Online Guitar Lessons: JamPlay.com

Music is an important part of our lives – we can use it to change our moods, create an atmosphere, or simply to relax to. Learning to play guitar is not only a great way to experience the music; it is also an enjoyable, useful skill to have. The electric guitar is one of the most popular instruments, and lessons can be found online that will help you learn to play.

The electric guitar is an instrument that can be played with many different styles of music because it has many different sounds. When listening to the radio, you can hear the electric guitar on a hard rock, jazz, blues, country, easy listening, or pop station. You may want to learn the electric guitar so you can play along with your favorite bands, but you just don’t have the money to pay for lessons. The good news is that many websites offer online guitar lessons that can teach you much of what you need to know.

Here is a link to free Sample lessons on the JamPlay.com website:

The one drawback to online guitar lessons is that you don’t have a teacher right there in the room with you to help you place your fingers on the right strings and show you a specific chord. However, there are other benefits to learning from a teacher online. One, of course, is that the lessons are free. Also, many websites offer a section where you can communicate online with your teacher if you have any questions about what you are learning, e.g. at JamPlay.com. Another benefit is that you can take the lessons whenever it is convenient for you, and you can often select what you would like to learn.

Read my JamPlay Review here

There are different styles of electric guitar playing that go along with many different types of music. You can learn to play chords, and you can learn to read musical notation or tablature, which is simply the system that is used to write down a series of notes known as a guitar riff. You can learn that different strumming patterns will give you different effects. The electric guitar can also come with different effects pedals, which give your music a whole new sound when you use them.

In order to find the best free online guitar lessons, you may need to try a couple of different websites, or ask someone that you know has taken lessons before. There are lots to choose from, and once you find the one for you, you’ll be on your way to learning to play like the pros!

Learn And Master Guitar: Learn Electric Guitar

If there’s one single lesson that electric guitar students of all styles of music need to learn, it’s take it easy – slow down. The music will still be there, you don’t have to rush out to meet it. If you have a tendency to go too fast, to try to force your body to do chord changes before the muscles have learned them properly, ask yourself how you want to be sounding in a year’s time. Because if you don’t slow down when you are learning you are going to be sounding like a hat full of baby seals in one year – and probably twenty years time!

An important aspect of learning to play electric guitar is how you are going to be holding the guitar during your long hours of practice. If you do not pay attention to this stuff now, you could end up with back, neck and shoulder problems later from straining your muscles and skeleton.

Now you have your guitar, and of course a decent amplifier. A practice amp is good for use when playing near loved ones if you want to remain loved yourself. Another good idea is to get some kind of guitar effects program for your computer but be aware that some of them can be very hard on your computer’s resources.

A tuner and a metronome are essentials. These are two bits of equipment which are part of the discipline of electric guitar playing. Get into the habit of tuning your guitar from time to time during practice sessions – you might be surprised how far out you can get without being aware of it! While you are first learning how to play electric guitar you probably won’t be able to do too much jamming with friends until you develop a familiarity with your instrument. So once you feel you have gotten the hang of a song or a riff, try it out with the metronome. As slowly as you need to; you are not doing anybody any favors by rushing.

Do you need a teacher for electric guitar? Can you get all you need from books in your local music store or off the internet? It’s true that looking for a person who can teach you what you need to know in a way that you can handle it is a bit of a trial. It’s like any relationship, a lot better without the other person, but what can you do? If you want to try learning without a ‘human’ teacher then I recommend the DVD course Learn And Master Guitar.

There are also many ways online to learn to play guitar. Some give the less expensive option of downloading the videos and instructions. For online guitar lessons I recommend JamPlay.com. Their guitar teaching lessons are excellent and you can interact with your teacher and ask questions on the forum.

As the distinction between electric guitars and synthesizers becomes less distinct the novice electric guitarist gets more opportunities to reproduce the sound of his or her favorite artist. But as your guitar skills expand you will have a world of electronic music to play with. Enjoy!

