I recently saw an add on Youtube claiming there is a secret guitar scale that no one knows and the pros won’t show you. Of course this add will lead you to their website and for a “small fee” you can get access to the secret and unlock your playing!

Snake Oil Salesman

New methods and contraptions that will get you playing the guitar in 24hrs like the Guitar Buddy. This guitar buddy is device you put on your neck and by the push of the button you’ll be able to play basic chords; I’m assuming most major chords and minor? For $34.95 you get this and for just a bit more, you get a song book.

Hell no!

Is this really playing the guitar?

A gadget like the Guitar Buddy doesn’t make one a guitarist anymore than Guitar Hero does. Truth be told, there isn’t a quick way to learn the guitar. Anyone who bought an Esteban guitar on QVC can attest to that notion.

I’ll have to admit that I’ve tried a few “programs” that I thought would miraculously unlock my talent, like a magical “aha!” moment. Unfortunately, that scenario only exists in the movies and maybe if one is a savant. You can have all the gadgets, programs and subscriptions in the world but they all amount to nothing without one thing….

Practice

It’s that plain and simple, you will need to practice. Playing the guitar is not just an art but also a craft and in order to master a craft, a player needs to put in the hours. The one thing these programs don’t say in the click bait is that you’re going to need to practice everyday. It can be a great blue print or guide to becoming a better player but you’ll need to practice it for hours. It can be hard work and it’s a grind, it’s necessary and worth it. I’ve been playing since I was 10 and I hope that I will continue to get better each day, each week and every year. Guess what I’ll have to do to achieve that goal?

Yup, practice.

1. Post more to Guitar Musings:  I apologize that I haven’t posted much in the past month but there will be more posts in the future and am excited to move into Guitar Musing’s second year.  Also, if you have any requests, please contact me with your idea and I’ll see what I can do.
2. Get some playing recorded, both tape and video.  As my friend Hercules states: “I gotta push that big red button.”
3. Learn the fingerboard:  Acoustic Guitar Magazine has a great article on how to learn the finger board and know what notes you are playing.  Also, http://www.guitarcardio.com/ is a great place to do this as well.
4. Be proud of my playing and don’t be too critical on what I do.  It inhibits my progression of becoming a better player.

I’m pretty sure this will keep me busy for a while. What are your guitar resolutions for 2009?

I will turn to the charts from time to time,  especially when I’m spinning my wheels and I find it useful.  I hope it helps you as well.

Links:

Guitar Suite Chord Progression Primer

Chord Progression Books

So I’m taking step back and pulling out my chord progression book and scales book and remember to work on those more.  I recall reading an interview with studio musicians where they talked about how they didn’t work on learning songs but theory and progressions when practicing.  This was so they were always prepared for any piece of music that was brought to them to play for recording.  This has helped me quite a bit and maybe, just maybe, this will get me a step closer to that elusive YouTube post.

So twenty four years later, after picking up my first guitar, I am now a big fanatic for fingerstyle guitar and want to learn everything I can about it.  My problem is that I’m resorting to some bad habits that I had as a teenager.  The big one was that I was practicing a song over and over again but not really making any progress.  What I was lacking was some fundamentals, I was good but raw and not very clean in my playing. 

I was never formally trained for the guitar, my degree is in music but it was for voice, mainly because I couldn’t read music very well, I wasn’t that confident in my playing and at the time, I wanted to be a choral teacher.  Anyway, the point is that I just learned as I went but didn’t know warm-up techniques, scales or any
other exercises that could help me.  Constantly hitting a wall, I gave in and started to take guitar lessons.    Took the lessons for about a year until my teacher moved out of state.  But in that time he taught me the scales, movable chords and songs in a way that stuck with me this time.  I was able to approach the guitar from a different angle and things opened up for me.    I have made more progress in the past year than I have in the last 10 and it was not because I learned more pieces of music but I learned new exercises to improve my technique.

One of the things that really helped my technique was a fingerboard stretching exercise that was on John Petrucci’s DVD “Rock Discipline.”   It used chord shapes to get your left hand out of it’s comfort zone.  It really helped my articulation and ability to do some of the more difficult arrangements that Tommy Emmanuel does.  An example of the exercise can be found here.  I’m also working on my flatpicking ability, which was always pretty weak, by trying Paul Gilbert’s three notes per string excerises and building from there. 

That’s just a few of things I’m doing to build my fundamentals and technique and it’s helped a great deal.  So, what are you trying?  Leave a comment witih some ideas, excercises or whatever.  Especially fingerstyle stuff particularly for arranging fingerstyle.  That is where I feel I’m lacking right now.

 Keep playing