Guitar Lessons - Learn To Play Guitar

Beginners Guitar Lessons - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Guitarists

2008-12-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

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By Mike P Hayes

Just the other day after a conversation with one particularly successful guitarist, it struck me that there is a common thread that runs through all successful guitarists. Actually, I've noticed this over the years as I observed how many "average" students accelerated past "naturally talented" players. However as time goes by, it has become increasingly obvious that the professional attitudes that certain players cultivate are the deciding factors as to those who "make it" the those who don't!

While their styles may be different and their areas of specialization may be diverse, they all have very similar habits. As I continued my conversations with these guitarists, I jotted down the common habits that distinguish these successful people, and here they are for you to study.

1. Set Goals - focus on your primary objective. All successful guitarists have mastered the ability to set goals. Here's some tips for goal setting.

(a) Write your goals down, this is very important!
(b) Be specific, what do you want to achieve, in what time frame, what special skills do I need?
(c) Create a goal board, many top guitarists create a goal board where they place pictures of things they want to achieve or acquire i.e., a picture of a guitar, amp, car etc. they place this goal board in their practice room or office to help keep them motivated and stay "on-track".

2. Daily Practice - the most successful players are also the most confident and competent players and they are confident and competent because they have a daily practice regimen.

The top guitarists are internally motivated and self- disciplined, no matter how things are going in the rest of their life, they stay focused on their musical goals.

3. Read Music - The ability to read standard music notation is also a common thread among top guitarists. In a world of 'fix-it- all' in five minutes guitar books and the ever popular guitar TAB system, nothing beats the ability to be musically literate!

If you want to be a top guitarist, learn to read standard music notation, otherwise you could find yourself spending your whole musical life re-inventing the 'musical wheel'.

4. Quality Instruments / Equipment - It goes without saying that your equipment must be functional and in good repair. Notice I did not say expensive. Everything right down to your electric guitar lead must work. Remember, to have your guitar(s) set up by a competent repair person.

5. Study All Styles Of Music - This is the key to many successful musicians careers. Versatility, often means a long and successful career.

6. Excellent People Skills - This is a classic, how many times have I seen an excellent guitarist totally trash his/her career by simply having an 'attitude' problem.

Actually, it's just common sense and having respect for all the people you come in contact with in the music/studio scene you would be amazed how much of my work comes from work of mouth, and that includes studio owners, engineers, studio cleaners etc.(and I've been doing this professionally for 30+ years).

I can vividly recall one particular guitarist who had issues with a certain studio secretary, the secretary later became the studio owner's wife,(they often do) guess how much work that guitarist got from that studio ...zero!

7. Reliable - Punctual etc. - Again, this should be painfully obvious, however it never ceases to amaze me how guitarist's will spend their life devoted to their instrument but just can't remember to show up for the gig.

Recently, the owner of one of the biggest recording studios in this country told me how a guitar player simply failed to 'show up' for the recording session, he obviously must have had something much more important on (I do recall it was a nice day for surfing).

Notice how two out of the seven habits of highly successful guitarists deal with non-musical things i.e., people skills & being reliable, punctual etc., keep these things in mind and study top players at work whenever you have an opportunity.

It's easy to see why someone like James Taylor is successful just look at how he interacts with his audience and band.

Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed in your guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at: => http://www.guitarcoaching.com

Guitar Techniques - Developing Your Style

2008-11-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

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By Ricky Sharples

If you are a new guitarist who is curious about the guitar techniques you will be learning in the future or if you are looking to develop a little more style in your guitar playing, this article will tell you about some commonly used guitar techniques. I am also going to describe how to play a flamenco guitar technique that I think you will enjoy playing around with. I am not attempting a complete list of the things you can do on the guitar because each guitar playing style has its own techniques but hopefully you will get some ideas of where to go next in developing your technique.

Left hand guitar techniques can pretty much be moved from one musical genre to another. One exception I can think of is the technique of fretting bass notes by wrapping your thumb around the guitar neck. This technique is not used in all genres even though you are welcome to try it out in whatever you are playing, but it is downright frowned upon in classical guitar playing.

One technique that is used in classical and rock guitar playing is the use of the right hand to damp the sound of the strings. You put the side of your hand over all six strings and then pluck with your fingers or use up and down strokes with the pick. If you try it on your electric guitar you will instantly recognize the sound from numerous punk or metal tracks. A variation on this technique is to have your hand "floating" above the strings and bring it down to damp your notes just after you have played them.

Common to all kinds of plectrum guitar styles is the invention and use of strumming patterns. The "pattern" is varied by whether you use up or down strokes with your pick and in what order. A basic pattern is made by just alternating up and down strokes across all six strings in time with the music. Once you are comfortable with this technique you can vary it by using two up strokes together or two downstrokes followed by upstrokes, or you can just play the three bass or treble strings.

