Strumming Success: Mastering the Guitar Starts with the Basics

Beginner guitarist

Every aspiring guitarist embarks on a musical journey filled with dreams of captivating melodies and impressive riffs of songs like the Rich Men North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony (see its guitar chords no capo version here). While it’s natural to want to play like your favorite rock stars right from the start, the path to becoming a proficient guitarist begins with mastering the fundamentals.

In this article, we’ll explore why learning the basics is crucial for anyone looking to excel in playing the guitar.

Building a Strong Foundation

Imagine building a house without a solid foundation – it’s bound to crumble. Similarly, in the world of music, a strong foundation is essential. Learning the basics of guitar playing, such as proper hand placement, finger techniques, and chord progressions, lays the groundwork for your musical journey.

This foundation not only ensures stability but also allows you to build upon your skills as you progress.

Playing with Precision

Guitar playing involves intricate finger movements and precise strumming techniques. By focusing on the basics, you develop the dexterity and muscle memory needed to hit the right notes at the right time. This precision is what distinguishes a skilled guitarist from a novice and is essential for creating beautiful music.

Understanding Music Theory

Music theory may seem daunting, but it’s a vital component of becoming a proficient guitarist. Learning the basics of music theory, including scales, keys, and chord structures, empowers you to understand how music works. This knowledge enables you to improvise, compose, and play with greater confidence and creativity.

Expanding Your Repertoire

While it’s tempting to jump into complex songs, beginners often find themselves overwhelmed. Starting with simple tunes that incorporate basic chords and techniques allows you to gradually expand your repertoire. As you gain confidence and skill, you’ll be better equipped to tackle more challenging pieces.

 

ALSO READ: 10 Ways Musicians Can Promote on Instagram

 

Overcoming Frustration

Learning any new skill comes with its share of frustrations. However, focusing on the basics helps minimize this frustration. It provides a clear, achievable path for beginners to follow, making the learning process more enjoyable and less discouraging.

Enhancing Your Creativity

Creativity blossoms when you have a strong grasp of the fundamentals. By mastering the basics, you free your mind to explore innovative melodies, chord progressions, and songwriting. These creative endeavors are where your unique musical voice emerges.

Playing with Confidence

Confidence is a significant factor in guitar playing. When you have a solid understanding of the basics, you approach your instrument with confidence. This self-assuredness allows you to perform comfortably in front of others and even experiment with your own style.

Conclusion

Learning to play the guitar is a fulfilling journey that rewards dedication and practice. While it’s tempting to rush into complex compositions, remember that true mastery begins with the basics. Building a strong foundation, playing with precision, understanding music theory, and gradually expanding your repertoire are essential steps on this musical path.

Embrace the basics, for they are your stepping stones to becoming a skilled and confident guitarist. So, pick up that guitar, start strumming, and let the fundamentals lead you to musical excellence.

10 Ways Musicians Can Promote on Instagram

Sax player silhouette

 

After less and less happens on Facebook, more and more people are logging on to the social media portal Instagram. Since Instagram now belongs to Facebook, accounts can be linked there and contacts from the friends list can also be transferred. But every beginning is not so easy. How to get followers on Instagram? You can always just go to promote-your-instagram-account and learn how to do it more efficiently. But I did a little research and experimented with my own profiles there. The result is the following helpful tips for musicians on Instagram.

Here are 10 tips for musicians on Instagram.

#1 Be active!

Since it is a social media account, social interaction is very much in the foreground. This means that you should not remain idle, but actively comment and add this “meaningful heart” to other images. Waiting and doing nothing doesn’t bring followers, unless you’re Taylor Swift or something, for example, and the world is already at your feet anyway.

#2 Post pictures or videos regularly

On a profile on which no pictures can be seen, hardly anyone will linger. So post interesting pictures from your musical life. It doesn’t have to be anything private. As a musician, there are plenty of other interesting opportunities in which you can give the interested fan insights. The frequency is up to you. If you’re still active, it’s enough to post once a week. You can also post daily. As you like. However, you can quickly annoy your followers with too much content per day and risk losing followers.

#3 Post content in good quality

Noisy and shaky images that are far too dark are not very well received on Instagram either. High-contrast, sharp and bright, colorful images work best. For the original Musifiziert account, I opted for black and white pictures, because the preview in the blog is also black and white. With profiles that have quite a lot of followers, you can also see a kind of scheme and consistent style. The pictures are coordinated with each other in terms of color and theme.

#4 Post themed pictures

We want to pick up the content of the pictures. As a musician, you should think about what you want to post on your profile. For example, if you have a home studio and produce songs, then pictures are absolutely recommended. Pictures from the family trip to the zoo, on the other hand, do not necessarily fit into this series, as you are more likely to be followed by people who are interested in your studio work. But maybe that’s what your fans find interesting. Find out! The same goes for an excessive number of pictures of the daily lunch. As a food blogger, this is a must, but if you’re a musician, show your followers that you’re also making music and not just eating.

