Proper guitar technique is not something that every guitar player is aware of or even takes seriously. This is mainly because improper posture and bad sitting habits will not immediately result in injuries...

Over the long term guitar players who sit poorly can get a whole host of issues. These can range from back pain, to shoulder issues, problems with; neck, elbow, arm and wrist pain, RSI (repetitive strain injuries), tendonitis, CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) and other nasty side effects.All due to bad sitting positions.

This is certainly not every guitar player’s destiny, but it’s not out of the question either. There is however good news! Proper posture can prevent a lot of these injuries and it makes guitar playing easier, more relaxed and more pleasant.



Good hand positioning is really important to learning how to play guitar more effectively and properly. Every detail makes all the difference in the world.Read over the ideas presented below to learn more about guitar posture.


Sitting position
Sit down on a chair, and place your right foot on the floor and elevate your left foot using a guitar players foot stool, keeping your back straight.

Place the guitar on your left leg (if you’re right-handed) and hold the guitar around the central area of your stomach and chest. Have the neck of the guitar pointing upward to the ceiling.

Don’t use the left hand to support the neck from leaning down towards the floor, instead let your upper right arm rest on the upper part of the guitar body to avoid this. Make sure all this feels comfortable.

Left hand position and finger placement (fretting hand)
The thumb of your fretting hand should rest behind the neck of the guitar for the majority of playing situations. Place it approximately between your first two fingers. Make sure to bend all your knuckles (1st, 2nd and 3rd).

Use the tip of your fingers to press down the strings and place them as close to the forward fret wire as possible. (Do not place your fingers on the fret!).

Keep your fingernails short, so they cannot touch the fret-board.



Right hand position (strumming hand)
Rest your upper right arm on the upper part of the guitar body, and have your right hand floating comfortably above the sound hole keeping a relaxed feel in your arm, wrist and your hand.

Strumming technique
There are several strumming techniques for guitar playing.

Here is one that is commonly used:
Place your thumb against your index finger and hold them together. This gives you decent support. Bend your middle, ring and pinky slightly towards the palm of your hand.

Down-strum with the nail of your index finger against all the strings and then up strum with the nail of your thumb or the under-side of the index finger.

Dynamics are affected by how you perform the up-strum. You can also play with your index finger and thumb separately which gives you a more tender sound. You can also grow your fingernails a bit to give you a more clear sound similar to using a pick.



Using a pick (plectrum)
Hold the pick between your thumb and index finger. Place the pick on the top side of your index finger and clamp your thumb down on top of it. Hold the pick firmly when playing single notes. Lighten up on the pick when strumming. The grip you make on the pick affects dynamics (how loud or how soft you play).

Fingerpicking position
Rest your forearm on the top front edge of the lower bout to stabilize your hand. Hold your hand above the sound hole, make sure your hand and arm are aligned and bend your knuckles slightly.

The most common approach is playing the bass strings (4th, 5th and 6th string) with the thumb, 3rd string with the index finger, 2nd string with the middle finger and the 1st string with the ring finger. Other variations are also used. Use the tip of your fingers to pluck the strings.


Prevent injuries
Keep your back straight, lengthen and align your spine. Relax your neck and shoulders (don’t raise your shoulders). Avoid or release any tension in the arms, wrists, hands and fingers.

Take a break and stretch every now and then - especially if you’re playing for an extended amount of time. If you feel strain or pain take a rest and let your body heal.

Make sure you eat healthy, sleep well and exercise regularly. These three pointers are of great influence to your daily practice.

Be aware and listen to your body.

NEW: QwikLicks Series - Video (022)

The latest QwikLicks video, "String Bending Licks in D Minor" is available in the FREE members area. Includes a PDF handout!

QwikLicks are a FREE lesson series for all membership levels at Creative Guitar Studio.com. Lessons in the QwikLicks Series run through a short collection of guitar licks covering all types of playing styles, famous artist's playing styles and guitar techniques...

