written by Ryan Townsend
1. HAVE FUN PLAYING BUT BE ACCOUNTABLE, HAVE A STRATEGY, AND ALWAYS BE EVOLVING.
When you’re learning a new skill there will always be a progression to studying the basic fundamentals. And it won’t happen overnight. It will be a process. The idea is to keep it enjoyable. In the beginning play music that is manageable and accessible. Learn how to balance the time you spend playing your guitar to get the most of it, while always keeping it enjoyable and stress free.
Find fun ways to rehearse. Make yourself accountable by playing with a metronome, backing track, the actual song, or other musicians.
THERE’S NO SECRET RECIPE TO GETTING BETTER EXCEPT REPETITION
SPEND AS MUCH TIME WITH YOUR GUITAR IN YOUR HAND AS POSSIBLE.
LEAVE YOUR GUITAR OUT OF ITS CASE ON A STAND TO INCREASE THE CHANCES OF PICKING IT UP MORE OFTEN
LEARN ACCESSIBLE AND MANAGEABLE THINGS TO PLAY SUCH AS RIFFS AND BASS LINES THAT YOU CAN PICK UP AND PLAY IMMEDIATELY
SET EXPECTATIONS, GOALS, & PLAY MUSIC YOU ENJOY
2. MASTER YOUR RIGHT HAND AND DEVELOP A CATALOG OF STRUM AND PICK PATTERNS
Our right hand is what brings the song we’re playing to life. It creates the rhythm and pulse of the song, while also defining the style and genre of the music. Your goal should be to identify the beat, get in the groove and learn how to “keep it in the pocket” (be steady and consistent).
The best way to think of your right hand is by comparing it to a drummer. If you learn the basic foundations of common time signatures ( ex. 4/4 and 3/4 ) you will know how to properly build the foundation of a song, which is extremely important. Everything is built on top of the foundation of the beat, just like the foundation of a house.
The idea is to have a collection of strum and pick patterns that become part of your basic music vocabulary. To be able to pick out the rhythm of any song you’re working on and implement the patterns you have learned and assembled.
TAP YOUR FOOT ALONG TO THE BEAT WHEN YOU’RE PLAYING
YOUR BODY SHOULD BE IN SYNC WITH WHAT YOUR HAND IS DOING
FOLLOW AND COUNT ALONG WITHT THE TIME SIGNATURE TO KEEP ON TRACK
PLAY ALONG WITH A METRONOME, ANOTHER MUSICIAN, OR THE ACTUAL SONG
3. LEARN BARRE CHORDS, SCALES & HOW TO NAVIGATE THE FRETBOARD BY USING PATTERNS AND SHAPES.
We have the ability on the guitar, along with other fretted string instruments like the banjo, mandolin, and ukulele, to move a barre chord shape or scale pattern up and down the neck to be able to play it in different keys, all while keeping the same shape or pattern.
Understanding these movable shapes and patterns allows you to learn 12 different variations of a chord or scale for the price of 1. It’s one of the most useful tips and approaches to the guitar. Understanding this will fast track your understanding of the fretboard and allow you to move around with ease.
It will also help you easily find chords that are in keys containing sharps and flats when there may not be options to play them as open chords.
FOCUS ON ONE NOTE AND ONE STRING AT A TIME
START WITH THE ROOT NOTES
LEARN THE OCTAVES AND THE SHORTCUTS TO FIND THEM
USE PATTERNS & SHAPES TO VISUALIZE, RECOGNIZE, AND PREDICT
MAKE USE OF THE INLAYS ON THE GUITAR TO HELP LEARN THE NOTES
4. WHEN LEARNING A SONG PEEL BACK THE ONION.
A song often has many layers that make it up. It’s unrealistic to assume that we’ll go straight from learning a piece of music to immediately playing and executing it perfectly. You need to break it down.
There needs to be process. Just like an onion has multiple layers, we want to peel back the layers of what we’re trying to learn and break it into more manageable pieces. Eventually we’ll put those pieces back together once we’ve mastered them individually.
The specifics of this may vary depending of what type of song or technique you’re learning but the general concept will be the same.
BREAK APART INTO MANAGABLE PIECES
BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE BEATS AND KEEP A COUNT
ADJUST THE TEMPO TO YOUR COMFORT TO PLAY ACCURATLEY AND STEADY
DON’T BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW
5. CREATIVITY & DYNAMICS
Mastering the skills to have control of your instrument is the ultimate goal of any musician, along with the ability to creatively express your ideas through your playing. You want to be able to move up and down the fretboard creating as many different sounds as possible.
Looking at this concept through playing leads, solo’s, and improvising is a perfect way to understand it in context.
We want to be able to bring our playing to life by giving it color and making it move. We need to give the music emotion, and make our playing dynamic. This is accomplished partly by using techniques such as bends, slides, pull off’s, hammer on’s, and vibrato’s.
Also by techniques like palm muting, raking, using rests, and changing the intensity in which we play the note.
LEARN EXISTING THEME’S AND SOLO’S
LEARN HOW TO IDENTIFY THE KEYS OF A SONG AND THE CORRESPONDING SCALES
LEARN AND PRACTICE IMPROVISING
COMPILE SIGNATURE LICKS & RIFFS
MASTER EMOTION ( BENDS, SLIDES, VIBRATO )