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Strumming And Switching Chords At The Same Time: Building Right And Left Hand Independence

If this situation applies to you these tips will help:

You can play chords,. You can strum. But doing both at the same time isn’t quite working!

Often I see students at this stage stop or slow their strumming, losing rhythm, when they make the chord change.

This is what I call an “awkward” stage of playing.

The way to overcome this is right and left hand independence. In other words your right hand does one thing while your left hand does another. Kind of like that old coordination trick where you try to pat your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.

Here’s an exercise to help you practice independence of your hands. I call it “Strum no matter what.”

1. Pick two chords that you are fairly good at switching.

2. Start playing the simplest strum of all – just downs strokes. Play them in a consistent rhythm over just one chord.

3. After you have a good rhythm going get ready to switch chords. Make the switch BUT DO NOT STOP STRUMMING! Even if you miss a few notes or hit a few open strings along the way and muted or what I call plunky notes, KEEP GOING!

4. Repeat that idea going from back and forth chord to chord. After a couple dozen switches things should be getting a lot smoother, with less open strings and muted plunky notes.

5. When it sounds smooth do the same thing alternating down and up strums. Remember keep a steady rhythm and DON’T STOP STRUMMING.

6. Then try working it up using the following strums, each gets more challenging as you go (V=Down ^=up space=eighth note space between strums):

a) VV^ VV^
b) VV^ ^V^
c) V^V^V^V

Have fun and remember, “Strum no matter what”!

Finding Inspiration In Other Walks Of Life To Help You With Guitar Practicing.

Often you can find habits and skills from other walks of life that will help you in your pursuit of musicianship. Some little known trivia about me is that as I was practicing to become a musician I was also an athlete. I wrestled, played tennis, studied Washin Ru, was a body builder, and even can boast that I have a varsity letter in bowling. Along the way I had several serious back injuries that contributed to the degenerative disc disease I now suffer from, but without dedicating myself to those other interests I don’t think I would be the musician that I am today.

It is likely that you have a skill already that you needed dedication and discipline to develop. Its good to have a gift or genetic advantage for doing something but without developing that gift through discipline it is lost. One of my mentors once told me “Without action potential is shit.” and he was right. So take the same approach you used to develop other areas of your life and try applying them to developing musicianship. Here’s an example of how I did it.

Wrestling is what taught me my life’s lesson in discipline. Moves had to be practiced over and over to become second nature. The same was true of Washin Ru where punches and kicks needed to be delivered precisely every time. When I was only thirteen I got the bright idea that if I took the discipline principles I already had in those two areas and applied them to guitar that maybe I would get somewhere with it faster. So I practiced every finger move deliberately and precisely each time I sat down. It worked.

The concept of repetition was a concept I borrowed from body building. In order to build muscle you do endless sets and reps to shock the muscle into growth. I had this thought that if I repeated a lick or chord change repetitively that I would build the coordination needed to do it and my finger muscles at the same time. That one worked too. It was the beginning of the practice routine I show to my students to this day where you focus on a number of licks, each for a specific amount of time as a “finger workout”.

Getting the ability to stretch, and coordination within the stretch I borrowed from Wahin Ru. I did ridiculous amounts of stretching starting with larger muscle groups and working to smaller ones and along the way trying to coordinate my muscles to work well while being stretched. I took the exact concept and applied it on a micro-level for my fingers. I even invented a little rope mechanism to help my fingers stretch while playing similar to what you would use for assistance when learning to stretch your legs.

Tennis and bowling have a certain of randomness to them. You never know where an opponent is going to return the ball. You never know what pins you will be left with to pick up a spare. Often you just try to return the ball somewhere other than into the net or off the court but aren’t sure exactly where its going. Experiences like that can be good preparation for learning to improvise. This kind of success comes when you don’t really know what notes you are going to play next but need to avoid ones that will sound bad.

This is just an example of what worked for me. Everyone has different skills and backgrounds to draw from. So as you strive towards better musicianship take a minute and think about other areas of life that you have been successful with and how you got there. Then apply the same approach to learning your instrument. Hopefully it will work out for you.

The Importance Of Daily Practice

I recently re-learned a valuable lesson about practice that I have been telling my students about for years but not putting in to use myself. That is the importance of DAILY organized rehearsal of something you are working on.

