Yes You Can Learn to Play the Guitar!

Students who are just starting to learn guitar often ask me "What is a good guitar amp to buy"? This usually comes right after the initial question of "what is a good guitar to buy"? My answer to the second question is much simpler than the first. I always tell people to buy the guitar that inspires them the most that is within their price range. When it comes to amps however, you should put a little more thought into deciding what is right for you. Hopefully the rest of this article will give you some insight on how to make a wise buying decision.

First of all, when it comes time to buy a guitar amplifier we are going to focus on what you need for an Electric Guitar. You can certainly buy an amp that is made for an acoustic guitar, but were not going to be talking about that here.

There is a huge market out there for amplifiers and you have tons of choices between brand names, what features the amp has, and of course how loud the thing can go. Here are some of the main features that you want to know about when looking for your first amp:

1. How many channels does it have?
You will find that most amps have a clean channel and a distortion channel. A clean channel is pretty self explanatory, a distortion channel is what is going to give you a hard rock tone that sounds good with power chords and when soloing. What you want to look out for here is that the two channels are completely separate with their own volume and tone controls. This will give you the ability to switch between them at will, preferably with a foot switch so that you can change channels on the fly.

2. How many watts does it have and how powerful is it?
The amount of watts an amp has is what lets you know how powerful it is. Most beginner model amps will have lower ratings around 10 to 30 watts. Anything that is rated at 50 watts or higher is going to be plenty loud for you to play in a band with. You will usually see most amps max out at 100 watts. Although this is not that crucial of a factor when buying your first amp, you should still put it into consideration.

3. Does it have any on board effects?
Many amps these days are going digital and have their own built in effects. This is great because it will cut back on the number of effect pedals that you will want to buy after you have been playing for a bit. The most common types of effects to look for are: Chorus, Flange, Delay, and Reverb. Just about every amp you look at will have some type of Reverb in it. Chorus, Flange, and Delay are all effects that will enhance the original tone to give it more life and character. Delay is one of my favorites and a cool thing to look for is if the amp has a tap delay so that you can set the tempo of the delay itself.

4. How many speakers does it have and what sizes are they?
Most starter amps will have only one speaker in them. The most common sizes are 5", 8", 10" and 12". You will most likely never find an amp with a speaker larger than 12" unless it is a bass or piano amp. When you need more power and volume you can get into an amp that has two speakers in it. These will most likely have two 12" speakers and all the volume and tone controls combined into one. If you are looking to start playing in a band or with a drummer, you should get into something with two 12"s. This will give you the volume that is needed to be heard over a drum kit that is rocking out at full volume. The extra speaker will also give you some extra thickness to your tone.

5. Is it powered by Tubes or is it Solid State?
Most beginner and lower end amplifiers are solid state and that is probably the best way to start out. Tube amplifiers are almost always more expensive but for a good reason. They usually have a warmer, smoother tone as well as a more desirable natural distortion sound. One big downside of tube amps, depending on how you look at it, is that they really need to be turned up loud to get the full tone out of them. Solid-state amps sound pretty much the same at any level, which makes them great for practicing and low level playing. They can also sound awesome really loud so don't think that just because tube amps are more expensive that you need to go straight for buying one.

Regardless of what you end up purchasing, make sure you do your homework before you spend your hard earned money. Go to a music store and try things out as much as you need to so that you are comfortable on your purchase. If you don't know how to play yet, ask a sales person to jam out on some different amps while you play around with the settings to see what you like. Above all, shopping for a new amp should be a fun and exciting process.

10 Top Reasons Why Students Quit Playing Guitar

1. They are not focusing on playing the kind of music they want to:
If you want to learn to play Rock music and your teaching is pushing you to learn classical guitar, then chances are, you are not going to want to play at all. Always tell your instructor what you want to learn so that they can keep things fun and interesting. There is always a certain amount of basic technique and skill that needs to be developed, but you can do this while still learning the style of music that interests you the most.

