Getting the hang of your first guitar solo

Guitar students often want to learn how to play solos, much as they enjoy playing rhythm guitar. It’s a little more difficult to play a solo than a rhythm guitar. A solo can be confusing or even intimidating for some students. The guide will help you master your first solo guitar.

Learn the pentatonic scale

In order to play guitar solos smoothly, you should know the pentatonic scale well. It is important to know both the major and minor pentatonic scales. These two scales are commonly used in guitar solos. The following scales form the basis for many of the popular songs of today even though they use different scales.

 In addition, you are better able to learn other guitar scales once you have mastered the pentatonic scale. Every scale should be played ten times when you are practicing. Under your fingers, you can feel the scales. The fretboard’s positions should be familiar to you.

Have a listen to these guys down below and see if any of their soloing inspires you!

We’ll be solo soon

Invest some time in learning a solo that is short. You should usually only play a couple of bars. Confusion and frustration are sure to follow if you attempt something too complex. In order to achieve that goal, we will perform a short solo. In many songs, you can hear guitar solos. Make sure you understand both the rhythm and solo guitar parts of something you like.

You can’t learn a song unless you learn every part of it, including the solo. Start with something short and simple to learn the basics of guitar soloing once you’re ready.

Essential starts for beginner Guitar Players

When you’re learning the guitar it’s a complete beginner there are lots of things that I can very quickly become overwhelming. And knowing what the essential things to look out for and to learn when you’re complete beginner will help you narrow down what you need to do to get started.

Getting a guitar

I know this is crazy but getting a guitar that suits you is the most important thing for your musical journey well and might not be the most important but definitely having a guitar is deafening useful compare to not having a total when it comes to learning. Think I might be joking but we do you have Student to come to our school asking whether they can just take lessons and not have a good heart and just bar us. The truth is learning an instrument is something that takes a lot of practice and therefore you will want an instrument to practice on when you’re at home.

Learn to tune your guitar

Most beginners don’t realise this but guitar is an instrument that you need to tune it before every time you play it! The only time you might not it is if you have a special type of guitar which has a Floyd Rose Bridge. 

I know I different ways to show you a guitar as well a lot of people will use a app on the phone to tune a guitar. But this doesn’t actually work very well for beginners at all, because your ears will not be experienced enough to tell whether your guitar sounds the same as the app on your phone. And the app on the phone will take note of background noises as well when you’re tuning so it’s hard to get a precise tuning going forward. 

The best way to tune a guitar is to get a clip on tuna that goes onto the end of your guitar neck and works off the vibration of you could charge for you to get the exact right notes. 

Follow our blog to find more about what else you need to get learning to play the guitar.

Getting motivated to practise guitar Part 2

I don’t know what to practise…

I’m just not getting that new song…

My wrist and fingers hurt too much…

I’m never going to be able to play how I want anyways…

Part 1 of getting motivated to practise guitar saw a couple of ways we can start to get excited about practising guitar again.

Revisiting your WHY and also get listening to music!

Here are some more ways to get you motivated to practise guitar.

3. Getting Inspired

Along with listening to music there are lots of other ways you can find inspiration. It could be watching concerts musicians you really like or actually going to concerts physically depending on when lockdown eases.

It could be watching other musicians on YouTube that you really admire.

It could be finding a group of friends or teacher who really inspires you to get better as well.

Do you know how they say you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with?

I find that it’s the same with music so if you can find other musicians that you really enjoy playing music with preferably those who are better than you you can get a lot of inspiration and give you opportunities try out lots of new things and get inspired practice. 

Do you want those people to be supportive of course and people who want you to get better too. 

Which is why finding a guitar teacher who have other students who want to play with you is a great place to start. They also tend to be in a learning environment and mindset, and want to improve as well I will be able to support you as you are learning and improving on the guitar.

4. Getting direction 

Not knowing what to practise on the guitar is one of the biggest hurdles that stop people from practising. 

On the other hand, having too many things to practise can also be overwhelming! 

