Piotr Sierzputowski - Nauka Gry Na Gitarze Ostrołęka

Advice From A Guitar Player Who Toured Europe With…

2 marca 20222 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– Interview with Jure Golobic – guitar player of Stray Train

– Author: Piotr Sierzputowski, 04.08.2020

Jure Golobic is a co-founder and guitar player of Slovenian heavy blues band Stray Train. Toured Europe. Over 1000 concerts played – including those for thousands of people at once. 3 pro CDs recorded. All of that during only 20 years of musical experience.

A must read for everyone who is passionate about guitar and music.

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Hi Jure! Thanks for the interview. I’m sure that you will have a lot of interesting things to say for me and my students. Can’t wait to read your answers.

Playing in a band and working as a musician is definitely a joyful occupation, but there are also many challenges along the way … You need to learn how to play, create music, record it, motivate your band members to work with you (after you have found them of course)… What are some of your best character traits that helped you reach your current level in musicianship / music career?

I would say that you always have to be inspired to grow as a musician and as an instrumentalist. I see it way to often when people look at their band members and say: “Well the drummer is not practicing so why should I?” That’s not going to get you far. You always have to want to be better.

In your view, what are some of the biggest mistakes that young musicians make? What are the roadblocks that they put on their own ways to achieve what they want?

I would say that staying in the environment ‘(band) that don’t share the same dreams as you do, and not having the balls to move on. That was my no. 1 thing for a long time.

The second one is not really educating yourself on HOW to make it happen and how success really looks like. A lot of musicians have no clue what it actually take to make it, how hard it is and they think they want it bad enough but when opportunity comes, they realise that they don’t really want it bad enough.

If you could go back in time and meet the younger version of yourself, what would you tell him (on the topic of music)?

Work on yourself a lot! The way you are is the way you play. You can’t change your sound, tone, technique if you don’t really grow as a person.

Don’t be afraid to play with people that are way better than you. Don’t judge yourself and put yourself down. Work on you relevant weaknesses.

When it comes to musical aspects of playing in a band, there are many things you need to do – expanding you general musical skills, rehearsals, preparing for concerts, practicing songs, creating songs, recording, playing gigs… What are your favourite musical things to work on?

Getting ready for the tour or some big concert. This is something that really connects the whole band, gives it purpose and makes things click together.

Writing new songs and recording as well. I like the creative process and I like to do final touches on songs and make them 5-10% better and so on.

It is said that your own mistakes is the best teacher… and I think it’s well said. I bet that on your way to achieving your current musicianship level there were times when you f*** something up 🙂 Is there any story of this kind you could share with us? What have you learned thanks to it?

Yeah, for sure. One of my biggest setbacks was definitely playing with soooo much tension. I took guitar too seriously 🙂 Kidding. It was a consequence of playing and sitting with a heavy, unbalanced Les Paul for too long. I’ve build so much tension in my playing, that sometimes it was impossible for me to play. To tone wasn’t there, rhythm and so on. And it wasn’t enjoyable to practice and play because I was always in the pain of some sort.

Back to the future 2 – What would you tell the younger version of yourself after making the mistake you just told about?

Start from the bottom up. The deeper you can go, the more fundamentals you can put in the right place the better your playing will become. All pros in all areas of life are pros because they are amazing at basics. There’s just no way around this.

When you publish your own music, play concerts… or do anything artistic in public, you can experience quite a lot of negative unconstructive critique coming from other people. If we cared too much about this, none of us would be playing anymore. What is your view on this phenomenon and how do you deal with it?

It all starts with two things. 1st is making music you enjoy making and not trying to be something you’re not. 2nd is knowing that there’s no way in the world everyone will like you. If you do that, negative critique will not get to you. And also one more thing – being connected with the band is important. Band members have to be in this together. You have to invest yourself into your music. Your baby will not be beautiful for everyone, but it has to be for you.

If you looked for a new member for your band, how well should that person play his instrument? What should be their musical knowledge level? What other traits beside music should that person possess?

The most important thing is you have to be able to inspire musicians you work with. If I make a riff for a new song and bring it to rehearsal room. People in my band need to be able to build on it and inspire me to play something I wouldn’t have played on my own. Band has to bring the best out of you and when you play, you have to bring out the best in your bend members. That is how I look at things from the musical point of view.

Also, you have to be a cool guy so that people can keep up with you on the tour, which means no drugs and shit. This not for serious band who wants to make it now a days.