I had lost track of the importance of daily practice in my own growth as a musician. There’s not much that I haven’t seen technically or musically so I’m used to learning new music with ease. This had led me to become over confident about my ability to learn. In addition it brought about a lack of diligence of any kind when I did pick up new things.

I think a lot of it has to due with the fact that I’ve been playing for 30 years and teaching for 23 and doing gigs constantly. As a result I was subconsciously thinking “With all this experience and practice why would I need to still follow the basics. I’m exempt from that. Too good for it, right?”

This whole thing came about when I started making the instruction video for “Pride And Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughn. It was a song I had heard a hundred times but never tried to play. I knew I would have to figure it out lick by lick from scratch. I knew it was pretty much like one big blues solo so I had a lot of notes to pick up and not just a chord progression or pattern. What I didn’t take into consideration was that the memorization and perfect execution of such a complex song would require diligent daily practice.

I lead a pretty busy life. I have a young son that keeps me busy most of the day. I gig a lot of nights. Daily diligent practice does not fit into my schedule very well. So there’s not much time left for digging really deep into learning something new. I play every day but almost none of it can be considered “practice”. Playing a four hour gig a couple nights a week will keep your fingers stretched out and present opportunities to try new improvisational things but it won’t help you one bit when it comes to getting something complex that you need to learn from scratch under your fingers.

Usually when I make a video I figure out the parts real quick, sketch it out on paper, and maybe write down the solo if its long or noodly. Then I do each segment for the camera, sometimes reading it off the paper I just wrote, not even memorized yet. After I have done each segment I pretty much know it well enough to knock out the play along part flawlessly. This works great with songs that have mostly the same pattern happening in a verse-chorus-bridge-solo kinda way. It was a disastrous approach for “Pride And Joy”.

The problem I was running into was that I would figure out a part, write it down, take however long it took to work it up to speed and leave it. Leave it for 2 or 3 days! So when I finally got back to it I would need to refresh my memory on what it was in the first place then review it to get it back up to speed. This went on with a number of parts for like a week and a half. One night I was just kicking myself for being so slow. It seemed that every time I had taken 2 steps forward I was taking one step back, thinking “How could this possibly be? After all I’m awesome, right? I can play anything.”

The truth was I could play nothing. Nothing that was new and required daily, diligent, focused rehearsal and complex memorization. It was going to take forever to learn that song with the approach I was taking. So it was time to actually make an organized effort to conquer all the parts and then put them together. This meant memorizing it top to bottom, backwards, forwards, and sideways. This would require daily review of all the parts I learned and daily practice for the harder parts I actually had to work up to speed.

So I divided it into intro, verses and solos. Then I resolved to practice each for just 10 minutes until all had been rehearsed. Then I played along with the recording the best I could a few times, taking mental notes of where I made mistakes. I like to call that a “practice session”. In this case a “session” took almost an hour and a half. When you finish the session you take a break, at least a half hour, to clear your head and rest your fingers. Then you do it again if you have time. Make time for it DAILY or you will end up “backtracking” and need to re-learn what you forget by taking too much time away.

I had it learned in no time after I started rehearsing it in this organized way. I was re-awakened to the idea that it only takes half the time to learn anything if you approach it methodically and review information already learned as well as focusing on new stuff.

Here’s a step by step way to approach learning a song more quickly:

1) Look for similarities in the song. For example, verses, choruses or licks that reoccur.

2) Look for variations on the reoccurring parts.

3) Isolate each part and make it the only thing you will focus on for a period of time during your session. For example decide to practice a chorus, which may only be 20 seconds long, repeatedly for 10 minutes in the session.

4) For most songs you will probably end up with 5-10 unique parts to focus on.

5) Practice each for only a specified same amount of time. For example spend no more or less than 10 minutes on each of the parts in an 8 part song. Or say maybe 6 minutes each for a 10 part song to make it an even hour of practice. Use your judgement, you know how fast you can learn. Don’t make the time periods so long that you get bored. You wnat to remain excited about what you’re doing. Don’t make them so short though that you barely make any progress. I like to take something at least 10 times through usually more. If I get perfect, many times in a row, I just drop it from the rotation later to save time.

6) After a number of sessions you will find that you may know some parts perfectly while others lag behind. These are identified as the more difficult ones.

7) When you find you can play a part perfectly a few times in a row remove it from the 10 minute rotation. However play it a few times each session just to keep it under your fingers.

