Personal Guitar Training

Anyone that might have a Cajon they might want donate or sell to the church please let me know?
Sid

Shout out to all my guitar students & friends! I had the blessing of seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan live 4 times in my life. He influenced my playing and desire to share music as a teacher! Music can remind you of a feeling, a place, or a person. What musician influenced you the most? Better yet what song takes you back to a special place? I love hearing for my friends and students

Don't quit playing guitar, success is right at your fingertips!

Do you ever feel like quitting guitar and just selling all your equipment? Do you ever feel like everyone is better than you? In playing guitar for over 25 years, I’ve wanted to give up and quit many times but by sticking in there I’ve found that success is just a step or two away. You’re never far from getting to the next level.

If you are a beginner and are taking lessons with a guitar teacher, if he or she has a strategic plan in place for you to make consistent progress and if you practice for about 20 minutes a for 5 to 7 days a week then you will see consistent progress. You should be building a list of songs and have several songs that you can play in your first year start to finish with good timing.
If this is not the case you need to reassess your plan.

Check out my two posts on How to Choose A Guitar Teacher (1, 2). They will help you pinpoint problems and determine if it’s the teacher or if it’s something you are doing or not doing to delay your success. Intermediate and advanced players have a different set of challenges and usually more complex lessons so it takes a little more practice time and sometimes a few lessons on the same topic hitting it from different angles.

No student should have to go home and guess at what or how to practice for the week. It should be detailed and broken down and suggestions for minimum time on each idea. What you don’t want is just an accumulation of information. We want musical application. If I learn a fingerpicking pattern, can I play a song with it. Moving from chord to chord with no breaks. There is methods of how to practice to be able to learn this skill. It's not about natural talent for the vast majority of people.

It's learning a skill. Pure and simple. Do the right thing enough times and you will have a new skill on guitar whether it's Improvisation, finger tapping or playing complex jazz chords. Information is needed but application of information is what is critical to your progress.

You can have all the potential in the world but if you don’t use it, it amounts to nothing. There is nothing in the world that can beat hard, consistent work. What if you had the potential skills of Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan, but never practiced? How far would you go? Natural talent would give you an initial jump start but over the long haul it’s the work, the practice that you put into the guitar that determines if you will be a great guitar player or not.

I’ve spoken to some great players and they all have practiced for countless hours for years. That’s what makes the difference. The average player doesn't need to do that. It's about consistency. What if you just want to strum and fingerpick songs and are happy doing that? It doesn’t take 5 hours a day of practice but it does take consistent daily practice. You can only perform as well as how you practice.

I’ve seen many students come to me with a playing problem that maybe they’ve had this issue and not been able to overcome it for years and in a few weeks of practicing it like I show them to remove what’s holding them back.
You have to persevere, and you have to commit to finding a teacher, trusting that teacher and get to work on getting better on the guitar. Think about if you could never pick up your guitar again in your life. Make a commitment in your heart that, “I’m going to stick this out.” Whether you are a child or adult, the guitar can teach you and help develop one of the greatest qualities a person can have: NOT QUITTING!

The quality of not quitting, that’s what perseverance is. Many times I wanted to quit, but my love of the instrument and wanting to know how it works kept me going. To really know your instrument takes a long time. But to strum songs, finger pick, and play some Blues rhythms and solos doesn’t take 10 years. You can even practice 5 minutes a day and improve if limited on time in the week.

There is really no excuse: you should always be getting better. Be consistent. If you have the right teacher, the right program and you do the program, you will improve every day. The weeks turn into months and the months turn into years and all of a sudden you are really playing your instrument with confidence, knowledge and skill. It's a really, really great feeling!

Or sometimes it's even a lot shorter process for some. I’ve had students come back and say many they had a family member walk in on them playing and thought it was a record, they couldn’t believe they were playing that well. This was in a series of months, not year
Remember, when the day is over it's over. Put the time in and practice and you will be rewarded!

Keep playing and have fun,
Sid

Guitar pedals are one of the funnest and favorite things we buy as guitar players. I've spent thousands on these little boxes and am still intrigued by them.

