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October 15, 2010 | 
Author Have you ever wanted to play guitar like the greats? While it’s easy to pass off their amazing guitar skills as pure talent alone, it’s more important to examine that massive amount of smart work that went into mastering those guitar skills. For every Slash and Eric Clapton, there are hundreds of wannabe guitarists wondering just how they could make it there, and without the right combination of inspiration and learning skills, it’s easy to think that you could end up along with them. Don’t worry, learning guitar isn’t something that has to suck up a lot of your time, nor does it need to be a hobby that you grow to dislike. By shedding the conventional learning styles and focusing on acquiring the most important and vital skills, you can fast-track your guitar progress and be out there playing your favourite songs and solos in no time at all.
It all comes down to mastering the most important techniques. While many guitar schools and courses focus on the less important skills; mastering kids songs and practicing scale after scale, very few actually put the most important skills in any real practical context. Instead of practicing mindless children’s songs that you can’t stand listening to, the best way to master guitar is by playing and mastering the music that you love to listen to.
That’s right, learning guitar doesn’t have to be about mastering nursery rhymes and ‘Smoke on the Water.’ Ask any experienced guitarist what part of learning they think is most important and they’ll tell you to simply focus on doing what you enjoy. All the essential skills of guitar, the scale learning, the playing positions, and the hand dexterity, they all extend from mastering the songs of your favourite artists and guitarists.
Ready to kick-start your guitar progress? Skipping past the basics requires quite a lot of dedication and a determination to master what’s truly important. This free report, packed full of information on mastering the most fundamental and versatile guitar techniques, is the perfect resource for beginners looking to master guitar in a style that suits them.
Click Here To Download Your Free Perfect Guitar Solos Report
So don’t despair — learning guitar doesn’t have to be something that feels like homework. When you focus on the aspects of guitar that you already love, you can boost your dedication and fast-track your learning progress. Using the knowledge and information within this free report, you can get the guitar skills that you dream of without the endless hours of monotonous practice.
Click Here To Download Your Free Perfect Guitar Solos Report
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Tags: Artists, Courses Focus, Dedication, Eric Clapton, Favourite Songs, Guitar Schools, Guitar Skills, Guitar Solos, Guitarist, Guitarists, Hand Dexterity, Inspiration, Kids Songs, Learning Guitar, Learning Styles, Love, Nursery Rhymes, Right Combination, Smart Work, Smoke On The Water | 
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Have you ever picked up your guitar, hoping to play like the greats, and run out of motivation to continue? Almost every major guitarist had the same feeling, but instead of packing their guitar away and discontinuing their experience, they found a playing and learning style that worked for them. The major problem facing newbie guitarist isn’t a lack of willpower, it’s a lack of suitable learning style. While most guitar classes fail to cover the basics, and instead focus on the flashy and non-substantial, they leave newbie guitarists sitting wondering where they’ve gone wrong and how they can improve their abilities.
Don’t worry; your guitar experience doesn’t need to end because you can’t find a suitable teacher. Instead of focusing on teacher orientated education, you’re best to look for student orientated education. Thanks to the technical advances made possible by the internet, you can easily get a perfect guitar education online, without having to visit any guitar teachers or sit through any unnecessary guitar education.
What if instead of focusing on techniques that aren’t very useful and songs that you don’t enjoy, your guitar education could focus on learning songs that you love and mastering techniques that you’ll use every day? While most guitar programs focus on the trivial and boring, mastering songs that only five year olds enjoy and quickly bore guitarists, the new opportunities of internet learning make it possible to master songs from your favourite artists as quickly or slowly as you would like.
Want to get started? This free report is packed full of guitar information, ranging from how-to guides to important technical explanations of the most important and fundamental guitar techniques. If you’ve ever been stuck wondering where to go with your guitar learning, this report is a must read.
Click Here To Download Your Free Perfect Guitar Solos Report
Don’t worry about those boring beginner songs. By focusing on the fundamentals of guitar acquisition; the scales, modal shapes, and master techniques, you can transform your guitar skills from allowing you to play that most basic and boring songs to allowing you to master songs from your favourite artists and guitarists. Don’t worry, learning guitar doesn’t have to be a task, and by applying the principles and advice from this free report, you can speed up your guitar progress and learn the songs that you want in the style that you’re comfortable with.
Click Here To Download Your Free Perfect Guitar Solos Report
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Education Online, Five Year Olds, Guitar Classes, Guitar Education, Guitar Experience, Guitar Programs, Guitar Teachers, Guitar Techniques, Guitarist, Internet Learning, Learning Style, Love, Motivation, New Opportunities, Programs Focus, Sit, Suitable Teacher, Teacher Education, Technical Explanations, Willpower | No Comments »
Songwriters On A Mission Guest Writer
Do you feel frustrated or unfulfilled with the songs you have written? Do you think your songs have to conform to a certain standard before they are any good? If so, what exactly are you comparing them to? You may find you have an unrealistic expectation of yourself or what you think a song is or should be.
