Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

IG Blog (a very popular guitar blog ran by IG) seems to have been taken down… This has been one of my long time faviorite blogs! Does anyone out there have any knowledge of whether this is down for good, by accident or if it is being moved? I’m sure more than just myself is interested!

IG of IG Blog pointed out that (at the time of his writing) “five guitar lesson podcasts are included in the current list of top 20 podcasts.” While this is interesting information unto itself, it does point out that iTunes and podcasts are quickly becoming a worthwhile resource to consult when looking for Learn-Guitar material.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the concept of a podcast, it is similar to a radio segment but it is pre-recorded and distributed through the internet. Some people (including myself) also consider them a type of “recorded blog.” In case you are not familiar with the concept of a blog, you are reading one.

If you have iTunes installed on your computer, you can subscribe to these podcasts and then listen to them from your computer. Furthermore, if you have a iPod you can then sync iTunes and the iPod and listen to the podcast on your hand held iPod.

Returning to the topic of podcasts as a Learn-Guitar aid: One problem that you might face when it comes to using these free Podcast is, you basically get what you pay for. Keep in mind that this isn’t always the case but also, that they are free… However, as the five on the top twenty are tributes to, there are good ones out there. You may just need to try a few to find one that fits you. I’d suggest that you start with the podcasts on the top twenty list.

I’ve listened to a few but don’t really have any to recommend at this time. Of course, if I ever find one I’d shurely pass it on. (Oh, and I’ve not checked out the aforementioned podcasts yet.)

IG’s latest post was about a study where a scientist found that if one practices something for 2 hours a day for 10 years (including weekends) then you’ll be very good at it.

If we apply this to guitar and if you start today, you should be a guitar superstar by 5/7/2018.

Of course (and I’m sorry) that just isn’t going to happen. A lot more goes in to becoming a superstar than just being a good guitarist. I feel that charisma plus the style of music you enjoy playing as well as many other things factor in to super stardom. However, I would not expect that to deter you from trying. If you don’t try, you will only regret it.

However, I’ve wondered off the point of this post. The question I have to the readers / contributors out there is what is your practice routine?

In my pursuit of learning guitar, I’ve come across many recommendations for practice routines.

Some of the recommendations that I’ve heard include things like “always practice for a set amount of time” and / or “at a specific time in the day”. The goal is to make the practice a routine in your day. And while I have tried to apply the idea, the reality of where my time can go is never cohesive to such a practice schedule… As a kid, that might be possible; however as an adult I do not believe it is.

For me my first goal is to make sure that I at least get some practice in each day. Even as little as 10 minutes before going to bed. (Such as yesterday, in which I spent most of my time trying to fix my wife’s New Dell laptop.)

Aside from the 10 minutes, if I have more time I include chord drills — Currently Bm with rhythm and strumming drills. I’ve not found the time to practice an actual song for a while. I need to find time to work on that.

So again, what is your practice routine? What do you spend time on and do you have any suggestions for the guitar-learning-public out there from your trials and tribulations?

Note To Self: Learn how to utilize the “guitar playalongs” on IG Blog…

For more information Check Out: http://igblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/free-elixir-electric-guitar-strings/

Update: You can find information here, also: http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/Elixir-Strings-Electric-String-Trial-Promotion.html

IG of IG Blog was kind enough to pass the award of E for Excellent to UnderstandingGuitar.org.  The award works like this (from what I understand, I’ll appreciate any corrections).

A blogger receives the award from another blogger (who has received the award already).The receiving blogger is then to pass the award to ten other bloggers. Pretty simple right?

Problem: At this time I only routinely follow six blogs… They are on the far right under Other Blogs… No matter your skill level, I encourage you to check them out. They are all chock-full of information. If you know of another blog that you read and respect — particularly in the “Beginning Guitar” genre, please share!

In keeping with the spirit of the award, I will list the sites following this along with my thoughts on the site. (No particular order) Unfortunately though, at this time I can only list six…

• IG Blog: IG Blog (who gave this award to me, Thank You!) is full of information. IG posted a good article on the CAGED system, which I’m currently working though. Aside from that, IG post all sorts of information and provides all sorts of links.
• From The Woodshed: I litteraly just found this site today… I’m really sorryI had never stopped by it before… Aside from the interesting read of Joe’s daily progress and notes, Joe post tips and trick on learning guitar. If you don’t know, Joe is studying guitar full time (No job right now) and is trying to go pro. I wish him the best of luck!
• Electric Guitar Review: Cary provides a lot of good information and reviews on gear and such. I don’t comment on his site much, but I do enjoy reading about the latest gear.
• The Fillmore Five Project: Kenski, similar to Joe of the Woodshed, is working on becoming a professional guitar player. Kenski posts information relevant to beginner players. He has also posted extremely helpful comments within the pages of my blog. I wish Kenski the best of luck, also!
• Heartwood Guitar: Though Rob hasn’t posted anything as of late, his blog is chop-full of information for anyone learning guitar at any level. He has a huge list of songs written out for private study. Take a look, you may find something you’ve been wanting to learn.
• Pickstroke: Pickstroke has a whole bunch of good information for guitar players of every level. Including songs and other good resources. Pickstroke is also the original source for my post about slowing down music. Such a great tool, I’m glad they posted about it or I’d have never found it.

I know a lot of these sites have already won this award… But if I didn’t pass it back, I’d have no one to give it to!

If I find more sites to give this award to, I will update this posting.

So, I’m suppose to be going to IG’s CAGED series… But I found right now, that I’m not really in the mood to follow something specific… I’m just in the mood, for now, to bang around on my guitar and make “noise” — Though, I do want that noise to sound good, I’m not really following any sort of specific chord progression or material.

What I’m trying to say is sometimes I just want to bang around on my guitar… Is that a bad thing?  Does that hurt my learning to just not follow any specific material and to just play random chord with random strum patterns… Oh, all of this is done without a metronome…

What do you think? Any guitar teachers out there? I’d love an opinion from you…

This will be a quick post, but a post none-the-less….

IG Blog was actually the first Guitar blog I started to follow… It is actually the inspiration for this blog… On IG Blog, quite a while back I found a series that IG posted about the CAGED chord system; I’ve been meaning to go through the system for quite some time but every-time was deterred by something else in my pursuit of the guitar.

Anyway, I’ve finally “forced” myself to start going through it. So far, I’ve gone through the first and second “pages” and am, thus far, very happy with it. The information on these pages are very valuable to any level of player.

http://igblog.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/a-good-approach-to-guitar-chords/

http://igblog.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/a-good-approach-to-guitar-chords-part-ii-caged/

Back when I was working with an instructor, he tired to convey this information but unfortunately, wasn’t too good at it.  I want to encourage any beginner or intermediate guitar player looking for solid information on Chords and theory to at least check out these articles that IG posted. I will continue the series either tonight or throughout the rest of the week. Expect more posts on this topic…

It’ll probably take me at least a few months before I’ve got everything pat…

I wonder if IG has posted anything on the Pentatonic Boxes?…