by Tom Hes
Like you probably have done, I have read a ton of interviews with great players and articles written by many of these same players. I often found it frustrating whenever the subject of learning to play guitar came up or when advice was offered on improving one's playing. With a small number of exceptions, very little time and space was offered on this. Its not uncommon to see the player's advice be summed up in a grand total of three words: Practice! Practice!! Practice!!! Well of course we all know that practicing is the main ingredient. But rarely are we told much more than that. In my long quest to become an excellent player and to help my students do the same, I carefully took note of what worked and what didn't. What parts of conventional wisdom is accurate and what parts are not (at least in my opinion). I believe the twenty concepts that have proven to bring great results to those who use them are:
1. Educate yourself!
No matter what level you are at today, you can be (and should be) learning more. If you are currently studying with a teacher or enrolled in a music program at a high school, college or university, you are on the right track. If you aren't doing this (or if you feel that your current teacher is not helping you enough in reaching your goals) I strongly recommend looking for a new teacher. (I have written an article on this exact topic titled: Choosing a Teacher ) I can't stress enough how important it is to find the teacher that is right for you! Your teacher (or music program) should always be Goal Orientated. If its not, look for another teacher or school to study with! You don't need a teacher to simply give you information or things to practice - you can get those things anywhere, what you need is a teacher who:
A. Knows what your goals are. B. Cares about helping you reach your goals. C. Knows how to help you reach your goals.
2. Listen to more music.
Find more of the same music you already like. There is a lot of music out there that you haven't heard. I am sure you can find something you really like and that would inspire you. Look on the internet if you can’t find it on the conventional radio. Check out internet radio, you can customize what you here based on your preferences, its a great tool! Check out web sites that you know feature a lot of the music in the style you like.
3. Frustration
Turn your musical frustrations into an asset in the form of a motivating force. I wrote a whole article called Musical Frustration. I don’t want to repeat here everything that I wrote in that article, so read it if you haven’t already. If you have read it, it may be worth your time to read it again now.
4. Believe in yourself.
You have probably heard that phrase many times before. Its unfortunate how many people still refuse to invest their own beliefs into themselves. I wrote an article on Perseverance which deals indirectly with believing in yourself. Please read it if you have a problem believing that you can reach your goals.
5. Be a Musician
Understand that becoming a better guitarist means becoming a better musician as well. When developing your musical skills, make sure to think beyond skills that are specific to guitar. Of course you will be working on many guitar skills: various guitar techniques, chords, scales, soloing, etc., but don't neglect other skills that are not guitar specific like, ear training (also called aural skills), songwriting, improvising, creativity, reading music, music theory, etc.
6. Learn From Other Players
Surround yourself with better players (or at least with those on your same level.) When you started out playing guitar, everyone was better than you, but now you have grown and there are less people better than you than before. The better you get, the harder it will be to find others who are superior to you to hang around or jam with. But no matter how good you get, there will always be something you can learn from someone else. Seek out those people, get to know them, jam with them, discuss music and guitar with them. Be willing to give as much (or more) as you want to take. If you are fortunate enough to be above the level of other guitarists in your area, seek out great bassists, pianists, violinists, drummers, etc. You can learn from them as well. (Even if you are not better than your guitar player friends, seek out musicians that play other instruments as well anyway).
7. Get Inspired!
Find out what inspires you and soak yourself in that. For me, going to concerts to see great players or bands inspires me to practice more. Listening to great singers inspired me to refine my vibrato and phrasing. Listening and studying the music of great classical composers inspired me to study music composition. I wanted to write great music. Watching the movie Star Wars when I was a kid, reading Lord of the Rings, etc. inspired me as well. There are lots of non musical things that have been inspiring to me. The greatest source of inspiration has been my own personal experiences in life and within myself. The desire to express that was (and still is) a constant burning desire and powerful force that thrusts my desire to improve and propel me forward. Know what truly inspires you, seek it out, surround yourself with it and soak there.
8. Define your purpose.
What is your definite purpose? Do you really know what it is? If I were standing in front of you right now and asked you this question, could you give me specific answers and explanations? Can you write it on paper in specific terms? This is critical to setting goals, planning strategy and monitoring the results, etc. When all the enemies of progress start to creep into your mind, you will need to bring your definite purpose to the forefront of your thinking. I have seen procrastination, fear of failure, self doubt, lack of motivation, temporary setbacks, and other negative things bring people with great potential to a halt. Knowing your definite purpose and reminding yourself of it when a negative thought comes into your mind will help you overcome it.
9. Define exactly why your purpose exists in your mind.
I specifically choose to list this separately from defining your purpose because I did not want you to let the WHY get lost in the act of DEFINING. Trust me, this is important.
10. Create a strategy!
You need a strategy that will layout exactly how you are going to reach your goals. Dreaming alone won’t take you anywhere. Telling yourself that you are going to play your guitar everyday isn't enough. There is a lot more that goes into being an excellent player than simply playing your guitar. Ultimately you should work backwards. State your ultimate goals (on paper) then make a bunch of short and medium range goals. Think of reaching your goals as a relay race, NOT as a marathon. Each short term and medium term goal is the end of one segment of your plan and the beginning of the next segment (just like a relay race.) There are many benefits of looking at things this way as you will discover for yourself in your own way.
If you clearly know what your ultimate goals are, you can do this yourself. But if you need help in planning out the short and mid term goals to plan your strategy. Consult a teacher whom you trust and believe can help you with this - its worth it believe me. If you can't find a teacher who can do this for you, pay someone (YES I said PAY) to help you develop a specific plan to do this. The best person to approach for this is someone who is already doing whatever it is that you want to be doing.
