3 Kids and Us

How to Learn to Play Guitar

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I have wanted dot play guitar since I was little and through either lack of motivation, fear or lack of time, I had never got around to it. One of my best friends Elvis Dzebic had played guitar for my years and a couple of years ago I asked him how he thought I should start learning, at this stage I had not even bought my first guitar.

I was well aware that I was never going to become the next Page, Clapton or Hendrix and it turns out that I was right, I have however, improved greatly in those couple of years and here is how I got started.

Acoustic First

One of the best pieces of advice that my friend gave me was that I should start out with an acoustic guitar instead of an electric. I was unsure at first, I had dreams of stomping on the wah-wah pedal as I crunched though some AC/DC but that dream had to wait. I took my friend’s advice and you should too. The reason for this is that playing an acoustic is much tougher on your fingers and it helps you to better learn the craft of strumming and fingerpicking, you can disguise bad playing on an electric, you can not on an acoustic. Once you have played the acoustic well, you will find that playing the electric is incredible easy.

Daily Practice

Although it can be frustrating at first, you need to ensure that you are practicing for at least one hour every day. You will find that with daily practice, your finger flexibility gets better and that you will improve a great deal in a short space of time which is great to keep you motivated.

Learn to Read Tablature

Unless you can read music then you should try to learn how to read guitar tablature so that you can learn your favorite songs. Tablature is really easy to read, far easier than learning to read music, as each finger on your fret hand is given a number, the tablature has six lone resembling the strings and it shows you which number, or finger, to place on each string. If you want to learn your favorite riffs or songs then the best way to do so is to learn tablature because there is thousands of guitar tabs online which can help you learn.

Go Blues

Blues is where the guitar has its roots and if you want to become a better player then you should invest some time learning some of the blues scales. These scales are often the origins of many songs and if you can nail down the scales then whenever you have a variation on them in songs, you will be able to perfectly adapt. Blues scales also work really well when it comes to keeping your fingers nimble and flexible and they are also a great deal of fun to play.

How to Improve Your Guitar Playing Skills

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Guitars, along with violins and recorders are one of the most common musical instruments which are left in closets for years as the result of a failed hobby. Equally however the guitar is one of the most popular instruments that people would like to learn and if you fall into this category then it is time to get that axe out of the closet and start playing. I was chatting to guitar teacher and touring musician Tom Hess recently who gave me some tips on how to improve my guitar playing ability and now I play just like Hendrix, ok, not strictly true, but I have improved a lot and here is how you can too.

Practice, Practice, Practice

I watched an interview with Slash who says that he has a fear that if he doesn’t practice the guitar each day, he will lose the ability to play. That is quite a statement coming from someone who you would never think would need to practice daily and if he needs to practice each day, then you certainly need to as well. Set an hour or two aside each day to hone your skills, you cannot expect to not play for weeks on end and then pick it up and play a tune. You simply must put the practice hours in.

Use Tablature

There are so many free tabs online which you can find to play your favorite song, rhythm or blues lick and you should be utilizing these websites if you want to enhance your playing ability. Most of us cannot read music and learning to do so can be tough, tablature on the other hand is very simple to learn and understand and you could be playing your favorite song in no time.

YouTube

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using lessons and tutorials online in order to help improve your guitar playing ability. YouTube in particular is one such channel where you can see step by step guides for different songs, playing styles and tips and tricks on how to be a better guitarist. There is no honor in being ‘self-taught’ is it to be respected for sure but the goal here is to be a good guitar player and as such, you should use all of the help that is available to you.

Play Gigs

It is all well and good sitting in your room plucking away but if you really want to test yourself and your guitar playing abilities then you need to play in front of people. It doesn’t matter if this is friends and family or a bar full of people, playing in front of a crowd induces a little bit of fear and you can use this to improve how you play. You may find that you learn more about how good a guitarist you really are when you are playing in front of a live audience.

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!