3.11.2009

Beginner Frustrations Learnig Guitar

From the "Ask the Teacher" section of The Rock House Method a member asks:

Q: I have some experience with the guitar and chords. However, I cannot completely go through all the major chords naturally progressing from one to another without a little bit of delay. In other words, I can't switch very fast. Also, sometimes I miss a string or don't get the finger position quite right and the string "twangs." Do you have any practice tips to help me through the beginning stages? I've tried to play for a number of years but give up because I get frustrated with my progress.

A: Patience, Patience, Patience........Guitar is a very hard instrument to master and I've seen many students with incredible potential quit before they gave it a fair chance.

Repetition is the key to getting your chord changes faster and sounding better. Try to get a firm grasp of the chords but if they aren't completely perfect don't beat your self up, your going to be using these chords to play MANY songs and you will improve with time. After you master a few chords try to use them in a chord progression, this will make the process a lot more fun!!

Diversify your practice time...do 15 minutes of chords, 15 minutes of exercises, then play so fun things like songs and riffs. Mix up the things you do each day one day scales the next lead techniques and so on.

With a little motivation and a lot of practice you'll be rippin up those strings!!!!

Hope this helps

Yours in Music
John McCarthy
Rock House

More real questions with real answers about learning to play guitar, bass, keyboards and drums can be found at www.rockhousemethod.com

5 comments:

Unknown said...

THIS IS ME TO A TEE...

Thanks for posting this. I know that the guitar hard to learn and only time will allow me to master it. However, like most things in life, I need to learn...Patience, Patience, Patience........

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the reminder. It easy to forgot that guitare is difficult to master. Patience!!!

Sarge said...

Commitment is what it's about, and you are right, it's easy to forget.

Slick said...

Another thing to note here is that try to have a plan in your practice time. For example, you can't change your chords as fast as you would like. So, your goal during your practice time is to keep focusing on changing chords. At the end of the day, if you still can't get it right, do a self reflection on what you did. Maybe you did not cut your fingernails properly and thus you cannot change chords as smoothly as you'd like or something.

Sarge said...

Another good point Slick