If you are unhappy with the songs you have written or think your songs are not what they should be, examine these three songwriting tips to focus your attention on clarifying what you think you want to gain from your songs.
1./ Why Do You Want To Write A Song?
What do you want to communicate? Don’t dismiss this, answering this question is more important than you think. If you know why you are doing something, your path will be a lot clearer. For instance, do you see yourself performing on some late night TV rock show with the audience going wild for more, or do you want to write a romantic love song to impress your partner? Or maybe you want to perform an acoustic set down at the local bar? The answer will influence your behaviour and your writing style.
2./ Write About What You Know And Do What You Know.
Do you know how to put chord progressions together on the piano and improvise over the top or do you know how to link drum machines and turn tables together to a whole plethora of midi equipment to pump out the biggest, baddest beats this side of Georgia? There is no difference. Your song will have more style and impact if you can find the courage to be yourself and use those talents you have today, not in what you think you should be doing, or what your song should sound like.
3./ Develop Your Habit Of Songwriting.
How are you coming up with your ideas? Repetition increases the likely hood of repetition, that means the more you do something, the more you are likely to do it. The more you get into the habit of writing down lyrics in a notebook that you carry with you at all times, the more likely you are to write down lyrics in a notebook that you carry with you at all times. Get into the habit of writing down your thoughts when your inspiration strikes because ideas always strike when you least expect them.
Your inspiration could be in the form of a lyric, a sound you heard in the street, an unusual chord change you heard on the radio or a rhythm your mum was tapping out on her coffee cup. By doing this, you can consult your own wisdom as and when you need it. These are the gems that will determine your style and show you your way forward.
Disciplining yourself to these three songwriting tips will give you confidence in yourself and your music. Realize that to write a song, you do not need to be anybody other than who you are, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Whether you are beating out a rhythm on a pair of spoons or bowing an upright punk guitar accompanied by someone tap dancing in a different time signature, songwriting is subjective. Someone somewhere will love whatever you do, someone somewhere will absolutely trash it as the most unbelievable pile of garbage to ever appear on the music scene in the history of music. The most important question you need to ask yourself at the end of the day is, do you like it?
For A Limited Time You Can Claim More Songwriting Tips At No Cost To Finally Get Your Ideas Realized!
Article Source Hope you enjoyed our Guest Writer’s contribution today
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Acoustic Set, Baddest, Chord Progressions, Courage, Drum Machines, Guest Writer, Habit, Late Night Tv, Local Bar, Midi Equipment, Plethora, Repetition, Romantic Love Song, Songwriters, Songwriting Tips, Talents, Turn Tables, Tv Rock, Unrealistic Expectation, Writing Style | No Comments »
This tip is relevant for all songwriters. It just so happens that I have a Christian worldview and as such I know that Christian Songwriters can fall into several traps! They can write songs that ‘preach’ at people and end up alienating them. They can write songs with predictable Christian cliches and end up reinforcing the idea that Christians are irrelevant. They can use word images that are unrelated to real life and cause listeners to dismiss the music on the grounds that the writer has not grappled with the real life issues.
Successful Christian songwriters that connect with people at a deep level, know how to create pictures with words that are unpredictable, relevant, entertaining and thought provoking! Great songs tell stories with pictures that stay with people. I love to write songs this way because at heart I am a songwriter on a mission! And I enjoy finding ways to communicate with songs that relate to the key issues of life.
Sp all songwriters need to write with the mind of an artist.
I was trying to find a way of communicating what God was up to when He broke into time and space two thousand years ago in the Person of Jesus Christ. So I used the ‘picture’ of a Hijack!
“Taken by surprise by the latest information,
Hit between the eyes
By something we should have seen before,
Didn’t realize the implications,
The subtle disguise of the bandit
Who pinned us to the floor!
By careless mishandling we lost our position,
Threw away a fortune
When we tried to fly alone
Looking all around for a solution,
Mesmerised
As we entered the forbidden zone!
Hijack! We were under attack!
Hijack! Now there’s no turning back!
Hijack!
The greatest man in history steps inside our situation
Freedom can come,
But the ransom is higher than the sky!
In the jaws of death, he stood in our position
He’s given us confidence to take our wings and fly!”
I have to confess I am a fan of Sting and Peter Gabriel. I find their songwriting inspirational and prophetic. It would be great if we could cultivate our own songwriting in the Christian community to reach contemporary culture they way they do.