8) Repeat the process with the parts that aren’t perfect yet until everything gets learned.

After you go through this routine with a few songs you will find that there are always parts that are very difficult that may take a lot more time to learn than others. Usually I have a few songs going at once and devote a session to just all the very difficult parts from the various songs.

There may be parts that could take weeks to learn at just 7 minutes each. You can be more aggressive and increase the amount of time you want to spend to get them down quicker. But by no means let on lick or part consume all your practice time. There’s way to much music out there in the world to get stuck on just one thing.

You can use this same method for practicing licks, chords, scales, etc. In fact right now I’m getting ready to make a video called “Licks, Licks, Licks” which utilizes this practice method to help you learn 50 repeatable licks that build on one another in difficulty. Be on the lookout for that video. You’ll learn a ton from it.

You’ll find by picking fixed intervals of time to practice a certain idea it will keep you from getting stuck on one thing for two long and have no time left to practice anything else. Also it will help you be disciplined enough to do something perfect repeatedly after you have it down pretty good when the natural tendency is to move to something else right away.

So that’s how learning “Pride And Joy” turned a light on in my brain so I could see what was already there. There’s no substitute for organized, focused, diligent, repetitive, consistent, persistent, tenacious, DAILY practice!

Alternate Guitar Tunings

Alternate guitar tunings are both interesting and useful. You can create a whole different sound just by tuning the guitar Differently. Most often alternate tunings are used in folk, bluegrass, traditional blues and slide and sometimes rock guitar
styles.

To achieve an alternate tuning you just tune the guitar differenty, as its name implies. Most often the guitar is tuned to a full chord, usually major. However in more ecletic guitar styles the guitar is often tuned to suspended or 7th chords, most commonly major 7th, to give it a new age kind of sound.

In the modern rock / nu metal context alternate tunings take the form of the lower guitar strings or sometimes the whole guitar being tuned down dramatically. This gives the guitar a low pitched growl when used with distortion.

Here are a few cool alternate tunings to experiment with. I recommend that you use a chromatic tuner to tune up so that all of the pitches are accurate.

Common alternate tunings
————————-

Drop D: d a d g b e

Drop C: c g c f a d

Open D: d a d f# a d

Open G: d g d g b d

Open C: c g c g c e

Open E: e b e g# b e

Open A: e a c# e a e
Some that sound like other instruments
————————————–

All Fourths: e a d g c f

Dobro: g b d g b d

Mandoguitar: c g d a e b
Some that sound elclectic or “new age”
————————————–

D A D G A D
D A D D D D
C G D G B D
C G D G B E
D A D E A D
D G D G A D

Have fun with these tunings! They should keep you busy for a while.

The Classical Music Influence On Rock Guitar

Classical music and rock would seem to be worlds apart. After all they have different audiences, different histories and different overall sounds. It doesn’t take a trained ear to hear that classical music is much more complex. To some though, similarities can be pointed out that so they can recognize the influence that classical music has had on rock.

The most obvious example of this would be the neo-classical movement of rock that took place in the 80’s. Artist like Yngwie Malmsteen composed whole albums of classical-inspired metal. There was characteristic borrowing of composition form such as preludes and suites. Also similar to classical musician’s performance, shows of virtuosity are a staple of the genre. Other guitarists such as Jason Becker performed classical compositions on like “Paganini’s 5th caprice” on electric guitar. Yngwie Mamsteen played “Bach’s Boree in E minor” as part of his solo. “Flight Of The Bumblebee” was another classical piece covered by a lot of shred guitarists.

There are also more subtle examples. Some bands quote classical music in a recognizable and frequent manner. For example, Deep purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quotes classical compositions by tons of different composers, too many to list here. But is you are interested in seeing the whole list you can find it at this link:

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/rosas/misc/classic.htm

Then there are artists that borrow classical progressions and make them barely recognizable. Take modern rockers My chemical Romance whose song “Welcome To The Black Parade” is Pachelbel’s “Canon In D”. Clarke’s “Trumpet Voluntary” is almost made a mockery of by Chumbawuba’s humorous hit “Tubthumping”.

There were tons of 60’s and 70’s schmaltzy love rockers like Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond flat out stole classical progressions. I’m not going to get to into that her though because they can’t really be considered rock.