2. The student has a bad teacher:
Being inspired and excited to learn guitar is what makes people stick with it and strive to get better. A good teacher will know how to keep a student interested and progressing, a bad teacher will twiddle their thumbs while the student tries to figure out what's going on

3. They get frustrated:
Any time a person learns a new skill, there is always a certain amount of frustration and second-guessing. A good teacher will know how to get a student to overcome these frustrations and turn them in to accomplishments

4. The student does not play or interact with other guitarists:
It can be intimidating when your first learning but playing and jamming with other musicians will help you get better timing and make you feel more confident that you know what your doing. It's also a lot of fun!

5. Lack of motivation:
Between video games, cell phones, and TV's, kids especially have way too many things to keep their brains going on autopilot. Learning a new instrument takes dedication and a continued interest in getting better

6. Self Doubt:
No one sounds great when they are first learning to play guitar so it's common for a student to have doubts whether or not they can play guitar. Constant reinforcement and goal setting is a must to keep progressing. The best thing to do here is to record yourself playing once and a while so that you can listen back to hear how you sounded a week, month, or few months ago. You will be pleasantly surprised to find out that what was hard then is not pretty easy

7. Too many distractions:
Between video games, cell phones, TV's, and surfing the Internet, it's no wonder why people have a hard time focusing and committing their attention to one specific thing at any given time. This is however crucial for a student to learn properly. Turn off all electronics, shut the door, and spend some time with just you and the guitar. You will be amazed at what you can get done when you are not distracted by anything else

8. No goals or sense of direction:
One of the most important aspects of learning guitar well is knowing what you want to accomplish so that you can gauge your progress. Setting specific goals is a must. You may not know how your going to achieve these goals at the beginning but that is what a good teacher or teaching program will show you how to do.

9. Poor practice environment:
Are you trying to practice with the TV on, your dog constantly urging you to play with him, and a bowl of rice crispies waiting to be eaten? Again, put yourself in a room, close the door, and turn off everything (including cell phones) so that you can focus on practicing and playing your guitar.

10. No structured practice schedule:
The best way to ensure that you will get enough practice time in is to commit to a specific schedule. Everyone is different so its important to take a look at what time of day you think would be best for you to commit to, but once you make a decision stick to it and you will see yourself progress faster than you ever thought possible. How much time should I practice is a very common question. If you are focused enough, ten to fifteen minutes a day is plenty to progress. More is better, however the most important factor here is that you practice each and every day. It's important to keep your fingers moving and remembering what you are teaching them.

Check out www.rockguitarpower.com to learn more about better practice habits and where you can get top of the line guitar instruction

By: Mike Deiure
www.rockguitarpower.com

In this article I want to discuss the different types of learning personalities that I have come to recognize in teaching guitar and how I have been successful at getting each of them to achieve maximum results. It's important for you to figure out what type of personality you are to see how you can relate to the following traits because it will give you some good guidance on how to maximize the time you spend when playing and practicing.

In no specific order:

#1-The Emotional player: These are the types of people who can let loose of their thinking and just play the instrument with lots of emotion and expression. I often find that these types of people physically use a lot of their body to feel the rhythm of what there playing and don't mind letting their emotions take control of them.
Things to focus on: I usually find that these types of players are not that interested in reading music and would rather learn songs by having other people show them how to play or by figuring them out by ear. The best thing to do if you're a new player is to get proficient at playing open chords, movable bar chords and power chords. You have a lot of feeling and energy that your are dying to let out so the quicker you can play the essential chords that are used in guitar, the quicker you will be having fun playing what you want to play.

