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Posts Tagged ‘learn guitar’

Mistakes are somewhat inevitable when learning to play the guitar. These include playing the wrong note to developing a bad practice habit. One is minor and the other is major. Obviously, major mistakes are more important to avoid. Avoiding these types of mistakes will allow to progress at a much faster rate. Let’s look at some common, major mistakes most learning guitarists make and how to avoid them.

Most guitarists in the earlier stages of learning practice too much, believe it or not. They often think they have to devote hours at a time to the guitar. This simply is not true. Ever heard of quality over quantity? It applies here. Let’s say for example that you can devote a total of one hour per day to guitar. It’s better to have four 15 minute sessions than one long session. There are several reasons for this. One, practicing for one hour straight will lead to frustration and a loss of focus. Frustration is the number one reason people quit guitar. Two, it’s a fact that the brain retains more from shorter bursts of practicing. So having shorter sessions with more intense focus will greatly benefit your learning guitar.

Another major mistake is playing too fast. What I mean here is learning a piece of music, whether it is a song, scale, chord progression, whatever?then trying to play it at too fast a pace. If you’re just learning the piece, you will not be able to play it like a pro yet. This is a very common and major mistake. Playing too fast too soon is a sure path to frustration as well as a bad practice habit. To correct this, play the piece as slowly as you need to play it correctly. Then scale up as needed. This will develop a good practice habit and eliminate frustration with your progress. A quick side note on speed. When you try to play too fast too soon, you greatly increase the amount of tension in your left (fret) hand, forearm, upper arm and shoulder. It also contributes to misalignment in your back as the tense left shoulder blade exerts pressure on the right. Continuing to do this will eventually become painful and could lead to injury.

Playing music that is too complicated for your current level is also a major mistake. I know everyone wants to learn to play their favorite songs. But if you are a relatively new guitar player, how would you know if the song is complicated or not? Trying to play pieces too complicated for your current level will certainly lead to frustration. See a recurring theme? Many just press on until the guitar looks like a chore rather than fun. Believe me; you can get plenty of enjoyment out of playing simple pieces of music. Start simple, and then as your skills improve, you will be able to play more complicated songs.

I bet you have noticed a recurring theme here about starting simple and building on that. The other thing I bet you have noticed is that avoiding these mistakes will greatly reduce frustration. Getting enjoyment out of guitar playing is your number one priority. By avoiding these major learning mistakes, you will enjoy guitar more and learn much faster.

Author Bio: About the author: Jason Loup is an accomplished guitarist with over 14 years experience playing guitar. For a limited time, you can download his 4 part, professional quality, beginning guitar course absolutely free at www.TheGuitarUniversity.com.

Many factors come into play when successfully learning to play the guitar. Whether you aspire to play professionally or you just want to learn for yourself, setting up the right conditions for learning and progress is absolutely essential. Let’s take a look at 4 simple steps to successfully learning to play the guitar.

1. Laying The Foundation and Understanding Chords

The first step to do anything successfully is to lay a strong foundation. Buildings collapse without a strong foundation. You wouldn’t run a marathon without training, would you? It’s no different with guitar. In order to build that foundation for successful guitar playing, the first thing you need to know is proper positioning. By this we mean sitting positions, holding positions, fret hand positions, and pick hand positions. Included in positioning is how to fret strings, how to hold the pick, positioning the guitar, etc. This may sound somewhat elementary, but the benefits of doing this correctly are numerous. You will be comfortable playing/practicing guitar; you will have minimal tension in your hands and arms. Overall, this makes guitar playing an enjoyable experience and pave the way for great playing.

The second part of the first step is understanding chords. At the most basic, chords are 3 or more notes played together. One note is the root note. The root note is the same as the chord. For example, the note A is the root note of the A chord. Certain chords sound better together than others, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. The main thing to take away is that chords are 3 or more notes played together, and they are the foundation of guitar music.

2. Tuning Your Guitar To Itself

This concept may sound confusing. Guitars need to be in tune to sound correct. There are 2 main ways to tune a guitar. You can use an electronic tuner, or you can tune your guitar to itself. Tuning the guitar to itself is a vital skill and will train your ear like no other exercise. The best part is that you start developing your ear for pitch early in your guitar playing. Believe it or not, your ear is your most valuable tool in guitar playing. Being able to recognize notes and chords by ear will give you the enviable skill of playing songs by ear.

