Uncle Tim's eGuitarCenter - Technical Training For Guitar

Lesson one

Barriers

After you have established some muscle memory, you can easily go back and form the chord and play it without trying or thinking about it. Muscle memory is the result of work and it will take away the need for constant monitoring of fingers to make sure they are doing what they should be doing. It takes time to develop, but all this work will develop it.

All of this leads up to the fact that if you are going to teach your hands to play these chords, you have to put in time. When you do practice, you will develop this same muscle memory I speak of. If you do not feel this control emerge in your hands, increase the amount of time you play or just keep going at your present rate. Do not decrease the amount of time you practice. That is the kiss of death! Decreasing the amount of time you play is the single biggest mistake you can make.

It may take a few weeks to kick start the muscle memory in your arms and body, but every day it should feel slightly easier. Usually big jumps in ability are not what you are looking for. Look for consistent small improvements day after day. You may experience something like a setback from time to time. That means you may have a day where everything seems to sound wrong, or slow or like you just can't do it. Expect that to happen. Take refuge in the fact that you must go through this. Your body will respond differently every day and you are playing every day. Most of the time it will do what is asked of it. At times you may not like the response you get. Expect that and work through it. Stay focused on your long term goals.

Usually it gets a little easier every day and the effect grows until one day you have formidable skills. Just as certain as all the doubt most people have is you will also experience days when you feel like you are bursting out and taking control. The small effects of learning come together and allow you to elevate your playing. It is practice time that will make this possible. If you practice like I suggest, you should expect to experience this. It is the practice that will make this happen.

Every guitarist builds their skills one day at a time. Every single guitarist!

My advice is to play for at least a total of one hour a day. Play more if you can. And make sure you play every day. In a few weeks we will set up a schedule, but for now just try to put in good solid practice and do not worry too much. Pay attention to your hand position and experiment with what feels most comfortable.

So let's start to play these chords.