Of course there is the old-fashioned way of getting your child signed up for guitar lessons at a local school or music group. However this can be very inconvenient for parents as well as the child. It can be hard enough to rush around and get everything you need done in a day let alone taking your child to guitar lessons. This is where the private tutor would come in handy because you can schedule your lessons and make sure that the lessons are at appropriate times for you and your child.

Especially if your child tends to work better with one on one instruction this would probably be a much better option. You can also sign your child up for online guitar lessons for children, which is the new age way of doing it. This will be more convenient in a lot of cases because your child can learn these new skills in the comfort of your home and as well you can watch them. Most of these courses are free which is an added bonus.

Take the guitar lessons for children offered through Kid Spot for instance, which are given in easy to understand language and with very clear and detailed instruction, making it easy for children to follow. You won’t even have to worry about guiding your child through it because these lessons are designed specifically for kids. Your child can go as slowly or quickly as they want and this will help boost their confidence and not make them feel bad if they’re not catching on as quickly as they’d like to. Or for guitar lessons for children you could have software installed on your computer.

With software you simply purchase it and install it on your computer, then have your child follow through with the lessons. Very similar to an online course, the different is that the online courses are usually free and more basic while the software will be more advanced. Most even come with useful tools such as an online guitar tuning which helps your child tune their guitar as close to perfect as possible. It’s important they tune their guitar before playing each time otherwise they may be playing poorly but only because their guitar isn’t properly tuned.

To pick or not to pick is really the question, one that a lot of people just aren’t able to make on their own. You see some guitarists using picks and others not, so which way is better? It all depends on what sort of sound you want to get from your guitar. Flamenco guitarists for instance will rarely use picks because it does not produce a sound suitable for their style of music.

On the other hand if you want to play fast leads or scales you’re going to want to use a pick because you wouldn’t be able to do so with just fingertips or hard fingernails because it would hurt your fingers. You’re basically more limited if you’re not using a pick. You’re a lot more limited when you’re not using a pick because there are only so many melodies that you can play. In the basic acoustic guitar lesson a pick will be used.

Strumming slow acoustic songs is fine without a pick. Choose the right songs when you’re not using a pick and you should be fine. Picks come in a variety of sizes and styles. There are also different materials of picks to choose from including plastic, nylon and tortex.

The size of your pick will have a great impact on how it sounds. The smaller pick you use the lighter a sound you will get. If you want to get more of a mandolin sound then stick to smaller sized picks like Carlos Santana. Taking an acoustic guitar lesson will teach you all of these basics as well as more complex instructions on playing the guitar.

For a good long while when I was starting to play guitar, I wondered what the hell was going on with my hands and my forearms. When you’re not used to the strain of fretting or hitting notes, you will notice some discomfort in your forearms.

This will pass as your arms adjust to playing for long periods. Make sure you take a rest when you feel this discomfort, as you don’t want to hurt yourself and thus impair your ability to play. Take it steady, and you’ll soon notice the progress you’re making. Perhaps you could try a different right hand technique.

Another thing to take note of is the change in the fingertips of your fretting hand. When you start out you’ll notice that the skin may be sore or split a little. This is normal.

Before too long the skin will harden a little in those fingertips and will stop being painful or splitting when you play. This is a normal thing, and once your fingers are accustomed to fretting, you’ll be able to do so without discomfort forever more.

If you are buying a guitar perhaps for the very first time, guitar ergonomics is another area you might want to take into account.  Who are you buying the guitar for?  Is the guitar for one of your children or is the guitar for yourself?

You need to ensure that the guitar you buy is a manageable size for the person who is about to learn guitar, especially if the guitar is for a child.

Some guitars are much too large for a child or someone very small in stature to handle and there is no point in overloading them.  It can seriously affect their guitar playing ability as not only will they find playing the guitar much more difficult but it will become extremely unwieldy in their hands. So, when you are buying a guitar for the first time, it is important to take this into consideration.

If the guitar player or musician does or does not feel comfortable with the instrument in their hands, obviously this will reflect on their personal playing ability, either for better or for worse.

It’s also important that the guitar’s essential functions are all within easy reach of the player’s fingers so they extract the best possible sound from the guitar.  Therefore it’s a good idea to visit the guitar store in person so you can try out the various guitar sizes just to check out which instrument best fits either you or your child.

It stands to reason that the more relaxed an individual is with the guitar in their hands, this will affect how well they end up playing guitar.  So you can learn to play guitar very well, it is important for the person playing, to feel happy with the guitar instrument in their hands. This is really important and cannot be stressed enough or over-emphasized.

