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Press Pack
Greg Varhaug
12431 Shadowvale Dr
Houston, Texas 77082
281-799-9322
greg@houstonguitar.com
Press Release # 2
Special Exercises Help Beginning Guitarists Learn Faster
Edited by Christopher Laird Simmons
Wed, 05 Apr 2006, 17:39:00 GMT
HOUSTON, TX - April 5 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- If you've gotten frustrated with learning to play the guitar, don't give up yet. Greg Varhaug, of Greg's Guitar Lessons, is a Houston musician and guitar teacher who has spent over 15 years developing and testing effective learning shortcuts for beginning guitarists, and he offers some unique advice to aspiring players.
A series of special exercises is helping his beginning students attain some impressive results. These exercises focus primarily on the fretting hand. Varhaug says that fretting notes on the guitar neck with your left hand is the hardest thing about first learning to play. "Your first step is to eliminate tension in the left hand. Tension in the fretting hand is probably the number-one reason people get discouraged and quit playing. Left-hand tension complicates other problems like rhythm and strumming. Getting rid of this tension is easy, once you recognize it as the root problem."
"When you sit down for your first guitar lesson, you probably imagine that you're going to learn to imitate a series of movements. But from the first minute, you see that the real problem is forming individual still positions. You may think this is a 'motion' problem, but it isn't." The solution is to use a set of motionless exercises for the left hand, "kind of like yoga for your fingers."
These exercises consist of about fifteen different still holds for the left hand on the guitar neck. Varhaug recommends doing these exercises while you watch TV, since they require no movement and no concentration. "Within a few weeks, these exercises completely change the way your hand feels when you fret notes. If your hand is comfortable in each individual still position, then moving between positions is easy."
Varhaug says that by practicing still positions first, you can cut learning time by weeks or months. "Most of my adult and teen beginners can play along with simple songs by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Eagles or Greenday in two or three weeks. Some of the most popular songs in history are actually very simple songs."
Varhaug operates HoustonGuitar.Com, a Website that allows visitors to see complete lessons online. The site offers visitors free access to a hands-on, play-by-ear approach to learning the guitar. Using still photos, HoustonGuitar.Com demonstrates simple hand-conditioning techniques that make learning chords and scales easier. The site also offers online guitar lessons, along with CDs and downloads.
Varhaug says that there are many good instructional products for intermediate players, but there has been no real innovation in approaches for beginners in recent years. "Year after year, the major publishers repackage the same beginner's methods they've been selling since the 1950's and '60's, which weren't very effective even in their day. The music student of the 1960's is not the music student of today. The music has changed, but the music books haven't. We try to addresses the needs of modern students."
Varhaug maintains that old-school methods have been especially ineffective when it comes to teaching mechanics, that is getting your fingers to do what you want them to on the guitar.
Another reason for starting his Website is what Varhaug calls "a disconnect between popular beginner's methods and the way professional players really think and work. For instance, most working players pick their parts out by ear from a CD. They can do this because they know which shape on the guitar neck produces a particular sound. There's absolutely no mystery about how this is done. It's simply recognizing a melody."
"Most people can learn to associate a shape with a sound. And this does not require perfect-pitch. We're not talking about using perfect-pitch to identify a sting of individual notes and chords. Associating melody and shape is a completely different mental process."
This means you don't have to read music in order to play. "It's a myth that you have to read music in order to play guitar. There are advantages to reading music, but you don't have to read in order to play. Many professional players don't use sheet music or charts in their day to day work. I want to show beginning guitarists how to become confident, street-wise players."
About Greg Varhaug
Greg Varhaug is a musician, and private music instructor based in Houston, Texas. He has over 15 years continuous music-teaching experience. He has written and recorded music for numerous commercials and promotional videos. He holds an English degree and has written on computers and music. Guitar-instruction products are available for sale directly through his web site at http://www.houstonguitar.com.
Contact: Greg Varhaug, Greg's Guitar Lessons, 281-799-9322
Send2Press® is the originating wire service for this story.
Press Release # 1
edited by Christopher Simmons, senior news editor
FREE BEGINNER'S GUITAR-LESSON DOWNLOAD FROM GREGSGUITAR.COM OFFERS A BRAND-NEW APPROACH TO TEACHING GUITAR.
HOUSTON, TX -- (PRnetwire.com) -- Mar 11, 2002 -- GregsGuitar.Com today announced that a hands-on, play-by-ear approach to guitar for "first-time beginners" is available as a free download. If you thought that playing guitar was hard, it may be time to reconsider. This is thanks to a new method developed by Greg Varhaug, a Houston guitar teacher.
The learning approach, for MS Windows-compatible PCs, works with your web browser offline, so there is no program to install. The download won't affect Program Files, Windows registry settings or DLLs.
"This is probably the most step-by-step method for beginners ever offered, on the net or in print," says the author, Greg Varhuag.
According to Varhuag, "It's time for teachers to re-examine traditional approaches to teaching music. Some of today's best selling guitar methods are just warmed-over versions of books people were using sixty years ago. My students all want to learn how to play guitar and bass by ear. That's what I teach people to do."
HOW THE LEARNING PROGRAM WORKS
GregsGuitar lessons feature tight close-up video shots, and careful use of camera angles to clearly show what each hand does.
Pages on your web browser link to short video clips. Users can size the clips, loop them, and move between them easily. This allows users to move at their own pace, It's a true interactive method.
But the technology is only half the story. The real innovation is in the approach to teaching music, and stringed instruments, to first time beginners.
The author explains it this way, "The most important thing when you first pick up the guitar is strengthening the fingers in your left hand, that's your fretting hand. This simple idea is overlooked in traditional methods that start with chords and note-reading."
The easiest and most logical approach is to strengthen each finger individually. The GregsGuitar method starts with one-finger exercises that are easy to understand and easy to play.
The one-finger exercises in the first lesson are also your introduction to playing by ear with a rhythm track. An MP3 practice track, in full stereo sound with guitar, drums, bass and organ, allows you to practice these very simple parts in time with real music.
There is also a new free download on "How To Read Tablature," which shows you the things you need to know in order to take advantage of the huge offering of guitar tablature available for free on the Internet.
DISTANCE-BASED LEARNING MADE EASY
For your free download, go to www.GregsGuitar.Com. You will find complete instructions on how to download the lessons, along with lots of other information written especially for beginning guitar players.
Check out the Free Song Of The Week, a free download complete with video clips and large tables covering the guitar part of a hit song. Information about finding the right guitar, making your guitar easier to play, chord and scale diagrams, a free drum tracks download, a free tuning page download, and more.
Go to GregsGuitar.Com today, and see for yourself.
ABOUT GREG VARHUAG
Greg Varhaug ('au' is pronounced like 'ou in 'house') is a musician, and private music instructor based in Houston, Texas. He has over 10 years continuous music-teaching experience. He has written and recorded music for numerous commercials and promotional videos. He holds an English degree and is an experienced technical writer in the areas of computers and music. Other guitar-instruction products are available for sale directly through his web site at http://www.gregsguitar.com. Greg is now working on producing additional lesson materials for beginning guitarists which utilize the web-browser format described above. Mailing Address: 12431 Shadowvale Houston, TX 77082
url: http://www.gregsguitar.com
Contact: Greg Varhaug
Email: greg@houstonguitar.com
Phone: 281-799-9322
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© 2002, 2007 Greg Varhaug
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