Category Archives: Learn to Play

The strumming hand on the guitar or plucking hand on the bass guitar needs to learn to work on automatic: the right side of the brain. When learning to play the guitar or learning to play the bass guitar you must train your brain to strum the guitar or pluck the bass guitar automatically. The strumming hand on the guitar has the ability to play extremely intricate finger patterns without even thinking about it. This hand should be able to pick out the strings and keep a real strong steady beat with no conscious effort. It’s very similar to a nervous habit. When learning to play the guitar or learning to play the bass guitar, the way to develop this technique is to start a real steady strum and concentrate on something else like reading a book or watching TV. Put your focus onto something other than your guitar.

On the hand that plays the neck of the guitar (this depends on whether you are right or left handed) you need to learn to develop a muting technique. A muting technique is when you are lifting your fingers slightly so the strings are muted while continuing to strum with your other hand. You then push down onto the strings to play the notes or chords. In this, you will be playing a rhythm on your guitar strings. Your concentration falls on this hand. Following this guitar lesson you will learn to develop a rock steady rhythm.