Wednesday, April 11, 2007

HAVING FUN LEARNING GUITAR

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Are you having fun learning guitar? If there’s one thing I’ve discovered over the years as a teacher, it’s the importance of keeping things simple and fun for my students. This can sometimes require a bit of creative thinking on my part. But I find, if I pay attention to my students, I am often able to discover where their musical interests and desires lie. When I can key into these personal and motivational impulses, then I am able to direct that energy in a positive direction. The result is a happy student who is having fun learning guitar!


When a new student first arrives at my studio they are often filled with hopeful expectations. Many have visions of being able to play like one of their guitar heroes someday. This is all well and good as it establishes a goal. But it usually isn’t long before they realize that visions and reality can be worlds apart! Playing like a professional guitarist requires a bit of discipline and hard work, not to mention sore fingers! The trick to having fun learning guitar is to mix a little business with pleasure! To do this, I recommend that a student spend time practicing the fundamentals as well as learn something they want to play.


Often a student will mention to me that there is a song they’d like to learn. Even if I think that it’s beyond their current level and ability, I still do not want to discourage them from pursuing it. Instead, I try to break the song down into small, bite-size pieces, or perhaps pull out a particular technique for them to work on first. I have found this approach to be very effective because my guitar students are more inspired to practice when they are playing what they want to learn. Their skill level seems to improve more rapidly too, and they are enjoying themselves in the process. That’s what it’s all about in my book!


If a student doesn’t have a particular song in mind, then I will often suggest something for them to try. I find that simplified versions of classic rock riffs are great motivators- especially for kids. Some examples that I’ve used and had success with include Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, and Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix. Another popular and easy rock riff is Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.


If you’re a guitar student who is not having fun learning guitar, then I suggest you find something you’d like to learn. It will make a big difference in how you look at practicing!
Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years.

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Friday, March 16, 2007

Find Easy Songs To Learn On The Guitar To Jumpstart Your Playing

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Certainly one of the best ways of learning how to play the guitar is by using some simple guitar songs that makes it much easier for you to comprehend guitar tablatures. Certainly there are certain benefits to be had from using easy songs to learn on guitar in order that you can play the instrument properly and these are as follows: -

1. By using an easy song a beginner is able to learn the proper pace and rhythm of a song, which makes it much easier for them to learn how to play the guitar. Often just by listening to a song a beginner will be able to make use of some of the strings and so try to associate them with the tempo and pattern of the notes being played.

2. Using such songs will provide the person with a chance to create an ear for music. Often once a person learns how to listen attentively to the music they will be able to distinguish the right note from the right tab against those that are wrong.

Certainly for any beginner the use of easy songs to learn on guitar will make a major difference to their lessons.

There are many places where you can now find information on songs, which are easy to learn on the guitar, and one great source is the Internet. Also there are a large number of books that have been written on the subject with are readily available through your local music store, bookshop or through one of the many sites providing musical information online. You could even try places like Amazon online to see what they have available.

One book that is certainly good for this purpose is "Beatles Complete". The first reason being is that it The Beatles and the second and probably the most important is that many of their songs were composed with relatively few but very easy to play chords such as those that appear in "I saw her standing there" which only has three. Also they do have songs that contain many unorthodox chords as well such as "Michelle". This is certainly a great way for any one to learn new chords incrementally.

So why not surf the web today and see what other "easy songs to learn on guitar" you can find and I am sure that you will be amazed with what results are returned.

For more information on finding easy songs to play on the guitar try visiting http://www.your-guitar.com/ where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as how to strum the guitar.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

How To Play Guitar With Easy Free Guitar Lessons

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If you have always wanted to learn how to play guitar, here is some great news...

The guitar is one of the easiest instruments to learn to play. Yep, many people have taught themselves to play guitar, and you can too!

To learn to play guitar, you will need to search online for the information you need. Most importantly, you should get a chart of guitar chords. You can find guitar chords free online, or in any old thrift shop guitar book.

Your next step is to figure out how to play guitar chords. As a beginner guitar player, you don't need to know a lot of different chords to learn guitar. So here's a free online guitar lesson that you can do right now...

How to Play Guitar - Learn The G Chord:

Step 1 - Look at your left hand and, ignoring your thumb, number your other fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4, starting with your index finger and ending with your pinkie.

Step 2 - In looking at a chord chart, you will see that your index finger (number 1) should be placed on the second fret on the fifth string.

Step 3 - Next, your middle finger (number 2) is to be placed on the third fret of the sixth string.

Step 4 - Place your ring finger (number 3) on the third fret of the first string. Note: The first string is the highest pitched.

Step 5 - Lastly, when all your fingers are correctly in place, strum the strings.

