From Guitar Hero to Real Guitar Hero

I have read a lot of stuff about people supporting Guitar Hero and people talking shit about it.

I don’t know why people argue so much, it’s a game and it’s goddamn funny, you can play it for hours and have a great time with your friends, that’s what videogames are for.

Its true that Guitar Hero won’t help you to become a “Real Guitar God”, but games like Guitar Hero makes you feel that feeling that only musicians know, and if playing a plastic guitar feels great… imagine how it would feel to play a real guitar like that!

Years ago i played a computer game called Frets On Fire, i played that game a lot and believe it or not it helped me to become a better guitarist… not because by playing the game my “real” guitar skills improved but it helped me because i wanted to learn how to play everything i played in the game in my real guitar, that game kept me motivated to go through boring guitar exercises and stuff like that cause i wanted to be able to play my favorite songs.

Music games can also help you to get some music culture, in games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Frets On Fire, etc you go through different music styles, genres and ages from classic rock bands to modern ones, from Pop to Metal… and that’s awesome! as a guitarist and musician you have to know a lot about different genres and musical eras, general culture is always great for any kind of artist.

If you play Guitar Hero but don’t play real guitar give it a chance and learn how to play guitar with online guitar lessons or with a guitar teacher … playing a videogame with friends it’s great and i like it a lot, but the feeling of playing a wood and steel guitar for your friends and your audience is unbeatable.

guitar practicing schedule

Practice makes perfect… this sound really cliche, but why this quote became popular knowledge? Cause its goddamn true. Its true when it comes to guitar playing as much as with sports or study. You have to practice guitar every day in order to become a better guitarist, and a good guitar practicing schedule can help you a lot.

Its better to practice 20 minutes every day than 3 hours once a week, you have to make guitar practicing a part of your daily life.

Something that i hate is to schedule stuff, saying “I’ll play guitar from 4:32pm to 5:47pm” sucks to me, i’m not saying that having a schedule is a bad thing, in fact, its a good thing… but i just simply don’t like it hehe.

I just play guitar when i want to, but i do it every day. When i’m writing and i don’t know how to continue my article i use to pick my guitar, play a while and get inspiration from that and sometimes i practice some chromatic exercises when i watch TV, but i get really focused when i’m trying to learn something new and if the new stuff i’m trying to learn is hard… yes, i make a practice schedule to master it faster.

If you want to improve really fast you need to schedule your stuff, you NEED a guitar practicing schedule, im not telling you to play 8 hours a day until you get tendinitis. If you focus in something very specific you can improve a lot with just 15 or 20 minutes a day for a few weeks.

This is an example of a guitar practice schedule:

Day 1

20 minutes: Practice tapping exercises.

15 minutes: Learn a new chord shape.

Day 2

20 minutes: Learn a new tapping exercise and practice it.

15 minutes: Learn some theory.

Day 3

35 minutes: Practice a guitar solo with tapping.

And so on…

As you can see with just 35 minutes you’ll be learning new stuff every day and improving your tapping skills! If you do this for a month you’ll improve a lot!

If you’re learning guitar with online lessons like Jamorama you’ll REALLY need a schedule like this to make your online guitar course work.

Make your own schedules for your specific needs and practice every day, that’s the way to become a better guitar player fast… there are no secrets.

This article is inspired by Dimebag Darrell

Right now i feel kinda stuck with some stuff, every time i pick my guitar i find myself playing the same thing over and over again, different notes, scales, etc but the riff idea its always the same… the riff’s great but it sucks to don’t come with new stuff.

Today i was reading again a great guitar book that always helps me a lot, it’s Dimebag Darrell’s Riffer Madness and it kick ass, if you play metal you have to read it.

Dimebag’s a dude that i admire a lot and i want to share what i learned with my own words… the message its really inspiring and i want to inspire you to become a better guitar player too.

When you find yourself playing in a rut remember this two things:

1- You’re not the only dude with the problem… we all go through this from time to time

2- Don’t schiz out and quit guitar! right now i’m feeling stuck but i know i won’t be like this forever… it’s just a matter of work. Keep playing, learn more stuff and the rut will disappear alone… its up to you.

The logical solution is to take a real look at what you’re playing, find out what are you repeating and say “i won’t do that anymore”, if you have a cool riff or lick don’t give it up! This is not about stop playing your old stuff forever… this is about break your old rut to learn new stuff, take the good things of your old rut and move forward.

Find inspiration in others, jam with friends or your band!
Jamming with other people creates some kind of “energy” that is really hard to find alone and that energy push to find stuff you never imagined. We all have different playing styles and that’s great!

Mix your own style with your drummer’s and your bassist’s playing style and you can create new awesome stuff.

Don’t play always over the same sort of stuff, sometimes a change of mood and pace can give you fresh ideas.

When you find yourself stuck in a rut just be yourself, keep playing and you’ll get through it.

Yeah, this sucks but its true… you can hurt yourself playing guitar, but don’t get discouraged by this! We are here to help you avoid this problems.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Most guitarists don’t know about this diseases and that can carry serious consequences… at the point you could never play guitar again, and that would REALLY suck!

