Guitar Mistakes - 3 Mistakes Made By Beginner Guitar Players

There are three mistakes that beginning guitar players make that totally destroys their ability for advancing quickly in the mastery of their instrument. If they can avoid these three mistakes, they will see a big changes in how fast they progress as a guitar player.

The three big mistakes are:

Not practicing every day.Not knowing what to practice.Not having a good teacher or mentor to guide the way.

1. Not practicing the guitar every day is a big mistake that many beginning guitar players make. Many new guitar players think that they need to practice for one hour every day. That is not true. Of course, it would be great if they could practice one hour each and every day, but in reality, the time is just not available. Most peoples' lives are just too busy to have that much free time to dedicate to one activity. A more practical approach is for them to find a couple of fifteen minutes blocks of time throughout the day when they can practice. Perhaps while waiting for the dryer to finish drying the clothes, there might be a fifteen minute chunk of time. While cooking dinner, waiting for the pasta water to boil, there's another chunk of time. Here's a good time waster, commercials while watching TV. Use that time to practice guitar. Even better, get rid of the TV and practice guitar. There really is a lot of chunks of time that can be carved out of the daily schedule for some guitar practice. To be successful at this approach though the new guitarist must use some planning and forethought.

Leave the guitar out and readily accessible.Have an idea of what to practice.

2. Not knowing what to practice. The new guitar player needs to know what the material is to practice when they pick up the guitar. Are they working on certain scale fingerings? Are they working on rhythm guitar and different chord changes? Are they working on various blues licks, or a certain song? Not knowing what to practice leads to endless "noodling" on the guitar, and no real practical advancement.

3. The guitar is a hard instrument to play. There are a bunch of technical things about the guitar and music to be learned, and a lot of practical things to be learned that are best learned by being physically shown what to do, and hearing the results. That is where a good teacher becomes invaluable to the guitar student. Whether the teacher is a "live" instructor teaching through some type of formal in-person lessons, a simple DVD video lesson package, or an internet subscription course, a good teacher is necessary for quick advancement on the guitar.

If the new guitar player can avoid these three mistakes, they should be able to progress rapidly and be playing the guitar in a short period of time.

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Common Mistakes Made When Playing the Djembe Drum

Hand drums have become extremely popular over the last few years, both for use on stage and in informal settings like drum circles. The djembe drum has proven itself to be incredibly versatile in both scenarios. A few common mistakes exist that players often make when playing this or any other type of hand drum.

The djembe drum is a very good choice for players looking for a single drum to cover many different sounds. Many different styles of djembe drums are available to appeal different player's preferences. Some drums have synthetic heads and others have natural-skin heads. Each type of head has its own challenge. Synthetic head can get tuned too tight, causing a lot of "ring" and overtones that you don't want. With a natural head, the tones tend to be more "organic" and the drum produces fewer overtones. If the head gets over-tensioned, it can be tricky to down-tune it. The easiest way to avoid this is to tune the synthetic head a bit at a time and checking the tone as you go.

Another misconception is that as the drummer you should play louder, or that the bigger drums should be played louder. This is a common problem, but it isn't very considerate. If you go to a drum circle with a few people playing djembe drums you will probably notice all of the players pounding away and the volume steadily increasing. Djembe drums are capable of being very loud, but the beauty of the djembe is that you don't have to be the loudest to be heard.

Another issue that goes hand-in-hand with this problem is that players have a tendency to speed up as they play louder. The best way to avoid these two issues is to simply use your ears. If you can't hear the players around you, then you are probably too loud. Some people find it very helpful to close their eyes for better focus; after all, the drum won't go anywhere.

The djembe is a great drum, and it is easy to play, even for a beginner. However, just because it is easy to play doesn't mean that the basics should be ignored. Many casual players have a good time just pounding away without knowing how to coax the variety of sounds that are possible out of the drum, while other players take the time to learn the basics of where the tones are located and how to bring them out of the djembe. Knowing how to create the three basic tones on the djembe drum will allow you to play it like a symphony.

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