Few experiences tick me off more than being scammed. And I let it happen over-and-over again when I was searching for an effective instructional course for beginning guitarists.Unable to afford a guitar teacher, but burning to play my favorite hits, I set out on a quest for the best self-guided course. Store shelves and the Web are loaded with guitar lesson programs that promise quick and easy results, and, naively and with hope that a miracle would occur and I would actually be able to play with little effort, I tried several of them.
I started my quest with a boxed program that promised quick results but delivered a lot of confusing computer menus and sheet music with chords and strumming slash marks, but no real description of how to read actual music, properly form chords and change them while keeping the beat. Frustrated, I tossed it. Next was an online course that promised quick results, only to throw a roadblock on the first page of the first lesson by introducing the A chord. Might be me, but squeezing three fingers on three adjacent strings on the same fret isn't the easiest maneuver. I canceled my subscription (the company didn't make it easy) and moved on. I burned through several other boxed and online courses and was on the verge of giving up when I discovered Learn & Master Guitar.
Learn & Master Guitar is the ONLY real deal I've ever seen. The kit -- which comes with a detailed instruction book, ten well-produced lesson DVDs, and five jam-along CDs -- is like having a real instructor who lets you work at your own pace. The program's success is due to the good natured, informative instruction provided by accomplished guitarist Steve Krenz.
Krenz begins, well, at the very beginning. He explains the parts of the guitar, how to properly hold and tune the instrument and how to read tablature and chord block notation. The first lesson also introduces relatively easy -- nothing's really effortless on guitar -- C and G7 chords. The second lesson teaches basic music reading skills with single note exercises on the first string. To make it fun, Krenz shows you how to play your first song: Ode to Joy -- admittedly not "Stairway to Heaven" but a great place to take your first step toward the "Stairway."
These lessons set the tone of the entire course. Krenz methodically introduces all the notes on all six strings in the first position and dozens of chords. In a matter of months, I was able to play the songs in the first several chapters as well as simple sheet music I bought on the side. That's the coolest part of this course. Krenz doesn't just teach you how to play tab, he gives you the firm foundation necessary to be able to pick up any sheet music and make it sing.
No program on its own can teach everything you need to know on guitar. After you get the basic skills down, Krenz gives you a taste of different styles from fingerpicking to Blues to Jazz. He also spends time on music theory -- the fundamentals you'll need to grow as a musician and play with others -- and exercises to develop and refine your strumming and soloing abilities and move beyond the first position on the fretboard.
I don't know about you, but I often need more than one approach to learn a skill. To supplement Learn & Master Guitar, I bought Jamie Andreas's excellent book The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar. She doesn't teach a single song in the book, but focuses on the mental perspective and physical skills you'll need to advance as a musician. In necessarily painstaking detail she reinforces the importance of: 1) Practicing with total awareness of your mind and body and how they are relating to the guitar; 2) Sitting and holding the guitar; 3) Being aware of tension and releasing it before can harm your body; and 4) Moving with precision before sounding each note or chord. I use all of these fundamentals every time I pick up my guitar.
I am especially grateful to Andreas for reminding me in The Principles and another of her excellent books The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm that teaching your body to strike a note or chord incorrectly means your body will do it incorrectly every time. Slow the movement down into its components and teach your fingers the right way to interact with the guitar and you will develop the skills necessary to play well with consistency and progress as a guitarist.
Believe it or not, I also used ukulele playing to overcome a problem I was having moving from chord to chord while keeping the beat and singing. Ukulele master Ralph Shaw has a number of instructional DVDs. I bought The Complete Ukulele Course for Kids and Essential Strums for the Ukulele and in a matter of weeks was able to play and sing (I didn't say well) while keeping the beat. Admittedly ukulele is a lot easier to play than guitar and the chord shapes aren't the same, but I was able to apply the skills I learned on uke to the guitar with amazing ease.
I've been on my guitar quest for a couple of years and I've truly enjoyed it every step of the way. I credit that to the excellent instructors named in this posting who insist from the start that we all learn skills correctly before moving on. The best way to tell whether an instructional program is legitimate is to read the promotional materials. If they mention the word "easy," don't buy the lie.
NOTE: Beginner guitarists can benefit from having a good quality instrument set up well. If you go too cheap on the guitar, it won't stay in tune, which leads to frustration. Also make sure the guitar you buy is set up correctly. If the action -- the distance between the strings and the neck -- is too high, take it to a guitar store and have a tech set it up properly. Otherwise you will constantly fight to fret notes and potentially damage your fingers and hand. The Seagull S6 is an excellent beginner guitar that shouldn't break your bank.
See you Thursday, November 26th, for Five Fundamental Photo Tips...
