideas, riffs, chord progressions from the generation before and when it comes to music... its ok. I find this to help guitar players progress a lot, especially if you reach a plateau. One of the biggest things that helped me expand as a guitarist is to learn all my favorite solos by my favorite artists. Once I had learned them, I would play the same solo over different progressions in the same key and then play the same solos in different keys all around the neck and in different scale positions. Once I did this, I had "unlocked" all of the licks in the solo and I'm now able to use them in whatever I play. Just like how in video games you unlock new characters, levels and secrets throughout the game... you do the same in music. From there you can constantly expand upon your lick directory.

Play in front of others

This is one of the hardest parts about performing music. Playing in front of others is something that just takes time. Remember to relax and don't think about everyone watching you. Just focus on you and the instrument. The more you play in front of others, the better you will get. Everyone's first time playing in front of others can be pretty gut wrenching. Just remember that it gets easier every time and that you'll get through it just fine. What you can also do is videotape yourself playing and then put it on the internet. Lots of people including myself put videos on Youtube.com or other online video sites and its up to the viewers to judge. Some people will rip your playing apart but most will applaud you for trying and really like it. The way I look at it... "Led Zeppelin didn't write songs that everyone liked... they left that to the Bee Gees" - Wayne Campbell (Wayne's World)

"What if I screw up"? Who cares?! In music, everyone screws up while playing music. When big bands record in studios they spend days, sometimes even weeks recording tracks so that they turn out absolutely perfect. What really creative people do when they screw up is to elaborate on the screw up. If you hit a wrong note, maybe trying hitting the note again within the rhythm of the song and maybe it will sound good.

The Internet and Youtube are valuable tools...

Eric Clapton learned guitar by listening to old Robert Johnson, BB King and many other great blues records on a turntable and then trying to mimick the same sounds on guitar. Eddie Van Halen would be in his room with his door closed for days just messing around with different sounds that a guitar can make just by moving his fingers around in different shapes and seeing what they sound like. Alex Van Halen (Eddies brother and drummer for Van Halen) would go on dates and leave the house listening to Eddie whale away at 5:00pm and then come home to Eddie still whaling away at 2:00am. These artists didn't have the internet! They had a cassette player or record player and plenty of time on their hands. We're incredibly lucky today to have such great resources like youtube.com and the internet in general. Youtube.com is great for learning how to play guitar. You can find lessons, people covering songs, tips and tricks and just about anything that you need to get off on the right foot when it comes to playing guitar. The great thing about Youtube guitar lessons is that "they get to the point". No BS. Each lesson is usually under 5 minutes and they give you great info very fast, because who wants to watch a 30 minute video. Guitarists attention spans aren't that long, I know mine isn't. And Finally, you have the internet. The internet has absolutely everything you could ever possibly need, including Youtube.com, lessons, information, ultimate-guitar.com (for tabs), guitars101.com (for any other type of help that you may need), etc. The possibilities are endless. The point is that learning guitar today is and should be way easier than learning guitar in the past due to the great resources we have.

You can learn any riff from any song no matter how crazy or how fast.... just slow it down

Any riff is learnable, you just have to slow it down to a pace that you feel comfortable with, learn it, and then gradually speed it up. There are numerous programs out there that allow you to do this. One very popular one is called Transcribe. You can import any .mp3 file and then control the speed of the song. Practice the riff over and over and gradually raise the speed. If you can't play the at a given speed, then slow it down 1%, if you can play it and feel comfortable with how you played it, raise it by 2%. Doing this will allow you to master any riff, any song, anything!

Try learning the difficult songs or riffs that you've always wanted to learn, no matter what level you are at and no matter how hard the song is...

This is what makes guitar fun, seeing your improvement (ie. Quick Results). I remember trying to play songs that were at my level when I first started playing guitar. Stuff like : The Animals - House of the Rising Son, and Don Mclean - American Pie. I could play them ok, but they weren't really songs that I had started playing guitar for. I wanted to play Metallica's fade to black and Eric Clapton's Crossroads. I put the other two songs aside and started working on the new ones that had inspired me to play guitar. I had spent weeks and months on them even though they were outside my playing level. I was determined to learn them. I kind of wanted to be one of those guys that can't play anything else, just cover songs note for note. If I couldn't play any other song aside from the super hard ones note for note, I'd be happy. So I spent so much time learning these songs, and I could play them.... ok... not great.... However, when I went back to playing House of the rising son and American Pie, I could play them 100 times better. I played them like a pro. Its kind of like.... as long as you challenge yourself, you'll get better. You play with musicians that are better than you... you'll get better. You lift more and more weight than your used to... you get stronger.