Here’s another example: a song about how we can be so mechanical and predictable when God wants us to be free.
“We are living by digital equations,
Captured by computer brains,
Technical Data requiring our devotions,
Compare our losses against our gains
But nothing we touch ever remains
We go to the limit of our domains.
Don’t be like clockwork, oooh
Throw away the key
Don’t be like clockwork, oooh
You were made to be free
Don’t be like…”
One more example of using words to create pictures:
“Hi Tec deliveries, babies by proxy,
Life at low prices, shun orthodoxy,
Innovative designs, choose at your leisure,
Say who you want and we will make them to measure!
And the fuse, is still burning…”
You don’t have to be a Christian to be a fan of Jesus Christ! He was a great communicator. He used words to create pictures all the time. And pictures stay with people. He was the ultimate storyteller.
So tell a story. If the story you tell relates to something that has happened to you, that will give it a sense of authenticity and relevance to the listener that will carry power with it.
Steve Flashman
http://www.songwritersonamission.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Bandit, Christian Songwriters, Christian Worldview, Cliches, Disguise, Great Songs, Greatest Man, Higher Than The Sky, Hijack, History Steps, Jaws Of Death, Mesmerised, Person Of Jesus Christ, Peter Gabriel, Ransom, Songwriter, Sting, Time And Space, Trying To Find A Way, Word Images | No Comments »
I’ve been writing songs now for more than 30 years and it always amazes me that the basic songwriting principles I learned back then still apply today. Of course, these days there are plently more creative stimuli to trigger the imagination and bring new energy and vitality into the process.
The trap we easily fall into is to produce “pre-packaged” elements into our writing. The use of the internet, pre-packed music loops, keyboard workstations that do all the work for you and countless other adds and devices that produce ‘original’ music at the touch of a button.
All of these resources can bring a new edge to our writing as long as we don’t fall into the trap of regurgitating what other people have already worked on. That’s why Tip #11 is a useful tool to add to the songwriters arsenal of techniques.
So switch off the computer, the workstation and the sequencer for a couple of hours and try this exercsie. You’ll need a A2 or A3 sheet of blank paper. Now use your powers of observation. Take a good look around you and write down what you see. Not everything of course, just the things that capture your imagination. In another one of my 101 songwriting tips, I stress the need to think like an artist. Now do just that. Let the side of your brain that is triggered by visual images be free to think visually.
The brain is recording visual information at the speed of light every moment of the day! As a songwriter you need to educate your senses to collect a photo album of the visual information that will trigger the creative process.
So your environment will speak to you. The places you go, the people you meet, the encounters you have, the commercials you see and hear etc. Write down any creative word describing the experience of your senses – objects, people, scenery, colours, artefacts, possessions, books, magazines, TV pictures, conversations. Write words that describe the visual images that attract you all over your piece of paper then circle the interesting ones, the ones that grab you.
Now here comes the interesting part! Educationalists use Mind Maps to enable people to remember key facts. Especially useful when revising for examinations, test and interviews. Public Speakers also use the technique so that they can dispense with notes, get eye contact with their audience and communicate effectively their core message. However, this principle can also be used in songwriting to explore a theme and develop a song.
So, on a second large piece of paper pick one of the key words that attract you – a word that has the potential to create a visual image in the mind of the hearer, a good ‘storyline’ word. Write the word in a box in the middle of the sheet then create your Mind Map by drawing lines out from the center box to adjoining boxes where you will start your Lyric Explosion! In each of the new boxes you have created around the central key word, write as many related words as possible. For instance, if your key word is ‘storm’ then you might use related words like: ‘rain’, ‘thunder’, ‘weather forecast’,'howling’,'gale’, ‘water,’ ‘flood’ etc. Now extend your Mind Map out further, creating new boxes attached to the secondary boxes.
Write in these ‘secondary’ words that are related to the key word like: ‘rage’, ‘anger’ ‘umbrella’, ‘fear’, ‘panic’. You see how you are gradually building a visual image with words and importantly, you are not going off subject but staying with the main theme.
The next stage in the process is to start looking for related words that might create verses for your song remembering that as a songwriter you want to tell a story that progresses and develops through the song to a climax at the end using ‘hook lines’ and a powerful middle eight.
It’s not uncommon for writers to sit for hours in front of a blank piece of paper or computer screen! Once you start the ‘lyric explosion’ exercise, you will be surprised how much comes tumbling out.
Resist switching on that computer! If you really get stuck, use a decent Thesaurus or Dictionary to give you a good spread of word associations for your Mind Map. Persevere and work with the process. Make sure you give yourself the creative time and space you need without interruptions.
Enjoy!
Steve Flashman
http://www.songwritersonamission.com