People say that you need to be talented in order to play and create music. There’s certainly some amount of truth in that statement, but from my experience, talent is very often used as an excuse by people who just don’t believe in themselves. I wonder if in your musical journey everything came easily to you or were there some aspects that you struggled with and had to work hard in order to master them?

I feel like nothing came easy to me in my life. Guitar is no difference. I had to fight for all the skills I have and that’s the game you have to play. There were probably things that came easy for me. I know it took me few days to learn the basic chords on the guitar and be able to strum simple songs, but I’ve put hours and hours into my playing ever since. Repetition is the mother of all skills for sure.

There are many wise people in Poland (perhaps in Slovenia, too). Everyone knows a lot about everything. When it comes to playing in a band, people often say that you need to play popular music in order to be successful (i.e. adjust your musical style to the public taste). What do you think about that?

No one that ever made it big thought like that. If you go back in history and really examine how people became successful, you’ll realise that most musicians just didn’t care about the current „music scene” and made their own. From The Beatles, to Rollings, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Queen… I can go on and on, but you have to be persistent and really play your heart out. Most people don’t immerse themselves in music. They are more concerned with what people will think about them and that’s where music suffers.

What are your plans for the future? Are you planning to release something new?

Yeah, working on Stray Train’s 3rd record as I write this. 12 songs in recording process. So we’ll definitely be ready to hit the road once this Corona thing settles down.

And work on myself as a musician and guitarist for sure. And teach people who want’s to learn about guitar and music.

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Wywiady

How Does Young Guitar Virtuoso Think?

2 marca 20222 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– Interview with Johan Tillgren – a young metal guitarist from Sweden

Author: Piotr Sierzputowski, 16.09.2020

Johan Tillgren is a young and very talented guitar player from Sweden. He has played guitar for 14 years now and has achieved a very high level of mastery – just listen to his debut EP „Until The End Of Time” that came out 4 years ago (that was just 10 years after Johan started playing guitar at all!).

He has played in 2 bands – Terminus and Discovery Zero. Now he’s busy working on his first solo LP album (I was honored to listen to a few excerpts of his work – this CD will be amazing, I tell you!). Besides that, Johan is a professional guitar instructor at his place in Sweden and he sometimes trains guitar players from all over the world at an international music seminar in USA (this is where we have met).

I’m very excited about this interview, because it shows how Johan thinks – it’s always great to look inside the head of someone who achieved more in 10 years (music and guitar-wise) than „normal” people in 30 years 🙂 Enjoy!

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Playing in a band and working as a musician is definitely a joyful occupation, but there are also many challenges along the way … You need to learn how to play, create music, record it, motivate your band members to work with you (after you have found them of course)… What are some of your best character traits that helped you reach your current level in musicianship / music career?

The strongest thing for me has always been the vision of how I want my music to be. I take a lot of time to think and imagine what would be the coolest music ever, and then I try to create it. I follow the advice of Steve Vai: find the thing that excites you the most, and go after that. Challenges and obstacles will always happen and they can be frustrating, but if you’re pursuing something you are really excited about, the challenges become very small in comparison to the thing you are pursuing.

In your view, what are some of the biggest mistakes that young musicians make? What are the roadblocks that they put on their own ways to achieve what they want?

Trying to do what everybody else is doing, not listening to your own voice. There’s a lot of music being created today, but I think a lot of it sounds similar to each other. It’s rare to hear artists and bands that truly create something unique. It’s valuable to take inspiration from others, but when you sit down to create music, try to forget about what everybody else is doing, and just make your own kind of music in the best way you can, at whatever level you are at.

If you could go back in time and meet the younger version of yourself, what would you tell him (on the topic of music)?

I would tell him to release more music, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and do imperfect stuff. I have always been a perfectionist and so there’s a lot of music I have created that just sat on my hard drive for years because I didn’t think it was good enough. That’s not good for either me or others, because others didn’t get to enjoy it, and I didn’t get to have others listen to it and enjoy it.

I like to take anything on guitar or piano, such as a scale, a chord, a chord progression, a rhythm….and ask myself „what emotion does this express?” It’s something that takes time, practice and introspection but the more you do it the more you start to be able to see emotional patterns in the structures of how music is built. I also like to do the opposite, I start with an emotion and ask myself how I can express it through music. This never gets old and I will probably keep working on it for the rest of my life.

