Introduction: The Twelve points of Focus, and the Twelve Common Missteps

My personal Achilles heel is practice. I guess it’s my personal battle with attention deficient disorder. I believe most Americans suffer from ADD…because we want everything, but don’t want to work for it. There I said it!

I want to play like Jimi Hendrix, but I don’t want to put in my dues. In reality we know there are no short cuts, including signing a pact with the devil. During my short time playing guitar, I’ve adopted the Zen Guitar approach to practice from the book Zen Guitar by Phillip Toshio Sudo.

You can develop your own training regimen, or use something on the Internet. You could emulate the style of your favorite artist, or hire a personal trainer. The point is that your training regimen should be in the spirit of what you want to play on your guitar. Whatever regimen you choose, attempt to incorporate the twelve points of focus. If you can maintain the twelve points of focus, and stay away from the twelve missteps; you are doing all you can. In later blogs I will elaborate on each point of focus, and misstep from my personal experience, and tips from Sudo.

The Twelve points of Focus:

1. Spirit

2. Rhythm

3. Technique

4. Feel

5. Perfection

6. Mistakes

7. Stages and Plateaus

8. Discipline

9. Limits

10. Follow-Through

11. Taste

12. Collaboration

The Twelve Common Missteps:

1. Self-Doubt

2. Instant Gratification

3. Ego

4. Half-heartedness

5. Speed

6. Competition

7. Obsession

8. Mishandled Criticism

9. Failure to adjust

10. Loss of focus

11. Over thinking

12. Over earnestness

Preparing to Play Guitar

Preparation to play actually begins before you pick up your guitar. In other words the intent to play comes first. Sometimes my intent is just to noodle around to kill time, or to work on that chord progression that I just can’t seem get right. I always try to be mindful of why I picked up my guitar.

Don’t just grab your instrument, pick it up with care, with purpose…"I’m going to play some chords and focus on my fingering.” Sometimes before I play I simply take a moment to look at it.

Get in tune with your instrument by strumming it first to hear if the instrument is in tune. I like doing this because to me I feel like I’m developing my ear...which is something I know I need to improve. If I hear something funny I’ll tune my instrument.

Getting in tune with your instrument also means getting in a comfortable position, and feeling comfortable holding the instrument. I always wash my hands before playing, because it just feels better to me, plus washing my hands puts me in the mind set of “I'm gonna play my guitar.”

Play your guitar with feeling. I’m talking about playing a note with feeling and intention. The note will ring clear and loud. I’ve been struggling with barre chords, and was becoming frustrated. What has been working for me is to just feel comfortable holding the barre, and slowly strumming and listening to the sound. I make the finger adjustments until the notes ring true. It’s a slow process, but I feel my hands are getting stronger, and I’m becoming more confident playing barre chords.

Feeling also comes by playing without thinking. Sometimes I’ll play with my eyes closed, or looking away from the fret board. I let my fingers go to where they belong…sometimes they make it there sometimes they don’t. I believe that I accomplish a couple of things by doing this. My ear hears the notes better because my eyes are not “in the way.” I also feel I’m testing my muscle memory, by letting my fingers go. After the exercise, I go back and focus on what I was having trouble with.

Pickup, tune and play is what I keep in mind before I play my guitar.

Les Paul, an American Innovator (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)

Les Paul passed away on August 13, 2009 at 94 years old. Many of us know Les Paul as the name on a famous guitar, but Les Paul was much more than that…he is widely considered to be the inventor of the guitar that paved the way for rock 'n' roll.

It all started when Paul became dissatisfied with acoustic guitars. Paul started experimenting with mounting various microphones inside the body of acoustic guitars. Paul’s acoustic electric prototypes had problems with feedback. In 1939, Paul created what is famously known as “The Log.” “The log” was a 4X4 piece of lumber with a bridge, guitar neck, and a pickup attached. The solid body and pickup eliminated feedback problems and created greater sustain than any of his acoustic prototypes.

Paul approached Gibson with his electric guitar design, but Gibson did not show any interest. When Fender produced their electric guitar, Gibson then signed an exclusive agreement with Paul introducing the “Les Paul standard.” The interesting thing about the contract was that Paul could only be seen playing his Gibson guitar.

Paul was also known as a guitar virtuoso in his own right. Paul’s playing style, in particular his timing, twills; chord voicings all had a profound influence on future guitarists. Paul was so dedicated to playing the guitar that after a car accident damaged his right arm, Paul asked the doctor to set his arm at a 90 degree angle so he could cradle and strum the guitar.

