Are you suffering from TMI? (Too Much Information)
There are literally thousands of resources for learning to play guitar. Beginning guitar players are being bombarded with information, opinions, learning methods, DVDs, you name it. There's really way too much to choose from, so your progress stops because you don't know who to listen to.
What should you learn first?
Some guitar teachers advise you to learn notes, some think it's chords, other think it's songs, and still others think it's technique. Here's how I approach teaching a beginning guitar student. Keep in mind that I don't engage in "cookie cutter" lessons where I teach the same way whether you're 8 years old or pushing 80.
There are things you should think about.
Even though you're just starting out, you should give some thought to what you're trying to do. For example, if you goal is to play and sing, you should probably start out by practicing chords. As soon as my students can play 4 or 5 chords I get them working on a song. It's a lot more fun to practice chords when they end up sounding like something. Don't buy a chord book with the intention of just memorizing all the chords. Unless you have a use for a give chord you're not likely to remember it.
Note reading, tabs, and chord charts.
While it's easy to find tablature, or tabs, for songs, it's still a good idea to learn at least a little about standard notation. Reading music is not as difficult as most people think it is, and there are lots of times when it's more useful. Tabs are not standardized, so most of them don't indicate rhythm. To use a guitar tab you'll need to have a recording of the song and preferably a way to slow it down. The program we use to slow songs down is: RiffMaster Pro. (Affiliate link.) The advantage to tab is that it's a number system so it's easier to read sometimes. Most songbooks come with the chords listed at the top of the 1st page and placed over the correct words.
Find yourself a teacher, at least in the beginning.
A professional, experienced teacher can help you sort through the choices available as well as answer questions. One of the problems with teaching yourself to play guitar is that it can take a long time to learn what a teacher could show you in a few minutes.
The main thing is to get started doing something!
After reading this post, I'm hoping you're ready to get started. Another negative from too much information is not knowing where to start, and putting off learning the guitar completely. Once you're on your way to playing you can make educated decisions about what to learn and in what order.
Any questions or comments? Post them below this article and I'll be happy to reply to them.
Showing posts with label guitar tablature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guitar tablature. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Are You a "Google Beginning Guitar Student"
Save money, teach yourself, it's FREE!
We have lots of new students who sign up for private lessons after becoming frustrated with trying to teach themselves guitar. There are all kinds of sites available, from free beginning guitar lessons to a course that contains videos and CDs, to membership sites that promise to teach you something new each month. Are they all worthless? Absolutely not. However, the number one thing a beginning guitar student needs is guidance. A roadmap to help you negotiate the tricky steps of learning to play in some logical order. They teach you chords, note reading, how to read tab and much more, but if you're not at least a little experienced you can be completely overwhelmed.
What should you learn first?
Getting started on guitar can be confusing because there are lots of ways to get started. You can learn notes, tabs, chords, or some combination of those. Let's look at the different ways and see how each approach would be used.
Note reading
The traditional way of getting started on guitar is to get your trusty Mel Bay, Hal Leonard or Alfred's book one and just start working through it. While reading music for guitar isn't as prevalent as it used to be, it's still useful. We recommend that our beginning guitar students with no prior music experience at least get through book one as a foundation. Most of the method books have a logical way of getting started, so if you've never played before that's a good way to get a feel for playing guitar.
Chords
When you hear someone playing and singing, most of the time they're accompanying themselves with chords, so if you're thinking about that as your reason for taking up guitar, chords are a good place to start.
Tabs or tablature; the negatives
Tab is a number system that enables you to play songs without having to be able to read music. While it's got many advantages, there are drawbacks as well. The biggest problem with tab is that no one has standardized it, so there are many markings that mean the same thing. On the surface it seems easy, but like reading music, there's still a learning curve. The other main problem is that most tabs don't notate rhythm, so if you don't have a recording of the song you're not likely to be able to get the tab to sound like it.
Tabs or tablature; the positives
The biggest positive is that it's easier to read for a lot of people. When you read notes, the symbols represent sounds, so the higher or lower the note is in the staff indicates how it will sound. In tab, the lines represent the strings and the numbers are the frets, so it does away with having to identify the names of the notes. The other positive is that it takes some of the guessing out of playing. On the guitar you can play the same note in several locations on the fingerboard, so you could possibly figure out a solo by ear and be playing it in a different place than the original artist played it.
