Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

As I announced…

…a while back (see blog post), I decided to “start over” as it were. I felt that my practice wasn’t going anywhere and that I needed to reestablish my learning pattern. In my “re-effort” (is that a word?) I eventually stumbled upon (and blogged several times) about GuitarCardio.com.

This site eventually lead me to start researching scales and that presented the question “what was the most effective scale or group of scales to learn”. I eventually came upon something called “the box position.”

What I learned about the box position, to my surprise, is that it was not a set of scale patterns that one learns. It appears to be a description of playing within a single position. That single position doesn’t necessarily need to be the same pattern nor the same type of scale.

For example, the A Pentatonic Major scale in three different positions would be playing in the box position. Additionally, so would playing the A Pentatonic Major scale in 5th position and then the A Pentatonic Minor scale in 5th position.

The Box Position

I spent time researching and trying to understand what exactly is meant by “The Box Position” (a.k.a “The Box Pattern”). My conclusions is rather simple and straight forward.

There is not a fixed set of scales that make up the box pattern; every source or book can (and will) have their own method and scales. Take, for example, the link I’ve provided before on this topic previously: http://www.myguitarsolo.com/sc_box.htm

Their method of presenting the box position includes learning six scales in a specific order (I’m not yet sure if there is significance to the order); while another source, a book this time, shows the box pattern in all Pentatonic scales in different positions on the neck.

Both seem valid, and I have no reason to believe otherwise. That plus in all my research, I’ve not found consistent presentations of the box pattern. This lead me to the conclusion that there is no fix set of scales to make up the box pattern.

The Box Position using The Pentatonic Scale

I was in a bookstore looking to pick up a reference book on guitar scales. I stumbled upon a book titled “Practical Pentatonics” by Askold Buk. It is a small 44 page book about how flexible the Pentatonic scales can be and what can be done if applied, umm, creatively.

Now, obviously, due to copyright laws ( ) I can’t give away or post any of the examples they have in the book. That isn’t the point of the post, anyway. I want to share, in my own words, what I’ve learned and discovered from this book. Of course, if you become interested in this topic, I’d encourage you to purchase this book or a book like it (though, I’ve not found others like it).

Examples

Below are some basic examples. First, I’m going to start out with a basic Pentatonic Minor Scale in the key of A. [If you can not see the rest of the post, please view the post on UnderstandingGuitar.org. Most RSS readers will not display the following content properly.]

Read the rest of this entry »

A little bit ago, I posted about the fact that I wanted to go in a new direction; and I have since started.  I got a lot of good recommendations from different people and I appreciate everything everyone suggested.

However, as it turns out I didn’t actually go with any of them… at least not yet. I may revisit other material. For now, I’ve got a book called “Mel Bay’s Modern Guitar Method Grade 1.” I started flipping through it, and decided that this is where I’d start. I have a bunch of books, but for some reason I thought that this one suited me the best for now.

From this book, I’m basically trying to do everything right… I’m going through the exercises, I’m playing everything against a metronome and I’m ensuring that I’m playing the correct notes… Furthermore, this book only presents the material in standard music notations… Reading standard music notation is something else that I wanted to get out of learning guitar; my guitar teacher a while back wasn’t able to help me with that.

I will be focusing on material in this book as well as scales and of course, my quest to nail Bm which has been an “issue” for a while. I can play it better, but still can’t change to it quickly enough (for me).

I’ve decide to take “learning” guitar in a different direction. I’ve been thinking about my previous post and decided that I want to focus a bit more on the basics of reading music and playing sheet music. While learning to play music like Staind, Cold, Tool, etc. is what I ultimately strive for, I think that I will only get there if I build a good base by starting with basic sheet music.

Given this I was hoping to get recommendation on different books that cover introducing playing guitar.  I don’t want something too simple but not too hard either. After all, I need to rebuild my hands up as it has been a while since I was playing.

Currently, I’ve got a couple of books including “Guitar for Dummies”, a book titled something like “Guitar for Beginners: The Fender Method” and a Mel Brooks [??] book.  But there are a lot of different books out there, all with a different method of doing things.

If you used one and would like to recommend it, please post it’s title (and if possible author) below. I would greatly appreciate it and it would be interesting to hear what people have tried. Likewise, if you tried to use a book and it didn’t help you or it was frustrating to read/utilize please post that too. What is bad is just as important as what is good.

Thank you

Back when I started guitar, I read quite a bit of material. I hadn’t started this blog yet and the idea of going to a blog for “help” hadn’t yet crossed my mind.

But, I started self-teaching myself with books and I eventually looked up a guitar instructor local to my area. Of all the time I spent reading books and working with the instructor, I don’t think I was ever directly told what I’m about to post here… And it is kind of a shame – it might have saved some frustration. (But to be fair, I do realize that my instructor indirectly told me this.)

Learning guitar is not just about “learning” the guitar. You need to build up muscles, dexterity, calluses and coordination (among other things). At first, certain patterns or chords will seem impossible until you’ve actually spent a significant amount of time with a guitar building up your hands. It simply takes repetition and a lot of patience and practice.

