Guitar instruction videos and the missing link

When you first learn guitar, you’re just happy if you make some progress and can play a few songs on the guitar.

Just getting over the initial discomfort of developing blisters on your fingertips and seeing them turn into callouses so you can actually play the guitar without too much pain is a big step forward.

What happens later on though. What differentiates the novice from the professional.

Is there a missing ingredient to becoming a master on the guitar?

It’s my opinion and experience that what really propels your guitar playing forward is a sense of urgency, coupled with trying something new all the time.

Let me explain this a little further.

For a long time after I had my first guitar I was kind of in cruise mode. Just going over what I already knew and every now and then maybe working out a guitar riff or two.

I had no real instruction on guitar to speak of, and I wasn’t playing guitar in a band or anything. That was three years of wasted time.

Then I got asked to join a band, and they needed a lead guitarist. I wasn’t one.

My sense of urgency went through the roof, and I quickly became a lead guitarist. When I say quickly I mean it took me 6 months before I was doing anything substantial on the guitar.

Nevertheless, it was only after I had spent a lot of time rehearsing with the band, gone out and gigged a good number of times and actually used my guitar scales to creating solos on the fly, that I realised my goal and actually started playing solos that where meaningful.

It’s how you apply what you learn as a guitar student that makes the difference.

Here’s my breakdown of the formula for success when you learn how to play the guitar and master it.

Please forgive me for sounding a bit arrogant and assuming I’m a master guitar player. There are many guitarists that are way better than me, but a heck of a lot that aren’t.

There’s always room for improvement.

Anyways, here’s the guitar success formula.

1. Start out with a decent quality beginners guitar that’s easy to play.
2. Get decent guitar instruction that takes you step by step from absolute beginner to lead guitar level. Understanding what to do is vital.
3. Make time to practice every day, and always try something you can’t do yet, as opposed to just going over what you know already.
4. Start playing guitar in a band as this will give you a definite advantage with applying everything you learn.
5. Train your ears by working out other peoples songs on the guitar by listening to them. You also train your ear when you practice soloing on the guitar by playing over other peoples music.
6. Get as much guitar technique as you can under your belt, and then forget it. The secret to creating amazing guitar solos is to become so proficient at all the guitar scales and tricks that it becomes automatic, like second nature, and then you can really let rip without even thinking about it. That’s what I mean by forget it.

Here’s an article you may find helpful:

The Best Guitar Instruction DVD – Here’s the Method to Master Guitar
By Andrew Gavin Webber

The lesson that’s been missing from guitar instruction.

The traditional method of guitar instruction has always been a teacher student arrangement, but there is only so much that a guitar teacher can pass on to a student.

Talent isn’t one of them, but I have to agree with the old saying that talent is 90 percent effort, and while it’s true that the right guitar instruction will help greatly with bringing out your talent, the greatest tool for developing it is applying what you’ve learned.

While the classical musician has often had the opportunity to rehearse in an orchestra, usually a small school orchestra, the guitar student, especially when learning to play more modern forms of music, is excluded.

The guitar lesson that really rounds off your music study and practice, is when you learn to play in a band. The term “seasoned musician” springs to mind.

Maybe I’ve set my sights a little high, but I truly believe that in order to really become a master of the guitar, one needs a guitar course that mimics the real life lessons of being an active musician in order to truly maximize all the theory and practice contained in most guitar lessons.

So what do you do? You may not feel ready to go out and start a band, and even if you did, you wont necessarily be applying all the guitar instruction you’ve received on DVD or otherwise. You would need to play specific music pieces in the band, geared towards specific lessons.

Not a likely situation for a band that’s just starting up.

The solution for this is to use backing tracks, or Jam tracks. While this seems like an insignificant addition to guitar lessons, the resulting improvement in skill can be considerable.

What else should the best guitar instruction dvd teach you?

Ear training, better described as the ability to recognize notes and chords simply by hearing them, is an essential part of being a musician.

This does develop over time as a natural progression of learning to play guitar, or any musical instrument for that matter, but having a set method for learning and practicing this art can really speed things up.

Why is it important? Well, when you get to writing songs and playing guitar solos this is a handy talent to have. When you get this right you’ll realize you’re a lot more talented than you thought you where.

The true value of getting the best guitar instruction dvds.

Most people don’t really consider the long term benefit of learning to play guitar properly, and by properly I mean learning to read music, music theory, different styles of guitar playing, and getting lessons that go all the way from beginner to advanced lead guitar and soloing styles.

Getting a complete education in guitar puts you in a position to not only learn for yourself, but with time can turn into a fairly lucrative career teaching others how to play the guitar.

A complete guitar instruction DVD set gives you all the materials with video, and preferably a book should accompany that, so you have a reference for years to come.

The other reason to get a complete guitar course.

If you have it, you’ll use it. I’ve seen many guitarists who are stuck at a certain level. They want to play lead guitar, or blues solos and so on, but they’re still playing the same old rhythm guitar they learned way back.

When the drive to learn and master the guitar is there, it’s best not to stand in its way, and if two years from now you get the urge to learn something new on guitar, you’ll actually do it because the lessons are there already.

Andrew Webber is a professional guitarist and music arranger.

Get the best guitar lessons here – The Best Guitar Instruction dvd’s

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