Authors: Erich Andreas
Guitar Mastery Simplified: How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja (5 page)
However
, it’s NOT the truth and that type of small
thinking will hinder
your
playing
exponentially. Don’t believe the lie!
This is a subject that is rarely addressed or, often times,
misunderstood completely. The definition of “talent” is a
natural
aptitude or skill
. As far as practice goes, we all know what practice
is and that doing more of it makes us better at whatever skill we are trying to
improve. I know I’m going to step on some toes with this portion of the
book, but bear with me because
I promise you
that what I am going to
share with you in this section will only empower you to become the best player
that
you
allow yourself to be.
Simply put, the point of this section is that the belief
that you must be born talented or have some natural inclination to excel above
the herd is not only completely false, but also extremely limiting to your
playing… and your life!
Many people believe so fervently in this idea of an innate
need for talent – as opposed to sheer practice – that they talk themselves
right out of excellence! Defenders of the talent theory like to use
examples of great icons that excel in a particular field or genre and say
“there, you can’t tell me that they are not talented!” They
assume
that the person was simply born with the ability they are displaying in their
excellent performance.
This assumption, however, is very insulting and negates the
thousands – or even tens of thousands of hours – that a person has spent
“perfecting” their craft.
What do Jimi Hendrix, Amadeus Mozart, Michael Jordan and
Thomas Edison all have in common? Well, depending on who you ask, some
might say they were gifted or talented.
Others
who
have taken the time to step back, will realize that their gains are because of
dedication, innovation, organization and perseverance. They understand
that
the more one practices, the better one gets.
Now I know that concept sounds logical, but see if you can
step outside yourself for a moment and watch yourself slip into the “talent
camp” when something appears to be out of your reach.
What I’m saying is, and I know this from personal experience
because I used to do it often, it’s easy to look at someone who has
“mastered
his craft”
and say that they have some leg up on you. I’ve done it so
many countless times throughout my life. I used to do it most often with
musicians, but my love of illusions (magic), martial arts, etc., have also made
me assume that somebody had a hidden key that I was not able to find.
I have played guitar for several decades now, have learned
thousands of songs and have attempted to imitate hundreds of guitar players.
I have seen success in all of these areas. I’ve had many people
comment on how “talented” I am. The funny thing is, when I started
playing guitar, I was
TERRIBLE!
Why is that?
It is that way because everybody is terrible when they just
pick up the guitar! It’s just that some folks forgot the process and how
long it actually took them. Jimi Hendrix was terrible when he first
picked up the guitar! Eric Clapton was terrible when he first picked up
the guitar!
Yngwie
Malmsteen
was terrible when he first picked up the guitar!
Are you getting the picture?
We would be much better off to replace the word talent with
perseverance. Now that is a pill I can swallow! If someone said to
me “the reason that a particular player does not play as well as Jimi Hendrix
is because he doesn’t have the talent,” I would
never
concur. If
someone said to me, “the reason that someone does not play as well as Jimi
Hendrix is because they don’t have the same perseverance that he had,” I would
wholeheartedly agree!
Perhaps to define it better, instead of the word
perseverance we could even replace it with “efficient practice time.” Now
how unromantic is that? I know
,
it kind of makes
you want to call it “talent” again right? How much cooler to think that
we would not have to work and that we could just be born into such a thing.
Let’s not fall into the trap. It’s lame and it’s lazy and it’s
NOT
the truth
.
Jimi Hendrix started playing guitar somewhere around 10
years old. If he were so “talented”, he would not have had to practice so
much? Why didn’t we hear of him breaking into the music scene at 10 or
11? What about Amadeus Mozart, Michael Jordan and Thomas Edison? Mozart
was known to utterly surround himself with music. He was constantly
immersed in it from a very young age. It’s true that some people catch
“the music bug” earlier than others, giving them several years more practice
than others. That is a truism that you can’t escape.
If someone starts playing guitar at age 4 as opposed to age
14, when both reach the age of 15 the one guitarist will have been practicing
for 11 years while the other will have been practicing for one year. It’s
simple math. Can you see which player might sound better? Is this
what we’re calling talented?
