How to play guitar for beginners

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Easy To Learn Guitar Tabs For Peter Gunn



For somebody who just wants to play along with the singing around a campfire, it must look like a fairly easy job to play the guitar. Lots of people can do it and many of them are idiots. But when you look at a piece of guitar tab it looks kind of scary. Well, look again. It is just a picture of a guitar. Visualize it in your imagination. The tuning end of the guitar is to your left, the body of the guitar is to your right. The thinnest string is on the top, the thickest string is on the bottom. Nothing scary about that.

Moving on, we see numbers on the guitar tab. What are they? The numbers running down the left side are the notes sounded when you play the open strings, the numbers that run along the strings represent frets. Frets are the metal strips on the neck of the guitar. You put your fingers a fraction behind the frets to alter the length of the string, so that when it is plucked, strummed or picked the sound is higher or lower depending on how far up the fingerboard you are. So the number one, for example, indicates that one of your fingers must be placed behind the first fret of the guitar. This is the fret closest to the tuning gear on the end of the neck.

Now let us look at a section of guitar tab. This is a short riff from a piece of music called Peter Gunn. It was written by Henry Mancini who probably wrote most of the orchestral music that most of us have ever heard, and it has been recorded by many artists, notably The Blues Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Emerson, Lake And Palmer. The first recording of it was a hit for electric guitar pioneer, Duane Eddy.

All the notes are played on the sixth string - the thickest string, remember? If you play the piano, try it out, the notes are E E F# E G E A G# played as one bar in 4/4 time.

e------------------------------

B------------------------------

G------------------------------

D------------------------------

A------------------------------

E--0--0--2--0--3--0--5--4--

To play the tabs use down strokes with the pick or your thumb. Once you have played the notes once, go back to the start and play them again until you are tired. Congratulations, now you know first hand that it is easy to learn guitar tabs. Really you have all you need to go on and learn your favorite songs. Not many songs have not been put into tab form, so it is just a matter or searching on the net. As your technique gets better, you will find that there are symbols that represent any left hand guitar technique you will learn. If you find tabs for a song that you like, and it contains symbols you do not understand, the tab often has an explanatory key at the top or the bottom. Or you can just look on the popular tab sites for explanations of any symbols you do not know.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Using Intervals To Learn Guitar Chord Charts



Instead of concentrating on the full guitar chords and scales from the beginning, concentrate on learning the intervals. Learn them in relation to a given root note, either going up or going down in octaves. Once you have really mastered where all of the intervals lie in relation to the root note you will see how this can open up limitless possibilities for you.

If you know how to get to any interval from a root note, you can learn scales just by knowing the interval formula for each scale. This eliminates the need for guitar chord charts and scale charts. Instead of memorizing a scale pattern, and only being able to play the scale in that one pattern, if you use intervals you can play the scale in any direction, on any number of strings. To cover the entire fretboard with the simple memorization techniques you have to memorize several different patterns for each scale. In the end this could be hundred of patterns that you have to have memorized. Instead of doing this, why not learn the intervals and be able to change scale patterns around on the fly and create your own scales?

The same goes for guitar chords. Instead of memorizing hundreds of guitar chord patterns, use intervals to construct chords. You will still have to memorize some patterns to be able to play chords quickly enough in some cases, but the point is that the chord is much more flexible to you. You can move notes in the chord around based on the correct scales and sounds to create some motion in your harmony. This will also enable you to discover new chords that may not have a lot of chord charts floating around.

The guitar is a complex instrument thanks to the organization of the fretboard. The fact that notes can be played in multiple places on the guitar means that scales and chords can be played in multiple places. This makes the guitar a flexible instrument that requires a flexible approach to understand it correctly.
Look for more information online about a guitar chart and how to properly use it to learn how to play guitar. Also, consider finding some video guitar lessons to find out more about guitar charts and how they can help you when correctly applied.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Learn To Play The Blues Guitar



Blues songs are played after the bar 12 which means that the track is divided into 12 "bars" or "patterns" with a given chord sequence. The basic beat is repeated again and again for each verse of the song until the song ends. While practicing, one should begin with a single strum down for each shot, until you become familiar and comfortable with it.

Blues has important major chord structure but there are different scales that can be used to create or add a color tone associated with it. Some of these scales are pentatonic major pentatonic minor, Dorian, and Mixolydian. These can be used individually or in combination with each other.