In a few cases rock has been fused with classical style arrangements based on those songs. An example of this is Metallica’s collaboration with Micahel Kamen performed with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Yngwie Malmsteen wrote the “Concerto Suite For Guitar And Orchestra” for performance with the Philharmonic Orchestra Of Japan. Even Kid Rock fused his trailer park inspired rock with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

So next time you hear some rock that sounds like there’s a little bit of classical mixed in it is probably because there is. It could be as obvious as a big string section playing in the background or as subtle as a familiar progression engulfed in guitar effects to create a nuance. Recognizing the influence will enhance your overall experience of the music.

Some Chord Practicing Tips

Learning chords from the most fundamental ones to advanced shapes can be challenging. These are some tips that can help players of any level practice chords more effectively.

1) Always play on the tips of your fingers.

By playing on the tips of your fingers you it will be easier to sneak you fingers in between two strings when you need to fret a note in the middle. Of course this does not apply to situations when you need to bar several notes but otherwise consider it a rule to stick to at all times.

2) Always play near the frets.

By playing near the frets you will eliminate the chances of getting that “fret buzz” sound caused by extra string between the point where your finger meets the fretboard and the fret. By playing near the frets you won’t need to press as hard either because the pressure point will actually be touching the edge of the fret.

3) Pick each note individually when practicing.

By working on each note individually you will expose errors such as buzzing notes that you may not otherwise hear if you are just strumming the whole chord. Make sure each note rings clearly. You can even repeatedly pick a buzzing note and adjust you fretting fingers accordingly until it sounds clear. This is a trial and error of sorts used to refine technique. After you are sure that every note is clear go ahead and strum the chord and it will sound perfect.

4) Don’t hack away at the strings or pick too hard when practicing chords.

If you are not fretting notes properly, no amount of picking them harder is going to make them more audible. All you will end up with is an abrasive sound, with more buzzes sounding louder.

5) Work with your weaker, or less dominant, fingers first.

By getting your weaker fingers in place first you achieve two things. First, you will be able to isolate the notes that may be problematic before they cause problems. Second, it is always easier to stretch from the less dominant fingers towards the dominant ones so stretching will be easier.

6) With bar chords, put the bar in place last.

This goes along with tip #5. Get all of the notes where you need to play on the tips of the frets in place and then stretch the bar into place later. Check out my bar chord tips video to get a closer look at how to do it.

7) When you can, use two fingers as if they were one unit.

This takes place in chord shapes like power chords where the pinky and 3rd fingers are on the same frets, just on different strings. By using the fingers together you only need to think about one movement, as opposed to two. This works with any change where fingers move in a parallel motion too, for example a G7 to a C change, where the 2nd and 3rd fingers are maintaining the same proximity and shape but moving to a different set of strings.

8) Analyze finger movement to make chord changes easier to execute.

Finger movement can be broken down to the following possibilities: parallel motion, opposite motion, common fingers and guide fingers. By analyzing the types of motion you will need to use before you try to do the chord switch it will help you visualize your finger movements better.

Hope this helps you create and change chords better!

In Appreciation Of Jam Bands

In the study of guitar in the area of Jam Bands is probably the most overlooked, yet essential, to study for anyone wanting a thorough knowledge of improvisation.

A jam band is a band that spends large portions of their live performances through unplanned improvising and changing songs through a transition, such as jazz and bluegrass musicians. These bands generally experiment with jazz, world music, progressive bluegrass, and psychedelic rock.

Jam band songs are generally long and rarely stick to the traditional form of songwriting, that being some kind of verse-chorus arrangement. It is in part due to this that they never receive airplay and coverage in publications that cover guitar-oriented music.

Their compositions are usually purely improvised and just too long and complex to transcribe and put into tablature form. The chance of one reader actually learning the entire improvisation from beginning to end note for note is remote. So what motivation would a transcriber have to put a lot of work into something that was made up as it went along in the first place and would never be played the same way again?

Many mainstream guitarists become known for the 30 second solos they play wedged in between hard hitting verses and choruses. With much more exposure to airplay and mainstream acceptance they become more widely known than Jam Band players as guitar heroes.

In contrast, Jam Band guitarist play the whole time infusing improvisation melodies along with the verses and choruses. This is much more challenging than composing a mere 30 second solo. They are the more dominant overall musicians and unsung heroes of guitar just because they are not as widely recognized.

For those of you unfamiliar with jam bands whatsoever I’m going to list my top three all time favorite Jam Band groups and a song from each. These are in no particular order. Each is as awesome as the others.

