Music Instruction
Are you getting frustrated with your guitar practicing? Just can’t get over a hump without a certain technique or movement? Here are some suggestions to help you out.
First, let me tell you a situation that came up at a recent lesson. A student of mine is learning the F chord. Now, if you can play the F barre chord then you know it could be a real challenge at first. I walk into the lesson; the student tells me he got very frustrated working with the f chord this week. It sounded horrible; he said he couldn’t get it to sound good, etc. I asked him how often did he practice it this week. His response was that he had to put away the guitar on Thursday because he got so frustrated and skipped a day of practice on Friday. His lessons are on Saturdays. I asked how he was practicing the F chord. He said he was doing what I told him; Lead with second finger, strum once to move from a C chord to the F chord, etc.
Could I be teaching guitar without a computer? I could but I don’t! The computer is part of most people lives today with Facebook, Google, Twitter, iTunes and more. It is big part of my teaching business. My uses for the computer include research, developing teacher materials, transcribing, marketing, sales, website, email, and recording. I research online what other teachers are teaching and how they teach it. I see the good and the bad. This helps me improve my teaching ability.
I’ve always been a big concert goer, now I just watch YouTube videos and blog about music. I used to go to about at least three concerts a month, but then I got older and now have more responsibility. When I do go to concerts I am the person who is there for the music and for the music only. I don’t go there to get into the crowds, to mosh pit or pick fights like a lot of other people do nowadays which I find really annoying. It seems like there always have to be people at every show that make it hard to enjoy. I came up with a list of five things that you or anybody else shouldn’t do at a concert.
Don’t slam crowd surfers into the ground or punch them for no reason. Yes, I agree crowd surfers are really annoying, but that doesn’t give anybody the right to hurt them. Sometimes people crowd surf to get out of the crowd so they can breathe again. I’ve seen way to many people do stuff like this for no apparent reason.
Usually you play rock guitar with an electric guitar but you can use an acoustic guitar for playing rock guitar as well. The acoustic can add more colour, tones, texture and moods to your music. This makes it more interesting for you and for your listener. You need to like what you play or else you will get bored learning rock guitar.
Acoustic Guitar Techniques
There are a few different techniques to playing acoustic guitar. The strings are harder to hold down than on an electric guitar. If you can hold down notes and chords with no fret buzz on an acoustic guitar you will find it much easier on an electric. It can help you build up your hand strength.
The noises an acoustic make are different to an electric. The most common one is when you slide from fret to another you get a whirring sound from your fingertips against the strings. It does add something to acoustic playing but if you can get rid of the sound on an acoustic you will not get it on an electric guitar.