Guitar Basics, chapter 2

- What to study
- Why to study
- About discomfort

By Darrin Koltow

We're continuing with the guitar basics series. Let's put our minds together on some fundamental guitar questions: *Why* are we studying and *what* do we study? And, how do you fit guitar playing into the rest of your busy life?

You probably do some kind of work to earn money to buy the essentials of living in this society: food, clothing, air, rocky road ice cream. You may likely have found that taking care of those basics eats up nearly all your time. You might work 40 hours per week, but on top of that sits commuting time, time needed to maintain the commuting vehicle, time needed to shop for food and clothes, and other activities needing time.

It can be hard to find time, if you're someone with these kinds of responsibilities, for stuff you want to do but don't *need* to do, stuff like playing guitar. If you don't feel that playing guitar is a basic need of life, it could be difficult to find time, or find more time, to do it.

The trick is to make playing guitar feel more like a need than a want. How do you do that? Begin by listing your reasons for playing. It's healthier than smoking. It makes you feel good. It makes other people feel good. It's something special that not everyone can do (though everyone can *learn* to do). It gives your kid another reason to admire you.

What to study

Once you look at playing as a need rather than a want, what are you going to study?

A reader asked me this in a recent message. He feels he's not making progress. He's not sure what to practice. Chords are difficult and feel uncomfortable. And he wants to know the first thing to concentrate on, to get on track.

Dig my response to his message.

Hi, Mark. Thanks for your message. You are encountering a problem many guitarists face. I faced it myself. It's summed up by the question "What exactly do I study?"

The answer depends on your goals, and where you are now. It also depends on *your personal preferences for learning.* Some people learn well from books. Some need face-to-face instruction. If they don't get this, they'll reject learning even simple material from a book. So, figure out what you've learned successfully in another, non-guitar area of your life.

As an example, I taught myself computer programming from books. I didn't learn quickly this way, and it turned out it wasn't the best way for me to learn, but I did finally learn it, through sheer desire. I thought I could do the same when I decided to learn guitar: learn from books, and *only* books. It didn't work. It wasn't until I had a good teacher *and* some good, straightforward books recommended by that same teacher, that I got a foothold on the question, "What and how do I study?"

Your small hands can't keep you from playing. There are guys who play well with their feet, and probably with hands smaller than yours. And the issue of talent is not relevant: desire is the key. Your desire is the best determinant of your ability to build skill. Don't believe me. Check out the articles on Stetina.com and GuitarPrinciples.com. The authors and players behind these sites know the power of desire in producing all the guitar motivation you need.

It could be that your guitar is not the best kind for you. Its strings might be too high. Or, it could simply be too big. Guitars come in different sizes, including different lengths of fretboards -- and therefore, frets. If you're playing a big dreadnought-sized guitar, you might do better with a smaller fret size. A trip to a reputable guitar store is in order. Better yet, some face-to-face lessons with a private guitar teacher whom you trust is in order. I wish I could teach you, because my specialty is inspiring students, and it sounds like you could use some of that now.

I want to recommend some specific books to get you on a satisfying learning path, but there are too many variables. Again, I don't know what goals you have and exactly where your skill level presently is. Heck, you might know a lot more than you realize. The Mel Bay Guitar Method series of books is pretty good. But it's not complete: it doesn't show you how to play by ear, and it doesn't give you the pop tunes that really turn students on to learning. These are essential.

The classic Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt is *the* bible for guitar technique, but it's not a complete learning method by itself: again, it doesn't have pop tunes, and it leaves too many "why" questions hanging. It's like Marine Boot Camp for guitarists, and going through it will take a lot longer than two months.

Learning just tab songs may be okay for some people. It sounds like you want something more, but I don't know. An approach you can take is to find one single song, exercise or other guitar activity that you totally dig playing. Then figure out a way to expand on that, or "grow" it. It could mean learning more songs by the same artist or author. It could mean taking a particular riff through all keys. It could mean harmonizing a melody for an entire song.

Mark, I only know that you will find answers if you continue looking for them. You are struggling to find out what you need to play to get the sounds you want. Keep asking questions until you get some answers. Do find a live teacher.

About discomfort

I recently watched a student of mine learn his first chords. It was mostly an inspiring sight, but as I watched him crook his head and hands, it also reminded me of one of the dangers of learning guitar. The danger is that you'll become so stressed out from the physical things your hands and body must do to make music with the guitar, that you'll get frustrated and quit before you've hardly begun.

Isn't discomfort normal when you begin a new physical activity? I think *some* discomfort is normal. Think of first learning to ice skate. You're wobbling all over the place and spend half the time on your butt and the other half holding on to your best friend. But what happens when you take a break and leave the rink? Man, you can't wait to get back in there. Your body is aching, your knees are quaking, but you *have* to do this. With all this initial discomfort, you are having fun.

It's the same with playing guitar. That's why it's so important to get to playing songs as soon as possible, and leave scales and exercises for a little bit later: you want to give yourself a convincing answer to the question, "Why the heck am I putting up with this discomfort?"

An authority on playing with comfort is Jamie Andreas. If you're just beginning to play, you'll want to do some reading on Jamie's site, GuitarPrinciples.com. Jamie's articles show you how to minimize the aches and pains of fretting bar chords and scales, while also showing you how to *think* more effectively about playing.

Why to study

I may have approached the why question before, but it's important, darn it. It's important to remind yourself why you want to play. The answers to this question are the fuel your guitar-learning engine runs on. The emotional power of your reasons for playing are like the antibodies that fight off the diseases of lack of confidence and feeling unmotivated.

And here's a neat thing about reasons to play. You might believe that you're studying guitar because you want to sound like Eric Clapton or Tracy Chapman, for example. But as your studies progress you find yourself studying material that's totally different from the music of these artists: like Segovia scales, or Paul Simon's fingerpicking tunes. The cool part comes when you find yourself *digging* this material you're studying, even though the thought of studying it *before* you began your guitar studies would have been a turn-off.

So, be aware of your reasons for playing by asking yourself, especially in writing, "Why do I *believe* I want to study guitar?" and also be accepting of the answer. Avoid judgements of the reasons you come up with. For example, the reason I believed I began studying guitar was I wanted to play tunes by Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty was "the man." But the nutty thing was that, way after I had learned enough chords to begin easily strumming out Proud Mary, Who'll Stop the Rain, and lots of other old goodies, I had taken the time to learn only one or two songs. *I was too busy immersed in learning other things* to take the time to learn the Creedence stuff.

Back to the judgment point: if I had said to myself that learning Creedence was "common" or "dumb" or immature or some other negative adjective, I might not have found my way to the stuff I *did* end up studying. What I'm saying is this: if all your buddies are into AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, and you have an unexpressed, hidden love for Britney Spears tunes, then learn those tunes.

Guitar Chords (GC) builds your chops and helps you identify the most important chords by ear. GC shows you how to substitute and combine chords; play Jazz, Rock and Blues progressions; transpose songs; put chords to a melody; apply fingerpicking, alternating bass, arpeggios, and much more.