The Best Way To Learn To Play The Guitar

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If you’re wondering about the best way to learn to play the guitar, there are two ways of looking at the question. One viewpoint says you need to learn musical theory and read sheet music. This method of learning gives any student the maximum number of possibilities. The idea is that you have learned to read music and know your theory, it does not matter how talented, or otherwise, you are, you have the knowledge it takes to get a job in a band or as a session musician or a guitar teacher. More success is obtained with this method if you start early in life.

When you are older, you may not want to learn what all the little dots mean; you want to grab the tabs to some songs, and start playing. You learn to play the music you like. Guitar tabs is an easy method of writing music, and you can learn it in half an hour. Using tabs to learn songs depends on knowing what the music sounds like. Tabs show you where to put your fingers, but not how long the individual notes last, or the time signature and tempo of the song. To make the most of learning from tabs, you should have a YouTube video of someone showing how to play the song, so you can pick up some pointers about guitar playing that tabs can’t show you.

Watching guitarists or guitar teachers on video will help you with how to hold the guitar, the way to place your fingers on the fretboard, and how to strum and pick. If you have any technical questions about guitar playing, you can probably find a video clip on YouTube that solves it. The other way of getting help with your playing is to join a guitar forum like Guitar for Beginners and Beyond

Other areas of music such as improvising and song writing are open to you whether you can read music or not. Someone with grounding in musical theory will probably find it easier because he would be familiar with the way songs are constructed, but if you don’t read music, you can start with whatever material you have. If you have a tune in your head, you can put words to it. If you have words, you can fit them to an existing tune, and change it around a little.

The thing that can put you ahead of a person who has learnt music, is the hours of practice you have under your belt. If you have the time to spend a minimum of two hours a day on your guitar, you will have the intimacy with the chords, scales and songs you have learned that will enable you to develop your own way of writing songs or improvising.

The best way to learn how to play the guitar is the way that involves you making use of every opportunity to learn, any way you can. Use every available minute of the day.

Category: Guitar For Beginners

Learn How To Play A Blues Solo

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The basis of your efforts to play a blues solo will be the minor pentatonic scale. In the key of E, the scale is: E G A B D. Just five notes, but they are all good ones! If you are new to guitar playing you may not be aware of how many different ways you can play five notes.

e—————————–0–3–0——————————-|

B——————–0–3——————-3–0——————–|

G—————0–2—————————–2–0—————|

D———–0–2————————————-2–0———–|

A——0–2———————————————–2–0——|

E-0–3———————————————————3–0-|

Here is a diagram of the A minor pentatonic scale, and here is a similar diagram with a tutorial on improvising with the pentatonic scale.

You could start the ball rolling by trying to copy riffs by your favorite players, but the sooner you start moving away from what is known, the sooner you begin to put your own stamp on your playing. Take a look at where the notes are on the neck. You can play in straight lines or you can cross from one string to another or move from down low on the neck to up high. Try some variations and see what you like.

As you work your way up and down, and in and out of the minor pentatonic scale, you will get an understanding of the way the notes fit together. This will help you to recognize what the guitar players on your CDs are doing.

You can also mix the minor pentatonic scale with the major pentatonic. The notes you have to play with will now be: E F# G G# A B C# D. You can also add a flatted fifth – called a “blue” note. In the key of E, this will be Bb. Your notes will now be E F# G G# A Bb B C# D.

This video shows a fine example of a simple blues guitar solo:

Category: Blues Guitar Lessons

What Are Beginner Guitar Scales?

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Well, really there are no beginner guitar scales, just guitar scales. They are all easy to play, but there are some that you should learn as a beginner in order to help you understand the guitar and music in general. It is very important to learn to play guitar scales since they are a fundamental element of music. Learning to play scales on the guitar will help your progress as a guitar player in a number of ways. Read more

Category: Guitar Scales

The Best Guitar Strings For Acoustic Guitar

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There are big differences between guitar strings for acoustic guitar. Their thicknesses are different, the stuff they are made of is different. As a result, guitar strings can SOUND quite different from each other. There are mellow strings, and bright strings. You can experiment with different kinds of strings and choose the best guitar strings that fit in with how you want your music to sound. Read more

Category: Acoustic Guitar Lessons

Kaizen And Guitar Playing

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Many newbie guitar students want to know how long they need to practice before their practicing becomes playing. The short answer is practice every day for say, half an hour and you will notice you will gradually get some command over your hands and your guitar. But the way we practice varies from person to person. Read more

Category: Guitar For Beginners