Posted on 17 October 2009. Tags: Automatic Reflex, Consistent Flow, Fancy Equipment, Favorite Songs, Great Music, guitar chords, Guitar Player, Guitar Shop, Guitar String, Inferior Equipment, Learn Guitar, Learning Guitar, Pace, Rhythm, Second Nature, Simple Chords, Sore Fingers, Steve Robinson, stress, Two Ways

Steve Robinson asked: You can learn the guitar fast if you understand a few easily absorbed steps. Now to be clear becoming expert takes time but you can be quickly enjoying your favorite songs quickly. After all isn’t that what we all want to learn to do?
The first step is to check is that the action on your guitar is set properly for you. A good guitar shop will do this for you but if you have purchased a new or used guitar the action may be too high and cause sore fingers and stress in your hands.
**Note – The ‘action’ is the distance between the underside of the guitar string and the guitar fingerboard. Not having this set properly can result in sore fingers and that will definitely result in less practice and playing.
The second step is to understand that the music is in you and no amount of spending on fancy equipment will overcome what you put in to it. Your effort should be put into technique not the latest equipment. You are the reason your playing works or it does not. A good guitar player can still create great music on inferior equipment. Great equipment can’t make a bad player sound good.
The third step is to concentrate on your rhythm. Keep the pace with your foot so that you have a consistent flow in your playing. Spend more time and effort in developing rhythm when playing as that is the most important item when people are listening. Once this becomes second nature then you can start to expand your other techniques.
The fourth step to learning guitar fast is to use simple chords first..If you are trying to master complex chords before you have the rhythm down to being an automatic reflex you will stop the rhythm because you are concentrating so hard on where to place your fingers that you lose the pace.
The fifth step is again to stay with basics in your strumming pattern. This will help you in two ways. You won’t lose the rhythm because you are using just a basic strum on the first beat of the measure. You also will begin to memorize the sound of the chord. This will allow you to easily start to play by ear down the line because you will recognize the chord automatically in the songs you are copying.
The final concept to learn to play guitar fast is to stick to two chord songs initially..Again by keeping it simple you build up your confidence and your abilities much more quickly. After all when you were an infant you crawled berfore you walked and you mastered walking before you could run.
Getting up and going when learning guitar fast can be easy and quick but…
Staying to the very basic until they become second nature will allow you to improve your playing much quicker than trying to gather complex items all at once. That tends to teach you bad habits that will be exceedingly hard to correct to get you playing from the beginner level to expert.
Caffeinated Content
Posted in Guitar Articles
Posted on 30 August 2009. Tags: arts, Background, Basic Knowledge, Edwards, entertainment, guitar, Guitar Articles, Guitar Lessons, Guitar Songs, Guitar Tab, Hear Music, How To Play Guitar, How To Read Guitar Tabs, Important Things, Learn Guitar, Learn Music, Moving, music, Playback, Playing Guitar, Rhythm, Simple Chords, Simple Songs, Train
by Ryse Edwards
There are two important things you should do prior to attempting to play guitar songs. Firstly, you should make sure your guitar is tuned properly as the song you are trying to play will not sound good if its not. Secondly, you will need a basic knowledge of know how to read guitar tabs.
Once you have tuned in your guitar and know how to read guitar tabs, you will need to train your ear when listening to a song in order to be able to play guitar songs. Listen to simple songs to begin with, preferably those songs consisting of three simple chords.
[phpbay]Guitar Song, 12, “”, “”[/phpbay]
Whilst listening to the song, pay particular attention to the rhythm and the timing of the chords and strums you hear being played on the guitar. When you have listened to a song a few times, have a go at following along with the song by reading the guitar tab at the same time as the song is being played. Do this a few times and as you do, make a mental note of the rhythm and timing you hear.
When you have heard the song a few times and followed along on the guitar tab, it is time to take up your own guitar and strum along with the song as it is playing. Remember to play your guitar softly so you can still hear the music you are trying to copy in the background.
As you begin to pick up the timing and strumming style, you can start to play the song on your own without the assistance of the music. Don’t worry if you forget the song because you can easily listen to it again if you need to. The songs you practice on your guitar should be played over and over again, one at a time, until you are able to sing along with the song as you play. It will help you if you master one song before moving on to the next.
It’s a great idea to record yourself playing if you can. This affords you the luxury of being able to watch the playback of your performance and correct any mistakes you are making in your technique.
Discovering how to play guitar songs is not as difficult as you may first think. All you need is passion and patience. If it takes a while and you make many errors, don’t worry about it too much as this will only lead to you making more mistakes. If you just can’t seem to get it right and become frustrated put down the guitar for a while and go off and do something else. But remember to pick up your guitar later on and get back to practicing how to play guitar songs until you get it just right.
Posted in Guitar Articles