Mega Music Talent

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Here is a new edition of this popular trumpet tutor. It has a bright new cover giving it a fresh look.

About the Author
Alan Tomlinson – experienced brass teacher and ex-trumpeter from the Halle Orchestra.

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Every day people decide to take on new hobbies. One of those hobbies is learning how to play electric guitar. This can be a daunting task and not nearly as easy as people may think. It takes years of practice to achieve the kind of talent you hear from your favorite guitarist. Several hours a day can be consumed in the quest to be the next guitar hero.

But, all that practice may be in vain if you go about it the wrong way. Too many times, an aspiring young guitarist gives up after just a short time. Either resigning themselves to a level they are never satisfied with or they quit altogether, never to play again. Usually because they become frustrated at their lack of development due to lack of instruction or lack of focus.

Endless hours of finger exercises may be part of it, but it won’t get you where you want to be on it’s own. Strumming away aimlessly will definitely not improve your skills. Playing the same three or four songs over and over might impress your friends for a while, but will eventually become boring even to yourself. So, what is the key to this most noble of quests?

Any good guitar teacher will tell you there is a sure fire way to keep yourself focused and constantly improving. That elusive secret that all new guitarists are looking for is simply, setting goals. Without goals, you have no idea what you are trying to achieve, much less how to get there. All the instruction in the world is no good without goals. It is like trying to use a map when you don’t actually know what your destination is.

The first goal you should set for yourself is a long term goal. Just how good do you want to be? Do you want to be the next Edward Van Halen, Steve Vai or Joe Satriani? Maybe you just want to be good enough to put together a band with your friends and have a good time. You may even just want to be good enough to play around and impress your friends with your new talent. That is ok too. But, it is crucial to set that long term goal for yourself so you can always evaluate where you are as compared to where you want to be.

Intermediate goals would of course be next. What will it take to achieve that long term goal? How quickly do you want to achieve it? This will help to determine how often and how long you need to practice. It will also help to determine what type of practice and exercises you need to be focusing on.

Last but not least, you should set short term goals for yourself. These can be daily or weekly goals. How long do you need to practice each day and what do you want to accomplish with that practice. These can be determined pretty easily based on the long term and intermediate goals you have set for youself.

To get more information on goal setting or other tips for learning how to play electric guitar, check out our website

Author Bio: Auggie Hill – Guitarist/Web Developer http://www.howtoplayelectricguitar.org

Ever wondered what it took for ordinary men with extraordinary music sense to reach the pinnacle of stardom. The world has witnessed the rise of many guitar players who have paved their way and reached the ultimate glory. So, what was the star material that made them the legends that they are?

Of course, it must have taken the rare combination of unmatched musical genius, immeasurable dedication and quality hard-work. They must have been through endless jamming sessions and long practice hours. After all, it’s not a joke to master this splendid skill. It’s pleasing the way, these men rose from their plain conditions and became eternal in history of musicians.

The all time great guitar stars are hard to list down; there will always be indifference for the top spots among the guitar lovers. It’s their immense amount of love and loyalty for the legends that would lead to the controversy. But there are a few names that have equal amount of following and respect among all guitar players.

Take the all time great Jimi Hendrix for instance, the kind of genius that he would demonstrate not only in his recording and films alone, but also his stage performances would create a spell-bounding effect on the audiences. Hendrix teared apart the basics of guitar playing, dazzling the listeners with a fresh approach to sound and space innovations like the use of Univibe and Octavia effect.

Few people know about the hard time that he had to go through as a child and the effort to reach perfection in his initial years. He had learned by practising almost persistently watching others play through his tips from more experienced players, and by listening to records. Hendrix started playing from the music class to the local bands and ultimately reached the point of fame. Hendrix had started with humble beginnings and had to face lots of barriers to establish his talent and success came in only after much of frustrated experiences on the ground level.

Some believe that these men did not have to do a lot of hard work, but their success was accountable to something they had a flair for. It’s easier said than done, it’s true that they did had a rare gift of musical genius but it requires a lot more than that, to be what they are.

Same could be said for B.B King, who had a revolutionary yet sophisticated style of soloing that would practically influence every electric blues guitarist that followed. King too had to face lots of difficulties and hardships and which had forced him to go back. But the maestro returned with preparation and started working with the local bands. He soon realised that he had, what it takes to be a musical wizard and he then formed his own band.

The kind of supreme conviction for his goals is something to admire. For over 50 years King has played in thousands of performances and was conferred the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. With his matchless style, King had gained visibility with the rock audiences and continued to be cherished by his numerous fans.

