Guitar masters, is this a good way to learn guitar?
I’m a relative beginner and I’m starting to wonder whether I would be better off in the long run just focusing on training my left hand first with no right hand strumming or anything. Learning all chords and transitioning them smoothly. And building finger dexterity. Then move to my right hand to perfect strumming and picking. Then after all of that just start learning songs, music theory, scales, and the fretboard. Any advice?
I feel I have the rhythm and the soul. Just not the technique yet to voice it to its full potential. Any helpful instructions and or exercises for my proposed training method? I don’t care if this method isn’t fun for awhile. Let me know, Thanks : )
*also I want to be able to play all styles of music preferably blues, rock, and classical. but be able to play rhythm and solo guitar. i understand it will take time ; )
It’s been a while since I learned the basics haha. But, I THINK what my teacher had me do was start by working on the strumming (right hand), while holding a single chord (left hand), usually E-minor or something easy like that. Then I moved up to simple chord progressions, getting more complex as I got better. With a decent amount of practice, you’ll be able to play almost anything. I’ve noticed most songs are quite easy, as long as they’re not some ridiculous jazz chord progression haha
So basically, work on both at the same time. But keep it simple at first. Don’t give up! It may feel forced at first but you’ll be groovin’ in no time.
Good luck!
No, you definitely want to practice both hands at the same time, because both your hands will sometimes clue you in on what to do and what not to do.
Also, it’s supposed to be fun, and making the sounds (even when you’re learning) is part of the fun. I even recommend practicing with the amp on (low if necessary, higher if you can get away with it) but just take AC/DC’s Sin City song and concentrate on that song only from start to finish, get the intro, main body, change, and bridge, (skip the lead for now) and finish (which is the same as the intro), and practice that one song until your ears tell you the chords and notes are correct.
It’s better that you start to associate chord note sounds with your ears and let your ears tell you what’s right instead of your intellectual knowledge of what a certain note might be or should be.
Close your eyes, Luke. Let the Force of your ears guide you. (click on my avatar and check out the link at the bottom of my profile. I started out a long time ago following the above advice and that link will take you to some of my original rock guitar stuff, rock on.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/14867338/61e71ec0/sharing.
"Gong"
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It’s been a while since I learned the basics haha. But, I THINK what my teacher had me do was start by working on the strumming (right hand), while holding a single chord (left hand), usually E-minor or something easy like that. Then I moved up to simple chord progressions, getting more complex as I got better. With a decent amount of practice, you’ll be able to play almost anything. I’ve noticed most songs are quite easy, as long as they’re not some ridiculous jazz chord progression haha
So basically, work on both at the same time. But keep it simple at first. Don’t give up! It may feel forced at first but you’ll be groovin’ in no time.
Good luck!
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about 6 years of playing
It most certainly is.
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Well, it’s important to understand that both the left and right hand are essential to playing the guitar, it doesnt mater if you can form complex chords easily, if you don’t strum the guitar theres no way to know that your fingering is correct.
You have to learn both at the same time. If you start practicing scales, youll see that some notes will not sound clean, because you are not pressing down properly on the string, you only know you are pressing down properly because you hit the string and it sounds good.
My recomendation is to work on technique by playing songs.
You will need:
A guitar: (if you are playing electric guitar, get new strings and take it to be proffesionally set up at a reputable guitar workshop, you have no idea how much this will improve your guitar playing, if you know somebody that can properly set it up for you, ask them to do it for you, playing on a guitar that is not properly set up will only hinder your progress)
A tuner: Always tune your guitar befor each and every practice, even a slightly out of tune guitar will not let you properly judge your playing level. Plus, when its in tune, you will WANT to play more. Oh and always loosen the string and then tune UP to pitch, if you overshoot the pitch and go sharp, turn the peg a couple of times down and then tune up to pitch again.
A metronome: Without this, you will have no frame of reference as to how good you are. Anybody can play the notes to a metallica solo if they can play 1 note every minute.
A metronome will force you to practice proper timing, if yo can play a tune with a metronome, playing in a band with other people is going to be a breeze.
Pick a song you like, something simple, free falling by tom petty, just cause its simple, this could be my choice. ]It doesnt matter what level you are at, tune up your guitar, set the metronome to play the song slower than normal and start playing, it will be hard at first, but this is the reason why you have to practice, do not increase the speed untill you can play every note cleanly, evenly and without giving it much thought.
Once yo do this, increase the metronome speed slightly.
One last thing, yes, this part can be boring at times, but thats only if you are not focused on what you are trying to achieve, i can remember practicing for four hours straight a long time ago and it wasnt that it was fun, it was more like I was in the zone, and I kinda imagined myself in one of those training montages, like rocky, or the karate kid, I was in the zone, its called being in flow a level of concentration where you are not thinking about what you are doing, you arent even feeling anything, but when youre in it, you dont want it to end.
Besides, all the greats got the boring parts out of the way so they could concentrate on more interesting things later on.
This is what separates good guitarists from bad guitarists, the good guitarists were willing to work through things even if they were boring.
Bad guitarists can’t be bothered to even properly tune theyre guitars.
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Since you said you want to be able to play classical you have only one path: learn classical technique. If you truly want to master the guitar it is the ONLY way to go. You need to work on simultaneous use of your left and right hands – its the only way, period. You can do exercises where you use only one hand but how often will you be playing with only one hand? Your goal is performance – you need BOTH hands.
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Me – I’m a guitar player, former guitar teacher.
Playing classical music is NOT the only way to master guitar. You CAN master the guitar by learning funk. Blues, Rock.
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definitely both hands, most people actual find guitar hard BECAUSE of the 2 hand coordination, you DO NOT want to slack one hand off at all. just start slow, do simple down and up strokes, as long as ur using ur right hand, consciously practicing it. it will be a lot quicker than you think if you do this in contrast to doing ur one hand at a time method. it took me about 2 months to get it. 2 months but i only had access to my friends guitar twice a week. each session is about 1-2 hours. on top of that i’m left handed, and only had access to right handed guitars, so i learnt it with my right hand, counter instinctive. and one other suggestion most people are embarrassed to do, air guitar. yes do it with purpose, the key is to train ur brain to form the connections necessary to coordinate both ur hands to do the things you need it to. if your waiting for some one, or waiting at hte bus stop of wut eva, u dont have to do the BIG strum thing, you just hold your right hand in the picking position, and ur left hand imagines itself pressing chords or scales, and u just do mini ups and down strokes with ur right hand while coordinating with ur left hand.
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self taught guitarist
Yes and no. You’ll need to focus on your right hand strumming , or picking somewhat to develope coodination and sychronization with the left hand. You have a great attitude about learning. Guitar master Joe Satriani recommends to his students that they learn basic chords first, before he progresses on to more technical info. I’d say to also play some songs you like, and to also have fun with the learning. Your fingers are just like your other muscles. To train them, you must start slowly and maintain strict form. Make sure that you’re loosened up; watch your breathing, posture and position. Rest about every 20 minutes. If you do this consistantly, you’ll have less to ‘unlearn’ later. Best wishes to you!
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