Uncle Tim's eGuitarCenter - Technical Training For Guitar

Lesson one

Barriers

There are a couple to things you will encounter right about now!

First of all it is hard to press the strings down and it gets harder when you make adjustments. Your fingers will develop calluses within a few weeks. When this happens it will become easier to press against the strings and hold them down.

Another dynamic is fatigue. Since your hands are not trained yet, you will experience fatigue quickly. A way around this is to manage the fatigue. Play for ten minute periods and then take a three minute rest. Do not walk away and risk distraction. Stay in the immediate area and stay focused. Make every minute count.

Your hands will recover quickly. For the first couple of days, you may have to ramp up your playing time. Just remember that every day you get better so it is important to be consistent.

There is only one way to become familiar with these chords and that way is to play them. I want to make my strategy clear. I know that in order for a person to become a guitarist, they must play these chords enough so that physical adaptations occur in posture and muscle groups. So my advice is to play them. Start with small increments, maybe five minutes sessions. Pick a few chords and try to strum them. Don't worry about the right hand at first. Just strum the chords and try to match the sound of the chord. Click the sound button to hear the chord.

The changes in posture occur as your body experiments with the best and most comfortable position for the guitar. When your body finds the best way to hold the guitar you will standardize on that position and learn to get the best hold on the instrument. These little changes to posture make all the difference in the world, but they cannot occur until your body becomes uncomfortable enough to motivate it to look for alternate methods. Your body will make these fine tune adjustments but you must put in the time for these adjustments to occur.

As you play these chords for the first few times, everything may seem difficult or awkward. Your body is adjusting to the exact demands of the instrument. Just do your best and work through this. Things will become comfortable with time and practice.

The other physical change is muscle development, coordination and memory. Your muscles must memorize how to play these chords. As an example of this concept look at any guitarist that has developed reasonable muscle memory. When you watch him or her play, notice how easy it looks. Most of the time the performer does not look like they are trying very hard. Next notice there is very little wasted motion in their hands. Their body may be moving violently (showmanship) but their hands are probably only moving when they need to. And then they move exactly where they need to be and they stay there until the next move is required. This is due to the training they have put their hands through. They literally have trained their hands to do exactly what they are asked to do and travel using the most efficient path.