Once you have begun to learn all of your beginner guitar chords, and basic guitar scales, you will want to make sure that you are utilizing the best right hand technique possible in order to play your guitar is accurately and as fast as possible.
In order to learn how to play guitar good you’ll need to learn the right hand guitar technique called alternate picking. Alternate picking is also a great way to learn how to play your guitar chords correctly, and introduce the concept of arpeggio playing.
The good news is that you can start applying these simple alternate picking techniques immediately to your guitar playing.
Let’s take a look at how to apply basic alternate picking to your guitar playing.
1. Hold your guitar pick correctly
2. Practice using up and down strokes
3. Alternate your guitar strokes
4. Apply alternate picking to your scales
5. Apply alternate picking to your chords
1. Hold your guitar pick correctly: You want to make sure that you’re holding your guitar pick correctly. If you play guitar only with your fingers this will be a great opportunity for you to learn how to play with a guitar pick.
2. Practice using up and down strokes: The basic concept of alternate picking is quite simple. With your guitar pick you will be picking each note and alternating between down and upstroke’s.
3. Alternate your guitar strokes: Once you have the basic concept of alternating your guitar strokes for each string, (up and down, one note at a time) you can now alternate your guitar strokes. For example instead of picking: up, down, up, down; you will be using the pattern of: up, up, down, down, etc. The possibilities of alternating your guitar strokes are limitless.
4. Apply alternate picking to your scales: On the first note that you play your guitar scale with, pick down. The next note you will pick up. When you have mastered going up and down on your guitar scales the next thing you want to do is to have your first note be plucked upwards first. The second note will now be a down stroke, and so forth.
5. Apply alternate picking to your chords: Alternate picking your guitar chords will do three things. The first thing alternate picking will do is ensure that you are playing correctly each of the guitar notes on the chord you are playing. The second thing alternate picking will do with your chords is introduce you to guitar chord picking patterns. The third thing alternate picking will do with your chords is introduce you to what is called arpeggio playing. Simple arpeggio playing is playing the guitar chord one note at a time. Arpeggio playing is also great for playing guitar chords with slow songs.
29.12.09
How To Play Guitar - The Mysteries of Alternate Picking Revealed
Learn Beginner Guitar - 6 Easy Steps To Finger Tap Like A Pro
There are some very fun and exciting things that are unique to the guitar. One of these unique items is called finger tapping. Although the theory behind finger tapping is nothing new, there is just something about guitar player finger tapping that sounds totally cool. Many other instruments such as the piano and saxophone have tried for years to emulate the sound of a guitar finger tapping. At the end of the day however, there’s nothing like a real guitar player finger tapping like pro.
Let’s take a look at 6 easy steps to learn beginner guitar finger tapping.
1. With your left hand, place your first finger on the second string, fifth fret.
2. With your right first finger pluck the second string on the ninth fret.
3. With your third finger strike the seventh fret
4. With your right first finger strike the ninth fret.
5. Quickly lift your third finger off of the seventh fret
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5
Let’s take a look at a longer explanation of what is occurring.
1. With your left hand, place your first finger on the second string, fifth fret: Remember to use proper left hand technique and place your left fingers just before the fret to get the best sound out of your guitar.
2. With your right first finger pluck the second string on the ninth fret: if you are holding the guitar pick you will want to place it somewhere else for right now. Later on as you improve your finger tapping technique you can place your guitar pick in between another set of fingers.
3. With your third finger strike the seventh fret: This is a technique called a hammer on, and will require practice in order to get the note sounding loud enough to be heard. If you have a guitar amplifier; turning up the volume will help you to hear your hammer on notes until your fingers are strong enough to not need extra volume.
4. With your right first finger strike the ninth fret: If you are having a hard time hammering on the note with your first finger try placing your middle finger over your first finger to give it some extra strength.
5. Quickly lift your third finger off of the seventh fret: You can either lift your left hand third finger as soon as your right hand first finger taps its first note, or you can quickly lift your left hand third finger away from the fret as you pluck the ninth fret with your right first finger.
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5: You now have the basic foundation to begin finger tapping!
Master and Learn Guitar - Revealed: Introduction To 4 Kinds of Guitar Harmonics
Let’s take a look at 4 basic kinds of harmonics that will help you to master and learn guitar.
1. Open string harmonics
2. Pick harmonics
3. Tap harmonics
4. Thumb pick harmonics
1. Open string harmonics: By far the easiest kind of guitar harmonics that you can learn how to play are what are called open string harmonics. Open string harmonics are when you lightly place your finger over your guitar strings. You can play all of your guitar strings at once, or, you can play individual open string harmonics. The best open string harmonics are found on the 12th fret, seventh fret, and the fifth fret. There are other open strings harmonics all throughout the guitar, however, these three fret areas are by far the easiest to find and play on your guitar.