Whether or not you are exclusively a plectrum or finger-style guitar player you should at least experiment with the flamenco strumming technique known as rasqueado. With this style of strumming you are making use of each of your four fingers alternately to produce a completely different effect from plectrum strumming. To start you can rest the thumb on the sixth string and just strum the fourth, third, second and first strings. Begin by having all the fingers curled up, then drag each one across the strings in succession starting with the pinky. Play slowly at first and just use downstrokes.

Once you are used to playing down strokes using this flamenco technique, you can stop resting your thumb on the sixth string and follow your fingers down with it. So now you are playing five down strokes in succession. You can play a series of these rasqueado and join them up by performing an upstroke with the thumb. To summarize, you do downstrokes with the pinky, ring finger, middle finger, first finger and thumb. This gives you a long continuous strum. Then to begin another rasqueado, you bring your thumb up across the strings and start again with the pinky.

So now you have some details about some common guitar techniques plus some info on how to play flamenco style strumming. That should keep you busy for a while. Remember to search YouTube for any of the techniques I have mentioned so you can watch a guitarist performing these techniques.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

Easy Guitar Chords For Beginners - Point a Finger and Play Guitar

2008-11-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

By Andrew Gavin Webber

Which beginners guitar chords are easiest to play?

The easiest guitar chords for a beginner guitarist to play are the ones that only use one finger. There are some guitarists who like to tune their guitar differently so that there are many more easy to play chords, but it is a good idea to rather use the standard guitar tuning and first master your guitar chords that way.

Here are the simplest chords you can play on a guitar with standard tuning.

The G chord - one finger version.

Place your third finger behind the third fret, on the first string of the guitar, and strum the first four strings. That's a simplified G chord.

Okay, I see I'm going to have to explain a few basics on the guitar. Firstly, the strings on a guitar are numbered one to six, and the first string is the thinnest string and has the highest pitch.

I sometimes catch myself getting this wrong, and assuming that the thickest string is the first one. It's a natural mistake.

The second thing is the finger numbering, which is quite logical, seeing as your index finger is the first finger, seeing as that's the one you point with.

The second, third and fourth finger are the rest in logical sequence.

Frets are the metal bars in the fretboard behind which you place your fingers. The frets are numbered from the nut, so the nut of the guitar is basically zero. A long time ago, some guitars had a nut, and then immediately after there was a zero fret that the strings rested on.

Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea.

For this version of the G chord, the reason why I chose to use the third finger is because later, when you play the full G chord, your first and second fingers get used.

If you place your first finger on the first fret of the first string, and play the first four strings, you've got a G7 chord.

The simplified C chord on guitar.

For this chord you place your first finger on the second string behind the first fret. Here you only strum the first three strings.

So far, those are the simplest guitar chords I can come up with using standard tuning on the guitar. For small children just getting the hang of playing the guitar, these are an easy starting point.

The C and G guitar chords go very well together, but are only suited to a two chord song on the guitar. It's a bit limiting. To really learn to play the guitar, a beginner would have to start with the open chords, which are still fairly easy to play.

Open chords are called open because they are all played within the first three fret spaces of the guitar, and use some notes from the open unfretted strings.

The open chords you'll begin with.

The most common guitar chords for beginners are the major and minor open chords. For the major chords there is A, C, D, E and G.

For the minor guitar chords you've got A min (min is the chord suffix for minor) then D min and E min. This is a lot better than the one finger chords, but as you can see from the list, there is a lot more needed to be able to play any song you want.

On the positive side, the open chords are the building blocks for more complex and difficult chords on the guitar, and even though there are some chords missing, by changing the key of some songs, you could easily build a fairly large repertoire of songs to play with open chords.

Andrew Webber is a professional guitarist who's website play-electric-guitar.net has enough Free guitar lessons to get you started on the guitar, not least of which is his page on Open guitar chords.

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Guitar lesson: Why Learning Guitar Scales is Important

2008-11-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

By Andre Sanchez

Learning guitar scales is important, even if you think it almost as boring as learning chords. The problem with many new guitarists who have just started learning is that they want to go too far too soon. That is the road to disaster, as many failed guitarists will tell you.

Have you ever seen these piano players learning how to play, when they are going up and down the octaves playing their scales? Well, they are putting money in the bank because it will help them later when they have to play certain note combinations without thinking. If you are going to be a good lead guitarist, or a solo guitarist of any description in any genre, you too will have to spend time learning your guitar scales.

So, the question that many non-musicians ask. What are scales, and why are they so important? Scales are combinations of notes, ascending or descending, normally within an octave. The major scales are the basis of all other scales, and start and end on the same not. They go in the order whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half-whole, the wholes and halves representing steps. Thus, for the scale of D: D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# - D.

Scales are chosen because they are melodic and harmonic, and once learned, they can be used to produce tunes that are pleasing to the ear. When learning guitar, you will come across the pentatonic scale, which is derived from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of the corresponding major scale. Thus, the pentatonic D will be D - E - F# - A - B

There are a number of reasons for learning scales, one being that they are fundamental to learning the theory of music, and if your ambition is to become a classical guitarist, then you will also be required to learn about the theory of music. They allow you to learn about harmonics and pitch, and the effects of sharps and flats. Some note combinations are discordant to the ear, and scales will make it a great deal easier for you to compose a series of notes that will sound good.

