Whether you're a novice or you’re on your way to becoming a professional player, chances are from that time to time you need a little help learning the guitar. The guitar is a very popular instrument because you can learn so much so quickly online — with or without the help of a teacher. Because there are so many self-taught guitarists in the world, there are a lot of resources available to people who want to learn the guitar. We've collected five of the very best resources for people wanting to play the guitar, expand their skill-set, or take what they learned in lessons to the next level.
For beginners, we do recommend starting with an appropriately-sized guitar and a finger guide to match. Our finger guides will take the guesswork out of those beginning stages of guitar playing when you're still trying to figure out what all the strings are for. By learning which notes the strings play early on, you set yourself up for success. Coupled with these resources, our finger guides can rapidly advance your guitar learning experience and make playing the guitar correctly second nature.
https://www.fender.com/online-guitar-tuner
While traditional tuners are great sometimes you need an online guitar tuner. We love the Fender online guitar tuner because it offers tuning options based on the type of guitar you have. You need to tune an electric guitar differently than you need to tune an acoustic guitar if you're going to tune by ear. The Fender online tuner is a really simple, free way to get your guitar in tune before you start playing.
There are also tuning apps for your phone if you would prefer to have a tuner in your pocket at all times.
https://www.metronomeonline.com/
Time is an essential skill to great music. While it's fun to play around, when you're actually reading and following music, it's very important that you keep time. In the beginning, if you need a little help keeping time we recommend using an online metronome. While you can of course purchase a physical metronome, an online metronome is a really simple way to keep time. We like this online metronome, but there are several free, online metronomes that all essentially do the same thing. You can also get a metronome app in the app store.
https://www.guitarorb.com/guitar-notes
Learning to read notes, or music, in general, can be very tricky. This is where a finger guide comes in handy in a big way. This is also a great place to lean into the expertise of a teacher. But if having guitar lessons isn't in the cards for you right now, we recommend practicing your note recognition with this handy website. This website helps you work on note recognition and grades your accuracy. It can be frustrating at first, but if you stick with it you'll be a lot better at reading frets.
YouTube is a phenomenal website because you can learn pretty much anything on YouTube. If you need help reading notes or figuring out how to play chords or read TAB, go to YouTube. If you need to know something about tuning, go to YouTube. If you want to learn a specific song, go to YouTube. There are so many great resources on YouTube for learning to play the guitar. Because there are so many great resources, you'll be able to find a Creator whose content works for you and the way that you learn.
I personally like using JamPlay, GuitarJamz, Ben Eller Guitars, and Justin Guitar for help on YouTube.
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
Once you've mastered a few of the guitar Basics, you're probably going to want to start playing some songs. The great thing about the guitar is that once you figure out what you're doing, you can start playing simplified versions of your favorite songs pretty quickly. You can get free guitar music online. We like Ultimate Guitar because of the wide selection of free music that it offers. It's one of our go-to sites. But you can also search online or even use Pinterest to find free guitar music. There are tons of it out there.
Now that you’ve got the tools, it’s time to start practicing the guitar!
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When you’re learning to master your stringed instrument, turn to a finger guide. What is a Finger Guide? A finger guide is a small vinyl sticker that is placed under the strings on your violin, viola, guitar, or cello that helps you master your knowledge of the strings on your instrument.
A finger guide is an alternative to finger tapes — which, time and time again have proven to be a less than ideal teaching tool. And while you can find finger tapes at most music stores, these finger guides are one-of-a-kind. I developed these guides as a teacher and watched as students learned faster and more effectively.
Because there are different sizes of every instrument available, we offer different sizes of finger guides. Picking the correct size of finger guide for your instrument is important because a guide that’s the wrong size will not give you the correct finger information for your instrument.
When you’re trying to figure out what size your instrument is, determine if your instrument has frets or not. Some instruments, like guitars, you will be able to measure using their frets, but some instruments, like violins, are fretless and will require that you measure differently.
You don’t need to do much measuring for your fretted stringed instruments because my finger guides for frets come by the fret. You can buy frets 1-12 or 1-24. These guides are small enough that they work with virtually every size of stringed, fretted instrument — but the guides are also big enough and bright enough that you can see the letters and numbers on the guides.
To determine the size that you’ll need for your violin, viola, or cello, you’ll need to measure the body of the instrument. Violins, Violas, and Cellos are all fretless. A modern, full-size violin is 4/4 and has a 14-inch body. The modern, full-size viola (4/4) has a 17-inch body, and a 4/4 cello has a body of 29 ¾ inches. Knowing the standard, full-size measurements can help you determine if your instrument is full-size or smaller. The inch difference between a full size and a ¾ size is very small, so make sure to closely follow the size guide for help.
