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So You Want to Play the Guitar?

So you want to play the guitar? Cool. The basics are quite easy.

But there are 5 tips you need to know if you want to learn to play the guitar. We’ve put them in the form of questions for you to answer.

Are you genuinely interested?

  1. This is by far the most important thing. Interest gets you through half of whatever difficulties you would encounter. Because if you are interested to learn to play the guitar, nothing can stop you. But, if you are not really interested, then you’d stop at the slightest reason or excuse. Parents, don’t force your kids to play the guitar; but don’t stop them if they genuinely want to learn.

Do you sing?

  • Most beginners who want to learn to play the guitar do so because they sing. And they want some form of easy accompaniment to their singing which, more often than not, only a guitar can give.
  • Do you have a guitar?

Do you have a guitar?

  • It’s really best to have your own guitar. It will be your best companion for the next months or so while you learn to play, and will become your best companion when you already know how to play. Your guitar will sleep by your side. And you’ll be bringing your guitar wherever you go, given the chance. You and your guitar will form a certain unbreakable bond.

Can you read a chord chart?

  • Chord charts are printed charts made up of bars and frets on a guitar’s finger board. They’re marked with symbols indicating where your finger should be placed. Some chord charts show actual pictures of hands making the particular chords on the guitar. They’re so old school but they’re very helpful. And you usually get them from song magazines.

Do you have access to YouTube tutorials?

Nowadays, with most young people having access to the Internet, it’s easy to find beginner’s guitar tutorials on YouTube. You just need to find the right tutorial that suits you.

For beginners, it’s really best to begin with learning the basic chord patterns:

  • The major chords: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C
    • The sharps (#) and flats (b): Bb, F#, G#/Ab, C#/Db, Eb, etc.
    • The minor chords: Am (A minor), Bbm (B flat minor), Cm, C#m (C sharp minor), etc.
    • The 7th progression: C7, C#7, D7, Eb7, F7, G7, A7, etc.
    • The Fret: learning to use the index finger to make bar (barre) chords.

Have you thought about taking guitar lessons?

As a beginner or even as someone who has been playing for a long time. Learning to play guitar gets a lot easier when you have a guitar teacher. I’ve got a good friend, Guitar Tuition East London who teachers a lot of student in London. And does a great job to help them learn guitar much quicker than those I’ve seen with other methods.

I know their website has some free resources so that might help you if you aren’t based in London as well.

Getting the best leather guitar cases

One of the best leather craftsmen in the USA makes Cumberland Cases fine handcrafted leather guitar cases. 

As a result of Jeffrey Spoor’s decision in 2011, he decided to stop making guitar cases, but his craftsmanship, and attention to detail are why many guitar players still crave his beautifully crafted guitar cases.

Guitar cases are a trade tool that can easily be overlooked. Many technicians and musicians also make their own cases.

To sum up, we can all agree that cases are indispensable for touring and for performances. If you do not have the right tools and the right expertise, then you are better off not trying to build your own case, since it’s not worth it!

Materials of the highest quality are also required.

You won’t find much help at the local DIY store, unless you want to build a guitar case out of chipboard, as my friend did when I was a kid. The weight is a bit much (but then my friend would say that, wouldn’t he…)!

Our experts are a valuable resource, and you won’t pay an arm and a leg for their advice on this site and elsewhere.

Why I should learn to play the guitar

Apparently one in four people in the UK claim they can play the guitar. I’m not sure how true that is but it is a very common instrument. 

So why should you learn to play the guitar?

Often we see the stereotypical reason that people learn to play the guitar from movies and TV. 

Which is a guy is trying to get a girl. 

And if that’s you that’s okay it is a very effective tool. 

I know many guys who actually impressed a girl because they play the guitar. And did you know that a girl is much more likely to give a guy her number? 

They are seven times more likely to give a guy her number if he is carrying a guitar case versus a gym bag. 

The more common reason that I hear people want to play guitar is as a tool for relaxation.

And while playing the guitar can be relaxing, there are many moments of frustration and it’s important to recognise that. 

