Subject: Climbing the Mountain...
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, Happy Halloween!I received this comment from Paul: Paul says, "Seems like a mountain to climb. I'm doubting if I have the capacity to remember all the chords etc." I feel ya, Paul. Guitar is one of those undertakings that you will never, ever find an endpoint to the learning. If I'm hearing you correctly, just getting started is intimidating. In fact, mountain climbing is a pretty good analogy for learning guitar. If you know anything about mountain climbing, especially climbing the biggies like Mt. Everest or Mt. McKinley, it's not something you do in an afternoon. In fact, it's not even a weekend trip. When someone decides they're going to climb one of the highest peaks in the world, they prepare for years. Oftentimes, they will climb a series of mountains , each a bit higher than the previous, as part of their training to tackle the big ones. When they're not on an expedition (notice I didn't call it a trip) to climb one of these "training" mountains, they are getting their bodies and minds conditioned by daily exercise, training and research. They are also preparing financially for the investment they are making in achieving their goal. The great thing about this analogy - every mountain climber starts out in the exact same spot as you and me. No one is born on top of the world! We all enter this life without the ability to even take care of ourselves. Sure, we each have varying degrees of advantage over someone else, whether it's in time, money or talent, but we still start off as infants. The same can be said about guitar. Generally speaking, we all have two arms and hands, two ears and a lap we can place a guitar on (and arguably, you don't need all those physical attributes to play guitar! Read the section "You Are Only Limited By Yourself"). You might have longer fingers, a better sense of sound or a natural ability to play than me, but you would still have to learn to develop those raw materials to be able to play something recognizable. To use a trite saying, the main secret behind learning guitar (and being a success) is to get started and don't quit... The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step... jump in, the water's fine! Here's some good news. There are only twelve musical notes you have to know, and for the most part, you already know what they're called. If you learned you’re ABCs as a kid (and I know you did), the first seven letters are the foundation of all music. These letters, or notes, are A, B ,C ,D, E, F and G. These are the "MAJOR" notes (in music theory, theses are called "diatonic" notes). There are five additional notes in between some of the major notes. These are called accidental notes, or "ACCIDENTALS", but that's as far as I'm going to go in explaining them today. Waayyy too much music theory (more on that in an upcoming email)! Just know that there are only twelve different sounding notes you have to be aware of on any musical instrument. In fact, here's a real easy demonstration of the twelve notes. Look at your guitar neck - you see the silvery bars that run perpendicular to the neck. These are the frets. On the neck there are fret markers, usually little round dots embedded in the wood. You should have at least one double set of fret markers between the eleventh and twelfth frets. Think of this as a boundary between two sections of the fret board (known as the "OCTAVE"). If you start playing each note between the first and the twelfth frets on a single string, you have played ALL the notes possible! True, as you play different strings, the note PITCH can go higher or lower, but the notes are the same. Paul, you mention remembering chords. True, there are literally thousands of chord possibilities, but actually, in most modern music, you only have to know how to play a handful. While you should eventually learn how chords are created (yup, there are very specific formulas for putting chords together), you really only need to know five basic open chord shapes to play all the major chords (tied to the major notes we just talked about). By "OPEN" chords, I mean that you typically play them within the first three frets and incorporate open strings in the chords (open, meaning there is no finger placed on that string). Memorize those five shapes and you can play the chords all over the guitar neck. This technique is called the CAGED method, after the five basic chord shapes C, A, G, E and D. Not everyone agrees that learning the CAGED method is the best way to memorize chords. Some argue that you should really learn how to construct chords, that CAGED is just a cheap crutch. I'll leave that judgment up to you - bottom line, I guess it depends on what your ultimate purpose is - are you playing for your own enjoyment, or do you plan on a music career? If music is your career of choice, better to study how music is constructed. If you're just in it for fun, CAGED will work just fine for you. No doubt you've also heard about barre chords. These are formed by placing your index finger across the strings to simulate the nut. You could use a capo, but that would require you to play everything from this new, stationary position, and you would still need to know the chord shapes to be effective. Using your index finger to play barre chords allows you to quickly move about on the upper frets of the guitar neck with relatively few chord shapes to remember (again, see the basic Rock chords here). There are plenty of different ways to start guitar, any of which will get you going in the right direction, which is forward. Anyone who has ever taught guitar approaches things from their own perspective. Here is my suggestion for getting started. Find yourself a local instructor, or someone who can teach you via Skype over the internet. If this is going to be too expensive, I would suggest a structured guitar course that you can download or get on DVD. Another option is to try out a subscription to an online teaching site like Guitar Tricks. Obviously, the cost is a factor, but if finding a teacher and having regular lessons is too expensive, these other options can fit the bill nicely. You might have to save some money for a few months to get into a premium DVD course, but there are good ones that can really advance you quickly. Personally, I like to get my students going quickly learning a song or two. This ensures that you are having fun AND learning, a critical combination in my opinion. I tend to cheat a bit as well with learning chords - I will introduce power chords early, especially for students that want to learn any form of rock. Power chords are easy, the chord changes and progressions are simple enough, and I can get them playing songs they like very quickly (keep an eye out for my power chord eBook, coming soon!). That's all I have for now. Thanks for the question, Paul. Hope this helps. Keep Rockin'! 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.
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