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Boost Your Learning Automatically

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A lot of learning on the guitar is done automatically without your awareness. Just start playing with a more experienced guitarist and you will find you start picking up skills and playing nuances that you didn’t have before. When you are learning with your teacher you may find you not only learning the content of the lesson but also start playing and approaching things in the same way that they do.

 

This is very useful because you may not be able to remember all the information given to you but through osmosis you will find that your fingers will naturally start to play the tune, mastering the skill without you having to think about it.

 

This can be classed as unconscious learning and in many cases is pretty unlimited in the amount of knowledge, skills and experience it will allow you to pick up. Although we need to consciously learn material from teachers, books and videos there are ways we can use this automatic learning part of ourselves when using these educational resources. This will both boost your progress and enjoyment.

 

Here are a few tips to enhance this learning skill:

 

Think less – when learning something new, when you feel you are getting it, stop thinking about how you are going to play the song or passage, relax, and just let your fingers do the work, you’ll be amazed as you’ll find that you have already have got it.

 

Trust your ability - As a teacher the common question I get from students is, ‘is this right’ or ‘have I got it’. Invariably as a student you probably know the answer. Even if you have just started, trust your instincts and ask yourself the question, does it sound or feel right. If no, then work with your teacher to help assess where you need to put it right. This level of self appraisal will help you develop your musical ear as well as progress your playing. This is particularly useful when developing tone.

 

Jam – At any opportunity jam and rehearse you newly acquired skills. Your teacher may have taught you a new set of chords or scales, so use these in every playing context possible, jam with friends, with more experienced musicians, backing tracks etc. Play these in any way possible that you get enjoyment. Be completely creative. You will reinforce these skills and also automatically acquire new ones as you can see what musical context you can use them in.

 

Surround yourself with others music – Listen to your favourite guitarists as much as possible, or better still see them live. You may not be able to play like them a the moment, but you will start automatically picking up the way they approach their playing and music as you continue learning. It maybe the way they structure there songs, a particular technique, a tone or feeling or set of chord voicings’. After a while you may find yourself incorporating these into your own playing whilst varying it to your own style.

 

Mix all these activities into your learning along with the more structured lessons and practice and enjoy the music that you make.

By Alex Brett

The Truth About Why You Struggle To Express Emotion In Your Guitar Playing

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by Tom Hess

Would you like to have the ability to control what your listeners feel when they listen to your guitar playing? Do you want to know how to express your emotions perfectly with your music? Having the skills to control musical emotion in this way is the ultimate achievement for any serious musician.

Sadly, for many musicians this ability remains an unattainable dream. Even though most guitarists desire to express themselves on this level, very few are successful at reaching this goal. Here are the most common reasons why this happens:

Reason #1:

It is very rare that guitarists ‘attempt’ to develop this ability. You can see the proof by looking at the data provided by Google’s own Keyword Tool showing average searches done per month (worldwide) for the following terms:

play guitar with feeling = NO searches
expressing feeling with guitar = NO searches
play guitar with emotion = NO searches
express yourself on guitar = NOT A SINGLE search
playing guitar with teeth = 320 searches

You read it right! The majority looks up “playing guitar with teeth” instead of “expressing feeling with guitar” or other such topics. Pretty sad…

Reason #2:

When guitarists begin learning about applying theoretical musical concepts to guitar, they spend a lot of their time focusing on the wrong things. Although this info can be helpful to your guitar playing up to a certain extent, these things by themselves will do little to help you express very specific emotions when you play guitar. The same applies to songwriting, and guitar improvisation.

Here is a great illustration of my point: If I told you to find an “E” note on the guitar you would probably be able to do this very quickly. However, if I told you to quickly find a note on your guitar that creates a particular feeling, you wouldn’t be able to find it (assuming you are similar to most guitarists). Let me explain this a bit further…

Suppose that we were both in the same band, and were getting ready to play guitar for band practice. Instead of our usual practice schedule of running through our song list, I brought a new idea to the group. I get things going by playing an “A Major” chord rhythm. Next, I ask you to pick up your guitar and “instantly” generate the feeling of “joy felt by a man who just proposed to his girlfriend (and she accepted!).” What is the one note you would play on the fretboard (above my “A Major” chord) that would perfectly express the idea of “joy felt by a man who just proposed to his girlfriend (and she accepted!)?”

The greater portion of guitar players would have no idea how to express this with guitar playing. They would likely scramble around the fretboard trying to find something that works. Even if we switched to trying to express something totally different, the majority still would not understand how to quickly find the right note (…in their head, before even touching the guitar.)

The key to accurately expressing ideas with guitar is knowing exactly (in your head) which note will work in any given context, before you touch the guitar. All of the greatest guitar players who can freely express strong emotions with their music have the ability to know ahead of time which note(s) will best express a certain feeling in any context. Not to mention, that they can use this ability to make anyone who listens to them feel the same. This is the greatest ability that one could ever look to obtain in all of music.

How can you get great expressive skills on guitar?

Perhaps you think that you need a masters degree in music performance or detailed knowledge of how music works to be able to become highly expressive with music. Well, you don’t need either one.

Here are 2 things you must do to master musical expression with guitar:

1.From now on, any time you pick up your guitar, play the guitar while thinking specifically about the emotions you are feeling and what you want to express.

2.Stop seeing the fretboard as a series of notes, fret numbers, and scale patterns. Start seeing emotions that you can express on guitar.

To see and hear how this works, begin by watching the video below.

As soon as you begin watching the video, you will find out that by doing what most guitarists do to learn guitar, you will not be able to become a highly expressive guitar player.

By changing your current guitar playing mindset to fit that of a “highly expressive guitarist,” you will be able to become a masterful musical artist, and significantly affect the way others experience your music. As you practice expressing yourself on guitar, you WILL see huge results in all areas of your guitar playing.

Watch this video about music theory for guitar to become much more expressive guitarist.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is an electric guitar teacher online, recording artist and a mentor for musicians.  He trains guitar players from around the world how to reach their musical goals in his correspondence guitar lessons online.  Visit his website tomhess.net to receive many free guitar playing resources, mini courses, guitar practice eBooks, and to read more articles about guitar playing.

