Guitar Practice: How Much Time Do You Spend?

How much time do you spend on guitar practice each day? That's the question asked by this week's Not Playing Guitar poll. You can join in and let everyone know how much time you spend to practice and learn guitar.

You can find the poll at the top of the sidebar on the left of all the site's pages. To participate simply select the answer that's closest to your daily practice time. If you practice every other day then divide the time you spend by two to find your daily average.

Got more to say...?

Of course, you can also leave a comment if you'd like to share more about the time you spend on guitar practice. Simply click the "Post a comment" link below.

The poll is open for a week. I'll post a summary of the results for you then.

If you're reading in a feed reader, visit Not Playing Guitar to participate in the poll.

Meanwhile, happy picking...

Gary

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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7 Ways to Improve Guitar Speed

Would you like to play guitar faster? Although speed alone will not make great music, having the ability to play a little faster always make it easier to play a little slower. But how do you go about building more speed on the guitar? Here are seven speed improvement tips for you to try.

1. Make Speed Your Goal

If you want to get faster at playing guitar then you should make that an explicit goal. Fill your goal list with songs and new techniques to learn then you won't have time to work on your speed.

To make best progress at increasing your speed work with techniques and songs you know already. Set speed goals for them and track them.

2. Practice Every Day

To move quickly around the fingerboard your fingers must get to know it intimately. Daily practice is the best way to ensure this, so if you are not practicing every day then make sure you start.

3. Slow Practice

To get faster you often have to get slower. More speed results from better accuracy and the best way to ensure your finger movements are accurate is to practice slowly.

4. Reduce Finger Movement

To play guitar faster you must reduce the amount of movement your fingers make. Use slow practice to study each chord change, scale or lick and try to figure out how to play the same thing while moving your fingers less.

5. Take Your Mind Off It

Your own concentration can be a barrier to faster playing. When you concentrate intensely, thinking about every movement you make your muscles move less fluidly and your overall playing will be slower.

Try to let your mind wander as you practice and give your autopilot a chance to take control. You can develop this ability by playing with distractions - turn on the TV, chat with someone, or go and practice out doors in a place where there's plenty to watch.

6. Film Your Fingers

An effective way to see how efficient your finger movements are is to film yourself. Fix a camera focused closely on your fingering or picking hand as you practice - for best results film from several angles. When you review your film you'll notice problems you don't see while you play.

7. Get The Right Tools

There's no doubt about it, the right tool makes any job easier. Make sure you have at least one of the following tools to help you practice your guitar speed: metronome, jam tracks, sampler/looper, slow-down (and speed up!) software, Guitar Pro (has loops and speed controls), guitar speed trainer software, guitar speed training program.

There you have seven different ways to improve your guitar speed. Pick one and add it to your guitar practice routine this week if you're serious about playing faster.

What about you, do you know a good speed trainer or an effective practice technique that improved your guitar speed? Why not share your experience by leaving a comment.

Gary

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

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Acoustic Guitar Funk: Billie Jean

Who says you can't play funk on an acoustic guitar? Not me. Here's more evidence that you can funk all you want on your trusty acoustic...



(View video)

Of course, it helps if you can sing this well too.

Gary

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

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Guitar Ear Training

Playing guitar without ear training is a bit like painting by numbers. You put colours in the spaces indicated to recreate a painting. But you're not really making music and you don't really learn why one colour works better than another.

Only when you can hear its language can you really claim to make music and this is a good reason to make ear training a part of your study.

Read more in my article Guitarists, Develop Your Ears over at Jemsite...

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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8 Reasons to Record Your Guitar Practice

Do you record yourself as you practice or play guitar? If not you could be missing a valuable opportunity to gain new insights into your problems and find ways to improve your playing. Review these eight reasons to record yourself as you practice guitar and see how useful they could be to you.

1. Listener's Perspective

It's hard to judge what your guitar playing sounds like while you are busy playing. You might think you are doing fine, but a recording is likely to show up all kinds of things you could improve. You might also be surprised that your playing sounds better than you thought which can be a nice boost for your confidence.

2. Check Accuracy

As you listen to a recording playing mistakes will stand out so you can see what to work on - false notes, inaccurate bends, hitting adjacent strings, buzzes, finger noise... You can spot all those little details you need to give your playing that extra polish.

3. Timing

Almost every guitar player you ask thinks they play in time, but it is almost impossible to have an objecive feel of how good your timing is while you play. Use a metronome as you practice and record yourself playing over it. What seemed fine as you were playing might reveal a whole different story when you listen to the recording.