10 Most Important Things When You Learn Guitar

1. Get a good guitar that will not impede your learning ability. Make sure the action (distance of the string to the neck) of the guitar is good and that it is correctly intonated (the bridge adjusted so the strings are the correct length) or you will have tuning and playing problems. Also learning on light gauge strings is advised to stop finger strain. It is worth paying a few extra dollars to have the guitar ‘set up’ before your start to play. Here is a more comprehensive guide to selecting a good acoustic guitar.
2. Get a good teacher or a good Guitar Lesson DVD or software or a great Learn Guitar Online Course that explains the methods of learning in a simple and easy manner and will ensure you are playing songs or at least riffs within the first couple lessons. Avoid learning boring scales and exercises that will just de-motivate you! You will have to learn these too, but it can be done later.
3. Practice every day for at least 15 minutes, and always practice what you cannot play yet rather than playing what you already know or you will not progress. Try to learn simple versions of songs you know so you can sing along even if it’s just in your mind with the song.
4. Learn a mixture of chords, single notes, scales and riffs even at the first stages of learning. This is important to develop your technique and strength in the finger and wrist.
5. Have the guitar, if possible, in a place where it is easily accessible, so you will want to pick it up often. If it’s in a case in your closet you will forget about it.
6. Know how to tune your guitar. Always have a tuner to ensure you are in tune otherwise you will sound horrible. If you don’t have a tuner you can use our free online tuner.
7. Use a metronome (click to download free metronome software!) so you can stay in time and develop a sense of rhythm. This is one of the most neglected areas of learning and often the biggest cause of bad habits later on in a student’s progress.
8. Try to learn to play songs you enjoy and play a style you like. Don’t play Bob Dylan if you like AC/DC. However its not a bad idea to learn new styles but stick to what you know and like at least when you are still Learn To Play Guitar Fast.
9. Take a recording device (your MP-3 player e.g.), record yourself and listen back to it. No matter how awful it may sound it will improve both your desire to learn guitar, and your ability to play better. Also if you want to play lead guitar, play over a recorded rhythm part so you have a musical backing to play to. This will improve your solo ability dramatically.
10. Set a stopwatch or timer for 3 minutes and continue to play without stopping. Sounds too easy? Try it! It is a lot more difficult than you think. Most students play on average for about 30 seconds before stopping and starting again!

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My JamPlay.com Review

Disclosure: The opinions offered here are my own based on my experience. All information is verified as accurate at the time of review. If you choose to visit one of the courses I reviewed on this website and make a purchase I may receive a commission, how ever I do not allow this to interfere with my rating and review process. I never accept paid reviews and each product is thoroughly tested by me. All opinions offered here are my own. I am open to reviewing any guitar-training course – please feel free to email me with your suggestions.

What you get with the JamPlay.com Guitar course I was member of JamPlay.com for 6 months. JamPlay.com is a website with online guitar lessons and a huge Facebook like community where beginners and advanced guitar players hang out. You learn absolutely everything you need to know about learning and playing guitar there. If you like Social Networking, JamPlay is definitely for you.

How JamPlay.com works: The subscription is currently $19.95 per month and cheaper when you subscribe for longer. You will get about 300 hours of video lessons from over 20 different instructors. I found it very cool that there are lessons from so many different teachers as everybody has his or her own style, strength and knowledge. This means a huge variety and different ways of looking at things. You will never run out of guitar learning video lessons on JamPlay because new lessons are added all the time! However, it is also very easy to get distracted and socialize and chat more than you practice… Each lesson is filmed from multiple camera angles you can focus on the teacher’s picking and fretting hands – very helpful! Each of the lessons ranges from 15 minutes to an hour and comes complete with a downloadable lesson manual (sometimes you need to see it in writing). You have also access to content like tablature, chord charts, guitar learning exercises and much more. The online chat and forum are a lot of fun: you create your own profile and can search and find other guitar players based on their profil by location, level of playing, favorite bands, and many other search criteria.