Why You Haven’t Become A Great Guitarist Yet

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by Tom Hess

Are you serious about becoming a great guitarist? As a person who has invested tons of time into becoming a great guitar player, I get a lot of pleasure helping others fulfill their full potential to reach greatness. After decades of experience helping guitarists attain excellent guitar skills, I have pieced together the five main keys for guitar playing greatness. Become a great guitarist by reading through this article, learning about each one and implementing the information you learn.

The 1st key to becoming a great guitarist is the simplest one to get. Actually, it requires no effort at all. This is because you already possess it. The first key is having the ‘potential’ to achieve greatness. In fact, everyone possesses this key. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a guitar player who cannot become great because he/she was not born with ‘natural talent’. I’ve seen this misconception proven wrong every single time I’ve trained guitarists with average/little talent to transform themselves into incredible players.

The bottom line is: no matter who you are, you possess the potential for greatness. That said, you will NOT become a great guitarist until you identify and accept the fact that you ‘do’ possess this potential. If you do not believe this, you will consistently fall short of your musical goals and blame other outside factors for your lack of greatness.

Whether you think you CAN or CAN’T become great, you are right! After continually accepting certain thoughts and ideas, they become your reality. With this in mind, I have never come across a guitar player who truly aspires to be ‘merely average’ at best. Additionally, I know that YOU want to achieve much more than mediocrity… you want to achieve greatness. I know this because you are reading this article right now about becoming a great guitar player.

So this is a summary of what we know so far:

1. Everyone already has the potential to achieve greatness.

2. You become what you believe.

3. Every guitarist wants to become great.

That being said, why do so many guitar players FAIL to become great? The answer lies in their inability to attain the remaining four keys for reaching greatness. Although most people fall short in one or more of these areas, anyone (including you) can conquer them all. If any voice just popped into your head saying something similar to this: “… my scenario is different… Tom, I can’t become great”, I give you full authorization to tell that voice to shut up! Why? Because your situation is NOT different… Of course, you are your own unique person, but you are not so different from everyone else that the following principles are not applicable to you.

The 2nd key: To begin with, it is extremely likely that you have never even been subjected to an exact definition of musical greatness… First of all – before the thought even crosses your mind – No, being great has nothing to do with being able to shred on guitar, understand the theory behind how music works or develop your own musical style. Although you may have heard the opinion of many others about what makes a guitarist truly ‘great’, fact is these people are probably not qualified to put forward strong statements about greatness. To understand what true greatness is, you need to look at it from a foundational and base level.

You need someone to take you aside and say, “This is what greatness looks like while implementing the things you learn about playing guitar, making music or improvising.” “This is what it looks like to be great in the way you learn things, how you learn them, the specific things you learn and the exact order that you learn the things you want to master.” “Here is what greatness looks like in the context of total self-expression as a guitarist and musician.” “Here is what true greatness looks like while organizing your practice time to effectively reach your guitar playing goals.” “This is what it means to be great in the context of staying mentally focused while training and how this approach differs from regular practice.” “This is what it looks like to achieve greatness when you are doing everything in the right order, at the right time and becoming highly-proficient in all areas.” The point is that ‘musical greatness’ isn’t just a single thing – it is the result of having greatness in every step you take through the process of becoming a great musician. You must learn what it looks/feels like as you go through the process of reaching greatness within yourself.

The 3rd key: You must totally understand (with 100% clarity) the things you want to achieve as a guitar player and musician. If you do not understand these things in ‘great detail’, how will you ever accomplish them? It would be like thinking to yourself, “I want to get my mom a present for her birthday, but I have no idea what she wants or what to get for her. I’m not sure if she wants candles, pictures, a card, a nice blouse, a fishing pole or… a power drill.” So the day before her birthday you go up to the mall and walk around for hours until finally you settle for some lame present. Then her birthday arrives and the whole family is there at the dinner table when your mom opens your present… a 15 dollar gift card to a fast food restaurant (that she doesn’t even like).

Now, returning to music – If you are unsure about what you want from your guitar playing, how will you know the correct road to take, the best things to study and the most effective strategies to use? You must know EXACTLY what you want to achieve first because this is what determines every decision you make and action you take.

The 4th key: For the small percentage of guitarists who truly understand what greatness looks like as described above, and have determined what they seek to accomplish as well as the road that will get them there, there exists another challenge to overcome.

The truth is, the overwhelming majority of guitar players out there do not believe in themselves, lack confidence, and don’t think they have the capacity to dedicate themselves to truly achieving greatness.

So instead of achieving greatness, they give up and return to the habit of always taking the path of least resistance. As a result, they only are able to achieve mediocre results and end up feeling disappointed in themselves because they know deep down that they are not reaching their fullest potential. This makes it even harder for them to do what it takes to become a great guitarist.

The 5th key: If you…

1. Know what true greatness really looks like in all different scenarios…

2. Understand the strategies you must to implement in order to achieve it…

3. Have confidence in your own ability to reach your full potential and make forward progress…

… then you will take action to become the great guitar player you desire to be, can be and ‘ought’ to be. However, be aware that you can still lose your way, become confused, upset, impatient, or distracted… leaving you back where you started in a mindset of mediocrity. Fact is, it is way easier to give up and accept a life of ‘being average’ than it is to stay on course and do anything it takes to become great. So why does this happen exactly? Why do so many people give up in their pursuit of greatness and return to their comfort zone (never to accomplish anything truly great)? It is my belief that this occurs when you are lacking someone who is there to inspire you, believe in your capacity to succeed, support you, hold you accountable and help you up in times when you fall flat on your face. You don’t have someone there who can empathize with your situation because that person has experienced it many times as well. You must have all five keys to become a great guitarist. You must have someone on your side with tons of experience, who will support you, train you and give you massive amounts of inspiration… a person who will guide you along the correct path and make sure that you remain on that path until achieve the greatness you were destined to achieve.

This article is not a sales message or anything like that. There is nothing being sold here. I simply want to give you insight to help you understand why you have not yet reached the level you want to be at as a guitarist, and what you must do to finally accomplish what you have been destined to achieve since birth – Unstoppable Greatness!