Remember that its ok to daydream and fantasize about where you are planning to go, but it can't stop there. Don’t wish without planning! Don’t dream without doing! And always, always, have a strategy. You may need to revise certain aspects of your strategy as time goes on and that's ok, but don't try to go forward without one if you want the maximum results in the shortest amount of time. In my early days learning to play guitar, I wasted a lot of time aimlessly desiring to get better without having a clue as to how to plan for it. Sure I practiced a lot, but without direction and without an efficient path to follow. Most of my substantial progress as a musician came only after I developed a strategy and worked with it. If you are wondering why I haven't given you a detailed explanation of the strategies I used in the past, it would be pointless for me to tell you what my strategy was, because it was specific only to my goals. Chances are, your goals may differ greatly from mine in many different ways. That is why you need your own strategy for your own personal goals. One last piece of advice before we move on, write everything on paper and read it everyday! It will keep you focused and on target.
The Twenty Steps You Need to Become a Great Guitar Player!
Samtriggy on Sail Of Charon
His name is Hisham. He is from Malaysia. That is the only thing we know about this really talented guitarist. He is a righthanded, a lefthanded, and also play with his foot. He is a master of three guitar tapping.
In this video, Samtriggy play Sail of Charon using Oud, two guitar tapping, and shred line.
How To Buy Guitars
Electric Guitars
# Always be aware of what are your favorite guitar players' instruments. Probably you can't afford exactly the same guitar but at least you can try to get closer to the sound you have in mind.
# Read and listen on the net to as many guitars as you can. But never buy without actually touching and trying the guitar. Find out what others have to say about the guitar you want, there are lots of users' reviews on the net.
# In the music store or at someone's home (if you try a second - hand guitar), play as loud as possible, listen to the sustain and eventual buzzing. Play over all the frets, on every string, there are many guitars that buzz or are out of tune. Also play all of the pick-up combinations, a lot of guitars get pick-up noise. You should like the sound in low, middle and treble registers.
# Ask for warranty if you buy from a store.
# Don't dismiss used guitars. They may look battered because they are good and were played a lot.
A little history:
An electric guitar is a type of guitar with a solid or semi-solid body that utilizes electromagnetic " pickups " to convert the vibration of the steel-cored strings into electrical current. The current may be electrically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier , which produces the resultant sound.
In contrast to most stringed instruments , the solid-body electric guitar does not rely as extensively on the acoustic properties of its construction to amplify the sound produced by the vibrating strings; as such, the electric guitar does not need to be naturally loud, and its body can be virtually any shape. In fact, since all the sound produced by the amplifier comes from string vibrations detected by the electric pickups, an electric guitar that produces minimal acoustic sound will actually have maximal sustain. (Since less of the energy from the string oscillations is radiated as sound energy.)
Electric guitars were originally designed by an assortment of luthiers , electronics buffs, and instrument manufacturers, in varying combinations. Some of the earliest electric guitars used tungsten pickups and were manufactured in the 1930s by Rickenbacker . The popularity of the electric guitar began with the Big band era, the amplified instruments being necessary to compete with the loud volumes of the large brass sections common to jazz orchestras of the thirties and forties. Initially, electric guitars consisted primarily of hollow "archtop" acoustic guitar bodies to which electromagnetic transducers had been attached.
The version of the instrument that is most well known today is the "solid body" electric guitar: a guitar made of solid wood, without resonating airspaces within it. One of the first solid body electric guitars was built by musician and inventor Les Paul in the early 1940s, working after hours in the Epiphone Guitar factory. His "log" guitar, so called because it consisted of a simple rectangular block of wood with a neck attached to it, was generally considered to be the first of its kind until recently, when research through old trade publications and with surviving luthiers and their families revealed many other prototypes, and even limited production models, that fit our modern conception of an 'electric guitar.' At least one company, Audiovox, built and may have offered an electric solid-body as early as the mid-1930s. Rickenbacher (later spelled 'Rickenbacker') offered a solid Bakelite electric guitar beginning in 1935 that, when tested by vintage guitar researcher John Teagle, reportedly sounded quite modern and aggressive.
Gibson, like many luthiers, had long offered semi-acoustic guitars with pickups, but it was in 1954 that the Gibson Les Paul , the instrument that would become their trademark, was introduced to the market. In the late 1940s , electrician and amplifier maker Leo Fender , through his eponymous company, designed the Fender Telecaster . In 1954 Fender introduced the Stratocaster , or Strat , which had become by the late sixties the most widely played guitar on the market. Fender is also credited with inventing the electric bass , although solidbody electric basses had appeared elsewhere as prototypes and limited production models.
Unlike the more traditionally styled and crafted Gibson instruments, Fender's guitars and basses pioneered the modular, and hence much less expensive, method of guitar making in which the body and neck of the guitar were crafted separately, using commonly available woodworking tools, and then bolted together to form a complete guitar. Today, the design of electric guitars by most companies echoes one of the two classic designs: the Les Paul or the Stratocaster.
There are several different types of guitars available, and each has a characteristic sound. Often, a guitarist will play one type of guitar but ask you to make it sound like another type of guitar. This can be very difficult but not always impossible. It's crucial that you're familiar with these basic guitar sounds.
Even within the basic electric guitar types, there are many different combinations of pickups and design configurations. The type of wood, style of body and precision of assembly all play an important part in the sound of the instrument. All considerations aside, we can still break the electric guitar sounds into three recognizable categories:
Image 1: Stratocaster: single coil
Image 2: Les Paul: double coil
Image 3: Hollow body electric jazz guitar: double coil
Guitar Brilliant Kid
This kid is really an expert. Believe it or not, this video has been watched by more than 28.5 mil people. Unbelievable!