As a beginner learning guitar, you may notice that when you first learn how to play guitar chords, that some of the strings sound dead. This is caused by several things, most commonly because you may not be pressing hard enough.

Also, for proper chord playing, be sure that your fingers are placed squarely on each string. You should avoid touching the middle three strings with your fingers (they should be left open).

If you are touching the middle strings, you will deaden their sound. Another guitar playing tip is to be sure that you are pressing the strings between the little fret bars, and not right on top of them.

With continued practice, you will soon be fingering the G chord like a professional guitarist!

Once you've mastered the G chord, you'll be ready to learn more guitar chords. You will find that there are hundreds of guitar chords that you can learn to play.

But as you first learn guitar, you only need to know a few chords to play your first song. The G, C, D, and E minor chords are some of the most useful chords to know when learning how to play guitar.

I hope you have found this free guitar lesson teaching you how to play the G chord helpful. Good Luck


Article by Jake Hanson. Please visit his online guitar lessons site to learn how to play guitar now with amazing free guitar chord and tab lessons.
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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Accelerate Your Guitar Playing

First, define your objectives and determine your approach. These objectives may change as you progress, but a goal is important before starting to play the guitar.

Begin by forming good study habits. Part of your study will be physical performance and part will be mentally engaged in the study of theory, listening to recordings, tapes and the radio, watching television, Internet and watching live performances. You will be talking to other guitarists, students and professionals, studying in classes and with private teachers and of course via online guitar courses, guitar training software etc. You will also be improvising. All of these activities will give you valuable information and experience, increase your skill, broaden your scope and develop your insights. Keep an open mind and learn something from everyone you meet ...even if it is not what to do!

The following suggestions should help you in your study and practice:
Never practice or study when you are tired or worried. Relax a bit before you begin. If possible study in a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. Have a music stand adjusted to your eye level when you practice, and make sure that you always have good light. Form the habit of studying in a regular place and at a regular time.

Several short study practice periods on successive days are usually better than one lengthy period of study. A little study every day is better than spasmodic, inconsistent study. Use various ways of making yourself think about what you are studying. If you are looking at a printed page of notes, try to imagine them on a guitar finger board and vice versa.

Form the habit of mentally reviewing every page of music you study before going on to the next one. See how much of it you can recall and try to remember it. When you have learned something make use of it as soon as you can. The sooner and more often, the better. If you have learned fingerings for a few new chords so that you can play them even slowly, make up an exercise or song that involves these chords and has you shifting from one chord to another often. It is not enough to learn about something. Unless you utilize this information it does not become a part of you.

When you have completed a reasonable amount of material, take time to summarize what you have covered. You may want to write your summary. Keep a good music dictionary handy, and use it frequently. When you have discovered the meaning of a new word or term, use it yourself.

Self Study

To correct poor study conditions, consider thoughtfully each of the questions below and write specific answers to each one. Then decide what you can do to correct each of the things wrong with your study conditions. Make notes of these and correct them.

1. What can you see on your desk, music stand, or through your window that distracts you?

2. What music, talking or other noises are disturbing your practice and study?

3. What is wrong with your position or posture when you practice or study?

4. Are you sure your lighting is adequate? What is wrong with it?

5. Is your work space large enough and arranged well?

6. What materials do you lack for effect study?

7. What time of day is most difficult to practice or study? Why?

8. What worries or special interests divert you from studying?

Effective methods of practicing or studying, of themselves, will not suffice. Careful planning also is essential. Lay out your work systematically before you begin. Each individual's time, facilities and desires are personal matters. Just be sure to adopt some plan and stick to it as conscientiously as possible.

Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at: => http://www.guitarcoaching.com/


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Sunday, February 18, 2007

Learning To Play The Acoustic Guitar Using Tablature

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The acoustic guitar evolved from classic guitars. The strings of an acoustic guitar are typically made from steel rings, as opposed to the nylon or catgut strings used for classical guitars. That is why an acoustic guitar is sometime called a steel-stringed guitar. Acoustic guitars have a clearer and louder sound due to a much stronger construction than other guitars.

A acoustic guitar is usually played using a guitar pick, also called a plectrum (plural plectra), made from plastic, metal, ivory or other materials. The guitarist strums or strikes the guitar strings with the pick, which he will often hold between the index finger and thumb. Other guitarists do not use a pick, but play with their fingernails or bare fingers strumming or plucking individual notes on the guitar.

The type of construction and the materials used influence the price and sound quality of an acoustic guitar. A guitar with solid sides, back and top will be more expensive than one with laminated sides and back. The solid type guitars are generally made using maple, mahogany or Indian rosewood, whereas cheaper guitars are build with laminated woods. The neck and fingerboard are made with denser woods like cedar and ebony. The tone of the guitar is defined by the combination of woods used in the manufacture. To make the guitars a little less expensive, some manufacturers use alternative materials such as graphite and plastic.