A great musician once said.....

A great musician once said that as soon as guitar becomes a chore and isn't fun, that's the moment that you should put your guitar down. Come back to it later. Now this doensn't mean that when your first learning guitar and you get frustrated, you should put it down and forget it. Sorry, this rule only applies to guitar players who are advanced or who have been playing for a while. It sucks and is frustrating for everyone at first so you have to stick with it. The overall point is, guitar playing should be fun. Don't turn it into a chore or a task. 

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Justin Sours  is a 23 year old guitarist from Arizona who has been playing the guitar for 10 + years.

SOMETHING TO INSPIRE YOU AS YOU LEARN TO PLAY THE GUITAR

It is always good to have someone to emulate and inspire you as you aspire to become or achieve something. Guitarist Andy McKee, in my opinion, is an excellent role model for guitarists.

Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979 in Topeka, Kansas, United States) is an American fingerstyle guitarist currently signed to the American record label Razor and Tie. His style of playing and his compositions have earned him a considerable international fanbase; in late 2006, a live performance of his flagship song "Drifting" became a Featured Video on YouTube and MySpace, achieving over 27,000,000 views on the former to date and remaining one of its highest rated music clips.

McKee played his first guitar, an Aria nylon string bought by his father, at age 13. Initially underwhelmed by his guitar lessons, McKee's electric guitar-playing cousin inspired him to continue learning, taking him out for his 16th birthday to see a guitarist named Preston Reed perform live at a clinic. McKee later bought an instructional videotape from Reed and began to learn more complex guitar techniques from it, also earning his GED that year in order to drop out of high school. He began to take influence from guitarists such as Michael Hedges, Billy McLaughlin, Pat Kirtley, and from Passion Session by Don Ross, as he self-studied the instrument.

Essentially, Andy is a self-learned guitarist. He also composes music. Below is a video of "Drifting," one of his compositions that is mentioned above.







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Learn To Play the Guitar By Ear

Developing an ear for music is important if you want to be a great guitarist. Two important things are required here -- a quiet place to practice and tons of patience. Learning to play guitar by ear may be difficult, but its pay-offs are certainly worth all the effort.  Below are some guidelines that might be useful to you as you try to learn to play the guitar by ear:

Keep Listening to Music

Have a steady diet of music.  You cannot learn how to play the guitar well unless you have heard others play.  You may develop your own style later, but you need to listen to the famed and respected guitarist of whatever genre of music you may be interested in.  You don't need to dissect every note from every song you hear.  You simply need to listen.  This will help you develop a feel for your genre.

Be in a Quiet Place

When you want to learn to play the guitar by ear, you need a place where you cannot be disturbed. Your surroundings should be quiet. Why?  So that when you study the music of other musicians, you can hear every chord and riff and you won't be missing a note. Besides, a quiet atmosphere will help you to be able to absorb everything you need to learn to play the guitar by ear.

Be Willing to Be Awful

When you want to learn to play the guitar by ear, you should be willing to make mistakes and sound awful. In other words, you should not expect yourself to sound like Carlos Santana in the first few weeks. Just play and listen to the sound you produce.  It would help to record your playing.  Listen and try to see what you need to do to improve and if there are mistakes that you may be making as you play the guitar.  If possible, have a good guitarist listen to you and ask for a constructive critique of your rendition.

Be Patient

When you learn to play the guitar by ear, you will need loads of patience. You will need to learn to play songs without depending on tablatures or chord charts. It requires a lot of patience to get the chords or even the individual notes right.  In order to produce the perfect sound, you might need to practice the same chords, riffs or progressions many times.  This could be tiresome, but repetitiveness is the key to learning and perfection here.

Steer Clear of Tablatures and Music Sheets

You need to do away with tablatures and music sheets when you learn to play guitar by ear. Remember, what you want to develop here is your ear for music, so you must do a lot of listening . You can listen to a guitar set and replicate the notes.  This is a way for you to develop your natural ear for music.

Learning to play the guitar by ear will help you a lot as a guitarist.  It gives you an advantage should you join a band later. It will be easier for you to learn and remember the chords that are played in songs and it will also help you improvise on stage.  It would also be easy to cover up any mistakes other guitarists make.  These guidelines will certainly help you develop a good ear as a guitarist so make sure that you follow them.