#2- The Songwriter: This is the type of person that loves to write their own music and create songs from scratch. You usually have a lot to say and like to share your thoughts with other people through songs. I have worked with some people who don't care much to learn other people's songs and I have worked with other people who don't even understand that they are capable of writing their own music. In either case, I firmly believe that writing music is an extremely important skill for an aspiring musician to learn. It gives you a lot of insight as to what type of player you are and what skills you need to work on.
Things to focus on: You don't have to be a musical genius to start writing your own songs. Some people are scared to even try it, others need to do it to get out all their ideas. A lot of the most famous songs in modern music are extremely simple and easy to play with only a few chords that make up the whole song. Along with knowing how to play the basic open chords and having a good understanding of melody, I always encourage songwriters to study a bit of music theory so that they understand Harmonic Structure and how songs work to sound pleasing to the human ear. Even if writers can crank out songs like lightning, they usually, at some point, get frustrated because they only have a limited knowledge of how music works and get stuck writing the same old song time and time again. Understanding theory will give you more options and ways to be expressive in songwriting.

#3- The Technical Player: These are the types of players that love music theory, playing physically difficult songs and usually enjoy reading music. The ability to read music is not a must, however it does enable a player to understand much more about the song both emotionally and how to perform it with more expression. If you like a good challenge and don't mind spending a lot of time to perfect a certain song or technique, then you will probably find yourself in this category a lot of the time. Also, the theory side of music that is very math oriented is usually very interesting to you.
Things to focus on: Technique, technique, and more technique! If you like playing technical music you are going to want to focus a lot on perfecting your technique. This includes every aspect of how you pick (whether it be with a pick or with your fingers), strum, slide, sit, stand, etc.! Having a big vocabulary of scales, arpeggios, and patterns to link them together is also a must. Playing fast is also something that you are going to want to spend some time developing. The ability to rip through passages at very high tempos is incredibly FUN and EXCITING! If you focus on the right learning methods, it's not as hard as you might think although it always takes a lot of continued practice to get your muscles up to snuff to keep with the fast pace.

#4- High interest, Low attention span. I couldn't think of a specific name for this description so sorry but that's the best I could do. A lot of people with ADD can fall into this category but that's certainly NOT a required trait. Now you might already be thinking that falling somewhere near this category puts you at a disadvantage but I will tell you from experience, nothing can be further from the truth. I have worked with a number of people who obviously had a really hard time keeping their thoughts in one place and focusing on a certain topic. While that might be the case, these people also had incredible pitch perception (sometimes even what's known as perfect pitch) and the very valuable ability to learn music by ear. I couldn't be more envious of these types of people because I can assure you that I am not one of them. Learning music by ear and developing pitch perception has never come easy for me and I have had to work my tail off to be able to do it well. I have seen some students who are able to master this ability with ridiculous ease.
Things to focus on: Understanding theory and reading music is usually difficult for these types of people. When I work with people that are like this, I always focus on getting their technique as good as possible because they already have the tools inside of them to be an amazing player, it's just a matter of giving them the ability for their fingers to move the way they need to so that they can play what's inside of them. It's good to do a lot of ear training exercises and learning songs by listening to them. After they get to a certain point they usually form an interest in theory and understanding more about how music works because they become somewhat discouraged at what they don't know and understand about music. I'm a firm believer in teaching what people want to learn and not pushing to hard for them to learn what they don't. There are certain things that are crucial for every guitarist/musician to understand so I have always found a way to be able to teach those things in a manner that best fits their personalities.

Now these are just the main personality characteristics of people that I work with. There are plenty more and of course you can be some of one and some of another. The reason I think it's important to understand where you might fit in to all of this is because it will enable you to have a lot more fun learning guitar and not get so frustrated when things become difficult. Always focus on learning the things that you want to be able to do and the rest will come with time if you are looking to become a well-rounded guitar player. If someone says that knowing how to read music is essential for a beginning guitar student and you do not take to reading easily, then I'm pretty sure your not going to be having that much fun when you start out. One very important thing that you need to ask yourself is what style of music are you looking to play. If you say Classical or Jazz, then I say that hands down, without a doubt you need to learn to read music. However most other styles of music can be played, written, and performed well without knowing how to read notes on the staff.

Mike D.