Archive for: October 2008

Country guitar lessons in these days of the world wide web are now popular all over the world. If you are wondering what the fuss is about I will just mention some aspects of country guitar playing that excite the interest of music fans and guitar enthusiasts alike. This article will focus on a couple of the more individualistic guitar styles in country music and also talk a little about the Telecaster - the country musician’s guitar.

First let us look at a guitar style that has entered the country genre through blues and rock. The slide guitar, also known as the bottleneck guitar is a lyrical way of expressing feelings through guitar music. It was developed in the early twentieth century by the early blues players, and popularized by young white rock and blues players in the nineteen sixties. Now there are many country guitar players who see the musical possibilities in this style of playing. The key to this technique is sliding an object along the guitar strings to make a whining or wailing sound. This presents the guitar player with many opportunities to play notes that fall between the frets of the guitar as well as imitating the sound of a singing voice.

The term “bottleneck” refers to the practice of many slide guitar performers of producing the sliding sound by fitting the neck of a bottle to their first or second finger. Popular wisdom has it that other players used the blade of a knife. Modern slide guitar players usually go to a music shop and buy a slide. You can play slide guitar with the guitar held in the normal playing position or with the guitar in your lap. A player can use an ordinary steel string acoustic guitar tuned in the standard way or to an open chord, or a resonator guitar which has a distinctive metallic sound well suited to slide playing.

Another guitar style used by country guitar players is chicken pickin’, developed to high art by Walon Jennings. It is used in lead guitar solos and involves the guitar player pulling on the string with his right hand fingers and at the same time damping the string with his left hand. Most country guitar players use a plectrum or thumbpick to play bass notes in conjunction with chicken pickin’ on the treble strings.

Chet Atkins is a country guitar player who was adept at the chicken pickin’ technique but he was most well known for his adaptation of the Travis picking technique. Merle Travis developed an impressive solo playing technique using his thumb to pick bass notes and his index finger to play melody or filler notes. Chet Atkins was so impressed with Travis’ solos that he assumed that Travis was using his second and ring fingers in addition to his index finger. This mistaken assumption led to a whole new generation of country guitar players inspired by the Chet Atkins style.

If you want to take country guitar lessons you should learn about the typical sound that is associated with country guitar music. While rock and roll has as many sounds as there are guitar players, country guitar has its own sound. This is due to most country players opting to stay with the clean, unadorned sound of the Fender Telecaster. The “Tele” had a sound that made aspiring guitar players sit up and take notice combined with a design that made it a dream to play. It is a solid body electric guitar with two pickups, and was the first electric guitar to be successfully produced and sold on a large scale.

In the early days of the electric guitar both rock and country guitar players wanted to be heard by the audience without feedback interfering with the sound of the guitar. The Telecaster filled the bill when it came out in 1950 and has remained a popular choice for solo guitarist ever since. Country guitarists noted for being enthusiastic Telecaster players include Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, James Burton, who played with such stars as Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, and Merle Haggard.

This video guitar lesson features chicken pickin’ and the Telecaster sound which make it as good as a seven minute video can get:

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Some parents who feel that they want to give their child every opportunity in life will think about enlisting their offspring in a course of guitar or piano lessons at an early age. This article will look at some of the questions raised on the subject of a child’s guitar lessons. Firstly there is the burning question of whether a parent’s wishes of a “good education” for their child should totally overrule the child’s natural predisposition towards play.

Giving a child guitar lessons is a great way to introduce him to the joys of music. At the same time it is a bonding experience for the family because a child does not learn the guitar in isolation. The main thing that should be guiding you and your child towards guitar lessons is your child’s enthusiasm. There are generations of adults who wince when they think of their enforced piano lessons under the eye of a grim and unforgiving teacher.

As for the question of what at what age a child can learn the guitar, many people think that three- or four-years-old is around the time to start. This fits in with the Suzuki method which has been a successful piano teaching method for many years. At what age a child SHOULD begin learning guitar is up to your gut feeling on the issue. Maybe you would even like to try teaching your child yourself. In that case start them off on simple songs or nursery rhymes perhaps focusing on the D G and A7 chords. You will need to be meticulous about keeping your child’s guitar in tune.

For a very young child guitar lessons will involve games and activities designed to help with ear training and physical coordination. The younger the child is the more the parent will need to be involved in guitar practice time. If you feel that you are unwilling or not confident of your abilities in this area then leave the guitar lessons till your child is around seven years old.

No matter how enlightened we feel that we are as parents our own preferences and prejudices will come into play when we think about a choice of instrument for our children. If you wanted to have guitar lessons when you were a child but never got the chance, then it is natural for you to want to see your child take guitar lessons. If you think that maybe you are imposing your own needs onto your child then have another think about what your child wants (if anything) in music lessons.

If your child expresses interest in a the guitar of his own volition, fine. Maybe that is your decision made for you, but you will probably find that there are opportunities in your town to take your child to check out some musical instruments close up. If you have a local brass band or symphony orchestra then take your child to recitals. Let your child take a look at guitars in a music store. If he expresses interest in electric guitars or steel string acoustics you will need to explain that he should start off on a nylon string acoustic till the tips of his fingers get toughened up.

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Guitar lessons for those people just beginning in music are offered by quite a few websites. In fact many lessons are given for free. Guitar players who have already found some success as professional musicians and teachers design courses that give the basic necessities for learning theory and practice for the guitar. Most of these free beginning guitar lessons carry the personality of the guitarist who designed the course, so you could probably find a set of lessons that suits you after surfing around and getting a feel for what these guitar lessons offer.

Of course most beginning guitar players do not want to be guitar virtuosos. Maybe you are one of those people who go to social and family gatherings where somebody says, “Let’s sing a song” and somebody else says, “Yeah! Who can play the guitar?” So you think to yourself “Maybe I can learn to play the guitar”. Or maybe you just feel the basic human need to make a good impression on friends and acquaintances, and playing the guitar is an easy way to get people to notice you. If you are in this slice of the human race, a course of one-on-one guitar lessons might be too expensive and time consuming to consider, but online guitar lessons for beginners will fulfill your needs quite well.

Online guitar lessons are great for people whose job and social life take up too much time for them to consider investing extra time in travelling to and fro to take guitar lessons. The internet is ready to teach you how to play the guitar when you are ready to learn, and you can fit your practice time around your other commitments.

So if you are wondering what kind of knowledge is given away in these guitar lesson courses, here is what you can expect from your average guitar website:

Even strumming chords takes some skill and precision, so your guitar lessons should include information, and perhaps exercises, showing you how to hold the guitar without placing undue strain on your shoulders, arms and back. The very first lessons should show you how to hold your plectrum and tell you the names of the various parts of the guitar along with some explanation of their functions. Some simple chords and a song or two should round off your first couple of lessons.

Strumming patterns are the tools of the singer/guitar player and when you are beginning guitar lessons you will be shown a few basic strumming techniques and maybe some info on how to make up your own strums. The next step in your guitar course will contain stuff like the difference between major and minor chords and what the notes on the open strings on the guitar are called. By this time you will know how to read chord charts and you will be able to make up your mind about whether you want to learn to read music or tabs.

Beginning guitar is a big step for someone who has not learnt music before and it is important to keep in mind why you decided to learn the guitar in the first place. To have fun.

Here is a link to an excellent collection of guitar lessons for beginning guitarists at the Beginner Guitar Lesson Archive at about.com

And some basic chords in this video from YouTube:

. . . and from the feedback form . . . here is a link for Mike who asked about buying your first guitar

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