2. Pinch harmonics: Pinch harmonics are individually pinched notes on the guitar. You can choose either your open strings, or any note found throughout the guitar fretboard. With your right hand holding the guitar pick, you will take the tip of the guitar pick and pinch your guitar strings. This pinching action will produce a harmonic. For starters, practice your pinch harmonics on Strings 6, 5, and 4.
3. Tap harmonics: Tap harmonics are the hardest of all harmonic guitar styles to play. Played correctly and you will have a very sonically rich sounding guitar. The great thing with tap harmonics is that you can play individual notes or full fingered chords. With your left hand place your fingers on the note or chord that you want to play. With your right hand first finger you will be tapping individual notes or striking the guitar fretboard with all of your first finger like a long flat stretched out hammer. With your first finger you will be tapping an octave higher from where your left hand finger placement is located. For example, if the note you are playing is on the six string, third fret, you’re right first finger will strike the 15th fret, sixth string.
4. Thumb pick harmonics: Another single note harmonic style that you can utilize is a combination of your right thumb and first finger. Choose your single note or chord with your left hand. Next, place your right finger an octave higher lightly on top of the string, above the fret board. Use your right thumb as a pick. Pluck the note keeping your right hand fingering position. Thumb pick harmonics are an expansion of open string harmonic technique.
25.12.09
Learn to Play Guitar - How to Read Tablature
Knowing how to read guitar tabs is as important as your fretting exercises. For beginners, it will look complex but to be able to learn to play guitar it is necessary to understand tabs. Some may comment that this is not significant but expert guitarists and those who are serious about their career view reading tabs a very essential part of music. It may sound difficult but don't worry because in due time you will learn to play guitar effortlessly and thanks to many online contributors there are now varying forms available to learn how to study tablature the easiest way. So here are some concepts to take note in understanding the guitar tablature.
The staff of the guitar tab is composed of six horizontal lines where the bottom line is represented by lowest "E" and the next to the bottom is the "A" string. There are also number representations in each line which tells you what tab to fret. An example is the number "0" meaning you should play an open string. Now, this is only the basic of reading guitar tab.
When a guitar tab is showing vertically stacked numbers, this means that all the notes should be played at once or in guitarist term strung all the strings at the same time. But when the notes are shown diagonally, chords will be played one at a time or strung the string individually. Usually, a chord name is also shown in the tab to identify it easily.
There also a few symbols that you will notice on a guitar tablature. Here are the most common ones that you should be familiar of. The "h" symbol meaning hammer on, "p" for full off or the "^" symbol which means you can either hammer on or pull off. Another set of symbols are "b" for bent to, "r" for return of bent. A "/" symbol is for an ascending slide while "\" means descending slide. Some other miscellaneous signs include "v" for vibrato but it can also be noted as "~" or "~~~". String mute is noted as "x". The "t" meant tapping with right hand. Lastly, the symbols "<>" are used for harmonics.
These are only the basic concepts of reading a tablature. In order to learn to play guitar, you must know these and apply in your guitar lessons. As mentioned above, serious guitarists do not take reading guitar tablature for granted.
By doing so, you do not only enhance your guitar skills but you will also be able write notes.
HOME :: Arts-and-Entertainment / Performing-Arts Acoustic Guitar Care - Transporting Your Guitar - What to Watch Out For By GK Eckert Platinum Quali
Transporting your guitar from one place to another can be tricky. You want to always make sure that your guitar is safe and secure. But it is not just theft that you need to think about, or even something falling on your guitar. There are some things that, particularly new owners, should know!
Guitars are very sensitive to cold
Just this week, I spent some time, explaining to some new students about the potential danger of "cold" upon their guitar. If you don't live in a cold climate, then you don't need to worry about this one, but many of us do. I have found many new students, just not thinking at all about their guitar. Results can be disastrous
In a winter climate, you cannot leave your guitar in the car, without the heat on! For instance, you cannot put the guitar in the trunk, stop at the local mall, go shopping and then proceed to your guitar lesson. I would never do that to my guitar! I would go home and get my guitar. I have taken my guitar into a restaurant, rather than leave it in a cold car.
Strings contract with extreme cold and extreme cold can cause some very serious damage to your guitar.
Guitars are very sensitive to heat
If you live in a warm climate, you're not off the hook. You cannot leave your guitar in a warm car, or trunk. Left in a trunk, that might be in the sun, you might as well put your guitar in the oven!
In my climate, I have to deal with both extremes. My simple rule of thumb is to never leave my guitar alone in the car. Never. It always goes with me. You'll never run into trouble with that rule.
