The Guitar Course - A Guide For Serious Beginner Guitarists by Ricky Sharples You will find many tips

and tutorials for guitar players of all levels at Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free, a continuously updated directory of free guitar lessons, videos, chord charts and lots of useful guitar stuff.
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"ontents
#ow To $et Your %&luffed Notes' #elp You............................................................( #ow To #old The )uitar.........................................................................................* #ow To +emori,e The )uitar &retboard................................................................$earn #ow To !lay The )uitar............................................................................../

How To Let #our $Flu%%e& 'otes( Help #ou I)pro*e #our Guitar Playin
+ost learning guitar players thin0 that becoming a better guitarist is a process of finding problems and eliminating them. Not 1uite. 2mproving the way you play the guitar depends on becoming aware of problem areas and using them to increase your consciousness of yourself as a guitar player. +ost problems in guitar playing are identified as being in the area of imperfectly played or 3fluffed3 notes. They happen during riffs or scales. They commonly occur during chord changes. The way of wor0ing in your guitar playing 2 am about to show you will help you see the cause of fluffed notes in your general approach to guitar playing. The first step is to slowly and deliberately play through the passage or chord change that is giving you problems. Your aim here is to play through the passage once without your recurring mista0e. 2t does not matter how slowly you play, as long as your chord change or series of notes is heard without the mista0e. The next step is to fire up your metronome at a slow speed and twea0 it until you 0now at what metronome setting you can play the passage perfectly.

Now go bac0 a couple of bars in the piece you are playing or if you are learning the chords in a song, start playing a little before the problem change happens. 4tart your slow, deliberate playing here and continue on until you find some 0ind of natural pause or ending that occurs after where your mista0e happens. 4o the idea is you are playing up to and past your problem area. Now clear a small area on a table and put ten coins on it in a row. O0ay, now start up the metronome and play the section of the piece or song as 2 described above. 2f you do it without the fluffed note, separate a coin from the row by moving it to another part of the table. 5eep repeating the passage. 2f you ma0e a mista0e of any 0ind, not 6ust your original recurring fluffed note, move all the coins bac0 to the row. Your aim now is to play the passage ten times in a row perfectly, without any mista0es of any 0ind including the ones that occur due to fatigue. This way of improving your guitar playing expands your perception of yourself as a guitarist and opens up a way for your mista0es to guide you in your pursuit of perfection. 2f you ma0e a mista0e on the tenth time you must start again at one. 2f you cheat you only hurt yourself. This method of practice is very effective. "hen used correctly it does the following7 2t is a tool for focusing your mind.

There is a clear and concise short term goal to concentrate on which is playing the problem area correctly. 8s you move coins over, you become more focused and concentrate because you don9t want to ma0e a mista0e and start over again. This method, practiced correctly, yields consistency. You have ta0en a problem, corrected it and are now able to play it perfectly at least ten times in a row. That9s an accomplishment. This method ta0es a problem and uses it to ma0e you a better player. 4o that9s it: 8 simple techni1ue which will yield excellent results. Techni1ue serves the music so as you use this method do it as musically as possible.

How To Hol& The Guitar

Your guitar practice is made up of many sessions of slow, careful practice of chord changes, scales and plectrum stro0es or finger pluc0ing. The very first step is to fix things so your guitar practice goes as smoothly as possible. The reality is that for many people buying a guitar is the first step to years of chronic shoulder and bac0 pain due to too much tension and no understanding of how to support the guitar while trying to play it. The first days and wee0s are a sharp and uncomfortable learning curve for a beginning guitarist. The left hand fingers get sore from pressing on the strings and the body as a whole experiences discomfort while it gets used to hours of sitting in one position ma0ing unfamiliar hand and finger movements. &irst you need to sit on a stool or at least a 0itchen chair without arms. 2f it has a hard wooden seat, put a cushion on it. During your time sitting in this chair you will be more or less constantly chec0ing your posture. This does not mean sitting in a rigid, artificially upright position. ;ust be aware of when you are leaning forward or slumping. The more you simply ta0e note of how you are sitting the more your body will
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ta0e its own steps to correct and maintain a healthy sitting position. 2f you are right handed you will be fretting notes with your left hand. Your thumb should be at the bac0 of the guitar nec0, and your fingers should be positioned above the strings in a totally relaxed position. 2f you use a plectrum you need to spend some time experimenting with different ways of holding it so you can find a comfortable and relaxed playing position. 2f you are going to be using your fingers to play the guitar, again relaxation is the 0ey. There are many different ways for the right hand to attac0 the strings and you need to carefully ta0e note of any drawings or photographs you have available to show you at which angle your hand should be in relation to the position of the guitar. No matter whether you use a plectrum, classical picardo stro0e, rest stro0e or clawhammer playing, avoid resting the right hand on the guitar. 2t needs all the freedom it can get.

