First Guitar Lesson - Taking Care of Your Instrument

By: Sanjay Johari

Taking care of your instrument is not only the first guitar
lesson - it should become a regular habit for beginners and
experts alike. Apart from ensuring longer life and consistent
sound quality, by this practice you also grow a sense of respect
for your guitar, an affinity and a bond with the instrument. You
come to "know" your guitar better. On the other hand if you tend
to neglect your guitar eventually its quality of sound will
suffer. The sound quality is as important as the skill of the
player.

You may like to consider using a hard shell case for
transporting your guitar. The hard case holds the guitar
cushioned securely in place so that the instrument does not get
bumps and jerks in handling. This not only protects the body of
the guitar, it also keeps the guitar tuned for a longer time.

Many people use soft or cloth "gig bag" which can be zipped up.
Although such bags protect the instrument from dust, they do not
provide mechanical strength to protect the guitar from possible
physical damage. These bags do not even protect the tuning nuts
which turn during handling and the guitar gets out of tune. To
avoid such problems hard shell case of proper size should be
used. The hard cases are designed to take the impact while
holding the guitar safely, protecting body and neck of the
guitar and keeping it in tune.

Another important accessory is a guitar stand. When you are not
playing the guitar you should keep it on a guitar stand. It is
not a good practice to lean the guitar against the wall. This
can warp the neck of the guitar in due course. The warping will
increase the distance between the strings and the fingerboard.
This will in turn not only affect the quality of sound, you will
need to apply more force to play the instrument. Your level of
performance will be affected. To avoid such problems the guitar
should be placed on a stand or a level surface. It is good idea
to cover the guitar when not using it. You can keep the guitar
in its hard shell case when not playing it.

The strings exert considerable force on the guitar. There is
enough strength designed in the guitar to withstand this force
without deforming. However, if strings are tightened too much,
it will give additional strain on the guitar. To prevent
over-tightening and also for ease of tuning you can have a
tuning device for your guitar. With the help of this device you
will be able to tune the guitar quickly and accurately.

If you are very serious about protecting your guitar, you should
actually tune down your guitar (loosen the strings) when you are
not playing it. You can again tune-in when you decide to play
next time. I know it will be a botheration to tune the guitar so
many times, but it will provide greater protection.

There are some common sense practices. You need to keep your
guitar clean. While you clean your instrument, you can also
develop a habit of inspecting the body of your guitar and take
action quickly. For example, if any of the strings start rusting
they should be replaced.

The movement of the tuning nuts should be smooth. At the
earliest signs of any jerky movements, the nuts should be set
right by proper maintenance.

Care and maintenance of your instrument is an important guitar
lesson which should be religiously followed. The better you take
care of your guitar, the better output you can expect.

About the author:
Sanjay Johari regularly contributes articles to various ezines.
To see more information on music and guitar lesson please go to
this page :

http://www.sanjay-j.com/guitar-lesson

Learning The Guitar - Traditional Methods Vs Learning Online

By: Marc Lindsay

What I'd like to discuss today, is whether or not is it, a)
viable, and b) better, to learn how to play the guitar by
methods of learning online.

Obviously learning online has it's huge benefits (less cost,
learn when you want etc.), but the real question is, will it
give you as good, or better of a result then learning through
traditional methods?

Hopefully today I can answer that question.

Learning The Guitar The Traditional Way

So, you've made the decision to learn the guitar, whether that
be because you want to be in a band and rock in front of
thousands of fans, or whether it is just a hobby and you would
like to improve your skills... either way, you'll need to find
someone to teach you.

Traditionally, you would go to a music teacher who would impart
their knowledge onto you, and teach you all the guitar secrets
that they know, and bring you up to speed. Now, to me, there are
some blaring problems with doing this.

Problem #1 - High cost... if you have to pay someone to teach
you how to play the guitar, chances are it is going to cost you
an arm and a leg over the period of time that you are getting
taught... which could be anywhere from 3 months to years. And at
$50 a lesson, it isn't cheap.

Problem #2 - Limited knowledge... now, yes you might be learning
from a teacher, but chances are they also teach the piano, the
flute, the trumpet and so on... what does this mean? It means
they don't have specialized knowledge, which means they won't be
as good as someone who just plays the guitar 8 hours a day.

