If you ever watch another guitarist and think… “I could never do that”.
Then you are probably selling yourself short.
I say that because, with enough focus and practice, you can do so much on the guitar, and possibly more than you might believe right now.
I’ve seen it with many students.
Other times though, when you watch a band, it might be a case of “appearances being deceptive”.
For example, in my latest YouTube video, I was doing a little workout video on chord changes.
During part of the workout, I play a mini three-string version of the F Major chord.
Today, I had a notification of a comment with someone saying it was NOT an F chord I was playing but an F Major 7.
Well, we all love being “corrected”, haha.
…But I was right, and the chord was indeed an F chord.
The way I played it made it look like an F Major 7, but I was purposely “killing off” a string to play the F chord.
I’ll have to banish that commenter off to the Acoustic Asylum and let the Gatekeeper deal with him.
Kidding.
The truth is it did look like a F Major 7 chord and it’s easy to make that mistake.
You can watch the chord-changing workout video HERE.
Anyway, I mention this because sometimes what you see isn’t exactly what is happening.
I remember a student once feeling a little overwhelmed.
He’d been to a gig and watched a band.
…And at our next lesson, he said how the guitarists in the band were playing nothing but barre chords.
He felt like he’d never be able to do that.
Then my student went on to talk about other bands that only used barre chords.
He mentioned bands such as Nirvana.
Well, I’d already learnt plenty of songs by Nirvana and knew it was power chords and not barre chords they played.
Sometimes you can watch bands play and due to the position of the fingers, it can look like they are playing big full barre chords…
Whereas, in fact, many times they are just playing power chords (rock bands do this a lot).
As we all know, on the guitar, the tiniest movements can make all the difference.
A small shift to the left or right can be the difference between a note or chord being clear…
Or it being as dead as a doornail.
It’s worth watching the hands of guitarists when you see them – either in person, on TV, or on the internet.
Sometimes it will look next to impossible what they are playing, but when you break it down often there will be familiar patterns.
The next time you watch a player and think: “Crikey, I can’t do that”…
Remember, you might be closer to being able to play it than you think.
As always… With practice, focus, and a persistent drive to keep improving the 1% details, you are only going to keep getting better and better.
I hope that was helpful.
In other news, I’ll be opening up the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy for enrolment again very soon.
It’s been a while since it was last open (almost 3 months) and I’ll only be opening it for a short time. I know quite a few folks have been waiting patiently for this.
So stay tuned over the next few days because if you want to get my most recent book (which is a spiral-bound edition) plus other very special goodies posted to your door, then you’ll soon be able to get them.
In the meantime, talking of barre chords, if they’re something you really want to master, my course will help.
The Ultimate Guide to Barre Chords
Have a great day!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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