Another reason, more important to guitarists, is that they enable you to play a series of notes without thought that will sound good, especially when played fast. Most fast guitar riffs and solos would sound meaningless if played slowly, but sound great when played fast. That is because they are based upon the pentatonic scales. You could conceivably use a major or minor scale, but with a pentatonic, you only have to learn combinations of 5 notes.

By learning a few pentatonic scales, you will be able to play fast guitar licks up and down the frets, using the same 5 notes in the same order. If you listen to the main solo in 'Bohemian Rhapsody', written by Brian May, that is played using a pentatonic scale, as is 'Eruption' by Eddie Van Halen. You can play the same notes over a number of octaves and it will sound great, because the notes are a scale that is pleasing the ear. Hence, the importance to a lead guitar player of learning guitar scales.

Once you get up on stage and start playing, you are not going to remember a complex series of notes to make up a rapid guitar solo. You have to play the notes by rote. If you have learned a guitar scale, the pentatonic in particular, you will be able to play anywhere on the neck of your guitar, as long as the notes are true.

Sure, you will have to change it for each string, and according to where on the neck you play it, but the notes will be the same and they will always be played in the same order. In practise, it doesn't matter to you if they are sharps or flats or neither: you are just playing the notes, and don't have to understand the theory. If you have learned your guitar scales properly, then you won't have to remember because of the muscle memory involved.

It's the same with chords. If you have learned your chords properly, you don't have to figure where to put your fingers, you just play the chord and you fingers automatically get them right due to the muscle memory of repetition and revision. You don't start a new song in your gig, and then wonder what the chords are: they come automatically, and so do the scales when you need them.

That's why learning guitar scales is important, and why you shouldn't screw up your face when asked to play them. It's money in the bank, that you will withdraw when you are finally standing alone in front of 10,000 screaming people and striking up the first note of your fabulous guitar solo. It's only dozens of repetitions of a pentatonic scale, but they don't know that - they think you are fabulous - a star- and all because you took the time to learn your guitar scales.

If you want to be a good guitar player, you must learn your scales, and http://www.jamplaynow.com is the membership guitar site that will teach you all you need to know. Visit Jamplay to learn the secrets of the great players - and then use them yourself.

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Guitar lesson: Your Skill Checklist in Learning to Play the Guitaruitar

2008-11-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

By Will Griffin

Learning to play the guitar may be easy, but there are still good and bad habits that you should always keep in mind. The rules are simple: take note of the following do's and don'ts so that you don't waste your time and effort for nothing.

It takes time and patience to play the guitar. If you don't have these two qualities, you might as well throw your guitar away because it can only bore and annoy you. Investing patience means listening to the song you want to play as frequently as possible. You are trying to get the idea of the song, so it is advisable to really get familiar with the song. Learning to play the guitar means that you have to be able to detail out every melody, pitch and frequency of the notes and patterns of the chords being played. Transferring the melodies to the guitar is easy once you are able to find out how the songs has been produced in the first place.

If you are really interested in learning to play the guitar then you should first master finger variations. You can do it if you are already familiar with the chords as these are the most fundamental knowledge for every guitarist. You cannot even play the simplest melody without the knowledge of guitar chords because these are the basics of learning the guitar. Once you have mastered them, your fingers will naturally follow.

The next thing to learn is strumming. Good strumming will enable you to play the guitar as a rhythm guitarists of a band or as a solo performer, just to amaze your friends. A good musician must be well-balanced and equipped when it comes to guitar skills - that is, he or she must be capable of both plucking and strumming. There are several ways in strumming your guitars and these are usually coupled with patterns to induce variations and style. Learning the correct strumming is relatively difficult because you have to maintain a steady and firm tempo and still be able to follow the melody. You can do this by constantly listening to the song you wish to play. Also, strum the strings according to the type of music - if you are playing jazz music with a too determined (rock style) type of stumming, it will simply sound wrong and it will be easily recognised as a mistake you are making. Because of that you should always get to know the song well enough to know what goes with it and what doesn't.

If you are a guitar beginner, then you can rely on tablatures as they provide guitarists the finger patterns of the notes without having to deal with too many difficulties of actually figuring out the song on your own. If you are finding it hard to read and study tabs, don't waste too much time on a single part of the song you just can't get right - this will just slow you down and that won't be helpful in your guitar lessons at all, because you need to advance quite quickly in order to stay motivated. It's strongly advised to break the song down into smaller parts (intro, verse, chorus, solo, outro) and learn them one at a time. There are several advantages of using tablatures. With them, you can learn to play your favourite song quite accurately in a matter of hours or less. You can also learn only the part of the song that you are interested in playing. All the same, learning to play the guitar through reading tabs still requires a lot of patience and effort, but it's all guaranteed to be worth your while.