Episode #022 covers three "D Minor," String Bending licks that work on the most popular bend distances. These include; Full-step, 1/2 step, 1/4 step and the giant step and a half bend. Other ideas introduced in the lesson plan include; the bend-release technique, pre-bending, the "bend-release pull-off" and double-stop bending. An introduction to performing smooth bends is also included at the start of the video for any players who are new to bending technique.

Sign into the website with your free members account to watch the lesson, and be sure to download the PDF lesson handout. 

If you're not currently a FREE member of the website, sign up today!

As much as no one likes to fire a co-worker or band mate, sometimes it has to be done. 

There's little you can do to make it sound like great news to the person getting the boot, but there are things that you can do to lessen the fallout and protect yourself and the band...

Firing a band member is a tough proposition. First, you have to be sure you even have the right to fire someone from the band and continue on using the same name and material. Don't assume this is the case, because there may be legal issues involved.


5 Good Reasons to Fire Someone from Your Band
Before you take the step, make sure it's worth it. Is the person not showing up for rehearsals? Is their behavior toxic to the rest of the group? Maybe they're not up to the job musically, or, perhaps it's just a personality conflict that can't be resolved.

1. They Don't Show Up for Practice
Bands have different approaches to practice depending on their schedules and music goals. The important thing is that you're all on the same page with how things are done in your band. If the rest of you are absolutely committed to making regularly scheduled rehearsals and working hard while you're there, but your band mate isn't, then you've got a problem on your hands. Their lack of commitment to practice is likely to spill into other areas of your music.

2. Their Behavior Is an Issue
Do you have someone in your band who is forever picking fights at venues, showing up late to important appointments, and overindulging in music biz excesses at the expense of the work you're doing? Is there a drug or alcohol issue?

This kind of bad behavior may seem very rock and roll to them, but in reality, they're making you look bad and giving your band a reputation that could impact your chances of getting new shows, attracting managers and agents, and so on. If you're getting kicked out of every venue you're showing up to play, it's time for a little damage control.

3. Your Band Is Their Side Project
When you're getting started as a band, it's not uncommon to bring in musicians who have other projects going on. That's fine, but that sort of relationship has its way of running its course. This band member may get so excited about your music that your band becomes their main thing, or they may be already so committed to another act that you're always going to be second fiddle.

If things start happening for your band - like getting big touring opportunities or a deal - then you need someone who can be on board with the project all the way. If you've got someone who just can't, you're going to need to find someone to fill their shoes, no matter how big.

4. They're Not Up to the Job
Not every musician is a fit for every band. If you've got someone in your band who isn't musically up to snuff when it comes to playing your songs or who simply excels at things your band doesn't really need, they'd probably be happier playing with a different group - and you'd be happier with a different musician playing your tunes.

5. You Just Don't Work Well Together
You may think that you can tolerate someone because of their skill, but in the long run, skill isn't enough for a band to succeed. It takes commitment to the band and each other. It takes mutual respect.

If you have a newer band that is building a music career together, you don't have to do it with people you can't stand. Now is the time to build a band you can go on this journey with, and it's just easier if you all like each other and support each other. It's not going to get easier to get along once deals and money and big decisions start entering the picture.


Things to Do Before You Fire a Band Mate
Once you know that you're ready to part ways and let your band mate go, there are a few things you need to know before you have the talk.

- Make Sure You Have the Authority:
In most cases, you can't just show someone the door. Depending which member of the band is being fired, the rest of the group might not be able to continue using the same name and songs.

If the person you're getting rid of has some claim of ownership of the band, a founding member, for instance, you may be looking at more of a band break-up scenario than a straightforward firing. You'd be free to continue on with the rest of the band, but you may be playing under a different name and with new material. You can't continue to use someone else's creative work while cutting them out of it, unless it's clearly spelled out under a band contract.

- Check Your Band Contract:
If you have a contract, it almost certainly deals with situations like firings and acceptable reasons for termination from the band. If you've got the agreement, you have to abide by it, but the contract may allow you to fire a so-called key person for a cause stated in the contract and continue using the name and the music — with the requisite compensation, of course.

- Check Your Record Deal:
If you have a record deal and the person you want to fire person is specified as a key member in that record deal, you risk the label dropping you. The label believes this member is so important that losing them would result in a different band from the one they signed.