Problem #3 - Learning speed... you are limited by the number of
classes that you attend, but you are also limited to the program
that your teacher assigns to you. They will have a set program
for their students that they take them through, and usually not
deviating from this program. This means that your learning
progress could be seriously slowed.

Now, with those problems in mind, lets take a look at the other
road, which is to find a program yourself (typically online) and
learning from that.

Learning The Guitar Through An Online Learning Program

These programs are usually written by professionals. They could
be written by ex-lead guitarists of some seriously high class
bands, or teachers that have made a name for themselves in the
industry, and are now trying to release a program to reach a
wider audience via the internet.

Let's look at the problems of going this road.

Problem #1 - Requires self motivation... by effectively taking
on a 'home study course' in how to learn the guitar; it requires
that you are a self starter. Why? Because the person who is
going to push you to learn, is going to be yourself. You don't
have a teacher you can go to who is going to kick your butt if
you have been slacking off, you have to do it yourself. Not
everybody can do this, so if you're not the kind of person who
is a self starter, don't even bother with this kind of course.

Problem #2 - Picking the right course... there are many courses
out there to learn the guitar, so it can be hard trying to find
which ones are good, and which ones are a waste of time. The way
you get around this, is to do your own research, check out
review sites, find out about testimonials and customer reviews.
Find out what consumers think that have already bought the
program.

So there you have it.

It really comes down to this fact, if you're a self starter,
then you'll love getting an online learning program. The pace at
which you will learn will be drastically increased, since you'll
be able to go at your own pace (be that fast or slow).

If you're not really a self starter, but want to learn, then
chances are that you should go find a decent teacher that will
keep you in line.

All I will say is this, do your research on the teacher as
well... have they produced any 'stars'? Have they been a
successful guitarist themselves in their career? Or are they
just teaching as a 'job'?

Enjoy, and good luck with finding the right course or teacher.

About the author:
If you are looking to Learn Guitar or Play Guitar By Ear
then
http://www.helplearntheguitar.com will make learning the
guitar easy.

Guitar Finger Exercises-Most Players Need Them

By: Colin O'Brien

For starters I am not a writer. I am a guitar player and you
probably are too. So if you moonlight as an English professor
please don't contact me with corrections. That being said let's
talk about finger exercises. For this article when I refer to
finger exercises I am talking about the 2,3, or 4-finger
chromatic type exercise.

It seems like there are two schools of thought when it comes to
finger exercises. One is that they are totally necessary when
learning. In 10 years of teaching guitar I find this to be about
95% true. The students who work hard on this area of their
playing always do better than those who don't.

The other school of thought is that they are totally useless.
For some players who absolutely tear it up on guitar, this is
true. They became amazing players without doing any finger
exercises but for the most part, players need them. I have read
interviews with Yngwie Malmsteen where he mentioned that he
didn't practice this kind of stuff. (Like his playing or not the
guy can throw down with anybody.) There are always exceptions.

Steve Vai has reported to have practiced finger exercises as
much as 3 hours a day. They were that important to him. Robin
Trower is said to have practiced them "religiously" for a year.
I have read articles with B.B.King, Zakk Wylde, Tom Morello and
a boatload of other players who all worked on their technique
using exercises. I personally know jazz players, classical
players, country players and metal players all who completely
tear it up and still work on exercises everyday.

Think about this. How much have you improved as a player over
the last week, month or year? If it's been a lot, great! Keep
doing what you are doing. If you are not where you want to be as
a player, grab a metronome, finger exercise book and your guitar
and spend some time trying these out. You will see results. Go
slow and keep track of your metronome settings. Only increase
the metronome by one or two clicks each day. It may not sound
like a lot but after few months you will have sped up quite a
bit. Also by tracking your progress will keep yourself motivated
because you will be able see your results. This in turn will
make you want to work harder. One of the reasons some people
give up on guitar is because they can't see the results of their
practicing. So make sure to do this.

It's very important to remember that this is only one part of
playing guitar. There are so many other areas to address but if
you aren't happy with your fingers better start here.

Anyway, Thank you for listening.

About the author:
Colin O'Brien is a guitar player, teacher and member of the cko
Music family. He is the author of "Left Hand Red- Finger
Exercises and Practice Techniques", and "Jam Band
Jams" www.ckomusic.com