When you publish your own music or play concerts… or do anything artistic in public, you can experience quite a lot of negative unconstructive critique coming from other people. If we cared too much about this, none of us would be playing anymore. What is your view on this phenomenon and how do you deal with it?

This may sound a bit cold, but you’ve got to detach yourself from both the negative and the positive feedback you get. If you tie your happiness too much to when people like your stuff, you are putting too much weight on their opinion, and then when it swings around and people don’t like your music, you give weight to that too. Don’t get me wrong, other people liking your stuff is a great feeling that should be enjoyed, but you can’t be too attached to it.

You’ve got to take a step back and realize that the artwork you created is not ‘you’, even though it may feel like an extension of you. Because once it’s out there in the world, it’s out there. People will say all kinds of things about it, both good and bad, and that’s how it will always be.

I like to compare it to a bird sitting in a tree and singing. One person walks by and says “what a beautiful melody, please keep singing!”. And the bird just thinks “okay cool, I’m just singing my song.” Then another person walks by and says “what a horrible melody, please shut up!”. But the bird just thinks “okay cool, I’m just singing my song”. If you want to preserve your sanity as an artist, that’s kind of how you need to be. You’re just doing your thing, you’re just singing your unique song because that’s just what you do.

For the type of music I play, technical skill is important, as well as the ability to listen. But the most important trait is a positive can-do attitude and the willingness to learn and grow, everything else can be trained.

I struggled with songwriting for a while. Even though I could come up with good musical ideas, I struggled with connecting them into a whole song. I actually told my dad “I like to play guitar, but I’m actually going to hold off on the songwriting for a couple of years because I’m not so good at it.” And today songwriting is my primary thing. So that’s something I had to learn, and I still have a mountain of things I want to learn and master in order to get to a really high level and make a difference.

I also struggled with guitar technique because I had no real training, until I found my guitar teacher Tom Hess who showed me what great technique is supposed to look like and how to get there, that was a game changer. He also helped me immensely with songwriting.

There are many wise people in Poland (perhaps in Sweden, too). Everyone knows a lot about everything. When it comes to playing in a band, people often say that you need to play popular music in order to be successful (i.e. adjust your musical style to the public taste). What do you think about that?

That phrase “you need to play popular music in order to be successful” is misunderstood. Yes, you should write music that moves YOU first and foremost. Because if you yourself are not moved by your music, how can you move someone else? When you listen to a song, you can typically hear the level of inspiration the songwriter had when they wrote it. That inspiration is always step one. What you want to express. If you get that part right, even if you don’t know anything about songwriting, you will be on the right path.

But at the same time, there are certain principles and concepts in songwriting that makes a song better, period. The way you use melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and arrangements greatly influence how good the song will be, no matter what style of music it is. A great song is a great song. Too many people rely on the sound color of the instruments to “carry the song”, when in reality it’s the craft of songwriting that makes or breaks the song.

What are your plans for the future? Are you planning to release something new?

I’m producing and recording a symphonic film score metal album right now. I believe it’s going to be very special and I have not heard it been done in this way before, even though there are some similarities to other artists here and there on the album. I want to inspire others to become the best version of themselves, and music is a great way to do that. I believe everyone has the ability to grow and become even more than they already are today, and if I can be a small part of that, it makes it all worth it. There’s a lot of work on the album since I’m doing all the instruments, arrangements, orchestrations and lyrics myself, everything except vocals. I’m also financing everything myself which also makes it more difficult, but it’s progressing well. I’m looking forward to sharing it soon enough!

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Developing An Internal Rhythm

6 listopada 202110 października 2023
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– by Vishal Kapoor, GuitarKL, in Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Rhythm is necessary for every part of your playing no matter what skill level you are at. Without a solid sense of rhythm, playing or performing with others, recording, and playing over a backing track would be close to impossible. If you are part of the rhythm section in a band, your rhythm needs to be tight so that other band members can latch on to something solid. Poor rhythm will throw other band members off. If you are doing any lead lines, your playing needs to make rhythmic sense relative to what the band is doing. Even when playing by yourself, you would sound kind of random and all over the place since rhythm is one of the main elements which both the player and the listener latches on to in any piece of music.

Here are some simple ways for you to develop a solid internal rhythm. Take note that everyone has different levels of natural intuitive rhythm even before they start actively working on it. The methods here might work faster for some compared to others.

