Three easy-to-learn guitar songs

September 1, 2010 by  
Filed under Guitar Learning & Playing Tips

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A lot of people give up quite early in their guitar learning career. This is not often because they lack the needed interest, but simply from the notion that learning the guitar is hard, something only gods have to do before bedtime. However, I have discovered in my brief existence on earth that this is not actually the case; you are probably not learning right. If you learn the guitar under a rigid and dour atmosphere, it might prove daunting. One of the problems with learning the guitar the fun way, is that people at the beginner level often feel that the songs to learn are hard to score. That's a real problem, and I am writing to make you have a sixth sense of songs that are easy for you to score as a beginner, all the while taking care to make sure they are not ridiculously simple pieces or boring trash.

My first take on this issue is that song by Eric Clapton. I wonder if you have heard of Sunshine of Your Love? Funny enough, this song is one of the major surprises in the guitar world. I know you're probably wondering why I have highlighted this song. Well, I did so because this is one song that was composed in minor pentatonic notes. Still don't get the point? In essence, you get to have fun learning the notes, as well as improve on your guitar theory as well. This will help you strengthen you in power chords, string bending and the notes as well.

Listen to Oasis, or more specifically, Waterfall, and you will know that the song will be worth scoring. The thing with this piece is that it is one song that a natural acoustic guitarist will fall for instantly. It allows for intense strumming – something acoustic guitarists love – and the chords are quite easy to pick up. In short, this song will leave your strumming abilities and your chord stock updated.

I don't' believe there is anyone on earth who has not heard Stand by Me, a masterpiece by Ben E. King? This song is very easy to pick up, because it employs only two chords, the A and E bar chords, so it would be ideal for you as a beginner. In essence, your guitar skills will be receiving improvement in the following areas: bar e chords, treble and bass line picking as well as your chord progression.

I understand how it feels to be frustrated when you can't play even just one song on the guitar you profess to be learning. I would however suggest that you get the basic guitar skills before you embark on the noble quest for easy songs to play. The songs will then serve as a witness to the fact that you have mastered the learnt skills and will help improve your qualities until you find yourself to be a state-of-the art guitarist.

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Most guitar melodies are hard to score! As a beginner, here are three easy-to-learn guitar songs!

Learn Guitar Chords – Trying To Avoid Them?

August 19, 2010 by  
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If you want to play beautiful songs, you must learn guitar chords. This is also the only way you can make progress in playing the guitar. The following information will provide you with useful tips on how you can learn guitar chords successfully.#1 Get a guitar chord book

The best thing to do is to get yourself a chord chart that shows you the most important chords. These chords usually can be found in most basic guitar tutorials. You will find a table of the finger placement either at the front or the back of the book. If you don’t have any guitar booklet, you can look online but it’s always handy to have a physical copy by your side.

#2 Learn to play the chords

To start to learn guitar chords, you should learn how to position your fingers. When you first start, it is normal to feel uncomfortable and your hands may even hurt. But don’t give up as you will be able to overcome it once your fingers get used to it. You need to stick to it and keep playing the chords until your fingers feel comfortable.

#3 Memorize each chord

The next step is to memorize each chord by name. If somebody told you to play the A minor chord, you should be able to quickly place your fingers correctly and play the chord cleanly. This is an essential part of the process if you want to learn guitar chords. It will lead the way to the next step.

#4 Chord switching

The final step of the process is chord switching. Many simple acoustic songs require a lot of chord switching so this is something you have to practice. For example, you can start with G major for 2 strums, switch to D major, and then move to F major. Go through as many chords as you can so that it all becomes automatic. This may seem like a monotonous exercise and can be very difficult but it will allow you to master chords so that it becomes second nature.

#5 Practice your right hand

Aside from your left hand, you will also need to practice your right hand. When trying to learn guitar chords, it’s important to train yourself not to over strum and hit strings that you are not supposed to. When you play the chords, make sure that you do not hit another note as it will ruin the sound of a chord. So make sure you fix any bad habits such as strumming other string.

Your wrist should also be loose when strumming chords. You should focus on the movement of your wrist rather than your hands as you will be able to strum up and down with your wrist. You will find that you are getting stuck or you are not producing an even sound when either your wrist is too tight or you are using your hands too much.