It is essential to the practice three rhythm feels that are used in the Blues, they are: straight feel, shuffle feel, and twelve/eight feel. Straight feel is when the eighth note rhythm is generally used and equally spaced apart, while the shuffle feel follow a long-short. The twelve/eight feel has twelve strokes per bar and each eighth note gets one beat.

The techniques are also vital in the performance of blues on guitar and one of them is the vibrato. This is a musical effect is created when one note is a bit changed to a higher pitch and then back to its original tone, changing the tension of the string. To cover the chords with melodic figures, turns, intros and endings - riffs are used. Delivery times are usually played in the last two bars, so the only the complete solo and the track points back to its beginning.

To fully learn guitar blues, there is no easy way to master it. Learning the Blues requires constant practice no matter what you read in books or see in videos.
Information like this will teach you to Play Guitar and also The Blues Guitar

Friday, June 10, 2011

Learn Advanced Guitar Lessons For Being Impressive Guitarist



By the time you start advanced guitar lessons, you should equip some basic knowledge of guitar basics such as chords, tuning, scales, guitar anatomy and how to care for your instrument. You should also understand strumming and finger picking techniques, genre scales, and what you can do with both hands. Other lessons you can expect out of a good advanced guitar lessons include scale sequencing, sweep picking, string pair pentatonic exercises and guitar inversions.

You should remember that during the process of learning the guitar, playing scales can be an inevitable obstacle that not only you but also all people who want to learn to play guitar have to encounter. Advanced guitar lessons are largely centered on the learning of scales, and it is the reason why they are important. Many of you guys/girls out there have probably struggled handling some of the more advanced guitar lessons out there. I am not necessarily talking about confusing music theory, but more a long the lines of those licks and riffs that put your fingers in a twist.

A quality advanced guitar course program would involve tutorials that are more challenging than those offered to beginning students. Advanced guitar lessons should not start out by teaching you the very basic rudimentary chords, or how to place your fingers on the frets. Instead, the tutorials should be more challenging in that you are given material which spans over the different music genres.

If you want to be a better guitar player, look for tips that will allow you to change the sound with simple techniques or various ways of using the guitar pick. You can take advantage of those tips to be able to develop a style of your own. Advanced guitar lessons will give you the techniques that were utilized by these famed players but the lessons should not prevent you from developing your own style. Find out how experts were able to master their craft and perhaps you can learn something from them.

Advanced guitar lessons will give you ways of rehearsing and remembering the song in your mind before you touch the strings with your fingers. This will help you develop your mental clarity to the point where you can picture what is coming next and hear the entire song within your head.

Advanced guitar lessons also gives you the way of recognizing, understanding and hearing what is coming next. You need to concentrate on the current chord and its scale, the next chord with its scale, and the transition between the two. If you can learn this from your lessons, being a better guitarist becomes very easy for you.
Penny Mena is writer on several different topics, including guitar and other instruments. Whatever you are looking for; Beginner or Advanced Guitar Lessons . Check out her latest website Learn Guitar Courses.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Learn Rhythm Guitar Today



You will need to be able to play to a beat coming from outside yourself. Most people think that they can play okay without a metronome, but this is almost never true. You won't have a drummer or bass player to jam with every moment of the day so your metronome will be there to keep you in time. You can buy a metronome but the free ones you can download from the internet will be quite enough to help you to learn rhythm guitar.

The next most available way to keep in time is to play along with some music. You can buy or download free backing tracks or play along with a group with simple rhythmic songs like AC/DC. AC/DC's Malcolm Young is also a great guitarist to listen to and get pointers from. Another great guitar player with a strong rhythm sense is Johnny Ramone of The Ramones.

A rhythm guitar player needs to know his chords. You start with your basic open chords, move onto bar chords up and down the neck and then get into power chords. Power chords are the least demanding on your fingers and bar chords are the most demanding. Pay equal attention to both.

Power chords only make use of two or three strings which makes them a great friend to the new guitarist who wants to quickly start moving chords up and down the fretboard. Another great thing about power chords is that they can be used in both the minor or major keys. The only thing is you should not be looking for a mellow mood. Power chords are designed to send your audience home with a bad attitude.

If you don't have a chord book or chord charts, get some from the internet. If you have a reliable internet connection, you don't have to download them, just make chord folder in your bookmarks.

