Subject: 6 Fundamental Guitar Skills
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, When you hear the word 'fundamentals' with regards to guitar, what comes to mind? If you're like most people, you think about learning basic guitar chords and strumming techniques. You might think that's all it takes to begin playing songs and getting good.While it's a decent place to start, there's a lot more to playing guitar if you want to become successful. I'd like to dig a bit deeper here and discuss a few of the finer points. There are some key skills that not only need to be learned early on, but also consistently practiced if you want your playing to progress. We've been brushing over some of them here from time to time, and I think it will do us good to make a clear distinction of what's important to include in a daily practice routine. The first thing to mention is just showing up. Like I've established with the Daily 5 Guitar Habit, taking a moment out of your day to pick up your guitar and work through a couple simple exercises is establishing the routine of making sure you do something to build (or at least maintain) your guitar skills. Sometimes we're lucky to get 30 seconds to ourselves with our guitars, but better that than not at all, right? A moment spent with your guitar is better than any day at work (unless playing guitar is your job)! 6 Fundamental Guitar Skills
Picking Picking is a skill literally every guitarist needs to practice every day. When you start out, picking technique isn't something most teachers focus on because they're more interested in getting the student to some success with playing simple melodies and basic chords. As long as the pick hits the strings and makes some noise, it's all good, right? Well, maybe... I'd like to turn that thinking on its ear a bit. You see, picking technique plays an important part in that early success. It involves how the student holds the pick, how hard they are plucking or strumming the strings, the angle at which the pick strikes the strings, the picking method, whether or not the correct string is being played and so on. There are literally hundreds of exercises we can perform to improve our picking technique, from practicing scales to working on repeating licks. Try focusing specifically on your picking hand for 5 minutes a day by practicing one aspect of picking technique. That could be pick attack, alternate or directional (economy) picking, picking accuracy, etc. Fingerboard Very early on you should take at least two minutes of your practice time every day to memorize the notes on the guitar neck. By doing this you are building a foundation for playing lead riffs as well as knowing where you can play any chord on the neck. When you know where to find the notes for each key, you can easily make your way around the fingerboard. Chords Chords are a large part of guitar playing. To start there are five basic major chord shapes that you need to learn - the C, A, G, E and D chords. Learning these shapes in the open position (down around the first three frets) gives you the ability to use these shapes in other areas of the neck to create some fascinating sounds. You really open up a lot of interesting chord voicings by learning open positions in different areas of the neck. These chord shapes are movable, meaning once you know where notes are on different strings, you can use these shapes to play chords and riffs in whatever region of the neck your song calls for. This frees you up to get extremely creative. Strumming Strumming is an interesting aspect of playing guitar. At its core, to master strumming the primary rule is to keep your picking hand and forearm moving in a consistent down / up (or up / down) motion. Strumming comes from the elbow, not so much from the wrist. Of course, that's an overly simplistic explanation. In reality, the more complex a strum pattern, the more control we need to have over that hand/forearm. To duplicate all the strumming variations we hear in songs, there's a need to control when the pick (or hand) brushes the strings. There's also the attack of the pick on the strings to affect how the chords sound. Then there's the actual rhythm of the strum - is it a loose shuffle or swing strum pattern, or is it sync'd tightly to the beat of the song? Ideally, start with a simple down up strum pattern to get your arm used to the movement. You can then work on basic "cowboy" type strums. As you get comfortable with strumming, you can add in more complex strum patterns. The more familiar you get with strumming, the easier it will be for you to hear patterns in songs you like, and ultimately you'll be able to duplicate these patterns. Time and practice, time and practice... Reading the Score Alright, before I offer my opinion here, I'm going to tell you one thing. You do not need to know how to read music to play music. There are plenty of professional musicians out there that cannot read music. That said, I encourage you to take the time to learn how to read music at least at a basic level. When you can read music, you will be able to figure out how a song is supposed to sound without having to hear a recording. You'll understand how long to play notes or chords, what key the song is in so you can solo over it, how the song is constructed lyrically and many more details. Tabs (tablature) are helpful to show us where to place our fingers, but they don't help us understand the rhythm and feel of a song. This is where understanding notation can set you apart from other players. I you ever aspire to be a studio musician, the ability to play from notation will put you heavy demand. Ear Training Lastly, ear training is critical for every musician, regardless of instrument. Our ears are extremely complex and sensitive organs, and over time they have adjusted to the noise of modern life. When we play music, we need to fine-tune our hearing so we can distinguish different pitches and intervals. Ear training helps you refine your ability to hear subtle differences in sounds and isolate those sounds to create and perform better music. You can start ear training by playing and listening to intervals on your guitar or on a piano. Sing those intervals along with playing them to help tune your hearing. Another great way to learn an interval is to know songs that incorporate a particular one. For example, one interval is the root note of a scale to the fourth note, which is known as the perfect fourth. A song that incorporates the perfect fourth interval in the first two notes is "Here Comes The Bride." Here is a list of songs for every interval. Work on Fundamentals Daily Six core fundamentals to help you grow your musicianship and guitar skills. If you take just a few minutes each day to work on these skills, you will put yourself head and shoulders above 90% of the general population of wannabe musicians. Focus some dedicated effort to each of these individually and you'll find yourself inching towards the top 1% of the population. It's up to you - hobbyist or aspiring pro, the fundamentals will be the thing that sets you apart. The proof is out there that this approach works consistently, so don't underestimate the power of doing the basics. Until next week... Rock On! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
|
