Want to become a Guitar Hero?

If I was to start all over again, I know where I would begin. In this article, I'll try to give you an overview as to how the best guitar players balance their practice sessions. Also also go a bit into what I would start working on on your practice.

So what's truly important in learning to play an instrument? Is it reading music notation? Thankfully, you'll only truly need to learn to site read notation if you plan to be a session player, but it's the kind of skill that can be learnt fairly quickly if you know everything else there is to know about playing guitar. I realize many formal schools insist upon learning this from the get go, but unless telling everyone that you've passed a grade 7 in guitar at a formal school is your main goal (and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that!), I would recommend leaving it until a bit later in your studies...

So what do you work on from day one? Well, I would say that would depend upon where you want to take your playing. If you are interested in just playing a couple sing along songs around the campfire, I wouldn't start you off with memorizing scales and Theory structure! Simple chords and their theory would apply in that case. But what if you want to become a Rock Star? A Guitar Hero? Some may say No theory is required for this and they would be correct! Some of the greatest players in the world know little about theory, but have managed to have a career in the music business. But if you truly want to attain freedom on the guitar, I have found personally that as my fundamental knowledge of my instrument and music theory grew, so did my ability to express myself !! If this is what you're looking for, I would absolutely start you off with learning how to memorize where every note is located on the fretboard. How do you go about doing that? Start off with the understanding that the 12^th fret is the same as playing each string open but is an octave higher in pitch. The 13^th fret contains all the exact same notes on it as the First fret, the 15^th is the same as the 3^rd fret, etc. Start by learning where all the E & A notes are up to and including the 12^th fret and the open strings. Work on that every day, or several times a day for 5 min if you're able. Do that for the first week, then on week 2 add in the notes for D & G, giving a quick review as well to the notes you learned the week before. The 3^rd week, add the notes from the last 2 open strings (B & E again). After this, on the fourth week, review them all Again, and start on the E & A notes from the 13^th fret going up the neck! Continue this until you finish all the notes over the entire fretboard, then start to quiz yourself by randomly selecting a spot on the fretboard and can name what note it is. Don't worry about having to go over this for a while, but if you've put in 15 min worth of this type of study a day, in about 6 months, you should have a fairly good grasp on it.

Also, after you've started implementing where the notes are past the 12th fret, you can start learning the shapes of the Intervals. Intervals in short are Major and Minor scale notes and how they relate to the root note. Learning the shapes of the intervals as you go from string to string will vastly help you later when you get into the major/minor scales, and will also help you further to know and locate your notes on the fretboard! I would start by getting to know the octave shape then, the so called "perfect" 4^ths and 5^ths. These will help you find other notes easier in the scales, and are worth the time to get to know as well for aural (ear) training. After briefly getting to know what the different intervals are, I would focus on getting to know the "Cycle of 5ths" (which explains how to know how many as well as what sharps/flats are in any given key) and working on the Major Triads....

I realize that what I was just telling you about probably went -whoosh- right over your head. But don't worry. I remember vividly when I'd open a Guitar Magazine and get the same feeling come over me with Every Page I Read...Believe Me....

Following theory study in this order will set you up for Great Success once you get into the Major/Minor Scales that should follow up this learning! And don't worry! Music all comes together nicely once you've learnt this material and will actually SHORTEN your learning time to getting to where you want to be! And that's what Good Learning is all about, right? You can't Build a Mansion starting from the Roof going Down! And Players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen (or anyone else who is Phenomenal on Guitar for That matter...) didn't become Amazing Instantly!! It takes Dedication, and Patience...So don't worry if it seems like it's all over your head for now. Learn One thing at a time, and in NO time, you'll be opening up those Guitar Mags and saying...."Hey, I ACTUALLY understand what they are talking about Here"!!!

Any Questions or Comments are welcome! If I've touched on something your interested in, but you don't quite understand, ask and I'll try my best to help you out!