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Learning Guitar – Practice Schedule
Realistically, to start improving on guitar, you’re going to need to set aside a bit of time to practice. Developing a daily routine is a good idea… planning to spend at least 15 minutes daily practicing all you’ve learned will really help. At first, your fingers will be sore, but by playing daily, they’ll toughen up, and in a short amount of time, they’ll stop hurting.
The following list should give you an idea of how to spend your practice time:
Get your guitar in tune. Make sure you’re sitting, holding the guitar, and using your pick properly. You’ll have to correct your natural bad habits at first, until it becomes second nature. Play the chromatic scale several times. Try playing it backwards. Play each of the three chords you’ve learned. Check to be sure each note is ringing. If not, find out why, and correct the problem. Try moving from one chord to another. Before switching chords, mentally picture exactly where each finger is going to move in order to play the next chord. Only then should you switch chords.
This is the key to switching chords quickly. If you’re having trouble getting your chords to ring clearly, read this feature on getting your chords to ring clearly. Try playing some, or all of the songs listed above. At first, try only to think of the songs as a way in which to practice playing chords. Don’t get discouraged. This is hard stuff at first, and you’ll probably feel like you can’t do it. You certainly can. Everyone struggles, so just put in your 15 minutes, and then don’t worry about it until the next time you play. This is supposed to be fun! That’s it for now!
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Easy Guitar Song Lesson – Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
Learn how to play the song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen with this free guitar lesson. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, this song peaked the charts at number two in the UK and number one in the USA. It is from the album “The Game
This song is relatively easy to play. You will need to know the following chords: D Major, Dsus4, G Major, C Major, B Flat Major (The Lesson Below uses a BFlat Major Power Chord. Marty demonstrates how to play this chord below.), A Major, E Major, F Major
A big thanks to Marty Schwartz for sharing this video lesson. Marty is an amazing guitar player and one of the best guitar instructors online. You should definitely check out his website here for more awesome lessons and resources. I can’t recommend Marty’s Website enough!
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Learning Guitar – Playing a Scale
Now we’re getting somewhere! In order to become skillful on the guitar, we’ll need to build the muscles in our hands, and learn to stretch our fingers. Scales are a good, albeit a not very exciting way to do this. Before we start, look at the diagram above to understand how fingers on the “fretting hand” (the hand that plays notes on the neck) are commonly identified. The thumb is labeled as “T”, the index finger is the “first finger”, the middle finger is the “second finger”, and so on.
The Chromatic scale
Hear the chromatic scale (mp3 format)
The above diagram may look confusing… fear not, it’s one of the most common methods of explaining notes on the guitar, and is actually quite easy to read. The above represents the neck of the guitar, when looked at head on. The first vertical line on the left of the diagram is the sixth string. The line to the right of that is the fifth string. And so on. The horizontal lines in the diagram represent the frets on the guitar… the space between the top horizontal line, and the one below it is the first fret. The space between that second horizontal line from the top and the one below it is the second fret. And so on. The “0″ above the diagram represents the open string for the string it is positioned above. Finally, the black dots are indicators that these notes should be played.
Start by using your pick to play the open sixth string. Next, take the first finger on your fretting hand (remembering to curl it), and place it on the first fret of the sixth string. Apply a significant amount of downward pressure to the string, and strike the string with your pick.
Now, take your second finger, place it on the second fret of the guitar (you can take your first finger off), and again strike the sixth string with the pick.
Now, repeat the same process on the third fret, using your third finger. And lastly, on the fourth fret, using your fourth finger. There! You’ve played all the notes on the sixth string. Now, move to the fifth string… start by playing the open string, then play frets one, two, three and four.
Repeat this process for each string, altering it only on the third string. On this third string, play only up to the third fret. When you’ve played all the way up to the first string, fourth fret, you’ve completed the exercise.
When playing a note, place your finger at the “top of fret” (the area of the fret farthest away from the headstock). This will produce a clearer sound.Try to use alternate picking while attempting this exercise. If this is overwhelming, try using only downstrokes with your pick, but learn properly once you’ve gotten used to the scale.Once you’ve finished the scale, try playing the scale backwards, by starting at the first string, fourth fret, and playing all notes in exactly the reverse order.
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Guitar Lessons – Where Do I Learn to Play the Guitar?
One question I often get asked is, where do I get guitar lessons?
When I started out to learn to play the guitar I had to primarily teach myself how to play and figure out where I could get guitar lessons.
However I was lucky in the fact that my dad could play and he taught me some of the basic chords to get me started and I went from there.
So what I did was listen to records of some of the guitar players and bands that I wanted to play like, and I would try to imitate what they were playing on their guitars.