What I liked most Over 20 different teachers which each their own expertise and style Hundreds of video lessons for any style and kind of music, acoustic, electric, jazz, blues, rock, metal, etc. They have a huge chord library They have songs from famous bands to play along You meet people from all levels from beginners to advanced Like Facebook you can connect with other members via chat and forum and make like-minded friends (if you can trust their numbers, about 1,000 members are online every day plus many guests) Making friends who are also learning guitar is a great way to stick with guitar learning!

What I didn’t find so great… I really liked being a member for a few months. Then I decided to cancel my membership because: If you are like me, you are tempted to jump around and try out things. You can spend hours on their website and have fun, but you don’t progress in your playing! (This is why I preferred the ‘Learn and Master Guitar‘ course, because I liked it better to follow a course step by step!) Like for every online program you need to be able to sit with your guitar next to your computer to watch the sample lesson, and this was in my case not as convenient as to sit in front of my widescreen TV and pop in a guitar lesson on DVD.

Getting Started I hope this review was helpful to you. Click here to try some free JamPlay sample lessons at JamPlay.com

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Don’ts When You Learn To Master The Guitar

You are having a midnight beach party. You have the spirits flowing, the barbecue steaming and the moonlight for company. What more could you ask for? An acoustic guitar, maybe. There is something about the acoustic guitar that makes it the most popular musical instrument in the world. If you have ever seen a great guitarist, then you must surely have wondered at least once what it takes to play like that. The question is ‘Why can’t you play like that?’

What does it take to easy learn the guitar? Does it require extremely fast fingers? Or maybe a musical ear is what you need? Is your friend gifted with some special powers that the ‘guitar genie’ from the lamp bestowed upon him? Not really. The fact is that just about anyone including you can learn guitar easy provided you are willing to put in the time and the effort. However, the reason most people are unable to easy learn guitar is because they unknowingly pick one of the ‘five golden don’ts’ of guitar learning. These are mistakes that almost every one of us can make and yet, they can very well end your aspirations to be a good guitarist.

Number 1: Trying to self learn guitar without a well structured guitar learning program: Are you bitten by the do it yourself bug? I love the do-it-yourself bit too. But there are certain things that require the special and skilled hands of a teacher or a disciplined training, and the guitar is one of those things. There have been and will be self learners. For the rest, there is the safer and saner option to learn the guitar. All the free guitar lessons floating around the internet cannot replace a well structured guitar course it you want to learn guitar easy. So, if you have been dabbling with the thought of self learning with free online lessons, then drop it and find an effective guitar learn program.

Number 2: Trying to learn guitar too fast: I must have heard this a million times. ‘I want to learn guitar easy and fast.’ If you feel that the guitar doesn’t deserve too much of your time, or regular guitar practice is unimportant to you, then you shouldn’t learn guitar in the first place. And thanks to the demand for ‘fast learning’ courses, there are hundreds and thousands of websites and books that are dedicated to such learning techniques. ‘Learn to play the guitar in 7 days’, ‘Learn to play basic guitar tabs in 3 days’. Why I have even seen the extreme in which you can learn to play the guitar in two hours! Absurd is the word to best describe such courses and websites. Be realistic! Do yourself a favor, stay away from these scams. Get a solid guitar learning program, go slowly and steadily through the lessons, and it will be easy for you to learn the guitar.

Number 3: Lack of Practice: The guitar is an instrument that requires immense patience and resilience in order to master. If you learn a new guitar lesson, then you must practice it ‘at least’ once every day until you can play it blindfolded. This is the technique that I successfully used. I have seen people practicing the guitar once a week. Believe me, you are going to find it very difficult to learn guitar if you practice it once in a millennium. Another common problem is that people only practice what they are good at, learning only the easy parts and avoiding the rest. The reason is very simple. If you are good at something, then it obviously sounds good when you practice. But you are limiting your progress by avoiding the difficult parts. So start practicing the worst part before anything else. Slowly, you will learn to play it with equal ease.

