Barre Chords Part II http://guitar-lessons-blog.com/17/barre-chords-... Part II of Steve Krenzs advice on barre chords (Part I)
Heres the deal. Barre chords take some time to bloom. At first you can try your hardest and you just dont have the muscles in place to get them to sound. Its a physical thing. It takes time to develop the muscles needed.
After a while of consistent work the muscles develop and the chord starts to open up and sound correctly.
Here is a quick exercise to help you develop those index finger muscles that you need for barre chords. (Most of you are right handed so I will describe it from that perspective.)
1) Hold your left arm out straight in front of you with an open left hand in front of you (like you were in the street telling someone to stop. You should be looking at the back of your left hand stretched out in front of you about at eye-level.
2) Now, close your left hand so that only your index finger is still up. (Like you were at a ball game, face painted, saying to the camera Were number 1 !)
3) Now, take your right hand and with your right hand index finger making contact with your left index finger on the end (the opposite side of the nail) try to push your left hand index finger back toward you. But resist this pressure with your left hand index finger. Try to hold your left hand index finger straight even though there is this added pressure against it from the right hand.
The muscles that it takes to hold your left hand index finger straight even with added pressure pressing it to move are the correct muscles for barre chords. Do this exercise for a few days or a week and you will notice that the strength needed for barre chords to sound clear is developing. Dont put too much pressure against your index finger. Remember the goal is to strengthen your index finger (for the barre) not break your finger.
The strength needed for barre chords comes from the index finger, not from the squeezing muscles in your hand. When playing barre chords, resist the urge to raise your wrist up and start squeezing the neck harder. The answer is not in those muscles. Lower your wrist. Even bring it forward slightly so that you are coming back onto the neck with your first finger. Then you are using the right muscles.
Work at it daily for several weeks and you will notice your barre chords starting to get clearer. Most people just give up on barre chords too soon. Unlike other aspects of playing, barre chords take time.
I hope this helps. Keep working at them and dont get discouraged.
Steve Krenz
Professional Guitarist and Educator
Author Learn and Master Guitar
Elite Tone Fuzz Monster ( 4 fuzz faces in a 1 box) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYFWcZ2nc4... The Fuzz Monster is truly unique fuzz box. It encompasses ALL historic Fuzz Face's (stock settings + modern modifications). 4 knob germanium (like discontinued fulltone '69 )/hybrid switch/ 70's silicon transistor/ Jimi Hendrix mod switch. The silicon and germanium stages effects can be doubled on top of one another.
Elite Tone Fuzz Monster ( 4 fuzz faces in a 1 box) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYFWcZ2nc4... The Fuzz Monster is truly unique fuzz box. It encompasses ALL historic Fuzz Face's (stock settings + modern modifications). 4 knob germanium (like discontinued fulltone '69 )/hybrid switch/ 70's silicon transistor/ Jimi Hendrix mod switch. The silicon and germanium stages effects can be doubled on top of one another.
Learning Guitar Takes Perseverance http://guitar-lessons-blog.com/7/perseverance... This is one thing that all real guitar players have that guys who just wish they could play do not have. Its not a special cable or strings or a particular amp or style of guitar and yet it will make or break your chances of success.
It isPERSEVERANCE.
Dogged, unyielding perseverance. Its the voice inside of you that says, I will conquer this thing. It may not be right now as I am practicing it or tomorrow or the next day but rest assured I will wrestle with it until I master this.
It doesnt matter whether it is music reading or barre chords or soloing or playing in front of people or whatever. Winston Churchill still speaks to us even to this day in our guitar-learning world when he says Never Give Up. Never Give In. Never. NEVER. NEVER.
Weak players give up. Wannabes give up. Dreamers give up.
Music Reading vs. Tab http://guitar-lessons-blog.com/28/music-reading... Heres a common question that I receive a lot.
Why do you teach music reading? Cant Tab give you all of the information you need anyway? Besides, my friend told me that this famous guitarist ______ (you can fill in the name of any famous guitarist here) doesnt read music.
Let me first say this TAB vs. Music Reading debate is about as fundamental as it gets in guitar discussions. Often times the debate gets polarized - us vs. them, TAB readers vs. Music Readers - which I have always found a bit perplexing. It would be the equivalent of someone shouting across the shop floor saying "I am a hammer man and all of you wrench guys are dumb". They are both just tools - each with unique advantages and limitations.
I have nothing wrong with TAB and learning by TAB. As long as you realize what TAB can and cant do for you. TAB is a physical representation of how to make music. TAB says "Put your finger here on this fret and the right note and sound will be made". The advantages are that you can make music quickly without going through the laborious task of understanding why these notes sound good together. If all that you are looking to accomplish is to learn how to play the intro or riff to your favorite song then TAB generally works fine.
Here are some of the limitations of TAB. It generally doesnt indicate rhythm. Some TAB have some cues for rhythmic indications but much of it gives no indication to which notes are long and which are short. Another drawback is that TAB on the internet is notoriously inaccurate in all but rare cases. So, while it may have most of the notes to the riff you are looking to learn it leaves out some pretty wide gaps in the full knowledge of what was actually played. And while TAB leaves no indication for a host of other musical nuances like dynamics (loud or soft) or musical form, its biggest drawback is that it doesnt tell you the "why" of music. Why these notes sound good together? Why does this pattern work over this chord and something else doesnt? If I see this chord in the future and want to solo over the top of it, what should I play? TAB is just not able to answer these types of questions. If these more complex musical questions are of no concern to you and your goal in playing and learning guitar is just to play a few intros and riffs then TAB will do fine for you.
When I am wanting to learn a specific solo or to understand how somebody fingered a particular passage, then the notes on the music reading page doesnt give me this information, but TAB can tell me (if its accurate) where the guitarist played and how they played this or that. So TAB has its place in your guitar learning.
