LEARNING GUITAR IN THE SELF-TAUGHT GUITARIST’S PERSPECTIVE
A guitarist’s journey all started with a nice spruce with maple necked sweet instrument as birthday gift or even an old discovery from the basement. Those sweet open chords you have just learned while struggling with the D chord were worth it. Then, you learned the barre chords which put an ache on your hands. You have noticed your pinky finger is not good enough but now, you’ve mastered all the basics proceeding to the intermediate stage. Well, what now? As a self-taught guitarist, here’s what to learn to advance your guitar skills
1. Alternate Chords — Bar and open chords are not enough. Chords have alternatives because you need to explore the instrument more. There are chords that are the 3rd string 4th string, 5th string and the 6th string other than bar chords.
2. Practice with a metronome — It is good to track if you are playing in the proper beat. This will improve your timing when to switch notes and chords.
3. Scales — A sneak peak to the music theory which I recommend you not to ignore. One should start learning the Minor Pentatonic then proceeding to the Blues scale, Natural Minor Scale, Major Scale, and the Modes of the Major Scale (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian which combines the concepts of both major and minor scale). These scales are patterns that can help for improvisation, riff making and soloing. Technically, these include notes that sound good together.
4. Play along with backing tracks — This is to test to know when your playing is in key or not. Practicing with backing tracks in any key will help you familiarize the sound of notes in the fretboard as well as mastering the patters in a specific scale. Fretboard visualizing techniques together with mastery will be developed as long as you are in key.
5. Music Theory — This is the one and only thing that some guitarists avoid because of its complexity. This is the rocket science or quantum physics of music. Develop further knowledge why music is that way; how scales are structured, why modes are ambiguous, how are chords built, why certain minor chords won’t work in a different key. This gives as background knowledge to fully explain the instrument. Some music theory topics that one needs to know are the basic musical concepts (sharps, flats, minor, major etc.) scales, chord progressions, circle of 4ths/ 5ths, melodies, the fretboard, extended chords and many more.
As of now, that is my progress as a self-taught musician; there is still a lot to learn. The instrument itself is very complex. It is a beautiful instrument especially when one discovers the art behind the playing. There is still a lot to develop if one follows my path but most importantly, the core knowledge is there. Don’t also forget to practice. Lastly, don’t avoid knowledge. Ignorance takes away potential development. Now go grab your guitar and be productive with it.
