Jam Babble

When you first start learning to play guitar, no matter how you choose to learn, you’re going to have to break through a mental barrier that exists. This is especially true when start trying to learn major and minor chords.

You see the positions we want our hands to go in aren’t natural to anything we’ve tried to do before. Also the concept of strumming with one hand, making a chord with the other then changing to another chord without stopping strumming takes some serious concentration as well.

Add on top of this that eventually you want to be able to play guitar faster and there’s a lot going on at once.

I want to help set your mind at ease a little. All beginner guitar players have this trouble at first. They tend to stumble feeling like their hands just can’t do it. They can’t form these chords. It isn’t true and all beginners face this.

Here are a few things you can try as you’re learning this new skill.

1 – Separate strumming from fretting. For the first little bit just practice making chords with your left hand. Switch between the different chords and aim for getting the right shape.

2 – When playing chords, even when you stumble making a particular chord shape don’t stop strumming keep on moving ahead. Separating out your strumming hand and fretting hand in your mind is important since they are independent.

Like most things in guitar you want to first aim for proper technique and then add in speed. Doing these two things (practicing chords shapes without strumming and continuing to strum even when you have trouble keeping up with your fretting hand) will improve your ability over all.

It’s not talked about much online in guitar forums, communities or blogs but it’s the one skill you need before you even pick up a guitar to succeed. That’s DISCIPLINE.

I know this as well as the next guy, possibly even better because I struggled with this when I started and still do. Getting excited about learning something new and buying a new program, piece of software or gadget to help you is great but without discipline you’re not going to follow through and succeed.

I wanted to give you 3 tips on developing discipline in learning guitar. Take a note of these if you’re having trouble or if you’re a beginner starting out they should help. If you’ve just bought a new guitar lesson dvd or learn to play guitar course before you tear it open read these and keep them in mind as you go. It might help you stick at it when times get tough.

1.) Plan: If you’ve bought a home study guitar program or if your taking guitar lessons privately having a plan is a must. If you’re taking a lesson from someone else then part of your plan is done. You’ll be told what night and when your lesson is all you have to do is show up. If you are using a self study program then you need to decide when you’re going to watch, read or listen to lessons and how often.

You can adjust this as you get started but decide up front what you’re going to commit to and how often so you can stay consistent, which is the next step.

2.) Consistency: You might think of this as the same thing as discipline but it’s not. What I want you to do is be consistent with your learning an practicing. If you’re going to watch one lesson each week do that, and try to do that on the same night each week.

This is especially important for practice, you should practice almost every day. I wouldn’t try and practice for an hour every day when you first start, maybe 10-15 minutes is good but be consistent and create the habit of practicing guitar and you will grow to have a practicing habit. This is a great thing to have as you become a better and better guitar player.

3.) Be Realistic: Expectations can kill you when you’re starting out on something new. Remember, learning to play the guitar isn’t like learning to play guitar hero. You can sit down for a night and learn to play guitar hero and maybe even be half decent by nights end, how ever real guitar playing is a heck of a lot tougher then that.

Have milestones, and if possible work them out with your teacher or browse through the course you’re using and look at how the lessons are laid out. Some products, like Learn and Master guitar, have a time line for how long it should take to learn a particular skill. Challenge yourself to meet these goals, but don’t think you’ll be playing like Clapton or Hendrix in a month.

This is a bonus tip but it always helps me out when I’m starting something new. Visualize yourself being successful. Think about playing those great solo’s, amazing your friends and playing at parties for other people. Maybe that isn’t the reason you started learning to play guitar, so for you use what ever your reasoning was. Visualize the dream, the big payoff. This will keep you motivated and disciplined even when you really don’t want to be while learning.

For a great lesson plan that uses a timeline and helps you stay focused read the Learn and Master Guitar Review.

I talk a lot on here about using guitar lesson dvds, online guitar lessons and other self study methods for learning to play guitar. Of course that isn’t the only method it just happens to be the primary methods I’ve used to teach myself.

If you happen to be one of those guitar players or beginners that enjoys the interaction with a private guitar teacher here are some tips to follow when choosing your teacher for guitar lessons.

1.) Using Classified Sites: Sites like Craigs List and Kijiji are full of ads for guitar teachers. The majority will teach from their home, which isn’t a problem, but ask for their credentials as a guitar teacher. They don’t need to be professionally or classically trained but they should have some solid back ground and experience with playing.

2.) Local Music Stores: Visiting your local guitar or music store is a great source of info for choosing a guitar teacher. Often stores will offer lessons in house, if this is the case it’s a solid bet because the teachers will be top notch. Of course you will likely pay a bit more for it this way since the store wants to make a few bucks and so does the teacher.

A second way to use a music store to your advantage is to ask for referrals to people they know or see if there are any ads up in the store for teachers.

3.) Music Schools: Not ever city has a professional music school but some do. If your city is lucky enough to have a music school you can likely take guitar lessons there. Schools such as these offer a variety of levels of guitar as well as styles.

