What's one thing you can do TODAY to improve your guitar playing?

Focusing on one thing at a time.

Sometimes learning to play guitar is really overwhelming. There are chords, notes, scales, arpeggios, theory, the circle of fifths, and the list goes on. A common beginner problem is trying to do too many different things and once and becoming overloaded with information. I've got students who surf the internet for info, then wonder how they're going to learn all that stuff. Playing guitar is a time art, it's not something that you learn in a short period of time. Finding a guitar teacher to help you sort things out is a good first step.

Finding the one thing to focus on.

Be honest with yourself, and assess your skills so far. There's no need to learn barre chords if you can't play simple open position chords, there's no sense in learning theory until you have a basic understanding of music, you get the idea. Deciding what type of music you want to play will be the easiest indicator of what you should focus on first. If you want to play the guitar and sing, practice chords. Don't buy a chord book and try to memorize 100 different chords, get a song with 3 or 4 chords and learn to play it at the correct speed, with no time lost between chord changes. Too many times a beginning guitar student will proclaim a song finished when it still needs lots of work. Do you want to play lead guitar? Start out with one basic scale pattern and explore it. Play a simple pentatonic scale and try out different note combinations. Once you know where the notes are, try to play something that sounds musical.

The main thing is to be advancing your playing and moving forward.

Learning to Play By Ear

How do you learn to anticipate what chord's coming next?

It's called ear training, and like everything else it takes time and practice. The best way to start is to listen to songs that have mostly guitar, and are easy, beginner songs. If you can find a simple recording of folk, country or bluegrass songs, and if there aren't keyboards, electric guitars or too many instruments, it's fairly easy to get started. The first step is to just listen to the songs and try to hear when the music or chords change. Most of the time it's pretty easy to hear, and if you're having trouble, listen to the bass player if you can. When the chords change the bass will usually do some kind of a walk or bass run to transition to the next chord.

Once you can hear the chord changes, get your guitar and try to play along

I hear the same thing all the time; "I'm tone deaf," I can't carry a tune in a bucket," I just don't have a good ear," and on and on. A surprisingly small number of people are truly tone deaf, most have just not been trained or not exposed to that much music. Beginning guitar students almost always have a difficult time at first, so don't be discouraged if you can't pick up your guitar and start playing along. When I try to figure out a song, I try to figure out either a note or a chord that matches what they're playing. After that, it's trial and error or using a basic understanding of music theory to figure out the rest.

Music Theory, the circle of fifths, and how music goes together

Here's where finding a good guitar teacher can help. If you're still having trouble playing by ear, the next step is getting help. Read up on music theory, have someone explain the circle of fifths, and/or harmonized scales. With a little basic knowledge you'll find that figuring out songs becomes much easier. Next time we'll discuss why music teachers use the circle of fifths and how it can help develop your ear.