Take your choice
Now that you know the main ways to get started on beginning guitar, just do it! Teacher, videos, member sites, or a combination can all work if you're willing to put in the time and become a true student of the guitar.
We have lots of new students who sign up for private lessons after becoming frustrated with trying to teach themselves guitar. There are all kinds of sites available, from free beginning guitar lessons to a course that contains videos and CDs, to membership sites that promise to teach you something new each month. Are they all worthless? Absolutely not. However, the number one thing a beginning guitar student needs is guidance. A roadmap to help you negotiate the tricky steps of learning to play in some logical order. They teach you chords, note reading, how to read tab and much more, but if you're not at least a little experienced you can be completely overwhelmed.
What should you learn first?
Getting started on guitar can be confusing because there are lots of ways to get started. You can learn notes, tabs, chords, or some combination of those. Let's look at the different ways and see how each approach would be used.
Note reading
The traditional way of getting started on guitar is to get your trusty Mel Bay, Hal Leonard or Alfred's book one and just start working through it. While reading music for guitar isn't as prevalent as it used to be, it's still useful. We recommend that our beginning guitar students with no prior music experience at least get through book one as a foundation. Most of the method books have a logical way of getting started, so if you've never played before that's a good way to get a feel for playing guitar.
Chords
When you hear someone playing and singing, most of the time they're accompanying themselves with chords, so if you're thinking about that as your reason for taking up guitar, chords are a good place to start.
Tabs or tablature; the negatives
Tab is a number system that enables you to play songs without having to be able to read music. While it's got many advantages, there are drawbacks as well. The biggest problem with tab is that no one has standardized it, so there are many markings that mean the same thing. On the surface it seems easy, but like reading music, there's still a learning curve. The other main problem is that most tabs don't notate rhythm, so if you don't have a recording of the song you're not likely to be able to get the tab to sound like it.
Tabs or tablature; the positives
The biggest positive is that it's easier to read for a lot of people. When you read notes, the symbols represent sounds, so the higher or lower the note is in the staff indicates how it will sound. In tab, the lines represent the strings and the numbers are the frets, so it does away with having to identify the names of the notes. The other positive is that it takes some of the guessing out of playing. On the guitar you can play the same note in several locations on the fingerboard, so you could possibly figure out a solo by ear and be playing it in a different place than the original artist played it.
Take your choice
Now that you know the main ways to get started on beginning guitar, just do it! Teacher, videos, member sites, or a combination can all work if you're willing to put in the time and become a true student of the guitar.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tablature vs Notation
Learning to play using guitar tablature (TAB for short).
We're seeing more and more music publishers using TAB as a way of showing you what to play. Learning from TAB is good news and bad news. The good news is, it's easy to learn how to read it. The lines represent strings instead of sounds, numbered from the bottom up. So in guitar music, the bottom line would be the thickest (6th) string, the top line would be the first. The numbers are the frets, and that's the basic concept. The bad news? No one's decided to standardize tab, so there's no agreement how to show timing. Most of the TAB you find either has regular notes above it, or there's no indication of rhythm at all. The other problem is that if the TAB is computer generated, there are times when it will have the right note but in the wrong position on the guitar. On guitar, unlike piano, you can play the exact same note on more than one string.
Learning to play using standard notation.
While it's an easy concept, there are lots of complications. The easy part is that the lines represent sounds and each line has a letter name. The letter corresponds with a note on the guitar. Beginning students have hard time, especially when they get to the low notes. Guitar notation is written one octave lower, so the C that we show as middle C in notation is actually 8 notes below where it would sound on the piano. As a result, all guitar notation is in treble clef, but we use lots of ledger lines which make the note reading more difficult. The good news is that standard notation is much more accurate since it's all universally the same. There are tempo markings, dynamic markings, ways to show the different positions on the guitar, and ways to notate the length of the notes.
So, which one should you use?
If you're heavily into rock or popular music, there's a good chance that TAB can work for you. Having a recording of the version of the song you're learning, and a device like the Riffmaster Pro to slow songs down, you can probably learn the song without reading music. There are even books of classical and jazz songs now that use TAB, so you may want to check it out.
Isn't it "cheating" to not learn to read music?
There are people that definitely think it's cheating, but I've always thought the best method was the one that works for you. I know how to read music and TAB, and to be honest, I usually find myself reading the notes. The best thing to do is to try out both ways and see which is most effective for you and the style of music you want to play.