Will Griffin has been playing both acoustic and electric guitar for more than 10 years. For his guitar needs he visits YourChords.com.

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How to Play Guitar Bar Chords, Known Also As Barre Chords

2008-10-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

By Andrew Gavin Webber

What is a bar chord, and why is it spelled barre chord?

The original meaning of the word "barre" is pole, so does that mean we're learning how to play pole chords? The most obvious reason I can think of for why anyone would call a bar chord a barre chord, is because the index finger is used to create a barre across the fretboard.

Essentially, a bar chord is a convenient way of playing open chord shapes further up the guitar neck, by replacing the nut of the guitar with the first finger. This gives you a whole lot more chords to play. So think of your first finger as a pole across the fretboard.

A list of the most common guitar bar chords.

Seeing as bar chords are based on the open chords of the guitar, they're often reffered to as shaped like whatever open chord they're based on. A good example of this is the E shaped barre chords, which are built from the open E chord shape.

Here then is the list.

The E shaped barre chord - probably the first one you should try.

The A shaped barre chord - This is the second most commonly used barre chord shape.

C shape barre chords - Based on the open C chord. This is less commonly used but still useful to know.

The E minor shaped barre chord

The A minor shape barre chord

Some tips on how to play these bar chords a bit easier.

The most difficult part of playing bar chords is getting your index finger flat across the fretboard so that all the notes sound properly.

The first thing to understand is that your barring finger doesn't need to be flat and straight. Let me explain that a little more by telling you that it's not the immediate underside of your finger that forms the barre, but the slightly off center part of your finger that's closest to your thumb.

Trying to place your index finger perfectly flat across the fretboard is never going to work, but let's use that as a starting point anyway.

So you've got your finger flat across the fretboard, and your thumb is in the middle of the back of the neck and pointing towards the head of the guitar. It doesn't matter if all the notes aren't sounding properly yet - that comes later.

Now move your wrist in closer to the back of the neck. This will make your index finger turn slightly on its side, and you can arch it slightly. If you slide your finger till it's just behind the fret, this will give you less distance needed to place the rest of your fingers down on the fretboard.

Let's do this with an A barre chord, using the E shape.

Create a bar with your index finger, from now on reffered to as the first finger, at the 5th fret. Now take your second finger and put it on the 3rd string at the 6th fret.

Place your pinkie (fourth finger) on the 4th string at the 7th fret, and put your 3rd finger down on the 5th string at the 7th fret.

That's an E shaped barre chord at the 5th fret called A major.

The same basic principles apply to all guitar bar chords.

If you still can't play bar chords.

Here are some things that might be giving you problems, well, actually just one thing. Your guitar.

If you've got a badly set up guitar with strings that are way too high off the neck, then you'll have a hard time with any guitar chords, and this will really come to a head when you try bar chords.

There are two things you can do to deal with it. The first one is to take your guitar to a professional technician who can make it as playable as possible, and the second solution is to get the lightest gauge strings possible and put those on your guitar for now.

Guitar bar chords are a vital step to the rest of your guitar lessons, so you might as well make sure it's easy sailing from here on out.

For more guitar chords and other guitar lessons visit play-electric-guitar.net for Electric guitar lessons or more specifically the page How to play Bar Chords for more on the different shaped bar chords

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Guitar Tabs Are Your Friends - Learn to Read Them

2008-10-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

By Ricky Sharples

Although it is not hard to read, many novice guitar players seem to be daunted by the prospect of learning something new. The real difficulty with learning how to read guitar tab is more of a mental block than a real challenge. Even though tablature has a history going back hundreds of years it is generally regarded as a special musical language for guitar players. The internet has further promoted this view of guitar tablature. Guitarists all over the world are writing tabs using Notepad or another basic text editor and sharing their work with other guitar players.

Guitar tab is nothing more or less than a picture of the guitar's neck. You look at the tab on the page and you see the guitar strings. Of course for a newbie guitar player the strings on the guitar may be a bit scary. But there is no need to transpose this fear to the strings on the printed page. Rather than present challenges the one dimensional strings in the tab has information on them which tell you what to do to get the guitar to make music.

Here is tab for a few notes played on the guitar . . .

e---------------------|

B---------------------|

G---------------------|

D-----1-2-----1-2-----|

A--2-------2----------|

E---------------------|

The letters on the end of the strings are the names of the strings, or rather the names of the notes that sound when you play the open strings. You will notice that at the top is a lower case e and at the bottom is a capital E. The top e is the thinnest string on the guitar, also called the first string. The E at the bottom is the thickest string, also called the sixth string. Once you have absorbed this information you will realize that the tab is just a picture of the guitar fretboard as it looks when it is lying in front of you with the end of the neck pointing towards your left side. Why people feel the need to use a lowercase a for the top E and a capital for the bottom E, I will never know - how much easier can it get to tell them apart?