A guitar tablature is a diagram of the strings with finger positions indicated by numerals corresponding to the appropriate frets. Tablature is sometime referred to in the short form "tab". Learning to play the acoustic guitar can be greatly eased by using tablature it corresponds more to how you actually play the guitar than standard musical notation.

Vertical lines on the tab represent the strings, horizontal lines represent the frets and the dots show the finger positions. For an acoustic guitar it is a six line staff with the lines numbered. Take note that the tablature is written "upside down" with the higher notes at the top and lower ones at the bottom to correspond to standard music notation. The numbers indicate which fret should be used.

Guitar tabs are standardized, but various publishers of sheet music may use different styles writing guitar music. Guitar magazines, songbooks and journals will provide a legend to specify the style they are using.

The six line guitar tab has several advantages over standard musical notifaction that use a five line staff for learning to play acoustic guitar. It is much easier to interpret guitar tab and new players can pick it up quickly. So go ahead, get some of your favourite songs in tab format and play away!

Get more Learn guitar music tips and resources at http://www.guitarmusicinfo.com/, including How To Start To Learn Lead Guitar

Sunday, February 11, 2007

How to Take Advantage of Free Guitar Lessons Online

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Do you want free guitar lessons? You've come to the right place. I'll give you a quick guide to all the free guitar lessons you can get.

The internet has given great opportunities that never existed before. You can now find information on virtually anything you need. The publishers who give away such useful information free do so because they've found another way of monetizing their efforts. It's just like TV. You get free programming while they sell advert placements.

Net result: You win; they win too.

So what has that got to do with my free guitar lessons you ask? That's where I was heading. Just give me a minute and it will become so clear to you.

At least you know about Google. People do a lot to rank high for search terms. That guarantees them a lot of visitors whom they can convert to cash. They achieve this with high value content. So, in the music niche and guitar niche in particular, they know that giving away useful guitar playing tips and lessons will make you, a guitar enthusiast, come to their site.

So here's what you'll do...

Go to Google or any other search engine and type in any of these following keywords...

"Free guitar tutor"

"Free guitar software"

"guitar playing tips"

"guitar playing guide"

"guitar online lesson"

These should get you loaded with free guitar lessons. But, what do you do when you have questions about your playing? A number of things:

You can go to gig around you and ask the guys there how. Musicians are very liberal people. They will be glad to show you how to go about your guitar lessons. If you don't have a good guitarist around you, here's an online option...

Search for "guitar player's forum." This will give you a number of guitar help-and-be-helped communities online. If you do these you'll get the most out of your free guitar lessons.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Guitar Warehouse the best place to Buy Guitar and learn Guitar Playing Techniques. Visit our site for over 60 Free Guitar Lessons and Information about playing Guitar.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

How To Play Fast Guitar-7 Tips To Improve Your Skill In 7 Days

1-Practice-It’s obvious but many people claim they want to learn how to play fast guitar but don’t put the time in. You get out what you put in! Even if you don’t have much time to spare, half an hour a day is enough to help you improve.

2-Focus your practice-You can increase the benefits of your guitar practice exponentially by practicing the same stuff each time. A good way to start this is to choose 4 licks or scales or parts of scales (anything except chords will work just fine), and play through each lick in a loop for 15 minutes. By the end of the FIRST WEEK you’ll be two or three times as fast as you were with those licks to begin with.

3-Think long term. Focused practice everyday is great, but it’s even better to have a goal in mind. for example if you want to learn a particular piece, gear your practice toward licks and techniques used in the piece and then dedicate the last 15-20 minutes(depending on how much time you have) to practicing the actual piece. Nothing helps you learn how to play fast guitar and stay motivated more than being able to see your daily progress.

4-Work on legato-Legato actually means smooth, or flowing, but in guitar circles it is the term given to fretting notes with your left hand and making them sound without actually picking anything with your right hand. It could also be called the art of hammering on and pulling off. Excellent practice as it will strengthen your left hand, not only making you faster and smooth, but will improve your vibrato and chord changes too. It just makes your hand fitter! A great way to practice this is to run up and down some scales, but only pick the first note on each string, so you will be hammering on going up and pulling off on the way down. It’s tough at first but persevere and you will get rewards!

5-Use a metronome. Other musicians seem to use metronomes with no trouble, but guitarists are allergic to them, or at least seem to be! I’ll spell it out - An hour with a metronome does A LOT more good than an hour without. It’s simply the best tool for highlighting the weak areas and inefficiencies in your technique. There is a learning curve but stick with it-your playing will change for the better, permanently! Buy one!

