I’ve got a student, a lovely chap called Ian, who also supports the same football (as in soccer) team as me, which is Aston Villa. Anyway, he is a retired engineer of 65ish who started playing about 18 months ago and is doing great. One of the secrets to his success is his use of his methodical engineering brain in improving his guitar skills.
It has been about 10 days since I first mentioned the 30-day habit plan which can help you establish a guitar practice routine, and here is just a quick reminder of what it is.
If you struggle with motivation or “lack of time” for playing, then try this…
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.