4. Keep Track

Recordings of your past practice and playing help you keep track of your guitar learning. You can review them from time to time to remind yourself how much you've learned and how you've progressed. This can be a great motivation booster when you get those stuck in a rut not making any progress blues.

5. Reinforce Song Memory

Record what you play and listen to it regularly and you will reinforce your learning. Picture yourself playing in your mind as you listen to improve your memory of songs and passages you play.

6. Train Ears

As you listen back to the sound of the chord changes, scales, licks and notes you play your ears will learn to recognize them. This is different from listening to someone else's music on the radio because you know exactly what chord or note you played.

7. Improve Practice Effectiveness

Leave your recorder running all through your practice sessions and you might be surprised to discover how much time you waste. The recording will reveal just how much time you spend not playing, drifting off plan, or simply doodling.

8. How Well Do You Really Improvise?

One area where the listener's perspective you get from a recording is valuable is to evaluate your solos and improvisations. Listen to your recordings and ask yourself honestly how interesting your solo is. Is it engaging, interesting, not too long?

Here's a challenge if you are serious about improving your guitar playing. Grab yourself a recorder of some sorts and record and listen to your practice sessions for one whole week. Let us know with a comment what you learned from the experience.



Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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Music Theory Every Guitarist Should Know

Music theory can be intimidating for beginner guitarists, and even for some of us more experienced players. The good news is that a lot of music can be understood with only a few essential items of musical knowledge. Here's a list of seven essentials you should learn.

1. Chromatic Scale
The chromatic scale is the foundation of all the other music theory, so you really must know it. It's the alphabet that you use to spell all the rest.

2. Intervals and Frets
Intervals are the foundation behind all the scales, chords and melodies you will play on the guitar. Knowing the relations between frets, notes and intervals will help you to really get to know the guitar neck.

3. The Major Scale
Knowing the major scale formula is the key to unlocking many musical mysteries. The pattern of whole and half steps is not hard to remember, commit it to memory:

Whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - whole step - half step

4. Major and Minor Chords
All chords share the same basic note formula, the one, three and five notes. Major chords have a major third, minor chords have a flatted third - one half step, or one fret smaller than the major chord.

5. Major Key Chord Formula
The major key chord formula tells you the quality of each chord - major, minor or diminished - in a major key. Commit this formula to memory and along with the major scale you'll be able to find the chords for songs in any key.

I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii-dim

6. Minor Key Chord Formula
I haven't included the minor scales in this list because they are a little more complex than the major scale and I don't find them essential for all guitar players. But the minor key chord formula is useful for finding the chords of minor songs.

i - ii - bIII - iv(IV) - v(V) - bVI - vi - bVII - vii

7. Chord Progressions
A chord progression is simply a series of chords. Many songs use the same progressions, so if you memorize progressions learning to play more songs becomes easier.

The most commonly used chord progressions are based on the I-IV-V, ii-V-I, and I-vi-IV-V-I chords. When you've mastered these move on to study the cycle of fourths and cycle of fifths.

There you have my list of music theory you should know if you want to play guitar. You'll be able to take your playing a long way with a firm grasp of the listed concepts.

What about you, do you think there's an essential item of music theory I have forgotten in this list? Use the comments below to tell us about the music theory that's helped you gain a better understanding of how to play guitar.

Gary

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

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Why I Love Tortex Guitar Picks

Every guitar player has their favourite guitar picks. In this post I'll explain why my favourites are Dunlop Tortex guitar picks, those brightly coloured little picks with a tortoise logo.

Non-slip Grip

Sweaty hands are a common problem when playing the guitar and many plastic picks become as slippery as soap bars while playing.

No such problems with Tortex picks though. They have a very fine and soft grain which prevents them from slipping, no matter how hot things get. The plastic is also soft and very agreeable to touch. I know no other pick that matches the comfortable shape and size, non-slip grip and soft feel.

Colourful

Who says guitar picks have to be black, grey or dark brown? Tortex picks are brightly coloured, one colour for each pick thickness. The bright colours are not only for fun, they make the picks easy to find when you drop or misplace one and you can recognize a pick's thickness instantly - handy when you are rummaging for the right one.

Thicknesses

Tortex picks come in a large number of different thicknesses, you are sure to find the one that suits you.

I mostly use the yellow medium picks (0.73mm) and occasionally the slightly thinner orange picks (0.60mm). But I also like to use a slightly fatter pick sometimes when playing acoustically - the beautiful sky blue 1.0mm pick gives a slightly louder and fatter sound that I like.