6-Use a hard pick. Controversial? I know that people should use whatever pick they want to, but a softer pick WILL slow you down, and a harder one won’t. It’s simple physics. Most picks have a degree of flexibility, so after picking a note we have to wait for it to return to its proper shape before we pick again, or the note is not picked cleanly. Put it this way-trying to learn how to play fast guitar while using soft picks is like putting bicycle wheels on a Ferrari and then trying to drive fast. Not going to happen!

7- Start slow-Work on something until you can play it with no mistakes at all before you crank up the speed. This will do more for your all round musical skills than just pushing the metronome up a few beats every few minutes. If you move forward before your skills are ready your playing will be very very sloppy, and that will be a real hard habit to get out of!

Hopefully those tips will help you break out of a rut and get your fretboard burning!

Steve Higgins is an accomplished guitarist who enjoys seeing others improve their skill. To check out more tips visit his blog.

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Acoustic Guitar Tips for the Beginner

So you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar? Do you have hopes and dreams of one day becoming a professional guitarist in a popular band? Perhaps you just want to play for the purpose of entertaining yourself, family, and friends. Whatever the case may be, I do hope the following article will help you achieve your goals as an acoustic guitar player.


The very first step in learning how to play the acoustic guitar, is of course to get a guitar. For the sake of argument, I am assuming you already own a guitar and are ready to start playing. If not, you may find it easier to purchase a second hand guitar in the beginning while you are practicing and learning the basics. You will also save some cash. When you get better you can always upgrade.


Whether you are buying a new or used acoustic guitar, you will save a lot of headaches if you do your research first. Visit free newsgroups and forums online to see what other guitar players have to say. If you are buying a used guitar make sure you are able to physically see and check out the guitar before buying. You will need to examine the entire guitar for any visible damage or other imperfections. You want your guitar to have the correct action, intonation, and pitch. Your best bet, if you are that lucky, is to find an experienced guitar player to take along with you before you buy.


Once you found your guitar, it's time to start practicing. Learning the correct way to practice is probably the most important part of your acoustic guitar playing success. It is better to practice 10 minutes of quality focused exercises then to spend an hour on the couch messing around trying to learn a complicated song. The environment that you learn in is equally important. You will need complete silence and privacy. You should not have any interruptions at all if possible.
You will need to recognize the learning method that works best for you because everyone is different. The last thing you want to happen is for your guitar learning to become boring and monotonous. I think every one has come to that point at one time or another. You appear to hit a dead end where your guitar playing doesn't seem to get any better. No matter how long you practice, no matter how many finger exercises or chords you learn, you cant seem to get over that hump. Your brain is not responding as well because it isn't being stimulated. Definitely do not become discouraged by your lack of progress. Put down the guitar and take a break. Stimulate your brain by doing something else for a while, then come back to your guitar practice.


Don't give yourself super challenging tasks to complete in the beginning. You are setting yourself up for some major disappointment. Start off slow and easy. Learn the easy stuff first then tackle the more difficult stuff later on.


Set easier goals for yourself. When you set easier goals that you know you are capable of doing, you are building confidence and you are making progress.


Think about the growing stages of a newborn baby. The baby does not come right out of the mothers womb and instantly knows how to run marathons. No, he learns to crawl first, then walk, then run. The baby has to develop his muscles first in order to support his body. The same holds true for guitar playing. If you want to be able to produce clean sounding chords or play complicated solos, you have to develop your muscles, and this only happens when you are patient in your practicing. Over time, you will begin to develop what is known as “muscle memory”. This refers to the body's ability to remember, or automatically perform, a well practiced motion. If you ever watch a professional guitar player, you will see this in action as the guitar player plays complicated chords and solos without looking or even thinking about it.
Be persistent. I don't care if takes you 6 months to learn two chords. Never stop trying. If you have the desire to become a good acoustic guitar player, then you will succeed. It is simply a matter of time.


Listen to as much music from as many different artists as possible. Do not limit yourself to only your favorite artists. There are a multitude of acoustic guitar players out there in a number of different genres including classical, folk, jazz, rock, etc. If you limit yourself to only one particular area, you are depriving yourself of some beautiful music. You never know what artist can influence your playing style. So be open to new styles of music.


I hope this article has gotten you excited to start learning the acoustic guitar. Remember to keep practicing and to never give up, no matter how long it takes.


Do you want to get a HUGE head start on your acoustic guitar learning? You can right now with a FREE 8 Part Ecourse on beginner acoustic guitar. This Ecourse includes audio and video examples as well as a fun music theory game. You can get your first lesson right away by heading over to: http://www.learn-acoustic-guitar.com/.


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