Songwriter Advisor Blog

Playing acoustic guitar is said to be fairly easy to learn but hard to master.  I agree, it’s pretty easy to find a decent chord chart whether on the web or in a book, and start strumming chords up and down.   But it takes a good amount of practice to coordinate fingering chords and strumming or picking together so that the music coming out of the soundhole makes some kind of sense.

Here’s a quick method to learn acoustic guitar that can have you playing and singing at your next get-together in no time.

• Buy a decent acoustic guitar that stays in tune.  There are a handful of new or used acoustic guitars in the $200-300 range that can do the trick here.  (Washburn guitars offer the highest quality, awesomely priced, best values in this range in my opinion)  
• Pick out a song you dream about playing on acoustic guitar.  Try to choose one with only 5-7 simple chords throughout the song.  E.g., don’t pick out a song like “Hotel California” for your first song (you’ll be able to play a song like this a couple of months down the road).  A song like “Best of My Love” by the Eagles would be a better choice.
• Buy or find the sheet music or chords used in the song you want to learn (make sure it’s in the key of C, D, E, F, G, or A – no flat keys – they are easier to learn and play on guitar) and begin learning how to finger the chords on your guitar one at a time.  Invest in a “capo” so you can transpose your song into a higher key if you need t.
• Try coordinating your fingering and strumming from only one chord to another.  Once you learn the first two chords, learn two more at a time until you’ve learned all the chords in the song.  It should take you anywhere between 4-8 hours of practice over 2-3 days to learn these and get comfortable.
• Try playing the chord structure of the song in bits and pieces from beginning to end to learn the entire chord structure of the song.  Practice this until, while hearing the melody sung in your head, your fingers are hitting the right chords consistently.
• Try singing and playing one note at a time until you can play and sing one measure at a time.  Now try to piece the song together in chunks from beginning to end.  For example, play the intro.  Then play the first two lines of the first verse, etc.
• Once you learn the first song pretty well, go on to another song and try to pick a song in a different key, say key of “G.”  With every song, try your best to pick out a song in a different key like the ones mentioned above.
• Repeat the same method with the new song and every song after that.

Before you know it, you’ll be playing songs in 5-6 different keys and your chord knowledge will already be fairly expanded!

Time to get to work!

Songwriters and performers all have musical influences that ultimately help them shape their own unique sound.

It’s important, while we have a few performers today who actually do have great singing talent and are worthy of emulation, to look back at history to remember and/or discover true talents that can help inspire us not only to write songs more effectively but to also sing and perform better.

Johnnie Wilder Jr. and his brother Keith Wilder founded Heatwave in the early 70’s upon finishing their tour of duty with the US army and set themselves on a path to relatively quick success.  They eventually relocated to the UK to team up with the extremely talented songwriter and keyboardist Rod Temperton, who eventually wrote their biggest hit songs, including the one you see in this youtube video.

The song “Always and Forever” is a classic pop standard worthy of being studied on many levels.  To say this song has inspired countless other artists is an understatement, for this song, at the time, became the song by which all other love songs/ballads were measured.

Watch and Listen To The Video

Here are some points to take and use from this song in your own music:

• The easy, singable melody with short phrases – that is…until Johnnie Wilder starts hitting those unbelievable notes at the end of the song.
• The power of simplicity in lyrics.  True – a song with these types of lyrics would probably be regarded on today’s charts as cheesy; just not hard-edged enough and too mushy.  But you can easily take the inspiration of the message of this song and write your own love masterpiece, right?

For you male R&B influenced singer/songwriters looking to get signed, take comfort knowing major players in the industry are looking for true talent all-around, but they definitely don’t expect you to sing like Johnnie Wilder!  However, use his talent as a barometer.  If you can even come close to how talented he was at singing, you’ve got a great chance.

Tragically, Johnnie Wilder Jr.  (July3, 1949 – May 13, 2006) was involved in a car crash in 1979, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.  He was never able to sing the same after that; but like the warrior he was, he continued producing and songwriting, and at one time, was the most sought after acapella gospel music producers in the US.

Wilder died in his sleep on May 13, 2006 of unknown causes and left behind his wife, a daughter, and his three brothers, including Keith Wilder.

Rod Temperton went on to have an amazing career as a songwriter and wrote three songs on the best selling album of all time; Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”  The most notable songs he wrote for Jackson were, Rock With You, Off The Wall, and Thriller.