About The Author:
Tom Hess is a professional touring musician and electric guitar instructor. After teaching thousands of guitar students internationally through his online guitar instruction website, he has become the leader in online guitar instruction. Check out his lead guitar tips, free video lessons on guitar, and guitar practice videos to make fast progress in your guitar playing.

Small Stuff

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Small Stuff

Hello and welcome to my new blog. This blog will hopefully assist, develop and enable guitar players to obtain the optimum performance and tone from their instruments. I have worked as a guitar tech for many years and encountered innumerable instrument issues. Some instruments have had minor problems and some certainly have caused me headaches! Some instruments have been vintage but the majority modern. I intend to share some of my experiences and will gladly try and answer any tech related questions that come my way.

 

To initiate this blog I would like to cover some very important issues that require minimal instrument setup or alteration but yield maximum tone, and let us be honest, the quest for better tone is what it is all about right?  Better tone does not always require new pedals or pickups. Many times, the small stuff is the most important.

Recently I have been obsessing over my Strats. I liase with many different guitars depending on my mood or what I am currently studying. My Strats are always on rotation as I find them an ideal teaching instrument. Whilst studying Eric Johnson’s style I decided to set up my 1987 E series Squier to the subtle tolerances of Mr Johnson.

 

The first thing I decided upon was the well-known modification of moving the middle pickup tone control to operate on the bridge pickup. This is very beneficial in obtaining the right lead tone from the bridge pickup. It can even get you closer to the violin tone used in Cliffs of Dover even though the original was played on a 335. Scratchplate replaced and proud smile displayed I proceeded to plug her in to my amp combined with a nice fuzz pedal and out should pop some tasty pentatonic licks and Johnson clean chord tones. Whilst the tone was pleasing, there was something missing. Aha (via Musicom)! The strings did not ‘pop’ or have the right inertia. I discovered that this was down to the way I have always set my trem or vibrato system.

 

My vibrato is always floating as I love to manipulate bends and chords in the way that Mr Beck or more recently Mr Blug would do – only much better of course. Using the trem in this manner has become part of my style but I decided that in order to get closer to the Johnson tone ( if that was possible) I would need to fix my bridge. This is very easy to do, but you want to make sure that you do not over tighten the springs. There needs to be just enough tension to hold the bridge firmly against the body and allow string bending. Once I had done this the difference was amazing. The tone ‘tightened’ and the strings popped. I could also enjoy country style string bending in tune! If you want to get more from your Strat but without any surgery I strongly suggest these ‘small stuff’ mods…. and there will be many more to come in future Small Stuff blogs.

 

CRC

https://www.facebook.com/crc.guitars

http://www.crcguitartuitionblackpool.co.uk/

Are You Ready To Make It In The Music Business?

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By Tom Hess

Ever wonder why so few musicians seem to have great success in the music business compared to the thousands who are trying to make it? Truth is, most musicians are totally clueless about ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’ so they follow the advice of friends/family in hopes that it will lead them down the right path. However, this approach fails because friends and family do not really understand the music industry because they have never been successful in it. With this in mind, if you haven’t already read my previous article on how to become a professional musician.

On the other hand, musicians who build and sustain successful music careers utilize an entirely different set of skills, thought processes and values that help them achieve music business success. These things are not music business secrets that are only available to rock stars and music industry executives – anyone can learn and utilize them (this includes you). Throughout the rest of this article I will discuss these various qualities and help you understand how you can use them to benefit your personal music career.

Get ready to be surprised, because the qualities I will be mentioning will not have anything to do with your musical skills. The reason for this is because it is ‘understood’ in the music industry that you must develop ‘pro’ level musical skills (by working with a great teacher) at the same time as you work on your career. Having great musical skills is really only a small piece of the puzzle for music career success. In fact, there are countless people who are great ‘musicians’, but never go anywhere in their music careers.

The majority of the material covered below deals with your own way of thinking rather than the things you ‘do’. Most people do not think in a way that will lead them to a high level of success in the music industry. However, you CAN learn and develop the right mindset for success with proper training. I know this from personal experience after spending years to develop the right qualities in myself to reach a high level in the music industry. Having reached my own goals in the music industry, I now mentor other musicians around the world to reach success in their own music careers.

The following are the most crucial qualities needed for achieving major success in the music industry.

The Right Work Ethic Mentality

Of course it is obvious that you will need to work hard to build a successful music career. However, most musicians do not understand what ‘kind’ of working mentality is required to truly ‘make it’. The type of dedication needed requires more than just working a lot on your career. It requires:

1. Understanding the ‘correct’ course of action to take in order to make progress. This means not just ‘working a lot’, but working on the ‘right things’ that will lead you where you want to go.

2. Working in the most effective and productive manner possible. Tons of people stay busy throughout the day, but never actually accomplish anything important. You don’t want to become one of these people.

3. Being aware of how everything you do factors into the growth of your music career in the long term.

4. Having the patience and commitment to do all the hard work ‘up front’, long before you get a payoff of any kind. A common example of this would be recording a full length album in the studio before actually making any profit from it.

To develop the right work ethic mindset, work to clearly understand your long term music career goals and find a mentor who will help you determine the steps you must take to reach them.

Loyalty

In the music industry, you will not reach a high level of success alone. Music companies, musicians, promoters, managers and other music industry types will all act as your business partners at one point or another in your music career. These people will all invest their time, energy and resources into you and because of this they will expect your loyalty (as you will likewise expect it from them). Musicians who are not loyal are frequently banned from future business ventures and music career opportunities. The majority of musicians take loyalty for granted and only ‘pretend’ to be loyal until they can take advantage of an opportunity at the expense of their partners.

Certainly there are many different concepts of what it means to maintain loyalty to someone. In this case, loyalty describes not taking advantage of an opportunity to ‘get ahead’ while simultaneously creating conflict with those who you are working with. At the same time (of course), you cannot let others take advantage of you and bring you down for the sake of ‘loyalty’ itself. You must learn how to become perceptive in this area in order to truly achieve high success in your music career.

Use this music business assessment to better understand what people in the music industry will be looking for in you.

The Ability To Bring More To The Table Than Just Playing Your Instrument

No matter if you are working as an independent musician or together with a music company, you will greatly benefit by knowing how to negotiate, book shows, build a following of fans, put together a tour, communicate effectively, think of profitable business ideas and much more.