The price point will likely be higher here but it will be well worth it because the quality of instructor and consistency will be well worth it.

Christmas isn’t that far away. We’re into December and the count down on the radio will begin for the number of shopping days left until Christmas. My wife and I (well more her then I) have tried to become more proactive over the past few years thinking of meaningful gifts that our friends and family would really love and will bring them lasting joy. We’re not talking that kind of joy a sweater or gadget can bring.

So while I’m in the spirit of Christmas and gift giving I thought it to be a good time to write a quick post on the learn to play guitar dvd series from Legacy Learning systems.

If you have a special someone whom has been trying to learn to play the guitar or has expressed some interest why not make 2010 the year where you’ll help them accomplish this dream.

Getting Learn & Master guitar, the learn guitar dvd series, for a beginner or intermediate guitar player is a great way to give a gift that keeps on giving long after the holidays have come and gone. You see the amount of lesson content in this series is massive, for a raw beginner I’d saw well more then a years worth of lessons are available to watch, learn and practice from.

Beyond that the course also comes with printed lesson book that is divided into section which correspond to the lessons on the dvd’s as well as five backing track cd’s that you can play along with while you practice.

While giving private guitar lessons is great buying someone a guitar dvd series allows them to take action right then when they’re most excited.

So if you have a wanna be guitar player or someone trying to learn guitar on your Christmas list why not consider buying them Learn and Master guitar, the best dvd guitar lessons course available.

Here’s a Learn and Master guitar review to get more information about the program. There’s also a link in our side bar to their beginner guitar dvds.

It wasn’t all that long ago that your only choice to learn guitar at home was the oh so glamourous VHS or dare I…. BETA tape or a Hal Lenorad guitar book.

A lot has changed with the coming of the Internet, not just how we do our banking, communicate and keep in touch with old friends but also how we educate ourselves and learn new things.

Sticking with the guitar concept the first big step was the ability to load half decent videos onto the web. This of course didn’t just take technology improvements but also required home PC and MAC users to have higher speed Internet connections so they could stream and/or download these guitar lesson videos.

Today now we have high quality video creation and production equipment available to almost anyone. It’s become so inexpensive to produce a good instructional or how to video almost anyone can put it together.

While complete interactive guitar lessons aren’t quite the norm yet they’re on their way.

New products like Leagacy Learning Systems Learn and Master guitar have come out with online support and community sites where students can ask questions directly of the instructor and get answers. While it’s not exactly in real time it does give a channel where by the student isn’t stuck if they have question.

Recently Emedia’s newest version of their guitar software came out and it has a recognition feature that knows if you’re playing the right notes of not. The feature is used by hooking a mic up to your machine and playing. The software then tells you if you’re playing correctly or not, this is very similar to how a lot of language software works.

The more technology grows the more interactive guitar lessons will become. While I don’t think we’ll reach a point where the guitar instructor is replaced for beginners the requirement is becoming less and less of taking private lessons.

It’s found quite readily in many different types of self learning software such as languages. Speech recognition is used when you want to learn Spanish or French, how about note or chord recognition for guitar?

Well there’s a new version of eMedia Guitar Method out that does more or less just that. I have always been waiting for a program that allows you to plug in your electric guitar some how (hence the plug N Play Title of the post) and provides feedback on whether you’re playing notes correctly or incorrectly. How ever eMedia is almost there with it’s note recognition features.

Basically you attache a mic to your computer and when you’re practicing the software interprets the sound to say whether you’re playing correctly or not. This is a big step of guitar learning software since before my personal opinion of it was it was not much better then learning straight from a book. With this new feature eMedia guitar becomes more of an interactive program that provides real time feedback as you’re learning.

Other programs such as a learn to play guitar dvd also don’t offer real time feedback but because you’re watching someone on the screen doing what they’re teaching you you’re better able to judge whether you’re performing things correctly or not.

Check out eMedia Guitar 5 it’s available for both Mac and PC

I’m a huge fan of learning guitar form videos. It’s no secret, I’m always suggesting that beginners use quality guitar lessons dvd courses to learn from home if they aren’t going to be taking private lessons. So when I came across this video by Jonathan over at GutarTipsWeekly.com I had to share it.

He has been putting out some absolutely great stuff lately and I want to give a shout out to him for his hard work he’s been putting in at his blog lately.

This video covers the beginner open chords. These are the main chords you’d learn at first including E, A, G, C, D and F. They’re all on the first fret and don’t require any barre chords to be made. If you’re dying to learn a couple of songs to play mastering these chords will make it happen for you.

I wrote a post recently on how to learn chords better it would be worth checking out also since the exercises I suggest in that post would apply here to master these chords well.

So watch this video below it’s a few minutes long but it’s well worth the time. He’s done a great job an put a lot of his time into it I’d say.

Check it out below.

When you first start learning to play guitar it can be frustrating. There is a lot going on at once, your strumming hand is strumming your fretting hand is trying to make a shape it’s not used to combined with the fact that your fingers are pressing on strings all at once (a technique you’re not natural used to) and you’re trying to memorize chord shapes and patterns.

