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Far too often, beginners who only recently picked up the guitar approach the instrument all wrong. They learn a couple tabs to some songs they like, disregard the actual difficulty of the song or chords, learn the chords one after the other, and then try to play up to tempo with the actual song. I have no problem with the concept of learning the guitar through learning songs you like; however, the methodology of learning and then practicing that favorite song is often detrimental to one’s growth as a musician and guitar player.
The following principles can and should be applied to learning and practicing any song on guitar:
Find a song within your skill range
This sounds obvious, but it is undoubtedly the most common problem among beginning guitar players. An easy song doesn’t have to be a dumb or boring song either. The classic Flaming Lips song, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” is essentially five chords (okay, six if you count the Fmaj7, but that’s only one note different from F). In fact, most Flaming Lips songs are about four or five basic chords. A good benchmark for how difficult a song should be for you is how many new chords you are learning. If it’s one or two new chords, you’ll be in good shape. If you don’t know any chords, look for songs with chords like C, D, A, E, and G; these are basic chords that are in a large amount of songs.
Don’t copy the rhythm of the guitar part … yet
You just learned the five chords to “Yoshimi,” great! Please don’t fall into the trap of trying to play the entire song and thinking it sounds good because it slightly resembles the recorded version. For a first play-through, try to only strum a chord when there’s a chord change. For this exercise, it is perfectly acceptable and a good idea to follow along with the recording, singing if you’d like. Once you feel like you’ve got that under control, try strumming a chord every two beats (the downbeats between snare hits), and then every downbeat. Eventually, you can try strumming twice every beat (playing eighth notes), and, depending on how fast the song is, you can even play sixteenth notes if you want to be uber-pro.
Now learn the guitar rhythm
Eventually, of course, you will want to learn the exact rhythm of the guitar part. If you practiced the chords and rhythm as just described, chord changes will become immensely easier and you will have better control with your strumming to play complicated or fast rhythms. More importantly, you won’t look and sound like one of those guitar noobs who slow down the tempo or ruin the guitar rhythm pattern for every chord change.
Use music tools to help you perfect the song
Play the song slowly when you are trying to copy the rhythm exactly. There is some software out there that can slow down songs for you, if you would still like to be able to play with the recording. Or you can be old school and use a metronome, increasing the tempo incrementally as you maintain good sound quality.
Listen to yourself practice
Record and listen to yourself practice. This is by far the best and most overlooked method of practice. You only need a tape recorder, cell phone recorder, or microphone for your computer, and the benefits are astounding. There’s simply so much more you notice while listening to a recording that you don’t notice while playing.
By-line:
Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online college. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.
If you want to learn to play guitar, the best way to do so is to visit The Guitar Classroom and get yourself some online guitar lessons.