Guitar pedals is a science unto itself and a book 100's of pages could be written on the details of pedals, using pedals in different combinations, the sounds of various famous players rigs and on and on. I want to address and try to make it as simple as possible to read this, hook your pedals and get a quality sound. It always takes a bit of experimentation.

The first thing to do is to get a good clean sound. Plug your guitar into your guitar amp at the volume you will be playing whether it's home, a club or studio. Set your guitar on a pickup that's not too bassy and not too trebly. Don't use neck or treble pickup. I would have my guitar volume on 10 for full signal strength.

Make sure you are using a quality guitar cord. I think for the value, you can't go wrong with George L cables. I've tried several cables that were over a $100 a piece and did not feel they were so much better to justify the extra cost. I was ever sponsored by a cable company and sent a cable that was a value $130. Liked the George L better. This is all my own opinion, all I'm saying is try things but if you buy a cable for a $100 make sure you can send it back if you don't like it.

Now you should have a good quality full clean sound for your rig. Add in one pedal at a time. Maybe you'll try a Compressor first. I'm going to write some blogs on individual settings for pedals at a later date. This article is going to address things generally so get you up and running quickly.

The next biggest thing is to set the volume level of the pedals even or what's called unity gain to the volume level of your amp. Play your guitar rig then hit the pedal and make sure the volume is similar. Could be a desired effect to boost your rig but that's not the idea here. I like to put Compression pedal up front. It's my first pedal after a tuner.

Overdrive pedals are next in line. I like to have 2 Overdrive sounds, one for a moderate OD for a Blues sound and one with a heavier OD or possibly Distortion for a Rock sound. I like pedals with true bypass sound cleaner to me.

Next I like a Chorus pedal which I mostly use for a clean sound on ballads. To thicken up the sound a bit. Next I place my Delay pedal in line. I use a longer delay with about 4 repeats for lead solos. Not too prominent but just to make the guitar sound bigger. There are many, many ideas for each of these pedals but we're just trying to get a high, quality basic sound. Again, there so many ideas, methods and choices here and things may vary a bit depending on the style of music you're playing.

This article more for players that are trying to decide how to put a rig together, what pedals to buy, how to get most needed and used sounds. Generally I get Reverb from an amp but if you have a non reverb amp then you'll need a Reverb pedal. In my opinion to get started I would get a Tuner,Compressor, Blues OD, Rock OD or Distortion, Chorus, Delay and Reverb. You can do gigs with this and build from here. Other pedals you'll want to add in the future is Wah Wah, possibly a Volume pedal. Phase Shifter, Flanger and Tremelo.

If you're on a budget check out the Boss pedals (very durable pedals and can take a beating) they have great videos on You Tube showing the sounds you can get and settings. Xotic makes some affordable pedals I think that a couple notches above Boss. We need to attach the pedals to something sturdy and durable. I believe for convenience and price, the Pedaltrain boards and cases are great.

I had a student who was playing with a band and had a small budget to buy a few pedals so I told him for the music he was playing to get a Comp, Blues OD and Delay. He actually had a gig on a Sat and we did a one hour lesson and got his whole rig set and I wrote down the settings on his amp and each pedal in case something got changed. He played the gig and text me that night how the band couldn't believe how good he sounded. And because his rig sounded so good he was playing better.

TUNER----COMP----BLUES OD----ROCK OD-----CHORUS----DELAY----REVERB

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid

One of the best skills you can develop is to memorize what you are doing on guitar. Whether it's a chord progression or a lead solo. When I learned these methods I really start being able to play much better and learn a lot quicker. I remember at one point people hearing me and saying, what are you doing, your playing really sounds great. Even other guitar players commented on my “new” sound.

A great way to get started is to break a song into parts and number them. Then play each part slowly and separately over and over. I'll work on Part 1 for a few minutes, stop, then start working on Part 2. Then when I get them going real well separately I'll slow down and play them back to back. Here's a great example of a Jimi Hendrix song.

For example, just the intro guitar lick in Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix I break down into 4 parts. Part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. And sometimes if there's difficulty I'll break a part into sub parts. You want to be able to play a few notes or a couple of chords right each time at a slow speed. Make sure you fix or clean up parts that give you difficulty. Stop, isolate and figure out how to fix it.

