Last week I sent out an email with 3 thoughts about guitar, music, and life, and it went down well, so here is another. Three things I have noticed this week, from the new song Van Morrison wrote to a common practice habit it’s time to break. I hope you enjoy…
Many of you may be looking for guitar practice tips on how to be more disciplined about picking up your guitar and playing. Us human beings certainly are creatures of habit.
We often take comfort in doing the same things each day and each week.
The other day I had to do a little plumbing and clear out the blocked “u-bend” in the sink. Yuck! DIY is not really my forte, but I got there. How does this relate to guitar fingerpicking patterns, you ask? Well, it made me think how lacking my toolbox is for such occasions.
There are some key guitar learning steps and sometimes people learn them the hard way. Back in 2008, I was in a band and one evening the other guitarist rocks up to practise.
He excitedly said to us, “Guys you will never believe what I just bought. I got this awesome guitar for 30 quid on eBay.”
He then pulls out this pretty looking, sparkling Les Paul replica.
I’m thinking of starting a new little feature of three things that relate to guitar playing in some sort of way, such as three guitar playing tips, and doing this each week.
It could be fun and hopefully, it will help you in a few ways as well as give you some tips and insights into what has been happening in my life and teaching studio lately.
I get asked a bit about arthritis prevention and guitar playing by students.
Mostly how can I help people become better guitarists when they suffer from it?
As many of you know, arthritis is not a pleasant thing to suffer from.
I am no doctor and don’t give medical advice on such things, but one thing I preach is that prevention is better than cure – this applies to arthritis prevention when playing the guitar as well.
One of my favourite films of all time is Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I remember watching it as a kid with my dad on VHS – I was probably only 8 at the time (and the film had a 15 rating here in the UK, so he might be mortified if he knew I told you this!) It is a great film and in it, there is a scene that reminds me of how it feels to play guitar each day and is a great reminder of the importance of guitar warm-up exercises.
I just came back from a great little 4-day holiday in Devon, in the south of England.
There was one thing that stood out to me while I was there, and it was something that reminds me of the journey of learning guitar.
This may be a familiar story to many of you.
One day, you tell yourself:
“Right I’m going to learn the notes on the fretboard once and for all”.
Here is a great story from Greek mythology.
It is about a nasty trickster and deceitful king, called Sisyphus.
Sisyphus was not a good king.
He killed guests who came to his palace and even tricked and deceived Thanatos (Death)…
Which, of course, angered the great god, Zeus.