Inky Fingers

Although I love my Tortex guitar picks there is one thing that could be improved. The black ink used fot the tortoise logo and the pick thickness comes off very easily when you first use them.

It's not a big deal, and the ink is soon all gone so the problem disappears, but it does kind of mess up the nice colours for a short while. Of course, this means the cute tortoise logo disappears too, but thanks to the bright colour you always know what size your pick is.

So now you know all you need to about Tortex guitar picks. If you have trouble with slippery picks then you should definitely try some of these on your next visit to the guitar shop.

Gary

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

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3 Guitar Music Notation Tools

Handwritten guitar music notation is not always as easy to read as it could be. And those sheets of paper you scribbled on during lessons with your guitar teacher are easily misplaced.

When you try to note the exercises and music you play so you can remember them in a few days time you'll find that a computer is a big help. Here are three inexpensive music notation tools that you could use to write and organize music as you learn to play guitar.

Power Tab

The starting point for many guitar players will probably be Power Tab, a free application that allows you to enter and print music in tab and standard music notation. Power Tab allows you to enter notes on a tab staff and specify their durations which are displayed in standard notation. You can quite easily create and print professional looking music for your guitar.

Power Tab can also play the music you entered on your computer while it highlights the notes as they are played. It's a bit like a karaoke for guitar and it's a useful learning tool to help you follow and play the tab in time.

You can also find quite a lot of music in Power Tab format on the Net. The format gives you much better information on rhythm and note durations than ASCII tab provides.

Guitar Pro

While you will probably find Power Tab sufficient for many purposes it does have a few limitations and quirks and being free, doesn't evolve much. If you want something a little easier to use and more powerful then it is well worth forking out US $60 or so for Guitar Pro (you can try a free trial version before deciding).

Guitar Pro is a very complete tab editor and playback tool that offers all the features of Power Tab plus a few more and is friendlier to use to boot, for example you can enter music with an on screen guitar fretboard or from your instrument via MIDI. Note that Guitar Pro can read and edit all your Power Tab files, but the reverse is not true.

Apart from ease of use the main advantage Guitar Pro offers is better sound quality and easier control of playback. It has a useful looper feature to repeat a selected passage at slowly increasing speed to help you learn it. Guitar Pro is also good at handling multiple tracks and instruments, useful if you want to create rhythm and lead parts or arrange your music with bass, drums or other instruments.

Finally, it's worth noting that you can find many guitar parts tabbed in Guitar Pro format on the Net.

Forte

Forte is a music notation tool that provides a neat and simple interface for editing standard music notation. It is not specifically designed for guitarists but the light version (US $60) handles guitar and bass tablature input.

There is a free version that you can try, unfortunately this version doesn't support guitar tab so you can't evaluate that before you buy a paid version. If you work with standard notation rather than tab though then Forte's free version could be just right for you.

Do you have any other favourite guitar music notation tools I didn't include in this list? Why not tell us about them in a comment?

Gary

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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Guitar: A Competition Sport?

It is often said of music that it is not a competition sport, but I recently discovered one guitar site that challenges that old saying in no uncertain terms. Guitar War might conjure up scary images of khaki clad troopers battling it out with Strats and Les Pauls. But the friendly and peaceful nature of these guitar troopers will soon dispell any fears.

Guitar War is perhaps a rather inappropriate name for this friendly community of guitar players. In fact, you might learn just as much about good manners as good guitar with these guys. So just what is a guitar war then?

Guitar War: What Is It?

Guitar War is an interactive web community where guitarists can share their playing and have it appraised honestly and openly by the site's community. Pairs of guitarists are pitched against each other to record their performance of a guitar piece. The community listens to their playing and leaves comments, suggestions, and an overall rating for the piece.

The idea behind the competitions is that they force you to take your playing out of the practice room and into an arena where you can get good feedback from real human beings. Through this process of performing and receiving feedback you get to learn and improve your guitar playing.

Air Your Guitar Chops

If you're looking for a way to give your guitar chops a public airing and get some good honest feedback and suggestions for improvement Guitar War could just be a place to take on someone more your own size. If you do be sure to share your experience by leaving a comment below.

Gary

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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Guitar Chord Lesson - G Major

This beginner guitar lesson shows you a G chord fingering commonly used in rock music. You'll learn how to add some interesting bass movement to the chord and use this technique to play the song Walk Away by Ben Harper.

G Major Chord

Let's start the lesson by taking a look at the chord fingering you're going to use. The standard open G major chord fingering you may have learned already is shown in the first chord diagram. In this lesson you'll be using the alternative fingering shown after it.