Identifying the pulse of a song

Every song has a pulse. The pulse refers to the strong beats which stand out in a song. Typically they are accented by the kick and snare drum. If you were to tap your foot or bob your head to a song, the timing of it would be aligned with the pulse of the song.

Generally most songs have a time signature of 4/4. Explained in simple terms, the sound you would hear from that song repeats every 4 beats. This, along with the kick and snare drums, is the most obvious indicator to where exactly the pulse of the song is. You can train to develop your internal rhythm by simply identifying where the strong beats are in any song that you listen to. Tap your foot or bob your head to these strong beats. The cool part about training this way is that you can do it without your instrument and anywhere you happen to be listening to music!

Practice to a metronome

Practicing to a metronome benefits you in a number of ways, of which keeping time is one of them. A metronome traditionally is a device used to mark time at a selected rate of beats per minute (bpm) by producing a regular “click” sound. These days there are many metronome apps or online metronomes you can access for free.

To practice with a metronome, simply set your metronome to a moderate bpm. 60bpm is a good starting point. Then strum a chord to every “click” sound that you hear. Try as much as you can to strum exactly when the “click” happens. Pay attention to whether you tend to strum slightly before or slighty after the “click” and adjust the timing of your strumming accordingly. Do this over 1 chord initially. As your timing improves, try adding more strums in between each sound. The spaces between each of your strums should ALWAYS be evenly spaced. Be as creative with this as you can. Try strumming 3 times or even 4 times on every click. Remember the sounds indicate a down beat. So depending on how many strums you are playing per “click”, the first strum should always be on every sound. As your timing gets more accurate, you can expand your single chord to a full chord progression using the same method.

A metronome is only there as a guide for you to keep time. You can and should work on every part of your playing using a metronome, including scales, scale sequences, guitar techniques and phrases.

Playing to songs or backing tracks

Similar to a metronome, playing to a backing track allows you to gauge your rhythm and timing on a larger scale i.e. an entire song, rather than just a small exercise. Pick a SIMPLE song and play along to it as if you were performing or recording it. How this differs from metronome training is if you lose track of where you are, you will need to jump back into where the song has progressed to and NOT to where you fell off the wagon. This sort of training gives you the skills to perform and jam in a real-life situation. It is recommended that you train this way with chords first, only then work your way towards songs with more complex parts such as riffs and solos.

These are just a few of the many effective ways you can train to develop a strong internal rhythm. Do not rush this process or feel frustrated if you don’t get it immediately. Take your time and enjoy the process!

Learning to play guitar on your own can be frustrating and challenging, especially if you don’t know what to do. Having a great teacher makes the whole process more fun, enjoyable and gets you real results fast.

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Solve your guitar-related problems at GuitarKL, in Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Visit https://guitarkl.com to become an awesome guitar player.

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3 Things I Did Not Do That Made Learning…

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– by Maurice Richard

I remember when I first started to learn to play guitar. I did not even own a guitar yet so I used my girlfriend’s.

She taught me a few chords she knew and that she had figured out easily but things did not go so well for me! I struggled with them.

That’s ok. I tried other ways. I found some books at the local music stores and started to use them to learn. Boring!!! So, I stopped that pretty quickly.

The Internet did not exist like it does today and Google was not even conceived yet, but since I was going to University I had access to sites that had guitar materials.

They were written by musicians and went straight over my head. Way too complicated and totally overwhelming.

You do not want to make the same mistakes that I did.

Here are 3 things I did not do that I would do differently if I could go back to my early days of learning to play guitar.

1. I Did Not Stay Committed

When things got boring or difficult I just stopped.

That’s not a very high commitment level. I could use the „I was young and stupid” argument here but in the end had I plowed through and stayed committed to learning I would have learned sooner.

I kept getting frustrated and stopping. Then weeks, months and sometimes years would pass by before I would try again and then stop and repeat the process.

When I look back it amazes me how much I could have improved even by doing the silly boring stuff and keeping my skills at least at the same level instead of constantly falling back.

So even if you are not making huge progress right now, or if some of the things you are learning are boring, do your best to keep going and not stop. Stay committed but look for better ways at the same time.

2. I Did Not Buy Myself A Quality Guitar

I just used my girlfriend’s guitar and as it turns out, it was not a very good one.

To my defense, I was totally clueless about different quality guitars. I thought they were all pretty much the same so I never even thought to go look at better ones.