Another big name that comes to mind is that of Eric Clapton. It first appeared on the walls of London in1965, “Clapton is God”. Clapton started with a bang only at the age of twenty and was playing only since he was fifteen. But Clapton had already soloing with improvisational spirit that has astounded his fans and peers for forty years. He had made enormous contribution to genres such as psychadelic, blues rock and heavy metal.

Another name that’s hard to forget is that of Duane Allman. The legend’s contribution to the albums went on to become a part of rock history. Duane was motivated to guitar by his brother’s guitar playing and also by attending the concert of B.B. King whose music had promptly created a spell on him.

Allman had been a cheery light-spirited hippie all his childhood and his adult life. All these men have much in common; they have all strived hard to get to the top and had absolute conviction going all the way through exigent conditions. They not only showed their striking music brilliance they did it so effortlessly that it seemed incredibly easy.

These guitarists had an astonishing ability to express, bond with the listeners and tell rich musical tales through playing. There vibrant guitar sound integrated melody and warp and singlehandedly altered the visage of popular music. But one has to bear in mind that, the kind of power that these stars were able to exhibit was not just a matter of a few practice sessions, but it was tons of hard-work, after which success followed. Once they had achieved success it was equally demanding to maintain their places and do justice to the kind of expectations of their followers and the music community.

Author Bio: If You Like To learn How to play Guitar Click Here

The GUITAR is one of the most admired musical instruments of all times. It’s not only popular with the music-bugs, but it also tends to create a remarkable style statement. The rocking head shake style of the guitar players is so cool; it makes the audience go crazy.

Talking about the history of guitar, the use of similar musical instruments dates long back to thousands of years. The cool instrument has its roots back to Europe and central Asia. Since then the guitar has evolved aesthetically. The guitar has many forms broadly two- acoustic guitar which includes classical guitar, ten-string guitar, Portuguese guitar, Archtop guitar and many other. The other type is the electric guitar and electric bass guitar.

The guitar has well maintained its special place across the music lover’s community. I can be said that the guitar is all the rage with all almost age-groups, especially among the youth. The young music lovers aspire to learn the jamming style which seems greatly appealing and simple which indeed is not. Learning guitar takes a great deal of effort and dedication, coupled with immense passion for music which is found wanting in most cases. As a beginner player the first step should be to understand the instrument itself. . It is important for the new players to acclimatise with various parts of guitar. It means getting introduced to basic segments like the head stocks, nut, machine heads, truss rods, neck, body, pickups, electronics etc. All this is to fundamentally understand what is where and how it works. Next comes the part of holding the guitar in the right position. Guitar can be made to meet the requirements of both left and right-handed players. Traditionally, the dominant hand is assigned the task of strumming or plucking the strings. For majority of people this means using the right-hand. This is because the tune expression is largely determined by the plucking hand while the other hand is assigned the lesser mechanical work of gripping the strings. Starting with the playing, its important to build vigour and dexterity to be more like a pro, so that the gauche fingers can be moved smoothly for effortless tunes.

After being comfortable with the strings, the learner should emphasise on techniques of strumming styles, percussive strum, deadening, staccato strum, tricked out scales, hammer-on, pull offs, transposing keys, vibrato, palm muting etc. This could take a while, but the great golden rule applies here, that of practising more and more for flawless motions. After this the simple tunes can be started with and slowly going ahead with different range of tunes which cover number of chords. The basic chords are very important, once a player learns them he or she will be able to bang out a decent range of several songs. If the learner likes to be taught then e should ask a guitarist to show few basic chords, this is the best mode to learn and will go a long way. After this, taking a cue from the internet itself can help. This can be done by looking at the tablature of songs which shows where to put the finger to play the chords to a tune. It is perhaps a great way for guitar learners who can’t read music. Now, comes learning to play ‘barre’ chords. These are basically chord shapes that can be moved up and down the neck of the guitar. When a learner ‘barre’ the chord with finger, he is moving the top fret down to get in the different key. The easiest way of learning the ‘barre’ chord is by using a book and practising the shapes on the guitar and moving them up and down on the neck. For beginners the fingers get cramps and sores, but over time the hands will become stronger and fingers will develop calluses. Learning finger picking can also enhance the playing; many songs are entirely composed of finger picking. There are many different styles of it, it takes time to get comfortable with how the fingers move, but with time it will almost move by themselves. After being conversant with the guitar the most important part comes that of practise. The more a player practises; his fingers will glide smoothly and effortlessly over the neck of the guitar. As a thumb rule the best way to learn is to play that song. People who have become pros in guitar have not achieved it over-night. Of course, it has taken long hours of practice, hard-work and dedication. It is after years of good practice sessions that bring out a true guitarist in oneself. Some of the new learners find it difficult to move ahead and learn fresh and more difficult lessons but what can stop a guitarist whose true soul knows nothing but the essential ardour for music.