That said, you don’t have to be highly skilled in each of these areas. After all, this is why you should be working together with a team of other people who are strong in the different areas where you are weak. However, when you posses the ability to bring value to the table in these different areas, you will gain the power to:

1. Become the ‘best choice’ for any bands looking for a new member

2. Think of many different ways to earn money in the music business

3. Not lose money when you have to hire others to perform tasks you cannot do

4. Earn a lot more money because you have more value to offer to others

5. Transform any project you are working on into a success

The idea to take away from this is that the most successful musicians do a lot more than just play their instruments. This is why they are able to quickly climb the ranks and make good money by working together with others.

A Win/Win Thinking Mentality

The majority of musicians are always looking out for themselves without thinking about the effect their actions have on others. Of course, you will need to get your own needs met, but you do not need to do so while bringing others down at the same time. The musicians who become the most successful and gain access to the greatest opportunities in this business are always getting what they want while ALSO finding a way to help the people they work with do the same. In nearly all scenarios, you can find a way to create a great outcome for everyone involved. To do this, you will need to think from a totally different perspective than most musicians (and people in general). In my music career success program, I help musicians understand how to consistently think with this mindset.

Freedom To Pursue Music Industry Opportunities

It’s a lot a less difficult to pursue any music industry related opportunities when you are free to do so. Gaining this freedom while putting together a music career is part of becoming a successful musician. Learn about gaining the freedom to pursue the things you want to do in your music career with the advice in this article about how to begin a career in music.

Knowing How To Keep Calm During Situations Of Stress

As a professional musician you will encounter many situations that cause you to experience a high level of stress. These situations may include things like recording in the studio, going on tour, attempting to pursue different projects at once and many other scenarios that involve working together with tons of other people who all have different preferences and demands. This is a huge challenge that most musicians are unable to overcome.

Highly successful musicians have the ability to press forward through situations of stress and excel, while others (who think they are skilled in this area) are surprised when they find themselves crumbling under pressure. In my music career mentoring program, I help musicians prepare mentally for situations of high stress. This helps most musicians avoid very negative consequences that could hurt their music career.

The Ability To Always Think About ‘The Big Picture’

The music industry contains tons of opportunities and challenges no matter which path you decide to take in your career. Additionally, no matter what path you go down, you will always have limited time and resources to use. To make things even more challenging, you will often have to do most of your work well before seeing any of the benefits of your efforts.

If you do not have a perfect vision of where you want to go in the music business, it will be very difficult not to become torn in different directions that take you far away from your original goals.

The musicians who become successful in the music business are always focusing to align their actions up with the end goals they desire most. This gives them the ability to judge what is best for their music career and make the right choice whenever a potential opportunity comes their way. By doing this, they are able to achieve their goals quickly and effectively.

Now that you have read about the crucial qualities needed for success in the music business, here are 4 things you should do to start building a successful long term music career:

1. Increase your chances for success in the music business by reading this article on how to become a professional musician.

2. Prepare yourself for a successful music career with this music business assessment.

3. Using the results from step 2 above, put together a plan for how you will improve your weaknesses and make progress in your music career.

4. Get trained by a mentor who has already achieved the things you want to do in the music industry to reach your music career goals faster.

 

About The Author: Tom Hess is an online guitar teacher, recording artist and music career coach. As a music career coach, he helps musicians from many countries break into the music industry. On his music instruction website you can find out how to become a pro musician and learn how the music industry works.

The Wha Pedal: An Endless Source Of Sounds

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by Andrea Basiola
When we think of guitar effects, we think of devices that can enrich our sound, embellish it,
or simply create different tones in order to make a song more interesting and captivating.
Sometimes musicians keep on looking for the perfect tone, they get loads of effects
thinking that the more pedals you have the better you are at playing guitar.
The most effective, simple and reliable pedal that a guitarist can show on his pedal board is
without doubt the Wha pedal.
From Jimi Hendrix,to Eric Clapton, to Zakk Wylde, to Van Halen, each of these musicians
used the wha wha to build their own sound and each of them had their own way of using it.
If we think about it, the concept is fairly simple, when we engage the pedal and push it
down, we basically alter the tone, getting what we call the “wha” sound.
It looks quite easy and we might think: “is that it? is that the only sound we can get?”
The answer is no, in fact this can be one of the most versatile and complete pedals, if we
know how to use it correctly and how to get the most out of it.
That’s exactly what I’m going to do you in this demonstration.
I will give you some examples of different ways of using the wha, and you’ll notice that by
doing that, not only you’ll give expression and dynamics to your playing, but also the fact
of creating new tones will inspire you in creating more music (at least that worked for me).
EXAMPLE 1 : WHA WITH A CLEAN SOUND.
The first example is done by playing on a clean sound.
Let’s take a famous riff, like the one in “Superstition”by Stevie Wonder.
We can move the wha while playing the riff, pushing down
the pedal on every beat, like if I we were stomping the foot to the beat.
This is probably the most common of the techniques of using this pedal,
and you can do that also while playing a rhythm part, in this case we take a
Em7 chord voicing. The wha will make it a lot more funky and groovy.
EXAMPLE 2: FINDING THE “SWEET SPOT”
The second example is about finding what they call the “sweet spot”.
This works best with a distorted and gainy sound.
A lot of famous rock guitarists, including Michael Schenker and Zakk Wylde
use this method, which consists of slowly pushing down the pedal and
leave it in a stable position once we found the tone that we like.
By doing this, you can get the tone you want and also you will considerably
cut through the mix of the band when playing riffs or solos.
Be careful though, because the wha is very responsive, and if you move it
slightly you will immediately change your tone, so you need to be very
accurate and precise. That depends, of course, on the sound you want to
achieve.
EXAMPLE 3: USING THE WHA TO EMULATE VIBRATO AND FLANGER.
Another interesting way of using the pedal is to move it very fast in order to
get a vibrato effect.
Let’s say you are playing a chord and you would like a bit more of
expression, but you don’t have a tremolo effect.
By moving the pedal quickly up and down you can get a very similar sound
to that.
On the other hand, if you are playing a riff and while doing that you move
the pedal up and down very slowly, you get something very similar to a
flanger, with the advantage that you can control your tone.
EXAMPLE 4: THE WHA FOR SCREAMING SOLOS.
This is probably every guitarist’s favorite use of the wha wha.
The guitar solo is the moment where we shine, where we want to cut
through and get heard.
By using the wha , we change the frequency of the sound,
getting more middle or treble and consequently emerge from the band.
If we do this we can make our solos really “scream”.
These are just 4 examples, but you can create more and more, depending on what style
you play and what tone you want to get.
Don’t worry the if you don’t have many effects,sometimes you don’t need them (unless you
are playing a specific style of music), you can always get good tones out of a few pedals;
you just need to know how to use them properly and take advantage of every little nuance.
Remember to keep experimenting! In order to create your sound and voice, you have to
play and play until you are satisfied with that. It might take time, but at the end of the day
music is a never-ending journey, there’s always something new to learn.