Please carry on reading to find out more. In the next article we will be looking at  some more considerations that you might want to think about when purchasing a guitar.

]]> http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/pinch-harmonics/guitar-ergonomics/guitar-ergonomics/feed/ 0 http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-history/guitar-history/ http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-history/guitar-history/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:49:45 +0000 Admin http://play-learn-guitar.com/?p=56 The guitar, which is also known as the violao, is a popular stringed instrument which works by producing sound when the strings are plucked or strummed.  The number of strings can vary, for example 6 strings, 12 strings, or even 4, 7, 8 and 10.

The guitar or violao has been played in very varied and different types of music which include rock, pop, blues, folk, flamenco and country music. An acoustic sound involves production of the tone via the vibration of the string in the guitar body when it is either strummed or plucked. Obviously this doesn’t totally apply to the electric guitar where the sound is produced quite differently. In this case the actual guitar sound is produced by a guitar amplifier.

A man or woman that makes and repairs guitar strings is known as a luthier. Guitar strings can be made from either nylon or steel, which is down to the personal preference of the musician.  Depending on the materials used in the guitar construction, many different sounds can be produced.

In various forms the history of the guitar can be traced back approximately 5,000 years.

The two main kinds of guitars or violaos

For the acoustic violao guitar, the sound is actually produced from a soundboard, which is present in the front of the guitar body in the form of a piece of wood.  No outside device or arrangement is required to produce the sound.  This makes the acoustic violao quieter than other orchestra instruments. Because of this sometimes you’ll find that an external amplifier is used  to enable the sound to be more audible so to assist it to match the sound created by other band instruments being used in conjunction with the acoustic guitar. A range of pick-ups are provided with some of the latest violao guitars for of the raw acoustic guitar sound’s amplification and modification.

The acoustic, violao guitars type sub categories include Classical guitars; Flamenco guitars, Steel string guitars (including the flat top or `folk` guitar), Twelve string guitars; Renaissance guitars or Baroque guitars; Arch-top guitars; Resonator, Resophonic or Dobro guitars, Acoustic bass guitars, Russian guitars, Tenor guitars, Harp guitars, Extended range and Guitar Battente guitars.

A short introduction to Electric Guitars

Although they can be also semi hollow or, sometimes, hollow, electric guitar bodies are usually solid.  Without any form of amplification the electric guitar sound is somewhat dulled to say the least, but when a guitar amp is added the difference in sound quality is amazing.  For that reason it is obvious that a guitar amplifier is an integral component of the electric guitar. In other words an electric guitar without an amp is like a car without wheels.

When plucked or strummed the steel strings are converted into electric signals by electro-magnetic pick-up’s which are relayed to the electric guitars amplifier using either a radio transmitter or a cable.

The electric guitar produces a sound which is very often modified. This is achieved either with electronic devices or through the natural valve distortion. The two types of pick-ups are double line or single line pick-ups. Each of these pick-ups can either be passive or active.  From listening to your own favourite guitar anthems you will know yourself that the electric guitar sound can quite literally be an electrifying experience

Generally, guitar players will pluck the strings of the electric violao with their dominant, strong hand.  The other hand is used on the guitar neck frets to press and depress the guitar strings as appropriate for the sound that is to be produced as part of the music of the guitar.

A list of the main components of the violao guitar

The main components include the guitar headstock, nut, guitar fretboard, the frets themselves, truss rod, inlays, obviously the guitar strings, guitar neck heel or neck point, the guitar body and, finally, the guitar pickups.

Other accessories which can hugely increase your playing pleasure and versatility are the guitar plectrum, which is also called the vialao pick or guitar pick, which of course is used for ‘picking’ the strings.  This can be made from a hard plastic or wood. In addition there are slides which can be used for the creation of a glissando effect heard in blues and rock musical genres. Finally the copatasto is used for changing the pitch of open strings.

I hope you found these guidance notes useful to you for aiding and adding to your knowledge of the violao or guitar.  It’s great to have you here so now please keep looking around our guitar website.

]]> http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-history/guitar-history/feed/ 0 http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-basics/guitar-learning-basics/ http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-basics/guitar-learning-basics/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:48:17 +0000 Admin http://play-learn-guitar.com/?p=54 To help you to work out where to start on the subject of learning to play guitar, the following five steps will provide you with some basic guitar instruction and advice to get you going:

Initially you have to understand that sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We procrastinate, put things off, and it is human nature to try to think of shortcuts. What we forget is that the key to doing anything well, is practice and persistence.

These two personal attributes will be your friend for life as you strive to master the guitar if you really want to learn to play well.