Now this is not an easy way to learn to play the guitar, you can’t see what they are playing or what chords they are using. When i started you could go the music store and buy some guitar lesson books to get you started, however they were hard to understand and slow to work with.
So when I’m asked where do I get guitar lessons? Here are some of your options. You can get books from the music store, or you can take lessons at your music store,or you can hire a private teacher. However I feel one of the best ways to get started today is to learn from video lessons.
With video you will not only learn your guitar lessons but you will be able to see what your teacher is playing and how they are doing it so you can play along.
Here are some benefits of using video to learn to play the guitar.
1. Learn from home
2. Learn at you own pace
3. Actually see whats being played
4. See the finger positions of the chords
5. Hear whats being played
6. Pause the lesson
7. Replay your lessons as often as you want
8. You will become a better guitar player
9. You will learn in less time
10.You will be able to jam along with some of your favourite tunes faster than you think.
So, were do I get guitar lessons?
Well you can search the Internet for a good video training course just beware their are lot’s of poor courses that only teach the basics and are hard to learn.
Here is one high quality course that I highly recommend, they use pro guitar players and teachers,they offer free lessons, and you will learn to play the guitar the proper way form the beginning. Take a few minutes and read all about this course.
David has been playing guitar in a professional band for over 30 years, He owns his own home recording studio and recently released a new C.D. and is currently working on his next C.D. release for next year. He also spent a few years teaching guitar at his local music store.
Troubleshooting Speed Problems
Is there a riff/solo you can’t play? This happens quite a lot when you hear a new cool song and you tend to blame your cheap guitar or something and throw it away and look at signature models for the whole week and decide you can’t play worth crap.
This guide will help you speed up and play that thing faster than the original.
So lets troubleshoot.
Note: This lesson does not include any tablature of any sort and is just to refine your technique of playing songs. Sometimes, you do the correct thing in practices but not in playing songs.
This lesson is divided into two parts :
I – FOR THE LEFT HAND (when your left hand lets you down)
II – FOR THE RIGHT HAND (when your picking hand lets you down)
Problem 1: Using all fingers
There can’t be a single hero to fight villains for the whole world. Yeah, using all fingers is very important. You might be able to go faster with just three fingers at once, but in the longer run, practicing with all your fingers is very important. There are a lot of chromatic exercises which can help you. You just know where you can use the other finger.
Problem 2: Distance of fingers from the frets
The biggest and most common problem I get to see with guitarists is that they raise their fingers too high from the fretboard when they just used that finger to play a note. Keep all your fingers very close to the fretboard, just enough to get them inaction when required and not to close to mess up or mute the string. This is very important. This is the main problem when you can’t play a riff or lick. So go check yourself.
Also, check the action of your guitar.
Problem 3: Barring a fret in a solo
Yea, this is a bad thing to do. Give your fingers as much freedom they can get. For those of you who don’t get what this means, Barring a fret means sticking your index finger all the way up to two or three strings when playing a solo. This happens a lot while playing the basic pentatonic when the index finger doesn’t have to change positions. Don’t bar the fret and try again. Maybe you can do it this time. Do some stretches and you can hopefully conquer this problem
*Note : Sometimes you have to bar you finger when tapping on multiple strings together.
Exercises:
Stretch your fingers, use all the above methods and keep on practicing the same thing. Boring but gives great results.
If nothing else works, use the good old slow-it-down method. Use all the techniques given above while playing slow and increase your speed by practice.
Problem 1: Picking style
I know this old crap but if you can’t play a thing just use economical picking. No harm is done. Sometimes even alternative can’t even do it. Some songs do use a specific picking pattern but to most listeners, there is no difference. If you don’t know what alternative or economical picking is, it is explained in one good lesson I read. Go check it out.
Problem 2: Right hand movement
OK, when you strum quick patterns which require great right hand stamina, make sure that you are moving just your wrist, not you whole goddamn arm. YEAH, seriously, just move your wrist. Most of these riffs are palm-muted so go rotate your wrist.
Exercises:
Use a metronome and stop at specific beats. If you are playing 32nd or 16th notes at a great speed, its is important that you know when to stop or fret.
Just start a metronome, play sixteenth notes for half a bar then start playing again after a quarter beat.
Thats all, if you don’t find this lesson helpful at all, maybe you are picking a song too fast for you. It is very important that you proceed in a orderly fashion picking easy songs first. You can’t play Malmsteem at your first go, its true, they don’t call them GUITAR GURUS for no reason.
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Barre Chord – 7 exercises to master the barre chord
You are invited to practice these exercises in parallel to the other lessons, practicing on average one exercise per week.
DEFINITION: To “bar” means to press several strings, on a single fret, with only one finger. In these exercises, barre chords will always be indicated by the letter C followed by a Roman numeral to indicate the fret where the “bar” occurs (example: C III represents a bar on the 3rd fret). Please note that all “bars” will be done by the forefinger of the left hand.