Trains, planes and buses
Gig bags, those handy light nylon, zipper bags are wonderful things to have. They are particularly handy for children because they are so light. I would always consider a gig bag, a second case for convenience. For traveling, you want a hard shell case. They are more expensive and well worth the investment.
Gig bags, are however, better than the "soft shell" case. The soft shell case is merely cardboard and does not even stand up to water that well. But, if you are serious about your guitar, protect it with a hard shell case.
Be a bit of a pest, when it comes to baggage handling and always supervise the handling of your guitar whenever you can. Don't allow it come down the luggage chute. Luggage handlers should bring it out by hand. And for planes, it might be an idea to insure it, depending on the value.
Now you can travel with your guitar and know how to better care for your acoustic guitar. Your guitar can last a lifetime, but they are sensitive and need special care when transporting them.
Learn Guitar Easy With Classical Music Notes
The guitar is probably the easiest musical instrument to learn. It is also one of the most beloved musical instruments that man has ever known. It's a very compact musical instrument and it is also a very versatile one. There is one thing about guitars that tells you why any person, who has an appreciation for music deeply values its form and composition. That is the fact that you can never be lonely if you have a guitar and if you know how to play a tune on it.
Learn guitar easy with a few pointers to remember. First of all, you really need to have your own guitar. It is one thing not to own one's personal musical keyboard when one wants to learn how to play the piano or the organ, but a person will find it very hard to learn guitar easy if this person does not have his own instrument to practice on or to learn with. You can always borrow your friend's guitar or a relative's guitar if you can't afford to have your own guitar, at present. So this first tip shouldn't really be a problem for beginners. The next thing that you have to do is to determine if you want to learn classical guitar or modern guitar.
With classical guitar, you will have to learn how to read formal music sheets as the guitar techniques that you will encounter will be presented to you in a rather formal way. For modern guitar methods, you will be learning how to play a tune on a guitar through the help of chords and these musical chords are also known as musical chord progressions. For many reasons, people tend to learn guitar easy when they use instructional books and manuals which teach you to play guitar using the different types of guitar chords and the types of guitar chord progressions. One of the reasons behind this can be attributed to the eagerness of people to learn how to strum on the guitar. Whereas for people who would really like to learn how to play this instrument because they would like to distinctly make use of most of the guitar notes, these people are more comfortable with formal classical lessons.
You see, it is often a misconception that the world's greatest composers did not create classical music for guitars. Well, it is not true that the world of guitar belongs to this world's rock bands. Some great composers like Mozart and Handel created music for guitars and if you are someone who would like to learn Mozart for guitar, you can say that you are interested in classical guitar lessons.
Here is a tip for those of you who would like to learn guitar easy or those who want to play classical guitar. You need to familiarize yourself with formal musical notation first. Ask someone to teach you how to locate these notes on the fingerboard of a guitar. Afterwords, you'll have no trouble, as a beginning guitarist. You'll see; you'll have no trouble at all.
Easy Country Guitar Lessons For Beginners
Many of us might not know it, but country music is fast becoming a formidable force in the world of commercial music. The likes of Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, and the most recent, Taylor Swift, have taken the music industry by storm and have styles that remain 'in the now' even after decades have passed. If you're not a fan of bouncy pop music or don't really appreciate the loudness of rock or metal, why not develop an appreciation for the country sound by getting some country guitar lessons?
The Basics
Country sound is a lot easier to digest because it has a calmer, more soothing vibe. In addition, a country guitar lesson doesn't require you to plug into electricity to get yourself going. For most part, country music is accompanied by an acoustic guitar -- and, for many, this is both nice to the ears and the budget.
Easy guitar lessons can be obtained online or by going through guitar lessons DVD courses. Either way, country guitar lessons are a dream to have -- your parents and neighbors will also love you for it.
Learning how to strum country music on your acoustic guitar is similar to simply learning how to play this instrument. Of course, executing it successfully is dependent on how much you feel it, as the heart of country sound rests a lot on feeling and emotion. It wouldn't do you any good, or your listeners, to play country music that has no emotion to it, at all.
Practice
Whether you want country guitar lessons in preparation for a career or do it just as a hobby, it's not likely you'll get anything with your guitar if you don't practice to mastery. Listen to the songs you want to play, feel them, and do this everyday. Study the styles of your favorite artists and try to emulate them; better yet, try to develop your own style from what you've learned from them.
Don't stop practicing until you feel like you've finally made the song your own. Remember, country music is all about heart -- without it, the sound wouldn't mean anything, at all. You will find a lot of resources on easy guitar lessons online, as well as tips and advice on creating new styles with the guitar. Find your niche and practice. If you find that country guitar lessons are what you need, then, by all means, develop the love and start playing.