Tips for Beginners
These are some of the things I wish I knew when I first starting learning music. I'm not talking about strumming. I mean the real stuff, like getting out of your comfort zone.
Where do I Start?
When I talk to people who are just learning an instrument, they often tell me what popular song they are learning. I never know what "level" people are at and that makes giving advice somewhat awkward. I still want to help, so I try talking about the song they are learning in the same context that they use. The other person might say, "I'm having trouble barring across the frets" or "I'm trying to learn strumming down, down, up, down." Then I can talk about practicing moveable shapes or slowing the tempo to learn a new rhythm pattern. I’d rather give constructive criticism and help rather than saying they are doing great in their own learning process.
For those of you who just started playing, know that whatever struggles you have are the same struggles that everyone has. We all start playing music at different times and for different reasons. Don't try to rush in and become the next virtuoso. Take your time and learn at your own pace. Just be sure to stick with it. Even if it’s only a few minutes a day. You will get to where you want to be with your instrument.
Learn Some Chords
When first starting out with a new instrument it’s always good to start with some chords. Not only do you learn where some simple triads are located, you also get your hands learning how to interact with your instrument. Strum around, hit the keys, make mistakes: it’s all part of the learning process.
Now maybe the chords you choose are part of that popular song you want to learn. That's perfect, but rather than learning the song right away you should first learn those chords. I don't just mean how to hold it or play it. You should learn those chords in a variety of positions. If you are learning a C major chord, then learn where other major chords are located. You'll begin to notice patterns of how that chord is played across your instrument.
As you get used to playing major chords, minor chords, and other forms you'll get experience with your instrument. You'll also get used to seeing where the notes you want to play are located and hear chord structures. Even having a general idea of what a major chord sounds like will help you to know when you play it wrong and appreciate when you play it right. Then go ahead and learn your song. This will help you to reinforce those chord structures as to move between them. This broader experience is what will help you to learn songs faster and with more confidence.
Technique
I cannot stress enough how important technique is. Most techniques are simple such as arching your fingers over the strings of a guitar so that your fingers do not brush up against strings you want to leave open. Other techniques require you to be mindful of what you are doing, like muting strings that you want to make sure are not sounded while strumming. Its these little details in how you interact with your instrument and cause huge improvements in how you play. On detail I changed over time was how I sat with a guitar. I used to place the guitar on my right leg and strum with my right hand. By placing the guitar on my left leg, I can get my right hand around the body of the guitar easily. This legs me articulate my right hand for any purpose. I can also get my left hand to move up and down the neck, as opposed to left and right along the next, which caused my wrist to contort in odd ways.
Take the time to look up techniques on how to play your instrument like the pros. When researching new skills, you should always look for information from at least three sources. When looking into right hand techniques for guitar the first person may tell you something like, "Keep your right hand over the strings and near the sound hole of a guitar." The next person might mention to, "Place your pinky finger on the body of the guitar so that you have a reference point. Another source of information could tell you to, "Keep the side of your palm near the bridge so you can palm mute quickly and accurately." All three skills mentions are techniques that can be used together. Instead of learning a one technique from one source, you have now learned a set of skills and gained knowledge of where you can go for more information.
As you improve you may think that you have all the skills down. That's when you can start looking for techniques on how to play different styles. If you play a lot of metal or rock and roll then I would suggest you learn some jazz for more complex chords, chord progressions, and melodies. But if you play jazz, then I would suggest you learn some thrash metal. It's a genre of metal that is fast paces, uses a lot of power chords, and usually stays in one key. It's basically the opposite of jazz. By stepping out of your comfort zone you force yourself to embrace new ideas. Maybe there's a lot in other genres of music that you don't care for, so focus on the parts you do like and try to use them. You may be surprised how much you can learn just by doing something new.
Now for a little side note. In between writing this post and the rest of life I happened across two videos of a metal guy learning some jazz and a jazz guy learning some metal. It was quite entertaining and gets to the point that I’m trying to make. Check these out.
Ear Training
There is a skill called perfect pitch, which is when someone can name the exact note or chord that is being played by ear. I do not have perfect pitch as it is very rare to have this skill. I have relative pitch. I can hear the distances between two notes and understand the interval. I find that I am not always correct, so after hearing enough intervals in a song I can figure out the major chords and minor chords to know what mode is being used. I cannot figure out what notes are being played with precision, so I don’t know what key the song is in. Yet I can match a few notes in a song with a guitar or piano and then know exactly what chords I can use.
Try this as an exercise. Play a G note and then a C note. G is the major fifth of C. Playing a chord that is the fifth of another chord is a perfect cadence or authentic cadence depending on whether the second chord is lower or higher in pitch. A cadence is the end of a phrase and I'm sure you've heard this cadence in a lot of songs. I think of it as the "Oh yeah" cadence because you can sing "Oh" with G (the fifth) and "yeah" with C (the tonic). Try it out with a progression like Am, Dm, G, C and sing the "Oh yeah" with the last two chords. You can do the same five-to-one cadence with the chords D to G, A to D, E to A and so on.
Another popular cadence is the plagal cadence, which is the major fourth of your tonic to tonic. This is also known as the "Ah, men" cadence because a lot of gospel songs end with it. Try out C, Em, Dm, F, C and sing "Ah" with F and "men" with C. The same 4-to-1 cadence can be found in the chords C to G, G to D, D to A and so on. With two cadences you can listen for these 5-to-1 and 4-to-1 intervals in songs and start ear training so that you can recognize intervals, chords, and scales.
Just Having Fun
Learning any new skill can be frustrating. Especially when you can’t seem to understand a concept or just get your fingers to move the right way. It’s easy to tell someone to “just have fun,” but doing so while being frustrated can be difficult. A better approach may be to take the music experience as just that: an experience. Try out new things. If they end in failure, then you have still learned something. It could be something as simple as knowing that you need to practice a certain chord shape.
As you practice be sure that you are using “quality practice.” By this I mean that your practice should mimic what you are trying to do. On a piano you might play the C major scale as C, D, E, F, G, A, B and back to C. The problem is that no one plays that in a song. To increase the effectiveness of playing that scale you should play it in thirds so that it sounds and plays like chords from that scale: C, E, G, B, D, F, A and back to C. Try to conduct practice time in a constructive way and you’ll be able to apply those skills easily.
Everyone starts out on their own musical adventure. You can encourage yourself to stick with it. You can give constructive criticism to help others see a concept in a new way. You can also take criticism and as you do take a deep breath and have fun. Whether you’ve been playing for twenty minutes or twenty years, you’ve got a lot of fun ahead of you.
- Jay McNeill
