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 »

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.

If you don’t always follow the comments on this site, I wanted to summarize what I learned about MusicianUniversity.com.

On April 19th, I posted a request for information on MusicianUniversity.com which offers music courses for musicians. I was interested in taking thier songwriting course.

“tsubibo” left a comment on my this site. He pointed me to a link which provided third-party insight in to the company. Of course, this information is one sided however it also showed the level of customer service…

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080415072326AADYEej

This isn’t to say that they are a bad company or the courses are bad (because it is only one posting from one previous customer), but I’d rather not take the risk of losing my money and not getting anything out of it.

tsubibo also mentioned that several people were asking for information about other peoples’ experience (like my post) however, they never found a solid description of someone experience.

The question above plus the fact that nobody mentioned any experience leads me to believe that I should probably shy away from them for now.

However, if you have had or eventually have an interaction with MusicanUniversity.com, please share your story. Leave a comment on either this post or the other post.

So I’ve always liked the Jaws theme… I’m pretty sure that most people (over 18) are familiar with this little tune.  Now, when I say tune I’m talking specificity about the trademark lead introduction piece; not the entire thing… I’m not even sure that there is an entire thing… Besides the point right now…

Anyway, I put together some music tabs for the song / introduction – this was done quickly and may not be perfect, but my wife said it sounded right…  So enjoy!

• Jaws Theme as TuxGuitar File
• Jaws Theme as PDF File

If you set up your TuxGuitar properly (you need a soundbank installed in to Java) you can have TuxGuitar play it for you — and you can practice with TuxGuitar.

Here is a YouTube video that I found with the theme in case you want to hear the ‘Real’ version or if you have no clue as to what I’m talking about:

My wife and I were watching VH1’s “100 Greatest songs of the 90s” on Christmas Day (don’t ask why, were are boring people) and during a few of the many hours of watching the show they are interviewing MC Hammer, and eventually my wife makes a comment: “MC Hammer is taking himself way to seriously.”She was right; his demeanor was very “I’m so great” (my wife’s and my opinion) and in between the interviews, they are cutting away to his one single (that I know of) “U Can’t Touch this” and he is dancing around in huge-way-to-baggy pants. Additionally, during the interview he was wearing a vary nice suit and sunglasses-very business-like. It was very humorous.

Sometime later, they also had Vanilla Ice. Though, I’m sure many people doesn’t necessarily wants to admit it (and to tell you the truth, I’m not sure why) everyone enjoyed at least one song of his, if not more. (probably more!)

Anyway, Vanilla Ice was very cool and relaxed during the interview. He didn’t act high and mighty. He was dressed as I would expect for a person of his occupation (yes, he is still a writer/rapper). He seemed to enjoy the reminiscing.

I felt that both Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer got in to and out of the spot light in very short times. MC Hammer, quicker than Vanilla Ice, and yet it seems that MC Hammer took his “success” a bit more seriously during that show then he should have. (Perhaps that is just how the interview was cut…)

Anyway, today I was thinking that this probably applies to how you practice guitar. You probably shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. You should definitively correct mistakes and what not (see post: “Call for Public Opinion – Mistakes“), but you are still learning! You have to expect to make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes you can’t improve!

I think that if you take yourself too seriously, the increased pressure that you are putting on to yourself will only hinder your efforts at learning; this will only frustrate you during your efforts (leading you to eventually give up on it)

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.

I was wondering around a local mall with my wife and found myself in a Hot Topic. (I blame my wife) – Anyway, they have a small section of “unique” magazines. I found an unwrapped “Tattoo” and started browsing the magazine just looking at the various Tattoos.

Eventually, I came upon a picture of Aaron Lewis towards the front of the magazine in the table of contents. I’m a huge fan of Staind and definitely a big fan of Aaron Lewis… He is the primary reason I decided to learn guitar on an acoustic guitar as opposed to electric (though I own both).

For those who do not know, Staind is a 4 man band. Aaron Lewis is the lead singer and sole acoustic guitarist for the band. [You can find more information on Staind here]

Being a big fan of Staind, I scoured the magazine for the article with Aaron Lewis. I finally found it at page 18. The article is titled “Staind’s Aaron Lewis Goes Solo at least for a while.” Aaron Lewis has been on an solo acoustic only tour and although I’ve not found an opportunity to go see it, I understand that people are loving it.

The article is an interview with Aaron; and as this is in a tattoo magazine the interviewer asks about Aaron’s tattoos and they go in to that a little bit.. Additionally, they end up talking about a benefit concert that Aaron did for “…his old high school in Longmeadow, Massachusetts”

Because I do not want to break any copyright laws, I’m not going to scan any of the pictures. I do encourage you to find the magazine and purchase it (it is in cellophane if new) and read the article. Alternatively, you might be able to get a copy of the magazine at a local library however, I’m not sure many libraries would have a copy of “Tattoo“.

The article is in “Tattoo Magazine” in the December 2007 issue (Issue 220) starting on page 18. Note: You can get back issues here.