Not Playing Guitar Wishes You Merry Christmas

Dear readers, Not Playing Guitar will be taking a well earned Christmas break until the new year. In the meantime I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and guitar-filled Christmas and a peaceful new year in 2010.

Thanks to you all for reading and supporting Not Playing Guitar throughout 2009. I look forward to more guitar fun with you in 2010.


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.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Announcing Blues Guitar Fun

Today's post announces the creation of my new site Blues Guitar Fun. This site aims to help us time pressed guitar hobbyists learn to play blues guitar.

Blues Guitar Fun shares experiences, tips, lessons, news and reviews to help make learning blues guitar easier and more fun. In the near future there will also be some special resources to help blues guitar learners play better blues guitar.

Why a blues guitar site?
Why create a dedicated blues guitar site? Not Playing Guitar has grown and it it becomes harder to make the most useful information easy for you to find. By moving out one major topic to its own dedicated site I hope to make it easier for readers to get the information most relevant to them.

Blues guitar lessons are some of the most popular posts on this site and playing blues guitar also happens to be my own favourite style. So it seems natural to choose this topic for a new dedicated site.

Not Playing Guitar will continue to include posts on blues guitar, but its main focus will be tips to get the most out of your practice time and general lessons for beginner guitarists.

So if you're really interested in learning blues guitar then Blues Guitar Fun is the place for you to hang out. The new site will be getting more content as well as a new design to make it more welcoming in the new year.

I'll provide updates here when significant new things are up on Blues Guitar Fun, so don't forget to sign up for the free RSS feed if you don't want to miss them.

Guitarists Christmas Stocking

Are you still desperately searching for a Christmas gift for a guitar player? Here's a neat idea for christmas that should please guitar players fed up of socks under the tree. UK guitar company JHS has come up with the Guitarist's Christmas Stocking.

The stocking contains a selection of accessories that are indespensable to any guitar player. Strings, a capo, a tuner, a slide, a guitar strap and a guitar lead. All the accessories are from well-known names such as Dunlop, Kyser, Qwik Tune and Guitar Tech.

If you're looking for a gift to please a guitarist this Christmas the Guitarist's Christmas Stocking could be just the treat you need. The stocking sells for GB £49.99, visit www.jhs.co.uk or your local guitar shop for more information.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Guitarists, Can You Reduce 10% In 2010?

"Got three R's, we're gonna talk about today" - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Jack Johnson

You can't have failed to notice the climate change conference taking part in Copenhagen these past two weeks. The objecive of the conference is to agree reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees celcius. To achieve this experts are calling for a 40% reduction of carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2020.

Now, you might be sceptic on climate change and man's part in it. The question is a complex one and I'm sure we're far from understanding all the answers, but one thing I do feel is that anything we do to reduce pollution of our beautiful world is a good thing.

What does all this have to do with playing guitar? Well, that 40% reduction is not going to happen all by itself, we can all make a contribution no matter how small. So I've tried to think up some ways I could reduce my guitar related emissions in 2010. Here is what I came up with...

Reduce

1. Unplug

One obvious energy saving comes from choosing to practice and play unplugged more. If you must practice electric guitar why not use a low power or headphone amp, it will consume less electricity than a full tube amp.

2. Travel

If you travel to rehearsals, music lessons or concerts then maybe you can reduce the impact of your journeys by choosing to take public transport or walk instead. Not possible? Maybe it's time to look for a more convenient rehearsal space.

3. Less Gear, Better Gear

Making and transporting new gear creates emissions and adds to pressure on natural resources such as woods, metal and materials used in electronic components. Why not choose to spend a little more to get better gear, use less of it and keep it for longer?

4. Strings

Extend string life with a good string cleaner. If every guitarist kept each set of strings a few days or weeks longer it would add up to a large reduction in the use of raw materials, manufacturing, packaging and transport.

Reuse

1. Second Hand

When you do buy equipment it can pay to look around for used items. Not only does this save energy, emissions and raw materials it will also cost you less too.

2. Share

Most players don't use all their guitar equipment all of the time, so why not share it. Club together with musicians in your area to purchase infrequently needed items together and share them.

3. Recharge

Guitar accessories from metronomes to tuners and from pre-amps to iPods require batteries. Rechargeable batteries are less costly and avoid lots of toxic battery waste.

Recycle

1. Dispose

When you have stuff to throw away - worn strings, picks, packaging, old equipment - be sure to dispose of it properly to avoid toxic waste leaking into the nature. Learn about recycling schemes and facilities in your local community and use them.

2. Propose

Got old equipment lying around unused? Put it to good use and give others a chance to reuse by offering it for sale or give it away. There are many sites where you can sell or give away your old equipment.

All these ideas can not only help to reduce your emission of climate change gases, but also reduce the demand on under pressure and often endangered natural resources. Better still they could also help you to save some money and maybe even create a friendly community spirit among your local musicians.