My girlfriend’s guitar was a cheap one. The strings were very far from the frets which made it nearly impossible to push down and even hear a bad note or chord without a large amount of pressure.

This slowed me down tremendously and because I was using so much pressure it slowed my progress and caused really bad habits to creep into my playing which I had to fix later in life.

Because of that I experienced a huge amount of frustration when learning to play and it nearly caused me to quit guitar altogether.

Don’t make the same mistake. Go find a quality guitar that is easy to play.

Even better, start with an electric instead of an acoustic! That’s what I would do if I started again today!

3. I Did Not Look For A Teacher To Help Me

The funny thing is that for many years I had no clue you could get someone to teach you guitar.

I thought you had to learn it all on your own. I did not know anyone who had learned to play any other way.

Until I visited my wife’s aunt one day and her daughter had to go – for guitar lessons? I was amazed and felt pretty silly that I had never known this was possible.

I would like to say that I immediately went to look for a guitar teacher after that experience but I did not do that. I did not make it a priority and let it slip.

So, the frustration of trying to lean on my own continued. I did finally start to improve over time but it was not quick at all and it was still not that good.

The Key For Me Was Finding A Guitar Teacher

I came to a point in my playing where I was stuck.

I was not good at it, I was not getting better and I did not know what to do to move beyond it. I was becoming very frustrated.

I started to think that I was not made for this, that I was not born with the talent, and that I was never going to get better. I was getting closer to quitting guitar forever.

But then I remembered my wife’s cousin. So, I decided to try one more thing. I decided to look for a guitar teacher to help me.

Once I found this person my playing finally started to improve and I started to like it. I’m still with this teacher and I am enjoying the journey to more advanced skills!

About The Author:

Maurice Richard is a professional guitar teacher that operates out of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has been a member of an elite guitar teaching mentorship program since 2007 and has taught hundreds of people learn how to play guitar the easier way.

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Some Straight Talk About Guitar Lessons

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

Fact is, not all guitar lessons or guitar teachers are the same. But why should you care?

Well, consider this, if you want to learn to play guitar like your favorite guitarists and are making the smart choice to take guitar lessons, how long should it take you to reach your goal?

With an average teacher, it could take you several more years to play like guitar idols, but it doesn’t have to take that long and it probably shouldn’t.

Let’s say you’re a beginner right now and your favorite guitarist Kirk Hammett from Metallica. With the right teacher, dedication and practice, it may take you 5 years to get from zero to hero.

But with an average guitar teacher, it may take 10-15 years to reach the same point… ouch!

The American Academy of Guitar Mastery says, “The vast majority of guitar teachers don’t even give you the bare minimum of what you need to reach your musical goals quickly. And virtually none have any actual training or certifications. In short, the standards of excellence in the guitar teaching industry are very, VERY low. We don’t think that’s right, so we did something about it.”

We couldn’t agree more! That’s why we have proper guitar teaching training and certifications from the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle. Training for guitar teachers is absolutely critical and frankly, it’s a shame that most guitar teachers have no actual training or certifications whatsoever.

Think about it, why would you want to take lessons from a teacher who does not have training on how to teach guitar? We think you deserve better! So we give you better!

Let’s go back to the example mentioned earlier about the difference in time to reach a big goal from a really good teacher versus an average one. Now factor in the huge cost savings. Yes, a better teacher may charge a bit more, but the amount of money you save over the long term can easily run well into the thousands of dollars!

Guitar teacher training is not the same as a music degree from a university… it’s much better than that. When one goes to college for music, the grand total amount of time spent on teaching guitar is exactly zero at the vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States offering music degrees. In fact, even those who graduate with masters degrees still have exactly zero training and experience teaching guitar effectively. Hard to believe, but it’s an absolute fact! I know, I was shocked too when I learned this many years ago!

You’re in good hands here, not only do we have training, we have the best training in the country and on top of this, we never stop learning and improving everything we do… that means you can expect the best from us.