That’s why having a guitar teacher who guides you will help you a lot in getting motivated to practise the guitar. 

Or perhaps even a simple course that just gives you more direction and less distractions can be helpful too. 

I hope these few things will help you get motivated and practising the guitar again if you have any questions and don’t be afraid to get in touch with us so that we can help you further.

Here’s more inspirational music for you:

Getting motivated to practise guitar Part 1

I’m just not feeling practising guitar tonight…

I’m way too tired… 

I’ve got too much work on… 

I don’t know what to practise… 

Oh I just feel like I’m not getting anywhere with this… 

There are many reasons and excuses we give ourselves when it comes to practising guitar… 

And you know maybe some of them are true! 

Maybe you aren’t sure what you have got to work on… 

Or maybe your job is crazy at the moment. 

So what are some ways we can combat it? 

Should we just accept those as facts of reality and give up? 

Or do I love the guitar enough to make room for it in my life? 

If that’s a yes, then hope this article helps you. 

How can we overcome these

  1. Rediscover your why 

Sometimes just thinking back to why I started playing the guitar is enough to reinvigorate you into getting Motivated to practice.

Maybe you performing a friends’ wedding? Maybe you want to play to your little girl when she’s a bit older? Maybe you just want to be able to play with your friends who are musicians? Maybe you want to be able to relax at the end of the day with an instrument hobby that you enjoyed the sound of.

Whatever it is, the more you think about it, the easier it will be to practice the guitar. And more importantly, you might discover new WHYs for practising guitar too. More on this later.

2. Listening to music

Actually, listening to music my favourite ways of motivating myself to wanting to practice music. 

There are so many great musicians out there that inspired me to want to pick up the guitar and play along and try new things. And discover new sounds that I really enjoy.

It could be a cool riff here, or a new cool song. Or maybe a technique of playing a song differently. Or an acoustic cover of a song that’s piqued my interest. 
There are so many ways that listening to music will help get you interested in practising again. 

Heres some cool guitar music I’m listening to at the moment.

Check out Part 2 for more ways to get you motivated about practising guitar! …

I want to learn to play the guitar, how long will it take?

When I had this question asked, I always wonder why are they learning to play the guitar?

Are they trying to learn for a specific song?

Are they wanted to do this as a hobby for the summer?

Are they trying to learn just so they can have it as a school on the CV?

I always find it a strange question to ask how long it will take to master something.

How to truly master an instrument

To truly master something there is something that takes 10, 20 years.

For anything…

It’s not just guitar but it could be the piano or could be singing. The number of hours you put in is important, but the more important thing is if you are actually gonna keep going for that long. And what kind of hours, and practising and learning you are going to put in for that duration of time.

There are people who learn the guitar for 20 years and can only play four chords. And then we have students who play for 3 months and can play at Open Mics…

But I only want to learn guitar for the summer

If you only want to learn to play the guitar for a few months, you only get limited things out of it.

It’s not you… it’s Science

Naturally there was a study that showed that how long you think you play something for correlates to the amount of progress that you make. In a classroom kits were they thought they were going to play them instrument in this case a violin, for 20 years.

Fastest kids that I thought they were only going to play it until the end of school year. The ones who thought they would play it for 20 years made a lot more progress. That makes sense because you have a vision for do you wanna achieve long-term, you might actually do more practice because of it. And you might be more enthusiastic about the instrument you thinking that you can apply for such a long time.

Put the progress wasn’t minuscule it was 2 or 3 times folds so makes a lot of difference How long you think you wanna play the guitar for. And this is an accounting for practising time this is when the practice the same amount of time. 

So what are you saying?

I hate to say it’s like how long is a piece of string…. But…

When people ask me the question… “How long does it take for me to learn the guitar?”

I always look at them with a puzzled face and they probably look back at me and wonder what I’m thinking.

Here’s someone who really has mastered the guitar:

Being a female guitarist.