This is usually the case with a lead singer. For example, if U2 fired Bono, they would definitely have a label problem. But a key member can be any band member that your label views as critical to your project and public image.


How to Make the Firing Fair Financially
The financial complexity of firing a band member depends on where you are in your career when the firing takes place. If there's no money coming in and no deals about to be signed that this musician helped you obtain through their talent, work, or connections, then it may simply come down to putting down a little good faith cash if, say, the departing member was the one who always paid for the beer.

On the other hand, if you've got a record deal, albums that are being sold, licensing income being generated on songs this musician helped write, then things can get messy.

If you've got a contract, you'll know exactly how to deal with the situation. But if you don't, discuss the issues and hammer out an agreement in writing. This is especially Ditto if this person invested a lot of money in the band and should be paid back. If it gets too complex or too contentious, get a mediator or lawyer involved to help you come to an agreement. It's easier to deal with this now than have it become something way messier down the line, like a lawsuit. Plus, it's fair.


How to Make the Firing Fair Personally
Firing someone does not typically endear you to them. In a perfect world, the musician being let go will agree that this just isn't working out for anyone and move on—but that doesn't always happen.

Try to convince the person you're letting go that it's in both of your best interests to keep this whole affair as professional as possible. If you can, come to an agreement on how you'll all address the questions that will come up.

After the dust settles—and it will eventually—what people will remember is the grace you showed in the situation. It will make you more attractive to work with.

Treat the outgoing band member with as much respect as possible. If you owe them money, see that they get it. If they bought some stuff for the band, make sure they get it back. If you know of a gig that might be just right for them, pass it along.



Do the Deed and Wrap It Up
Don't prolong the firing process. Sit down, have the discussion and make sure you're clear about how any loose ends will be tied up. You may need to negotiate some things. If you do, put it all in writing. That's the best and fairest thing for all parties, and it will let you both get on with pursuing your musical ambitions a lot quicker.

Why is it so hard to learn the guitar? 

Jane's 27 years old and she's been playing guitar for 3 months. She gets rather irritated when she keeps seeing those advertisements that claim you can learn guitar in 3 weeks and be playing like a pro in no time. Highly annoying!

Deep down she knows that it takes years of dedication to get to a high level of skill. Jane also understands that there are many common similarities that most beginners will run into when they are learning the instrument.

Since so many new players are going through the same problems, I decided to do a quick post about the most common ones, (as basically every novice guitar student will find something useful and relevant among them).

Here are the most common problems that new guitar students have, and a few tips for what to do about solving them.



STARTING and KEEPING A PRACTICE ROUTINE
We live busy lives, which means that a lot of guitar students don't have time to practice. But, even worse, new students have no routine for practice and it is very difficult to create one. Especially students who have never played an instrument before. If the person has no prior practice knowledge, (of what it is like to maintain a framework of study), it will be incredibly difficult to cultivate this into daily life.

Treat your study time as shorter in the beginning and keep what you're learning to the point, reviewing concepts a couple of times each. Keep your study sessions down to about 20 min. or at most half an hour.

Print out your TAB and music lessons placing them on a music stand in front of you, and practice guitar techniques for a set period each time, (which means that you can practice and just fool around at any time of the day afterwards).

Begin with very short study session segments - even 5 minutes at a time per topic will be to your benefit. Keep the guitar out and play at other moments during the day as well. While you're watching TV, while something is in the microwave, while you're talking on the phone, while you're waiting for someone or something, etc.

The point is to have your guitar out where you can see it, making it easily accessible, and able to pick up whenever you can.



LEARNING TO STRUM CHORDS
This is definitely the first serious problem that beginners run into. They learn to "sort of" hold down a couple of chords (which takes a considerable amount of getting used to in itself). Than they realize that they'll need to change in between all of these different chords. This is where the trouble begins.

Start with an easy to finger chord shape, such as an, "E Major," "A Minor," or a, "D Major." Develop the tone, get rid of flubbed notes and aim for clarity of sound at first. Then, work on another chord that starts getting more challenging, like learning to hold down a "C major."

