Guitar with Micah

Because you may as well face it: In the music world, guitars set the standard for cool (and we’re not just being biased here). Since the 1950s, many of the greatest showmen in rock ’n’ roll, blues, and country have played the guitar. Think of Chuck Berry doing his one-legged hop across the stage (the “duck walk”) while belting out “Johnny B. Goode,” Jimi Hendrix wailing on his upside-down, right-handed (and sometimes flaming) Stratocaster, Bonnie Raitt playing slide guitar, Garth Brooks with his acoustic guitar and flannel shirts, B.B. King’s authoritative bending and expressive vibrato on his guitar “Lucille,” or George Benson’s mellow jazz guitar stylings. (Even Elvis Presley, whose guitar prowess may not have exceeded five chords, still used the guitar effectively onstage as a prop.) The list goes on.

Playing electric guitar can put you out in front of a band, where you’re free to roam, sing, and make eye contact with your adoring fans. Playing acoustic guitar can make you the star of the vacation campfire singalong. And playing any kind of guitar can bring out the music in your soul and become a valued lifetime hobby.

• This course ("Guitar with Micah"), delivers everything the beginning to inter-mediate guitarist needs: From buying a guitar to tuning the guitar, to playing the guitar, to caring for the guitar, this course has it all.

• Most guitar books want you to practice the guitar in the same way that you practice the piano. First, you learn where the notes fall on the staff; then you learn about the length of time that you’re supposed to hold the notes; then you move on to practicing scales; and the big payoff is to practice song after unrecognisable song that you probably don’t care about playing anyway. If

  you’re looking for this kind of ho-hum guitar course, you’ve definitely come to the wrong place. But don’t worry, you can find no shortage of that kind of book.

• The truth is that many great guitarists don’t know how to read music, and many who can read music learned to do so after they learned to play the guitar. Repeat after me: You don’t need to read music to play the guitar. Chant this mantra until you believe it, because this principle is central to the design of "Guitar with Micah" guitar course.

• One of the coolest things about the guitar is that, even though you can devote your lifetime to perfecting your skills, you can start faking it rather quickly. I assume that, instead of concentrating on what the 3/4 time signature means, you want to play music — real music (or at least recognisable music). I want you to play music, too, because that’s what keeps you motivated and practicing.

• A serious guitar is a serious investment, and, as with any other serious investment, you need to maintain it. "Guitar with Micah", pro-vides the information you need to correctly store, maintain, and care for your six-string, including how to change strings and what little extras to keep stashed away in your guitar case.

• I really don’t make many assumptions about you. I don’t assume that you already own a guitar. I don’t assume that you have a particular preference for acoustic or electric guitars or that you favour a particular style. Gee, this is a pretty equal-opportunity Guitar course.

• Okay, I do assume some things. I assume that you want to play a guitar, not a banjo, dobro, or mandolin, and I concentrate on the six-string variety. I assume you’re relatively new to the guitar world. And I assume that you want to start playing the guitar quickly, without a lot of messing around with reading notes, clefs, and time signatures. You can find all that music-reading stuff in the course, but that’s not my main focus. My main focus is helping you make cool, sweet music on your six-string.

After this lecture the student will be able to

• Understand the nature of the guitar

• Understand how the guitar works

• Identify the different parts of the guitar

• Interacting with the same guitar

The goal of this lecture is to be able to

• Tuning the Guitar relatively (to itself)

• Tuning to a fixed source