#5 Use meaningful hashtags

To be found on Instagram, the use of relevant hashtags (#) is important. Of course, this only works well if you have not set your profile to private, but everyone can see your pictures. But you want to push your music project anyway, so why hide your content? For example, if you post a picture from the recording session in the studio, you could also use the following hashtags in the image description: #recording #musician #recordingstudio #studio, etc. Of course, you can also use German terms. However, in order to reach a larger audience, English hashtags have proven their worth. I like to combine.

 

ALSO READ: Learning to Play the Piano on the Computer Keyboard

 

#6 Work on connecting with followers

If you start with Instagram, you will often be shocked to see how fast-paced it is and that followers “come and go”. Many who don’t know you and your music or your project yet will find and subscribe to you relatively quickly (if you follow these tips…) without having any special connection to you. – Many follow you in the hope that you will follow back. So if someone subscribes to you with an interesting profile, just follow back. Thus, the chances are quite good that he/she remains on the subscription list. Commenting on each other and liking pictures strengthens the “relationship” even more. Don’t take it personally if everyone doesn’t follow you back or withdraws their subscription.

#7 You can publish music videos

Videos up to a length of 60 seconds can also be uploaded to Instagram. Not necessarily suitable for publishing entire music videos. But you can upload snippets of it. In the description, you can refer to the complete video. Good videos work really great to actually convince with your own music and get “real” fans.

#8 Links in Instagram

On Instagram, you can currently not place links to other websites in individual pictures and videos. However, a single link can be integrated into the profile. There you could link the website, Facebook page, or even the YouTube channel. If you publish a new music video and upload it as a teaser to Instagram, you can store the link in your profile and replace it later when the next video is released. This makes it easier for interested parties to watch the new video. With the reference “Link in bio” in the description of the picture or video, you can easily refer to it. – This is a common practice on Instagram.

#9 Private Messages on Instagram

If you are particularly interested in me and want to learn more, you can also write to me in a private chat. This is a fairly simple way of contacting us. Great collaborations have already been created in this area. Also great for fan loyalty!

#10 Invest time and stay tuned!

To be successful on Instagram, you have to invest quite a lot of time. Once you have built up a certain number of followers, it will be easier for future prospects to follow you as well. Man is such a herd animal, as you can also observe there. This means that especially at the beginning you have to deal intensively with this tool and be active. For this reason, in large companies, there is often an extra person who concentrates exclusively on the maintenance of the Instagram profile or social media work. So don’t give up, stay tuned, and don’t be disappointed if Instagram doesn’t get off to the same rocket as you might be used to elsewhere.

Conclusion: Trying is about studying

So now we have a profile with the first pictures or videos and have the first idea of how it works on Instagram. Now it’s time to test it all. The first friends are already following you and even some fans have discovered your profile there. But how do you get more followers and what do you have to do to get more people to discover you there? I believe you just have to test it out.

The Importance of Music in Video Games

Video gamer with headphones for listening to game music

 

Music is an important aspect of the development of games. Yet this art form actually gets little attention from gamers. For a large majority, the music is often just an afterthought that matters less than the gameplay which is usually covered on portals like the COD homepage. Funnily enough, music plays a bigger role in the final gaming experience than you might expect. Games consist of different types of art, but music is not something that many people mention when they talk about gaming as a whole. That’s why an article about what makes music so important in this medium.

The atmosphere

Horror games like Resident Evil are a good starting point if you want to talk about the added value of music. A poorly lit corridor with some flickering lights here and there is a lot less scary without a nerve-wracking soundtrack. In the programming, they can even ensure that the music slowly softens up to a jumpscare. To follow it up with a rock-hard sound effect at the right time. This literally puts your heart in your throat.

In addition to horror games, music is at least as important in an adventure game. Take The Legend of Zelda for example, every fan recognizes the music on Hyrule Field at the first notes. It probably brings out a strong nostalgic feeling in most cases. The full experience of games depends on the music in the background. Each game, therefore, requires a different approach. Devil May Cry would have much less impact if you swap Metal for the calming music from Animal Crossing.

Memorable boss, a memorable soundtrack

Every boss that is burned on your retina naturally has an equally memorable soundtrack. Mt. Gulg from Final Fantasy 7 and Grandma (destruction) from NieR: Automata are a few good examples of this. Mt. Gulg, sephiroth’s soundtrack, still gives most fans a bad feeling to this day. Nobuo Uematsu has also done his exceptional best for that because the whole point of meeting Sephiroth is that it is bad. The intensity of the first notes was therefore very important for the music because it had to be immediately clear that this was not going to be a pleasant experience.