Number 4: Jumping to chords: Another trait that is commonly seen in the ‘fast learners’. Chords are the mainstay of guitar music. Yes, they certainly are very alluring. But most people want to jump to chords and start playing songs as soon as they start to learn the guitar. This is extremely difficult, almost impossible. You have to master playing the scales first. Not only will the scales help you to build a musical ear, but it will also help you to spread out your fingers. Finger exercises are an extremely important part of building a strong foundation. And yeah, don’t forget to use that lil pinky.

Number 5: Give up too soon: You are going to be miserable at it for the first 5 to 6 months. Admit this fact and get along with it. It is human to produce those dead sounds at first while learning to play guitar. But do not give up. You have to stick to it. Most people quit when they are nearly there. It’s up to you whether you want to make it or quit midway. Its different strokes for different blokes. Do not be flabbergasted if your friend is learning faster than you are. Work hard, keep practicing and you will definitely be a good guitarist one day.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_787621_48.html Author: sanjaynair http://www.sanjaynair.com, Occupation: Freelance Content Writer and Blogger

Sanjay is a freelance content writer and blogger with over 3 years of experience. He loves to twiddle with words and blogs about freelance writing, copywriting and blogging. His articles are informative and make a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.

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Is It Easy To Learn And Master The Guitar?

Some people say it is difficult, others say it really is easy to learn guitar. The ones who say that it easy are the ones who have actually learned to play. They have chosen the music style they want to learn and have disciplined themselves to set aside some time every day to practice. They have learned to read sheet music or tab and they have found out about the rewards of playing guitar for themselves or for their friends.

Go out and buy yourself an acoustic guitar, download some chord charts and guitar tabs from the internet, or buy an easy learn guitar course, get yourself a guitar tuner, and try teaching yourself. That’s the beginning, see whether you can easy learn guitar by yourself. Probably you won’t be by yourself for very long – there is always somebody who has also learned some guitar and who is ready to share their experience and jam with you.

If you decide to learn from online learn guitar videos you will easy learn from a great variety of guitar tutors. You are benefiting from the experience of guitarists from all over the world you would otherwise never have known. If you are able to devote some time to practicing regularly what you have learned from these guitar videos you will easily make fast progress as a guitar player.

If you begin to learn the guitar you will learn about callouses on the fingertips, and about the need to keep your guitar in tune at all times. If you can afford it, you could try taking lessons with a private guitar teacher – you will always gain something from the experience. Or you could keep teaching yourself with online guitar lessons for beginners, intermediates, or advanced players, make use of learn guitar DVDs, or the free guitar lessons on video that you can view on the internet.

Learning the guitar by yourself is one of many easy ways, but the problem is that it is missing structure. It is not easy for some persons to set themselves a disciplined practice regime. So in order to easy learn guitar, your progress as a guitarist will also include self-motivation. A great easy learn guitar course with a very active and helpful online Student Community is Learn & Master Guitar.

So if you get yourself an acoustic or electric guitar, learn some chords and some strumming patterns, you’ll be off to a good start. From there you can branch out to easy learning solos or riffs or fingerpicking.

How I Learned And Mastered The Guitar

In spring 2010 I started learning to play guitar. I knew zero about playing guitar or any other instrument, so I wasn’t sure where to start. I downloaded all free guitar lessons I could find, watched videos on YouTube and tried to play along, but after a couple weeks I still sucked and I thought I will never learn it. I realized that I needed a ‘real’ Learn Guitar course if I ever wanted to learn to play guitar. So I started looking for online lessons, DVDs and software to learn to play guitar.

On this website I want to share my review of the three learn guitar courses I have tried out, and hope my reviews will help you find the course that works best for you.

