Simon Candy School of Guitar | Local business

Simon Candy School of Guitar

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25.01.2022 Its not so much what you do play but what you DONT play when creating a solo chord melody arrangement on your acoustic guitar. Trying to include everything u...nder the sun in regard to bass lines, harmony, and melody, will often leave your arrangement sounding too busy and cluttered. Leaving parts out and creating space will give your ear an Aural illusion of sorts, as and arrangement that sounds very full and rich can often have very little going on at all.

25.01.2022 When learning the names of the notes on your guitar, you need to approach it from many angles, not just one. This is essential in getting the note names down. ...For example, you can name the notes, by fret, up and down each string. Use sharps (#) on the way up and flats (b) on the way down. Another way is to find as many of the one kind of note as you can on the fretboard. So for example, find all the A notes you can on your guitar. There are more ways, can you think of them?

25.01.2022 Recording your practice sessions gives you a great fly on the wall perspective of how effectively you actually practice your guitar playing. You may be surpr...ised at how many errors you make and realise you are not playing the things you are working on slow enough, and/or breaking them up into smaller enough pieces. You may also discover that you actually waste a lot of practice time by noodling around on the guitar aimlessly. All these things are very common and can surprisingly go by unnoticed when you are actually in the midst of practicing. Recording your sessions give you a totally different perspective on this. Its worth doing to make sure you are on track and not wasting valuable practice time.

24.01.2022 To create some great sounding blues licks, complete with backing so you dont need another guitarist playing along with you, follow these steps: ... 1. Play a blues lick in the key of E using pentatonic pattern one at the 12th fret (this can be just a couple of notes, keep it simple) 2. Now play the same lick again, only this time pick the low open E string first so it can ring through as you play your lick 3. Repeat this process, only this time pick the 5th string (A) before playing your lick 4. Repeat step 2 5. Repeat steps 2 - 5 without any break in-between You should hear the first 4 bars of a blues in E being outlined as you play your lick. This is due to the E and A open strings ringing through as you play. Open strings are a great and very effective way to provide backing to what you play.

24.01.2022 No matter how involved a chord melody arrangement may appear to be on your guitar, you should always know the basic chords to it. Youd be surprised how many p...eople learn a chord melody arrangement, and can play it well, but fail to know the basic chords to the song. Most chord melody arrangements are actually quite simple when you strip them back to just the chord structure of the tune. Coming at it from this angle instead of only focusing on the finished product (ie. the chord melody arrangement), will simplify the tune for you, make it easier to remember, and easier for you to understand it. If you make a mistake when playing it, knowing the basic chords will also help greatly in getting you back on track, a lot of the time leaving your audience none the wiser :)

24.01.2022 Playing with other people will teach you so much about music. For me, the whole act of setting up in a garage with a bunch of other guys and learning how to p...lay cover songs put me on a whole new level of ability. Music is a conversation between notes, and I found that my ear developed quite quickly when I was playing with other people. You have to listen and react, plus you get to make mistakes and see other guys screw things up. That's OK, because learning how to recover and play on through will come in handy when you're ready to perform in front of people. - Richie Kotzen

23.01.2022 A great way to find out what areas of your guitar playing need work is to jam with other musicians. This is where it all counts. If there is something that yo...u have been practicing that you cannot do in the flow of playing then it just simply needs more work. You may also discover areas of your playing that need work that you had no idea did. Either way its all good. Jamming with other players, of all levels, will dramatically improve your own playing.

23.01.2022 Open string licks sound great on an acoustic guitar! Here is one in E that has elements of the Whole Tone scale in it, before resolving to the 3rd of the chord:

22.01.2022 If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterwards - Joe Pass

21.01.2022 Relating new chord shapes to the ones you already know on your guitar will help you understand the new shapes you learn that much more. Your fretboard visualisation will also benefit. Nothing stands in isolation, everything is connected.

