{"id":521,"date":"2011-05-02T19:00:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T02:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixstringsensei.com\/?p=521"},"modified":"2023-04-18T17:39:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T00:39:01","slug":"become-great-all-around-guitar-player-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixstringsensei.com\/521\/become-great-all-around-guitar-player-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Become a Great All Around Guitar Player – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many times have you met a player that plays awesome metal guitar but falls apart when you ask them to play some funk?\u00a0 Or how about a player that can play great lead lines but turns into a heap of crap as soon as you present him with some latin or jazz rhythms?<\/h3>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is, for most people it\u2019s very easy to fall into a rut of practicing the same thing over and over again while forgetting about the other aspects of playing guitar.\u00a0 Obviously, you\u2019ll want to put more time into practicing the genre of music you like, or the style of playing you prefer but you should never forget the key to becoming a great guitar player is becoming great all-around player.<\/p>\n

Being first a drummer, (yes, I play drums too.) I\u2019ve had the experience of playing with many different guitarists.\u00a0 I remember I played with this guy years ago for a church festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico.\u00a0 The guy could play some cool latin rhythms, but being the punk\/metal guy that I am, I ask him to play some heavy palm-muted riffs during one of our jams.\u00a0 I was surprised to find out the guy couldn\u2019t even palm-mute properly let alone play a continuously chugging riff.<\/p>\n

I also remember playing with\u00a0this guy in Hawaii that is a very experienced acoustic guitarist.\u00a0 Well, I was a bit shocked to find out that since all he ever did was play acoustic songs by himself while singing, he couldn\u2019t keep time properly.\u00a0 He sounded great alone in free time, but as soon as you added a drummer, things began to get a little tense.<\/p>\n

Anyway, what I trying to say is this:\u00a0 Make sure that you don\u2019t find yourself practicing the same thing over and over endlessly.\u00a0 Try new genres, learn a new scale and learn new songs in a different style than you are used to.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be surprised on how much this will actually help your playing and the actual style you play.<\/p>\n

Being a surfer, I have ridden shortboards for most of my life.\u00a0 I decided to learn to longboard recently.\u00a0 Well, all I can say is that I\u2019m shocked at how much the new style of surfing I\u2019m learning is helping me improve in my actual style.<\/p>\n

Ok, before I start getting redundant, let me go over a few points.\u00a0 Before you can start going out of your way to practice what you do not know, you clearly need need to understand what these things are.\u00a0 Let me give you an example:<\/p>\n

There is an organization called RGT<\/strong> (Registry of Guitar Tutors) based in the UK.\u00a0 The registry is linked to the London College of Music Examinations.<\/strong> This organization has established a few points to identify guitarists\u2019 abilities by grade.\u00a0 More or less like school. Now I\u2019m not going to get into full detail of what each of the grades encompass, but I\u2019ll give you an idea of the point you need to keep in mind.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a beginner, make sure you start off by learning the basic chords.\u00a0 These are the 10 chords found on my essential chords lesson here.<\/a> As soon as you learn these you can start playing a few songs.\u00a0 But it shouldn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0 The fact is that learning at least five scales is part of grade 1.\u00a0 I know many guitarists who have been playing for years and only know the pentatonic scale.\u00a0 In reality, learning the basic major and minor scales, the major and minor pentatonics, and the blues scale is not hard at all.\u00a0 With a little time everyday you can easily learn them.\u00a0 These scales have a number of different positions for each and they can be transferred to any key.\u00a0 But that is beside the point.\u00a0 You do not want to overwhelm yourself.\u00a0 So, only attempt to learn the basic first position of each first.\u00a0 That should even be enough to get you started soloing.\u00a0 Then, as time goes on you\u2019ll eventually move on to learn the other positions of these scales until you are able to tie them together and see how each one relates to the other.<\/p>\n

Below I\u2019m going to break down the guitar skills into the main points that sum up a well-rounded player.\u00a0 These points will never be equal since you\u2019ll will always be somewhat better at one thing than you are at another, but the goal is to try and keep them as close to each other as possible.\u00a0 You should keep this in mind and practice in a way that you dedicate some time to each of these points.\u00a0\u00a0 You will notice that as your skill increases you will grow in a well balanced, all around fashion.\u00a0 Here are the points:<\/p>\n