Lesson Zero - Learn in less than 5 minutes what it takes to play guitar (or any other instrument) and become a better musician

Hi Guys, this is first article on my new guitar blog. I was thinking how to organize so huge challenge like learning and mastering an instrument - guitar - in my case, and learning music in general.

Since the thing is so wide let's slit it to smaller pieces that we can digest one by one. That's why I divide the subject of learning the instrument in 3 parts:

1. Physical skills - what you do with your body: muscles, bones, hands,fingers.  This is technique of playing and is very important on any instrument. 
2. Aural skills - what you hear and how you hear sounds. Ability to know what is going on in the music and equally important skill to "imagine" the sounds in your head before you even play them. This includes interval ear training, harmonic ear training and spectral ear training  in both directions; passive and active.
3. Mental skills - knowledge or theory learned and memorized.  Forms of the pieces, chord changes, memorized music repertoire, theory behind chords, scales and improvisation techniques.

Now before we go on deeper in details about all three parts let's state the 1st rule of practicing:

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Make sure your practice sessions always include all three skills.  

So even if you have 45 minutes a day to practice, share this precious time between technique, hearing and theory/repertoire. Divide practice time in proportions that suit your needs at your current development stage. And most of great musicians will tell you that NUMBER 2 - HEARING is the MOST important.  So do transcriptions on regular basis and even when listening to music on the radio, in the car TRANSCRIBE in you head melodies, harmonies and rhytms.

Here are some of the most valuable educational sources I used and still use in all three groups:

1. Guitar Technique:  Jamie Andreas: Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
2. Ear Ttraining: Ear Master Software
3. Theory and Repertoire: books and sheet music depending on your style. I will post a detailed list of what I used over the years in some next post. In youtube era you can always search for tutorials and lessons of your favourite songs. At the moment a big source of all the knowledge about jazz guitar you can find here: JazzGuitar.be

Cheers, waiting for your comments and feedback.