Hey Friend,

Have you ever purchased a furniture kit? Or one of those LEGO models?

All the pieces come in a box and you have to assemble the entire thing? They come with a set of instructions - you hope...

We went out yesterday and picked up a new "ready for assembly" vanity for one of our bathrooms. I haven't opened it yet to make sure the instructions were included, so today could be one of those exercises like trying to find a light switch in the dark. You have a general idea where the switch is, but you run the risk of stubbing your toe or running into something while you grope around.

Instructions are good, but only if they make sense. Have you ever read through the "easy" instructions, only to end up more confused than ever?

Sometimes understanding music concepts is like trying to read assembly instructions translated from another language. 

Doesn't that just frost your cookies? You get ready to put the project together and read through the instructions, only to find that whoever wrote them didn't really understand English. In fact, sometimes it looks like they took a bunch of English words and just strung them together. Nonsensical...

So much for hiring a translator to make sure the instructions are coherent... As if!

All I can say is the instructions better have pictures. Otherwise I'm gonna have to rely on intuition and past performance to pull this one off.

That's how it works out sometimes with guitar.

The language of music can be very mysterious, especially when you're learning it from someone that has spent a lot of time in school studying it. Music school is not the normal route for most guitarists. We tend to learn more from being shown how to play things without all the fancy edumacation.

Historically, that's how music was passed down. The master musician would teach the apprentice over many years until the apprentice had learned everything he could form the master. The apprentice would then go out and make a name for themselves, taking on their own apprentices to study under their guidance.

I have nothing against formal music school. In fact, I'd love to go - I'd take classes online with Berklee School of Music. It's just not how most of us learn how to play guitar.

Even when we have a set of instructions in front of us, they can be confusing. Musicians have a language all their own, and we guitarists have our our own musical dialect. And we tend to use it without remembering that not everyone speaks this way or understands our language - especially new guitar players.

This is why I try to explain concepts from at least a couple different approaches. We all learn in different ways, and I know personally I learn better by revisiting ideas a few times until they start sinking in.

So if you ever have any questions about anything I've said in a message, I want you to email me and ask.

I've talked a lot about power chords. I think they're pretty easy to understand and to play. And yet, they're another example of a technique and language you may not have seen before. Once yo DO understand them, you will see how they can allow you to learn and play songs quickly. With literally one finger pattern you can play enough chords to handle thousands of Rock and Blues songs.

I give you the secret decoder ring to understanding power chords in Easy Power Chords. It's a quick read, and you'll have the knowledge to play power chords in minutes. Go here to check out Easy Power Chords today.

Peace~

Dave