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What do you think playing guitar is all about? Is it just learning the basic chords and the various techniques of hitting the strings? Or is there more to the whole exercise? To be a good guitar player, you not only have to have the willingness to learn, but a natural flair for the instrument as well does not hurt. As it happens so often, only a few of us are blessed with such talent, and hence we have only a few who are recognized as phenomenal players worldwide. However, do not lose heart; you can still learn about playing guitar for your personal enjoyment.

Regardless of whether you are thinking of playing guitar professionally or as a hobby, it is best to undergo the complete learning experience - not just about the different chords and grips. Let us take a look at a critical aspect of playing the guitar - tuning it.

Tuning and Playing Guitar

A very important aspect of learning how to play the guitar is to know how to tune it. A guitar usually goes out of tune ever so often, owing to a number of external factors - the quality of the guitar, the weather, etc. An out of tune guitar will never produce the exact sound required.

Visualize this: Your friends have gathered at your home for the evening. They know you are learning the guitar, and want you to give a small demo of some of the stuff you have learned. You are eager to show off your knowledge and newly acquired skill to your friends. You pick up the guitar and sure enough, it is totally out of tune. You have no clue how to tune it. What do you tell your friends?

Did you know? A variety of different tuning methods are used today. The most common by far is known as "Standard Tuning" (EADGBE)

Things to Know About Tuning Before You Start Playing Guitar

Playing guitar so you produce the right sound depends, to a large extent, on how well you tune your guitar. There are several different ways to accomplish this task. Universally, tuning the guitar involves using another source of sound at the same pitch as the reference pitch. The sound you reference your guitar to is usually the E note. The E note of your guitar should sound exactly the same as the in-tune reference sound source.

Initially, playing guitar can seem a much easier task than tuning it; the best option available would be to get a hold of a friend who plays the guitar to tune it for you. If this option is not viable, an even easier option for tuning is to use a reference source that produces a fixed sound for each note, and does not go out of tune. You could use a pitch pipe or, even better, an electronic tuner or a synthesizer/piano, both of which are sources that produce fixed sounds for each note that do not go out of tune.

You will find more about guitar tuning in any of the numerous tutorials available on the Internet. Once you know how to tune your guitar you can get on with the actual process of learning how to begin playing guitar.

Kirk Downing is the creator of the popular portal for guitar enthusiasts called JamDojo. Total beginners can find a wealth of information in the form of articles and blog posts. If you're trying to learn how to play guitar, JamDojo.com is the answer.

The flat rocks provide a perfect place to sit and watch the water. There are small waterfalls on both sides of me. Today the water of the river flows like crystal clear melted diamonds. The sunlight dances on the water as it moves through the rocks and cascades over the falls.

The river is deceptively calm and peaceful. Hard to believe this gentle flow has created the great flat rocks on which I sit. Yet, it did. It shaped these great stones.

Today as I sit writing on the stony shore of Plum Creek there is no hint of the raw power that these waters sometimes hold. The power roars through this place during summer and winter storms. Today the waters gently caress the rocks. Even the falls spill gently over the stone ledge. The same waters in the midst of a storm can lift these giant stones and set them down in a new place.

It seems to me the perfect metaphor for the pain that the transitions of divorce cause in our lives. We are shaped by these changes. Who you are today and who I am is a reflection of the great river of change that has swirled around us.

How are the waters shaping you today? Are they moving gently so that the changes they create are hardly noticeable? Are they raging? Have they picked you up perhaps against your will to move you to a different and unknown place?

Whatever transition is occurring in your life, it is shaping you for the future. You cannot avoid it. The question is not whether or not you want to be changed. The question is, What are you going to do about it?

When you acknowledge the formative process that continually refines and defines us, you can begin to enjoy the process. Gentle transitions are easy to accept but often hard to notice. The tumultuous changes that rip you out of one place and set you down in a strange new place are easily noticed. How can we not notice them! We can fight them and look back with yearning to the place where we once were. We can look back. We cannot go back.