And you, what do you plan to do to reduce your guitar carbon-dioxide emissions in 2010? I'd love to hear new ideas so please leave a comment by clicking the link below.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Photo by Señor Codo.

Guitar Buying: Strat or Les Paul?

Spend any time on guitar forums and you'll discover that choosing the right guitar to play is high up on the list of many guitarists preoccupations. But here's a video that demonstrates that maybe this is not such an important question.

And I couldn't put it any better than one commenter on this video comparing a Stratocaster and a Les Paul already did,

"awesome playing, really nice blues feel, congrats! you actually made me forget to compare the guitars, I was just enjoying the music"



Stratocaster or Les Paul? So many decisions and so little time... But maybe the real question is simply "How do I play guitar better?"...



If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Do You Need a New Guitar Practice Environment?

Do you always practice guitar in the same setting? A comfortable environment where you can leave out your guitar and practice materials is often convenient. It helps you start practice easily and quickly, and might encourage you to practice more often.

But if you always practice in the same place it could become a pitfall, a pitfall that leads problems when you play in unfamiliar places.

Is This You?
Have you already had the experience of being unable to perform a piece that you seemed to master during practice? A song you played quite easily in your practice room becomes filled with mistakes when you play it somewhere else.

Why is this? Can you suddenly become worse at playing the guitar, forget what you seemed to know? Well, no, you don't forget but you can find that what you know becomes inaccessible to you because of the way your memory works.

Associative Memory

Our memories love to organize knowledge and create links between things. Your guitar knowledge is no exception. Your memory constantly attaches new knowledge to familiar things uses these same things as cues to retrieve the knowledge when you need it.

If you always practice in the same setting, then that setting will become one of the vital cues your mind associates with your musical knowledge and skills. When you try to play elsewhere these cues and associations are not there and your mind puts your musical knowledge somewhere to the back of your mind.

How to Solve the Problem

Fortunately, this pitfall is easy to fix. You simply need to shake up your practice habits from time to time to reduce your mind's dependence on your practice setting. To ensure you are comfortable and play easily in the places you want to perform, it's a good idea to spend some time practicing in a similar environment.

Introduce some changes by getting out and about to play elsewhere. Move to other rooms in your house to play, stand up instead of sitting down - or vice-versa, go to the park or some other place outdoors and play.

Over to You

Want to improve your ability to play anywhere without mysteriously forgetting and messing up the music? Make a commitment to shake up your guitar practice environment. Get out and practice in three different places this week.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Photo by Martin Kingsley.

3 Tips to Memorize Beginner Guitar Chords

Do you have trouble playing beginner guitar chords? Maybe you blame your fingers for their lack of agility or speed, but the problem may well be elsewhere. Problems playing chords on the guitar are often caused because your mind is unsure exactly where your fingers are going.

A solution for this problem is to thoroughly memorize the finger positions for the beginner guitar chords you play. Aim to have a crystal clear picture of exactly where your fingers go that you can recall instantly. Here are three ways you can improve your mind's picture and recall of the chord fingerings.

Chord Flash Cards

When I learned to read and spell as a kid we used flash cards. These little cards had the words we learned printed on them and we'd go through the cards many times to learn the spellings.

You can use the same idea for beginner guitar chords. Create some chord diagrams showing each chord's finger positions on small pieces of thin card. Or you might like to use pictures of the chord fingering.

Carry the cards around in your pocket or wallet and use them regularly to review and memorize the chord fingering.

Visualize Chords

With your chord diagrams or from memory try to visualize yourself playing the chord. Close your eyes and try to see your hand and fingers on your guitar neck. At first you might find yourself distracted by other images, it will take a little practice to be able to hold the picture in your mind.

Work with a still image of the chord to start with. As this gets easier try to see your fingers moving in to the chord shape, or changing from one shape to another.

Cardboard Guitar Neck

You might find visualization easier with a simple cardboard guitar neck. All you need is a small rectangle to represent a part of a guitar neck, draw six strings and some frets on it. You only need four frets to practice open chord positions, no need to carry a full size guitar neck.

Now you can carry your mini neck around and use it to practice chord shapes during the day. This simple tool lets you really feel the movement and placement of your fingers.

All three of these techniques will help you improve your memory and recall of beginner guitar chord fingerings. Pick the one that's most convenient for you, or use all three. The mix of learning styles will make memorization easier, faster and better.

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.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Christmas Guitar Songs

Looking for Christmas songs to play on your guitar? You'll find good quality finger style lessons of 13 Christmas favourites on the Guitar for Beginners and Beyond site. Each song comes with video, tab, playing instructions, mp3 version and midi files.

The lessons include:

• Silent Night
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Jingle Bells
• It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• Hark The Herald
  

You can download lessons as a pack or individually from the Guitar for Beginners and Beyond site.

If you enjoyed this post sign-up for more free guitar tips from Not Playing Guitar delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

Photo by paprutzi.