Many people for you being female as a challenge that we need to overcome in the society. Men have all the privileges and as women we need to overcome our “shortcomings “to be able to compete in the world. However I see things differently. Being female is in! People want female musicians. And don’t forget the biggest earning star of 2018 was Taylor Swift who is a pretty young and attractive female! And a guitarist.

But what about as a profession? I hear you say. 

I think we should be celebrating our differences! And realise that being with a woman actually helps you in the musical world rather than something that you’ve got to overcome. And if you are a female guitarist who is doing session work.

There are so many opportunities of band managers and And record artist who will be dying to have you join them.

One of the most important thing I think is female is to remember that you still have to be good you have to be good at instrument you have to be a master of it being female does not mean you get a shortcut to the top. I need this being a man. It’s important that you are good at what you do no matter what your sex is.  

It’s important that you build your own following and not rely on others to create success for you.

And even better if you have other things that are unique to you that is your selling point if you are ethnically Asian if you’re ethnically black these are things that can make you really stand out.

No things that you should be celebrating posting on social media to help other people recognise you. You can create a niche for yourself and you start to sell your persona to a record label for example.

It’s important that you build your own following and not rely on others to create success for you. You are the only one who can build your own success and be responsible for it. And the more you can create that yourself, the less reliant you will be on the label or on a manager and therefore You will have a lot more control and power over your music in the long run.

You might remember that Taylor Swift is currently in a legal battle of her record label and has been going through probably hundreds of thousands of lawyers fees to try and win a music back.

And that’s because she was so young when she became a star. For you there are so many musicians out there who really only music properly and you can use them to start at six samples for yourself.

Now even if you’re not composing and you just playing on tracks you can still get royalties for those suits important that you know the legality of what it means to be a professional musician..

So don’t let being a woman hold you back. Use it to your advantage and as a strength.

Use your experience and thinking to create a success for yourself. Whether that’s as a singer songwriter or session musician, or even just playing in front of a few friends. Whatever it is, go for it!

Factors To Consider Before You Buy Any Guitar Course

When you want to play the guitar, you probably know that the first thing to do is to get trained. This is because there is no way you can just pick up a guitar and magically become a good player. You must get good training. 

But with so many different learning resources, it can be difficult to choose the best course. This is because when you scan the market, you’ll be swamped with different options. 

Unfortunately, most people out there are concerned about selling you a guitar course. They don’t care whether it’s a good deal for you or whether you’ll learn. All they care is them making money. 

However, you don’t have to fall into the traps of these kinds of people. You can easily identify the best course by considering the most critical factors in buying a guitar course. 

This article will share with you the top factors you should consider before you buy any guitar course. 

  • The Trainer 

The first thing you need to consider is the trainer. What does the trainer know? Do they themselves play the guitar or they just learnt some tricks and started training. What is their level? 

These are the questions you should be asking yourself about the trainer. You don’t want to buy a course only to find out that the trainer is also learning to play. If you want to be on the safe side, get someone who truly understands how to play the guitar. 

It’s a universal rule—you can’t give what you don’t have. So, if the trainer they don’t know much they can’t teach you much. But if you pick an expert to train you, you will be on your way to becoming an expert guitarist. 

  • The Course Level 

The second thing you need to think about is the course that you are taking. What is it’s level? Is it for a beginner, intermediate, or advanced players? And again what’s your playing experience? 

These question will help you choose a helpful course. In the end, you’ll choose a course that will serve your skills level and learning needs. 

So, before buying any course, find out its level and buy the course that suits your needs. 

  • Your Learning Needs

What do you want to learn? And again, why do you want to learn? Do you want to learn to be a hobby or a professional player? Again, what genre of music do you want to learn to play? 

These are other critical questions you must ask yourself. You need to choose a course that really serves your needs. 

  • The Cost 

Different courses will cost differently. Sometimes people think that the most expensive course is what will give much value. But it’s not always the case. Your focus should be what the course offers. And after considering all other factors, you need to think about your budget—the amount you’re willing to spend on the course. 

Parting Shot 

If you want to get the best guitar course, you need to think about the trainer, course level, learning needs, and cost.