Piano Guidance
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Is 30 minutes a day enough to learn guitar?

But even for the busiest of the busy, this doesn't have to be the case. You can learn how to play guitar in as little as 30 minutes a day, if you organize your practice schedule correctly. In this article, you learn how to: Maximize every minute with your guitar.

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Rest Days

Just as you would when working out at the gym, you don’t need to completely stop studying music on rest days. Instead, you focus on studying concepts away from the guitar in these practice sessions. The two most popular elements that you can study away from the guitar are listening and music theory. Both can be done anywhere, you don’t need a guitar or amp to work them out in your routine. And, they grow your ears and understanding of how music works, even on a rest day. So, though you’re not working your fingers, don’t think that rest day workouts are less productive than days when you’re on your guitar. They can be just as productive, it just takes planning in your guitar practice schedule each week.

Listening – 30 Minutes

As you have two rest days each week, Monday and Friday, you can spread out these concepts in your guitar practice routine. This means spending 30 minutes of listening on Monday, and 30 minutes of music theory on Friday, for example.

When working on listening, take time to do focused listening.

You probably listen to music for hours a day, but it’s often in the background, or you’re not really paying attention. In this 30-minute routine, spend time listening intently as you grow your ears and expand your musical understanding. Here are four examples of listening exercises that you could use in today’s rest day practice session.

Listen to a solo you’re learning on repeat.

Listen to a song you’re learning on repeat.

Listen to a new album.

Listen to a new artist you just discovered.

Music Theory – 30 Minutes

The final element in this guitar practice routine is music theory.

Again, you can use an entire rest day, 30 minutes, to work on music theory, or you can break it up with listening if you prefer. As was the case with ear training, music theory is extremely helpful in your studies, but many players avoid it. Learning music theory doesn’t have to be boring; create fun exercises and you look forward to studying theory each week. By working on practical theory, such as analyzing songs, or reciting the note names for a scale, you tie theory to your fretboard in your studies. This makes music theory practical, and keeps a focus on other elements of your practice routine going at the same time. Here are four examples of music theory exercises that you could use in today’s rest day practice session.

Write out theory exercises such as key signatures, scales, chord tones.

Analyze a song or chord progression you’re learning to play.

Learn a new musical term such as Coda, refrain, passing tone, etc.

As you can see, you don’t need a ton of time each day in the practice room to grow as a guitarist. By working short, 30-minute sessions, and using a weekly schedule, you maximize your time in the practice room. This organized approach is just what you need to become a better guitarist today.

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Is A I7 chord A thing?

The I7 is a "secondary dominant", the "V7 of the IV" chord. It gives a stronger feeling of "fourness" to the IV chord. Now, if you wanted to more strongly emphasize the subdominant (IV), you could do this: I - v7 - IV - I7 - IV - V7 - I .

Having used dominant seventh chords extensively,I am now trying to incorporate minor seventh chords into my compositions... Based on my [rudimentary] knowledge, minor seventh chords are usually used in ii-V-I progressions (replacing the ii with ii7) , and also to add "colour" to the chords... How else could i use these chords in my songwriting?

Besides, i have noticed that minor seventh chords tend to sound a bit "less gloomy" than minor triads, which i presume is due to the "major" component in them. (eg. Dm7 = D F A C which has an F major triad as its "element", ie. F A C). (Not sure whether my statement is true though). Could I use minor seventh chords this way, ie. to make my song a bit happier but not overly happy? Explanations would be greatly appreciated.

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