Les Paul was a recording star. Paul had a string of hits in the late 1940s with wife Mary Ford including Mockin’ Bird Hill" (#3, 1951), "How High the Moon" (#1, 1951), "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (#3, 1951), and "Vaya Con Dios" (#1, 1953). These recordings were among the earliest multitracked pop songs. Paul also had some instrumental hits on his own: "Nola" (#9, 1950), "Whispering" (#7, 1951), "Tiger Rag" (#6, 1952), and "Meet Mister Callaghan" (#5, 1952).

Besides being a guitar virtuoso, and recording star, Paul is also credited with creating multitrack-recording, overdubbing, tape delay, and phasing effects. Paul’s innovations revolutionized the recording industry.

There is little doubt about the profound influence Les Paul had on the evolution of rock n Roll.

Here are some of the famous artists known for playing Les Paul’s guitar:

Slash: Guns N’ Roses’ former guitarist
Jimmy Page: Led Zeppelin
Randy Rhoads: Guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne
Zakk Wylde: Guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne
Ace Frehley: Guitarist for KISS
Duane Allman: The Allman Brothers
Eric Clapton: Clapton experimented with different styles of guitars throughout his four-decade-long career, his time with the Yardbirds were defined by his use of the Les Paul.
Pete Townshend: The Who
Bob Marley: Bob Marley and the Wailers

Billie Joe Armstrong: Green Day

Start Playing Guitar

Whenever I start working on a song, I immediately try to forget everything, to empty my hands and head of anything that may be hanging over from another song or album. I try to approach it like "This is the first time I've ever played a guitar. What am I going to do?
The Edge, U2

I was stuck in a rut. I was playing the same old stuff, with the same old feeling. I was getting frustrated at the pace of my guitar playing growth. I would pick up my acoustic, mess around a little, and then put it back in the corner. I had no direction, I couldn’t focus, and boredom was creeping in. Have you ever felt his way before?

During this period, I was reading a lot of Zen philosophy on the Internet. I instantly connected with many of the Zen teachings; I needed to learn more. I headed out to the book store and found a great book; Zen guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo.

The teachings in Zen Guitar are truly inspirational to me; In fact so inspirational that I created this blog. To be honest I have no Idea where this blog will lead me. My only hope is that it will provide some clarity in my personal life…and to those that read along.

So here I was stuck in a rut with my guitar playing and quite frankly with life in general. The Guitar Zen gave me fresh perspective on things…the beginner’s mind. The lesson I learned, is to drop all preconceived ideas about playing guitar and approach playing like it’s the first time.

I remembered the excitement, and joy of just playing. I thought back to when I started learning, and how I would pick things up like a sponge. More importantly I started looking at everything like it was the first time. I looked at my wife differently, my job differently, everything.

Dropping preconceptions really opened my mind to new learning. The cool thing is that I simply go in with the mindset of what will I learn today? ...and let it happen... I just receive the lesson.

How to Play Guitar Tabs

I picked up my guitar and wanted to play a song. I didn’t know how to read music (I still don’t), most guitarists don’t. With guitar tabs, I was able to learn songs without having to learn to read sheet music…and that’s a beautiful thing.

Basically a guitar tab is a visual representation of the guitar with information on where and how to play the notes on the strings.

Here is what a blank tab looks like:
e ---------------------------
B ---------------------------
G ---------------------------
D ---------------------------
A ---------------------------
E ---------------------------

Each line on the tab corresponds to a string on the guitar. The bottom string on the tab, Low E, corresponds to the top string, or the thickest string on your guitar. While the top string on the tab represents the bottom string or the thinnest string on your guitar.

The letters represent the string notes. So the string notes on a standard tuned six string guitar is E, A, D, G, B, e. There are several different ways to tune your guitar, and how those strings are tuned for a particular song, will be represented in the tab.

Here is a common tuning called dropped D tuning:
e ---------------------------
B ---------------------------
G ---------------------------
D ---------------------------
A ---------------------------
D ---------------------------

Notice how the E sting is now (dropped down) tuned to D.

Here comes the fun part. This is an easy tab for the opening of the Mission Impossible theme:
e ---------------------------
B ---------------------------
G ---------------------------
D ---------------------------
A -------1--3----------------
E -3--3----------3--3--1--2

The numbers on the tab correspond to where we press our fingers on the string frets. Reading from left to right, we’ll play the third fret on the top string (E string) twice. Then we switch to the string just below the E string (A String) and play the first fret and then play the third fret. We go back up to the E string and play the third fret twice, then play the first fret and finally we play the second fret.

One problem with tabs is that the timing or rhythm of song is lost. If you never heard the intro to Mission Impossible, and played this tab, you would be playing the correct notes in the correct order, but the rhythm would be wrong. When you are learning a tab, you must have the song ready for listening so that you can pick up the rhythm.