Phish – “You Enjoy Myself”:

The only way I can describe this one is pure psychedelia influenced noodle-jazz rock fusion. It has a number of sections, themes and motifs. You can scramble your brain just listening to it. Just one listen will give you a strong impression of what a jam song is all about.

The Grateful Dead: “Dark Star”

This probably the most well known jam EVER and may last well over 30 minutes and can take the listener into “Space.” The Grateful Dead created the template that every other jam band in history has borrowed from and this song has influenced everybody. I also want to mention “Slipknot” which has a complex yet memorable melody incorporated into two guitars, which is my personal favorite over “Dark Star” but it just didn’t make the impact that “Dark Star” did.

The Allman Brothers: “Jessica”

This dual guitar song has the most happy jam melody ever. This one actually has gotten airplay (the 4 minute single version) and has been used in tons of movies, TV shows and commercials as background music. The unedited version clocks in at just under 8 minutes of hippie-trippy solos and melodies over a simple chord progression.

So take a listen to those tunes and hopefully they will open the doors to a new appreciation for a different style of music than you are used to listening to. Maybe soon you’ll be growing your hair and beard and be wearing tie-dyes!

Balancing The Guitar

If you are just learning to play here’s a very basic concept that will help you. The guitar can be awkward to hold and play at the same time for most beginners. After all if you’re busy holding the neck up with your left hand (to balance it) how are you going to use your fingers effectively to fret the notes? I see most of my beginners doing this until they are taught to take a different approach.

The key is to learn to balance the guitar without using your left hand. In the sitting position your right forearm rests on the top of the guitar naturally. The cutaway of the guitar sits over your right leg. So use these parts of your body to balance the guitar without touching it with your left hand. When you do this the neck should be nearly perpendicular to the floor, with just a slight angle upwards. This way when you add your left hand your wrist bends slightly to help your fingers fret the notes.

Practice balancing the guitar like this before you add the left hand. Once it is balanced try to maintain its position so the left hand is used only to fret notes, not aid in balancing the neck. This may feel a little bit different if you have been playing while using your left hand to balance and it has become a habit. But it is actually much easier to play in that position so it should be a good kind of different.

Before long you’ll be comfortable with it and it will become second nature. Have fun!

Using A Chromatic Tuner To Practice

Most people think an electronic tuner is just good for tuning but it can also serve as a great practice tool. For this lesson you’ll need a chromatic tuner. If you are not familiar with term “chromatic” this is the type of tuner that displays what note you are playing as you tune the guitar. For example if you are trying to tune the “B” string you would turn the tuning gear until a “B” appeared in the display. While you are searching for it you may see an “A” if the pitch you are playing is too low or a “C” if it is too high. Almost all multi-effects pedals have built in chromatic tuners. You can get them as stompbox pedals too.

Bending strings can be challenging at first. A teacher or video you may have seen probably talks about bending strings a half step or whole step. This is usually explained as bending a note to make it sound like the note either one (1/2 step) or two (whole step) higher. Another common way is to explain it is the bent 3rd string sounds like the note two frets below it on the 2nd string. Also, the 2nd string bent sounds like the note three frets below it on the 1st string. Problem is if you are totally new to bending and still developing your sense of pitch its really hard to go comparing notes to one another and getting it perfect.

Instead you can use the tuner to practice getting the pitch perfect. Lets take an example/exercise for full step bends:

1) Pluck the 10th fret second string note. The tuner should say “A”

2) Bend the note slowly; the tuner should give you some kind of display change depending on what make/model is.

3) Keep bending the string until it eventually at some point says “B”.

Now you have your string bent a full step in perfect tune.

Next some half step bends:

1) Pluck the 12th fret second string note. The tuner should say “B”

2) Bend the note slowly; the tuner should give you some kind of display change depending on what make/model is.

3) Keep bending the string until it eventually at some point says “C”.

Now you have a string bent a half step in perfect tune.

If you know the names of the notes on each string or have a chart that you can use as a guide you can practice more of them. Just use the natural notes (not sharps or flats) for practice. For whole step bends the natural note names will be two frets apart. For half steps they will be one fret apart.

A quick example (whole step bends) : The 12th fret on the 3rd string name is “G”. The 14th fret is “A”. These are two frets apart. You can bend the 12th fret a whole step until the tuner reads “A”.

