Ahh!!! Life’s lessons! People who make the same mistakes in life, over and over, have not learned their lessons.
If they did, they wouldn’t keep making them.
Such is the case with the guitar. You will keep making mistakes on the guitar, over and over, until you learn from your mistakes and learn your lesson.
So how do we stop from making mistakes on the guitar?
We’ll dive into it and discuss it right now.
Have you seen people who make the same mistakes over and over on the guitar and in life?
For example, just like the guy who keeps getting angry at everyone, he doesn’t realize that everyone hates him and is repulsed by him until that person learns his lesson, that everyone is upset with him.
AND stops being mad at everyone, he then learns his lesson that when he stops being angry at others, then people will then stop being upset and angry at him.
He learns a valuable lesson indeed.
Now apply that to the guitar and the person who keeps making the same mistakes on the guitar if he would only realize that his mistake is repulsive to people, that it gets on others nerves……
he would then stop making those mistakes.
But sometimes it’s not that easy to stop making mistakes, whether on the guitar or in life.
Sometimes you need help to stop making mistakes.
That’s what I’m here for, to tell you how to stop making mistakes on the guitar.
I may not be able to help you stop making mistakes in life but I can sure help you stop making them on the guitar, at least a number of them.
1. Learning Your Lessons Of Not Getting On People’s Nerves
If you learn to remember chords, you won’t make the mistake of hesitating, when playing in public.
For example, when you change from playing the C chord to the G chord and you forget how to play the G chord, you have not learned your lesson of how to play the G chord because you forgot how to play it.
This, in turn, gets on people’s nerves because you forgot how to play the chord.
So you will have to remember the chord by playing it over and over, a lot of times so that you will never forget it. And when you remember it, you will have learned your lesson, at least when it comes to that chord.
2. Learn Your Lesson Of Remembering To Tune Your Guitar
This can’t be understated but learning to tune your guitar every time you pick it up is a must or you risk sounding sloppy and unprepared.
A lesson hard learned when people cringe as you play the guitar and you don’t quite know why because you know you’re playing the right chords so why is it not sounding good?
Well, it’s because you didn’t tune it.
What happens when you don’t tune the guitar is, chords that are supposed to sound on key, don’t sound on key.
So tune your guitar and your playing will then sound good, as you play the right chords, of course!
3. Learn Your Lesson Of Knowing The Guitar Fretboard
You MUST learn your lesson of learning the guitar fretboard. Without it, you’re lost on how to navigate the guitar.
In other words, you won’t know where you are on the guitar if you want to master the WHOLE guitar.
You may have to read several articles from this website or other websites to fully grasp how to learn the guitar fretboard.
Yes, there are some who know that there are 24 frets on a normal guitar and just learn by the numbers on the fretboard only, and then there are those who learn by the letters of the fretboard. And then some learn both by numbers and letters.
As you will learn or already have learned that there is a, A fret all the way up to the G fret in different places on the guitar.
And that there is the 1st fret all the way up to the 12th fret in different places on the guitar, also.
I recommend that, whatever you do, you learn barre chords first when learning how to know the guitar fretboard because it will make learning the guitar fretboard way easier for you if you do.
Well, what do I mean? And how’s that possible, you ask?
Well if you learn your barre chord, the e-shape barre chord, all you have to do is learn the 5th and 6th strings of your guitar in order to know the guitar fretboard.
All you have to do is play your e-shape barre chord on the 6th string notes, starting from the F to the E fret. This means you will have played the F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, and E chords.
And next all you have to do is play the e-shape barre chord on the 5th string notes, starting from the A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, G, G#, and A chords.
Get good at playing the barre chord on the 6th string notes, which I just said.
And also get good at playing the barre chord on the 5th string notes, which I just said above.
After you get good at doing this, mix them up by playing the barre chord on the notes in any order, on the 5th and 6th strings.