Skill cannot be bought, it takes time.  Even owning the best guitar in the world, will not make you an awesome guitarist.  You must be willing to practise, practise and then practise some more if you want to become a good guitarist.  Remember that mastering playing the guitar will give you years of pleasure.

Secondly, check your action. You should always ensure that the distance between the fingerboard and the underside of the string is appropriate for your fingers. If in doubt about this, ask any experienced guitar friend of yours for advice on this issue or pop into your local guitar dealership and ask them directly for their advice.

Thirdly, apply the K.I.S.S. principle. This usually stands for Keep It Stupidly Simple.  Don’t make learning the guitar more difficult than it has to be by jumping straight in at the deep end.  If you start simple, as your confidence increases and your guitar playing ability improves accordingly, then you can move on to the more complicated sounds that you want to be able to play..

You will probably get frustrated if you start off with the more complicated chords and/or riffs, and this will not serve you at all well.

Remember there is a learning curve to go through whenever you attempt to acquire a new skill.  Enjoy that learning.  So don’t make it any more difficult for yourself than it has to be – have fun learning the guitar.

Fourthly, always keep in mind that rhythm is the key. To have a good strong, consistent flow to your guitar playing ability, you need to keep the beat from the outset, at the start. It will help you a great deal if you use a metronome or even your foot to keep pace.

Fifthly, I am sure you love that guitar classic song which reaches deep within your soul. However it’s not good for you to choose the most complicated of songs to start you off learning the guitar.  Instead, keep to simple songs which are suitable for the guitar beginner, limit yourself at first to songs that just use two guitar chords. Then as you gain confidence and guitar playing ability, you can step the pace of learning up a bit and learn more complicated guitar pieces.

So try to put these five simple steps into practice and have a lot of fun in so doing. Then learning to play the guitar really will not take you too long at all and you will become highly proficient,

]]> http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-basics/guitar-learning-basics/feed/ 0 http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-style/guitar-style/ http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-style/guitar-style/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:05:49 +0000 Admin http://play-learn-guitar.com/guitar-looks/ It is really important that you understand that it is not the way a guitar looks that makes it perfect for you or that you will be absolutely, perfectly happy with it.  Sure, guitar looks are important. Each guitar beginner will naturally build up from the very start an emotional attachment to the guitars in which they are interested.  One thing to remember though is that it is no good rushing into buying a guitar just because you think it looks amazing.  It is no use buying a guitar simply because you wish to wow your friends, if upon coming to play that guitar, you find that this particular guitar, although it sounds quality, is not the right one for you after all.

Fortunately all is not lost.  Sure you can find a great looking guitar from the marketplace out there. Firstly though, when you see a guitar that you like the look of - go to a guitar store and talk to the owner of the guitar store about the guitar make and model that you ultimately want to buy.  Listen to their advice, take their guitar experience onboard, heed what they have to say. They really will only have your best interests at heart and try to help you.

You see it may just be that the guitar that you think looks wickedly cool, the one that you think will really impress your family and friends, does not actually produce the right kind of guitar sound that you want to make.  It is obvious that what you want to do instead is to try to find a balance between the two, a great guitar sound and good looks.

It’s a great idea to ask any dealer for their advice.  As a guitar beginner, no question is too dumb to ask.  The guitar dealer will have heard all of these same questions before many times over. They will not mind at all you asking the same questions as well.  They know the kind of guitar look and sound that you want from their own guitar playing experience most likely within just a few sentences, so let them advise you, be guided by their words of guitar wisdom and take full advantage of their guitar knowledge.

The guitar dealer in your guitar store will very likely let you hold and play the guitar of your choice – you only have to ask.  Try out various guitar models, see how they feel in your hands. Don’t just stand there! Feel free to move around with the guitar, just as you would naturally, as if you were playing it, if there is room. Of course be careful not to break anything inadvertently.

You’ll know when you’ve hit on the right guitar note for you when you find a guitar which feels natural in your hands, fits your stature and build very well, and produces a beautiful guitar melody and sound. At least now you have the guitar that you want to buy fixed in your mind even if you don’t decide to buy it at that moment.  Take your time with your guitar buying, at the same time enjoy the experience and learn as much as you can.

]]> http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-style/guitar-style/feed/ 0 http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-brands/guitar-brands-which-one-for-you/ http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-brands/guitar-brands-which-one-for-you/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:05:07 +0000 Admin http://play-learn-guitar.com/guitar-brands-which-one-for-you/ Which guitar brands are the generally accepted ones to go for? There’s a massive range of guitars on the market for you, the guitar beginner, to choose from. So where do you start looking? Here are some of the top guitar brands in no particular order:

• Yamaha Guitars
• Gibson Guitars
• Dean Guitars
• Jackson Guitars
• Paul Reed Smith Guitars
• ESP Guitars
• Epiphone Guitars
• Ibanez Guitars
• Fender Guitars

If you are a new guitarist just starting out, the advice of How to Learn to Play Guitar Fast is to stick to one of these guitar brands which are well known and respected.