We're seeing more and more music publishers using TAB as a way of showing you what to play. Learning from TAB is good news and bad news. The good news is, it's easy to learn how to read it. The lines represent strings instead of sounds, numbered from the bottom up. So in guitar music, the bottom line would be the thickest (6th) string, the top line would be the first. The numbers are the frets, and that's the basic concept. The bad news? No one's decided to standardize tab, so there's no agreement how to show timing. Most of the TAB you find either has regular notes above it, or there's no indication of rhythm at all. The other problem is that if the TAB is computer generated, there are times when it will have the right note but in the wrong position on the guitar. On guitar, unlike piano, you can play the exact same note on more than one string.
Learning to play using standard notation.
While it's an easy concept, there are lots of complications. The easy part is that the lines represent sounds and each line has a letter name. The letter corresponds with a note on the guitar. Beginning students have hard time, especially when they get to the low notes. Guitar notation is written one octave lower, so the C that we show as middle C in notation is actually 8 notes below where it would sound on the piano. As a result, all guitar notation is in treble clef, but we use lots of ledger lines which make the note reading more difficult. The good news is that standard notation is much more accurate since it's all universally the same. There are tempo markings, dynamic markings, ways to show the different positions on the guitar, and ways to notate the length of the notes.
So, which one should you use?
If you're heavily into rock or popular music, there's a good chance that TAB can work for you. Having a recording of the version of the song you're learning, and a device like the Riffmaster Pro to slow songs down, you can probably learn the song without reading music. There are even books of classical and jazz songs now that use TAB, so you may want to check it out.
Isn't it "cheating" to not learn to read music?
There are people that definitely think it's cheating, but I've always thought the best method was the one that works for you. I know how to read music and TAB, and to be honest, I usually find myself reading the notes. The best thing to do is to try out both ways and see which is most effective for you and the style of music you want to play.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Why Would I Want to Learn to Read Music?
How important is it to learn to read music?
Since more and more guitar music is being written in tablature, is it still necessary to read music? The answer is becoming more difficult, but it's never a bad idea to at least understand basic music notation. While guitar tab is getting more popular, there are still some good reasons to learn to read standard music notes. Let's take a closer look.
Tab is not standardized.
There are a few drawbacks to just learning tab, one of them being that no one has decided how they're going to show rhythm. When you buy a songbook with tabs in it, there is also standard notation showing the rhythm. If you can't interpret that and you don't have a recording of the song, your chances of learning it correctly are very low.
Tab is computer generated.
The fact that a computer is picking the notes for you means that every now and then the computer will pick the right note but not necessarily the most convenient location on the fingerboard. Since you can play the same note in several places on the guitar, it's not unusual to have the computer put the same note in different positions.
If there's a mistake in the notation, it's in the tab.
If the computer isn't picking the notes, it's easy for the person transcribing the song to simply put the number on the wrong line. We've found lots of instances where this has been the case.
My advice to beginning students.
The decision is mostly based on what type of music you want to play and how good you want to be. If you're more interested in strumming chords and singing, you may not need to read music. The same is true if your main interest is blues or rock guitar. However, if you're going to write songs, play classical or jazz guitar, or you just want to know how music works, reading music is still a valuable skill.
Since more and more guitar music is being written in tablature, is it still necessary to read music? The answer is becoming more difficult, but it's never a bad idea to at least understand basic music notation. While guitar tab is getting more popular, there are still some good reasons to learn to read standard music notes. Let's take a closer look.
Tab is not standardized.
There are a few drawbacks to just learning tab, one of them being that no one has decided how they're going to show rhythm. When you buy a songbook with tabs in it, there is also standard notation showing the rhythm. If you can't interpret that and you don't have a recording of the song, your chances of learning it correctly are very low.
Tab is computer generated.
The fact that a computer is picking the notes for you means that every now and then the computer will pick the right note but not necessarily the most convenient location on the fingerboard. Since you can play the same note in several places on the guitar, it's not unusual to have the computer put the same note in different positions.
If there's a mistake in the notation, it's in the tab.
If the computer isn't picking the notes, it's easy for the person transcribing the song to simply put the number on the wrong line. We've found lots of instances where this has been the case.
My advice to beginning students.
The decision is mostly based on what type of music you want to play and how good you want to be. If you're more interested in strumming chords and singing, you may not need to read music. The same is true if your main interest is blues or rock guitar. However, if you're going to write songs, play classical or jazz guitar, or you just want to know how music works, reading music is still a valuable skill.
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