The strings with numbers on them are the A and D strings, and the tab is telling us to place a finger at the second fret on the A string and play that note. Next the tablature is telling us to place a finger at the first fret on the D string, play that note and then move the finger up to the second fret, or place another finger at the second fret and play that note. So using the language of music we know to play the notes B, E flat and E twice. It does not tell us which fingers to use to play the notes, nor does it tell us how long to hold the notes for. In this example we can assume the fingering and note values are up to us.

When we are learning a song the fingering is still usually left up to us but most of the musical notation software programs have the facility to show left hand fingering and/or the use of the right hand fingers when required. For manually produced tab it makes the tab very cluttered to include the fingerings. There are generally accepted abbreviations for left hand techniques which I have included here:

h - hammer on

p - pull off

b - bend string up

r - release bend

/ - slide up

\ - slide down

v - vibrato

t - right hand tap

x - damp the note

There is no way to show the note values in tab but if you are learning a song you are already familiar with this will not be too much of a problem. If you are learning a piece of music that you are not familiar with then guitar tab will not help you much, but there is an answer. If you have learnt to read tab you can download one of the guitar notation programs like Power Tab or TablEdit. It will import your ASCII tab or MIDI and play it for you as well as display it in standard musical notation in addition to tab.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

Find your free guitar tabs at Capotasto Music!

Learn How to Play Electric Guitar - Some Tips For Beginners

2008-10-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

By Chris J Jones

Learning to play electric guitar can be reasonably straightforward if you practice! Yes, this sounds so obvious doesn't it! You would be surprised though at the amount of people who think it's easy and that they don't need to practice.

The one challenge that you may face when setting out to learn to play electric guitar is that in the first few weeks your fingertips will hurt! I know this sounds difficult to accept, but many people allow this minor irritation to put them off learning to play guitar.

My advice to you here is persevering; don't let something as minor as sore fingers put you off! Playing the electric guitar is something you need to be passionate about, if you are not then you may as well not start in the first place. This sounds like hard advice to accept but I assure you it's true. If you are not passionate about learning to play electric or any other type of guitar for that matter, you will soon fall by the wayside and abandon your attempts.

Learning electric guitar is easier than acoustic guitar. The neck is thinner and it's easier to get you hand into position to play chords.

You should also decide fairly early on if your preference is to play lead electric guitar or rhythm. That's not to say you cant do both, however in a band or group you will usually specialise in one or the other.

There are many reasons why people want to learn how to play electric guitar, you may not be bothered about joining a group and may just want to learn to play on your own, and that's fine too! That said the feeling of entertaining people doing something you love is difficult to explain, you need to experience it.

The main and single most important factor is that you enjoy it, so don't look on practice as a chore. If you want to be successful in playing electric guitar then you need to enjoy it.

When I'm teaching I try to tease out of my students what they want to play, rather than me demanding they must play my preferred style. Because of this approach all of my students enjoy my lessons. So if you are looking for a tutor make enquiries about their teaching style first; it's not much fun having a dictatorial and strict tutor if you are not enjoying the learning.

That's not to say that at some point you should tackle some themes that you at first don't see as relevant, for example you should be keen to learn as many scales for guitar as possible. This will give you an advantage in the longer term.

So, enjoy learning how to play electric guitar, and even consider playing along with others, it's a great feeling.

There are a number of very good courses you can access online too, so consider this as an alternative investment, or even a supplementary investment to a guitar tutor.

Do you want to find out more about learning to play the electric guitar?

Check out Chris's site here Play Electric Guitar

Chris is a guitarist and teacher.

Find your free guitar tabs at Capotasto Music!

Learn Guitar Online, Eddie Van Halen - 3 Tips For Lead Guitar

2008-07-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

By Mike P Hayes

There are so many sounds you can get out of a guitar by just tapping, hammering, bending, harmonics, vibrato bar, feedback, you name it, Eddie Van Halen has tried it!

Eddie Van Halen is one of rock's true guitar innovators ... you've heard him on Van Halen's hits: Eruption, Jump, Mean Street, Fair Warning, Spanish Fly where he squeezes every little noise he can out of his guitar without using an (electronic) effect.

Additionally Eddie has played many outstanding guitar solos for other high profile Artists ... check out Michael Jackson's hit "Thriller" (from the album of the same name) to hear a classic Eddie Van Halen solo.

Here is just a small sample of some of the techniques Eddie employs in his complex guitar style, remember Eddie prefers to work at getting natural effects from his guitar rather than relying on echo, reverb, chorus, flanging and other electronic effects.

Here is three tips to get you started with Van Halen's solos

Tip 1: Arpeggios

Playing arpeggios is a lost art for most guitar players, in fact a great many guitarist's don't have a clue what an arpeggio is. There is a reason for this guitar instruction books started to phase out arpeggios around 1961. Only a very small number of guitar publications have continued to include arpeggio studies in their method books.

This is most unfortunate as a well balanced musician must practice scales and arpeggios equally. Today, with the focus almost entirely on scales it's no wonder guitar players have difficulty working out a Van Halen solo!