It’s not something you pick up the first day of lessons that’s for sure. I read a great article today about how you can improve your ability to make chord shapes and become more consistent. You see the trouble isn’t that you don’t have the ability, rather it can be a matter of you having issues with your mind doing everything at once. These three tips I’m going to share will help you over come the troubles of muting strings, switching chords too slowly or not being able to get the right fingers on the right frets.

1 – Don’t Stop Strumming

No matter what when you’re playing a chord and switching between another keep that strumming hand moving. Often times beginners will have trouble keeping the two hands independent of each other, so if you find your fretting hand stumbling and having troubles switching between the chords don’t stop strumming.

2 – Just Change Chords

Forming chords correctly whether it be slow or fast and switching between them is a separate skill from strumming. Try forming chords without strumming and switching between them. For instance make an E major then switch to a G major and to a D major then an A major. This will get your brain and fretting hand on the same page of what you need to do to make the chords and switch between them.

3 – Pressure Practice

While your making the chords you’re having trouble with press down hard on the strings, then release your hand and hover just above the strings, then press hard again and hold it for a few seconds. This gets your brain and fingers talking and understanding that you need to be moving and using all your fingers at once. This can sometimes be difficult at first to have your fingers all pressing at once since it’s not a natural motion.

This are 3 great practice exercises to work on if you’re finding beginner chords difficult. Whether you’re learning to play using a guitar lesson dvd, form YouTube or a private teacher chords are primary skill you’ll want to learn to take the time to do it right the first time.

Learning guitar chords is the real meat & potatoes of learning to play the guitar. Of course there are some things you need to be able to do before you jump into learning chords but more or less it’s the most exciting part of learning guitar.

If you’re teaching yourself to play there are a few viable methods you can use to learn guitar chords. This post is going to cover a few of those methods.

1.) Books & Charts: The old fashioned way, well not really that old but feels it in terms of the digital age, was to use posters, charts and books that listed the different ways to play chords. A chord book might contain literally 15-20 different ways to play a particular chord on the guitar neck. Of course this comes in handy when you want to play along with someone playing the same chord progression but maybe an octave higher.

Having a solid guitar chord book that you carry with you in your guitar case is a good idea. Possible alternatives to a chord book now are the iphone apps you can get that allow you to search chords or other digital programs that can be used on hand held devices

2.) YouTube: Ah yes youtube, while there is a lot of junk on this website there are some diamonds in the rough. You just need to know where you’re looking. Finding a few videos that cover the basics major and minor chords on the first few frets will help you with hand positioning and correct technique.

Careful though it’s easy to get sucked into hours and hours on youtube surfing videos. The big reason I’m not a huge fan of YouTube as a viable alternative to learn to play guitar is because it’s too darn difficult to find a string of videos that teach you new things in a logical order.

3.) Video Lessons: This isn’t just a method of learning guitar chords of course. You can learn to play guitar from scratch to a great player using the right guitar lesson dvds. Products like Amazing Guitar Secrets or Learn and Master guitar cover a massive amount of material and of course learning guitar chords is included in this.

What ever method you use to learn the basic guitar chords the key to getting good at them and switching between them is practice. It’s unavoidable. So get started learning the proper positions and fingerings then practice them, practice strumming them, practice switching between them and keep doing it until it feels second nature. At that point you should be ready to put it all together to play your first song.

If you take a stroll through your local music store I’m sure you’ll find a dozen different learn to play guitar dvds. Most of these are geared towards specific styles of guitar playing such as jazz, blues or metal.

Sure there will be a few dvd’s geared towards beginners, but they won’t be a complete course. It’s the nature of the self study guitar world, there just aren’t a lot of products that take you from a complete newb all the way through to being a half decent acoustic or electric guitar player.

That is until now.

I want to introduce you to what I feel is the best guitar lessons dvd program available. I posted a video of two of this program on my blog before so for anyone who’s followed my posts this might not come as a surprise.

The best dvd program I feel is Learn and Master Guitar by Legacy Learning Systems.

This course truly is a complete program that takes you from learning to hold, tune and strum the guitar right up to learning genre specific skills for jazz and blues.

Of course it doesn’t claim to make it happen over night. It takes time for you to practice and learn the skills it teaches along the way, but the key is that everything is in there.

A true beginner probably would find there is more then 1 years worth of material on the 20 DVD’s that come with the new expanded program. While a more intermediate player might make it though the content in 6-8 months.

How ever at the $150 price point it’s a steal no matter if you’re just picking up a guitar for the first time or have been playing for a couple of years on your own.

The instructor, Steve Krenz, is top notch and recognized in the music industry as being one of the best teachers in Nashville. He has toured across the US with some big names and also done studio and session work for artists around Nashville.

I could go on and on about this program (I own a copy), but I don’t want to over hype it. I suggest you visit this site, it talks more about the complete guitar lesson dvd course pack.