Although you may find more, our advice is to stick with a well known brand, rather than plucking for a guitar brand that nobody’s ever even heard of.

Unless you happen to live in the middle of the desert,  you should be able to find each of the above brands of guitar for sale in your area.

Each of these famous guitar brands will produce their very own unique and identifiable sounds. You may make your initial decision, not only based on guitar sound quality but instead simply because you just dig the cool looks and appearance of one guitar brand over the others.

Of course look for a guitar that has been looked after very well and preferably one that comes with its own custom guitar storage case as supplied by the guitar manufacturer.

The Gibson range of guitars is obviously absolutely excellent generally speaking with a price tag to match the quality.  So if your guitar budget is more modest, you could go for the Epiphone guitar. This has a similar guitar sound to the Gibson guitar, but without the expensive price tag.  To be honest, this make will almost certainly serve your needs very well indeed, if you are a beginner guitarist

The wide and varied selection manufactured by Yamaha guitars is one of the most common guitar brands.  This particular guitar manufacturer is really very well suited to and is a very popular choice among guitar beginners, intermediate players and even advanced players, who do not wish to go professional but just to play for pleasure to their friends and family.

As each of these brand name guitars has its own personal stamp of style and individuality, it’s completely up to you which one you think might appeal to you above the rest.

The advice at How to Learn to Play Guitar Fast is that, before you go out blind to look at brands of guitar that perhaps you have never heard of or seen, first go to a website or auction site such as eBay and type into the search box there, all of the guitar brand names one by one.  If you do so you’ll easily be able to compare the different guitar models side by side. As well as that you’ll be able to see the end price realised for each guitar sold by looking at the completed guitar listings.  So simply pick a guitar manufacturer brand that you like the look of and go with your gut instinct. In this way it will help you to level down your choice to just one or two makes of guitar.

]]> http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-brands/guitar-brands-which-one-for-you/feed/ 0 http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-prices/guitar-prices/ http://howtolearntoplayguitarfast.com/guitar-prices/guitar-prices/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:04:19 +0000 Admin http://play-learn-guitar.com/guitar-prices/ When it comes to buying a guitar, you’ll find that they cover a vast price range.  Of course you can pick up a cheap bargain on places like eBay. However, generally speaking the best place to go to pick up a real bargain is simply by attending a local swap meet or to check in your local press for people advertising yard sales.  There you can quite literally pick up a bargain, second hand guitar from just a few dollars, twenty bucks or so, up to whatever limit you have set on your budget for guitar buying.

If you just want to test the waters first because you are still unsure whether playing guitar is right for you in the long run, buying a cheap guitar may just be your best solution in the short term.

Though, obviously you’ll want to spend a few extra dollars to get a guitar that is right for you, if you know already that you are committed to playing guitar for the long term.

One brand of guitar that may fit your purposes is a Yamaha guitar as they have a broad range of guitar instruments. If, on the other hand, you want something a little more classy and upmarket and you don’t mind splashing out the cash, look for guitar brands such as Gibson.  You just never know what guitar bargain may be around the next corner in today’s economic slowdown.

Engage your seller in conversation, tell them why you want to buy the guitar, talk about their guitar. If they see that you are keen to learn to play guitar, they may just look upon you more kindly and let you have the guitar of your choice at a much reduced price.  You should certainly not be afraid to haggle the guitar price down. Everyone expects a bit of bargaining and, you never know, you could walk away with a real bargain guitar.

Obviously it always pays to first do some research on guitar prices.  If you keep a list of guitar prices on you, you can refer to this on your travels as you seek to buy a guitar at the budget that you have allowed for.  By all means look at guitars above your price range with a view to bringing the guitar price down by at least a third, if not more.  Bear in mind that, unless you just happen to live in an area where a guitar shop or guitar store is closing down for good, this buying a guitar strategy obviously only works on the second hand market.

If you follow these ever so simple buying guitar tips and buying guitar advice, you will be pleased as punch when you get home and un-wrap the beautiful guitar that is just about to give you years of guitar-playing pleasure.

How to Learn to Play Guitar Fast wishes you great success in finding your guitar bargain and hopes that your acquisition really does give you years of guitar-playing pleasure!