An arpeggio is simply playing the notes in a chord consecutively, in the hands of a skillful player arpeggios eliminate the need for a chord accompaniment as the arpeggios spell out the harmonic
changes.

Here are the three structures in music: (1) scales = horizontal structures, (2) chords = vertical structures, (3) arpeggios = oblique structures.

As musical examples in the key of C ...a C major scale (horizontal structure) C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C this would be a melody.

A C major chord (vertical structure) would be the notes C, E , G played simultaneously this is what happens when you strum a "C" major chord on the guitar as an accompaniment to a melody.

Whereas a C major arpeggio (oblique structure) would be the notes C, E, G played consecutively.

Notice how the notes in the "C" major arpeggio are exactly the same as the notes in a "C" major chord the difference is way the notes are played. With a chord the notes are played simultaneously i.e., all the notes are played at once while the arpeggios is played as a broken chord.

Tip 2: Linear scales

One of the keys to Eddie Van Halen's style is the way he approaches the guitar fretboard. Eddie plays many of his scales an arpeggios on linear fashion, this adds an element of excitement similar to what you can hear in Gypsy guitar music.

There's always element of risk when playing the guitar this way ... the performer may not always make it, and the audience can feel this!

It's a great way to play if you know your fretboard.

Try playing a C major scale using only the first string, starting in the open "E", play the following notes E = open, F = 1st fret, G = 3rd fret, A = 5th fret, B = 7th fret, C = 8th fret, D = 10th fret, E = 12th fret.

As you will have noticed this is not the traditional way of playing a "C" major scale by starting on the note "E" and continuing up the fingerboard until we reach the octave "E" we have in fact played an "E" Phrygian mode.

Now play the "G" major scale notes on the same string: starting in the open "E", play the following notes E = open, F # = 2nd fret, G = 3rd fret, A = 5th fret, B = 7th fret, C = 8th fret, D = 10th fret, E = 12th fret.

Again, you will note this is not the traditional way of playing a "G" major scale by starting on the note "E" and continuing up the fingerboard until we reach the octave "E" remembering to sharpen the F (because of the G major key signature of one sharp) we have played an "E" Aeolian mode.

Tip 3: Two handed arpeggios

This is one of the most popular Van Halen two handed techniques. Eddie basically came up with the idea (which is like having a 6th finger on your left hand) of trying to extend the basic rock technique of pulling-off notes with the 3rd and 4th fingers down to the 1st finger.

The concept is to use your right hand index finger (assuming you are right handed) to play the first note of a musical phrase, then drag your index finger downwards toward the floor, as you do this the string will be plucked by the index finger.

Here is a musical example: C major arpeggio ( C - E - G) played entirely on the first string.

Step 1: place your left hand index finger on the 8th fret first string (C = 8th fret)

Step 2: place your left hand 4th finger on the 12th fret first string (E = 12 fret)

Step 3: play "G" on the 15th fret with your right hand index finger (the note is produced by tapping down on the note with your index finger in the same way you would hammer-on to a note).

Step 4: drag your right hand index finger downward creating a pull-off effect, the string will return to it's point of rest whereby playing the note "E" which you had previously set in place with your left hand 4th finger.

Step 5: now drag the left hand fourth finger downwards creating another pull-off, again the string will return to it's point of rest this time playing the note "C" on the 8th fret first string.

The power in Van Halen's solo's comes from his music not from his amplification.

Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed in your guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at:

=> http://www.guitarcoaching.com

Find your free guitar lessons and guitar tabs at Capotasto Music!

Guitar Lesson: A Balanced Guitar Practicing Lesson

2008-07-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

What type of guitar player do you want to be? Is this important to know? Well, you decide! But a clear vision of what you want to become helps you to know what guitar practice food you have to digest. Guitar lesson

Guitar lesson: Tips To Becoming A Pro Guitarist

2008-05-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone excels by practicing. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner, or an accomplished seasoned expert, you need to practice. If this is combined with listening to many different types of music and players, along with associating with as many other guitarists will inspire you to become an expert player. Going from beginner to guitar playing expert takes time and a little talent. Guitar lesson

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Guitar Practice And How To Keep Things In Perspective

2008-05-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

When you are learning guitar whether it be rock, jazz or metal, knowing how to keep things in perspective is greatly beneficial in your progress to becoming a successful and proficient guitar player. Guitar lesson

Find your free guitar lessons and guitar tabs at Capotasto Music!

