Learning to play

Music has always been a big part of my life, 3 years ago I decided to make that an even bigger part and picked up my first electric guitar. Something I always wanted to do ever since I was a little kid.

It is quite an ordeal to start learning something totally new with such a learning curve. Playing guitar requires you to physically as well as mentally train yourself, it takes a lot of practice and dedication but the pay off is very rewarding. To play a song you know and love is just fun and it's great outlet too.

I currently play on a PRS Tremonti SE guitar with a VOX AD30VT Valvetronix as an amplifier and three pedals (VOX VSF2 Footswitch, BOSS Blues Driver BD-2 and a BOSS Chromatic Tuner TU-2).

Time for some handy information when you start to learn playing the guitar (and some credit where credit is due). You might choose to learn by just playing, others get a teacher to help them out, you could get help online or even jump straight into it and start a band (playing in a band is on my Todo list). All of these can work out fine. I got a teacher in the city center of Rotterdam. His name is Koos Dekker and has been my teacher for the last 3 years at the Gitaarschool Rotterdam, which he runs with Rob Nobel just behind the central station. However I do not limit myself to only the 30 minutes a week of teaching I get there, I also use the internet which is a vast source of information on any subject. This might be a bit overwhelming and it sometimes hard to find a good resource. Video is a great visual tool and a lot of teacher use this method to give lessons via the web. One of them is Justin Sandercoe. Originally from Tasmania, Australia but has been based in London, England since 1996. He's a guitarist, songwriter, performer, producer and teacher. Recently Justin also made his album debut "Small Town Eyes". But the most important part about him is that he has a great totally free website with lots and lots of videos and other instructional information about learning to play the guitar. You can find this little gem of the web at justinguitar.com.

To rap this little post up I want to share with you a little guitar hack, it is widely known but another mention of it can't hurt. If you don't want to pay a bundle of money for guitar strap locks you can resort to a very easy solution. All you will need is 2 bottles of Grolsch with a brace (beugel in Dutch) or rather the two red gaskets that are on the braces. Just get them off and slip them on the guitar strap holder after you put your guitar strap on them. For some images, check here.