The basic tool of the rhythm guitarist is your collection of strumming patterns. Start by playing alternating up and down strokes. If you are playing in 4/4 time as most modern songs are, you can use down strokes for each beat and the up strokes can play the "and" in between, like:
One (and) Two (and) Three (and) Four.
You could use just one or two chords but it will be more beneficial for your rhythm playing technique if you use a basic twelve bar blues or the chords to a favorite song. The internet will be your friend once again if you want to find more strumming patterns for rhythm guitar.

Once you have some basic chords and you have practiced some up and down strokes, you will be in a position to start copying rhythm patterns from your favorite artists. No need to get too fancy, just try some blues and rock. Listen to the rhythm strumming, see where the down strokes occur.

If you love that chuggy metal sound you are going to have to learn some palm muting. First switch to the bridge pickup on your guitar. The strings are muted by the edge of your hand, just below the pinky. Rest the side of your hand on the strings and try plucking the open sixth string. When you have the sound right, switch to your neck pickup and see what sounds you come up with.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

Friday, June 3, 2011

How Long It Takes To Learn Guitar – Three Important Things



What knowledge is important in studying the guitar? First, it's technique of playing an instrument. Only through the exercises learner can achieve synchronization of hands. Speed and accuracy of the extracted notes will depend on an experience level. There are many elements in performing techniques, such as bending, vibrato, flageolets and others. And not matter what guitar you learn - electric or acoustic, guitar player will need all that stuff.

Second, the knowledge of music theory. That is also important thing, because guitar player must understand what he is doing when performing music. What notes are fit in one scale, and which did not. Theory helps to understanding secrets of musical hits and beatiful songs.

And how long learning all that three knowledge will be? It will depend on a motivation of the guitar players and right system for learning. With good teacher learning becoming much faster, but for those who learning guitar by his own much better is using learning system. Regularly training with the system can achieve similar success as well as in training with the teacher. However, the teacher could always hear and tell what's wrong. Being engaged themselves have to rely only on own ears. And of course, time of learning depends on what skills are needed to learn - simple chords or fast solos. For someone, it will be enough the knowledge of chords, but some players will want to use all the possible techniques and styles. So that's only a question of your targets.
Yuri Sincerity is a musician and composer. More about learning you can read in my article – How long does it take to learn guitar

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Learn The Basics Of Electric Guitar



If you are impatient to get started you could check out YouTube. If you are just starting with the electric guitar do a search for "basic guitar lessons". And take the time to just watch the guitarists giving the lessons on video. You don't have to actively try to imitate them, but just watch. Spend a few days or a week doing this for an hour or two and you'll be surprised at how much you have learnt.

When you're looking at the electric guitar lessons on the internet don't worry if you don't like what you see. The video lessons on YouTube are not to everyone's taste - especially someone just trying to learn the basics. Maybe you're just the kind of person who prefers direct contact with the teacher. Some teachers even come to your house to give you lessons.

When you take your first lesson your teacher will show you the correct hand positions and the correct way to hold the guitar. That way you do not begin your life as electric guitar player with bad habits, possibly laying the foundation for injuring your wrist or arms later. If you haven't found a teacher yet the local guitar store is a good place to start. You could answer advertisements in your local paper but I think a recommendation from somebody who already plays guitar is better.

When you are browsing the free electric guitar lessons on the internet take note of the kind of information you can get without paying. Many people complain that free lessons are not as good as paid lessons but it's up to you to judge that for yourself. If you go with free lessons when you first start playing the electric guitar, quite possibly even after some months you will still not be playing a complete song. Free guitar lessons cannot give you the impetus to set up a practice regime for yourself and to systematically learn chords in different positions on the guitar fretboard, practice chord progressions, and then put this knowledge into practice with some of your favorite songs. An electric guitar is not easy to carry around but it's best to take your own guitar to your lessons. You don't need the extra hassle of adjusting to a strange guitar when you are learning new material.

When it comes to learning songs you can make great use of the free tab sites on the internet. Some of these sites have tabs for music that you can't get in music shops. You can also try the various guitar tab groups on MySpace. Some of the free tab sites on the web also have free lessons. If you do a little searching you could find out about the various parts of your electric guitar and how to use them, such as whammy bar technique or how to play harmonics.
Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog containing all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, video guitar lessons and how to learn guitar scales.

Why Should You Learn Bass Guitar Chords?



Close your eyes and listen. Is there a sound that evokes more emotion than a well-played guitar? When you teach yourself guitar especially the bass guitar it should be a wonderful experience that fills you with the joy of achievement. When you first start to learn the bass guitar chords, one of the most difficult tasks to master is to get your fingers to do what you want them to do.