When you first sit down with a guitar and you look at a chord diagram for (example) Em (Diagram to the right), it appears to be a fairly simple chord to play. But as a beginner, your finger tips are soft because you haven’t earned your calluses yet. Playing this simple chord at first without calluses can actually be hard.

Why? This seems like a very simple chord, why might a beginner have trouble with this chord? Because the tips of your fingers are so soft, the strings will sink in to the flesh and cause the sides of your fingers to touch a sounding string. I’ve discovered that this problem has more or less gone away (or at least decreased) as I’ve started to develop early calluses.

Of course, some of this has to do with learning to position your fingers properly, which is another factor in solving this problem. I felt that I was lead to believe that finger positioning was my only issue. This was only half right and it wasn’t until recently that I actually fully realized this.

The same type of thing is true for things like barred chords (strength) and other types of more complex chords (dexterity).

Of course, you can only build up strength, dexterity, calluses and coordination by practicing – so go practice. But have patience and when you can’t play something or a certain chord, don’t fully accept that you “can’t” do it — accept that you may need to develop further yet; but don’t let that be a reason to not practice what you’ve been having trouble with… You can only further yourself if you practice what you can’t do, not what you can do.

My wife and I are leaving for Las Vegas soon — It’s a sort of mini-vacation for us. We don’t gamble at all, but we love shows and we’ve never seen the strip. It should be fun.

What I actually wanted to write about was something that my wife and I were talking about last night. She was explaining some of her adventures in to the world of Tarot, an interest she’s had since High School and she told me that as she learns about it, there is more that she realizes that she needs to learn.

I found this true with the Guitar too… The more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know about playing guitar or writing music. No matter how much I learn there is always more to learn.

And I guess that is what makes the Guitar such a great hobby. Not only is it a never-ending learning experience, but it can also follow the path of interest. You can always back track later…

Have you ever read the Choose Your Own Adventure books? It is sort of like that, but never-ending…

I hate it when I go in to a music / guitar store to find an accessory and the store doesn’t carry the exact item I’m looking for and (to further frustrate you) they don’t even carry something like what you were looking for.And then on top of it, they offer to “get” the item for you or to order it for you. See, here is the thing, if I was willing to wait for the item, I would have ordered it my self from one of the many big-name online music stores retailers as opposed to have gone to a music store to (1) look at and play with the item, and (2) purchase it on the spot.

I like to look at what I’m going to buy before I buy it and I like to leave with something when I spend money – it’s just how I am. Is that bad?

What I’ve been looking for is the Chordmaster II by Planet Waves. It is a simple device that tells you how to play different chords different ways. I wanted to use it to help with the song (or chord progression, at this stage) I’ve been working on…

I have a book, but feel it is sort of incomplete, and I understand that the Chordmaster II has 7,400 chords contained within it… That is a lot more then my two books…

A while back, when I was first starting out with Guitar, my wife got me a book as a present.  The book is called “The Gig Bag Book of Guitar Complete.” I’m almost sure anyone who has gone past the music isle in a Borders or Barnes and Noble has seen this book.

I see the book all over the place.  The book contains, among other things, scales and Chord diagrams. Both of which I have found useful overtime. I’m very glad my wife purchased the book for me.

However, there is a diagram within the pages that I do not understand. I’m sure that I’m not the only newbie guitarist who is lost when looking at the diagram.

With all respect to the publisher (and I truly hope they don’t mind) I’ve scanned an example of this diagram.  It is below:

Can anyone explain the area that is outlined in Red? Click here for a bigger version of the same image. I’ve included the scale above it in case that is somehow related to the diagram, but I’m not sure it is…

Thank you all!!

Recently I decided to disband from my guitar teacher and go back to self-study for now. When I originally picked up a guitar, I thought that I’d learn how to play myself.  Over time, though I realized that I’d be better and would get further with an instructor.

My search for an instructor begins… I found two instructors. The first one was not a good teacher at all. That instructor was a good player and could sight-read music, but didn’t have the ability (and perhaps the patients) to teach others. I think the instructor was doing it for money while in college. That ended after the first session.

Very shortly later, I found the second teacher. I continued with the teacher for the last 5 months. And I must say my playing did vastly improve as a result of working with the instructor. We went over everything, form Chord Theory to proper technique. It was all helpful!

So, you might ask why I decided to discontinue working with the instructor.  I think the answer is quite simple. While the instructor wasn’t bad, I didn’t feel they were that good either. Sometimes the pace was too fast and at other times the material didn’t seem to “flow” and furthermore, sometimes when I didn’t understand certain material the instructor could not explain it so it made sense. So, I worked with the instructor for a time and got out of it what I needed.

I now plan on taking what the instructor taught me and continuing to build my skills. I’ve also planned on utilizing books to aid in my learning. (If anyone can suggest good books or training material, I’d love to hear it!)