Another example (half step bends): The 5th fret 2nd string is “E”. The 6th fret 2nd string is “F”. These are one fret apart. Bend the 5th fret note until the tuner reads “F”.

You can also use this method to practice getting your notes in tune with a whammy bar. Just play whatever note you want to start on and then move the whammy bar up or down accordingly until the string is bent or released to the desired pitch.

For example: 7th fret 3rd string is “D”. The whammy bent up a whole step is “E” (will sound like 9th fret if in tune). Whammy bar bent down a whole step is “C” (would sound like 5th fret) . For half steps use the same method except pick notes that are one fret apart, for example 9th fret “E” and 10th fret “F”.

Go get out your tuner and start finding those pitches perfectly!

Putting Together A Guitar Practice Space

Putting together an appropriate practice space can help speed up your progress. Practice should be any enjoyable, stress-free experience so building the right environment to do it in can be a means to that end. These are some guidelines I have come up with over the years for my students and things I have done to enhance my practice experience.

In my experience you can learn more in just 15 minutes of focused practice then you can an hour of working with things in the background or interruptions to ruin your focus. This is the whole reason for putting together a space to practice in.

First you need to find a spot where you won’t be interrupted or distracted by all sorts of things in the background. There’s nothing for frustrating for me than trying to get something done when there are ten other things demanding my attention. It’s gotten to be such an annoyance to me that I won’t even start anything if I there is a chance I will be interrupted. I need somewhere where there are no TV cartoons in the background, kid squealing, dogs barking and wife asking to do random things when I’m right on the verge of mastering an otherwise impossible lick. If you have these factors in your life then I’m sure your understanding me here. The best solution is to find a space in your home where you can be at peace and make it your practice space.

Next think about what kind of environment you relax and learn best in and make it that environment. You may be the type that likes things decorative. Maybe you are a neat freak. Maybe you like things to be decorated a bit with relaxing pictures on the wall. Maybe a couple lava lamps and tie-dye tapestries make you feel at home. Think about making it a place you would just want to be in even if you weren’t practicing because you’re going to spend a lot of time there.

My room has a key west atmosphere, very simple tropical yellow walls with modern art style musicians made of black metal wire on the walls. Keeping the room simple and mellow sets a great mood for me.

However, I recommend only keeping what you need to use in the practice space except for the stuff that sets the atmosphere. I’ve always worked best when I eliminate clutter that will distract me from what I’m trying to accomplish. In my space there is just equipment I am using. I even go so far as putting instruments that are not being used for my practice session away in the closet. I know it sounds a little neurotic, but it helps for me to have a completely clutter free workspace.

Now you need to equip you space with everything you’re going to need. You’re going to need your amp, instruments, computer, pedalboard, stool and music stand.

Next its time to set things up. Your stool is in the middle of everything. Try to keep everything within your reach from your practice stool. Your pedalboard should be directly in front of you and easily accessible by your feet. The computer goes to you right, easy to reach. I use a laptop on top of a drawer set that is exactly the height of my arm extended to it so that it is easy to type with just one hand (You’ll still be holding the guitar with your left hand.) The music stand goes in front of you to the left because that is the way your head will naturally go when holding the guitar. Put your amp wherever it sounds best. Remember you are going to need to hear the music coming from your computer and the amp at equal volumes to play along with the music.

A couple more tips to really streamline things:

If you are good with software here’s an even better way to get a good blend of yourself playing along with the music and keep things more clutter free. Download the trial version of Native Instruments Guitar Rig. It doesn’t expire and the presets are good enough for practice purposes. Hook up your guitar to the computer, its pretty simple if you follow the instructions. Play the tune you are trying to learn with media player. If you run both programs at once you can play along with the music through your computer speakers.

You can take things one step further by getting a pdf file or pulling up the tabs for the song you are working on online. Some good sites are Ultimate Guitar and Songsterr. Open it in a separate window and you’ve got everything right in front of you on your computer.

If you really like using software to aid learning, download a program that has looping and slow down capabilities. A couple of these are Sony Sound Forge and The Amazing Slow Downer. This way you can slow down the song, loop parts and practice along with it gradually until its up to speed. I use Sound Forge for making the instruction videos when you see me slowing parts down or looping them.

If you go ahead and do all of this I can just about guarantee that you will make faster progress and growth as a musician. Go have fun putting your practice space together.

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