Find Out How You Can Become A Guitar Teacher

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by Tom Hess

When thinking about getting started teaching guitar, do you feel any of these things?

  1. You want to start teaching guitar lessons but aren’t sure exactly what to do or how to do things.
  2. You aren’t always sure how to teach, demonstrate or explain things in ways that all guitar students will understand and be able to learn from.
  3. You get nervous when thinking about what will happen if your guitar students simply won’t ‘get it’ no matter how many times you try to show them how to play or understand something on the guitar.
  4. You aren’t sure how to determine if you are doing a good job as a guitar teacher or not.

If you can identify with the points above, you are not alone. It is very common for almost all beginning guitar teachers to have the same concerns as you. In fact, even long time guitar teachers will run into these problems if they have not made the effort to locate someone who has already been highly successful as a guitar teacher (and can show them what they are doing wrong). In most cases, these people will teach guitar for years without ever truly making significant improvement in their guitar teaching skills. Here are 11 common guitar teaching mistakes that less experienced teachers make. If you can stay away from these, you will be well on your way to becoming a highly successful guitar teacher.

Mistake #1: Not focusing on the student’s goals for guitar.
A lot of guitar teachers make the mistake of teaching guitar lessons in a totally improvised manner when it comes to the content of each lesson. Teachers like this do not take the time to plan out what they will be teaching or why they are teaching it to their students. Often they will simply decide the day’s topic based on whatever the student brings up in the first few minutes of the lesson. This can cause many problems because such teaching approach as a whole lacks any direction, and the student’s goals as a guitar player are not likely to be achieved.

On the other hand, some guitar teachers will essentially ‘over plan’ their guitar lessons. These people will start with an idea of how they think they should teach guitar lessons, and will continue teaching that way to all of their students. This approach will fail also because it does not treat each individual guitar student as a unique person with unique needs. Not everyone learns the same way, so teaching guitar to students without being flexible with your overall guitar teaching style will not bring good results.

Mistake #2: Misunderstanding how to teach what a student ‘wants’ versus what he/she ‘needs’.

Most teachers approach guitar teaching from these perspectives separately:

  1. Focusing on what a guitar student WANTS.
  2. Focusing on what a guitar student NEEDS.

The mistake in this is that guitar teachers are stuck on one extreme, while neglecting the other. If you teach guitar using the first approach (teaching only what the student wants), you will soon find that this approach doesn’t work. Many guitar teachers understand that what a student says he ‘wants’ is not always the same as what he needs. That said, it is much better to teach a guitar student what they ‘need’ than what they ‘want’. However, in order to truly help your guitar students improve, you must balance out both approaches.

The greatest guitar teaching approach is to focus on the students’ goals, while also showing him/her that what they ‘need’ is the same as what they ‘want’. You must consistently keep track of their goals, and then show them what they must do to achieve those goals (while also explaining how these things work together). By doing this, you will help your guitar students gain motivation because they understand that they will be enjoying themselves throughout the learning process. This will help your students stay on track and reach their goals.
Mistake #3: Not helping your guitar students apply new guitar ideas.
One of the easiest ways to find out if a guitar teacher is doing a good job teaching is to look at his/her students. For the most part, you will see that people have guitar students that have learned a decent amount of ‘stuff’ on guitar. Unfortunately, after a closer look you will notice that these students do not actually know how to use any of this information to make great music on guitar. This is the result of a very common misunderstanding that guitar teachers make.

Most guitar teachers put an unnecessary amount of energy into showing their students new things to play on guitar. It is much more important that your guitar students understand the ways to apply what they know. This prevents a situation where your students, having already learned a lot about music and guitar, struggle to use their skills in actual music.

Remember, you don’t always have to teach something new to your guitar students each lesson. It is critically important to train them to actually use the things they already know.

Mistake #4: Not understanding how to work around or fix a guitar student’s playing mistakes.

If teaching guitar to students were as easy as plugging in the right answer to an equation, there would be little work for guitar teachers to do. In reality, your guitar students are ‘human’ and cannot be programmed so easily. While teaching guitar lessons, you will encounter times when your guitar students are distracted, disinterested, or are simply in the mood to play something different. In addition, some students don’t always want to play everything to perfection. The mistake that teachers make is to “let it slide” too much. In other words, they allow bad habits to build up for the sake of not being too strict. Many times this results not only in sloppy guitar playing, but could also possibly lead to injury!

On the other hand, some teachers are overly strict with their guitar students while fixing bad habits. Unfortunately, this can be a problem as well because most guitar players are not willing to take constant corrections on every little detail. As a result, such guitar teachers cause their students to feel discouraged or unmotivated since they are not getting the chance to enjoy playing and learning guitar.

The most successful guitar teachers have the ability to merge ideas together. It should be your goal to fix all of your students’ bad habits as time goes on. To do this you must prioritize the more urgent ones that need to be taken care of first. The most important problems to fix are the ones that can lead to any kind of physical injury. After this, focus on your guitar student’s picking hand (Often guitar players zone out on their picking hand in everyday playing situations, and will be oblivious to any bad habits).
Mistake #5: Not expecting your guitar students to give their best effort (or at least try).
You will have some guitar students who will give you 110% when it comes to practicing at home and putting out consistent effort to become a better guitarist. However, the majority of your guitar students will not give you nearly as much effort. The reason this happens so often with most guitar teachers is because the teacher does not set any kind of standard for effort on the student’s part. Because of this, the student does not have a clear idea of how much practice and effort is required in order to be able to play guitar how they want. The greatest guitar instructors will let their students know that they expect a certain amount of effort, and will help the student to understand why this works to benefit them. In addition, it is important not to have the same expectations for every one of your students. Remember that each student has his or her own unique needs as a guitar player.

