The Fine Art Of Practicing Guitar
How you practice guitar and your mindset on doing it altogether is, in my opinion, the most crucial thing to focus on when you want to excel at guitar playing or anything else for that matter.
Understanding What Kind Of Guitar Player You Are
Over the years working with people as a guitar and music teacher, I have found 4 main types of personalities that people have when it comes to how they react to learning and playing music. It’s important for you to figure out what type of personality you have so that you can maximize the time you spend when playing and practicing guitar. It’s also important to note that these are just the most common traits that I see and work with. There are certainly more and you don’t necessarily need to be just one. In no specific order: #1-The Emotional…
Beginner Guitar Lessons – String Bending
Bending strings causes the pitch of the note fretted to change to a higher pitch. Most commonly strings are bent a whole step (to sound like the note 2 frets higher) But sometimes they can be bent just ½ step (sounds like 1 fret higher) or even higher: 1 ½ steps (sounds 3 frets higher) and the finger-numbing 2 step bend (sounds like 4 frets higher). How to bend a string: (I’m using the 12th fret region of the neck as an example here.) 1. On the 15th fret, 2nd string use your ring finger to fret the note. 2….
RGP player wins 2nd place in contest!
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted so I wanted to give an update on some really cool news. Johnathan Dretto, a personal student of mine, recently won second place in a local guitar contest at The House Of Guitars. The event was sponsored by Epiphone. As the runner up Johnathan won a really sweet Epiphone Acoustic! Here’s a picture of Johnathan with Epiphone clinician Stacy Mitchhart and the local Gibson Guitar Rep. Way To Go Johnathan! Everything else at Rock Guitar Power has been going great! We are now fully digital and able to stream all of our…
Using itunes As A Source For Backing Tracks
One of the best things that you can do to further yourself as a guitar player is to play along with the recordings of the songs that you are working on as well as to use backing tracks to jam along to. Actual recordings are pretty self-explanatory, after you learn the song you just hit play on the cd player and play along to the tune. Backing tracks, also known as jam tracks, are a little different in that they will usually have one element of the song missing, usually the lead or rhythm guitar part. This makes it easier…
Teaching Someone Else How To Play Guitar Makes You A Better Player
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…
The Importance Of Warming Up On Guitar
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…
Understanding How Guitar Chords and Music Scales Work Together
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…
Guitar Tablature – Pros and Cons
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…
How To Choose The Right Amp For Your Electric Guitar
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…