3. Reading Guitar Tablature

Guitar tablature is a very common method of writing guitar music. It is much easier to understand than traditional music notation. Beginning guitarists are often in a state of information overload with new skills, sounds, etc. Tablature, or tab, is a way to combat the confusing nature of traditional written music. In guitar tab, there are six horizontal lines representing the 6 strings of the guitar. The numbers you will see represent the fret that should be played on that string. Also, chord diagrams are written in tabs. These chord diagrams spell out exactly which notes to play to play a certain chords. Understanding guitar tablature will make the process of successfully learning guitar simpler.

4. Chord Progressions

Once you have a working knowledge of guitar tab, you can use chord diagram tabs to learn specific chords. Chord progressions are nothing more than 2 or more chords played sequentially. For example, you may strum a D chord and then change to an A chord. This is a chord progression. Playing chord progressions will help you determine which chords go together-a benefit of your ear training from step 2. There is also a simple formula for determining which chords go together, and your ear will confirm this. Once you have three or four chords that appeal to you, or a few chords that you have mastered, practice playing them one after the other. This will enhance your chord knowledge and playing skill.

As you can see, each step builds on the previous. They also work in conjunction with each other. There are many avenues for more advanced guitar instruction, but learning these 4 simple steps will lay the best foundation possible for successfully learning to play.

Author Bio: About the author: Jason Loup is an accomplished guitarist with over 14 years experience playing guitar. For a limited time, you can download his 4 part, professional quality, beginning guitar course absolutely free at www.TheGuitarUniversity.com.

This is a very common question amongst beginning guitarists. Often, these new players see thick guitar chord books or one of those chord chart posters with seemingly hundreds of chord diagrams, and they become overwhelmed. But guess what? It is true. All you really need to know are 3 chords. Let us find out which ones and why.

When songs are written, they are written in something called a key. A key is represented by a letter on the musical scale, for example the key of D, or the key of G. Within the key, and therefore the song, there are three primary chords. These are the chords you need to know. If you want to strum your guitar and sing along with your favorite songs, all you need to do is find out these primary chords.

What you will then do is listen to the song and play those three chords along with the song. You will very soon figure out the order. It’s even better if you have the song chords in front of you. Just go online and look for tabs or chords for the song. Often, you will see the song lyrics with chords above certain words in the lyrics. This indicates where you will change from playing one chord to the next. (The chords, like keys, are represented by letters in the musical scale such as A or F.) From here on out, all you have to do is figure out the strum pattern of the song.

At this point you are probably thinking, Wait, songs are written in different keys; I then have to know the primary chords for every key, right? This is a very intelligent question. The answer; however, is no. What we will look at now is how to find the primary chords for a key. Then I will show you how to transpose those chords to any key.

This point is best illustrated with an example. Remember there are three primary chords to a key. We will use the key of D in this example. The three primary chords in this key are D, A, and G. How do I know this? I used a simple formula that works for any key. What you do is list out the major musical notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) starting with the key letter. In this case it is D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The formula is 1, 4, 5. Start with D as 1 then count to the fourth and fifth letters. So you have D, G, and A as the three primary chords. This process works for any key.

Suppose you only learn these 3 chords and you find a song with the primary chords F, C, and G. What key is this? Let’s use the process above to find out. Well F and G follow each other in the alphabet, so they are obviously the fourth and fifth letters. Therefore, C is the first letter and the key. Now, how do you, who only know D, G, and A chords, play a song in the key of C? Simple. Transpose the chords by using the formula. In the key of C, the 1, 4, 5 formula gives C, F, and G. In the key of D, the 1, 4, 5 formula gives D, G, and A. So in place of C, play D. In place of F, play G. In place of G, play A. Then just strum along to the song.

The cool thing is you can do this for any chords in key. Whenever you see chords different from those you know, simply transpose them to the three chords you do know. Of course, the more chords you know, the better and more diverse guitarist you will be. You should make an effort to learn and use as many chords as possible. But to strum along with just about any song, you only need to know three chords.

Author Bio: About the author: Jason Loup is an accomplished guitarist with over 14 years experience playing guitar. For a limited time, you can download his 4 part, professional quality, beginning guitar course absolutely free at www.TheGuitarUniversity.com.

All guitar lessons are not the same like all school teachers not being the same. So which to choose- learn guitar DVD or online guitar? Which is the best way to learn? Most people prefer to watch someone showing them something, and then they can duplicate it. You have a lot of options for learning how to play guitar and it is you to find out the most effective way.