Visualization-Closing your eyes and picturing the guitar neck and what your hands are doing. It takes a little getting used and be sure to do in short periods. See the neck and picture what you are doing. Really know what fret and string you are playing on and what scale you are using if it's a solo. It's also helpful to know the note you're playing by name and more importantly is it a Root, or a 3 or a 5. That's called Scale degrees. Is it a 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, 6, 7, b7 or whatever scale degree is being played.

Another great song that you can break down into smaller parts is Hotel California. 8 Chords on the verse. Break it down to the first two chords and test if you can change them easily and quickly. Then start adding chords. If you come a chord you're unfamiliar with or it's hard changing from the chord that precedes that, stop and work on that change. Don't keep playing through it hoping it will get better.
It also has 4 solo sections. I'll play Section 2 or Part 2 without playing 1, 3 or 4. I don't want to just always be able to play in sequence. It really tells me if I know that section or not. I won't get lost.

Play the piece for a friend or relative to try it out. Or record it, can even use your phone or a looper to hear what you're doing.
Have a list of songs and review them enough to be able to pick up the guitar and play without thinking about it. Repertoire, Review and Repetition is key to being a great musician.

One of the big ideas is to pay attention when you practice. Watch what your hands are doing, do you feel tension in your shoulders or are you holding your breath? When making chords watch where your fingers are coming from and going to. Can I play it 5 to 7 times with no mistakes. Ask questions while you're practicing. Paying attention while you're playing will help tremendously. You'll start to fix problems you didn't notice before.

Muscle memory alone is not enough to guarantee that you will play it right every time, we also need a couple other types of memory..

1 Muscle memory-playing something physically correctly over and over so it's almost automatic and you don't have to think about it much.

2 Auditory memory- knowing what the part sounds like. So if you do play something wrong you hear it and can correct it.

3 Mental memory-Knowing all the note names, the scale degrees and location of the string and fret which is visual. There's more ideas than this but this is a great start;
Playing from memory allows you to play with emotion rather then playing in a robotic way. Can you close your eyes and see your hand playing the part on the guitar neck?

Using and applying these pro level guitar practice methods will help to get better and better on guitar and you'll learn to play things faster. Practicing this way starts to have a sort of a snowball effect and the result is you will become the guitar player always wanted to be!

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid

The Do's and Don't s of Jamming

What is jamming? I'm going to explain mainly about if you go to club that has a band and they're doing a Blues jam night, you sign up on their list and are called up to perform one or two songs with the band. But these ideas really work and can be applied everywhere. Even if you want to join a band.

FUN- First and foremost is to have fun, have a good time. This is not a guitar player competition. Keep the right attitude and do your best to be musical and play things you feel good about. If you're somewhat new to the process of soloing or improvisation then stick with what you know sounds good. It's really okay to repeat yourself when you're playing, the greats do it, believe me. And the next point will help a lot with being able know how you really sound.

RECORD YOURSELF-You can even do this on a phone. Get some backing tracks or make your own of the songs you want to play. Learn some rhythm's and if ready learn some leads and then record and listen as if you were the audience. Did you tell a story or was it just a bunch of disconnected notes? Do you feel anything when you are playing? If you felt some emotion then surely the audience felt it too. What do you like and what don't you like about your guitar playing.? Just like a speaker prepares for what they are going to say, you should have some licks already worked out that you know will work and be musical and be able to do variations on them. Remember, a recording don't lie.

KNOW YOUR SONG-Be ready to tell the band, what song, the version of the song and the key? Sometimes one version is more popular than another and can be very different. Make sure the band knows what version you're talking about. Generally you'll play 2 choruses for the solo. That's very general, find out the rules. Can you signal that you want to go for another? I've been in jams where it was supposed to be 2 solos around and they took a third but the other guitarist came in after 2 choruses. It was a bit of a train wreck. Of course always be tuned up and ready before you start playing.

DON'T CRANK UP YOUR AMP-You're better off playing a little lower than louder. You'll just make everyone else get louder and then it's just overbearing. Nobody has fun when it becomes volume wars. First and foremost make sure you can hear bass and drums clearly and turn up the guitar to blend with them.

