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Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
How did Kelly learn the Guitar?
Hello everyone!
I am super excited to meet you and hope you find my posts on this blog useful in your decision to learn or help someone else learn to play electric or acoustic guitar! I'll try to post useful tips here often for my students so follow this blog and you can get notified when I post.
I also thought I'd use this opportunity to share how I learned how to play the guitar! So here it is:
When I was 10 years old I was walking around with a cassette player that had a handle on it and I would play songs from the band Oasis. I loved singing along and I had never liked singing before. My Mom and Dad thought about getting me an instrument and they couldn't see me doing anything but playing Guitar.
One day as I was sitting around playing video games a knock on the door prompted me to answer. I went to answer it and lo' and behold it was my Dad with a strange black box on his side and something behind his back. He pulled out a red Fender Squire and a practice amp and handed them to me. He said "Your going to be a rockstar and when you make it big you will buy me a house ok?"
I was so excited I couldn't wait to start playing! My brother had a friend who played and taught him how to play "Brainstew" from Greenday. He taught me how to play that song and how to tune by ear. The 2nd song I learned was "Come as you are" from Nirvana. It was only a few months before I was listening to my favorite CD's (catching the lowest note they played) and then tuned to it and then figured out the rest of the song by ear. I could only figure out how to play songs with power chords at that point. (Ear training, which I will be happy to teach you if you would like)
I would play everyday. Soon after getting halfway decent my Dad would have everyone who came over to visit listen to me play / sing and I was so dang nervous! At about 14 years old I moved to California to be with my Mom and it was their that I received guitar lessons from a guy named Darren Morris from Barkley's Music on Mchenry street in Modesto California. He taught me scales / how to solo and do improvisation and "perfect practice". He taught me whatever I wanted to learn. I would think, "If I could just play that sweet guitar solo, I will be the best!". Of course that wasn't true in the slightest!
I took a Summer Job in California when I turned 16 cleaning / picking up trash for a whole shopping center / strip mall. I didn't spend 1 cent of that money and at the end of the Summer I bought a Boss Roland BR-1180. It was a 10 track digital recording console and I started recording little things I had wrote here and there. I had taught a few of my friends how to play to and we had already come up with multiple guitar parts on a few songs. I truly improved my playing ability, rythym and timing with this piece of equipment.
Over the years I haven't really gone without playing the guitar. I love the way it makes me feel. If I'm happy, or sad, angry, or utterly depressed, guitar is my medicine. It is my therapy.
After every broken heart, after every new love interest, after every family tragedy... Guitar has been a crutch to lean on. This is why I love playing. This is why I love teaching how to play. Playing on stage to screaming fans is also something I have enjoyed more than anything and have always dreamed about since I first picked up the guitar.
-Kelly Ehlers
I am super excited to meet you and hope you find my posts on this blog useful in your decision to learn or help someone else learn to play electric or acoustic guitar! I'll try to post useful tips here often for my students so follow this blog and you can get notified when I post.
I also thought I'd use this opportunity to share how I learned how to play the guitar! So here it is:
When I was 10 years old I was walking around with a cassette player that had a handle on it and I would play songs from the band Oasis. I loved singing along and I had never liked singing before. My Mom and Dad thought about getting me an instrument and they couldn't see me doing anything but playing Guitar.
One day as I was sitting around playing video games a knock on the door prompted me to answer. I went to answer it and lo' and behold it was my Dad with a strange black box on his side and something behind his back. He pulled out a red Fender Squire and a practice amp and handed them to me. He said "Your going to be a rockstar and when you make it big you will buy me a house ok?"
I was so excited I couldn't wait to start playing! My brother had a friend who played and taught him how to play "Brainstew" from Greenday. He taught me how to play that song and how to tune by ear. The 2nd song I learned was "Come as you are" from Nirvana. It was only a few months before I was listening to my favorite CD's (catching the lowest note they played) and then tuned to it and then figured out the rest of the song by ear. I could only figure out how to play songs with power chords at that point. (Ear training, which I will be happy to teach you if you would like)
I would play everyday. Soon after getting halfway decent my Dad would have everyone who came over to visit listen to me play / sing and I was so dang nervous! At about 14 years old I moved to California to be with my Mom and it was their that I received guitar lessons from a guy named Darren Morris from Barkley's Music on Mchenry street in Modesto California. He taught me scales / how to solo and do improvisation and "perfect practice". He taught me whatever I wanted to learn. I would think, "If I could just play that sweet guitar solo, I will be the best!". Of course that wasn't true in the slightest!
I took a Summer Job in California when I turned 16 cleaning / picking up trash for a whole shopping center / strip mall. I didn't spend 1 cent of that money and at the end of the Summer I bought a Boss Roland BR-1180. It was a 10 track digital recording console and I started recording little things I had wrote here and there. I had taught a few of my friends how to play to and we had already come up with multiple guitar parts on a few songs. I truly improved my playing ability, rythym and timing with this piece of equipment.
Over the years I haven't really gone without playing the guitar. I love the way it makes me feel. If I'm happy, or sad, angry, or utterly depressed, guitar is my medicine. It is my therapy.
After every broken heart, after every new love interest, after every family tragedy... Guitar has been a crutch to lean on. This is why I love playing. This is why I love teaching how to play. Playing on stage to screaming fans is also something I have enjoyed more than anything and have always dreamed about since I first picked up the guitar.
-Kelly Ehlers
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