Mistake #6: Teaching too many new ideas in each guitar lesson.

It is very common for guitar teachers to feel as if they must always be ‘teaching new things’. In reality, this causes your students to feel overwhelmed. The reason for this is that they are taking in a bunch of new material, but not actually learning how to APPLY it! So what are the main reasons that guitar teachers feel they must constantly teach new things to their students?

Reason 1 – They feel uncomfortable giving guitar instruction and focuses on demonstrating new ideas each lesson in order to compensate for their lack of teaching skills.

Reason 2 – They try to copy other local guitar instructors because they think it will help them become more successful.

Reason 3 – The teacher wants to please students who express that they are ready to ‘move on’. Truth is, even when a student says this, nine times out of ten…they are not ready!

The greatest teaching approach is one that helps your guitar students to effectively learn how to apply what you show them. The key is to train your new students to use what they learn, so that they do not become overwhelmed with excess ‘facts’ that they can’t really use.

Mistake #7: Not knowing what to do when your guitar students don’t understand after you’ve explained something several times.
Less experienced guitar teachers typically do not know how to explain new concepts to students in more than one way. These teachers will run into additional problems as well because they are more prone to using their own style of learning to teach their students. This only leads to more problems in communication.

The greatest guitar teachers seek to find out the best way to communicate with their students by understanding HOW they learn. Some students learn well by seeing you play on guitar (visual), some by listening to you play (audio), and some by picking up the guitar and playing it for themselves (kinesthetic/touch). In order to best take advantage of each of your students’ unique learning styles, learn to use clear metaphors, analogies, charts, graphs, and hands on exercises.
Over time you will make improvements in this aspect of your guitar teaching. To learn to do this more quickly, study with someone who can train you to teach guitar more effectively.

Mistake #8: Not knowing that your guitar students don’t always need you to be a ‘teacher’.

The majority of guitar teachers out there only think of themselves as teachers. This means that they are locked in a mindset of merely explaining and reviewing materials with their students (much like a school teacher). Although you are thought of by prospective students as a guitar teacher, you will need to do more than simply ‘teach’ your students.

To become a great guitar teacher, you will need to learn what the difference is between ‘teaching’ your guitar students and ‘training’ your guitar students. The reality is that the majority of people will need to be trained about as much or more than they need to be taught. What you need to do is invest more time into helping your guitar students PLAY things on guitar, rather than just teaching them new ideas or going over old ideas with review. Take your students through this one step at a time. Don’t let them know the order of the steps, or that you are even taking them through these steps. At some point they will probably tell you that they ‘already understand’ what you are teaching. However, most of the people who say this do not understand! So by teaching guitar in this manner you will save a lot of time for you and your students by training them properly from the beginning. Do this at all times.

Mistake #9: Not keeping track of how long people remain as your guitar students.
One of the biggest misunderstandings that guitar teachers have is thinking that the number of guitar students they have relates to how successful they are in their guitar teaching business. In reality, this is not a very good way to gauge your success as a guitar teacher. Which teacher do you think is having more success: A guitar teacher who has merely taught 50 students in one year (but currently only teaches 15), or a guitar teacher who has taught 50 students in a year (and has kept all 50)? After making this comparison, it should be clear that focusing to retain your guitar students is a crucial part to the success of your guitar teaching business. If you can only get your students to come back to take lessons for a couple of months at a time, you have a lot of work to do. In order to become highly successful as a guitar teacher you should have students staying with you for years at a time.
That being said, you will not keep every single guitar student for years at a time. This is because different students may have different goals that can be reached in a shorter amount of time. You must always work hard to help your students achieve their goals as quickly, and effectively as possible. However, some goals may be more vague and require more time for the student to find out what he or she really wants. In order to keep more of your students for a longer period of time, seek to understand the reasons why past students have stopped taking lessons with you. Additionally, ask your current long time guitar students why they enjoy taking lessons with you. Monitor these statistics on a consistent basis so that you can continually improve your guitar teaching methods.

Mistake #10: Not knowing a good way to judge how well you are doing as a guitar teacher.

Many new guitar teachers are unsure of whether or not they are actually any good at teaching guitar. These people typically do not have any dependable way of measuring their teaching skills or success. Here are the 3 main causes of this:

  1. Less experienced guitar teachers often make comparisons with themselves to other local guitar teachers (who likely aren’t very successful either). They are judging their own skills as a teacher based on the merely mediocre teaching of the other guitar instructors who surround them.
  2. Teaching guitar generally is not up to par with other music instruction. Now you understand why classical piano teachers will normally retain students for years, while many guitar instructors struggle to keep students for more than a few months.

Most guitar teachers never actually make the effort to find training to improve their guitar teaching skills. In general, they will ask other (amateur) teachers what to do, or will simply attempt to emulate the actions of others. If these things do not work, they will resort to giving guitar lessons to their students in a ‘hit or miss’ manner. Unfortunately, this tends to make guitar lessons like an ‘experiment’ for your guitar students. There are always times when you will be learning from your mistakes; however it is best to understand how to avoid them from the beginning.
Mistake #11: Not taking full responsibility for the quality of your guitar instruction.
When you teach guitar, your students are paying you with their money, time, and effort. It is important to work as hard as you can to reward them with the best guitar instruction possible. Fact is, most guitar teachers DO NOT put much effort at all to improve the quality of their guitar lessons, or work to help their guitar students achieve their goals faster. These types of teachers merely teach guitar to ‘get by’. Why should a guitar student ever spend their hard earned money for guitar lessons when their teacher isn’t actively working to bring them the best instruction possible? You don’t have to be an incredible guitar teacher before you ever get started teaching (of course); however, if you want to be able to provide the very best guitar teaching for your students, you will benefit immensely by getting trained, coached, and mentored to become the best guitar teacher you can be.