Having trouble measuring your stringed instrument for a finger guide, don't worry. All is not lost. If a student can't bring their instrument to me for help measuring, I often tell them to go to a local music store. Local music stores will have the tools and knowledge that you need to get your stringed instrument measured correctly. Especially if you have an older, heirloom instrument it's very important that you measure it because it may not be standard size. Most music stores will measure your instruments for free, and then you can take that measurement and order the correct size of finger guide.
In some cases, I’ve seen students and clients using older instruments that don’t fit into standard sizing. If you’ve got an instrument that doesn’t fit standard sizing, you can hack the guides. You can trim the top or cut it into strips to adjust the pitches. If you ever have any questions about sizing in general, or need help hacking your guide, don’t hesitate to reach out on our contact page. We do our best to help you get your guide on correctly and hack it if your instrument needs a special size.
If we can’t get a guide on your instrument that works perfectly, it’s a money-back guarantee from us.
]]>Official Launch of the FFG for Schools Bulk Order Program
Orchestra teachers now have a better alternative to finger tapes for their beginning orchestra students. Fantastic Finger Guides is collecting contact information for orchestra directors interested in our FFG for Schools Bulk Order Program. If you are an orchestra teacher or know an orchestra program that may benefit from our program please share this blog post.
NOW AVAILABLE - HERES THE LINK TO OUR PAGE: FFG4SCHOOLS
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I have learned from teaching middle school orchestra for the past 12 years that the best way to improve student learning is to improve the teaching system.
I wondered if there was a better way to teach than with finger tapes. I realized through my own experience that finger tapes don't provide any actual musical information to help the student grow musically smarter and are overall a very abstract teaching tool for helping students gain confidence in learning the notes on the fingerboard.
I was concerned that by using finger tapes, my students were labeling the sound only by its physical location and not coding the actual musical language. At one point I used different color tapes for different locations: 1st finger was red, 2nd finger was white, and the 3rd finger was blue.
After a year of playing with color coded tapes, many of my students using this system were coding the locations as 1st finger on the red tape on the A string, but not coding the letter name "B" nor acquiring the musical language necessary for more advanced playing. By the time these students reached the 7th grade, many had deficiencies in understanding their fingerboard in terms of a musical alphabet. This slowed down their growth as the music became more complicated and we started changing keys.
After years of using finger tapes I had a breakthrough in the Fall of 2017:
Why don't we just put the letter names on the instrument?
If we want our students to have their primary coding be more musical we should put better information on the fingerboard itself.
I ended up creating the Fantastic Finger Guides to solve this problem for my students. I created the D Major Beginner Guide for my first-year students and the All Notes Guide for my second-year students. When students are beginning to learn the violin, less is better thus the rationale for a more simplified finger guide.
Let's dig deeper and take a look at what makes for a great finger guide.
What makes for a great finger guide?
As part of the process of inventing the Fantastic Finger Guides, I spent 2 years perfecting the design with these key goals in mind:
The hard work paid off. In the end I succeeded with all of the above, tested the invention in my classroom with great success and I am now sharing the invention all over the world to help beginning violin students more easily learn to play.
Now let’s look at both the D Major Beginner Guide and the All Notes Guide for Beginners/Intermediate Guide in more detail as a music note learning aid. Both guides were designed with the beginner in mind with the intent of streamlining the music learning process.
With the Fantastic Finger Guides on my students’ instruments we are able to spend more time on bow technique, posture, setup, and learning more songs. Students practice more confidently at home and take more ownership of their music learning in the classroom.
What about students learning with the Suzuki Method? Did you design a finger guide for them?
Yes for sure. I love the Suzuki Method. The A Major Beginner Guide works well with this method. The first 9 songs in book 1 are on the A and & E string and the finger guide supports the student as they are getting started and learning their first songs.
I designed the All Notes Guide after finding success teaching with the D Major Beginner Guide. I was determined to create a content rich learning tool that would streamline the process of learning musical concepts like sharps/flats, whole steps & half steps and playing in different keys with more ease than with finger tapes.
Here is what I came up with:
Do the Fantastic Finger Guides work?
One of the most debated subjects among violin teachers is whether or not to put a visual teaching aid on the beginner instrument. The opinions are vast and I actually don't have an answer for others that teach or students that are learning to play the violin. I have found success using the Fantastic Finger Guides over finger tapes in my own classroom with my students. I do believe the FFG are the most thought out finger guide available and worth taking for a test drive to truly find out if they are FANTASTIC.
Have a musical day! Toby Weston -Inventor of the Fantastic Finger Guides
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Ukulele Play is an excellent go to resource for aspiring ukulele players
As I continue my journey to spread the word about Weston's Fantastic Finger Guides I meet all kinds of wonderful people that are offering great resources for musicians. Recently I met Ryan Taylor through my Etsy store. He is a guru of all things Ukulele. His website ukuleleplay.com has years of collected resources both free and for purchase. Take a moment to check it out.
