Archive for: January 2008

When you warm up on your guitar remember that you are not trying to play fast at this time. The idea is to find out what playing condition your body is in now, and begin with whatever tempo you can manage. As you warm up your playing speed will increase naturally. Just remind yourself all the time not to strain. Start with really simple exercises an don’t be afraid to go back to them any time you feel you’re losing your relaxed attitude.

In this video lesson from Israel Maldonado - he walks you through some great warm ups and exercises to get your fingers used to playing the guitar.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

For fast progress in guitar playing, some discipline is needed. Many people start out with guitar lessons aware that they don’t want to let disciplined practice interfere with having fun learning to play the guitar. But right at the outset of any course, or even if you’re trying to teach yourself to play guitar, you need to give your body the chance to get aquainted with the benefits of disciplined practice. If you want your guitar playing to go smoothly and as fast as possible, you need to form habits. So begin every practice session with warming up. You’ll soon get to know how much warming up your fingers need, but do not just start today’s practicing by playing yesterday’s piece. If you’re anxious to get started on the music you’ve been learning, okay, but do some simple warmup exercises first. Then do some scales and arpeggios. After some weeks, you’ll start to see the benefits of this kind of regular discipline.
Here are some warmup exercises at My Guitar Solo

Technorati Tags: guitar lessons, learning to play the guitar, teach yourself to play guitar

Whenever you are having a day when you wonder how you ever thought you’d be able to learn to play the guitar, remember that all progress consists of small steps. This is a home truth that holds true always. If you are feeling negative about your progress with guitar playing, pull back and and look for a baby step to conquer. Something you wouldn’t normally consider. You might, for example, have been playing guitar for six months or a year and never really worked on how to hold the guitar properly. Working on a small step like that can be very revealing. What if you discover that the basis of your problems with chord changes is in the way you put too much unnecessary tension into your left arm when you hold the guitar. To discover something like that would turn a baby step into a life-changing revelation but the bottom line is that taking a fresh look at how you go about your guitar practice will help you to continue with your aim to become a guitar player.

Technorati Tags: learn to play the guitar, how to hold the guitar, chord changes