Getting Started: what do you want to play?

What kind of music do you want to play?
Well, what kind of music do you listen to?

Is that also the kind you want to play?

Our musical taste often comes first from our parents’ musical interests. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve asked a pre-teen what kind of music they like, and been answered “classic rock!” Which is cool, of course. Just like them, I love plenty of music that was created before I was born.

Generally speaking, unless people study music, have parents that were teens when classic rock was new or are otherwise exposed to different styles and genres, we love the music we grew up with, so we’re really talking about “familiarity” as much as anything else. Familiar music reminds us of who we are.

While classic rock is great, there is so much- a universe- of great music in other genres! Consider opening your ears (and your mind) to other musical ideas. You might surprise yourself by being delighted […]

History of the guitar: where the heck did this thing come from?

There’s a pretty comprehensive article on the history of the guitar: https://www.mi.edu/education/guitar-history-how-the-guitar-has-evolved/

The history of the guitar can be traced back over 4000 years. The first signs of a guitar-like instrument appeared in Asia Minor and the Middle East around 3400 years ago. The oldest known representation of an instrument with the essential features of a guitar is a 3300 year old stone carving of a Hittite guitar found in Turkey.

The first guitars are thought to have originated in Spain during the 15th Century. These early guitars had four “courses” of strings, or sets of two strings tuned to the same note to give the guitar resonance. The instrument was actually called a vihuela, and consisted of four double-strings (paired courses). The world’s oldest guitar is a vihuela, which was created by Belchior Diaz around 1590. It has ten strings and is widely regarded as the predecessor to modern guitars.

The exact origin of the word “guitar” is a mystery, but the […]

Why play guitar?

There’s a pretty good article by Mike Duffy on the Fender website that talks about some of the real benefits of playing music. Fender consulted Daniel Levitin, author of “This is your brain on music” who stated that, “Playing an instrument can… improve a person’s overall well-being. Playing even five minutes a day can lead to a range of physical, mental and emotional benefits.” According to Levitin, after 60, playing an instrument can help you retrain and remap neural circuits that are inclined to atrophy, which sounds to me like it almost certainly helps you to stay sharp! Plus, playing guitar is just plain good fun.

What about guitar lessons for kids?

Well, learning to play an instrument teaches patience, focus,

Goals: short, medium and long-term

We might consider both “entertaining millions” and “knowing how to play any song I want to learn” to be “long-term” goals. We’ll met those some time in the future. Long-term goals are great because they define a possible endpoint of your path, and they’re far enough away that we can move toward them if they change, which they probably will. “Playing any song I want to” could easily morph into “playing finger-style guitar in the style of Django Reinhardt ” as you progress in your ability, understanding and appreciation of your instrument. Of course, it’s also a good idea to have medium and short-term goals too, so you can make sure you are on track to that farther-off goal (of entertaining millions, perhaps?).

One way to look at guitar-playing medium-term goals is to think ahead 6 months or so. Let’s say you found a pretty good guitar teacher and you’ve been studying together for the last 6 months. How does that look, guitar-wise? Do you know how to play maybe a half-dozen songs you couldn’t play before? Do you have […]

Introduction

First I’d like to say that you probably already know quite a bit more about playing guitar than you think you do! Regular Folks Playing Guitar is aimed at a wide range of players from pure beginners to the fairly accomplished guitarist who may be in a rut with their playing and want to break out of it. Whatever level you play at now, if you can hum a tune recognizably – or even a lick from a tune, you already have a sense of timing and melody. We just need to trick your brain into sending musical notes to your hands instead of your mug! I’ll show you how to do that and have some fun at the same time. A lot of what we’ll be doing has to do with ear training which we’ll discuss in some detail.

I once had a student who, when asked the question “why do you want to play guitar?” answered “to entertain millions of people around the world”. Well, that’s not for everybody- or for most of us, in fact. And if that’s your aim, sorry- I don’t really know how to help you with that. Sad face emoji.

It is pretty important […]