Notice the bottom two strings are fretted at the third fret. This adds an additional 5th note turning the chord into a kind of G5 chord. Strum both chords to get a feel for the difference in sound before moving on to the first exercise.



Exercise 1

In this first exercise we're going to start playing around with the bass notes to create some interesting movement. Use your thumb and two fingers of your right hand to pick the notes as shown in the tab below.

The little descending and ascending line uses the 6th, major 7th and root degrees of the G major scale. Practice playing the pattern as shown below and then experiment to make up some patterns of your own using these bass notes. Note that you can also use the other high strings if you wish.



Exercise 2

The second exercise takes your use of the G major scale on the bass notes a little further. As you play through the pattern below you move the bass note from the root of the chord up to the 6th degree and back down again.

As you can see the open G chord lends itself nicely to creating little runs or melodies using these notes. Experiment with some little runs and rhythm patterns of your own using two or three notes at a time.

If you know how to perform them you will find that hammer-ons or pull-offs work well with these kind of bass lines. We'll see an example in the next exercise inspired by the Ben Harper song Walk Away.



Walk Away

Walk Away is a beautiful ballad by Ben Harper from the his Welcome to the Cruel World album. The verse is based entirely on a moving bass line over a G chord more or less as in the exercise below. Play the bass notes with your thumb and pluck the two notes on the 2nd and 3rd strings simultaneously.

The song is quite simple to play with the main difficulty being the rhythmic placement. You'll also need to mute the bass notes just after playing them to get the staccato sound. The chorus uses exactly the same pattern over a C chord - simply move the bass notes down one string to the 5th string.



This lesson has shown you an open G chord fingering that is commonly used in rock music. You've also learned how to create some interesting bass movement by using the G major scale. Experiment with these notes to make up some bass licks of your own to include in your songs.

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Easy Beginner Arpeggio Picking Lesson

Last week's video lesson showed how to play a finger picking arpeggio pattern. This is a nice technique, but in some situations it is hard to play loud enough. One way to get more volume is shown by today's lesson - use a pick to play arpeggio patterns.

This lesson shows you a great sounding Asus2 chord with some cool bass movement added as a bonus. I'm sure you've heard this kind of thing in many rock songs and you might be surprised to discover how easy it is to learn.

Of course it takes a while to achieve speed with this technique. You have to be disciplined about putting the down and up strokes in the right places or else you will only get into a horrible mess. So be patient and pick slowly.

Remember the three key points from the finger picking lesson and apply them here too.

1. One chord. There's a little more finger movement in this lesson, I recommend you start with a simple A chord until you're comfortable with the picking pattern.

2. One pattern. Always learn one pattern at a time, don't try to mix things up until you're ready.

3. Go slow. As usual, start slowly and focus on accurately reproducing the picking pattern. If you start too fast you're heading for a train crash.

Right, now it's time to play along to the lesson (don't just watch it - you won't learn to play that way).



Sounds good doesn't it. Now you can have fun learning to pick this neat rock arpeggio.

Gary

Video lesson from Next Level Guitar.

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original guitar content for your web sites. Discover guitar writing services for guitar web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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Chord Progressions: Build Your Mind's Library

As you learn guitar you naturally memorize the chord progressions of songs you play. But did you know you can benefit from learning the chords of songs you don't play?

When you learn the chord progressions of songs you hear but don't play you develop your musical ear and teach yourself a lot about song structure. That will help you become a better guitarist.

Songs You Know

As you go about life you hear hundreds of songs. You can almost certainly hum along to many tens of these, maybe more, without much trouble. But do you know the chord progression you are humming? Probably not, except for the few songs you actually choose to learn and play.

But with the Internet you can easily look up the chords for songs you are familiar with and learn those too. You don't have to learn how to play all the songs, simply memorize the chord progressions of songs you frequently hear on the radio or in your music collection. This takes less effort than actually learning to play them all.

Memorize Chord Progressions

Go ahead, even if they're not your favourite songs and you have no intention of playing them. It takes only a few minutes to look up the chords, identify the progression and memorize it.

Do this regularly and you'll build yourself a library of chord progressions with example songs. You'll be able to hear what they all sound like simply by recalling a song in your mind.

Musical Knowledge

This knowledge will improve your ability to recognize songs by ear. It also gives you the knowledge of song structure you need to create your own songs and express yourself musically. So get started building your mind's chord progression library today.

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

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Photo by The Alieness GiselaGiardino.