What causes the guitar playing diseases?

Guitar playing diseases happen when you hurt yourself by playing with a wrong technique, you won’t feel anything in the beginning but if you keep hurting yourself for a long time you’ll start having problems and if you don’t correct your technique and keep hurting yourself even more then you’ll have a guitar playing disease.

If something hurts when you’re playing, stop playing and rest a while.
The “if it doesn’t hurt it doesn’t work” rule doesn’t apply here… if you’re playing the right way there will be no pain, reevaluate your technique and look for what are you doing wrong, ask your guitar teacher if there’s something wrong with your technique.

What to do?

First of all you have to know about this diseases and go see a doctor if you have any symptom, if you go see a doctor at time most of the guitar playing diseases are easy to cure and then you’ll be able to play a lot again!

Which are this diseases?
Most guitar player (50-70%) suffer or have suffered at least one of this diseases, and most of this guitarists don’t even know about that.
Here’s a list of the most common guitar playing diseases.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: This disease affects the tendons that give flexibility to your fingers. The pain starts in the palm of your hand and it get worse at night, this disease can even wake you up in the middle of the night and it hurts a lot!

Tennis Elbow: Its a degenerative condition where the outer part of the elbow becomes sore and tender. Its a common disease between tennis and guitar players, the symptoms are:

• Pain on the outer part of elbow (lateral epicondyle).
• Point tenderness over the lateral epicondyle–a prominent part of the bone on the outside of the elbow.
• Gripping and movements of the wrist hurt, especially wrist extension and lifting movements.
• Activities that uses the muscles that extend the wrist (e.g. pouring a pitcher or gallon of milk, lifting with the palm down) are characteristically painful.
• Morning stiffness

Tendonitis or Tendinitis: Tendinitis is an inflammation, irritation, and swelling of a tendon, which is the fibrous structure that joins muscle to bone. In many cases, tendinosis (tendon degeneration) is also present.

The symptoms are:

• Pain and tenderness along a tendon
• Pain is worse with movement or activity
• Pain at night

So as we said before, if you present one of this symtoms go and see a doctor!

Keep your fingers, hand and tendons in great condition so you can still playing and having fun with your guitar!

If you have been through one of this diseases or if this article have helped you leave a comment and let us know about you.

Guitar Playing and Weight Lifting analogy

If you’re stuck with something on the guitar i recommend you to read this, is an analogy that John Petrucci’s made in his book: Wild Stringdom, is about how to improve your skills on the guitar in the same way a weightlifter add more pounds… this is my own interpretation of the analogy cause i have been through that too.

When you practice there will be times when you “hit the wall”, it feels like you’re stuck and it seems that no matter how much you try and practice something… you can’t master it, it seems impossible to you.

We all have been through this (even the guitar gods!), every musician and athlete has encountered this at one point or another. Don’t get discouraged by this!

For example, if you are a weightlifter and you are bench-pressing 150 pounds for weeks, and yet if you try a small incrementyou can’t lift the bar anymore, no matter how hard you try. Then one day, you try to lift more than 150 pounds and you make it!

The same process occurs when you’re stuck on the guitar, you may have problems to play a passage at 144 beats per minute, you try for weeks and nothing seems to work. Then one day you pick up your guitar and you play that passage at 160 beats per minute!

Guitar playing and weight lifting requires you to pay attention to form, if you don’t pay attention to the form you can get injuries! (like tendonitis). In the same way using the propper form helps a weight lifter to add pounds, playing the guitar in the propper form helps you to add speed and accuracy to your technique.

If you can’t play something, play it at a lower speed until you can play it mistake-free and then raise the tempo… you’ll much faster than playing it fast and sloppy since the beginning.

But as Petrucci says in his book, don’t put too much pressure on yourself,the guitar is a fun instrument to play… so the most important thing is to have fun when you play! Keep practicing!

Something that i do when i get bored of practicing is play whatever comes in my mind, just random improvisation.

What do you do when you get bored of practicing?

Your first live experience

[Well... this pic is not from my first live experience cause a friend who had the camera came too late, but this looks way more cool haha]

My first live experience was in High School playing with some friends, we played Paranoid, but we played it faster like the Megadeth’s version.
Our drummer was the best guitarist, just like you read, actually… we were all guitar players. I played lead guitar, other friend played second guitar and vocals and the other two guitarists played bass and drums.

We had a lot of problems all along the song, the drum almost fell in pieces, the bass plug got loose, my first string broke in the middle of a solo and we were out of time in some parts… BUT the experience was incredible, it feels so great to see people banging with your music or even just moving their foots along the rythm!

I knew there were a lot of things going wrong on stage, but even with our mistakes the feeling of being playing live is amazing, even if you’re just playing for 15 people or just some friends!

I love the stage, i love that feeling of having people enjoying what you play and i know you all feel the same. If you have never played live, go do it! If you feel that you need more practice, go and practice!

In the next posts i’ll tell you some tips to play live.

The feeling of playing live worth ever second and penny you spend in practice, guitar lessons and rehearsals!

How was your first live experience?