• Read my Jamorama review (great entry-level course)
• Read my JamPlay.com review (if you like Facebook, this is for you)
• Read my Learn And Master Guitar review (this is my personal favorite – it helped me becoming a decent player in about 6 months – and I’m still using it to master the advanced stuff)

I got the Jamorama course first, because it comes so highly recommended on many guitar review websites.

Then I joined JamPlay (an online community with many lessons) and also bought the Learn And Master Guitar course on DVD.

I had selected these programs because they seem to be the most popular ones and always pop up when you do an online search for ‘learn guitar lessons’ or ‘online guitar lessons’, ‘guitar lessons on DVD’, ‘guitar lesson reviews’ and so on.

I was looking for the one program that would show me in easy and fun video guitar lessons how to learn guitar, with a ‘virtual’ teacher explaining everything to me like a ‘real’ guitar teacher would.

You find my Learn And Master Guitar review, my JamPlay review and my Jamorama review on this website.

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My Updated Jamorama Learn Guitar Course Review

Disclosure: The opinions offered here are my own based on my experience. All information is verified as accurate at the time of review. If you choose to visit one of the courses I reviewed on this website and make a purchase I may receive a commission, how ever I do not allow this to interfere with my rating and review process. I never accept paid reviews and each product is thoroughly tested by me. All opinions offered here are my own. I am open to reviewing any guitar-training course – please feel free to email me with your suggestions. The New Jamorama Learn Guitar Course I had bought the old version of Jamorama already two years ago (and returned it because I found it too basic). In July 2011 I bought their newly updated Deluxe version because I wanted to know why everybody else seems to like the course (they have now sold over 100,000 copies). And I have to admit, the new version is awesome! You can get the NEW Jamorama now in 3 different versions: Standard, Deluxe (both downloadable) and Hardcopy. Jamorama is a Step by Step downloadable learn guitar course, and members now have online access to a comprehensive members area. The Standard Edition is a beginner to advanced course and focuses on learning to play chords and strumming. The Deluxe Edition goes beyond the standard edition and takes the student into playing guitar solos, lead licks and scales. It provides you with over 12 months of lesson materials and prepares you to play famous songs. If you would like to see the specific features, please visit Jamorama.com for more information. I bought the Deluxe Edition for $99 and found it impressive. It is a complete package and covers the whole process of learning guitar, from strumming, muting and bending, to timing, reading music and playing songs. All parts of the Jamorama Learning Kit work well together to make learning to play the guitar fast and enjoyable. You can also get a Hardcopy Edition which contains the Jamorama Books, DVDs and Software plus online access. This means you can begin the lessons online right away while you wait for your package to arrive in the mail. With the Jamorama course you get some great free bonus games and software (GuitEarIt, Jayde Musica and Jamorama Metronome) for use on PC or Mac.

How the Jamorama Guitar course works: Each lesson comes as video where you can watch a real player teaching you how to learn to play the guitar step by step. This is one of the neatest things about Jamorama, they have covered everything in detail and made it real easy to understand, so that everyone can follow and learn how to play guitar fast. So you can learn step by step at your own pace. For every lesson you have written material plus video and audio lessons, plus the software programs. I loved the video lessons and have to say the books are a clear and concise combination of instruction and encouragement, and really easy to understand, even for guitar newbies. I was also impressed with the bonus software and games. It’s a lot included in the course. You learn how to set up and tune your guitar, finger-picking and strumming. Also the Jamorama metronome is really handy. All in all, it is great value for the money compared to other guitar courses available online. The Standard version retails at the time of this review for $49, and the Deluxe package for $99.

