Hey Friend,
Again, Happy New Year!
It’s was weird having the holiday fall right in the center of the week. My scheduling was all out of whack…
You know what’s great about learning a musical instrument?
It’s that no matter where you are in the process, whatever you learn will always be with you from that point forward.
Brand new to guitar?
Great! Everything you learn from here on out you will know forever.
I can hear you now:
“How can he say that? He doesn’t now me. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!”
I’m telling you from experience.
While your recollection of definitions and explanations might get fuzzy (or disappear completely), your body will not forget. Your brain and muscles remember every action they perform.
So for every scale you learn, every chord you play, every strum you make, your brain has a record of it.
Because you reinforced that record with a physical action, it is imprinted - basically set like concrete in your muscles.
So even if you quit playing guitar for a time (‘cause face it, once it’s in your blood, there’s no getting rid of it completely), when you pick it back up, your muscles will remember and find their groove relatively quickly.
Or at least faster than relearning from scratch!
The Three Food Groups
That’s why I believe we should treat learning guitar like a maintaining a healthy diet.
There are certain foods we should eat to make sure we get all the nutrients our bodies need.
Then there’s all the fun, tasty stuff we can eat/drink -- in moderation -- you know, the stuff that’s maybe not great for us but tastes sooo good!
With guitar, everyone loves those flashy leads and beautifully intricate fingerstyle progressions, but we all need to know certain fundamentals: How to play different basic scales (melody).
A handful of chords (harmony).
A few basic rhythm patterns (rhythm).
If you get a solid footing in these three areas, there won’t be any guitar part you can’t learn (with practice). Neglect any one of them and it’ll be tough to carry a tune.
Onward...
For 2020, we’re going put our focus on fundamentals.
Like a house, a strong foundation will set you up to reach any goal you have when it comes to playing guitar. You get this foundation by working on simple exercises in melody, harmony, and rhythm.
Even if you’ve been playing for years, you’ve got to practice the basics to keep your skills.
It’s like anything else - whatever you don’t think about or use on a regular basis, you tend to forget.
So we’re going to get back to basics and reinforce the fundamentals. We'll get started next week.
Have a great weekend!
Peace~
Dave
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