It might take you a little while before it becomes a tool that relaxes you. It might actually become a tool that infuriates you in many situations. 

Ways that you can avoid having it as a tool of frustration include having a guitar teacher who helps you through challenges that you might be having. 

And recognise that it’s not a linear progression and learning to play the guitar is often harder than people imagine in the first place. 

But once you get to that point where you can just pick it up and play it. (This might take awhile) it is a very relaxing and a great tool for expressing your emotions and winding down at the end of the workday.

You are a singer song writer. 

Learning the guitar is a very good skill to have when you are singer song writer. Means whenever you have a gig you don’t have to rely on other guitarist to play for you but you can play for yourself. It means that when you are composing you’re actually in charge of it and understand how the music is created rather than relying on another musician hope you write a song. 

And also you don’t need to endlessly make voice notes of your singing. But  you actually know how to put a song together yourself. And write it down. Maybe even to get other musicians to play it too. 

It’s a really great skill and that’s why so many sing a song writer has come to us too long at all. 

It’s your childhood dream 

I get it playing the guitar is very cool. And it’s nothing more exciting than being on stage rocking out with your hair down, to your favourite songs and even songs that you compose yourself. 

A lot of people wanted to be able to play the guitar on stage in front of others or with other people as a child. 

But for whatever reason they couldn’t achieve that dream. 

And now you’re an adult, with your own schedule. You can choose your own hobbies without your parents deciding what to do. So you can choose to play the guitar, and fulfil your childhood dream! 

Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah is an oratorio written by late 18th C. baroque composer George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1773). Messiah is an ode to the Bible’s central character, Jesus Christ, in the person of Messiah.

But the words, the libretto, was arranged by an English aristocrat by the name of Charles Jennens, who collaborated with Handel on this project. They weren’t Charles Jennen’s own words but texts (all 53 references) from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Prophecies about the coming Messiah and his birth, mostly taken from the book of Isaiah the prophet, and Psalms; its fulfilment and the Messiah’s sufferings; and a future resurrection hope and eternal life, taken largely from Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians and some from the Book of Revelations; make up the libretto as sung by the soloists, the chorus, or both in unison.

Messiah is quite a long oratorio that lasts about 3 hours in its complete form. Regular concert goers might find it tedious to sit through and listen to 3 hours of oratorio, so what musical directors and conductors did was to abbreviate or truncate some of the parts which they deemed unnecessary. But they did this with a view to preserving the original intention of the composer.

One major consideration in cutting short the oratorio is preserving the musical narrative’s drama, in maintaining key signatures, and keeping their relationship to one another intact in the whole musical narrative. Also important is the distribution of the parts: the orchestra, the soloists, and the chorus; throughout the entire performance. This preserves the coherence of the oratorio’s theme from beginning to end.

Handel’s Messiah was written with the development of three acts: the prophecies concerning the birth of Christ (Christmas), its fulfilment especially leading to his climactic death (Passion), and a future hope of resurrection (Easter). These acts all have their place in the Christian calendar. However, the most celebrated part that is regularly performed is the birth of Christ or the Christmas portion.  

One of the reasons for the popularity of Handel’s Messiah during Christmas is that this oratorio was probably the only one written with a Christmas theme, or a theme that revolves around the birth of Christ. Despite Handel’s original thoughts that his oratorio was written for Lent and Easter (the Christmas theme is the shortest act) it had become customarily performed, especially in the US, during Christmas; there being many other classical works that meditate on Lent and Easter themes.

It’s noteworthy that Handel’s Messiah was first performed on April 13, 1742 in Dublin, during Lent.

Vincent: Starry, Starry Night

Love is probably the deepest emotion one can experience as a human being. It makes us both vulnerable and not often, lost… and desperate.

This was how Don McLean was able to empathize with the sad fate that the 19th century Dutch post-impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh suffered. He shares this to us in his popular folk classic, Vincent.

Vincent is obviously McLean’s personal tribute to Van Gogh.

The song’s opening line immediately transports our mind’s to Van Gogh’s iconic masterpiece, Starry Night:

“Starry, starry night,
Paint your palette blue and gray.”

