Acoustic Guitar DVD Lessons: Become a Great Performer

Posted by | Posted on 3:40 AM

By Dexter Hodge

As a beginner learning to play the guitar can seem like a pretty steep hill to climb. There are notes and chords to learn and correct finger placement and technique to establish. Don't be discouraged to quickly by letting these things get you frustrated.

If you are just beginning acoustic guitar, then you have taken the first step towards a very rewarding and interesting hobby. I have been playing acoustic guitar for nearly 20 years, and I can honestly tell you, looking back, I have never regretted the hours of sweat and toil I have put into it. "Sweat and toil?", you ask. Well yes, I'm afraid so.

The first step to learning your guitar in a snap is the most obvious. Sit down and actually practice. By actually practicing I mean not always playing what you enjoy, or are familiar with.

With this in mind, there are some sites online today that offer very targeted types of guitar lessons. These include some sites that focus on what might best be called finger picking 101. These sites are designed to provide people like you who have never played a guitar before the chance to learn a basic technique that nevertheless allows you to perform in an entertaining and lively fashion.

If that describes you, if you are just learning the guitar or only recently desired to learn to play guitar, these sites are perfect for you. Oftentimes through these types of online guitar lesson sites that are geared to novices you can become exposed to a wide range of different techniques, including things like the funk-skunk. Beyond websites that are up and running to assist novices, there are interactive sites that can be a great resource for a person who is interested in learning basic or even more advanced guitar playing techniques.

When you are choosing your repertoire, you can spread your net wide. No need to stick to the Top Forty, go for the Top One Hundred of whatever decade you feel comfortable with. An easy way out that does not need too much research is to just jot down a bunch of Beatles titles.

These are songs that everybody in the world knows the words to, or at least they can fake it. Some artists that are always popular at singalongs are James Taylor, Leonard Cohen and Greenday. Oh, and maybe Suzanne Vega. Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and "Captain Jack" are songs that get a crowd going but maybe you need some vocal skills for those.

Backing tracks are audio tracks you can buy or download that give you accompaniment to your guitar practice. As you grow as a guitar player, you will find that your backing tracks, sometimes referred to as "jamtracks" will be as useful a tool as your metronome or your guitar tuner. There is no lead guitar or vocalist on your backing tracks just the backing that you can play lead guitar in front of.

About the Author:

Comments (0)