It may seem impossible, but it will get easier to hold down and get decent sound from each chord. The same thing holds true with chord changes. Learn how to change between chords correctly, and work hard at it.This means going from a chord you know well, to a chord you're still learning.



HOW TO PRACTICE A SONG
"I have no idea how to properly study a song?" ...This type of statement comes mainly from students who like to skip between songs, without really learning them and without mastering the techniques that the song can offer the player.

What usually happens is that the student will start learning one of the beginner guitar songs, run into a problem and decide to go for another song leaving the first one behind. But the new song is a bit difficult as well, so they try something else, and so on.

The result is that without having learned any of the songs properly (or with dedication) and thereby not having improved at all, they feel like they've looked at every song, and don't know what to do next.

The better approach is not to give up on learning a song when you run into the first sign of difficulties. This is why you need to practice learning songs that are manageable. Often the beginner song books can be an excellent place to start.

For example, one song I recently taught in a class was Audioslave's, "Doesn't Remind Me." The songs' chord changes are really straight-forward with the verse only using "E and A" major chords. The chorus adds the "D Major" and the "E Minor" so overall, we have a perfect song for a beginner strumming piece.
Get the TAB here for "Doesn't Remind Me."

Finding songs like this would be the perfect place to start for a beginner. But, the most  important factor in learning this piece (or any piece like this), would be to develop the chords outside of the song. Then, add them in one by one. Afterward, study the strum pattern. In other words, learn the song in pieces, in small chunks. Keeping everything manageable.



TALK TO A PROFESSIONAL ALONG THE WAY
The last point I want to make is how important it is to speak to a professional teacher along the way. I conduct Skype Classes with people from all over the world who often only touch base with me once every few months. They want to be assessed and then be reassessed to know that they're on the right path to learning most efficiently.

This is a critical key to development. Going at this alone places you in a vacuum and that will do nothing but foster a lot of bad habits. Those bad habits will cause you a ton of grief as time goes on. So, avoid them with either a private instructor, or through using a proper guitar learning system (like my Creative Guitar Studio course).

GUITAR BLOG INSIDER...
Making a Living Playing Guitar (4 Traits)
Playing the guitar as a primary income source may be a unique way to earn a living. It can also be very stressful. It's not the 1st choice career path for everyone. Learn what it takes to earn a successful life-long  income as a professional guitarist... 

If you decide that the only way you can make it through your life is by playing the guitar as your main source of income, then you need to realize that the select number of people who have had success at this all share very similar qualities. 

They've all learned a lot of their primary income skills through trial and error, and they've all worked very long hours developing their knowledge and experience for what they needed to do in order to establish and maintain their long term success as musicians. 

Obviously, there are common traits involved like; versatility, confidence, and musical skills. But, there are also other interesting attributes as well. In this episode of the GuitarBlog Insider, we're going to discuss. "Making a Living Playing Guitar."

In this discussion, we'll be running through FOUR areas that are important to anyone who's interested in Playing Guitar for a Living. They are; Becoming a Complete Musician / Learning to both Perform and Record to a high level of skill / Getting Comfortable with Technology / as well as, Learning to become a highly competitive person.

Making a Living Playing Guitar (4 Traits)

ClickBait Guitar Lessons on YouTube Might Not teach You Much, But They Will Generate Clicks and Revenue for YouTube...



If you're serious about learning to play the guitar you probably won't learn the bulk of your guitar knowledge from YouTube. 

After all, there's nothing better than studying a proper step-by-step course with an organized curriculum taught by a professional teacher with hundreds of streamlined examples. That will absolutely excel your guitar playing better than a stack of random YouTube videos on any day.




HOW I GOT STARTED ON YOUTUBE:
Back in 2008, (that was the year when I first started posting a few short guitar lessons on YouTube), there weren't an overwhelming amount of guitar lessons posted on the site, at least not compared to today's standards.

Most of the guitar videos on YouTube were about how to play "this or that" song. I thought making some YouTube videos that focused on things like; scales, theory and technique would be a good way to help my local guitar studio and possibly boost my in-person business. 

