When a musician plays on stage, the people are moved by the music. There are those who wish to do the same but the truth is, not everybody is talented in playing a musical instrument. It takes talent and skill in learning how to play an acoustic guitar.

Like anything that requires a learning curve, the guitar requires discipline and an endless resource of enthusiasm. But people can all too easily fall into a defeatist attitude when they hit hurdles. It gets hard, it’s frustrating when you can’t coordinate, and concentration, people push themselves but it only ends up at breaking point where they throw down the axe and say “right that’s it, I give up!”. The Jamorama Learning Kit (Jamorama) is packed full of games and e-books to take you through the learning process step by step, making fast learning for reading and transcribing music. The kit includes GuitEarIt! – a program designed to help you work a song out by ear, and to hone and tune your ear for music; Guitar Tuner Pro and How To Tune Your Guitar; JaydeMusica Pro; The Jamorama Metronome; and Advanced Learning Techniques for Guitar. Free online consultation is available for customers, and there is also a forum where students can discuss specific difficulties. Jamorama is 100% fail-safe, scam-free and risk-free program with only your playing in mind.(Jamorama Feedback).

Here are few essential tips that I learnt:

One should learn how to read the notes before going any further. Students will soon realize that putting the finger on one string sounds different when this is placed on another. This is similar to touch typing in the computer’s keyboard so the student should be able to know which string matches the one on the musical book. The instructor can tell later what was wrong or this can be recorded and played back for corrections to be made later on.

Practice Short Sections: One of the worst things you can do is just play the song over and over. Most players will find that there is about seventy-five percent of the song that is not too hard and about twenty-five percent that trips them up. So, work on the hard parts. Isolate the sections that are giving you problems and work them slowly. If you only have twenty minutes to play then why spend fifteen minutes playing the parts that are easy. That won’t help you improve. Unfortunately, most of us like to do things that are fun. Working on the hard parts is usually frustrating and feels a bit like work. We’d rather just play the parts that we can do well. I recommend that you take the middle way. Spend a bit of your time doing some serious work on the difficult sections then forget it and just have fun.

Practice Each Hand Separately: You might find it beneficial to try practicing each hand separately. In other words, work on the strumming hand and then work on the fret keys.

Good Posture: When seated there are two ways to hold the guitar. From the right-handed point of view (no offense to the lefties), place your guitar on the right leg with a slight upward angle to the neck Letting the neck point down creates stress on the tendons and ligaments in your left (fretting) hand. The guitar shouldn’t be flat against your body; angle it roughly 30°-45°. This allows your left hand to rise straight from your side to the first fret position without twisting your arm and shoulder, which creates muscle tension. Have your right leg higher than your left (cross your legs, etc.) so that your left arm and left leg don’t touch. You can also place the guitar on your left leg, classical-style. The guitar neck will be at a sharp angle that is favorable to playing. You may want to raise your left leg.

Good Luck!

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