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Benefits of Playing with Other People

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

As a musician, you spend a lot of time practicing alone. Whether it’s in the basement, in your room, or in a practice studio, most of us feel more comfortable when we are doing things the way we want and at our own pace. However, there are a lot of benefits to playing with others. You will find that playing with others advances your own guitar goals and helps you become an even stronger guitar player. Here are some ways that playing with others benefit you:

It helps you keep a steady rhythm. When playing alone, you are the one who sets the tempo. Therefore, if you rush or drag in your rhythm, it may not be very noticeable to you. But when you are playing with others, it forces you to listen to those around you and keep in time with the other players. This in turn will make you more aware of your habits to rush and drag and will strengthen your rhythm when playing alone too.
It shows you how your part fits in the big picture. Guitar riffs are cool on their own, but when played solo, something just seems to be missing. They run the risk of sounding boring and repetitive when there is no rhythm guitar, bass, drums, or vocals. When you play with other people, there is the magical feeling that your part belongs in the whole. This is when the “real music” happens.
It helps you become aware of your weaknesses. Nothing is more eye-opening in guitar playing than when you start to play with someone else and realize that they know something you don’t, or have a skill you don’t possess. It not only humbles you as a guitar player, but makes you aware of the areas you need to focus on while practicing.
It helps you get over stage fright. Playing with others inherently involves playing in front of others as well. The more you play with others, the less nervous you’ll be playing for an audience. Getting over stage fright in guitar can help you get over stage fright in other areas of your life as well, like public speaking and presentations.
It teaches you to be flexible. When you’re alone, you can stop and start a song as many times as you want. If you mess up or don’t like something you played, you can immediately stop and fix it. However, when playing with others, you learn to be flexible and roll with whatever comes your way. You learn to adapt to the people around you and improvise when necessary. This is a good skill to have in life in general.

For these reasons, you should try to play with others as much as you can. Stepping out of your comfort zone is extremely valuable for growth and you will see your versatility as a guitar player expand immensely. When you can’t hide behind your bedroom door, you find that you are capable of more than you thought.

Northville Guitar Lessons is a guitar school providing guitar lessons in Livonia, Plymouth, Novi, Canton and Northville Michigan .

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CHORD THEORY AND ITS IMMEDIATE USEFULNESS

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– Autor: Dennis Winge

Unless you know why it’s useful, the subject of chord theory could seem a bit bland. Imagine being able to figure out many, many possible voicings (ways to play a chord) for virtually any chord without having to consult one of those “1001 Chord” Books for Guitar. Let’s face it: you can’t really learn from those books anyway. You can look up the chord in question, choose a voicing, and memorize it, but two things happen: a) you will always wonder if you chose the best voicing b) (much worse) you will always be dependent on the book.

When you learn how chords are constructed, you can make judgements in real-time on fingering adjustments to make to get the chord you are looking for. Understand that on guitar, the intervals of a chord may not be in the same order as they appear from low to high on a interval sheet. For example, a D chord consists of the notes d, f#, and a which is the 1, 3, and 5 of D major. But in practice a regular open D chord is “spelled” d, a, d, f# which is the 1, 5, 1, 3. The chord still has the intervals of a “root position” D triad (i.e. 1, 3, 5), but the order of notes is jumbled up so we can play it a lot more easily.

Now suppose you need a Dm(maj7) which is a minor chord with a major 7th. Later in this presentation you will learn that a minor third is a half-step (one fret) lower than a major third, and a major 7th is a half-step below a root. So first you take a D chord and lower the third of the chord (the f# on the first string) one fret to get Dm:

Then you lower the root of the Dm which (is on the 2nd string) one fret to get the major 7:

If this is confusing at all, just trust the process that is about to unfold for you. Using the standard notation, tablature and diagrams on the following pages, you will be able to play the notes of each chord separately on one string, and then play a common fingering for that chord. The advantage of playing chord tones on 1 string is that you can see the spacial relationship of the notes to each other so you can move notes around according to your needs (as in moving the major 3rd of D down one fret in the Dm(maj7) example.)

So first play each note separately, then play the chord. The numbers right below the notes indicate the interval of that note within the scale. (For example in bar 1, c is the 1st note of the C major scale, e is the 3rd, g is the 5th.) I have also included the octave of the root, denoted as “8.” Playing the root an octave up helps you see the relationship of the last note of the chord (most often the 7th or b7th) to the next root (as in moving a root of the Dm chord down one fret to get the major 7th in the Dm(maj7) example.)
It is also possible that, for fingering convenience, a note or two may be left out. For example, some of you may notice that on the C6 chord, there is no 5th (the note g) in the voicing. This is not cheating. It’s more important to play the ‘good’ notes well and in a timely manner than to go for something less convenient for an interval that doesn’t add much to overall flavor of the chord. (In this case, the 6th really defines the C6 chord so we choose that note a over the note g which is the 5th.)