We serve ourselves well when we turn our eyes to the new place and are willing to discover the wonder there. Life will form you. There is no doubt about it. The choice before us is: 1. Fight against the waters of transition and be constantly angry and frustrated because we cannot change the process. 2. Exult in the changes knowing they will take you to a new place of possibility you might never have imagined.

My stone seat today seems solid and unmovable. Yet next spring I may find it broken, moved or covered with new stones. I never know exactly what is coming. What a marvelous and exciting process1

Are the waters in your life forming you gently right now? Or are they raging? I would love to hear your story.

Melissa McCutcheon is a personal life coach and a licensed clinical counselor. She specializes in coaching people in life transitions to rediscover their passions and strengths to create new and joy filled lives. Helping people who are struggling with the emotional earthquakes of divorce find a new life of fulfillment and peace is a special joy to her. If your divorce was caused by a spouse coming 'out of the closet,' you will find in Melissa someone who understands your unique pain. Read more of her articles and find contact information by going to http://www.makechangegreat.com

I want to explain the reasons why I am such a big fan of people who quit smoking cold turkey. It is not because they are heroes, able to overcome the evils of nicotine and tobacco without help, it is because it is the best way to quit smoking.

Statistical evidence from both Australia and the United states indicates that of all the smokers who have ever quit smoking, over 85% of them have done so successfully by using the quit smoking cold turkey method.

For all of the magic pills and potions available out there, it seems they account for only 15% of all the successful long term quits. This may seem strange given that the quit smoking cold turkey method boasts such a low success rate when compared to the other solutions.

Nicotine replacement therapy allegedly boasts a doubling of success rates in quitting smoking. Zyban apparently trebles the rate and chantix apparently quadruples the rate. Whilst this looks like great news for smokers, it hides a dirty little secret. These methods are successful in the short term, but in the longer term, there is growing opinion based on statistical evidence that these ex-smokers fall back into a life of cigarettes more easily than cold turkeys!

Just a side note here - the company that manufactures Chantix, Pfizer, claims a 44% success rate but it is clear that this is not the case as independent analysis of their data and independent research proves the research was heavily biased in favour of the drug!

My argument here is not that these methods don't increase your chances of success, my point is that long term success is more important than short term success. To quit smoking cold turkey gives you a better chance of long term success than using chemical intervention.

If I told you that you could have $10,000 now and never again or $100 every month for the rest of your life, I hope you would take the latter option.

When we choose to quit smoking cold turkey, we are taking the boring, un-flamboyant but ultimately successful approach as opposed to the glamorous, substance-less short term glory of pills and potions.

At this point you might be thinking well, I'd rather have a better chance in the short term in the hope that you can achieve long term success. You might be thinking that NRT and zyban and chantix offer this to you, but they don't.

To quit smoking cold turkey merely means to not use any chemical interventions such as NRT, zyban, chantix, hypnosis, acupuncture, nicocure, laser therapy, herbal remedies or whatever other miracle cure is being offered at the moment. When you chose to quit smoking cold turkey, you should not do it using brute will power, you should do it using your positive attitude and a whole lot of education about how to quit smoking.

Here is the thing - most people when they think of the quit smoking cold turkey method think it means just stopping smoking - it doesn't. Get yourself educated and learn how to quit smoking before you do it - the success rate for people who quit smoking like this is in excess of 40%. Sure there is a ton of information out there about eating healthily, setting a quit date and all that other stuff about making quitting smoking a big deal. In my opinion it is rubbish simply BECAUSE it makes quitting smoking a big deal

The bigger a deal you make out of quitting smoking, the harder it gets. Buying a can of soup is easy and it isn't a big deal and there aren't support forums littered over the internet for buying cans of soup. Quitting smoking should be treated the same. Learn how to do and then get on with doing it and forget about it. You weren't born a smoker so you sure as hell can return to being a non-smoker.

Whilst I clearly condone education as the best method to quit smoking cold turkey, if you must, try the other methods and remember, any method is only successful if it is 100% successful to you. Good luck and never stop trying to quit.

Would you like to learn how to quit smoking before you try to quit smoking? Pete Howells is the author of the EasyQuit System available only online at http://easyquitsystem.com He also blogs, post articles and videos at http://easyquitsystem.com/blog