November 13th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
One of the best ways that I have found to give thanks for something, especially a skill or talent, is to teach it to someone else. While there are many benefits in doing this, some very specific ones come to mind and they are: It makes you better at whatever your doing, It gives someone else the opportunity to learn what you know, and its a great way to show that you aren’t selfish and want to help others. So with this idea in mind, let me give you some in depth reasons why teaching other people guitar makes you better player.
When I first started teaching guitar I was still in college and my first student was a kid who needed to learn some basic classical music so that he could audition for the school of music at SUNY Fredonia. I was a little nervous about teaching him at first because I didn’t know if I would be good enough to teach him properly. After a few weeks of lessons, I quickly found that there were many aspects of his playing that I would be able to help him get better at. The most important thing that I found was that teaching someone else to play makes you dissect what your actually doing to a very detailed level. This in turn makes you understand so much more about your own playing and technique. When you need to describe a certain chord shape, scale, or technique, you will find yourself taking a whole new look at what your doing. This is necessary to do so that you can find a way to tell another person how to do it. After just a month or two of working with my first student, I found myself playing with more precision and more confidence because I truly understood more about my own playing. Now fast forward about seven years of teaching guitar as my main occupation and you can only imagine the confidence and insight that comes with that much focus on showing other people what you already know. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: guitar instruction, guitar player, how to play guitar, learn guitar, teaching guitar
September 17th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
I chose to write about this topic this month because I am actually recovering from a pretty bad hand injury that I sustained over a month ago. The actual injury was a result of a combination of things but it has given me a very good reason to remember the importance of warming up before playing and practicing because, due to my injury, I have not been able to play my guitar for over a month! Not cool to say the least.
I’ll first give you a quick recap on what happened and then I talk about some exercises and warm up routines that you can do to prevent injury. I recently started working on writing a new song that was very technical and fast. Although I play a lot of this kind of music, I have not been keeping up on it lately because I have been busy working on other things. I also got into indoor rock climbing over the summer. On one particular day about a month ago, I was working on writing for about a four hour stretch, then I went in to teach for about another four hours. To top the day off, I then went climbing that evening for the third time in a one week span. I knew that I was pushing it but I wasn’t really feeling any serious pain so I moved through the day without much caution. The next couple days however I started feeling some serious sharp pain in my left hand and wrist. I knew that it was a combination of too much technical playing and rock climbing in a very short time span. Rock climbing, by the way, is extremely hard on your hands and fingers, not the best activity to be involved in if your a guitar player. The pain continued and only got worse when I taught and played guitar. After a couple weeks of this constant pain, I paid a visit to my doctor. He basically told me that there shouldn’t be any long term damage and that I probably just inflamed some tendons in my hand and wrist. He told me to ice it when it gets sore, to take Aleve to reduce the inflammation, and to stay off of it as much as possible. Fat chance of that happening! It’s been a little over a month now and it is feeling much better. I’m still not 100% but I can play and practice pretty regularly without much discomfort.
Now lets talk about Good Pain and Bad Pain …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: finger exercises for guitar playing, guitar exercises, guitar warm up, hand exercises for guitar players
August 4th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
By: Mike Deiure
If you are learning to play guitar and are starting to get into playing leads,
solos, and improvising, then it is very important to understand what guitar
scales to practice and when to use them. Before we go shredding away playing
crazy guitar solos, we need to take a look at what type of chords are being
used in our song or chord progression to help us decide what scales on guitar
will work the best.
The basic idea of how chords and scales go together is this: If a chord is
only made up of a couple notes (such as a power chord) then you will want to
play a pentatonic scale over it because this scale only has five notes in it.
If a chord is made up of three or more notes (such as a major or minor chord),
full major and minor scales will work better because they are made up of seven
notes and have more notes in common with the chord. One of the great things
about soloing and using scales in rock music is that once you have found your
key signature and corresponding scale, you don’t need to worry about changing
it if you don’t want to. The one scale will work great for the whole song. When
playing over more complex styles of music, such as jazz, one guitar scale won’t
work for the entire song. You need to change scales as the chords change. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: Guitar Chords For Beginners, how to play guitar scales, how to practice guitar scales, understanding music scales
July 16th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
By: Mike Deiure
When I start working with a new student I have a huge responsibility on how
I am going to train them to read music so that they can play the songs that they want to play. There are two main options for any student to work with; reading real sheet music or reading guitar tablature. The biggest factor that I consider when deciding what path to lead my students down is their age. Basically if they are 12 or younger, I start them off on site reading and teaching them how to read real music. If they are a teenager or older, I usually start them off with reading guitar tabs. The main reason for using guitar tabs instead of real sheet music is to keep them interested in getting better. After working with hundreds of students I have found that the younger they are, the better and quicker they learn whatever I teach them. While I always keep in mind the most important elements that any guitar player should understand, I must also make sure that the student is having fun and learning what they want to learn as quickly as possible. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: beginner easy guitar tab, fun easy guitar tabs, printable guitar tabs
July 7th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
By: Mike Deiure
Students who are just starting to learn guitar often ask me “What is a good guitar amp to buy”? This usually comes right after the initial question of “what is a good guitar to buy”? My answer to the second question is much simpler than the first. I always tell people to buy the guitar that inspires them the most that is within their price range. When it comes to amps however, you should put a little more thought into deciding what is right for you. Hopefully the rest of this article will give you some insight on how to make a wise buying decision.