McLean then describes Vincent as looking out on a summer’s day “with eyes that know the darkness in my soul.” This was empathy.

This empathy is reinforced by the song’s refrain,

“Now I understand (think I know) what you tried to say to me.”

McLean’s use of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person pronouns give us an idea who he is referring to in the song: 1st person pronouns, me and my, apply to himself; 2nd person, you and your, to Van Gogh; and 3rd person, they and them, to the people both in Van Gogh’s time who “would not listen” and ours who “are not listening still”.

There are references to other works of Van Gogh embedded in the song, it’s not entirely about the Starry Night. He mentions “trees and the daffodils” and “the snowy linen land”, “morning fields of amber grain” and “weathered faces lined in pain” none of which were in the Starry Night landscape.

However, McLean knew that Starry Night conveyed a message — he saw it not just as mere paint. Its themes conveyed Van Gogh’s world view — a convergence of his theology, his aspirations, hopes, and desperation.

McLean summarized Van Gogh’s desperation in these poignant lines:

“And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life as lovers often do.”

Don McLean, like Van Gogh, was a romantic who expressed his world view in his art, his songs.

In his hit song And I Love You So, he writes,

“The book of life is brief,
And once a page is read,
All but love is dead —
That is my belief.”

That is my belief, McLean says: All is dead, but love. Nothing has meaning, except that thing that “yearns within to grow beyond infatuation” (lyrics from McLean’s song If We Try).

Don McLean experienced love, and deeply felt it. So did Van Gogh.

Starry Night

Starry Night is, by far, the most popular painting by the 19th century Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh. It was his magnum opus — his most important work — as later judged by observers. Van Gogh himself, however, thought the painting was a failure. But Starry Night would be the painting that the world would associate with the illustrious name Vincent Van Gogh.

But there is another well-known painting named Starry Night, namely, Starry Night Over the Rhône, which one shouldn’t confuse with the Starry Night. Van Gogh painted Starry Night Over the Rhône (September 1888) at Arles, less than a year before he painted Starry Night (June 1889) while confined at the Saint Paul De Mausole after he had cut off his ear. Starry Night Over the Rhône gives us a backdrop as to the nocturnal (night time) painting style Van Gogh had been experimenting on at the time.

He wrote to his younger brother, Theo, his financial backer, about Starry Night Over the Rhône in this manner,

“The sky is green-blue, the water is royal blue… The town is blue and violet. The gaslight is yellow, and its reflections are red-gold and go right down to green-bronze… Against the green-blue field of the sky the Great Bear had a green and pink sparkle whose discreet paleness contrasts with the harsh gold of the gaslight.”

Van Gogh was a prodigious artist who keenly understood the relationship of colors, shades, and contrasts to convey his messages. Messages that lodged deep in his thoughts.

Four things meet the eye outright in Starry Night, among other finer details. One, the most obvious, the orbs and swirls — the starry night itself. Two, the color contrasts; because it is a nocturnal painting, the contrast of yellow and harsh gold against the dark backdrop of blue to violet immediately catches the attention. Three, the spires of the dominant Cypress tree on the left foreground, and that of the church steeple at the center — both touch the heavens above. And lastly, the silent neighbourhood or countryside community with houses, olive groves, and cascading hills.

Amidst the mundane affairs of daily existence in ones community, there is a nature (a cypress tree shaped like a flaming fire) that reaches to the skies; and a religion (a church with a spire) that prompts one’s soul to search beyond natural, physical existence for meaning. However, there is a palpable uncertainty and foreboding judgment revealed in the heavens. Thus, there is no real assurance; but an ongoing perpetual turmoil of a troubled soul.

As Van Gogh wrote to Theo his brother regarding Starry Night, “We take death to go to a star.”

Top 10 Favourite Movies on Artists and Paintings

Top 10 Favourite Movies on Artists and Paintings

We often find artists, their paintings and works of art, in galleries and museums. But there have been wonderful and worthwhile movies made about them, their personal lives and works of art.