20.01.2022 Get mileage with your blues turnarounds by applying them to other parts of a 12 bar blues than the last 2 bars. Below is an example of a turnaround being applied to bars 3 and 4 of a blues:

19.01.2022 Think of each thing you can do on the acoustic guitar as a colour. For example, you have a cool riff you like playing, thats a colour. You have some nice chor...ds you like to use, these are colours too. You love fingerpicking, another colour, you get into harmonics and percussive playing, even more colours. Now the colours you have, the more you can do right? But instead of always focusing on adding more colours to your playing (ie. riffs, chords, and techniques), you also need to focus on mixing these colours together. Because when you mix two or more colours together, you get a new one. In other words, be sure to integrate the things you can do on your acoustic guitar as oppose to always finding something new to do or learn.

19.01.2022 Accenting your strumming has a massive effect on the feel of what you play. Its way more important and influential than the strumming pattern itself. To illus...trate this, strum a quarter note rhythm (1 strum per beat) on a single chord and while doing so accent the 1st and 3rd beats so they stand out. Listen to how this sounds and feels. Keeping the same chord and rhythm (quarter note), do the same only this time accent the 2nd and 4th beats so that they now stand out. Listen to how this sounds and feels. You are strumming the same pattern on the same chord, however by accenting different beats you get a totally different feel. This is the importance of accenting with your strumming.

19.01.2022 Everything you learn, from various resources on your acoustic guitar, such as songs, riffs, solos etc, is an inch. It is up to you to take a mile with it.... Do this, and you will be able to apply everything you learn on your acoustic guitar to your own playing. This is the ultimate goal.

18.01.2022 Set time aside as part of your practice routine for maintaining the songs you have learned to play on your guitar. A major source of frustration is when you ha...ve spent considerable time on learning a song only to not be able to play it when requested because you have forgotten it. Sure, you can get the music and get it back in your fingers pretty quickly, but who is going to wait around for that. You need to be able to play the songs you have learned without notice. Maintaining a repertoire of songs you know how to play is important, so set aside an hour a week (you could split this time up anyway you like) and use it to play through the songs you have learned. You will feel much better about your guitar playing if you do this :)

18.01.2022 To reach your guitar playing goals you need to ENJOY the process required to get there. While it is certainly important to keep in mind your goals, dont forget to make it fun and really enjoy the ride, otherwise you wont get there.

18.01.2022 If you want to improve your speed on the guitar, then focus on the efficiency of your fretting hand and picking hand movements. You will get far better results... moving slowly and efficiently than quickly an inefficiently. In other words, to play fast, focus on slow efficient hand movements instead of just trying to move your fingers fast.

14.01.2022 While its important to break down songs and isolate small chunks to work on, dont lose sight of the end goal: To play the song from start to finish all the w...ay through. Practice doing this, mistakes and all, because that is what you do in REAL LIFE. If you dont practice performing the songs you learn, then surely it should be of no surprise to you that they fall apart when it comes time to do this.

12.01.2022 At the end of the day you want to be able to play the things that you learn on your guitar on demand when someone requests it, right there and then. You dont ...want to have to go and warm up first, review parts you may be sketchy on, play over that tricky part you always seem to make a mistake on, etc. To train for this, simply randomly play through any of the songs and pieces you know on the guitar with no notice at all. Dont warm up, dont think, just play. You could do this first thing in the morning when your hands arent warmed up at all. This is great real life training for situations where you need to play the things you know, accurately and well, with no notice.

12.01.2022 Tuning of the day: Low D (high E string version) From Low to High E A D G B D. This is a great tuning for playing open chords such as D, G, Em, C. Just keep the high D string open when forming these shapes, and you will get some cool sounding extensions to these chords.

12.01.2022 The more you engage your brain with your fingers as you work on your guitar playing, the more you will improve. The more you think about other things as you aimlessly noodle around on the guitar, the more you will continue to do what you can already do.

11.01.2022 Rotate through the things you work on in your practice routine regularly. This is important because in order to improve your guitar playing you need to be work...ing on different skill areas at the same time. It will take discipline because there will be some things you enjoy doing more than others, however neglecting areas that need work will create big flaws in your playing and stop you playing the music that you want to be able to play.