I heard a story about Michael Jordan where he did not make
the high school basketball team because he SUCKED! YES, that
Michael Jordan!
However he was
determined
to play basketball.
So he got that basketball out and started shooting hoops and still sucked for a
bit, until continuous
suckyness
turned into kind of
sucking, which turned into not so sucky, which turned into kind of good which
turned into pretty good which turned into the best NBA basketball player to
ever grace the courts!
Have you got it yet? It DOES NOT happen
overnight! He made his own destiny by being determined and
practicing. In essence he became talented.
What about Thomas Edison? Who the heck is that you
ask? He’s the guy that invented the light bulb.
Yep,
pretty important huh?
He also invented hundreds of other things
that we use today. Look him up on Google if you want to see a man who has
changed the lives of billions of people.
When Thomas Edison was creating the light bulb he used
hundreds of different filaments before finding the right one. The
filament of the light bulb is that little thing in the middle that glows.
He used everything under the sun including horsehair but to no avail.
Finally
he got it right. Enter sarcastic Sage voice, “Boy, that talented Thomas
Edison. He is just so lucky. Stuff just comes to him SOOO easily.”
Can you see how insulting that is when he worked his hind end off to
create such a technology?
In fact, it was Thomas Edison who said, “
genius
is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” or in my words 1% talent and 99%
practice. So that little 1% seed that was dropped into Jimi Hendrix,
Amadeus Mozart, Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison and YOU, must be watered and fed
and given all the conditions to make that seed grow into fruition. That’s
the harder part. Seeds like that are dropped all day long but rarely do they
find fertile ground. If you’ve gotten this far in my diatribe, I would
guess YOU are fertile ground and are going to run with this information.
There is NO-thing stopping YOU from becoming the next
Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen IF you practice like they did. THAT'S the
tricky part. You were already born into this world with the ability!
Now that you know this
, I want you to be aware of how
you view great accomplishments. It does take a little bit of the
wonderment away, but empowers you to create that wonderment for yourself.
There is no task too great, or goal too lofty that you cannot attain if
properly mapped out and walked through step-by-step.
This is not a pep talk, as I rarely have time for pep talks.
This is a truism and is good news for those of us that are willing to
work hard and smart. It’s
bad news
for those that are waiting for
talent or the Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes guy with a big check to
knock on their front door. Now, DON’T go easy on yourself. Go
practice as if you are the next Jimi Hendrix, because you ARE!
to Master Strumming Quickly and Easily
Strumming the guitar can be
frustrating if you are not shown the proper way to think and if you don’t allow
yourself some time to master some basic guitar rhythm skills. Here are
some fundamental concepts that I want you to think about when practicing
strumming.
- Mute
the guitar strings with your fretting hand (if you are a “righty,” this
would be your left hand). This will allow you to focus all of your
attention on your strum. - For
the following exercises
, the numbers will
ALWAYS
be “down strums”
(strumming towards the floor), while the “+” symbol (also known as the
“and” of the beat) will
ALWAYS
be an “up strum.” This is the
KEY to good strumming. Be diligent with this basic principle. - Each
strum should be equal distance from the last. If you are counting 1
+ 2 + 3 + 4 +, the count should be smooth and even like a watch or clock
ticking (unless you are “swinging the beat,” which is not recommended
before learning a basic straight strum). - Say the
rhythm out loud, slowly. Once you get the idea, try to say that same
rhythm in a seam less “loop
”(
meaning, don’t stop
at the end of the 4+). Once you get the hang of this, it should
stream together like 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + - Once
you can count it smoothly like this, strum it slowly and steadily. If
you are new to strumming, try the very first strum, which
is
4 down strums on the down beats. - When
the strum calls for a space or void like 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 or 1 + 2 + 3 4+,
your hand should STILL move as if it were going to hit the strings.
This way your down strums will always be where your down beats are
and
your
up strums will be where
your
up beats are. Get it?
For a video representation of this
technique, check out:
NOW for the exercises! For
this study, take it slow and go through ALL levels in order.
