Now this sounds pretty straightforward, but I get asked quite often

“how do you join/start a band”?

Can you be ‘qualified‘ to make music?” asks guitar tutor John Wilmshurst.

While most people studying an instrument are happy just to learn for fun, some of you will be thinking about taking music exams.

To start this review, I strung up two very different types of guitars—one is a Fender Stratocaster (Mexican Deluxe, 1997), and the other is a Custom Silverburst Gibson Les Paul (2008).

These guitars were chosen for their distinct tonal qualities and difference in feel to play, which made them ideal for evaluating the performance of Rotosound British Steel Guitar Strings.

I know this sounds weird, but it’s true -

“if you practice at half-speed, you’ll learn twice as quickly”

Now of course, no-one’s measuring precisely but surely you would think that practising at a slower pace would take up more of your precious time and in an effort to get it all in you will have to cut corners…

I receive a lot of enquiries every month from people who are interested in having guitar lessons and they call me up in the process of checking out the local guitar tutor(s).

One of the questions I frequently get asked is “how many guitar lessons do you think I will I need”?

I receive a lot of enquiries every month from people who are interested in having guitar lessons and they email me whilst in the process of checking out the local guitar tutor(s).

I know it's early yet, but with Christmas on the way, you might be donning your battle gear ready to hit the streets in search of that perfect gift for your friends, family, other half or little rascals.  Others though, like me, are hiding under the stairs, chewing their nails and breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of the inevitable last minute Xmas eve shopping-spree handing out wads of cash to anyone, ANYBODY who can sell them something that looks remotely thoughtful.

There are some of us in the guitar playing community who just enjoy a strum every now and again (who doesn’t?) and then others who like to put a more formal structure around their playing – neither of which are really better than the other.

I do however, think that there is one detail that everyone should pay a little mind to, and that is… timing!!

So, what is timing?

(definition from google)
The choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done

So, the important words in there are choice and judgement and control.

I know this sounds weird, but it’s true –
“if you practice at half-speed, you’ll learn twice as quickly”

Now of course, no-one’s measuring precisely but surely you would think that practising at a slower pace would take up more of your precious time and in an effort to get it all in you will have to cut corners…

Well the first approach is to prioritise.
It is much more useful having the ability to play a few things well, instead of having about ten things you haven’t quite finished or can play ‘sort of’.

Having been a guitar tutor for over 18 years I have taught many different people of all ages and abilities, from budding professionals, all the way down to absolute beginners; a good portion of whom are children.

The great thing about teaching kids is that they arrive with bags of energy and absolute enthusiasm; the tricky thing, is guiding that enthusiasm and turning it into good practice without having to overuse the word ‘discipline’!

Of course, this means that by repeating something you can commit it to long term memory, which is useful when we want to remember lyrics or melodies.  Sometimes though, when performing technique for example, ‘brain memory’ just isn’t fast enough and is prone to forgetfulness so we need to employ something I call ‘finger memory’.

You would think that learning to play the guitar has never been easier, what with the internet and Youtube videos.  Music shops have shelves groaning under the weight of ‘how to’ books and DVDs of poodle-haired rock stars from the 80’s promising to reveal THE secret to learning to play the guitar, with little or no effort – like Joey from Friends, “you won’t even need a guitar!”??