First of all, when it comes time to buy a guitar amplifier we are going to focus on what you need for an Electric Guitar. You can certainly buy an amp that is made for an acoustic guitar, but were not going to be talking about that here.
There is a huge market out there for amplifiers and you have tons of choices between brand names, what features the amp has, and of course how loud the thing can go. Here are some of the main features that you want to know about when looking for your first amp:
1. How many channels does it have?
You will find that most amps have a clean channel and a distortion channel. A clean channel is pretty self explanatory, a distortion channel is what is going to give you a hard rock tone that sounds good with power chords and when soloing. What you want to look out for here is that the two channels are completely separate with their own volume and tone controls. This will give you the ability to switch between them at will, preferably with a foot switch so that you can change channels on the fly. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: Electric Guitar, learn guitar, mike deiure
June 30th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
By: Mike Deiure
As a person who teaches guitar for a living, I get the opportunity to work with hundreds of people who all have a very diverse taste in music. While I do get asked to teach some pretty interesting styles of music from time to time, there is one genre that always stands out above the rest as being the most popular and sought after and that is Rock Music.
Fortunate for all those who want to learn how to rock on guitar, this is in my opinion the easiest style to get under your fingers. The biggest reason is because of the very few chords and chords shapes that you need to know how to play to get through a standard rock song. If you’ve never played guitar before, there are hundreds of different chord types and shapes. More elaborate styles of music such as Jazz and Classical will make the most use of these different chords. Rock, however uses only ONE main chord type and shape to sculpt out it’s sound and that is the almighty Power Chord. Now there are certainly more than just power chords in a standard rock song but even then, you are only going to be using a select few Open Chords shapes. These are usually taught first to students and are quite easy for most people to learn. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: beginers guitar lessons, guitar lessons and beginners
June 20th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
By: Mike Deiure
This is certainly one of the most common questions that I hear from people who are interested in learning to play the guitar. My answer to this is simple but I will go into detail so that you can make a well-informed decision when it comes time to pick up your first axe.
So the quick and easy answer is……. “Buy a guitar that is going to make you want to Play and Practice!” This sounds simple enough and to be honest, it is as easy as it sounds. Now let me elaborate on this idea and give you some more information. …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: Electric Guitar, Guitar Buying Tips, Guitar Lessons, guitar player, mike deiure, Rock Guitar Lessons, What kind of guitar should I buy
June 14th, 2008 by Mike Deiure
The Top 10 Reasons Why Students Quit Taking Guitar Lessons
By: Mike Deiure
1. They are not focusing on playing the kind of music they want to If you want to learn how to play Rock music and your teacher is pushing you to learn classical guitar, then chances are, you are not going to want to play at all. Always tell your instructor what you want to learn so that they can keep things fun and interesting. There is always a certain amount of basic technique and skill that needs to be developed, but you can do this while still learning the style of music that interests you the most.
2. The student has a bad teacher Being inspired and excited to learn guitar is what makes people stick with it and strive to get better. A good teacher will know how to keep a student interested and progressing, a bad teacher will twiddle their thumbs while the student tries to figure out what’s going on.
3. They get frustrated
Any time a person learns a new skill, there is always a certain amount of frustration and second-guessing. A good teacher will know how to get a student to overcome these frustrations and turn them into accomplishments.
4. The student does not play or interact with other guitarists.
It can be intimidating when your first learning, but playing and jamming with other musicians will help you get better timing and make you feel more confident that you know what your doing. It’s also a lot of fun! Even if you can’t find another person to practice with, you should still be playing along with recordings and practicing to a drum machine or metronome.
5. Lack of motivation …Read More
Mail this post
Technorati Tags: Guitar Lessons, Guitar Pracitce, mike deiure, Rock Guitar Lessons
