GUITARHABITS

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The Absolute Importance of Building a Repertoire

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The Absolute Importance of Building a Repertoire-1You’ve been a guitar player for several years. You’ve got some skills in your pocket. And then comes that moment (it always does), at home, at someone else’s place, in a guitar shop, at a party, or some place where a guitar is spotted and someone knows you can play, and the inevitable question pops up: “Hey can you play something for us?”.

A lot of guitar players will scratch their heads and say “Uhh, No I don’t think so.” or “Well, maybe another time” because they don’t know what to play and their obviously not prepared. Deep inside, they’re disappointed, they missed an opportunity and wished they could’ve come up with something cool to play with conviction and confidence. Wow, that would’ve been awesome!

Well for those who can relate to this. It’s time to change this. Let’s get ready and prepared. This is going to be a fun and exciting journey.

Building a repertoire does not only come in handy when you’re in the company of people who love to hear you play. The benefits are manifold.

Let’s dive in!
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How to Play Guitar With a Band or Group

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How to play guitar with a band or groupPlaying guitar with a band or group requires certain skills, knowledge and attitude for things to work properly and make the overall sound coherent, rocking, and above all, a joy to listen to.

Depending on who and what instruments you are playing with, you’ve got a role to fill and really need to look for the right ingredients to make a difference and be part of something great.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important things you need to work and focus on when playing with others.

Be cohesive
Be a part and value to the band or group. Don’t try to stand out by outplaying everyone in the band. To make a band sound great you want to make it a whole, not four musicians and an ego-maniac.

Make sure your amp volume is appropriate and levels with the other instruments. Try to find the right balance.

Don’t fill every second with riffs, fills and solos, leave space for your fellow-musicians and let the music breath now and then. Be a team player.

Listen carefully to what others have to say. Talk about it. Learn from constructive critism. It can be tough to swallow, but these are the moments when you grow the most as a musician. Respect the opinion of your fellow musicians. Keep things cool. Be supportive and appreciative. Continue Reading

How to Memorize Music and Lyrics Forever and Ever

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Memorizing song lyrics hasn’t always been my strongest asset.

Learning chords, chord progressions, scales and guitar solos were always the easy part.

I’d go through them once or twice and they were stored in my brain for ages. But those nasty lyrics didn’t seem to get further than my short term memory.

I ultimately tackled this problem by using a learning technique called spaced repetition.

Spaced repetition works with graduated time intervals. It makes use of the spacing effect where you learn something several times spaced over a long time span.

Instead of cramming (hastily and intense studying at the latest possible moment) which is great for storing huge amounts of information for a short period of time, spaced repetition will pass the information from the short term memory onto the long term memory and make it last indefinitely.

Source
This technique was first discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a german psychologist who experimented with the study of memory and did some extraordinary findings. He contributed to science with brilliant insights on the forgetting curve, the learning curve and the spacing effect.

Application
While you can apply the spaced repetition technique to any kind of (musical) information, we’ll take “memorizing lyrics” as an example.Continue Reading

How to Play Guitar and Sing at The Same Time

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Once you know how to play some chords and strum a few songs, the next step is to sing along with the rhythm you are playing.

It’s a great feeling being able to play and sing at the same time.

Developing this skill will open up a whole new world for you. You can entertain friends and family or learn to perform and play for an audience.

For me it’s also a feeling of freedom. Whenever I feel like it, I pick up my guitar and start playing and singing my favorite songs. It makes me feel good instantly.

Learning to play and sing at the same time is tough in the beginning, but if you follow the tips below and practice regularly you will get the hang of it.

Work hard, have fun and reap the benefits!

1 – Start off easy
First things first. Pick a song you like and something that is easy to play. A familiar song with easy chords and an easy strumming pattern.

2 – Listen first
Before you start trying to play and sing simultaneously you first need to listen to the song quite a few times. Listen to the song on your iPod, iPad or whatever device you prefer, until you know the song inside out. Listen to the melody, listen to the lyrics, listen to the guitar and listen to the beat of the song. Try to count the beats. You can do this by listening to the kick (bass drum) and snare of the drummer.Continue Reading