10.01.2022 When playing your guitar, create the habit of continuing to play through any mistake you may make. Then come back to these and address them in isolation. This... is good for two reasons: 1. You create the habit of not stopping every time something goes wrong. This will train you well for real life playing. 2. It is very important to isolate mistakes and problem areas, so that you can work on them more effectively and get far greater results with your playing.

10.01.2022 Learn how to play guitar, but never jamming with anyone, is like training to play a sport yet never playing a game. True learning comes in the actual act of playing music with others, in real life situations. Training and practicing alone will only get you so far.

10.01.2022 Practice looking away from the fretboard when playing guitar. Dont be a slave to having to watch every finger movement to avoid making mistakes. Being able t...o look away from the fretboard when you play will bring a sense of freedom to your playing. You will be able to better focus on the sound and feel of what you play instead.

07.01.2022 Mastery comes through quantity, not quality. If you wait around for something to sound perfect before using it or moving on, itll never happen. Get in there ...and apply the things you are working on with your guitar playing over and over again, in as many ways as you can, and as often as you can. See more

06.01.2022 So how slow should you play things at first to get them into your fingers when learning something new on your guitar? You should be going slow enough to be abl...e to commentate your own playing. Talk through each action your are doing. This will force you to engage your brain with your fingers. Try commentating when you are playing too fast and you wont be able to keep up and that is the point, talking through what you are doing forces you to play slowly. Try it.

04.01.2022 How do you remember the songs that you learn on your guitar? Do you have a particular method that you use?

04.01.2022 Want to improve EVERYTHING you have ever learned on guitar all at the same time? Better yet, everything you’ll play in the future will be that much better too.... If you answered yes to this question then work on your timing. Timing is key, it will make or break your playing. Improve it and everything you have played and will play on your guitar in the future becomes a whole lot better!

04.01.2022 When creating your own chord/melody arrangement of a tune, find as many existing arrangements of the piece that you can. Include other instrument versions too,... not just guitar. Its great to see just how many different approaches you can take when creating a chord/melody arrangement. As a result, you will have a wealth of ideas to draw upon when you begin creating your own version of the tune.

03.01.2022 You can easily and instantly multiply the application of any arpeggio or scale you know on your guitar. Consider the triads/arpeggios of C Major: C, Dm, Em, F,... G, Am, Bdim These are all related to each other because they all belong to the key of C Major. This means that if you were to play anyone of the arpeggios above on anyone of the chords in C it would work. Not only that, you will get some cool sounds that you may not otherwise get. For example: Have a C chord playing for your backing and play not only C arpeggio on top of it but Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and Bdim arpeggios too. Just try one at a time and get the sound in your ears. You now have an additional 6 uses for each arpeggio you learn.

02.01.2022 How is your guitar compass? By this I mean, if you are playing on the 3rd string of your guitar and I ask you to go down a string will you go to the 4th or 2nd... string? If you are in the 8th fret and I ask you to go up 2 frets, will you go to the 6th or 10th fret? Which direction you go on the guitar is in reference to pitch. To go up is to go higher in pitch and to go down is to go lower in pitch, so to go down one string from the 3rd is to go down to the 4th, and to go up 2 frets from the 8th fret is to go to the 10th. I see people get this wrong all the time. Make sure you know your guitar compass.

01.01.2022 So you have a bunch of strumming patterns mastered yet your strumming still sounds like its lacking something. It just doesnt sound good. This is common, and... a big reason why is because simply learning patterns wont cut it. In fact patterns themselves are not nearly as important as the accents and dynamics that you apply to the patterns as you strum your guitar. When you strum, ask yourself the following questions: - Are you accenting any beats? (i.e. playing louder) - Are you striking every string of the chord each strum? (Hopefully not) - Are you strumming softer at particular parts of the bar to have other beats/strums stand out? - Are you holding your pick to tightly causing unnecessary tension that effects the sound of your strumming? Asking yourself these questions and taking action will improve the sound of your strum greatly!