As a final word, it would a great exercise for you to take different roots (ex: A, D, G, etc.) and make the intervals on 1 string for all the chords in that key. Then, try to come up with fingerings on your own before consulting your teacher for common ways to play them. Doing this will really solidify both your chord theory and your fretboard mastery.

About the author: Dennis Winge is a professional guitarist living in New York with a passion for vegan food and bhakti yoga. If you are interested in taking Guitar Lessons in Newfield, NY, then be sure to contact Dennis!

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HOW LISTENING TO MUSIC IMPROVES YOUR GUITAR PLAYING… SERIOUSLY

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– Autor: Jennifer Barlow

You might be thinking, “How can listening to music help to improve my guitar playing, surely that’s not possible”, and you would be right… if you were just listening passively.

Think back to when either you’ve been at a social gathering where there have been multiple conversations going on at once. If you try to listen to 2 conversations, you end up unable to take part in either. You have to actively listen to one conversation at a time, you have to chose what you focus on.

Listening to music works in the same way, when you actively listen to music, you focus what the different instruments are doing and really listen to them. Ask yourself questions like:

“How loud or softly are they playing?”
“Is the instrument playing fast or slow?”
“What rhythm is the instrument playing? Can you clap it / sing it back?”
“What does the singer’s melody sound like against the chords in the song? How does it make you feel?”
“What instrument is this? Am I listening to the singer, guitar player, what part of the drum kit is that?”
“What section of the song is this? Is it a verse, chorus?”

When you listen to music in this way, you will find yourself able to learn songs faster, make your guitar playing sound more expressive and ‘alive’ because now you will be thinking musically.

This is one way that you can start to increase the speed of your guitar playing improving. The more you can think about it day in day out. The more your brain is going to try to figure out the other pieces of the puzzle. And before you know it, it will be translating to your guitar playing as well.

A lot of students also struggle to practise guitar when they are busy, this is a way you can sneak it into your everyday activities. It could be listening while you are working, travelling to and from work. There’s a lot you can do for your guitar practising without your guitar being physically with you.

Between now and next week, spend some time listening to your favourite songs and ask yourself these questions. Yes this is real guitar practice. Part of your journey to playing guitar how you want is physical (with your hands), but a bigger portion of learning to play an instrument is mental (what goes on in your head).

Even if you don’t have much time to pick up the guitar, that’s perfectly fine. During these periods of time, practice in the way I mentioned above.

Keep improving, keep progressing one step at a time!

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Guitar Tuition East London is a pure guitar school based in East Village, Stratford, England that teaches students of all ages who are passionate about playing guitar. With lots of beginner guitar players struggling to learn guitar on their own, their beginner guitar lessons in London focuses on beginner guitar students having a lot of fun and building up the confidence so that they can have a skill for life.

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HOW TO BE A MORE ORGANISED GUITARIST?

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– by Michael Gumley

Are you constantly late to gigs and rehearsals? Are you struggling to find the time to practice everything you need to? Are you sick of letting yourself and others down? When it comes to being reliable, musicians aren’t known for their organisational skills and guitarists have an especially bad reputation. In this article I’m going to talk about how you can implement some basic ideas that will help you get organised and increase your productivity.

I find it amazing how musicians can invest thousands of hours into getting good at their instrument yet invest little or no time into being organised. This is what I call the ‘Artist’s Curse’ and doesn’t just appear to be limited to musicians with writers, painters and actors all displaying a lack of organisation in their life. Whether you’re trying to make it in the music industry or just find enough time to practice everything on your plate a little bit of organisation can go a long way towards making you more successful and easily make you stand out from the crowd.

Below I am going to present some easy to implement ideas that anybody can do. Before you get your back up and make excuses come to the realisation that there are thousands of other artists competing for the same opportunities so if you don’t take the steps below to get ahead, somebody else will.

KEEP A CALENDAR

This might seem like a simple idea but is overlooked by so many people. Go out and buy yourself a physical calendar and hang it on the fridge. Every time you have a gig or rehearsal put it on the calendar and make the effort to be punctual in your attendance. You can even take it a step further and get a calendar app that send you notification straight to your phone reminding you on the day or even the hour of your appointments. There really is no excuse with all the technology you have these days.It doesn’t matter how good a musician you are if you develop a reputation for being late or a no-show your fellow musicians will stop working with you.

