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Find a Good Teacher - There is no substitution for a good guitar teacher. You can buy all the books and videos you want, but in order to really become a good guitar player, you need to learn from a pro. A professional guitar teacher has the experience and wisdom necessary to teach you how to become a proper guitar player. Books, videos, and the Internet for that matter, lack in their ability to provide you with feedback and advice. A good guitar teacher will correct you if you are doing something wrong so that you don’t form bad habits or techniques. A good guitar teacher will also encourage you when you are doing something right.

Do Not Get Discouraged - When first learning the guitar, or any instrument for that matter, you may find yourself getting discouraged, or perhaps saying to yourself “this is just too difficult”. You may find yourself practicing the same song or chords over and over again, and never getting any better at it. Do not let this discourage you. Sometimes are brains just need a little rest, or need to be occupied with something else. Take a break and come back to your practice with a fresh mind.

Practice - The more often that you practice your guitar the more familiar you will become with the instrument. Your playing will become easier over time. Try and free up at least 20 minutes of time every day to practice your guitar. Find a time and location where you know you will not be interrupted. Interruption can really kill your concentration and snap you out of a good rhythm. Warm your hands and stretch your fingers before you play. Talk with your guitar teacher to develop the best practice exercises that are right for your style of playing.

Create an effective practice schedule - The length of your practice is not necessarily the most important thing. Usually it is the quality of your practice that is most important. Make sure your guitar teacher is giving you a well-rounded approach to guitar playing and helping you make the most of your practice sessions.

Slow Down - One great bit of advice with your practicing; don’t play too quickly! Many new guitar players will rush through a lick or a song in the beginning, trying to play it exactly as they hear it and only wind up butchering it. Before you can play anything correctly, you must learn to slow down and play it right at a much slower speed. You can then slowly increase your speed as you improve.

Watch your posture - Guitar playing should not be extremely painful and uncomfortable. If you find yourself with various aches and pains in your shoulders, your neck, your back, etc., chances are you are not in a correct playing posture. Ask your guitar teacher to demonstrate a proper playing posture, then do your best to stick to it. Tell your teacher to observe you during practice and correct you whenever you fall out of the correct posture.

Get a metronome - A very important part of guitar playing is the ability to keep good timing. An instrument, which will help you become better at timing, is called a metronome. You can purchase this at any guitar center. When working with a metronome, in the beginning, you should start off at a slow speed. This will help you build your muscles and develop better control and good playing habits.

Change your strings - Your guitar strings are very important to the quality of sound your guitar produces. How often you change your guitar strings really depends on how often you play. Professional guitar players may change their strings before every gig. Others who don’t play as often, may change their strings every 2 months or so. Again it really depends on how often you play, and how well you take care of your guitar strings. Don’t wait until your strings break before you change them and you should change all of your strings at the same time.

Try new things/experiment - If you feel uninspired in your guitar playing why not try something fresh and different? If you have mastered a particular song on your electric guitar, why not try the same song on an acoustic guitar? If you only play your guitar using a pick, put down the pick and just use your fingers. Perhaps you only enjoy playing blues guitar. Why not try some jazz or classical?

I hope these guitar tips were helpful. The most important thing is to never get discouraged and never give up. Persistence is key when it comes to playing the guitar. If you really have a sincere desire to learn, and you continue to practice, you will become a better guitar player.

You can learn how to play guitar free online. Visit http://www.artsymmetry.com/Category/Guitar-Lessons/199 for more great articles on guitar playing.

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I remember when I first put the Brobdingnagian Bards on MP3.com and started to learn the ropes. I would listen daily to music there, but I never listened to bands that were higher in the charts than we were because I didn’t want to boost their ratings any more than they already were.

I guess greedy. It totally dog-eat-dog. But it wasn’t until I started to listen to my own advice that I started to make some changes and helping my fellow musicians. And it wasn’t until I started to help you that our success took off.

Yeah, there are many reasons why we’ve done consistently well on the mp3.com charts, but one of the main ones is that I’ve been willing to scratch someone elses back with no expectation of a return. And while there’s no expectation, there always is a return.

It’s one of those great conundrums, I guess. I mean, how is it possible that when you help someone else You will benefit… Yet I’m amazed to see that it happens. And it happens all the time.

The more I am willing to give, the greater my return.

Just yesterday, I got an email from a Nagian (one of our fans) saying he loved our music and would do everything he could to promote us. Just ask.

But the only thing I can do is to humbly ask him to turn around and see if he needs his back scratched.

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

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The last few months have seen some really interesting moves in the whole peer to peer culture. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been slowly tightening its grip on how people can share music. The massive python has squeezed peer to peer networks and their members since the beginning.

The whole mess started in May of 1999 when Shawn Fanning started a “little” service called Napster. The instant massive popularity of Napster forced the RIAA’s hand. They sued Napster on December 7th, 1999. Since that time, the RIAA has been on a mission to squash the insurgency. At first, the RIAA went after major online brokers like Napster to stop the tide. Once those services had been culled, they moved onto major nodes of activity. These were individuals who were important players on the Peer to Peer (P2P) networks like Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus, etc. On May 2, 2003, the RIAA reached settlements with four college students. Though the fines were small, the message that they brought was much more important. That message was that the RIAA would prosecute anyone, big or small, who engaged in music swapping activity. It seemed like the RIAA had effectively made the offenders run for the hills. But those victory cries were soon drowned out by a disturbing trend.

If you have been monitoring the music scene, you will have noticed a strong rise in independent artists. What is the cause of such a move? Well, in large part, it is the artist herself. Artists have become disenchanted with the strategies and priorities of large recording companies. What they see is a massive disconnect between music companies, the artists, and their audience. And that has left a massive vacuum. But that’s for another article. Let’s focus our attention on the P2P landscape.

Recently, the RIAA sued Limewire for $150,000 for each song that was downloaded as part of that service. That sum, as you might have guessed, is astronomical. Limewire has now counter sued the RIAA for an interesting claim. They are claiming that the RIAA is acting in a monopolistic fashion. This indicates a total shift in thinking and strategy. Most P2P networks have just fallen by the wayside. They fight for a while, but then they bend the knee before the RIAA. But Limewire is not defending. Limewire is now going on the offensive against the monolith. And how we just love underdogs.

But even if the RIAA wins this battle, haven’t they lost bigger ones in the process? Will what we’re seeing in the independent music movement translate to the consumer? Or will the consumer just turn a deaf ear to the position? I guess that’s all up to you.

Paul McGillivary has been a technologist for 15 years. In that time, Paul has experienced thousands of technology problems, challenges, and products. He brings this experience to bear in the articles that he presents.

For more great articles on DRM and technology industry news, visit Paul’s tech blog on Technology

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