For example, I’m qualified to teach Aerobics; Exercise to Music as it’s often called in the UK. Not unlike line dancing, it involves the class going through a routine of various moves that the instructor calls out. All done to music with a steady beat. The instructor has to be able to count the moves, be on the correct beat, be ready to cue the next move at exactly the right moment and also do the moves herself facing the class. Which means she has to go the opposite way and be on the opposite foot to the class. So she calls a grapevine to the right, points to her left and herself grapevines to the left.

Now most instructors take to this like a duck to water. But not me. In theory I could do it all perfectly. But in practice? Absolute shambles! Wrong way, on the wrong foot and off the beat. Gave up in disgust. My class got most of their exercise from laughing at me! (In the nicest possible way).

There’s a point to this sorry tale. If I had found myself a good instructor to teach me the moves from scratch before I ever attempted to get qualified, I would have found it all so much easier. And it was the same with my earlier attempts to play the acoustic guitar – the instruction book I chose to teach myself with was way, way too complicated and I made my life hard. With Jamorama, you start with the absolute basics and it assumes you don’t know one end of a guitar from the other. Which is what most beginners need. Why make my mistake and pretend, for the sake of your ego, that you know more than you do?

Life is tough enough already. Choose the easy option.

Take the advice of the Jedi master to the novice on his first visit to a Chinese restaurant….Use the Forks, Luke.

All the best,

Carol

Technorati Tags: learning the guitar, easy learn guitar, guitar easy to learn, learn acoustic guitar, how to learn the guitar

Learning the Guitar – Make Life Easier for Yourself is a post from: Learn The Acoustic Guitar

It’s very easy and straightforward even for the most computer challenged of us! If I can do it, trust me anybody can.

I told you it was simple didn’t I? Now all you have to do is visit the site for yourself and discover just how easily you can Learn to play the guitar like a pro.

All the best,

Carol J Pearson

Technorati Tags: learn to play acoustic guitar, acoustic guitar lessons online, playing acoustic guitar

Learning The Acoustic Guitar Online is a post from: Learn The Acoustic Guitar

But sometimes reality just laughs in your face. This was one of Those Days. It isn’t paranoia when something really is out to get you!

I was just about to grab my guitar and get started when the fridge died. Just like that. Instead of humming comfortingly in the corner as usual, it gave a strangled crack and stopped. When I opened it, there was so much ice in there we could have had a resident Yeti and not noticed. (Come to think of it, that would explain where all the Triple Cream Cheese went. It couldn’t possibly have been me who ate it. Looks like we have a fat Yeti.)

The fridge is old-fashioned. And temperamental – if you don’t defrost it, it goes on strike. I gazed longingly at my guitar lesson, sighed and got started on placating the fridge. Emptied it, defrosted it with boiling water, scrubbed it inside and out, while murmuring soothing words. It eventually started again – grudgingly – 2 hours later. That was it. Free time used up – client banging on the door. Reality.

I picked up the guitar again at 10pm that night. I was determined to do lesson 3!
I was always hopeless at reading music at school; those black dots with tails never did make sense to me. But this guitar notation – “TAB” as it’s called for short – was really user friendly, and the diagrams given made it quite clear where you were meant to put your fingers. I felt really pleased with myself by the time I’d read the theory through – and you can download examples on video with this lesson.

I picked and plucked my way to the end of the lesson, and felt I’d really made progress. Jimi Hendrix move over!

All the best,

Carol J Pearson

Technorati Tags: acoustic guitar tabs, learn acoustic guitar, beginner tabs guitar

Learning To Play The Guitar – Lesson Three – Tabs is a post from: Learn The Acoustic Guitar

My life is a graveyard of plans and ideas that I’m “getting around to”. Things like growing my own vegetables; seeing Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Colossus of Rhodes; booking an aromatherapy session and going for a horse-ride, to name just a few.

That’s when I’ve finished all my work, cleaned the house, weeded the garden, shopped, cooked numerous meals and seen some clients, so that we have enough money to keep the wolf from the door…

No extra time was forthcoming, so I made time. Boy, was it scary! At first, the guitar lesson felt like a waste of time (terrible crime in my book!), and I felt really guilty, sneaking off into the spare room like a felon when there was Work To Be Done. But then, when isn’t there? So I refused to feel guilty any more, and actually began to enjoy it. By the end of the lesson, I could play a chord. The A Major chord. And it didn’t sound like someone was strangling the cat, either!

I was proud of myself; it really did my ego good. You should try it! So, flushed with my success, I downloaded Lesson 2 – Learning to tune the guitar.

This took a bit more reading through to get the idea, but it was clear and quite easy to understand. Tuning your guitar is absolutely essential if your playing is to sound any good. The idea here is to tune each string from the one above it, so you don’t need a tuning device – a very clever idea.

I have to say, I needed a bit more time to get this lesson right, but the guitar sounded okay when I’d finished. But then, as you know, I’m certainly no expert – a professional guitarist would probably have shot himself at the thought of tuning a guitar this way.

I just want to be able to play a nice tune to sing along to. I couldn’t ever be a professional guitarist.

I don’t have the time ?.

Pass me the next chapter on learning to play the acoustic guitar!

All the best,

Carol J Pearson

Technorati Tags: free guitar lesson, learn acoustic guitar, tune guitar, easy learn guitar

Learning To Play The Guitar – Lesson Two is a post from: Learn The Acoustic Guitar

In my case it was Math – believe it or not. I was hopeless at it until I met this particular teacher. He played games with numbers; set puzzles, not homework, and helped me get an “A” Grade when I was headed right for an “E”!

And of course, the opposite also applies. The teacher who sends you to sleep with droning on, making you resent every hour spent in his classroom – and probably giving you a lifelong hatred for the subject!

So I approached learning to play the acoustic guitar with some trepidation and not a little wariness. And some cynicism – you know, the “Teaching an old dog new tricks” type. In short, I was prepared to be disappointed and almost ready to give up before I started.

I started by downloading Jamorama’s Free Guitar Lessons. Yes, you heard me, FREE. No strings attached (forgive the pun), no obligation, just print it and slip away into the darkness and be nice and anonymous again. (That’s what I like. I’d be a wonderful Mystery Shopper!).

Well, it starts at the very beginning. A very good place to start. How to hold your guitar, where to put your paws – with pictures, no less. Very good for an old dog like me ?.

Then the author explains exactly which string is which, and how to get started. By the end of the lesson, I strummed my first chord. Cool!

And I enjoyed it. Surprisingly

All the best,

Carol J Pearson

Technorati Tags: play guitar, play acoustic guitar, begginer guitar, learn guitar

Learning To Play The Guitar – Lesson One is a post from: Learn The Acoustic Guitar