PLAN OUT YOUR PRACTICE FOR THE WEEK

This is a big one for me. I like to spend 30 minutes every Sunday planning out my entire week. This includes all of my appointments and what I will be working on business wise for each hour of each day. I also go into specific detail with my guitar practice. I work out how much time I have on each day (eg Monday 1 hour, Tuesday 30m, Wednesday 2 hours, etc) and a list of things I need to work on throughout the week (legato, tapping, melodic minor scale usage etc). I will then assign each practice item to a 10-30 minute time slot within the time I have allocated for guitar practice. Go out and buy a diary or weekly planner sheet or download one of countless apps that can help you do this.

HAVE A DESIGNATED PRACTICE AREA

Set aside a room in your house specifically for practice. Keep this room clean and tidy and have all of the materials you need on hand. If you don’t have the luxury of a spare room make sure the room you do practice in has enough space for a chair, music stand and your guitar. Put a do not disturb sign on your door during practice time and let everybody know that you’re not to be interrupted while the door is shut.

ORGANIZE YOUR EQUIPMENT

This is a big one. In addition to you guitar you should have spare strings, spare leads, string winders, a cleaning rag, a basic guitar tool kit, a metronome and a timer. Keep all of your sheet music in a neatly arranged folder and any books you are using on a shelf nearby. The last thing you want to do is waste 5 minutes looking for your sheet music or breaking a string and having to miss out on practice entirely. Being organised is the difference between wasting time and effective practice, it will also save you when something goes wrong during a gig.

Hopefully you already implement some of the ideas I have presented here, but if you don’t there is no better time than the present to start. Use these ideas to get more out of your time. Not only will you benefit from being more organised but you will develop a reputation as a reliable musician and will see more and more opportunities flow towards you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael is a heavy metal guitarist from Melbourne Australia. He plays in progressive metal act Hybrid Nightmares and is the owner of Brimstone Bookings. He aims to help aspiring musicians develop the right mindset necessary to succeed in the music industry. If you want to be a professional musician then Melbourne Beginner Guitar Lessons will teach you all the skills you need to kickstart your music career. Don’t learn the hard way, visit Michael’s website and make massive progress in record time!

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How your hand posture can hurt your progress with…

6 listopada 20212 marca 2022
by Piotr Sierzputowski

– By Michael Korte

Your hand posture can make a big difference in how you are progressing with development of your technique.

A lot of guitar players think it does not matter. I think it does. Some think “just do what feels comfortable” but if you have no idea what you are doing, you are getting used to a wrong posture, that will inhibit your advancement to higher levels and eventually feel not as comfortable anymore.

If you do what feels naturally comfortable, you are just letting your fingers go wherever they please and into direction, you are already used to having them. For example, if your thumb automatically goes pointing parallel wise to the guitar neck, you limit your ability to play fast because for some positions you just cannot play comfortably and relaxed, especially for those stretches when you want to learn and apply the 3-note-per-string system for scales and if you want to be able to shred arpeggios elegantly.

What you need to do instead is, having your thumb pointing upwards to the ceiling and in a right angle to the guitar neck, place the thumb print flat on the back of the guitar neck and let your fingers „fall” as perpendicularly as possible on the strings, for when you are playing scales without any phrasing. This also works well with chords.

For chords, there are some things to pay attention to. For most open chords, you can apply the hand posture I explained above. For Barre Chords you MUST even apply this posture, else you just get cramps in your hand.

For playing chords you could try a different approach and see what feels best for you. That is:

Using your thumb as a kind of hook on your guitar neck, so that it sticks out over the upper side of the guitar neck. This also gives you more stability if you want to apply phrasing elements like string bendings and vibrato to your solos.

The right posture for these guitar playing techniques is, to switch from the posture for the scales I mentioned first, to the thumb hook position.

What is important here now for a good and stable vibrato and controlled bendings, is to twist your forearm around the pivot point, where the inner edge of your hand meets the guitar neck’s lower side as a pivot point.

That way you are using a much stronger muscle, that you can control better against the string tension, compared to if you use your fingers only, which yields a nice shape for your vibrato curve.

Practice switching back and forth between those two positions for the right application in the right situation. It should give you quite a boost in your playing, if you haven’t played this way before.

About the author:

Michael Korte teaches kitaratunnit in tampere, Finland, and is passionate about showing his students ways to improve their playing and creativity.

He focuses on combining technique, theory and creativity into one big picture, so that his students can become balanced guitar players and play as best as they can at any time.

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