Another problem with tabs is that they usually don't tell us which fingers to use. So the fun part is to figure out the best way to approach the fingering of the notes.

Tabs have additional notation that tells us how to play certain notes.
Here are some common tab notations for bends, slides, hammer ons, pull offs, and vibrato. You will definitely see these notations as you are learning to play your favorite songs from tabs.

Bends:
Bending a note is simply pushing the string up towards the sky or down towards the floor in order to change the pitch of the note. In this tab we play the G string, third fret and then bend the note until it sounds like note played on the fourth fret.
e --------------------------
B --------------------------
G --------3b4-------------
D --------------------------
A --------------------------
E ---------------------------

Slides:
Sliding a note is when we play a note and while keeping the note pressed (fretted), we slide our finger to a different fret. In this case we fret the G string third fret, and then slide our finger to the seventh fret.
e --------------------------
B --------------------------
G --------3/7-------------
D --------------------------
A --------------------------
E ---------------------------

Hammer Ons:
A hammer on is when we play a note and while the note is still ringing, another finger hammers down on the next note. Here we play the G string third fret with the index finger, and then we hammer down on the fifth fret with our ring finger.
e --------------------------
B --------------------------
G --------3h5-------------
D --------------------------
A --------------------------
E ---------------------------

Pull Offs:
A pull off is the opposite of a hammer on. The index finger is on the G string third fret, we then play the G string fifth fret with the ring finger, we then pull the ring finger off the G string, basically plucking the string again causing the note at the index finger to ring.

Another way to explain it is to quickly slide your ring finger off the string in a downwards motion (this keeps the string vibrating) and the pitch will change quickly from 5 to 3.
e --------------------------
B --------------------------
G --------3p5-------------
D --------------------------
A --------------------------
E ---------------------------

Vibrato:
Vibrato is when we quickly move the fretted finger in an up and down motion causing the string to vibrate quickly causing a pleasing oscillating sound. In this case we play the G string third fret, and quickly vibrate the string.
e --------------------------
B --------------------------
G --------3~-------------
D --------------------------
A --------------------------
E ---------------------------

One of my favorite sites to go to for free tabs is
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
Almost all of the tabs are written and submitted by fans of a song, or a band. I also love that other people rate the tabs for accuracy. The accuracy rating comes in handy when you want to play a popular song and there are multiple tabs of the song....just print the highest rated version and start jamming.

I wish I knew about tabs when I first picked up a guitar; it would have saved me a ton of time and frustration.

It's In My Blood

I guess for me it all started when I was about nine years old. At the time I knew very little about my father. I knew he and mom divorced when I was about three years old, and pops had a family in Washington D.C. Mom rarely spoke about my father…and pops never called.

One day I found a cool picture of pops with a beautiful Gibson Les Paul Guitar. I showed mom the picture, and with a smile she said “Oh your dad use to play in a blues band, that’s how we met.” Mom went on to tell me about how he was known as “Rock” and how she and her girlfriends would go see his band play every Friday night. I stared at that picture thinking, “This is in my blood.” I was the son of a musician.

I asked mom for a guitar on my tenth birthday. I had no idea what I was doing with that guitar. I would strum the strings, and press on the frets, but nothing that came out sounded like any music I knew. I quickly became bored with the instrument. I guess that’s what ten year olds do; they get bored and move onto something else. I hope mom didn’t pay too much for that guitar because eventually that guitar became a broken piece of junk.

In the eleventh grade I decided to take another stab at playing guitar. I vowed this time would be different. I would finally get the formal training I didn’t get before. There was one problem, I needed a guitar! Of course mom was not going to spend another dime on a guitar; and I didn’t blame her.

My classmate Dan offered me the use of his old guitar. The only problem with Dan’s guitar was the neck was bent. I graciously accepted the guitar thinking “a little bend in neck ain’t gonna stop me.” Playing that guitar was the most painful experience. The neck bend was so extreme that it was very difficult, and painful to fret the strings. I barely passed the course, and I didn’t touch a guitar for the next twenty three years…but I still carried the dream of playing in my heart.

My daughter wanted a set of drums for Christmas. I was excited when I found a decent, inexpensive set of electronic drums for Chanel. I thought “I could buy a bass guitar and Chanel and I could jam.” Chanel would be learning the drums and I would be learning the bass. Well I purchased a Fender Squire Bass, a cheap amp, and some instruction books.

Chanel probably played the drums for about six months before she became bored and moved onto something more interesting. I understood…that’s what kids do. I, on the other hand, never stopped playing. That was four years ago.

I’ll always play guitar “It’s in my blood.”