Subject: Mad Contortions: The Challenge of Chords
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, If you have been playing guitar for as long as I have, you tend to forget the trials of learning this crazy instrument. I guess that's true in many areas of life... you don't remember your first word, or learning to walk, or how many tries it took to finally ride your first bike without help. I don't seem to recall the trouble I had learning guitar chords (I'm sure I had the same challenges) or what my first instructor said or did to help me get past it. And while I can't remember, it's funny to me that I can generally say, "These are tricky for everyone."We can't really call this "selective memory" - perhaps it's simply that as something becomes easier for us or is a habitual pattern we don't focus on how we got there. The skill has become second nature and there's no real need to remember all the failures we encountered to finally get to a reasonable level of mastery. Which I guess is good. Why dwell on the failures? Of course, if we can use them to teach us how to better succeed in other areas, then there's some value in remembering where we came from. As I teach my new students the basic guitar chord shapes, I find myself really needing to try and remember what kind of challenges I had as I was learning basic chords. Which chords did I struggle with? Why did I struggle with those particularly, and are they the same chords my students struggle with? How did I get my fingers to take orders from my brain and learn these patterns well enough to call them at will? Guitar chords require us to force our hands and fingers into some uncomfortable contortions. Anyone trying to play an F Major chord for the first time can attest to this. And B Major - fuggetaboudit! If we can push through this early discomfort to a point where we can strum chords and change between a few open chords, there is a much greater likelihood we'll stick with guitar for a long time. That is my challenge as a teacher - to take you to a point where you are making music you recognize and can do so naturally. So first up, let me address something to hopefully put you a bit more at ease with guitar. We're All Different This should go without saying, but one thing to help minimize frustration is to realize that each one of us is an individual. Our physical attributes are unique, we have different strengths and weaknesses, we all learn better in different ways and no comparisons should enter our minds when it comes to learning guitar (or anything, for that matter). Two students starting guitar on the same day are going to progress at different speeds for different aspects of the instrument and technique. Students with longer fingers may find that chords are somewhat easier to play than someone with smaller hands and shorter fingers. The stretch between frets is not going to be as difficult for our long-fingered friend than for those of us "blessed" with stubby fingers (yup, that's me). But someone with with smaller hands may find that they can progress faster with melodic aspects of music. It could be that using certain techniques come more easily to these people because their fingers are shorter. Things like vibrato and hammer-ons and hammer-offs. Just the fact that the fingers are more compact can be helpful - they can be a bit faster and more nimble. The point is we are all going to need to put in work to master the fundamentals of guitar, regardless of the talents or limitations we might have. So as long as we come to grips with this reality and put it behind us as a stumbling block, we'll have success taking guitar to whatever level we want to achieve. The Work The deeper you get into guitar playing, the more you will realize there are tricks you can employ to speed up the process. But as a beginning guitarist, you need someone to show you these tricks because they aren't apparent (unless you're really intuitive). And even with knowledge, you still have to bend those unruly fingers to your will and apply the tricks to make them work for you. Since we've already talked a bit about our physical characteristics, I'll just say that each person will have to adjust the amount of time and effort they put into their practice time if they find finger strength or flexibility to be an issue. What does the work entail? I'm currently putting together a series of short exercises to help brand new players learn guitar chords faster. I'm fortunate in that I can take each exercises to my students and get feedback on the effectiveness of each exercise. I think of it like this - I'm like a personal trainer, bringing you the pain so that you can get the gain. One student had a nice quip back to me... "No pain, no pain!" (Thanks, Nancy) Sorry, as cliche as it sounds, we all know it's true. What do you have to work on? Well, there are a handful of things you can do outside of just playing guitar chords that will make playing easier on you. In future articles, I'll be sharing more detail on specific tools, tricks and techniques, but for now I'll leave you with a list of ideas. Specific areas I'm focusing on with my students are:
To address the challenge of learning chord positions and shapes, I work with my students to learn the patterns that are common on the fingerboard. This helps train the muscles to snap to the proper finger positions for chords as the brain calls them up. The more the muscles memorize the chord shapes and positions, the less time you have to actively think about your hands. When you accomplish that, you can really put more heart and emotion into the performance of the song rather than having to focus on the technical aspects. This is when music begins to take on life unto itself - the music can now breathe and influence because it is no longer a technical endeavor. I'm also working on exercises that teach the muscles the patterns, shapes and locations for chord structures. I don't really know if this is a unique approach, but I haven't really seen it done anywhere else, so I'll keep going with it. I've gotten some positive feedback so far, and as I share it in upcoming posts, hopefully you'll see some benefit. Maybe not to yourself, but perhaps for your friends or students. Comments? Questions? You know how to reach me. Don't be shy... 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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