Guitar lesson: Getting Started With Sight Reading On Guitar

2008-05-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

Let's face it... sight reading is one of the hardest skills to develop on the guitar. Most of us have too much fun learning music by ear or just use guitar tabs. But learning how to sight read on guitar can lead to getting gigs and open up your ability to expand your repertoire. So... how do you get started? Guitar lesson

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Guitar lesson: How to Buy Your First Acoustic Guitar

2008-05-10T01:42:00.000-07:00

So you want to learn to play acoustic guitar. Excellent! It's a great instrument to play. Learn chords and you can accompany yourself singing. Learn to riffs and scales so you can jam with friends, or a recording. Learn challenging solo pieces, classical or contemporary. However before you can start you need to buy your first acoustic guitar. Guitar lesson

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Guitar lesson: Useful Tips When Tuning Your Guitar

2008-05-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

Tuning your guitar is probably the most basic, but most important thing you should do before playing your guitar. Making sure your guitar is in tune is something that you should do as soon as you pick it up. This is all part of the process when you are learning how to play the guitar. The first thing you need to do when tuning your guitar is get a reference pitch. This is a process that takes time to learn, but gets easier with practice. One of the most reliable ways of tuning your guitar is by tuning each string to the one below it. Guitar lesson

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Online Guitar Lessons Vs Private Guitar Lessons

2008-05-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Everybody learns at their own rate and in a style that is comfortable for them. This is true whether a person is learning to drive, learning math, or learning how to play the guitar. In this article I will examine different ways to learn the guitar, and in the process, maybe help you decide which way is right for you. Guitar lesson

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Guitar Lesson: Learn To Play Ode To Joy

2008-05-07T03:39:00.000-07:00

I have prepared an easy lesson that will help you:

Learn to read guitar tabs
Learn to play the melody to Ode To Joy
Learn the chords C, G, E7 and Am
Learn correct fingerings

Download this guitar lesson as a PDF-file: Learn to play Ode To Joy

Guitar Tab - Learn To Play A Bicycle Built For Two

2008-04-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

In this guitar lesson I will use guitar tablature to show you how to place your fingers. You will learn to play the melody without sheet music. Let me first show you how to read guitar tabs! Guitar lesson

Guitar Tab - Learn To Play Long, Long Ago

2008-04-27T10:58:00.001-07:00

In this guitar lesson you will learn to read guitar tab notation. You will also learn the popular melody Long, Long Ago. Let us start to learn guitar tablature! Guitar lesson

Guitar Lesson - Learn To Practice With Concentration

2008-04-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Why is it important to understand how to practice on your guitar? What does practicing guitar mean to you? Is it just playing on your guitar or does it include more things? Guitar lesson

Guitar Lesson: Electric Guitar - How To Play It

2008-04-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

By Pat Newsome

The electric guitar is a great instrument and there are so many styles and methods to play it. There is no way you will be able to learn how to play the electric guitar by reading an article, so let's focus on some learning tips instead.

Electric Guitar -- How To Play Tip #1: It is very important to check the strings, making sure they are fitted properly. When you play the electric guitar, there can be some tuning problems if the strings are not fitted properly. If you are able to hear a "ping" sound, then you can be pretty sure is needs to be checked.

Electric Guitar -- How To Play Tip #2: Every guitar has its' own sound and texture. Get to know your guitar well. Become accustomed to the tone and volume controls; also try using different pickup selections. By getting to know your guitar, you will learn how to create the best sounds.

Electric Guitar -- How To Play Tip #3: It's important to learn how to play the mute strings. When you play the mute strings at a high volume, you will be amazed at the power of this sound from the amplifier, and this will make the strings on your guitar ring loud and vibrate. This sound will ruin anything you are trying to play if you don't learn how to mute the strings that you don't want to hear. You can typically do this by pressing the strings on the bridge with the palm of your strumming hand.

Electric Guitar -- How To Play Tip #4: Practice learning the simple licks and scales as well as practice your scale knowledge. You will use this to add the extra notes. There are some great blues licks that you can learn to add some great depth to a lot of songs, giving your music your own personality.

And Last But Not Least, Tip #5: Practice learning how to bend the strings and applying vibrato. The best sound from an electric guitar is to play a note and bend it up to a high note along with some great vibrato. These techniques are pretty easy to learn, but difficult to perfect. As you learn and practice, you will find your own sound, and as you become comfortable with the current tune, you will start to experiment and have so much fun.

These are only a few tips on playing the electric guitar. Learning how to play well will be something that you will be doing for years to come, getting better and better as you go.

Get more tips about How To Play Electric Guitar at http://www.HowToPlayTheGuitar.Org/how-to-play-electric-guitar.html

Good Guitar Playing Tips For Newbies

2008-04-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

By Mike Hammil

Have you suddenly developed a passion towards music and wish to learn guitar? Then there are chances that you might be looking out for a good teacher who would be willing to teach you at your residence or theirs. But how would you know whether you are able to get a good professional performer or not.

Guitar is a musical instrument that's widely used in western music because of its adaptability and versatility. Sound is produced in a guitar by striking the strings with your fingers and then this suddenly re-bounces allowing the strings to continue vibration at resonant frequency. The transmitted vibration that passes causes music, which is later amplified.

A guitarist enjoys his or her greatest thrill when they sit and play it. Music plays in their thought and soul before they move their fingers on the strings. Music then becomes their craze not because they have to earn their bread but because that's what they have learned.