Author Bio: If You Like To learn How to play Guitar Click Here

Beginners can sometimes feel overwhelmed when they start learning classical guitar.  The technique, sight reading, interpretation and the whole complexity of the experience can make one feel a bit anxious about what proper steps should be taken to gain visible results.  It doesn’t help that classical music as a whole conjures up images of snobbish people that aren’t very interested in letting someone in their private circles.

Well, it’s not like that at all.  Learning classical guitar can be fun and rewarding if you keep in mind the things we will be discussing in this article. and no, it’s not mandatory to wear your tuxedo,  pull out a monocle and start speaking in a “highbrow” tone.

Jumping straight into complicated material is one of the biggest mistakes that beginners make and it leads only to frustration. Imagine for a second that you are trying to work on your car’s engine with the blueprint in front of you.  Now, if you have never taken an auto mechanic course and don’t know much about how engines work you won’t get very far. You might be able to figure out where certain parts are by looking at the blueprint but you’ll have no idea what exactly they do and how you should fix them.

If your car engine would be your guitar playing, then your blueprints would be the sheet music. But there is another component that must be brought into the mix for things to work. Either take classical guitar lessons or teach yourself using a classical guitar method such as the one by Mateo Carcassi or Sagreras.

These books have been written in such a way as to gradually give you tangible results.  Because they are method books, they teach the student in a progressive and correct way, and as a result you may find yourself tackling your favorite piece easily and with great results.  They use exercises as well as “studies” (musical pieces  devoted to teaching you a certain technique) to build your technical as well as interpretative skills. Besides teaching technique, methods also facilitate intimate knowledge of your instrument, which is just a fancy way of saying that you will know your guitar inside and out. But can you really teach yourself classical guitar? Yes, you can. Two of the greatest classical guitar players ever, Tarrega and Segovia, where self taught.

In the beginning it is a good idea to spend at least half of your practice time doing exercises.  This will help you become more limber on the guitar and you will also see great progress in the pieces you’re working on.

After you get a classical guitar method and you start working it, the next step is getting some material so you can build your repertoire.  Pick carefully so that you balance your own personal taste with the level of the piece. In other words, the piece you choose should be one that you like and at the level that you can handle technically.

You may go to a gym wanting to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, however trying to weight lift 250 pounds when you can barely get 70 pounds off the ground isn’t the way to do it.  If you do attempt it, instead of bigger muscles you will probably end up in the hospital.  It’s the same thing that’s happening when you attempt to play pieces that are way above your current level.  Having said that, it should be noted that it’s good to get pieces that challenge you a little bit.  This makes you grow.  You will have to use your good judgment as to what constitutes challenging. Just like getting a hernia isn’t a muscle building technique, playing way above your level will only lead to failure and frustration.

Because of the nature of baroque music and of his compositions, Bach’s works are extremely conducive towards gaining great balance and technique on the instrument.  Therefore, any student would benefit immensely by learning from the master’s material. Bach’s pieces are also great for developing great tone and they are fun to play.  For example: Prelude BWV999 (originally for lute), while incredibly beautiful in its sound is also great for working with the fretboard hand because it is based on a series of chord progressions combined with a loosely melodic bass line.

If you don’t own a metronome, GET ONE! Learn to play slow and in time with it. This way you will form all the right reflexes and once you move the material up to speed the difference will be clear. Arguably, mastering rhythm with a metronome is an essential quality that will separate the amateur from the pro. To the people that may scoff at this and not understand the true importance of working with a metronome, think of it this way: imagine something as simple as a person walking across a hallway. If I ask you to describe them you would probably tell me what they looked like, what they had on and so forth. Now imagine another person walking across the hallway, but this guy is very shaky on his feet, he sometimes double steps, stumbles and flails his hands about trying to keep balance while walking. If I asked you to describe this guy, you’d probably tell me that he had a crazy walk, and he couldn’t walk straight etc.. That would be the impression that would stick with you. Same with your rhythm skills. If you don’t master them, people won’t be able to remember or appreciate your playing because their attention will constantly be distracted by the tempo stumbling and bumbling about.

If you follow the steps noted above you will see great improvement in your overall classical guitar playing.  Not only will this affect your playing but also your enjoyment of the instrument.  As you follow this route you will see results and feel satisfaction. Like a veil being lifted, you will be able to see the path you must follow and pretty soon you will be tackling with great ease and elegance the piece that seemed so hard a while back. As always, if you need some advice as to the material you should be pursuing, or what book you should get, feel free to drop me a line.

The author Ben Dressen has studied classical guitar, performed and taught in both Europe and the United States. He brings a wealth of information that is based both on classical principles that have stood the test of time and modern real-world techniques that give results. For an example of the Bach’s Prelude BWV999 go here: rezzonator.com/ba.html