Are you struggling to play a complete song on the guitar? Do you know all the parts, although you can’t quite put it all together?

This is a thing I commonly hear from students and there is one great solution that for some reason, students are often reluctant to do. What is the magical solution?

If you are struggling to do this, I will give you some tips later in the video that will make the process much easier.

I don’t fully understand the reason why it is so difficult to convince students to play along with the original recording. When I first started to learn how to play the guitar, playing along with the original recordings of songs would be the main focus of my guitar practice.

By playing along to the original recordings, you will be working at a much deeper level than simply putting your fingers in the right place on the fretboard. Music is so much more than just learning the notes.

Having everything available as guitar tablature might be good for showing students where to place their fingers on the fretboard, but not having to struggle through the process of working music out by ear takes away a huge part of the learning process.

People seem scared to make mistakes these days. Nothing will happen if you are practising along to the complete song, and you make mistakes. Correcting mistakes is one of the best ways to learn.

When asking students if they have played along to the original recording since the previous lesson, I will often hear them say something like “No, although I did practise the parts for 20 minutes each day”. It’s great that they practised regularly, although without playing along to the track, errors (especially with timing) are often still present from the previous lesson.

So, why do so many students seem to fear playing along to the original recording and how do they overcome this problem?

One method is to focus on the framework and add the details later. What do I mean by this?

Let’s say you have a song that contains many guitar parts such as an intro, fills throughout the song and a guitar solo. Many students will start playing the intro, make a mistake and stop the track. The complete song will never be played in its entirety using this approach.

A better approach is to know the chord progression in its simplest form. This is the framework on which all other guitar parts will be added later.

Learn the chords and know what each part sounds like. Play along with the song and play the chords all the way through without stopping. If you get lost, listen to what is being played and try to figure out where you are in the chord progression by the sound, and not by counting bars. Drum hits, specific vocals, bass lines, etc., can all help you to find your place in the song. Basically, listen!

If you get to the end of the song and you are completely lost, this means that you do not know the sound of the chords well enough. Go back to playing the chords on your guitar and listen to what you are playing. When you think you know the sound of the chord progression, play along to the track again and you should be able to find your place much easier.

Repeat this process until you can confidently play the chords for the complete song. This is your framework on which you can add all the details (which are any other guitar parts).

The most important thing to take from this video: