An Interview With Tommy Heart
One of my most advanced students, Tommy Heart, is letting me ask him a few quick questions to help beginner guitar students like you get tips and tricks to becoming a better guitar player. Hopefully you will find his answers encouraging to keep you motivated to keep learning more on guitar!
Easy Songs for Beginners Guitar - Tommy Heart
Sophie: What were your biggest challenges that you had to overcome when learning guitar?
Tommy: Gaining the necessary finger strength to play bar chords was probably the hardest thing first starting out.
Sophie: And how did you overcome this?
Tommy: I would just practice and practice over and over again. Eventually the strength built up and I had no problem with it anymore.
Sophie: You betcha. What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to beginner guitar students?
Tommy: You can’t get discouraged if you are not able to play something. You just have to work hard and keep practicing, then eventually you will be able to play anything you want to.
Sophie: What artist or band did you learn the most from when playing guitar?
Tommy: I would play a lot of pop punk band’s songs, such as Blink 182. They usually have pretty easy songs to start off with, but they also play some more challenging stuff too. Plus I was really into that type of music when I first started playing guitar.
Sophie: What did you learn from those types of bands?
Tommy: I learned a lot of different chords that are not usually taught to someone just starting to play guitar. There’s a lot to be said about playing other people’s music. You learn a lot.
Sophie: At what point in your guitar learning experience did you start to feel comfortable playing in public (open mic nights, playing for friends, playing a mini show, etc)?
Tommy: I would say it was probably a few months in when I felt comfortable playing in front of people. I might not have been the best, but I had fun doing it. I have always felt that playing in public is one of the best ways to learn because you have that pressure there to play well. It’s like a trial by fire more or less.
Sophie: How hard was it to learn to sing and play guitar at the same time?
Tommy: It was not too hard to learn how to sync the two but I suppose it can be hard for some.
Sophie: At what point would you recommend guitar students to start to learn to coordinate playing guitar and singing, if that’s something they’d like to accomplish?
Tommy: As soon as you can play a few chords you should start trying to sing with them. Write some of your own songs and just have fun with it, that could really make it even more fun and add a whole new dimension to playing guitar for you.
Sophie: Thanks for answering these questions, Tommy.
Tommy: My pleasure Sophie!
Great info.I like all your posts. It’s good to see you speak from the heart..