Learning guitar notes is not as tough as it's usually presumed it's all about learning the chord pattern. Firstly you have to understand the notes to play guitar efficiently.

Notes are generally named after the alphabets and the musical alphabets are much shorter than the usual English alphabet. These notes generally start from E and ends in the alphabet E. Once you get a firm hold on the chords then you can play all the six strings more rhythmically.

If you wish to seek help for learning guitar then you can attend classes or appoint a home tutor who can guide you through. Many try to learn it to ease their stress and some learn it because of their passion towards it. If you wish to learn on your own then you can get many books that can help you or you can seek help from DVD's that's easily available in the market. You can also learn from free online guitar lessons.

Choose any path that suits your needs and timings. Any methods can work well if you are dedicated and hard working. Always try and learn in a place where you are away from distractions because music is a language of the soul and peace helps you reach it easily. To be an expert, you must always learn the basics thoroughly and keep practicing it and one day you will notice that you are getting better. Set your practice timings and be dedicated to it and one day you will surely be proud of your achievement.

If you want to know more about learning how to play a guitar then visit us at learning how to play a guitar. For information on playing guitar intervals then read our helpful tips at how to play guitar intervals that will surely help.

Guitar Lesson: 3 Easy Guitar Songs to Learn On the Guitar

2008-04-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Drake

Easy Guitar Song 1:
Knocking On Heaven's Door was written by Bob Dylan and was more recently popularized by non other than Guns N' Roses. From version to version there are slight variations on the way the song is played but the simplest and most standard chord structure is G, D, Am just cycled over and over again. In some versions the Am is followed every other time with a C. It's not only an easy song to play on the guitar, it's one of my all time favorites.

Easy Guitar Song 2:
Wild Thing is of course one of the most famous standards of all time and while it's an oldie, it's certainly a goodie. It also happens to be one of every guitar player's firsts. If you don't know this song then you should really just stop what ever you are doing and learn it now. It is one of those songs that every band inevitably jams for hours on end. It's also one of those songs that by learning, you have inadvertently learned 10 other classic easy guitar songs. You'll see what I mean. The Chords are essentially A, D, E, D over and over again.

Easy Guitar Song 3:
Finally, House of the Rising Sun is an easy guitar song that everyone should know. The original is a folk song whose author has long been forgotten. And while the animals' version is the one that most people are familiar with, I strongly suggest you find a copy of the traditional lyrics. It is a beautiful and haunting song. The Chords are Am, C, D, F, Am, E, Am. Just repeat over and over again and that's it.

Jonathan Drake has taught and played guitar for over 18 years. To download his FREE Guitar Lessons series, go to http://www.onlinebeginnerguitarlessons.com

Guitar Lesson: The Music of the Strummed Guitar

2008-04-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

By Victor Epand

It may surprise some people, but the guitar is one instrument in particular that has very old roots. In fact, early guitars can be tracked as far back as 5,000 years. There are many different kinds of guitars and is a common instrument for younger people to learn how to play, especially at an early age. Most people are familiar with guitars that have eight strings, but there are also other guitars that have as few as four strings and as much as twelve strings. This particular string instrument typically has nylon or steel strings, though animal gut was used in the past before nylon was used, and the guitar is played with a plastic or wood pick that is used to pluck the strings, though some guitarists will use their fingers instead of picks.

The guitar is often immediately associated with country music or rock, but it is also prominently used in classical, flamenco and rock music. The instrument is hollow, which is meant to amplify the sound caused by the vibrations of the strings being plucked. Electric guitars, however, differ from these acoustic guitars in that they depend on an electric amplifier that the electric guitar is connected to in order to amplify their sound. The decision to decide on what kind of guitar a musician chooses to use tends to have a lot to do with what kind of music they are playing.

If a guitarist is playing more classical, some rock, some country, blues or jazz music, an acoustic guitar may be preferred because it has the natural sound necessary to get the sound the musician is looking for. If a musician is planning to play more modern type of rock, hard rock, metal rock, some country, an electric guitar might be preferred. The sound that an electric guitar makes is actually quite different than that of an acoustic guitar and one can easily be notice the difference if paying attention, though not a lot of concentration is needed to determine the difference. The difference that strings made of different materials make can also be obvious to an experienced musician. The subtle difference is not obvious to someone inexperienced, but when noticed the difference becomes obvious.

The guitar, especially the classical guitar, is often seen as an emotional and passionate instrument that can easily move a person's heart. When played right, the guitar plays on the emotions of those who listen to it. It can be difficult to learn for some people and it can take quite a bit of time and practice, but those who are gifted manage to make the guitar feel as though it is a living being. This is an instrument with a long history and this could partly be responsible for how it can influence a person playing or listening to the guitar. It is also an instrument that had started out as a simple instrument that has become more complex over time, though the principle design and use of the guitar remains more or less the same.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used CDs, autographed CDs, and used musical instruments. You can find the best marketplace for used CDs, autographed CDs, and used musical instruments at these sites for used guitar CDs, autographed guitar CDs, and used guitars.