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One of the most important things to perfect in your guitar playing before you begin trying to learn acoustic guitar songs is the ability to strum chords fluently. This means that you are able to change from one guitar chord to the next easily and without much hesitation. If there are still gaps between your chords when you play verse or chorus progressions then this is a sure sign that you are not yet ready to begin learning how to play songs on guitar. The following chords are the most important ones to learn… G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, F, G, D, E, A They will give you the ability to play in two musical keys – C major and G major. Since all songs on guitar are written in a specific key it only makes sense to also learn your beginner guitar chords in the context of keys as well. You will find that ultimately this makes understanding music and how songs are structured a lot easier to comprehend and this will allow you to play acoustic guitar songs much sooner. You should put a lot of time into practicing guitar with backing tracks for a metronome so that you can establish a solid sense of rhythm and timing in your strumming technique. It’s crucial that you are able to keep your rhythm steady as nothing is more obvious to an audience listening to you play guitar than going out of time. So here we have the two elements necessary for playing beginner songs on acoustic guitar – on one side there is the right hand technique of learning strumming patterns and on the other side there is the technique of learning guitar chords. When you do both of those together and can match them so that they happen with confidence and fluency then you will be truly ready to start learning your first acoustic songs on guitar. One piece of equipment which you should invest in is called a guitar capo. This device locks in place around your guitar fretboard and will delay you having to learn something called barre chords. These types of chords are much harder to perform than open chords and so most beginners find them extremely challenging to learn. The good news is that with a guitar capo you can continue to use all of the beginner chords you already know but gain the possibility of easily transposing songs into different keys so that you can play along with the original recording of the song. The next thing is to find a list of easy acoustic guitar songs which are suitable for beginners to play. Tags: acoustic guitar songs Guitar SlurringIf you haven’t encountered this word before, you might have question marks all around your head right now. That is okay. I don’t expect every guitar player to know it. Not that it’s a secret or difficult. Some might know how to do it but doesn’t know what it’s called. Okay, enough of the nonsense rambling. Slurring is a guitar technique that is done by fretting notes without plucking or picking them. You only use your left hand while doing hammer – ons and pull offs. Guitar Slurring | How difficult it is to execute it cleanlyGuitar slurring is done with accuracy and skill. It is quite difficult because it’s only your left hand doing it. However, it is much more difficult to play accurately while speed slurring than alternate picking, for some slurring is easier than alternate picking. It doesn’t matter. The point here is that slurring is one way of manifesting speed and skill at the same time. It also gives your guitar solo a new edge to it. It’s like adding some of the best spice to it. Makes it look more superb. But don’t choose it over alternate picking. These two techniques works together well enough. You can make a great combo out of it. Guitar Slurring | ConclusionTo really improve your guitar playing and master the instrument itself, there are several methods that you could do and one of them is to master the various guitar techniques that are known to mankind. Slurring is among them. That is why you should really try to learn it too. It doesn’t matter which genre you prefer as long as you are executing and applying it in the right way, it’s all good. So if you are looking for a brand new technique to learn, try guitar slurring. Tags: guitar, guitar techniques, slurring Guitar HarmonicsAs a guitar player, you should be aware that in order for you to learn and master the guitar, you must also master the many different guitar techniques that are known to mankind. This is how important it is. You should think about dealing with them sooner or later if you want to improve your guitar soloing skills as well as your entire guitar playing capability. It should be emphasized to any beginner guitar players the importance of learning these techniques in order for them to work hard on it and not take it lightly. Learning these guitar techniques are no easy feat. It’s not an easy task at all. Guitar Harmonics | how to do itIf you want to learn a guitar technique, you could try doing guitar harmonics. These are guitar techniques that add spice to your normal guitar soloing skills. If you know how to do these, you could apply it in your guitar solos and make it sound more unique and impressive. There are two types of harmonics
These harmonics produces a high – pitched screaming sound. This brings and edge to your guitar solo playing. You don’t have to necessarily apply it to all of your guitar solos but it’s useful. Guitar Harmonics is not the type of technique that you could bring to all of your genre. It is genre specific and you have to use it properly. Guitar Harmonics used in a wrong way is overkill and would make your playing worst instead of spicing it up. Tags: guitar, guitar harmonics, harmonics How to Change Guitar Strings How to Change Guitar Strings Learning how to change your guitar strings is such an important procedure for every guitar player to know. You must definitely learn how to replace those old ones before they get to corroded and fail you while performing. A corroded string loses the brightness of its tone as well as its intonation. You don’t want that while you are performing. Strings have a certain lifespan, depending on how sweaty your hands could get. If you got regular hands, you can change it at least once every two weeks or so. But if you have sweaty hands, you should change it every 3 days or less. How to Change Guitar Strings – prolonging the life of your guitar stringsTo make your strings live a little longer, know how to take care of it. Simply wiping the sweat and dirt of every after use and regularly everyday could make it last longer. Dirt and sweat is the number one corroding factors that affects the string. By simply wiping them off of the strings, you can slow down this process. To do this, simply get a dry cloth and wipe them individually from the bridge to the neck side of the guitar. How to Change Guitar Strings – processFirst, buy a new set of strings. Loosen the strings individually by turning the turning pegs. Do this one by one. Doing it all together can break the neck of the guitar. Ones removed, clean first the fretboard and every part that you couldn’t reach with the string on. Then replace it with fresh ones again, by a one – by – one fashion. Pull the strings upward from the bridge to the neck side of the guitar several times until it doesn’t detune. Do this for some time until the tuning is consistent. And voila! Strings replaced. that’s how to change guitar strings. Tags: guitar, how to change guitar strings, strings Guitar playing is an art. It is not something that you could learn by using brain without using your heart. The feel is not a thing that could be learned but a thing that could be expressed. That is why playing the guitar is one of those musical experience that connects one’s