All of the most successful guitar teachers started off in the spot you are in right now. The vast majority of these teachers made it by finding a mentor who could show them what it takes to overcome any obstacles in their way. These types of teachers are the ones who take consistent action to help their students achieve their goals. These teachers mostly have filled schedules (and waiting lists) full of guitar students, a big name in their city, and live a great life doing what they love every day… You have the EXACT same potential to make choices that will greatly benefit you in your business! Get started right now on building your guitar teaching success with this free mini course that will help you to greatly improve your guitar teaching.

 

About The Author: Tom Hess is a professional electric guitar teacher and composer. He also mentors guitar teachers from around the world in his guitar teacher training program. Visit tomhess.net to get free guitar teaching tips and read more articles for guitar teachers.

How To Easily Create Killer Lead Guitar Licks Pt. 2

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By Tom Hess

Are you having a hard time coming up with awesome sounding guitar licks? You’re not alone. Many guitar players don’t know how to play great licks, even when they have already developed great technical skills. Why is this? Most guitarists do not take the time to focus on each individual note in order to get as much expression as possible from it. This approach will only lead you to mediocrity as a lead guitar player.
Previously you learned how to improve your lead guitar licks with the exercise in the first entry to this series. After practicing the exercise in that article, you have now seen the BIG difference it makes in your lead guitar phrasing. If you have not already gone through and read the first part of this article series, don’t read the article first – Instead, get started by watching the video below on how to play great lead guitar licks. Once you have done that, use the exercise in the previous article entry to apply the ideas into your guitar playing. Now you are going to learn how to get the most emotion possible out of all remaining notes from your lead guitar licks. Keep in mind that you can use the following guitar phrasing exercise even if you did not read the first half of this article already. However, do not skip watching the video above (this is necessary for understanding the ideas being used).
Lead Guitar Licks Phrasing Exercise (How To Create Tons Of Killer Licks)
Step One: Create a short guitar lick with slow note rhythms. Use a maximum of three or four notes to make your lick. If you play your lick using rhythms that are too fast, you will miss out on the specific nuances that you will notice in the following steps. If you use too many notes, you will become distracted by trying to remember which notes to play and will be unable to pay close attention to the way each note sounds. Once you have made your lead guitar phrase with these things in mind, move on to step two.
Step Two: As you observed by watching the previously mentioned video, the ornamental techniques used to change the lick were:

  • Bending
  • Heavy vibrato
  • Slides

Come up with no less than ten unique variations of your lead guitar phrase by emphasizing ONLY the first note in your lick with any combination of the above three techniques. For the time being, keep the other notes in your phrase exactly the same as when you made it.
Remember: you need to keep all of the pitches in your guitar lick the same (don’t add any new ones at this point) – you are only changing the way you ‘play’ the first note in your phrase. If you are able to record yourself while you are playing, do this and listen back to yourself so you can make subtle improvements to your approach. If you cannot record yourself, still continue through this exercise anyway. As you continue thinking of new variations, you will notice your guitar phrasing skills increasing. This is because you are forcing yourself to think creatively since you cannot change the pitch of the notes in your lick. As a result, your guitar lick will sound infinitely more expressive than the way it sounded when you first began in step one. Also, don’t get caught up on trying to keep track of every single variation you think of (this is not the point of the exercise). Instead, continue working through the process of training yourself to get the most expression possible out of every note you play.   Step Three: Using the same approach from step two, apply the concept to the other notes in your lead guitar phrase (do this one note at a time). As you are thinking of new variations for the notes in between the first and the last, play the other notes either using the original phrasing from step one or any of the new variations you made in step two. The bottom line is you must focus on using all your mental energy on ‘one’ note of the phrase at a time (for this step).   After you are done with this process, you will have come up with ten different ways to change the sound the notes in the guitar lick you created from step one.
Step Four: When you have finished creating variations for each note of your guitar phrase individually, start playing variations of the phrase as a whole. Accomplish this by making combinations of any of the ideas you came up with from the previous steps of this exercise. After taking the time to think of ten or more variations for each note, you should have TONS of ideas to select from. CRUCIAL: you must not add extra notes to your lick in this guitar phrasing exercise… only focus on getting the maximum possible expression from each note in your original phrase. You might be wondering why I did not begin this exercise by telling you to simply do step four after step one. Here is why I did this:   A. Most guitar players tend to only emphasize the first and last notes in their licks while not paying attention to the (also important) notes in the middle. This common mistake leads to weak sounding phrases because the guitar lick ‘as a whole’ lacks expression.   B. Unless you are an advanced guitar player (or have already learned how to improve your guitar phrasing technique from a great teacher) you would probably miss out on the full value of this exercise because you would stop prematurely (after only thinking of a few variations for your lick). It is for this reason that I told you to make at least ten different variations per note in your guitar lick.   What Is The Value Of Using This Lead Guitar Phrasing Exercise?   These are the two main reasons why performing the previous steps are essential for making progress to develop your guitar phrasing skills:   1. You understand precisely how to create an awesome guitar lick from start to finish (without worrying about the specific notes being used).   2. This exercise will keep your guitar licks from becoming overrun with excess notes that do not sound interesting and are merely being used to cover up poor phrasing. By breaking this habit, you will see drastic improvement in all of the lead guitar phrases you play.   Here Is What You Need To Do Next   1. Use the exercise in this article to practice improving your guitar licks on a consistent basis. Repeat this exercise until it becomes second nature to apply the concepts involved for EVERY new guitar lick you play.   2. Watch this video on how to play rock guitar licks and get more ideas for creating cool lead guitar phrases.   3. Create better guitar solos by studying these lead guitar playing resources.   4. Find an expert guitar instructor who can show you the best way to express yourself when you create lead guitar licks. Then work together with that teacher to identify and achieve your highest musical goals.     About The Author: Tom Hess is an online electric guitar teacher, recording artist and virtuoso guitarist. He trains guitar players from around the world how to reach their musical goals in his correspondence guitar lessons online. Visit his website  tomhess.net to receive many free guitar playing resources, mini courses, guitar practice eBooks, and to read more articles about guitar playing.

Why classical guitarists must branch out

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By Ciaran Elster

There are some weaknesses that can be seen in many classical guitar players, such as a lack of aural awareness, a lack of expressive power, a poor sense of rhythm and an inability to do anything other than what is written on the page. Often, it is these things that separate the good classical guitarists from the mediocre ones, and the solution can actually lie in playing other genres.

