Q. i'm teaching myself to play guitar, out of a book. theres this chord that i've been practicing for a while now. i can't seem to change to it fast enough, am i doing something wrong? everyone always says that if you teach yourself the wrong way to play guitar, then you wont learn anything. how do you "learn the wrong way"?
A. Mhm as somebody said thumb around the neck, alot of guitarists get away with it but ALOT don't
here is an old post of mine
alot of people i see here post things such as ''i taught myself piano its easy''
let me say any instrument is easy (&these are most likely the ramblings of people who have only played guitar a few months), but to properly play it & understand what the heck your doing (this helps your creative process when writing your own stuff or just in general) is another different matter.
i could be taught to recite out 10 basic piano tunes, but give me the likes of Mozarts music & ask me to use certain techniques that are heard on piano. i would fail (as would all the people claiming ''its easy'' on their respective instruments)
the problem with teaching yourself guitar (or any instrument) is that alot of people give up they get frustrated. (supposedly 90% of self taught musicians quit)
also alot of people can ''play'' guitar, ie bang out a few songs & intros eg starirway to heaven. But there is a notable difference heard between a self-taught guitarist playing a song & a trained guitarist.
guitarists are a dime a dozen, everybody plays guitar (heck i play guitar) however a decent guitarist is hard to find this is where you can benifit from lessons as most people don't take lessons.
Lessons are definitely a great idea, a teacher can show you techniques & correct you. i still get corrected over things i do at my lessons.
alot of the internet resources aren't that great, again it is alot of amateurs with bad technique posting who started out similar to you, or looking to make a quick buck.
every music autobiography i have read (& i read quite a fair bit of them as i LOVE music) the guitarist/any instrument, has gotten lessons at some point.
there are a rare few virtuoso (ie talented) people who didn't get lessons but even at that they start practicing with other people who have got lessons & learn off them.
As somebody said those ''guitar for dummies'' are great, however that is as a side tool to reference to. not to just teach yourself, at a glance you learn the basics but when you study those books they can get quite complicated & a teacher can clear any questions you have.
a teacher also encourages you to practice & gives you set goals.
Don't get me wrong you can learn by yourself but if you are in any way serious about wanting to play music & want to get to a good level, i'd DEFINITELY suggest lessons. Also alot of people seem to start their music career out on guitar as it is such a famous instrument & lots of people own guitars in some form. Don't be suprised if you feel like quitting guitar because everybody plays it after a few months it happens to alot of people, it doesn't mean you aren't musically talented.
PS try not to ask people to give you the chords to a song, its better if you can work them out yourself it creates an ear for certain notes. however make sure what you are playing is correct.
PPS: i read here an answer off somebody who was in a music college, she roughly said ''the teachers would cringe when they heard that a new 'self-taught' musician was coming to the colllege, because the teachers all knew he/she would have to be retaught due to them having bad technique''
Rory Gallagher- Walk On Hot Coals (ROCK, the 5 minute solo isn't as good as the ''irish tour'' solo, but jesus christ this rules & it highlights the bands chemistry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=709KHLppvOM
''Rory's death really upset me. I heard about it just before we went on stage, and it put a damper on the evening'' Jimmy Page (Led Zep)
How to get the most out of you practice?
Q. What are some important tips and things to keep in mind to get the most out of you daily piano practice?
A. Its all about how you practice.
Everyday you practice, you need to tell yourself something new about the piece that you didn't tell yourself earlier. Vocalize your practice. You need to speak to yourself, out loud about the concepts in the piece. Tell yourself the dynamics, but specifically how loud or how soft you want to play. Ask yourself if the sections can be softer, or are you soft enough. Tell yourself the fingerings. Reinforce this by memorizing hands separately. Tell yourself lengths of phrases, where the climaxes are, articulation marks, performance directions. The more vocal you are, the better the piece will be. You need to be active when you learn. The more you tell yourself, the more you will discover.
Aim to practice slowly and without pedal. Listen very carefully for well articulated notes, correct rhythm, balanced textures and voicing of chords. Memorize small sections hands separately. If you think you know the section, take up some manuscript paper and notate the music. You should be able to notate everything about that section - notes, articulation, rhythm, dynamics and fingerings.
