My typical practice day (Monday thru Friday) begins at about 6:00PM after a full day of work at the office. I am in the construction business; I’m the President of a Commercial & Residential based material supply company that also provides the labor for the installation of our products on the projects that we have with our customers. So as you can imagine, when I get home, I am fried from a long day of dealing with the Metro DC Contractors, Architects, etc.. I can’t wait to strap on one of my guitars and play the night away.
Believe it or not, I typically practice in our bedroom because currently the temperature in the music studio has been just too hot which makes it far too uncomfortable to practice in. I happen to sweat a lot so that really makes it worse because the strings start to get rough and your licks just don’t sound the same, nor do they play the same after a while. Our bedroom is much cooler because we have a window air-conditioner unit that keeps our room at a perfect temperature from April thru October every year.
The first thing I do to warm-up are some basic scales in ‘G’ major, up and down the neck. I happen to like the G major scale so I use it a lot to warm up with. That usually lasts about 15 – 20 minutes before I start working on whatever I happen to be studying that specific day of the week. I try to stick with the same topic for at least one week at a time before I change. I happen to get bored rather quickly so I need to constantly be changing my lesson plan to accommodate my idiosyncrasies. For instance, this past week I have been concentrating on shredding exercises to work on the speed of my left hand on the neck. I will finish the week off with that same exercise then change to a more jazzy style lesson plan next week.
I know it sounds rather unorthodox, but at this point in my music career, I want to learn as much as I can about as many different styles as I can as quickly as I can and that method seems to work best for me. It adapts well to my issue of quickly getting bored when working on the same method too long, it allows me to be creative with my lesson plan and incorporate bits and pieces from many professional guitarist's own lesson plans and so on. One of the best guitar lesson plans I’ve ever seen or worked with is the Guy’s Grids Method.
‘book structure’:
The Guy's Grids ‘book structure’ is a 228-page, 11" x 17" book divided into 4 major tabbed sections — Open Chord Grids, Moveable Chord Grids, Open Chord Index, and Moveable Chord Index. Open Chords Grids are sorted in two steps: Step 1 | Step 2 Open chords found higher up on the neck than those traditionally used are presented as bonus sets. Moveable Chord Grids are sorted in two steps: Step 1 | Step 2. (mouse over to view highlights)
‘grid structure’:
All of the grid pages have the same column and row design. Mouse over the top and left headers to display explanatory text.
‘chord format’:
The chord forms in this book conform generally to those found in other chord books, with certain enhancements. The vertical lines represent the strings on the guitar, with the thickest string shown to the far left and the thinnest string to the far right. The horizontal lines represent the frets on the guitar neck, these frets being numbered along the left side of the chord form.
The black circles and boxes are fingering symbols, which depict the fingering of the chord form. A boxed number indicates that the fretted note is the root, while a circled number indicates that the fretted note is a note other than the root. The particular fingering indicated is not mandatory. Indeed, different fingering may be advantageous, depending upon the other chord forms preceding and/or following the subject chord form. So the guitarist must exercise his or her own judgment in this regard.
Strings that are played while not fretted are commonly called “open strings” and are designated by the “Ο” symbol above the string. Strings that are not played or are muted are designated by the “X” symbol above the string.
When two strings are shown fretted by the same finger and connected by a straight or curved black line, that finger is laid down as a barre — either fretting (straight line) or fretting and/or muting (curved line) the strings between the finger symbols. The chord tone being played on a given string is shown below that string. The major scale degree corresponding to that chord tone is shown above the string. “NR” in the upper left corner of the chord form means “no root” – i.e., the chord form is lacking the root note.
Not all chord forms are of equal value. Indeed, some are more valuable and some are less valuable – either based on the sound quality or the ease of playing. This book categorizes chord forms into three categories of usefulness, as discussed below.
Anchor Chords
At the front of the book is a listing of the most essential guitar chord forms, which are referred to as “Anchor Chords." The beginning guitarist should start with this section and should master the Root-in-Bass Anchor Chord forms through rote memorization. Anchor Chords are visually distinguished throughout the book by a gold shading.
Value Chords
Other highly valuable chord forms not included in the Anchor Chords section are visually distinguished throughout the book by a maroon shading. Value Chords are extremely useful chord forms that intermediate and advanced students of the guitar should strive to master and “own” as part of their playing repertoire.
Other Chords
Finally, the chord forms without any shadow are generally less useful chord forms, and are included primarily to add context for the Anchor Chords and Value Chords.
There are many other lesson plans available to us guitarist’s but I do believe that this one is a MUST for all levels of students. I belong to Larry Carlton’s, True Fire.com website that has many tremendous guitar training videos, CD’s and books with tablature for those of you who are interested in Jazz, Rock, Blues, Fusion, etc. check it out when you have the time. ( www.truefire.com )
The key is to keep playing and keep those fingers moving each and every day. I hope this helped you out a little and if you have any ideas or suggestions for me and others like us, let me know and I’ll write them in a follow-up post and mention your name so you get the credit. Have a wonderful weekend, please remember to hug those kids of yours. They are GOD’s blessings to all of us.
Bob
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