To figure out what I’m talking about, click to this article at guitarsecrets.com where it talks about how to accomplish this on the 6th string: (click to article here)
And to acousticmusictv.com of how to accomplish this on the 5th string: (click to article here)
And you can also click on the following videos to learn how to barre chord on the 5th and 6th strings, also:
Of course, you can also play power chords on the fifth and sixth strings.
But what are power chords you ask? Well, they are Chords that only have 3 notes. And they are derived from the barre chord, meaning that some of the notes of the barre chord are used.
They can also be used to play up and down the neck of the guitar just like barre chords, in which musicians play these on the 5th and 6th strings, as these are the roots of the power chords, as well as the roots of the barre chords also.
Of course, you use them to play on the frets of the guitar also.
4. Learn Your Lesson Of Knowing Techniques?
First, we must ask what are techniques. Well, techniques are bends, slides, vibrato, hammer ons, pull offs, harmonics, tapping, etc.
The following are some techniques you can learn. They are as numbered:
One is: Pull offs
Guitarists know that pull offs are when you, in simple terms, play a note that is higher and then allow the note that is under it, to play without plucking it. (Which will happen when you lift up your finger on the first note.)
In technical terms it is ……… pluck your first note but have another finger ready to play the second note without plucking it. This will create the first note you have plucked to sound, as will the second note you hear to not be plucked but it will make a sound because you held down the first note. (As you lift up your finger on the first note.)
Two is: Bends
Playing bends on the guitar will change the way you play your guitar, tremendously!
Why? Because without bends and other techniques, your guitar playing will just sound, blah.
To play bends on the guitar, all you do is push the strings on your guitar, up and down with your fingers, using all your fingers for your support, which makes it easier to play, if you do it this way.
The mistake that beginners make is they try to use only one finger to bend their notes, which will make it harder to play this way.
Three is: Slides
Slides can be used for very short periods of time in music or for longer times in music, meaning it can be for a second or more, as you slide around playing your music on the guitar.
They can be very subtle, where the people listening to your music won’t notice them if you play them for a second or less. Kind of like a singer throwing in inflections as they are singing a song.
It makes the song sound so much better if you do them at the right times.
Of course, you can play them for more than one second, here and there, in your songs and make your playing sound fabulous, (awesome) also.
Four is: Vibrato
What is Vibrato you ask? Vibrato is, in simple terms, bending up and down on the strings real fast, with real intensity and with less intensity.
It will be strong and weak as you use this technique on the guitar.
It can be done slow or fast or a mixture of both slow and fast.
It should only be used sparingly in songs, as if you use it too much, it can start to lose its effects of making your playing sound good.
Of course, in music, there are NO rules and if you use it a lot in songs it can still sound good and not lose its effects, as some musicians have done.
Five is: Tremolo
Tremolo is based on volume, meaning that as you are playing your guitar, you are turning your volume up and down as you are playing your songs on it.
Well, that’s enough on telling you some of the guitar techniques out there. Yes, there’s more to learn, just keep on learning them from this website or other websites or friends or guitar teachers because I really want you to learn them.
The more techniques you learn, the more arsenal, (guitar tricks) you have in your guitar playing skills.
5. Learn Your Lesson of Power Chords
Learn your lesson of power chords by knowing that all power chords are derivatives of barre chords (they come from barre chords) it’s exactly like a barre chord except that it just doesn’t have the 5th note in it.
Since it’s missing that note, it makes it easier to play than a barre chord, if you’re a beginner because you’re playing one less note. (Makes it easier on your fingers and mind because you are pressing down on one less note.) But if you are a pro, it doesn’t matter because you’re used to playing both power chords and barre chords so both are easier to you cause you’ve been playing them a long time.
Another reason you need to learn your lesson of power chords is that they will make you sound powerful, that is why they are called power chords because they sound, POWERFUL!!! So rock on, now!!!
That’s ALL folks!!!
Well, that’s it for now, I think if I give you too much info, at least in this article, you’ll have too much to think about and will lose your train of thinking, your focus.
A little lessons at a time or should I say, one class session at a time or one article at a time.