If after your first attempts, the sonority of your barre chord is not clear, or is even non-existent, try to correct it as follows:
play as close as possible to the fret use other fingers of the left hand to strengthen your thumb-forefinger grip (for instance, by pressing the middle finger on top of the forefinger)move your forefinger, from top to bottom, in the fret where you press it to obtain a clearer sound.
These exercises are graded by order of difficulty. Start with the first exercise and do not pass onto the next one until you play it correctly (sound, rhythm, etc.). The mastering of the barre chord requires a little perseverance: practice well, but don’t give up!
EXERCISE: Link the barre chord on the 2nd fret with the open string arpeggio. The sequence must be played in a steady beat! This exercise, like the others, must be practiced for one week. It is only at the end of this period that it will start to yield results.
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Rhythm of the Blues: difference between straight and shuffle beat
THEORY:
The eighth notes (straight by definition) divide time into two equal parts, i.e. you play two notes, of EQUAL duration, per beat.The shuffle eighth notes divide time into three equal parts. The first note occupies the first two thirds and the second note occupies the last third. See figure I.
EXAMPLE:
Here are two popular songs. One uses straight eighth notes (Are you sleeping brother John?), wheras the other uses shuffle eighth notes (My Bonnie is over the ocean.). See figure II.
If you have doubts as to the accuracy of your rhythmic interpretation, do not hesitate to consult the part entitled “How to play the rhythm” of this guitar course.You will recognize the pieces which are interpreted in shuffle eighth notes thanks to the presence of this logo at the beginning of the piece.
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The fingers of the right hand – Preparation for arpeggios
Playing with the fingers of the right hand supplements the pick technique. It gives the song a softer sound and makes it possible to chain chord progressions more easily using arpeggios. This technique will eventually allow you to play the melody and bass simultaneously (not approached in this volume, see volumes II and III of this guitar course).
NOTE: Playing with the thumb, forefinger, middle and third fingers may seem easier to you or, on the contrary, more difficult than with a pick. This is actually quite normal, certain people feel more comfortable with one technique than with the other.Exercises # 2 & 3: the arpeggio is identical except that the thumb of the right hand plays either on the second low string (A) or on the third string (D). The playing instructions are identical to those in exercise 1.
Exercises # 4, 5 & 6 are played with only three fingers (the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of the right hand), the left hand still does not play. They will prepare you for the “Anatole” with arpeggios in the following lesson of “How to play the guitar – Volume I”.
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Learning Guitar – The B minor chord
Here’s where we take the next big step in our progress as a guitarist… learning about a shape of chord referred to as a “barre chord”. The technique of playing barre chords is one which we have utilized when playing the F major chord – using one finger to hold down more than one note.
The B minor shape 
We’re going to put your first finger to work on this chord. Your first finger has the job of covering the second fret, from the fifth to first strings (we don’t play the sixth string). Next, put your third finger on the fourth fret of the fourth string. Then, add your fourth pinky finger to the fourth fret of the third string. Lastly, place your second finger on the third fret of the second string. Got it? Now, strum the chord, and try not to get upset when most of the notes don’t ring clearly.
This is a tough chord at first, no doubt about it! You’re going to have to have patience, it WILL sound good soon, but it’s going to take some work. Here are some tips that will help you: Very slightly bend your first finger. A straight and rigid finger is not what we’re looking for. Roll the finger back slightly, so that more of the side of the index finger closest to the thumb is in contact with the strings. Try slightly pulling the body of the guitar towards your body, using the arm of your picking hand. Also gently pull the neck towards you with your fretting hand. This makes fretting barre chords somewhat easier.
Movable chord
One of the greatest things about the B minor chord shape is that it is a “movable chord”. This means that, unlike the chords we’ve learned so far, we can slide the same shape around to different frets to create different minor chords. The note we’re interested in is the note on the fifth string. Whatever note your finger is playing on the fifth string is the type of minor chord it is. If you were to slide the chord up the neck, so that your first finger was at the fifth fret, you’d be playing a D minor chord, since the note on the fifth fret of the fifth string is D. THIS is why learning the note names on the sixth and fifth strings are so important. We’ll be getting into different movable chords in the next lesson.
Hold the shape of the B minor chord, and play strings one at a time. Correct any notes that aren’t ringing clearly. Try moving from other chords to a B minor chord, then back to other chords. This will be a slow and difficult process at first. Keep trying! Try playing different minor chords by moving the B minor shape around to different frets (eg. try playing C# minor, F minor, G minor, Bb minor, etc.) Do NOT play the sixth string when playing a B minor chord. Pay careful attention to this.
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