How To +e)ori,e The Guitar Fretboar&

"ould you li0e to memori,e the guitar fretboard< "ould you li0e to be a fluid, adaptable guitar player< 2deally, you should be able to play the guitar as easily as if you were humming or whistling. 2t might ta0e you many years to achieve this goal, or most li0ely you will be wor0ing towards it for the rest of your life, but that could be your goal. $earning the guitar fretboard will help you. "ithout 0nowledge of the guitar fretboard you will have a hard time learning how to improvise on the guitar. You need to 0now where you are putting your fingers and why. One of the benefits of 0nowing the notes on the fretboard is that it will help you to ma0e new songs your own. 2nstead of dumbly following a chord chart or sheet music you will be able to experiment with variations to notes and chords as you learn the song. 8lso if you learn a riff by ear or from guitar tablature you need to be able to transpose it to any 0ey to suit other musicians you are wor0ing with. 4o the bottom line is if you do not 0now the guitar fretboard, you are severely limited. =ut the fact is there are many, many guitarists who do not 0now the notes on the guitar fretboard. The reason is that on the face of it, it appears to be a difficult thing to do. 2f you
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are studying a 0eyboard instrument, you memori,e one octave and you 0now them all. 2t is 6ust a bunch of blac0 and white 0eys. 2f you can play a melody on the left hand end of the piano, you can also play it on the right hand end. $earning the 0eyboard is a wal0 in the par0. 4o that is your problem in a nutshell7 the guitar fretboard lac0s an obvious pattern. The way to remedy this situation is to give the guitar nec0 your own pattern in the form of whatever scale or chord you are learning at the moment. =ut we can ma0e it simpler than that. $et us ta0e the notes of the octave as they appear on the guitar beginning at the open sixth string7 > & ) 8 = ? D. This pattern repeats all the way up the guitar nec0. You 6ust need to remember that you 6ump a whole fret between all the notes except > @ & and = @ ?. 4o you have the names of the seven notes in the octave. You can play these notes all the way up the guitar by starting at > on the sixth string and going up, and then starting at 8 on the fifth string and so on. Now we have the starting point that the guitar nec0 is not lac0ing in patterns, it is 6ust that the patterns are not visible li0e they are on the piano. 4o now we can begin learning. &irst, ta0e any note, say ?, and find it on the sixth
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string in the first position, and continue on up the fretboard. Then find and play all the ?9s on all the strings, wor0ing your way up the nec0. Now that is about as much brain wor0 as you need @ 6ust finding the notes. Do not try to remember them. 8fter a few days of practicing this exercise your mind will have formed its own networ0 of associations to help you remember the positions of the notes. The next step is to find more ways to challenge your memory of the notes. You could, if you are learning to play blues, learn in your head the names of the notes in the blues scale and find where these notes are further up the nec0. Or learn the names of the notes in a particular chord and find those notes in different positions. #ere is another exercise you can try. "ithout loo0ing at the guitar fretboard, 6ust move your left hand up and down at random and play whatever note you land on. Then loo0 at where your finger is and name the note you are on. 2f you cannot name the note then use a fretboard diagram. The 0ey to this exercise is not trying to remember but 6ust letting your mind and your body remember in their own way at their own pace. 8ll you have to do is spend a couple of minutes a day at it. 2f, after a few wee0s or so, you do not see any improvement in recogni,ing the
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notes, you can give it up. Your progress in memori,ing the notes on the guitar fretboard will depend on your willingness to find more challenges for your memory. The benefits of wor0ing on memori,ing the notes will be seen within a couple of days but it might ta0e wee0s or months before you can say with confidence that you 30now the fretboard3. The alternative is to be hampered by not 0nowing the notes on your guitar as is the case with so many guitarists. You can learn how to memori,e the guitar fretboard in sixty minutes plus get a bunch of free guitar software.

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Learn How To Play The Guitar

)uitar playing may not be as easy as you thin0. 2t is a common thing to find amongst people who have learned to play guitar that even after ten years they are not a whole lot better than they were after ten months. "henever we start some pro6ect that involves training the body there is a tendency to reach a plateau and go no further. 4ometimes this situation can be 1uite embarrassing when we sit down to play the guitar and our performance is mar0ed by hesitation, fluffed notes and red faces all round. 4o does this mean we are totally hopeless and should go bac0 to air guitar< Or is there a way to practice the guitar differently so we begin to ma0e some improvement< &ortunately, there is hope. 8ll you need to do is become ac1uainted with the process involved which allows your brain to ta0e in new s0ills and information. 2n order to understand and experience how to ma0e new experiences stic0, you will need to be able to set aside a fixed amount of time each day and learn how to use that time profitably. 2f you learned to touch type on your computer you will remember that at first you made a whole lot of mista0es.

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+aybe even loo0ing at your early results made you thin0 you would never learn to type. =ut what happened< You 0ept at it because you had to, and you got better: That is really all there is to it. 2f you persevere with learning scales and chords in the face of failure, that very perseverance is what will get you through. No magic, 6ust persistence and repetition. Remember learning to play the guitar is li0e learning to wal0 all over again. You need to pay attention to the new movements you are learning and to not get too distracted by mista0es. There are no guitarists who 6ust pic0ed up the instrument and played. To become a virtuoso guitarist you will need to play for many hours every day. To learn to play chords and simple riffs and lic0s, it ta0es less time but either way, your practice must be done every day. 4o if we are learning a whole new repertoire of muscular movements we need to slow down from our usual pace. Your muscles learn much easier if you can tell your mind and your feelings to be patient because results will come slowly. 8nd the slower and more deliberate you can ma0e your movements when you are ta0ing chord fingerings and changing chords, the cleaner your playing will be. 2f you see a guitar player who cannot seem to play a barre chord without
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muffing it, it is because he never repeated that chord fingering slowly and without tension for days and wee0s. 4o you begin to train yourself to sit in a room with your guitar for a certain time each day and patiently train your body in the art of guitar playing. There are two other things you need in that room with you. Your guitar tuner and your metronome. >ven if you thin0 your guitar is in tune or you are able to ma0e your chord changes rapidly, chec0 your tuning regularly and always play using the metronome on a fairly slow speed.

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