Learn Guitar DVD:

Like learning to play guitar online, learn guitar DVDs use videos as the instructional tool. Each lesson has supplement with a printed workbook and practice sessions. Learn guitar DVD is one of the most effective ways of learning and it gives you a more in depth foundation of theory and reading music.

But if you are not a beginner then you may not need all of the course content that comes with the package. For this, online lesson is a better alternative for you. But if you are a beginner then learning to play from DVD lessons is the most suitable alternative available. It lays the foundation for you to become a master guitar player.

Advantage of learn guitar DVDs

* There is no monthly fees
* Large amount of content spread across multiple videos
* You don’t need an Internet connection or computer to watch or practice lessons

If you like going through lesson plans, taking it one step at a time, and having an exact road map to learning something then learn guitar DVD method is likely best for you.

Online guitar lessons

Whether you are a beginner guitar player, or been playing for several years. Online guitar lessons may be the best for you. The Internet makes easier for you to learn guitar on your own. To learn to play guitar online the only thing you need is:

1. An Internet connection
2. A computer connected to it and
3. Your guitar – acoustic, or electric.

Most of the online guitar lessons websites are generally month-by-month memberships. You need to pay/register to become a member and gain access to their lessons database. You can cancel your membership after learning everything and never be billed again. Generally, the Lessons inside membership sites would include:

* basic musical theory
* introduction lessons to acoustic and/or electric guitar
* learn to play guitar chords
* learn to play guitar tabs
* Advanced lessons for scales, and lead guitar

Online membership sites are often best suited for people who already have some basic knowledge about playing guitar. This way they can go in, find the lessons they want to learn more about watch them and move on. Even beginner can benefit from online learn guitar sites as well. The lessons are usually short and concise. They focus on teaching you to play more so then theory and this is what the majority of beginners want. Learn to play songs now, and you pick up the theory later.

Advantage of online guitar lessons:

1. They can supply you a ton of content for cheap. It doesn’t cost anything to add a new lesson each week.
2. You don’t have to wait for anything to be shipped to you everything is available on a companies website right away.
3. You can learn from literally anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Therefore, the Internet, DVDs, and streaming video, all are easier then ever to learn to play guitar. It’s up to you to choose the most suitable options depending on what learning goals do you have, what you do aim to achieve, and how long do you expect it to take? Do you want to be professional, semi-pro or strictly an amateur guitarist? Also have you thought about what style of playing will best serve you best?

Author Bio: Rob Taylor’s Learn Guitar DVD blog. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_A_Taylor

This is the first of a series of articles which will be trying to delve a little deeper into the life and times of the Beatles.

We will be looking at their history, their time in Hamburg, their time at the Cavern Club, their time in America, and the time they spent in the Studio, together with other fascinating little known facts that have come to light over the years.

Without doubt the Beatles are an iconic group, a one off, and although it is getting on for 40 years now since they broke up, their fame and influence is still as strong now as it was back in the 1960′s and early 70′s.

I grew up during the Beatles era, and everywhere that I have travelled around the world they are known, and loved. I remember being in a small nightclub in Thailand where there was a Chinese Beatles tribute band playing, and although I personally did not appreciate the sound that they produced, particularly the singing, they were immensely popular with the locals.

On another occasion I was on holiday in Peru, and half way up a mountain I came across a bunch of Peruvians playing their type of music, on pipes, but the song they were playing was Love Me Do.

So, who were The Beatles?

Well let me begin by telling you the basics, something which many of you reading this will know, but to many of our younger readers this basic information may be something which they have never got a handle on.

The Beatles were a pop group ( as they were called in those days) and they came from a city in the north of England known as Liverpool.

The group consisted of John Lennon who played rhythm guitar and vocals, Paul McCartney who played bass guitar and vocals, George Harrison who played lead guitar and vocals, and Ringo Starr who played drums and vocals.

Two other names were former members ? Pete Best, drums, and Stuart Sutcliffe, bass.

I think if you had asked The Beatles what was their style of music in the early days they would probably have told you that they were strongly influenced by rock and roll, and skiffle. Later on this style did change quite a bit, but that was their early influence.

Now it is true to say that not only were they influenced by many earlier groups and styles of music, but they were quite an influence on many groups that came after them.

Their music, the clothes they wore, the things they did and said, all had an enormous influence on the young people of the day, 1n the 1960′s.

When eventually the group broke up in 1970, John, Paul, George and Ringo all pursued their own solo careers, and we will be looking at those careers in more details in forthcoming articles.