Here is our Top 10 Favourite Movies on Artists and Paintings:

  1. Camille Claudel (1989). The film captures the artist’s inner struggles through her bold sculptures. Camille Claudel was an independent minded artists of the late 19th century in Paris, who became a mistress of renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin (his famous sculpture, The Thinker).
  2. 2. Vincent & Theo (1990). This is a story of Van Gogh’s brief history, how he made his art, and the person who was (as it’s said) “the wind beneath his wings”, his younger brother Theo.
  4. 3. Basquiat (1996). An American graffiti artist who became popular in the 1980’s using the name SAMO. Jean-Michel Basquiat was half-Haitian, half-Puerto Rican by race. His wall graffiti was vivid, lively, and detailed, and became highly prized by art collectors.
  6. 4. Surviving Picasso (1996). Pablo Picasso’s name is most often associated to cubism, an abstract art form where reality is seen relatively. But he was also known to be a womanizer, because women were strongly attracted to him. The film exploits this.
  8. 5. Pollock (2001). Excellent story about the troubled life and skilful workmanship of American post-war abstract impressionist Jackson Pollock, how he met his wife Lee Krasner, and how she changed the future for him.
  10. 6. Frida (2002). The movie revolves around the relationships that Mexican artist Frida Kahlo works herself into, especially her affair and marriage to the famed muralist Diego Rivera. After she survived a trolley accident that almost killed her, she lives in pain and finds relief in her art.
  12. 7. Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003). This 16 year old girl, Griet, appears in Johannes Vermeer’s 17th century painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was hired as a maid by the artist to care for his 6 children. The earring’s however belonged to Vermeer’s wife, who suspects that Vermeer was having an affair with the girl.
  14. 8. Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010). This is the work of graffiti artist Bansky on video tapes filmed by Frenchman Thierry Guetta. A documentary type film that takes the viewer to the illegal art world of vandals and political activists.
  16. 9. Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012). This documentary highlights the unconventional art of Abramovic. She is a warm person, and a seriously gifted and inventive artist.
  18. 10. Mr. Turner (2014). A biography of Cockney landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner. He was known as a “painter of lights” and belonged to the school of Romantics.

Why Did Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear?!

You may have heard the story. Any art student or Van Gogh enthusiast would know it — Van Gogh cut off his own ear.

There are a number of theories about what really happened on that dreadful night of December 23, 1888. But the singular fact remains: Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.

The Official Story

Paul Gauguin was staying with Van Gogh at the (now) famous Yellow House (Van Gogh has a painting “The Yellow House” and “The Bedroom” which was in the yellow house) in Arles, France. Gauguin and Van Gogh were friends, but they had their differences. And it was not unusual that they quarrelled about their differences.

On the night of December 23, 1888, after a quarrel, Gauguin threatened to leave Van Gogh. He bolted out of the house. Van Gogh followed him outside with a sharp razor in his hand, intending to do harm to Gauguin. However, midway, he changed his mind and went back to the yellow house. There, upset, he cut off his own ear. Later, he gave it to a maid (prostitute) working at the nearby brothel that he frequented.

The following morning, December 24, police found him in the yellow house unconscious and weak from the loss of blood, and took him to the hospital. Gauguin flees to Paris.

A few months after the incident, in May 1889, Van Gogh was confined to a mental asylum, Saint Paul De Mausole, where he stayed for a year and continued painting.

Other Theories

The first among the other theories suggests that Van Gogh didn’t cut off his entire ear, but just the ear lobe. There is no definitive proof however that supports either theory. Nonetheless, it was his ear that he cut off, whether entirely or in part.

Another theory focuses on the reason why Van Gogh cut off his ear: not because of a quarrel with Gauguin, but because of his brother Theo’s engagement to be married. Van Gogh scholar Martin Bailey speculates that upon hearing of his brother Theo’s engagement, Van Gogh became desperate. It was Theo who was supporting him financially, and he felt that Theo’s engagement would tantamount to diminished financial support for himself, which he badly needed.

Lastly, in a book “Pact of Silence” (2009), authors Kaufmann and Wildegans posited that it was Gauguin who did it. However, they did not provide clear evidence to support their theory.

Van Gogh: Human, After All