Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

During my time with a guitar, I’ve occasionally (who am I kidding, more then occasionally) ran in to music or practice pieces that have frustrated the living heck out of me.

I really not kidding, there are times where I just about threw my guitar because I just couldn’t take it. (Luckily, I never actually did that; but I have felt like it before.)

While you are learning something new, especially something as complicated as learning to play a musical instrument, you can will become frustrated. It is just a matter of time.

I stumbled upon this great blog post about frustrations, specifically aimed at learning to play guitar. I liked the article and I think it is very worth while to read (regardless whether your instrument guitar).

http://blog.littlerockjams.com/2008/01/21/everyone-that-has-been-frustrated-during-guitar-practice-raise-your-hand.aspx

And the following YouTube video was mentioned in the article above. I thought that the video was funny…

As I said in one of my later posts, I’ve taken a new direction - a new focus if you will. I’ve been following along with the book “Mel Bay’s Modern Guitar Method Grade 1,” playing the pieces and learning things in the order the book suggests.

Currently, I’m practicing on the the E note, F note and G note on the first string and the B note, C note, D note on the second string. I’m playing a few pieces from the book trying to practice my accuracy as well as my ability to read music (which, to me, is one key in this new quest).

As I was playing the first couple of songs (if I can call them that) from the book, I wasn’t sure if they were sounding like the should. I know that I was following the metronome properly, but I wasn’t sure if I was always hitting the right note at the right time. When you are first learning, so much is going on that it can be hard to ensure it sounds right… How can you tell [if sounds right] when the music is on paper?!

I remembered that I have a tabbing / music notation software called TuxGuitar (The team recently released version 1.0) which will actually play what I tab out. Now, at first, this might seem kind of stupid, but I swear it is working — it is helping.

The computer will always hit the right note at the right time. It is almost liking playing with another guitarist, but one that will never come out of time or make a mistake. Basically, like it is politely correcting you. Furthermore, as I’m playing along with the software I can listen to the notes that are played, and I instantly know via comparison if I’ve just played the correct note or not. When I play the wrong note, I can stop and figure out what the correct note is and work through the mistake.

Below are a couple of the songs that I’ve been playing in the TuxGuitar 1.0 format. You can give it a try.

Frolic - TuxGuitar 1.0 File

E - B - TuxGuitar 1.0 File

It is not new news to the Internet that America’s obesity rates are high — from what I understand, they are higher then most (dare I say, all?) other countries.

There is one “tip” that I’ve heard time and time again to loose weight and get fit is to not find a “close” parking spot. Instead park in the back of the parking lot where there is a ton of open space and plenty of room. From there, you hoof it to the building. I’ve read many different estimates but the experts say that doing this consistently for every where you go — for every trip will result in consistent exercise and also weight lost (eventually).

I look at this tip in this way: Don’t take shortcuts. Just park your car in the parking lot and from there walk to where you need to go. In the cities, you don’t necessarily get to drive directly to where you need to be! And people in the downtown cities who walk every tend to be healthier*.

I think that this logic can be applied to almost anything. It can be applied to learning guitar and it can be applied to your professional life or to something as simple as your house work.

How might you apply this logic in your guitar practice routine(s)?

Also, have you seen shortcut type solutions to learning guitar?

*=My assumetion. No research or other article supports this in anyway. In fact, I could be wrong but don’t tell anyone.

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.)

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.

MusicMoose.org is an interesting yet potentially helpful learn-to-play resource. I call it a learn-to-play resource because they cover a lot of instruments, including guitar, saxophone, and banjo (among many others).

I’ve not spent a significant amount of time bouncing around their site, let alone trying some of their material. However, for the few minutes that I spent looking at the site, I felt it was worth a mention.

For guitarist they have several lessons all further classified. See categories just above the search results for the different classifications.

I’ve been considering signing up for a course with “MusicianUniversity.com” for the past few days. However, I’m kind of on the fence and would like some feedback from the public…

Has anyone taken a course with Musician University? If so, I’m looking to learn about your experience and your thoughts on the course you took.

I’m specifically interested in taking the course called: “Guitar Songwriting: writing Songs, Riffs and Chord Progressions”

I’ve been working on the song for my wife (as it is known) and I have come to a road block with the progression / song… I’m not sure where to take it or what to do next. I’ve come up with a few things, but ultimately I simply don’t yet know enough to write a song — at least a song worth keeping. :-)  Anyway, this is why I’m interested in taking the course…

Pretty much any feedback or thoughts would help. Thank you in advance!

Quick follow up update:  tsubibo found this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080415072326AADYEe

The post is asking about a Better Business Bureau for the Netherlands, which is where MusicianUniversity.com is based out of. According to the post, the user has been trying to get a refund, presubmably because they didn’t feel that the services were to par.

If someone can counter this, I invite you to leave a comment at the bottom.

I am going to try to check out a local community college for what I’m looking for… I’d rather play it safe then waste valuable time and money…

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…