At that time, YouTube had a "Partner Program" but it was very difficult to become accepted. So, making money on YouTube wasn't even on my radar when I began posting lessons. Have a look at the video below, (back from the first year I started posting)...





Posting on YouTube worked okay for my local business, but it grew into more of a direction where it stood on its own after YouTube expanded its Partner Program. 

After a year or two, I decided to focus on the YouTube lessons as more of a separate entity. Most of the people who were watching my YouTube videos did so because I was discussing more about guitar and music theory and I combined that with practical knowledge.

However, doing this type of video-post on YouTube does not spawn 10's of thousands of views in a matter of days when a video is first posted, and that's what YouTube wants today in 2017. 

YouTube does not care about substance, it rewards strictly on immediate video clicks. That is how YouTube makes all of their money.



WHAT YOUTUBE EXPECTS:
The way YouTube works has more to do with views, "gained quickly," (very quickly) than it does with high-quality intellectual content. You could make the best content in the world, but if your video doesn't receive thousands upon thousands of clicks and views in the first 24 hours, then our friends at YouTube use a computer algorithm to shuffle a video to their back-burner list and it sits there with 18 views (or whatever) going no-place fast.

New YouTube content uploaders often tend to think that YouTube has everything to do with gaining subscribers, but it does not. It is about very quick views when a video is first posted onto the website. 

That's probably why all of those silly, goofy, ridiculous content content videos are viewed a million times in their first 24 hrs. and your phenomenal YouTube guitar lesson only has 18 views in it's first week.

Some YouTube creators provide a slice of both good content and stupid ridiculous content, to gain subscribers but more often than not, the most successful YouTube videos thrive on something called, "ClickBait."

WHAT IS CLICKBAIT?:
ClickBait is when a YouTube creator places a titled on their video that reads something like one of these below...

- Here's why you should give up sex and devote your life to guitar

- Why guitar lessons suck

- 5 sexual reasons for learning guitar

- The most boring guitar lesson ever (Don't Watch This)

- Why you should forget everything you ever learned about guitar

The titles listed above sound nothing short of idiotic to any sane person. However, what they do quite well is entice a person to wonder "why" a video would be titled in such a ridiculous manner in the first place. 

This generates the all important, "Click." Which is what YouTube desperately needs for their revenue stream and when creators achieve this, YouTube rewards them.




STUPID CONTENT VS. GOOD CONTENT:
For me there are three kinds of content on YouTube...

#1). The first is the ‘digitalizing’ of things that people have always been able to do such as learning songs, scales and whatnot. How many song tutorials are there on YouTube, and how many "Pentatonic Scale" videos have you seen? Far too many I'd suspect.

#2). The second is ‘unseen’ content, involving the teaching and insight into how a player thinks. Which can be very hard to locate in today's world of clickbait. 

To me this is amazing content. I can get a lot out of videos like this. But sadly they are getting harder to find. Usually buried way way down in YouTube's filtering process.

#3). The third, is all of the ridiculous crap content that generally angers me as to why in the world I bothered clicking on it in the first place. I knew it was clickbait. WHY?




So after trawling though the crap, click-bait, and begging-for-subscribers videos, here is a fantastic video about rhythm guitar, sadly it only has a few thousand views...

Oz Noy Clinic – Rhythm Focus in Solos




If you haven’t heard of Oz Noy, then you should definitely check out his music. I like this lesson, and most of his other lessons, because he gets right down to the fundamentals that a lot of players are lacking and he provides concise and clear explanations.

In this video he covers how to inject rhythm into solos, which sounds obvious but you’ll find that a lot of guitarists, neglect this element of their playing and it remains underdeveloped.

You may think you’ve milked the A Minor Pentatonic scale to death, but take a look at how Oz makes it groove and how you can add this dimension to your soloing through a couple of really good exercises.



Sadly videos like the one above are buried on YouTube. This type of solid content gets shuffled to the back-burner and finding it can be next to impossible. 

Instead, your next search on YouTube for Guitar Lessons will have you only find those same videos that you saw time and time before, and time and time again...

