4 Best Tips to Improve Your Guitar Playing

When you first pick up the Guitar it feels alien because its something your not used to, the way the Guitar feels hanging over your shoulder, the way you curl your hand around the neck. It sometimes puts a strain on your fretting hand but that's natural, the only thing I will say is if it does start to hurt then STOP! because if you don't rest it can cause permanent damage to your hand and stop you from playing altogether.

Don't let this put you off, as long as you do some hand stretches and warm ups before you play and take it slowly then you shouldn't have a problem. One of the main injuries Guitarists suffer from is something called RSI (Repetitive strain injury) because your fingers are, as the name suggests, repeating their movements over and over and if you try to play through the pain can cause yourself more damage.

After a while once you get into a routine of practicing you will start to condition your hands and fingers and it becomes second nature. You will find that youcan play for longer without any pain. This is because you have built up your stamina and the muscles in your hand over time with regular exercise and practice routines.

Spend a few minutes a day lightly stretching your hands and fingers before you pick up the guitar, and also your arms, don't forget your arms are going to be under as much strain as your hands. Stretching is good practice because it will help relax you when you play and keep your blood flowing, you don't want to tense up this will not help your playing.

Most Beginners when starting to play do tense up in the hands and arms, it's natural because the whole thing is alien to the body. Once you feel yourself tensing up tell yourself to relax, Loosen your grip on the plectrum, or put your arms out to the side and give them a good shake to release some of that tension. It really does help, you'll be surprised.

Once you start to relax while your playing you'll find that you can fly across the guitar neck. You'll be able to change chord shapes with ease and play up and down those scales without a problem. But in the mean time don't try to rush your learning experience take your time to learn the different chord shapes, visualize what they look like in your head then let your fingers do the moving.

We'll get into learning chord shapes at a later date but for now just remember to Stretch, warm up, Take your time and Relax.

So to summarize follow these 4 Tips and you will see an Improvement to your Guitar playing

1. Relax when you play Do not tense up.
2. Stretch your fingers and arms lightly before picking up the Guitar
3. Have a warm up routine, either from your favourite guitar mag or blog or even create your own, this will help loosen up your fingers.
4. Take things slowly. This is key to improving your playing and nailing the tricky parts of the guitar you have trouble with.

I hope you found this Article helpful, I will be recording some videos soon to help with your practice and warm up exercises so be sure to visit back regularly.

Happy playing and Enjoy!

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Learn to Play Electric Guitar and Wow the Crowds

I can still remember a time not so long ago when I was honestly starting to be convinced that the electric guitar was at the end of its days. Do you still remember when pop music used to rule the airwaves? Instead of wanting to learn to play electric guitar, it seemed to me that becoming the next Westlife spin-off was the coolest thing ever, at least according to the rest of the pop world.

Well, thank all that is good and holy, the days of the electric guitar has risen again. A few bands played a key part in reviving rock as we know and love it today, and that means that more aspiring guitarists than ever before are interested to learn to play electric guitar. A couple awesome reasons why you should definitely give this instrument a shot is:1) It's flexible! One of the most noticeable features of the electric guitar is its sheer versatility. A lot of aspiring musicians who just started to learn to play electric guitar starts out with good old rock music, but there are endless genres to go into. Some of the world's best electric guitar players are found in jazz and blues, and there is most definitely also place for electric guitars in pop, country, metal and every other category you can come up with.

2) You can get a great range of sound! You get a few incredible guitar players who can get almost any sound out of their guitars that they want to. You can buy yourself effects pedals or you can calibrate your own setup to produce some particular sounds. The best guitar players out there have used both these systems to great effect.

3) You'll look cool! Even though acoustic and classical guitars are excellent, there's just something about perfectly playing on an electric that just shouts cool. It's no surprise that so many guys want to learn to play the electric guitar, look at how effortlessly the rock stars get the girls!

How can you learn to play?

There are numerous of ways that you can learn to play electric guitar. These include:

1) Take classes: Having an mentor giving lessons in person is great and you will surely see some advancement towards your ultimate goal.

2) Teach yourself: There are some that have the self-discipline to sit down and learn to play electric guitar all by themselves. Just remember that if you want to play with other people like in a band it is useful if everybody has some theory framework.

3) Take internet lessons: With the digital years that we're living in it means that many things have been brought into your home, including learning to play guitar. There are websites offering lessons online and for download to your computer.

Before you play your first notes, you definitely need to make sure you have all the essential equipment. Get yourself a guitar and amplifier that is not too expensive so that you wouldn't have spent too much if you decide to stop playing for a while.

Remember, the best way to learn to play electric guitar is to ask any and all questions that you cannot get answered. You will bump into a lot of guitarists in your adventure and when something sounds impressive, ask them to show you how they did it. Never stop learning and practicing, and in no time you will be wowing the crowds like a rock star!

Jonas Marshall has been a guitar player for over 10 years with a slew of happy students behind him. For the 6 secrets of the biggest rock stars, click here to learn to play electric guitar.