• So what Exactly is a Chord?

A chord is the underlying principle in every piece of music there is. A chord is 3 different notes from 1 scale played together at the same time. For instance, G major is G-B-D, a root, a third, and a fifth.G minor is G-Bb-D, a root, a lowered third (of course), and a fifth. When you play these 3 notes one the strings of a guitar, it will create a nice sounding harmony that is pleasing to the ear.

• Understanding Bass guitar chord symbols

Guitar chords often include symbols in the chord diagram layout. The vertical lines are the guitar strings, the horizontal lines are the frets. An x above the vertical line indicates that a string is free or is not played, while an O designates an open string or a string that is not played on the fret. A filled circle means the string has to be fretted.

In order to learn guitar chords you must first know the sound that each vibration on each guitar string makes. At this point you must also understand how finger placement will change the vibration on each guitar string. To learn guitar chords in this manner, practice and repetition are key to success. You will soon understand how different guitar chords come together to form a song. If you know the chords, you'll know the song - it's that simple.

Once guitar players get a few licks and tricks under their belt they become lazy. When you consider the combinations that are available from just one chord in one position on the neck, it is absolutely mind blowing, let alone the hundreds of other positions and variations available. Just by experimenting with one chord shape at a different starting place on the fretboard can take your mind and fingers to uncharted areas you could not have conceived of before.

• Why Would a Bassist Need Chord Symbols?

Even though bassists don't typically play a lot of chords by themselves on bass, bassists are still very involved in forming the sound of the chord along with the whole band or ensemble. As a bassist, when you play with a group of musicians you are playing one of those "3 or more different notes" that forms the chord being played by the whole band.

In many situations bassists are not told what specific notes to play, but only what the chords of a song are. In this common situation the bassist is expected to play notes that support and complement the sound of each chord as it passes by.

So, bassists often read chord symbols in written music and make up or improvise a bassline that matches the chords of the song instead of playing a specific, written out bassline.

Don't get discouraged if you're trying to teach yourself guitar. Follow the steps below and soon you'll be playing your favorite songs by learning basic guitar chords.

1. Get a chart of guitar chords and look at where the fingering is for each chord

2. Start by simply choosing at least two of the basic chords and work on the transition between the two.

3. Make sure that it sounds good. The fact is that if it sounds good you are probably doing it right. (HINT: If it doesn't sound good to you, press down on the strings firmer with your fingers.)

4. Now learn to enjoy playing guitar chords by choosing a few of your favorite songs that have these basic guitar chords and play them until you can sing along. (FYI: Beatles have a great selection of well known songs that use basic guitar chords as the foundation.)

5. Play daily! You must remember that although its hard at first, you are going to make progress and it will become easier to play the guitar by consistently playing it.

6. Practice! Remember guitar practice makes perfect guitar music!

Indeed, learning to play the guitar can be a lot of hard work. But then, nobody ever said that when you teach yourself guitar it would be easy, only that it would be worth it.
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Learn The Fast Way Of Playing Guitar



-The Playing Position
Proper playing position is required when playing guitar and having the proper position makes it easier and can help you avoid back-aches. The two positions for holding the guitar are the sitting position and the standing position. The two positions for sitting are the classical and the casual position. With the classical position you rest the guitar on your left knee while playing and in the casual position you rest the guitar on the right knee while playing.

In the standing position you put the guitar strap over your shoulder while standing and use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar and place your right hand on the guitar's bridge.

-The Hand Position
An important rule in learning to play guitar is the hand position. It is important that the wrist and hand are both relaxed. The left hand fingers press down the strings on the board and use the right hand to strum the strings.

-Tuning
Having a tuned guitar is just as essential in learning how to play it. Each string is tuned with all the other strings on the guitar. Start and make sure the E string(which is the sixth string and thickest) is in tune followed by the A, D, G, B then E (The thinnest to the thickest string). This is the usual or standard way of tuning and the most popular. You can also use a guitar tuner which can be purchased at music stores, but most guitar player prefer the standard way.

-The Chords and Scales
After you tune, play some chords and scales. Notes or chords are played simultaneously and involves playing two or three strings at the same time. Riffs are created using different chords to make songs. The Scales are notes played in ascending or descending order one after the other moving from one chord to the other.
Information like this will teach you to Play Guitar and also Learn Guitar Fast