Guitar Lesson of The Day

Many guitar players out there are self taught, most infact. Some decide at some point to get lessons to improve their playing while others are totally against the idea of taking lessons for fear they are going to be conformed into playing or sounding like their teacher, or others who fear that once they gain some knowledge of musical theory they will find themselves restricted to only thinking inside the box.

Im a self taught player for the most part, but have taken a few lessons here and there, as well as watched plenty of lesson DVDs from everyone to unknowns to famous guitarists such as John Petrucci and Eric Johnson. You will only find yourself being restricted if you let yourself be, you can learn and gain influence in many different ways from many different players and styles. Open your mind and take it all in.

Now for my lesson of the day. Its actually something that most guitarists and guitar instructors overlook, but is a very important part of guitar playing if you want to play at your best or advance at a faster pace. Its simple.... its called STRETCHES!!!!! Im going to give you a few basic stretches you can/should do before playing your guitar. I also do them throughout the day just to keep loose.

First... open your right hand flat, then place your left hand on top of it, in the other direction, so that your finger tips are by your thumb. Then push your fingers back, reversing the direction they go when bending the hand. Only push so that your feel a stretch, you dont want to hurt yourself. Hold the stretch 10 seconds and let go.

Second stretch...... make a fist with your right hand and make sure the top of your hand is facing down. Now with the left hand wrap your palm around the fist and push your clenched fist hand down toward the inside of your fore arm. You will feel the outside of the wrist stretch.. hold 10 seconds...

do this with EACH hand and a few times each... also message the fingers... fingertips... hands and wrist to get blood flowing. This is a great pre warm up.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson... keep rockin!!!