PRACTICE PLAY STANDING UP-If you've never played guitar standing up and you are planning to perform this way then be sure to practice playing while standing and be comfortable doing it. If you raise you guitar up a bit, it makes it easier to play. Try it and see what you think. Check out what it looks like in a mirror. You need a guitar height between cool and can be able to play really comfortably,

LISTEN, LISTEN AND LISTEN SOME MORE-Pay attention to what everyone else is playing then adjust what you play. If someone is doing a Blues shuffle and there are 3 guitarists then play less. If you're the only guitarist then there's a lot more room for you to play. If you don't know how to do this or how to lock in with the bass and drums find a good guitar instructor to teach you this.

SELF INTERFERENCE-If you go with the attitude of fun and not trying to impress it will help relieve the pressure of performing. But I know from experience that we can have many negative, doubtful thoughts in our minds as we're playing. How could you play well if you're thinking about hitting a bad note, or forgetting maybe some set licks you had to play on a song or just the thought that why am I even up here, I don't belong here. Or comparing your playing to someone a lot better than you and they have about 3,000 hours more practice than you. One thing I can guarantee is you won't be able to play well with all that static in you mind. Clear it out and just listen to your notes as you play them. Play a little slower and choose your notes. Always, just do your best. Audiences can tell when someone is trying to do their best or if they're showing off and trying to act like the second coming of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

RESPECT THE STAGE-This a big world but very few can get up on a stage and play/perform from a quality standpoint. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of know how and a lot of experience doing it. Doing it so it becomes like breathing. The greatest entertainers always make it look so easy. And it is easy to them because they've eliminated all the things they don't want to do and do all the right things. How you practice is how you perform.

PRACTICE IN A MIRROR-There are many reasons to do this. One is to check and make sure your shoulders are not up around your ears and creating tension. A lot of public speakers practice in the mirror so they can see what their presentation looks like to others. Try to naturally work out some facial expressions or body gestures to go with notes you’re bending or trying to emote. Many of the greats did this. With all the video capabilities many up and comers film their rehearsals and evaluate. It's even in a movie documentary about Michael Jackson. It just helps so you know how you're presenting yourself. Do you look comfortable? Does your body and face say what the music is saying? Even trying this just a bit will make you a better performer.

I know from teaching guitar and performing for so long that almost every one who picks up a guitar either secretly or openly wants to play music with a group of other musicians and also play in front of
audience. Most guitar players even the greats suffer from performance anxiety. If you try these ideas and use them, you will be able to get up with a band and perform. I've helped many guitar players over the years to conquer this. Then it becomes fun and will become a much better guitar player than if you never did it. These ideas worked for me as I used to have panic attacks on stage years ago. Now it's a joy to play music for others and for myself. If you need help with this reach out to me.

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid

The Joy of Playing Guitar or NOT

I can remember wanting to be able to play guitar for years before I ever owned a guitar. Hearing sounds coming across the speakers that I knew I wanted to make those sounds too and make my own sounds.

Many of us feel this way. At some point we probably buy a guitar and try to learn how to play. Today, many are trying to learn from books, videos and the internet but the vast majority just create bad habits or can't play a song all the way through or poor timing, the list goes on and on.

Very few people can actually teach themselves and the ones that do spend many hours a day. I am able to get my guitar students to play well, moving chord to chord, with good timing in just 15 minutes a day.

If you have the right method it takes a lot of the frustration out of learning the guitar. We don't want to lose the joy and excitement that we had when we first picked the guitar up. We want that excitement and fun factor to increase..

After 30 years of playing I love playing more now than I ever have. I love learning new songs and new ideas. And I still use all of the ideas of how to practice that I teach my students. When learning something new, we have to play slowly and accurately and in small pieces. I can't play it ripping fast unless it's something that's familiar to my hands. That's how our minds and muscle memory work..

Unless it's something my hands are somewhat familiar with. It takes a bit of time to build muscle memory to where it's on auto pilot and we're not adding tension.
Some ways we lose this joy and it isn't fun anymore is because we just keep playing all the same things. And we don't really play it all that well.