None of us have the required amount of time on our hands that we can give the same dedication to every genre that we give to our main speciality. However, a certain amount of time spent practicing other styles of music will not detract from classical playing, but will enable the guitarist to make these all-important changes to his/her musicianship.

A lot of mediocre classical players lack the true aural awareness needed for great performances. Although technically accomplished and proficient in sight-reading, some classical guitarists simply play what is written, note for note, without listening critically to what they are playing. When notated scores are reproduced by an aurally unaware musician, the performance becomes dull and lifeless.

This contrasts with their electric counterparts, who are often (but not always) less accomplished in sight-reading but who tend to think more as they play. A crucial reason for this is that when one plays in a band or group it is necessary to listen to what the other musicians are doing. When you are forced to listen as you play, you become better equipped to listen to yourself and express yourself more passionately. Electric guitarists are used to playing in groups and jamming with other musicians, whereas classical guitarists often miss out on such things, spending all of their time playing solo.

A good sense of rhythm is another quality that is more easily obtained by playing in rock, blues or jazz bands than by playing classical guitar. Of course, rhythm when playing solo can have more rubato and freedom than rhythm controlled by a steady drum beat and bass riff, but such rubato often sounds uncontrolled and gives the impression that it is being implemented by someone who doesn’t know how to use it properly. Keeping to a regular beat (provided by other musicians rather than by a metronome) and improvising on top of it can be of great benefit to a guitarist’s rhythmic awareness.

Classical guitarists tend to be more proficient sight-readers than players in most other genres, but the notation-dependent training we go through can often result in players being unable to deviate from the written score. In general, we can become too preoccupied with producing exact replicas of works, causing every dynamic marking to be followed with precision and leading to an attitude that certain things can only be articulated in one particular way. Here, the nylon-string players would do well to look towards folk music, where harmonic structures for songs usually remain the same but players have more freedom in the choice of fingering patterns and articulation. Also, jazz players can improvise melodies over harmonic structures, something which a classical guitarist is unlikely to do but would benefit greatly from as a musician.

I am not suggesting that classical guitar changes from being a precisely notated, predominantly solo genre. However, I do believe that there are some attributes necessary for expressive playing that can be more easily acquired by learning other genres, if not to the same extent. The guitar has a great advantage over many other instruments in that, along with the piano, it is commonly used in a vast range of styles. This is something that the best guitarists, in any genre, will always make use of

http://musolist.com/ciaran-elster/

Guest writer for www.internet-guitar-lessons.com

 

How To Play Kick Ass Guitar Licks Quickly And Easily – Part 1

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Wish you could play killer guitar licks every time you pick up your guitar? The truth is many guitar players think that great guitar licks are made by playing specific notes or scales. However, this usually not the case. As you will find out in this article (and video), the key to playing killer guitar phrases is focusing on ‘how’ you play… not necessarily which notes you use.
In a few moments, you will discover just how easy it is to make your own guitar licks sound killer regardless of the notes you are using. On top of that, you will find out how to do this every single time you play guitar.
The first action you need to take (right now) is to watch the short video on this page to see an exact demonstration of the main ideas in this article. By watching the video, you will MASSIVELY increase your ability to absorb the ideas and use them to improve your own guitar playing. Additionally, the video will help you get the most value from the lead guitar phrasing exercise you will find below. Check out the video now, then come back to read the rest of this article.

Now that you have seen the demonstrations in the video, implement the following steps to empower your guitar licks:
Step 1: Think of a lead guitar lick that you can play accurately. The lick you select can be in any style, using any notes. Alternatively, improvise a new (short) guitar lick. Then play through this lick a few times.
Step 2: As you watch the guitar licks video above, you will see how I use slides in several different ways to emphasize the last note in a guitar phrase. Grab a piece of paper and write out a list of descriptions of how to perform all the different variations you observe in the video (use a single sentence or less to describe each one). Writing this down and thinking about it on your own is more valuable than me ‘giving’ you the list of variations to practice because it trains you to actively listen for and pinpoint subtle guitar phrasing ideas on your own. When you describe how each slide variation feels, simply use descriptive words that will help you remember the idea itself (the words themselves are not that important). If you need to, watch the video several times until you have completed your list.
Step 3: To change your lead guitar lick from the first step into a KILLER guitar lick, use the slide variations in your list from the previous step to accent the final note of the phrase. By simply changing the way you play the final note of the lick, you will notice that each new variation sounds MUCH more powerful than the original phrase. Once you have tried all of the different variations from your list (that you saw me do on the video), start coming up with your own unique variations using the same concept. There are countless ways that you can accent a note using this phrasing concept. Be creative and try to come up with at least 5-10 variations. Next, add all of your new ideas to the list you began in step two (with descriptions) and play through them all several times.
Step 4: To expand upon the different variations in your list from the previous step, you will now add even more intensity into your phrase by applying vibrato/bending to the last note after approaching it with a slide. Use the video as a reference for new ideas and write down a short description for each new bend/vibrato variation you see. Then think of your own ideas (just like you did in the previous step). This will give you even more phrasing options to enhance your creative possibilities. Next, play one of the new variations you made and compare it to the guitar lick from the first step in this exercise. You will see a BIG improvement in the overall quality and intensity of the two licks.
Step 5: After you have enhanced a single lead guitar lick using this exercise, repeat the previous steps with several other licks you are familiar with.
After you complete this exercise several times, it will become much easier for you to play great guitar licks with little effort.
Since the final note of a guitar lick is often the one that most people notice, you can quickly improve any of your phrases by focusing your efforts on emphasizing this note. However, you can also use the ideas of this article to improve any other note in your guitar licks. In the second part of this article series, I will discuss how to do this in more detail.
In the meantime, use the information in these free video guitar lessons to learn many new approaches that will improve your lead guitar soloing skills.

About The Author:

Tom Hess is a successful professional guitar player, composer and international guitar teacher. He also helps musicians learn guitar online and reach their guitar playing goals. Visit his rock and metal guitar lessons site to read more articles about guitar playing, plus get free guitar tips and guitar playing resources.

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