What I liked… The Forum: With Jamorama you get the benefit of being part of a massive online community of guitar students and teachers, the place for all of those nagging little questions you may have while learning on your own. The JamTracks: you learn how to play along with others in the privacy of your own home so you’ll be ready to jam with real musicians. The Price: You can’t beat the price. The Standard version for $49 has already everything you possibly need to get started, but if you can afford it, go with the Deluxe version as it covers a lot more. Either way, Jamorama is one of the most complete and best priced guitar learning programs available. The Extras: You will not only learn how to play, but also how to set up a guitar, how to string it, or how to recognize familiar chords and progressions so you can start playing them instantly (‘Ear Training’)

What I didn’t like… If you already know how to play the guitar and are looking to get to a more advanced level then Jamorama is not for you. I’d rather suggest the Learn And Master Guitar course. If you are new to the guitar, Jamorama is the most complete learn guitar course at the best value you will find online.

Getting Started

Click here to see the current price on the official Jamorama website

I hope this review was helpful to you.

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Jamorama Guitar Lesson 1 – Getting Started

Sitting Positions There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg. Position yourself at the edge of your chair. Ensure that your back is relaxed but straight. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly. Standing Position Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned mid-body. Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar. Rest your right hand over the bridge of the guitar. Hand Positions It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury. Front View Rear View Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this: Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts unnecessary strain on your wrist and thumb. Fretting When you play the guitar, you use your left hand fingers to press down the strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar. Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is called fretting. Here are some tips you will need to know: 1. Short fingernails are essential. Use only the tips of your fingers to press the strings. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. We will cover chords in lesson one. Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks. With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips). Holding the Pick Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below: Time to take a break. Well done, you’ve just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about chords and by the end of this lesson you’ll have learnt the A Major chord. Don’t forget, for the ultimate guitar learning kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamorama.com. Now you are ready to start your first lesson. Your aim in this lesson is to learn the A and D major chords and to introduce yourself to reading guitar tablature. This lesson is very important, so I want you to really focus. Remember! It is more beneficial for you to practice multiple times during a week than to practice for one long session. This is because your brain processes information in chunks at a time and it can only hold a certain amount in short term storage. For example, with phone numbers, it is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time. Yet if you give yourself time between practicing, even if it is just 10 minutes, you’ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More information on effective learning is contained in our Jamorama product at Jamorama. Ok. That aside, let’s get started on the lesson. To start with, I want you to have a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information. FretsThe guitar neck is divided into what we call frets, making a fret board. Most guitars have around 20 frets. In this first book, we will focus on the first four, also known as the first position. In book 2, we will move beyond that. Notice that we number each fret starting at 1 at the head of the guitar. Note: Each string on the guitar is numbered. When you hold your guitar as you would when using the casual playing position, the 1st string is at the bottom and the 6th string is at the top. Notice also the term, ‘Tuning’ at the bottom of the above diagram. Tuning refers to the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to. In the above diagram, I have given a very common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E. The open 6th string is called low E. The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E. I will explain notes and octaves to you in a later newsletter, but for now, you only need to know the names of the notes in standard open E tuning. Now make sure that your guitar is tuned to open E tuning (the most common tuning). You will learn how to tune your guitar in the Jamorama course and you can use our included guitar tuning software to help you tune your guitar. We will stick to standard E tuning throughout this newsletter, but you can find other tunings to play with in our member’s area at Jamorama. Introduction to Chords Now we are going to look at guitar chords. Guitarists use many different chords to make progressions or riffs that can then be used to create songs. If you are not familiar with some of these terms, it’s ok. We will cover everything that I am talking about in good time. A chord is defined as a combination of 3 or more notes played together. To examine this, I want to take a look at chord diagrams. Chord diagrams are used to illustrate how a chord is played. They are very easy to use because they look very much like the neck of the guitar, in fact, the Jamorama chord diagram is a guitar neck. As stated above the Jamorama chord diagrams