Spend time listening. I imagine that you practice like most people so you think you listen, but not in detail. Listen to ends of phrases so they are not clipped, that your legato comes from finger legato and not pedal. Remember, pedal is a not a tool for playing legato, pedal is a tool to color music. Listen for eveness in all your running notes. Listen carefully to the phrase direction. Is it moving properly. A good way to listen is to record yourself, then sit with the score and objectively go through the piece.
A good way to improve tricky spots is to transpose the sections into different keys. Keep the same fingering as the original. This will help because it forces you to learn the intervalic relationship of the notes and refines your listening skills. Anything to activate your mind when you practice is good.
all these things can be done away from the piano as well. Learn to score study. Practicing doesn't have to be at the piano, it can be at a table. Conduct yourself through the piece telling yourself what you want to do in terms of musical qualities. That is how I practice when i am flying on tour. I open a score and go through each line reminding myself of what to do.
Practice needs to be conscious. Often, our practicing is not. We think we practice but we are just going over the motions. That is why things get worse. We assume we know things, but in fact we don't. The best practice philosophy is to know that you don't know the piece as well as you do. Always go back to practicing a piece the way you first did. Slowly, hands separately and in sections. When you know a piece, what you are to do is to continue to reinforce things. Tell yourself the notes, harmonies.... etc. The more active you are, the better you will know the piece.
Tips to help secure a piece:
You should always know what key you are in.
Practice all passage work slowly, memorizing the fingering.
Memorize in large sections - no patterns, sequences, look out for repeated sections and understand the form of the piece.
Practice without pedal so you clearly hear every note
Be able to sing all parts of the piece by memory out loud
Be able to start any where in the piece.
The mistakes you make when you play, again are because of detail and are usually a mental thing. When you make a mistake you must over come it consciously, not physically. Playing it over and over won't help. You need to tell yourself what the mistake was, why it happened and how to fix it. Mistakes are preventable, they are not accidents. Mistakes are caused by errors in practicing and preparation. Do not be fooled that mistakes are accidents. In music there are never accidents. Mistakes are also the result of a lack of focus and concentration.
Everything leads back to how you prepare for a piece. The first thing is to practice with detail - always do slow practice, practice more hands separate than hands together. Be humble, understand that even when you are done practicing, there is more to do. You never know a piece well enough until you can write it out on staff paper with every single marking and notation on the page. Horowitz would tell students in master class that knowing a score means you can notate the entire score out with every marking and that memory represents complete understanding of the piece.
Often students and teachers think memory is memorizing the notes and being able to play it back. This is wrong. Memory is the complete knowledge of a piece - notes are only 10%. You must know all the articulation marks, all the rests, every phrase marking, every dynamic, every fingering, note values, pedal marks... etc. Everything on the page, including the page numbers should be known.
This type of detail separates those who are great artists and professionals from those who are amateurs. Musicians with concerts, faculty positions, touring dates are those who respect the music and give it every ounce of focus and detail it requires. I suggest you look into the way you prepare. I often get this question when I do guest lectures from students and teachers and the root always comes down to how someone practices.
Nervousness is a result of poor practice and unconscious practice. The more conscious you are, the less nervous you will be because you will know more about the piece. When you know a piece really well, then you can move forward if you have a mistake, recover easily and continue to make music. You have to believe in your practice. When you trust what you do, the nervousness goes down. We get nervous because we feel we will make a mistake which means we think we didn't practice enough. Well if you are detailed in practice, and have gone through all the steps I've given you then you will feel much more comfortable. But you have to trust yourself.. even if you practice hours with good detail and don't trust yourself, then its over. You have to trust.
Can anyone give me the chords or piano sheet of this song?
Q. Can anyone give me the chords or piano sheet of the song "Yuki no Hana" by Mika Nakashima? I really need it. I would really be thankful to anyone who could give it to me.
A. There are several tools that are able to extract chords from any song. Just try searching for "chords software". If you are on windows/winamp you might try http://chords.fm
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