In conclusion, you must learn guitar chords if you want to get good at playing the guitar. Keep these tips in mind while you practice and you will be able to play your amazing songs within a short time

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10 Most Important Things When You Learn Guitar

April 24, 2009 by  
Filed under Guitar Learning & Playing Tips

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  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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Don’ts When You Learn To Master The Guitar

March 30, 2009 by  
Filed under Guitar Learning & Playing Tips

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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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Jamorama Guitar Lesson 3 – How to Read Guitar Tablature (1)

March 3, 2009 by  
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TAB or tablature is the most common method of writing out music for the guitar. It is different from classical music notation in that; TAB uses ordinary numbers and keyboard characters as opposed to standard musical notation which uses symbols. Because of this format, anyone with a computer can write or read TAB making it the most user friendly way to read and communicate guitar music. Also TAB relates directly to the fretboard of your guitar meaning that you may easily see where you put your fingers.

In the full version of Jamorama, both standard musical notation and tablature are used. But for this six day course we will only use TAB. The reason for this is that tablature is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading.

TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can’t be easily indicated. This shouldn’t pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one.

OK. To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinnest. On a TAB diagram, the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top – The thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom. This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below.

The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:

Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play. This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written. Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below.

So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar. The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar. Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar called frets. TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets to press down and play.

For example, look at the tab diagram to the right and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played. The number refers to the fret that you should press down. In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn’t press down anything.

So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand.

Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, watch this video of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself:

Now let’s see if we can start pushing down some strings. Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays.

If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly. If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below.

Let’s try another one. Play the following piece of TAB:

This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret.

Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example:

Things become a little more complicated when you are required to play chords, however the basic principals I have already outlined still apply. The only difference is that you will be required to play more strings and hold down more strings with your fingers. In this next example I will show you how to play the chord ‘A’.

A Major Chord

The first and fifth strings are played open while the second, third and forth strings are played at the second fret. The sixth string is not played in the A Major Chord and this is indicated by an X.

If you have read the TAB correctly your fingers should look like this:

Tip: Watch the video of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself:

So now you know how to use basic tablature as it applies to notes and full chords. In this introductory set of lessons you will use TAB to learn different chords and by lesson six you will be able to play the full song, ‘Rivers of Babylon’.


Time to take a break. Well done, you’ve just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about notes on the first string.

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.


Notes on the First String

Knowledge of the notes that are on each string is necessary for understanding guitar theory. The first string is also known as the high E string. The main notes in the first position on the first string are E (open), F (1st fret) and G (3rd fret). The first position refers to the first 4 frets of the guitar.

We will use these notes in the following exercise to introduce to you the concept of note picking.

Exercise:

Note picking is a skill that is used in all types of music. For now, we will use it to familiarize ourselves with the note names on each string in the first position. Pluck these first string notes with a downward picking motion. Notice that your fingers should match the fret number when playing in the first position:

Watch the video for this example:


We will leave it there today in terms of guitar theory. Next time I want to get you strumming a whole lot more, but right now I want to look at something else and that is how to get a ‘that’ sound.


Getting ‘That’ sound – blues/rock guitar solo aka Jimi Hendrix.

Many people around the world love blues, and many people love Jimi Hendrix, in fact some would argue that he is the most influential guitarist to ever grace the planet. Blues/rock guitar tends to have a characteristic sound to it. Sure there is a style of playing that characterizes blues guitar, in fact we cover this style in the Jamorama course thoroughly. There are blues Jam tracks and blues songs, the course will teach you HOW to play the blues guitar, but a question that often pops up is ‘Once I know how to play the STYLE, how do I get that ‘sound’ out of my amp?’.

Ok, firstly let’s look at the aspects of a guitarist’s set up that have an effect on the final sound.