Record yourself playing, even if it's on your phone and you'll be able to hear your playing as others hear it. Learn a new style, if you only play rhythm, then learn some lead guitar, or learn why you are doing what you are doing with Music theory.

The guitar is unlimited as what you can learn. If you've never really learned an efficient practice method of how to continually get better, then find a good guitar teacher and learn it. Maybe writing songs would stoke your desire and increase the fun factor and recording it.

I found over many years that I have to compete with myself and top what I've previously done. Going to another level keeps me happy about what I'm doing and not comparing myself to others. Don't compare your playing to anyone else. Comparison can really take the wind out of your sails to where you think I'll never be that good so what's the use.

And then you procrastinate and while others are improving you don't practice. Just keep finding out what the next step is to get a little better and each year you'll improve and in a few years you'll be good and maybe many years later you'll be great!

I had many students that are playing things they thought were not even achievable for them. That's why I love to teach guitar.
If you have been playing for a few years and have learned and followed the path I'm talking about here then look back to when some of the things you are playing today didn't even seem doable a short time ago. I try to assess my guitar playing, vocals and equipment each year and try to improve in each of those areas.

Enjoy the process, each time you learn a song or a new lick stop and admire what you just accomplished. It's nice to have goals but if we don't give ourselves credit and are always thinking about the next song or guitar lick we won't feel like we really can play.

If you were an artist and painted something that took some skill, would you as soon as you finish it throw it in the corner not look at it and then pick up another easel and start on a new picture? No way. You would go back every once in awhile and admire your painting.

We need to admire our playing and any improvements we're making no matter how small or large. I believe if you really get what I'm saying here you'll be a lot happier playing guitar and will always continue to grow and improve. There are great rewards waiting for you if you maintain the right attitude!

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid

The number one skill guitar players need is ear training. And this may be the most neglected skill for guitar students. Why is ear training so important? Because it can limit what you can play and learn on the guitar. Really hearing what you are playing connects you mentally and emotionally to what you are playing.

As I'm playing a solo I'm singing the notes of what I'm playing. It makes the difference between moving our fingers and really playing music that we emotionally connect with and hopefully our audience connects with.

If you ever want to be able to figure songs by yourself you'll need to develop how you hear music. Can you hear the differences between major and minor chords? If a note in a solo was just higher or lower than the note that was just played? Can you tune your guitar by ear? There are so many skills, yes these skills that can be learned.

Everyone has the ability to improve their hearing of music with training. It's usually for most students a hit and miss process and a lot of repetitious listening. Only a very small percentage of musician's are gifted with perfect pitch. Hearing the notes and chords with no instrument to check it, it's a person listening and they just know what notes or chords are being played. Sort of like people that have a photographic memory. Perfect pitch is not a common phenomena. Just like a photographic memory./

Some sounds will just naturally get in your ear by just playing them over and over. If you hear a blues shuffle 50 times and someone tells that's a blues shuffle you'll start to recognize when you hear a blues shuffle.

Kind of like if you were in a room with 50 people and you talked to maybe 30 of them, but you spoke to one person at length. Say that person called you'd that night you would more than likely recognize their voice. It's about familiarity, hearing the sound for long enough to remember it. A lot of it is how familiar are the sounds to you and then to categorize the sounds, label them.

Ear training on guitar can be frustrating because many times you can't tell whether you're singing the note correctly. But it takes time, don't give up. It will improve and at some point you will start getting more answers right than wrong. Maybe you're hearing the note but your vocal cords can't yet shape the sound. You can't sing what you hear. That takes time sometimes too.

If you've been playing guitar for awhile and have learned some strumming, maybe some fingerpicking, some Blues or Rock licks and rhythm's and several songs. Then it's time to start working on your building a good ear. Take it slow. You'll have to probably look at it every 6 months and asses your progress.

Here's how to do it. Start with one note, that's right one note. You have to be able to match the pitch of one note on guitar. Play a note on your guitar, preferably within the first 5 frets. Depending if you have a male or female voice, play a note low enough for your singing range. Play the note a few times.