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Easy Electric Guitar Songs For Beginner Guitarists

Playing popular songs on your electric guitar is a great feeling, and very possible, even if you are a beginner guitarist. Your guitar skills are in direct relation to the amount of time you practice, and learning songs is a very effective and motivating way of getting better and advancing as a guitar player. Here are a couple of easy electric guitar songs for beginner to practice:

Wipeout - The Surfaris

A really fun and fast paced song from the '60s, this one is a must learn for all beginners. By practicing this song, you'll not only be making great music, but also improving your single string plucking technique, which is a vital element of playing the guitar. To make it really authentic, get together with a friend who plays the drums, or just download the songs drums backing track.

Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynnyrd

A very popular song, covered by a barrage of artists ever since its 1974 debut. And the best part is that it's a pretty easy song to play on your electric guitar. By learning this song, you'll be practicing mainly lead guitar techniques, including: * hammer-on
* pull-off
* chords
* string bending

Holiday - Green Day

Green Day songs are great for beginners, since they are pretty simple. As many songs by the band, Holiday uses lots of power chords, and has several great riffs that sound really good under distortion. You'll be refining the following techniques by learning to play Holiday:

* power chords
* single string plucking
* plectrum switch technique



Godfather Theme - Slash

The theme song to the Godfather (originally titled Speak Softly Love), as covered by Slash from the Guns N' Roses,is a great song if you want to practice your lead guitar skills even more. Slash uses a large variety of techniques that sound great on the electric guitar. To get an authentic sound, remember to add a bit of delay (echo) effect to your amplifier, as well as some distortion. By practicing this song, you'll be refining your lead guitar and solo techniques, namely:

* hammer-on
* pull-off
* vibratos
* string bending
* slides

Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynnyrd

Free Bird is another easy electric guitar song. The great thing about it is that it not only uses lead guitar techniques, but chords, and arpeggios as well. As you know, an arpeggios is a broken chord, where you play the individual notes of the chord in a given pattern, instead of strumming all strings at once. Learning this song on your electric guitar will be loads of fun, and give you a chance to practice:

* chords
* chord arpeggios
* single string plucking
* vibratos
* slides

Learning the electric guitar by learning popular songs is an effective way to advance your guitar skills. Why? Because practicing songs is fun and motivating, contrasting to learning by practicing individual guitar techniques in their purity. Through learning to play songs, you'll be practicing every guitar technique that got the pros famous, so what are you waiting for? Grab your guitar and find a song to practice.

GUITAR TIP: Leave your guitar out in the open on a stand, instead of storing it in a closet or under the bed. This will make you want to pick it up and practice more often.

You can find video tutorials covering the above songs, and many other electric guitar song lessons at TheGuitarLesson.com, a website providing video guitar lessons to beginner guitarists.

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Guitarists...are you a victim and a loser?

I was thinking today about THE most dangerous enemy of musical progress…the
victim mentality. What do I mean by this?

Often we can let our personal circumstances dictate our progress. For example, someone may let their guitar practice slide because they were really busy at work. This person may start making excuses such as "I didn't have time". This is victim mentality. It is believing that your musical progress is only possible when external circumstances allow it.

What they are really saying to themselves is that their musical dreams and goals are
not as important as paying a few lousy bills.They are letting their boss's goals get in the way of their own.

Now…I can't point fingers at anyone. I've been guilty of having a victim mentality
plenty of times! Especially when it comes to things like going to the gym :)But I don't have a victim mentality when it comes to guitar practice. There is virtually nothing that I will allow to get in the way of my musical progress.

So…how can you stop yourself from becoming a victim and a loser…

1.Stop making excuses. I can guarantee that for every excuse you can make there is someone out there who has overcome that obstacle. Don't allow yourself to make
excuses. They are the death of your musical dreams.

2. Watch your language. For example, rather than saying "I couldn't find the time" say "I am acting like a complete and absolute loser and if I continue acting like this I will NEVER achieve my musical goals". Because that statement is pretty painful to say, you'll soon stop making excuses!

3. Think of solutions. For excuses that you normally make, think of ways of overcoming those obstacles. For example, if you are constantly using your work as a reason why you can't practice, ask yourself questions like…

"How can I get paid more but work less hours?".
"How can I get paid while I sleep?".
"How can I stay home all day and practice?".

If you ask enough questions like this on a daily basis, you'll find a solution
eventually.

4. Think of your "Why". These are the reasons why you want to achieve your musical goals. If your why is strong enough, You will NEVER want to stop practicing for any reason.

5. Think of your role models. Use your role models to motivate and inspire you to
keep on practicing.Every time you start to make an excuse, ask yourself "Would__________make this excuse?" For example, one of my favourite guitarists is Steve Vai. I could NEVER imagine making him excuses for not practicing!

To finish off here's a quote that you may want to memorize...

"You can either become a great guitarist, or you can make excuses, but you can't do both".

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