  • Ability of player to play that style.
  • Choice of guitar (i.e. Electric or acoustic?? Solid body or semi-acoustic, single coil pickups or humbucking pickups??)
  • Choice of amplifier
  • Settings on the guitar
  • Settings on the amplifier
  • Other miscellaneous items (e.g. strings, effects pedals etc)

So, from this list we can see that there is simply no ONE aspect that will directly change the sound, it’s the use of all of these things that point to the final outcome. A nice way of looking at it is to treat all of these aspects as ingredients to the sound recipe. By changing the ingredients or amount of, or order in which they are used you end up changing the final product. Obviously one of the most important of the ingredients is the ability of the player themselves. There is no point in having all of the ingredients to play blues guitar if the player can’t actually play blues style guitar… make sense?

Let’s start with the guitar itself, the best choice of guitar would be a solid body electric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, or a Gibson lespaul, pretty much any solid body electric guitar will do. Once you have selected the guitar let’s look at the settings that are to be used on the guitar itself. You will want to select the neck pick up (the pickup that is closest to the neck of the guitar). This pickup gives a more rounded natural sound, often called the rhythm pickup. The on board controls of the guitar (the volume and tone knobs) are also very useful. To achieve a bluesy sound you should slightly roll off some of the tone knob, roll it back to about 7 or 8.

Ok once you have this set up, look at the amplifier. Blues guitarists have a slightly overdriven or distorted sound. To achieve this I want you to make sure that you are plugging the guitar into the ‘Hi-gain’ input of your amplifier (if you only have one input then use that one. What you need to do next is to turn up your amp gain to a point where the sound coming out is slightly distorted (on most amps this would be just after halfway). If your guitar amp doesn’t distort or overdrive then there are other alternatives, you could purchase and use a distortion effect pedal.

Ok, the amplifier’s EQ settings??? What do I do with those? Basically I want you to leave all the ‘EQ’ knobs in the middle (i.e. don’t boost or drop any of them). The bluesy sound really comes from having selected the neck pick up and by having the amp slightly distorting. Follow these tips, and I guarantee you that your next blues solo will now actually SOUND like a blues solo. Get into it! See you in the next newsletter.


Do you wish you knew how to read music like you know how to read English?Would you like to be able to play music from straight off the page?

Let me tell you about my fantastic new music theory learning game Jayde Musica. Jayde Musica takes the bore out of learning how to read music. It is an exciting and challenging new game, and best of all, it’s FREE!

Introducing Jayde Musica, the most fun way of learning how to read music.

Developed by myself and the team here at Jamorama, Jayde Musica brings enjoyment to the otherwise monotonous task of learning how to read music. Watch as musical notes fly across the screen and do your best to identify them! This game goes from beginner to advanced levels, complete with a high scores table.

Jayde Musica is so easy to set up and use that you’ll be having fun learning how to read music in seconds.

I think you will find this to be the easiest, most effective way to learn how to read music. You will be amazed at how quickly you will enjoy using Jayde Musica.

Only a Screen Shot

“I’ve just been using your music note game this morning and i have to say i’m loving it. I’m going to pass it on to my friends. It really is a big help.”

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Features and benefits of Jayde Musica:

  • Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty modes included. Clefs include treble, bass, alto and tenor. You have the option of turning on/off various clefs, so that you can isolate a specific area of music theory that you wish to work on. Fast Learning. Jayde Musica is a great way to accelerate your learning. It will have you self-correcting and trying really hard to remember the various notes displayed, so that you can progress further and gain a record score or even clock the game! It’s free. That’s right, you can keep on using this program and it won’t expire. Unlimited use. You can use Jayde Musica as many times as you want for free and it won’t expire.
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It’s as easy as 1,2,3. Just play the game, start making mistakes and learn from them! As you get higher and higher scores, you’ll be surprised at how dramatically quick your music reading proficiency level will improve.

This program is so simple to use, all it takes is 10mins a day!

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Get Jayde Musica as a free bonus with your Jamorama Learn Guitar course, and learn to fluently read all the musical notes on all the staves in just a matter of days! Jayde Musica will never expire – you can use it all you like!Privacy information: There is no spy-ware contained in this program, we do not monitor your actions or email. When you register this program, we will not give your email address or personal details to anyone. Runs on all Windows and Macintosh operating systems. P.S. How else will you ever learn all those musical notes and be able to sight read them with ease? Get Jamorama and Start Learning with Jayde Musica for Free Today.

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