Subject: Getting Back To Basics
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, It's important to stop sometimes and get back to basics. I'm just finishing up the Berklee College of Music Introduction to Guitar class on Coursera, which covered guitar fundamentals.It was a good grounding exercise and a reminder that every once in a while I need to put the brakes on, step back and reassess my skills. We can get so wrapped up in chasing the latest song, riff or technique and forget about studying the basics of guitar. Not just reviewing, but really studying and forcing ourselves to slow down. For me, the course proved to be a good outline of how I can better help my beginner students to understand and appreciate music. It also offered an example of structure, which I sometimes have a bad habit of loosing sight of. I thought today we could briefly cover some of those important fundamentals that everyone should revisit from time-to-time, regardless of what your skill level is. 1. Understand the construction of your guitar 2. Tuning, picking and strumming 3. Basic music notes and notation 4. Fundamental scales 5. Chords Your Guitar is Unique No matter how advanced you are, there is always something you can learn about how your guitar operates. If I've learned one thing working on computers, it's that no matter how many identical machines come out of a factory, as soon as that machine is used for the first time, it is unique from every other machine out there. Like computers, guitars are individual pieces of equipment that are as unique as every human being. Like a fingerprint, no two are the same, regardless of where they came from. As soon as you pick it up, its exclusive story continues to be written apart from every other. You should take the time to really review how your guitar is set up, how the intonation is set, what the action is like, what frets might contribute to a string buzz and the myriad of any other subtle attributes your guitar possesses. Basic Techniques Take the time to seek out and try different picking and strumming patterns. Practice the ones you're already good at, but make an effort to find songs or musical styles that force you to mix up your picking and strumming. Try to find ways to make your playing efficient and effective at the same time. For example, most guitar players are aware of alternate picking and economy picking, but you can be more efficient if you combine the two. And it's not a one-size-fits-all scenario. You use the strum or picking pattern that gets you the best results. But you have to be aware of them, so seek out interesting guitarist and tutorials to learn more from. But also keep practicing your fundamentals - and do it at slow speeds to really enhance accuracy. The Language of Music If you're going somewhere overseas where they don't speak the same language as you, it would help for you to get some basic understanding and vocabulary. You need to at least be able to say "Please," "Thank you," and "Where's the bathroom?" It's no different for music. Music has a language and structure all its own. We guitarists often don't take the time to learn the language, usually opting to just use guitar tabs or one of the many apps that can do the hard work for us. Learning how to read music can really help you understand timing and rhythm a lot better than just relying on your ear and tabs. The better you are at understanding the musical score, the more you differentiate yourself as a musician. If you have a goal to be a professional musician, just being able to read a score can mean the difference between you being a working professional musician versus waiting tables until your big break shows up (or you create your own break, which is a whole lot more appealing to me). Scales Scale work is always good. Whether you're using a chromatic scale to warm you fingers up, or you're working out a solo for a jam you have coming up, scales come into play very early in every guitarists journey. One of the big benefits to knowing and understanding scales is the memorization of the fingerboard. If you know what frets a G note falls on, you immediately create option for yourself as you're playing. You can throw down a cool chord followed up by an interesting riff because you know where you need to be on the fingerboard to play the best notes for the song. There are all sorts of scales for different applications, but going over the major and minor scales, and the major and minor pentatonic scales, will keep you sharp when the time comes to rock it out. Just spending five minutes a day practicing a scale can make a huge difference in your playing. Chords Of all the basic guitar skills, chords are the biggest fascination for me. Learning how chords are constructed is very cool, but taking the basic knowledge of triads and then moving my fingers around to get unique combinations is a never-ending source of inspiration. I can't tell you how many times I've derailed my own practice time by getting a random idea from a chord I play that turns into me trying to find the right fingering for that next elusive sound that's rattling around my brain. If nothing else, take time to review the basic triads - the major, minor, Dominant 7, Minor 7 and suspended chords. Just reviewing these and practicing them a bit will keep you sharp and creative. These are just some of the observations I came away with during the Berklee course. I encourage you to go to Coursera.org to check out the different music classes being offered. The price is right (free), and it never hurts to expand your mind. What do you think? Reply to this email with your ideas. 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. 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