TakeLessons Answers the Beginner Guitarist's Ultimate Question

Online, December 25, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The weekend is over, and it's time to turn off the Christmas music and go back to reality. And for those who received instruments or music equipment for the holidays, it's time to start practicing!

The guitar is a popular gift to give around this time, but it can be a daunting thing for a beginner. For many, one question might be popping up: where does one start? What's important to learn first on the guitar?

TakeLessons (http://takelessons.com), the nation's fastest growing music lessons provider, took the opportunity to share a list of the important things to get out of the way for a beginner guitarist. The list was posted on the TakeLessons blog, which caters to both students and teachers in the community.

The following is an excerpt from the blog:

"Reading Standard Music Notation and Tablature:
Learning to read music is not as hard as it seems and will definitely make the rest of your learning experience much easier. The notation is just the information about how to perform a piece of music. Without it, it's similar to working to set up an item of furniture without being able to read the instructions. You could eventually figure it out, but it really will be more difficult and take longer than it should.

General Music Theory:
You might think it's a little premature to do this, but it's definitely not. Music theory is a thing that you'll work with throughout the entire process. It's just like mastering the grammar of music. By knowing how the music is put together, you will have enough knowledge to apply that knowledge to each and every new tune that you learn.

Here is a good short list of basic theory concepts you should to get to:
- How chords are built
- Tension and release
- What a "key" is
- Chord relationships
- Half, Authentic, and Plagal cadences
- Intervals
- Borrowed chords

Strumming Rhythms:
It is useless having chords if you do not have any rhythms to go along with all of them, right? You can begin with a few basic quarter note/eighth note rhythms and then extend into sixteenth notes plus syncopations. Work your rhythms initially with one chord, and after that begin using pairs of chords to rehearse changing them proficiently. You'll go on to learn and invent rhythm styles in the course of your studies."

By sharing the list with blog readers, TakeLessons hopes to continue engaging current students and help with any musical goals they may have. Readers are invited to share their thoughts by commenting on the TakeLessons blog, where they can also learn a vocal exercise, and comments are also welcomed on Facebook (http://facebook.com/takelessons).