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A Seasoned Guitarist's Advice on How to Learn to Play the Guitar

Feeling like putting down your guitar because you're bored and overwhelmed and you don't know what to do next?  Most guitarists (myself included) have been in that situation while trying to learn how to play the instrument.  Here's some good advice from a seasoned guitarist to a bungling newbie:

I have wanted to play the guitar all my life. My parents got me a guitar a couple years ago, and some books. I have tried maybe three different forms of lessons, all start off at different places. Where is the best place to start when learning to play? Also, got some money now, any advice on some good software or book (idiot proof) to teach me how to play? I really do want to learn this, I’m just kinda overwhelmed. Any other advice welcome please. Thanks!  

Everyone has given you great advice, but I’d like to add one very important aspect that often gets ignored…

Play well with others! You will improve 10 times as fast playing and practicing with another, than you will sitting at home in your room alone. Try to find someone who’s a better guitarist, if they can put up with you, get together to sing songs, write music..etc..at least once a week.

It’s also very important that you FORCE yourself to sit down everyday with the express purpose of practicing. Some days you may not feel up to it, but if you force yourself..if only for 15 minutes a day, you’ll find the time stretching into an hour or more.

Learn a minimum of 3-4 different ways to play each chord. This will involve partial or whole bar chords up and down the neck, but will give you a great understanding of the fret board. For example, if someone is playing the standard G chord 3-2-0-0-0-3 realize that you can play a little 3 string G chord up at the 7th fret, that’s shaped like the normal D chord x-x-x-7-8-7.

I know this sounds boring, but learn the Pentatonic Blues scale, and finally…find someway to record yourself…this is an invaluable tool for hearing areas of your playing that need more work.

Best of luck..guitarist of over 40 years.

This seasoned guitarist had good points to share, but wait a minute, does it mean that to be a good guitarist, you have to force yourself to practice?

When you want to be good at something, you have to love that something.  Learning to play the guitar is not easy, I would admit, but when you love something, you learn to ignore the difficulties.  When you don't feel like practicing, just go and grab your guitar and start.

You will find that the most difficult part is getting yourself to start practicing. This is normal.  However, if you really love what you do, you will find yourself unwilling to stop after 10 minutes of playing.  What is the pay off of practicing frequently?  Becoming a better guitarist.  Soon, you will see that the better you become, the more motivated you will be to practice.

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Learn to Play Guitar: Helpful Tips for the Left-Handed

Most guitars are made for right-handed people.  But what if you are left-handed and you terribly want to learn to play the guitar?  Don’t fret if you are left-handed.  You have nothing to worry about because you, too, can play the guitar well just like right-handed people. Here are the helpful tips that will help make learning to play the guitar a lot easier for left-handed people.

1. Like I said, most guitars are made for right handed people.  This poses a challenge for left-handed guitarist.  However, there are two options for you.  The first option is to get a guitar made right handed people and then have the strings’ position changed. If you don’t know how to do this, you can ask help from expert guitarists. This can only be done if the shape of the guitar is symmetrical, which means both sides of the guitar are of the same shape.  Now, some left-handed people are not comfortable with this set up but this might work for you.

The second option is to get a guitar for left-handed people. Yes, there are now guitar especially designed for left handed people.  However, they are not easy to come by.

2. Guitar lessons are sometimes hard to understand especially for lefties. You see, most guitarists are right-handed and so you might get confused with the lessons. Always have this in your mind – try to reverse the lessons and everything will fall into place.

3. When you’re shopping for a new guitar, make sure that you buy from a reputable store. You see, there are some stores that deliver defective guitars especially if they notice that you’re an inexperienced left-handed guitarist. Shop around and you can also ask help form fellow lefties so that they can show you the best stores in your area. If you want, you can also shop online and you will surely have a lot of choices.

4. For beginners, it would be helpful to not play a guitar for right handed people in a left handed manner. You will surely have problems with the guitar chords if you do this. Some complicated chords will be very difficult for you to play.

5. Have fun when playing the guitar. That's what really matters.  If you’re comfortable with left hand guitars, don’t immediately replace it with right handed ones. Also, be confident in playing it.  Know that some of the greatest musicians like Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix were lefties.  Sir Paul McCartney is a  lefty, too.

If you are lefty, the above tips will be helpful to you. Equipped with the right knowledge in playing guitars, you will soon find that all the guitar lessons will be very easy to learn. In no time at all, you will learn that being a left-handed is not an obstacle to being a great guitarist.