 

ALSO READ: Learning to Play the Piano on the Computer Keyboard

 

Rhythm games

It would be too easy to call Guitar Hero or Just Dance now because it goes without saying that in those games the music is important. That’s why we’re going to talk about Crypt of the Necrodancer, a Rhythm game where every action is meant to happen in rhythm. Enemies move in rhythm from box to box and if the player anticipates this well then the gameplay is very satisfying. Of course, this almost goes without saying when you surrender yourself to the flow of the music.

Technical facts

In addition to composing pieces of music, there is also a lot of technical work involved in creating soundtracks for video games. When the music is ready, it still has to be processed in the code of the software without this having any undesirable effects. Yes, the music in a game can also cause glitches, which is why adding music requires a lot of expertise. Of course, every gamer knows how much irritation glitches can cause. In addition, it is also difficult to write a piece of music that sounds good while it depends to a large extent on the movements of players in the world.

Finally

If there’s one thing that should be clear from this article, it’s the amount of expertise needed to compose for games. Not only writing the music but also applying the music in games still has some complicated challenges for the developer and the composer. Music is at least as important as good acting for emotional scenes. Boss fights are obviously very impressive in their own right but have much more impact when an orchestra adds epic music to them. Games are a list of all forms of art and that makes music indispensable in the gaming industry.

Learning to Play the Piano on the Computer Keyboard

Piano

 

Play the piano online – without download, without software or app! To learn the first notes on the keyboard that you just lube switch, a virtual piano is sufficient. First of all, it’s about getting a feel for the pitches and finding out what the notes are called and where you can find them on the piano keyboard.

Maybe you’re wondering if playing the piano could be something for you. Our virtual piano can help you. It is simple and you can play it with the mouse or with the QWERTZ method via the computer keyboard. It’s all very simple and actually self-explanatory. Of course, you can’t compare a virtual piano with a real keyboard. Because to have the feel of a piano, you need a real piano or an electric piano.

Here it should first be about: What are the tones called, how do they sound and where can you find them on the piano keyboard? To find out, you can at least virtually hit the keys here. You can also find more tips on freeware, piano apps, piano schools, and piano courses.

Virtual piano – the functions briefly explained

As I said – everything is very simple! Still, there are a few features that might be worth explaining.

  • Play individual tones: First, you can click on the sounds with the mouse or use your computer keyboard. On the keys, you can see what the sounds are called and which keys on the computer keyboard are associated with them.
  • Play chords: The computer mouse is too narrow-band to input a tool to play chords. Therefore, there is the possibility to mark notes and then strike them as a chord. To do this, click on “Mark”, then click on the sounds. Now click on “Play” and the marked chord sounds. You can also use the space bar on the computer keyboard (unfortunately does not work with Apple’s Safari browser).
  • Increase sound range: The virtual piano has more tones than you can see at first glance. Use the scroll function to make the other sounds playable!

Play piano online – without downloading or app

The virtual piano from PIANOO.de basically works immediately in almost all browser versions. It only behaves slightly differently if you use the Internet browser Safari on macOS or iOS. Here, the keys are displayed dark when the page is loaded for the first time.

Just click on the “Load Virtual Piano” button. After a short moment – the browser then downloads the sound data – our virtual piano is ready for you to play.

The virtual piano works best in the Google Chrome browser.

Play piano online via mobile devices

The virtual piano also works on mobile devices. However, you should turn your smartphone or tablet into landscape format for the display of the complete keyboard. The keyboard adapts automatically. Again, you can play the entire range by moving the keyboard to the right or left with the scroll function.

 

ALSO READ: How Music Improves Productivity?

 

Free Piano Apps

Piano apps are a great way to learn the first notes on the piano. Very easy to use is the app Paglano. The free version is somewhat limited in functionality but offers everything you need: A virtual keyboard and a piano sound.

The beauty of Paglano: Practice lessons help to learn the notes on the piano keyboard and also the notes. By in-app purchase, you can then extend the lessons to other keys. But you get the basic functionality from the free version.

Another recommended app is Simply Piano. The app for iOS and Android is very easy to use. There are also built-in lessons to get you started.

Simply Piano is, in a broader sense, a learning app with an extensive range of courses for learning songs. Above all, however, it’s about having fun playing the piano, and Simply Piano is also free to get a taste of it.

Beginner electric piano for a small budget

It doesn’t have to be something so expensive… Absolutely right! However, this does not mean sacrificing good quality. If you want to buy your first electric piano, then you should put the important features of a piano in the foreground: A hammer mechanism keyboard and a beautiful piano sound should be at least present.

You get the best quality with the electric pianos of the brand manufacturers. Surely you also need accessories such as headphones and piano stools to get started – here we have put together inexpensive electric piano bundles that include everything at a reasonable package price.

Time Signatures, Bars and Barlines

𐌢