are going to be pictures of an ‘actual’ guitar neck so it’s easy to make the connection between strings and fingering. There is also a picture of the type of chord diagram that appears in most other Guitar learning guides. I want you to be aware of that form of ‘standard’ chord diagram because you may want to use it when writing up chords on paper at home. So, now that you know what a chord diagram looks like and how it matches with the neck of your guitar, it’s time to come back to what I said earlier about a chord being a combination of 3 or more notes played together. Finger placing symbols are added to the chord diagram so we know which notes to play. To start with, let’s look at your fingers. We give each playing finger a number that we can then match up on the chord diagram (see below). And now, let’s look at a full chord diagram. We will use the example of the A major chord: Chord Diagram – A Major Chord In the chord diagram below you can see that the A major chord uses fingers 1, 2, and 3. Take note of how this chord diagram looks – we will use this style from now on. The A major chord is constructed of the notes A, C# and E. We will cover notes a little later. For now, we will make chords without knowledge of individual notes. Note that there is a red dot marking the 6th string on the above chord diagram. The red dot tells you that you are not to play that string. The sixth string of the A major chord is not played, but you play the rest. Throughout this newsletter series, every chord diagram will be accompanied by a picture of the chord being held on the fret board and video and audio of the chord being played for you to check with. Pictured below is the A major chord being played. Exercise: Playing the A Major Chord Position each finger with care, according to the above diagra Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Play the first Audio or video example to hear how the chord should sound. Now that we’ve looked at chord diagrams, I want to move on to strumming. Introduction to Strumming In a strum there are two types of guitar stroke. They are up stroke and down stroke. Throughout this book these strokes will be notated as follows: When you play a stroke, you strum across the strings just in front of the bridge of the guitar with the pick in your left hand. When strumming a chord, make sure that you play all of the necessary strings in the chord. The stroke direction will depend on which stroke is indicated; up or down as shown above. Exercise: Strumming the A Major Chord Position each finger with care, according to the A Major chord diagram(above). Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Once you are sure that you are holding the A major chord correctly, practice strumming the chord in single downward strokes as indicated below: While you play this, see if you can say out loud an even 4 count. Another option if you are a Jamorama.com member is to use the Jamorama metronome – it will help you to stay in time. Try your best to start your strum from the fifth string each time you strum. A major, doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the top string, although if you want your music to sound professional, you’ll want to play this chord properly. Remember to stay relaxed. Your fingers may hurt a little but they will get stronger. Now that you are playing the A major chord properly, let’s take a look at strumming another chord… The D Major Chord The D Major Chord is constructed of the notes D, F# (F sharp) and A and is played using fingers 1, 2 and 3: As with the A major chord: try strumming the D major chord in downward strokes with your right hand. Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select “save as”): Note: The top two, or fifth and sixth, strings are not played in the D major chord. Make sure that you start your stroke from the third string each time you strum D major, it doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the fifth string, although as with A major above, if you want your music to sound professional, you need to play this chord properly. Hints for Buying a New Guitar Whether you’re buying your first guitar, upgrading or simply adding to your collection, your first priority is to do your homework. There are many different resources available and you should endeavor to use them all. Guitar magazines are a good place to find out prices and specifications on different models of guitar. You can get similar knowledge from browsing at your local instrument shop. Another great tool is the internet – you can check for the most competitive prices, get some information on the manufacturers and search for other guitarist’s reviews and opinions. You really need to arm yourself well before you try haggling with your local guitar salesman. Often you can find online auctions where guitars sell for incredibly low prices; however, I wouldn’t advise you to take this option. As a rule you should always play before you buy so that you get a chance to gauge performance. Once you’ve got the background knowledge that you need on the guitar of your choice the next task is to set yourself a budget and stick to it. Don’t let salespeople talk you into spending more money than you anticipated. Testing out new guitars in the shop can be an intimidating task for beginners. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not. Check the frets for buzzing by playing each one. Make sure that the neck is not warped by looking down it as if you were sighting a gun. Check that all of the volume and tone switches etc. are in good working condition. It is a great idea to take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a possible purchase, so see if you can persuade a teacher of friend. Not only will they be able to offer helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public. This FREE course in brought to you by Jamorama – The Ultimate Learn Guitar Course

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