But music reading has some advantages that TAB cant give you on your way to becoming a great guitarist. Music reading can tell you information about HOW the notes fit together and WHY they work together. How they are functioning and how I can use them in the future if I have a similar playing situation. While TAB can tell me to play this series of notes, music reading can tell me that this is a pentatonic scale with an added blues note. I can then use that knowledge to recreate that scale and sound in a different key or when I want to get that sound in the future. Music reading is more complex and it takes generally a bit longer to learn. You will spend some time playing simple "Yankee Doodle" type songs and your mind will start saying to you "What are you doing wasting your time doing this? What you really want to do is learn how to play this? This is a huge waste of your time and, plus, it takes an incredible amount of effort for you to just end up playing some dumb little song".
This hurdle of music reading is exactly the point where many learners just stop and quit. Its too hard, its irrelevant, its frustrating and for a host of other reasons many just give up, content to download some TAB off of the internet and to mess around trying to play their favorite guitar lick. Often times they will find themselves a few years later, still playing the same downloaded TAB sheets and wondering why real understanding of the instrument and significant progress seems to elude them.
Many were trying to use TAB for what it wasnt designed for - that being to help you understand what music was about - the "why" of music.
If you are already familiar with TAB, sometimes taking the steps to read the notes can get quite frustrating. The reason that I teach music reading is because I feel that learning to read music is the key that will open up a world of guitar concepts to you.
Its within the realm of music reading that we can begin to understand what notes make up scales and chords and how to improvise from a position of knowledge and educated guesses as opposed to just trial and error. TAB is a wonderful tool to help guitarists learn to play music easily by just telling them what fret to hit. But it is very limiting when you start asking questions about why these notes function the way that they do.
Part II of Steve Krenzs advice on music reading vs. tabs to come!
Learning the Guitar Barre Chords [part 1 of 2] http://guitar-lessons-blog.com/9/barre-chords... Barre chords the archenemy of guitarists everywhere. Just the mere mention of the words is enough to make the average guitar learners blood run cold. But barre chords are not something that some people can do and others cant. After years of teaching and thousands of guitar lessons, I can confidently say that learning them is well within reach of almost every guitar player.
It all boils down to thisBarre chords take some time to develop the strength necessary in the correct muscles. The strength almost always comes in time but in most people it takes time - usually about a month or so.
The process goes like this for most people learning guitar. You try your first barre chord and get the customary two or three strings sounding and the rest muted and ugly sounding. So you squeeze harder and try again - maybe getting a little better, maybe not. After about five minutes of this your arm and hand ache and are begging for mercy. Its usually about here that the thought enters your mind that there are two types of people in the world - those that can do barre chords and those that cant and you surmise that you are just now finding out that you are in the latter.
You give up and try again tomorrow - which sounds just about like what it did yesterday which only confirms your hypothesis that you wont ever be able to do barre chords. Some people give up on barre chords at this point and decidedly put themselves into the Non-Barre Chords camp. They buy the T-shirt, officially check themselves in, and start familiarizing themselves with capos and ways to get around playing a Bb7 chord and other ways to facilitate their newly discovered handicap.
Other people just keep plugging away at learning barre chords, struggling with them as they come across them. Initially, they sound as bad as they always did but after a week or so they may get 4 strings to sound on a six string barre chord and they may start hitting the right positions imperceptibly quicker.
Another week goes by, and they go for that elusive F chord and 5 strings sound clear. They think to themselves Wow, what a fluke, thatll never happen again.
Another week or two goes by and they come across a Bbm chord and grab it with all six strings ringing out clearly.
Part II by Steve Krenz to follow next week!
Most Guitar Players Are Totally Out Of Balance http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LisPark/blog/2009/... Most students of the guitar are totally out of balance with the skills they have. Those of you who have read my other articles know that I am not a believer in studying all music related things, nor am I a believer in studying a billion different guitar styles and techniques. As a musician and composer, I am committed to the process of mastering only the skills I need to reach my goals. As a guitar teacher, I am committed to helping my students master whatever things are needed to reach his/her goals. In almost every case, it is not important to learn everything about everything. It would be nice to do that, but there is simply not enough hours in the day (or years in a life) to master it all.
A significant percentage of my guitar students had already been playing/studying music for a while before studying with me, often having studied with more than one previous guitar teacher in the past. In almost every case these students possess some promising skills in a few areas and are severely lacking in other, very important, areas. The problem is not that they are lacking in this area or that one, but that they are lacking in some areas that are often critical (or at least important) in achieving their own goals. The worst part is they often don't realize how much they are lacking in these areas, nor do they fully understand just how important it is for them to be strong in these same areas. It is, in my opinion, every guitar teacher's responsibility to stress this issue to his/her students and to work with the student on a regular basis to bridge the gap and improve these weak spots.
For all you guitar players reading this, if you are already studying with a good guitar teacher, make sure he/she understands what your goals are. If your guitar teacher is a good one, he/she should be working with you in your weak areas, and if your guitar teacher isnt, can't or won't, find another teacher. (Download Tom Hess's FREE guide about How To Choose A Guitar Teacher)
The one area that many students are usually strongest is actually technique and the weakest areas are usually aural skills, songwriting and improvisation. Songwriting may or may not be a part of your goals, but no matter what your goal is, improvisation is probably going to be an important tool that you will need for your goals and certainly aural skills will definitely be a critical part of virtually all goals.
Being out of balance musically can be a real problem for two main reasons:
1.
Your weak areas will always hold you back because you won't be able to accomplish what you need to without being strong in all the areas required to reach your goals.
2.
Areas where one is strong in are not as useful without all the other skills needed to go along with it. This makes an area, which in general is pretty strong, now only mediocre because strong areas can't be fully applied.