Let the note kind of hang for a second or two. Really listen to the sound. Then either sing or hum the note. You can sing La if you like. If it seems like it's not working after a few minutes then take a break that day. You want to feel that you are blending, resonating with the note. Start out at about 5 minutes a day. If it seems easy then move on to singing the Major Scale. Sing it with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Sing 1-8 and backwards 8-1. This is a great start and if you are having trouble keep trying. Don't give up!

This is one of the areas of guitar that we often don't know enough about or avoid. Start to today and you'll be happy you did. The first time you hear something on the radio without the guitar in your hand and you know what they just played is a very big reward!

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid

Don't fear these things, Guitar Players!

From teaching so many different age groups, genders and skill levels I realize most of us have the same fears when it comes to practicing guitar, improving and performing. When first started I remember taking a few lessons and really being afraid of making a mistake.

I knew that I would make mistakes but I was focusing on what I was playing wrong and not giving myself credit for what I was playing right. Usually, we play a lot more right notes then wrong ones. This is an irrational fear. Why do we fear playing wrong notes, because we don't want people to criticize, insult or knock us about our playing.

Sometimes in a bargain bin you can find cheap CD's that have some of the greats like Hendrix and Santana and they were recorded maybe noodling around in a studio, searching for a sound or in a club and they don't sound anything like the polished studio products. They are great players and I'm not knocking them but we all have off nights or off playing.

We can not be afraid of mistakes. With the right guitar teacher, the right learning system you can get better and better over time to where you rarely hit bad notes or make frequent mistakes. I've worked with tons of students and have seen this result over and over.

If you watch a great player and they happen to hit something wrong they don't make a big deal about it because they know the next 2000 notes will be right on. We need to give ourselves credit. Feeling uncomfortable is part of the process. Something I learned a long time ago after becoming frustrated is that there's no such thing as perfection but we can certainly achieve excellence. Strive for excellence.

It took me a much longer time to achieve my dream of being a full time musician because I wouldn't step out in faith even though I knew I was more than good enough and was being told by many. I was holding myself back with thinking the deadly, “but what if I fail”? It paralyzed me.

Then I was offered a position in one of the top working bands in New Orleans and didn't even know a lot of the cover music they were doing but decided to jump in the deep end. I was with that band for almost 15 years and we would travel to Las Vegas twice a year to play big casino's and met a lot of great people along the way. Focus on what you are doing right validated by a good guitar teacher and then fix what's not working.

I teach a lot of professional business people who always wanted to play guitar, may have tried and it didn't work or they just decide later in life and make it a part of their bucket list. Whatever the reason and I've had a 72 year old student who never played before learn to play chords, strum and finger pick, all with good timing. Age is irrelevant.

What you want is a very patient, thorough guitar teacher that will lay it out so you can learn move by move and see that just repeating those moves will get you success. I had a students travel 5 hour round trip to do lessons with me. He had taken lessons for 9 years on a weekly basis and was so frustrated because he could play basic blues like he wanted.

We cleared up in the very first guitar lesson how to play a blues shuffle and got into some basic lead guitar. He told that lesson was more productive then all the previous lessons he had. I know how awesome it feels to play guitar, even simple things and want others to be able to do it too. Don't hesitate, start today. If you wait, all that happens is you get older!

I think getting over the fear of playing in front of people is easier today than ever. I have a blog about Stage Fright but I want to quickly point out a couple concepts here that are game changers. Don't play anything that you are not certain about. Be able to play it repeatedly without mistakes before performing.

Check yourself by videoing yourself with your phone., It will give you a representation of how you sound and look to others. Make sure you simulate the setting as much as possible that you will be playing in. Using the same guitar, will you play standing or sitting, going through an amp. Get all the logistics worked out.

Maybe it's just an acoustic mic night. Make sure you know how you hear your self. Through an amp or monitor. If you've never played through an amp and you step up and play could be quite a shock at how every note is filling the room. Can be quite disconcerting even disorienting. Are you playing with someone and have you worked out the parts. All of this can save a performance from becoming a train wreck. Try to think ahead.

No situation is going to be ideal., If your performance doesn't come out like you were anticipating then don't beat yourself up. Learn from it, analyze what went wrong and try not to repeat the same things in the future. That's how you gain experience and confidence. I am still constantly learning how to do things better on guitar many years later.

Keep playing and have fun,

Sid