Hello there, 

 

     I’m GuitarCorey and welcome to my Blog. I am a professional musician, performing for over 30 years. I have a degree in Classical Guitar and I have also been teaching for over 25 years. In all these years of teaching, instructing and guiding my students to reach their musical goals, I have come across many common stumbling blocks that many people have trouble with. My goal here is to address them and help you all reach YOUR musical goal!

     My first blog post is going to address a simple way of conquering a new concept.  This is applicable to anything that we are trying learn, whether it’s musical or anything else.

     Step 1 What do you want achieve?  For example, learn a new chord progession or sequence.  Or perhaps you just want to be a little better at something specific.

     Step 2 Break it down into its smallest components.  If there are 3 chords in the progession, start with the 1st and then the 2nd.  If you can’t get through these comfortably, the third chord is going to be a nightmare!!!

Practice as slowly as necessary to get it right!  If there are still errors, you are going too fast!!!  Be honest with yourself: if it’s not working, it’s probably the way you are practicing.  We have all heard the saying “we are what we eat”.  Realistically I’m not a Cheesesteak, but if I practice with mistakes, my efforts will reflect that.  (With that being said, a Cheesesteak would be so awesome right now!!!) Sorry, I’m back. 

     Step 3 After you start to see some progress with the first 2 chords, feel free to move on to the second and third chord and follow the same process.  It’s Ok to practice a few different ideas within the same practice session.  Our attention spans will only last for so long before we start getting bored and having negative results, so practicing  more than one idea helps to keep us fresh and focused.

     Step 4  Don’t forget to continue this concept with the third chord and then back to the first chord.  This will not only complete the chord sequence, it will also train your hands and your ears to play and hear more musically and not just feel like a tedious exercise.  Besides, almost all music has repeats in them anyway.

     When most of us try to achieve something that is new or difficult for us, it’s usually because we are trying to do too much too soon.  By breaking things down into smaller sections, it makes things not only easier to understand, but easier to see our progress.  In turn, we will have more of a sense of satisfaction and will have the tendency to follow through with other tasks.  This does not necessarily mean that it is going to be easy.  However, I have seen first hand with many of my students, that this is a very easy and logical way to approach a new task.  A little quality progress will have a more positive result, than practicing quickly and stumbling and ending up with sloppy and frustrating results.

In closing, with my blog I’m hoping to help people get inspired and excited about whatever goals they’re trying to achieve in their lives.

Please feel free to share this blog post with anyone that you feel it might help or encourage and please let me know if there any topics in the future that you would like me to address.

     Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog.

All the best, and please feel free to contact me with any questions or about lessons.

 

     P.S.  I’m heading out to get a Cheesesteak!