Acoustic Guitar Lessons DVD: Adjust Your Music Studies To Your Life
Understand that becoming a better guitarist means becoming a better musician as well. When developing your musical skills, make sure to think beyond skills that are specific to guitar.
Of course you will be working on many guitar skills: various guitar techniques, chords, scales, soloing, etc., but don’t neglect other skills that are not guitar specific like, ear training (also called aural skills), songwriting, improvising, creativity, reading, music theory, etc.
Here is a simpler scenario for beginning players. Perhaps you suffer from the common complaint of not being able to change chords smoothly so you can sing that old favorite of yours without feeling like a new driver learning to drive a stick shift (go, stall, go, stall, etc.)
Listen to a song on a CD and jam along. This increases your ear for music, and helps to get down timing. The average song could be played through two or three times.
Merely playing the music where the bad habit displays itself will not disturb the changes you are building into the fingers by your powerful, correct practice. As time goes by, the new habit will begin to show itself in your playing, and become stronger and stronger.
Staying with that feeling positions you in the best possible way for being able to see what your obstacles to growth really are. As soon as you think you are “complete” in some way as a guitarist, you will be unable to see your own weak spots.
Stevie Ray Vaughn never learned to play fusion or metal. Great country players usually don’t study Progressive Rock. Of course there are examples of players that do learn and play in more than one or two styles, but most of the really great guitarists are known for the style they focussed on.
Keep a record of all the technical things you are currently working on. You will clearly see if you are progressing and at what rate. For other items that are not so easily recorded with a metronome, paper and pencil, record on yourself tape or your computer each week. Keep the tapes for a long time. Listen back in 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc. Listen to how much you have grown.
Tags: Music