soul with the instrument. Only musicians would understand the deep relationship between the instrument and the human being. I believe that there is something mystic about guitar playing that human minds cannot explain. Why is it able to reach out to all human beings while language cannot? Why is it that it affects decisions and mind settings? Why is it used as a tool for protest and influence? You see, music is a broad subject. It is something that you cannot comprehend in one glance. The reason why you can create music is because music is already with you. Guitar playing is music making. It is an instrument, a weapon of art. If only you knew how powerful it is then you would appreciate the essence of being a musician. Being a guitar player is not for impressing other people or bragging about your skills, it’s something else. It is a human ritual that connects man and instrument and the other man. Tags: guitar, lessons Nobody taught me about phrasing. Matter of fact, I have only read it recently. I was alienated. I thought, what the hell is phrasing? Do I need it? Well, on a perspective, you don’t really need to learn it, but you would be doing it unconsciously anyway. So, better learn it properly if you want to speed up your learning process. So if you want to know more about phrasing, I have just the necessary things that you need to know about it. This would definitely save you from the hassles of trying to figure out everything yourself. And by the time you finish reading this, you would have everything that is needed for you to jumpstart the learning process. So read now and be enlightened. Phrasing is like placing your own DNA on the music that you play. This is done most especially with guitar solos and lead melodies. Phrasing is like grouping the notes in packs on a certain time signature to make it sound alive. Squeeze notes in to a certain measure, of course, while putting your personal touch and feel on it to make it more emotional and alive. This is where all the techniques go to make it epic. Tags: guitar, lessons, phrasing it down John Mayer is not just another teeny bopper scene that would pass after a few years. He is an icon, a soon to be legend. He’s more into blues / rock / jazz / pop music that has meat and could be your anthem to your inspiration, anytime. Anyway, if he is your guitar hero and you want to play like him, you should really check out this article. I have just the right information that you need for you to be able to play like him. This would save you the trouble of searching the information somewhere else. By the moment you finish reading this. You will be enlightened. John Mayer is not an easy guitar player to copy. He is influenced by several blues rock artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and other blues acts. He either uses several signature models of the Stratocaster and an ES 335 for some songs. His techniques are vast; he uses a lot of bends, vibratos, raking, and other techniques. Scales range from pentatonic to blues and others. If you really want to hear the blues side of John Mayer, listen to the John Mayer Trio. Tags: guitar, how to play like john mayer, lessons Are you a beginner guitar player who wants to play like your guitar idol? Like for example, B.B. King, legendary blues guitar player. Well, you came to the right place because we happen to have just the right information that you need to know about this subject. From the equipment, to the tone, and the style, you can learn it all here. This would definitely save you the headache of searching for information elsewhere on the internet as there is lots of unreliable information available there. So why not get something reliable here. By the time you have finished reading this article, you will have an idea how BB King plays his guitar. First, you need to have the equipment, or get something as close to it if you really want to emulate the signature sound of B.B. King. He is using Gibson for 40 years. His signature guitar is the Gibson Lucille Signature Model and he also uses his own signature Gibson strings with gauges: .010 .013 .017 .032w .045w .054w To imitate the tone, you must have a slightly overdriven tone. Do not use any distortion. For scales, he plays a lot of Pentatonic/Blues scales. Tags: guitar, how to play like BB King, lessons Playing the electric guitar today is not the same with playing it back in the days where you could teach everything yourself and become a world class guitar player. Nowadays, because of the advancement in the way people plays the electric guitar, we can’t simply just teach ourselves everything. We need to have a good teacher, a good guitar teacher. There are lots of guitar teaching materials available in the market nowadays, from DVD’s to books and instructional videos over the internet. However, not all of these things are reliable. Some information on the internet are incorrect that is why it is very important for you to find a reliable guitar teacher, whether online or in real private lessons. Great guitar teachers would know how to manage and schedule the new lessons and techniques that you would learn and would elaborate the importance of these things. He would know how to encourage you and push you until you get to a certain level, far from mediocre. They would build up your self – esteem, your confidence and make you feel good about your guitar playing. They would ensure progress for progress’ sake and would be the one to take you to higher limits. Tags: guitar, guitar teacher, lessons One of the worst things that could ever happen to us in our guitar practice is staying on a certain level long enough to call it mediocre. This is due to a messed – up method of practice and not planning ahead of time what should you be practicing. Planning is an important part of practicing. It involves setting a fixed routine that you plan to do on your practice. It I simply much easier this way because you get to track your progress by checking the techniques that you have mastered. Let’s say you just started playing the guitar. You should put in your planning list these following things: To practice:
Set this practice plan and add the duration, for example, you are planning to perfect this after two months, and then place the months in which you are going to practice this. This is a good attitude towards practice because you have a set group of activities in your practice instead of randomly picking up things that you should which might lead to not doing anything at all and staying on that mediocre level of guitar playing which we do not want to happen to anyone of us. Tags: guitar, lessons, planning There are virtually numerous ways to play your guitar. and all of them have their own rule in doing so and learning how to do it as well is not that easy. However, as much as it is difficult, it is indeed learnable; there is no reason in this world that could keep you from learning it. The same goes with Fingerpicking. It is a guitar style used by folk, country and some other genres but it isn’t limited to these genres only, it could be used on any type of music that you want. So if you want to learn more about finger picking guitar style, read further. Fingerpicking is simple to define. It is a guitar style in which you pick the guitar without using any pick or plectrum but instead, you use your fingers. Most of the time you will use your thumb, your index finger and your middle finger, all at the same time. Your fingers are positioned on specific strings, the low strings are played by your thumb and the rest of your fingers could play the higher strings. It could be much difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be just fine. Tags: fingerpicking, guitar, lessons |