I spent some time browsing his website. I like that he offers not only the printed resources, but also video examples of the songs in several of his books. The Haunted Ukulele on his blog is set up this way. Additional play-a-long videos and instructions can also be found at his youtube channel Uke & Me
Ryan was gracious enough to take the time to review the Fantastic Finger Guide for Ukulele and post it to his You Tube channel and blog. Here is the video review:
Thanks again Ryan for the review of Weston's Fantastic Finger Guides for ukulele!
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Check out this wonderful resource rich blog for violinist!
I am constantly on the look out for new ideas to bring to my orchestra classroom. About 2 months ago I was browsing Pinterest for new ideas and I stumbled upon MusicForYoungViolinist.com.
When I clicked on the link I was blown away by the quality and quantity of blog posts all focused on helping the young violinist. Heather Figi the author of MFYV has created a resource hub for all things violin. She has a lot of both free resources and paid for resources for the young violinist.
Here are links to a few of my favorite posts:
Violin Hacks for Your Studio
The "chinrest" is really a "jawrest."
How to learn vibrato on violin
She is constantly adding new material and has been blogging since 2014. I would consider subscribing to her newsletter. She consistently adds new material and has giveaway contests for free product every so often that. Just this last week she actually posted a giveaway contest for the Fantastic Finger Guides.
Here is the post:
Best Way to Learn Violin Notes?
Thank you Heather for your continued effort to share your love for playing the violin with the world. We look forward to many more posts.
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I get asked quite a bit as to which guide is recommended between the D Major Beginner Guide, A Major Beginner Guide, and All Notes Finger Guide. In this post I will explain the difference between the three guides and give my recommendation. Let's get started.
Most beginning students that have never played the violin start with either the D Major Beginner Guide or the A Major Beginner Guide depending on which method book they plan to use and then transition to the intermediate All Notes Finger Guide. If you have experience playing another musical instrument and/or have an understanding of how to read music then you may consider skipping the beginner guides and go right to the intermediate All Notes Finger Guide.
If you plan to learn with Suzuki Method Book 1...
...then choose the A Major Beginner Guide.
The A Major Beginner Guide shows the A major scale on the top of the fingerboard and the on side shows you where each finger goes.
Continue to use the A Major Beginner Guide for Violin through the first 9 songs in the Suzuki Method Book 1. The list of songs includes:
Upon removing the A Major Beginner Guide you will know all the notes of the A major scale and have good muscle memory for the correct spacing. I recommend after you remove it, that you spend a week or so playing the A major scale and the songs you learned without the guide to focus on playing in tune without the finger guide. Your ears will get stronger with the guide gone.
Following a week or two without the A Major Beginner Guide, then install the All Notes Fantastic Finger Guide to learn the rest of the strings, all chromatic notes and how to play in different positions.
Use the D Major Beginner Guide if your method book of choice starts by teaching you how to play songs on the D & A string.
With the D Major Beginner Guide on your instrument you will learn to play all the notes in the D major scale and the correct placement of your fingers.
All of the method books below start using the D & A string and work great with the D Major Beginner Guide:
Strictly Strings pages 1-25
I would work through all of the D major scale exercises and music found in your method book of choice through the pages above based upon your book of choice. Upon removing the D Major Beginner Guide you will know all the notes of the D major scale and have good muscle memory for the correct spacing. After you remove the guide, that you spend a week or two playing the D major scale and the songs you learned without any guide on the instrument to focus on playing in tune without a fingering aide. This will strengthen your ears and musical confidence.
Following a week or two without the D Major Beginner Guide, then add the All Notes Fantastic Finger Guide to learn the rest of the strings, all chromatic notes and how to play in different positions.
Most students will keep the All Notes Fantastic Finger Guide on as they work through their second method book. With the help of the finger guide you will gain confidence in:
We hope you enjoy your Fantastic Finger Guides. Have a musical day!
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Are you ready to purchase? Please visit the FFG store.
Learn how to install your Fantastic Finger Guide. It is easy and take less than 30 seconds.
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We are building a community around the Fantastic Finger Guides. We invite you to join us. Consider subscribing to our newsletter below to receive notification of future products and "how to" videos around playing the violin.
]]>This has been a long journey from the first prototype of the Fantastic Finger Guide back in Fall 2017 to selling our first 3 guides this Christmas Day. We hope to offer the best experience possible to all who visit our website.
For those new to Fantastic Finger Guides, let me give you a brief introduction. My name is Toby Weston. I am a middle school orchestra teacher and inventor. On my 10th year of teaching I realized that finger tapes didn't work very well for teaching beginners how to play the violin. I looked for a better alternative and couldn't find anything and so I created a finger guide that had all the information I wanted my students to have at their finger tips. My invention worked so well with the students, I figured it would help other beginners out. I am now sharing the Fantastic Finger Guides with the rest of the world.
I am looking forward to an amazing adventure helping beginners around the world get started on their musical journey.
Stay tuned for more details as begin the process of sharing Fantastic Finger Guides.
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