Look, there's another song lesson on, "How to Play Taylor Swifts ********* Song." Oh no, it's another video by that guy who only talks about the Pentatonic scale (in every video he makes). And good grief, there's another video by the same dude (who comes up in every guitar lessons search) always showing the same triad chord as the same strumming idea.

Unfortunately, you'll need to dig and dig and dig to discover the good stuff on YouTube. It is there, only it gets buried under all the clickbait. Keep looking - I know it's like digging for gold - but there are great video lessons out there and they are worth finding.

When playing through finger-picking patterns, you have some choices as far as your right hand is concerned. If you make sure that you understand your options, you'll have more freedom when developing your fingerpicking style...

A lot of great guitar playing can come from patterning out just four notes when fingerpicking. As a starting point, (when you are playing four notes ascending or descending together), you can use your thumb, index, middle and ring fingers, (one per string), to play those notes. After you've become familiar with this technique /set-up, the technique can be modified even further.

When you begin to alternate ascending and descending patterns in the same bar, you can keep the same approach, but you will have to double up your ring finger on the top note of the first and second pattern, (which may or may not work out feeling comfortable for you because it may feel a bit awkward for some players).



Fingerpicking Pattern 1).
The first fingerpicking pattern that we’ll explore features an ascending approach to each chord in a given progression. Here, (and in each example in this lesson), you will first learn the pattern over a C and G chord, I and V in the key of C major.

Patter 1). click image to enlarge


 After you can apply this pattern to C and G, try making up your own chord progressions and work on each pattern over the new chords. Some common progressions you might want to explore are F-G-C, C-Am-F-G, C-A-D-G, or Am-G-F-E. All of these can be found in many classic rock, folk, country and pop songs.



Fingerpicking Pattern 2).

In the next fingerpicking pattern, you will reverse the first pattern to produce a variation that descends down the chord you are playing, such as the C and G below.

Pattern 2). click image to enlarge


While pattern #2 is simply a reversal of the first pattern, it is still a great way to expand your fingerpicking vocabulary while not having to learn anything brand new. Often times as musicians, the easiest way to expand your performance vocabulary is to alter a technique, concept or musical device that you already know, (such as reversing this fingerpicking pattern, rather than starting to learn something new from scratch).

Practice this pattern and keep in mind how it does sound similar to the first fingerpicking pattern, but that it also has a unique sound that you can use to enhance any song that you’re playing on the guitar.



Fingerpicking Pattern 3).

In the next pattern, you will combine the ascending and descending fingerpicking pattern within the same bar of music. If you are having trouble with the fingering for your right-hand on this exercise, work slowly testing your feel for how to address this combination pattern in your practice.  As the pattern becomes memorized, you'll feel more at ease.

 Pattern 3). click image to enlarge


Fingerpicking Pattern 4).

In the next fingerpicking pattern you will reverse the previous combination pattern so that you begin on the descending version, followed by the ascending pattern over C and C.

As was the case when you reversed pattern one earlier in this lesson, you'll need to keep in mind that even though you are simply reversing an existing pattern, this fingerpicking pattern in example four does have a sound unto it’s own. Once your ears learn to hear this, then you’ll be able to apply it at the right time in your playing and songwriting.

Pattern 4). click image to enlarge




Fingerpicking Pattern 5).

In the last fingerpicking pattern, we will play pattern 3 over C and pattern 4 over G to take the combination concept to a larger progression. Playing one idea over one chord, (such as pattern 3 over C), and another over the next chord, (such as pattern 4 over G), is a great way to expand your fingerpicking chops without having to learn new ideas. All your doing is creating new combinations of previously learned material.

 Pattern 5). click image to enlarge


Once you have worked out these five patterns, over C and G (as well as, other chord progressions that you know or that you come up with), try expanding upon them.

Work at different tempos with a metronome to keep your time steady and study unique combinations of these ascending and descending patterns. Once you begin to experiment further with these combinations, you’ll quickly realize how much mileage you can get out of a few easy fingerpicking patterns when you bring creativity into the mix.