Learning the guitar. It aint what you do it's...

The first thing I tell any pupil of mine as they embark upon the daunting task of learning to play the guitar is, "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it." Pretty self explanatory really! Yes? No? It simply means to a pupil that if you can string a couple of simple things together and play them in time it's gonna sound great.

I love the smile of satisfaction on a student's face when the just start grooving away repeatedly playing the same 3 note lick they just learned. I tell them, it's all well and good knowing every chord and scale in the book but if you can't play any of it in time, you may as well forget it!!

The first thing to master is counting to 4 in a steady groove. If you can do this and play your simple 3 chord trick alongside your count then you will always rock, no matter how limited your arsenal of chords and scales.