I do plan on eventually going back to using an instructor but I think I need some time to absorb and practice what I’ve learned.

First, wow – I’m sorry. I hadn’t realize that it had been 5 day since my last post. That is horrible.

For this addition, I’ve decided to write a bit about the gear that a beginner will need. In the following list, my intention was to cover what a beginner would need, keeping in mind two main things. The effectiveness versus the price of the product.

First, I think it is important to note that the only things you absolutely need to begin learning to play the guitar properly is an acoustic guitar, metronome (yes, I think that it is that important) and the Internet or a good book.

Additional items that would be extremely helpful include (in my opinion):

• Electronic Tuner
• Music Stand
• Guitar Stand
• Guitar Case
• Various Gauge Picks
• Any additional educational resources {Good Books, UnderstandingGuitar.org}
• Stool or armless chair
• Foot Stool
• Good Guitar Teacher

Note: the list above is presented in no particular order.

Why do I feel that each of these items are important:

Electronic Tuner

A beginner has enough to worry about, without having to worry about whether the guitar is in tune or not. If the guitar is not in tune, it will be impossible to learn how the different chords or notes are suppose to sounds as you are playing them.

Music Stand

This is one item that I personally resisted buying. Not because I thought the music store was charging too much for them – but because I thought that I truly didn’t need it. Just before I started taking lessons from an actual instructor, I found one on “clearance” at a local Sam Ash and decided to purchase it. Ever since then, I wish I had purchased one straight away!!

Having the music stand hold the music (with little arms that swing out to hold your book open to the exact page) allows you to read while playing. This might not seem important when first learning because most of the things you are learning can easily be memorized. But, here is one trick – what if you accidentally memorize the wrong thing because you only looked at the chord chart once?! Additionally, as you get in to more complex pieces, you won’t be able to continue to memorize them. There are other reasons I could list, but I believe these will suffice for my purposes for now.

Guitar Stand

This is one of those things I’ve had since I got my first guitar – the salesmen tossed a stand in when I bought the guitar. I used to store my guitar (it was a cheapo guitar) on the stand. Now, I strictly use the stand to hold the guitar when doing various things while practicing. Things like reading a paragraph in a lesson book or when getting a different book.

Guitar Case

If you’ve dropped a decent amount of coin on your guitar (especially if it is acoustic), then a hard case is important to store it. A soft case simply can not protect a guitar like a hard case. You may feel that you do not need one – especially if you aren’t taking the guitar out of your home (if you are a beginner why would you – lessons, thats why!) However, why take the risk. You can get a hard guitar case for for around $69. If you spent $250 or more on your guitar, then I think that you’d want to protect it… Consider the possibility of some one bumping in to your un-protected guitar, or a pet some how knocks it over…

Various Gauge Picks

This is another one that didn’t really make sense to me. “My Guitar came with three (same gauge) picks; why do I need more?!” At first, it may or may not be noticeable. However, different gauge picks allows you to “feel” the strings/guitar differently.

I think that you should try a variety of different picks (as well as have them on hand) and maybe even use different picks as you practice. Really see what works for you.

So far, what I’ve found is that I tend to like really, really thin, flexible picks for playing rhythm. The thin picks allow me to strum freely without “over attacking” the strings. When I play lead (usually playing a note or two) or scales I like “medium-heavy”picks. They allow me to feel which string I’ve just plucked which allows me to know where I am among the six different strings.

Any Additional Educational Resources

If you are on UnderstandingGuitar.org then you’ve found one! In all seriousness, additional resource give you different perspective on the same topic. Some times it is easier to understand one resource over another – I’ve always found that I need to read different books or websites to understand certain topics. And sometimes it just helps to ingrain the concept deeper in to my brain.

Stool or armless chair

I find that a stool allows me to sit properly, but you want at least an armless chair (I prefer a stool though). You probably have one around your home. You don’t need anything special. It is just important to not have arms on the chair to allow you to learn to hold and fret the guitar properly.

Foot Stool

This is the latest thing I’ve purchase and I did so because I noticed that my right ankle had started to hurt as I practiced. I believe that this happened because I was propping my foot up on the tips of my toes in order to get the guitar to be just a little higher. It was probably necessary to help with certain chords – I’ve been working on barred chords!

Anyway, I ended up reading (somewhere, I’m sorry I’m not sure where) that you do want to raise the guitar a little higher. It is proper form. Again, this isn’t a necessity however to learn to play with proper form is important.

Good Guitar Teacher

I have done most of my learning for books – Professionally, I’m a software developer and though I did go to college to get my career started, I first learned to program from books. Hours and hours with a book and I created my first piece of software. Granted, it wasn’t very good but it kicked started what has become my career and inherently my life.

I had approached guitar the same way. I purchased a guitar and my wife had a book (from when she was trying learn). I started going through the book and though I learned things, I never could “feel” the music. Nothing seemed right but I could not, no matter what, figure out what it was. Eventually, I decided to start taking lessons from an actual teacher. I’ve seen and heard such vast improvement that this must go on this list.