If you would like to be kept updated on future articles then please go to my website and near the bottom of the page you will find my email address. You simply need to email me and ask to be kept updated.

Author Bio: John Charles is a guitarist who has met all The Beatles. Please visit my website at http://www.GuitarPlayingMadeEasy.com to be kept updated.

Many of you reading this will know that some months ago, after playing a few gigs in Liverpool, I was shown by a local guide a tombstone in a churchyard which had the inscription to Eleanor Rigby.

This aroused my curiosity and I decided that I would try and find out a bit more about this person whose name was on the tombstone, and also about the other people mentioned on the same tombstone.

I did indeed find out some information and I wrote an article about my findings. If you would like to read a copy of this article then please go to my website mentioned at the bottom of this article, and there you will find my email address and you can simply email me and request a copy.

I did say in that letter that as and when I could find out some more information, I would be writing another article, and this is the reason for these writings.

Now in case you cannot remember who Eleanor Rigby was, let me give you a few verses of the song, by The Beatles, which made her famous.

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for,

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there
What does he care?

Do you remember that, a great song with a haunting melody.

Well now, soon after I had written my first article on what I had found out about Eleanor, I received an email telling me about a fascinating auction that was shortly about to happen in the UK.

What led up to the auction was this. A charity in the UK had written to Paul McCartney asking for a donation, nothing surprising in that you might think.

This charity did not hear back from Paul McCartney for 9 months, and then, right out of the blue, they received a letter which included a document.

The document was a Liverpool City Hospital salary register, showing the signature of an E. Rigby.

Eleanor Rigby apparently worked there as a scullery maid and the custom was to sign for your monthly salary.

Eleanor earned the princely sum of £14 per month back in 1911 when this salary register was signed.

This document gives us one of the clearest clues yet as to the identity of Eleanor Rigby, the woman in the song of the same name who dies alone with no one to mourn her.

Well I have more to say on this, and more research to carry out, so if you would like to be kept updated then please go to my website where you will find my email address. Simply send me a message asking to be kept updated.

Author Bio: John Charles is a guitarist who has met and spoken with all of The Beatles. Click Here to be kept updated.

When I was a youngster back in the turbulent ’60,s, like most of my peers I used to hang out in the various coffee bars that were around town, and I would feed the juke box which always stood in the corner.

It used to be the unspoken word that everybody drinking coffee in the shop would take their turn to feed the juke box, and by doing this you were announcing to the world (or at least those in the coffee shop) what type of music you enjoyed listening to.

I remember that I used to stay in the coffee bar until about 9 or 10pm each evening (in those days entertainment options were rather limited) and then I would go to my bedroom and tune in to Radio Luxemburg.

Do any of you remember Radio Luxemburg? It was a well known, and much loved, radio station.

There were a lot of radio stations around in the 1960′s, and many of them were stationed in offshore ships. I can’t remember any of the names of those stations or ships now, but if any reader can remember then please let me know.

I also cannot recall now whether Radio Luxemburg was a ship, or whether it was based on land, in Luxemburg. Again, if anybody can enlighten me it would be appreciated.

Well, it was while I was tuned in to these radio stations that I first got a ‘taste’ for the guitar. Somehow it seemed to resonate with my soul and I just loved listening to any record which had a guitar solo in it.

Much as I loved the guitar, I never considered playing it for myself, that is, not until a rather curious event occurred.

Those of you familiar with the road system in the U.K., will know that we have many roundabouts on our roads. These are designed to aid the flow of traffic, without stopping it as happens with traffic lights. They are literally a large circle placed at the junction of two roads, and they often have a small area of grass in the middle just to improve the appearance.

Well one day I was out on my bicycle ( I was too young for a car then) and about a mile from my home I came across a roundabout, and there, sitting in the middle of this roundabout was a friend of mine who was happily strumming away on his guitar.

All the cars that went past could not help but notice him, it was such an unusual sight right there in the middle of a roundabout. It was a bit like being on stage, in the middle of the road!

I sat with him there for an hour or so, and I just wished that I had a guitar to take out and start playing.

But that started me on the path from which I have never turned back. I saved up furiously until I had enough money to go out and buy my own guitar, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Over the years I have played in many bands, and have made music all around the world, but I have never forgotten that ’roundabout experience’.

Now I spend my time teaching others how to play the guitar, and how to find their own roundabout to sit on.

Author Bio: John Charles is a guitar teacher who can teach you How To Play Guitar just like your guitar hero. Click the link for details.