Guitar Backing Tracks – Quality Counts

It’s very important that you are practicing with guitar backing tracks every day. Don’t skip this! If you are short on time, just play through one track. At least you are doing it everyday. This step is just as important as any other step in your practicing.

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You already know that you need a collection of guitar backing tracks in your jam room. Whether you have a bunch of play-along CD’s or a ton of tracks on your iPod doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the quality of these tracks. If your hoping that your downloaded guitar backing tracks you found on the internet are going to inspire you, you may be disappointed. If the drums sound like a cheesy 80’s film and the guitar is about as exciting as a high school assembly, are you really going to want to pick up your guitar and play with them. Probably not. Go for the ones that will inspire you.

The thing to remember, when you are shopping for practice materials quality guitar backing tracks should be at the top of your list.

Get some Play-Along CD’s that feature a REAL band playing and sound like they are having fun. That is going to be a hell of a lot more inspiring to you as a player. You are also going to want tracks that have dynamics and offer a bunch of different keys and styles. You have spent tons of money on books and lessons. You have spent tons of time practicing and learning new techniques. Don’t let it all go to waste by skipping this very important step in your guitar playing. Remember, what we practice is what we play. If you are practicing licks that are out of time and sloppy, guess what’s going to come out at the jam.

If you are into jazz guitar, check out the Jamey Aebersold series. There is a ton of great stuff there. Also, all the tracks have great players on them. For more rock style tracks, check out the ckoMusic band jams series guitar backing tracks.

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Guitar – Overcoming Parrot-Fashion Learning

The two need clearly distinguishing.

This in itself is not a negative thing, and should indeed be encouraged from time to time, as it’s important to extract some creative ideas externally. However, too many guitarists take it too far, sacrificing any personal creative development, bent on becoming the next Steve Vai or Kirk Hammett.

Once you start dropping yourself in a little more at the deep end, you start to pick up the theory almost automatically, in your own way. Without being told, you begin to see relationships between certain strings and fret positions on your guitar. You begin to expand out of your “boxed in” scales because you want more breathing space to apply your own creativity. You finally begin to realise that there is no “right” or “wrong” answer when it comes to creative guitar writing and playing… there is only your expression Vs someone else’s expression.

These are your foundations. As raw techniques and theory, they don’t teach you WHAT to play – they simply give you the foundations on which to build your own musical expression. Master this concept, and you will never want to “parrot” your guitar heroes again. Who knows, one day, people will want to replicate you… and hopefully you’ll give them some sound advice

There are two types of learning when it comes to guitar:

1) Being told what to play and how to play it

When one listens to a track, or reads a tab, they are essentially being told what to play. There is potentially no creativity involved in this process whatsoever, as the guitarist merely “copies” what they see and hear, including the actual techniques used (bends, hammer ons, slides etc.). In fact, a guitarist is often congratulated all the more if they can replicate their favourite songs as close to the original as possible.

Now, I’m not exactly an inverted snob when it comes to guitar, but I do strongly believe in unique talent, and that we all have it in us, somewhere.

It’s also about knowing how to create and build chords and scale patterns based around the type of phrasing you want to express. Specifics.

2) Knowing what you CAN play, and how you CAN play it

Spend more time getting to know and exploring your guitar’s fretboard. Get to know the countless options you have to make your scales sound more alive and dynamic. Get to know how chords and scales work together so you’ll never have to blindly guess where to plonk your fingers.

In this fast paced modern world, people rarely have time to make themselves a proper meal, let alone delve into a 500 page book on guitar theory. It’s understandable, then, that the majority of beginner guitarists turn to the tab sites and jamming along to their favourite bands as their quick-fix source of learning. People are naturally comfortable with what they know and love.

It’s time to be honest – with enough time and practice, ANYONE can learn to merely replicate. If the score is written down, and you have an ear for music, you can be your guitar heroes, minus their individual style (we’ll get onto this in a minute). However, if you’re aim is purely to replicate as accurately as possible, where do you fit into the creative expression of the music?

Knowing what you CAN play, and how you CAN play it is about having knowledge of the specific playing techniques in their raw form, so then you can decide when and how to incorporate a certain type of bend, pull-off, vibrato, tapping phrase etc.

Guitar – Overcoming Parrot-Fashion Learning

You see, if you shy away from creating your own music, the part of the brain associated with this cognitive process becomes redundant, and it becomes more and more difficult to really apply that creative instinct as the ideas form in your head.

So, instead of “I need to bend X string up a whole step”, it’ll be “what options do I have to link this note to the next note in the sequence” – you may choose a bend, or you may feel the need to express it in a completely different way! Let you make the creative decisions based on the raw techniques you’re armed with!

People may say “I just want to learn a song so I have something to play on guitar that everyone knows” – nothing wrong with that at all, but do not by any means let that take up the majority of your playing time.

At the end of the day, in my opinion, it is far more rewarding to spend a week really getting to grips with the “hammer-on” technique, rather than spending two weeks learning X guitar solo from X song. If you arm yourself with enough knowledge of all the playing techniques and foundation theory out there, you will be ready to build solos and phrases how you want… Naturally, without any other guide to obstruct or distract you, you’ll be free to explore the raw techniques you’ve learned in the context of your own unique creativity.

Hints and Strategies For Learning How to Play the Guitar

Have you ever struggled in learning to play the guitar? What about spending tons of money on expensive private guitar tutors? Ever been to websites that claim to give guitar lessons online only to find that they do not work for you? These are issues that many beginner guitar players are facing.

The first thing that a beginner guitarist needs to learn is to be able tune his instrument. If the guitar is not tuned correctly, whatever that is played will sound weird and crappy. This is something that all beginner guitarists should avoid as it would severely hamper your musical growth if they were to start practicing on an out of tuned guitar.

Apart from these aspects of learning the guitar, there is still a lot of basic guitar knowledge that is crucial for the beginner. These aspects include how to hold a pick properly, reading musical notation, basic aural skills and etc. Most of these beginner guitar lessons can be found online at GuitarPlayerWorld.com for free and it is advisable to take things really slow at first when you are starting out. Playing the guitar requires some patience and soon you’ll see yourself progress in your guitar skills.

The next most important thing that novice guitarists should learn is the different parts of the guitar. Why? Many of the online guitar lessons will refer to specific parts of the guitar such as the bridge, body etc. Without prior knowledge of these guitar parts, a beginner guitar player may end up wasting more time and worse still, misinterpret the guitar lessons and learn the wrong stuff.

Many beginner guitarists attempt to learn the guitar by starting to play their favorite songs. By doing so, they are highly motivated to learn the guitar and can feel a sense of accomplishment when they are finally able to play their favorite songs. This approach of learning the guitar is not very effective in the long term. Very often, they would face huge challenges which require fundamental guitar playing knowledge and skills that they did not picked up.

Learn Guitar Online, Carlos Santana – 5 Tips For Electric Latin Guitar Soloing

The B minor 7th flat 5 chord is also known as a B half diminished chord.

chord 1 = A minor (#7), chord 2 = B minor 7th flat 5, chord 3 = C major 7th sharp 5, chord 4 = D minor 7th, chord 5 = E dominant 7th, chord 6 = F major 7th, chord 7 = G sharp diminished 7th.

Here is an example, the “A” blues scale consisting of the notes A,C,D,Eb,E,G can be played over a B minor seventh flat 5, E dominant seventh and A minor chords progression.

Anyone who has tried to play lead guitar in the style of Carlos Santana will know how difficult it is to duplicate. I am not referring to copying a Santana solo from a TAB sheet, we’re talking about understanding how Carlos creates his powerful solos.

The Santana style of playing can add a new dimension to your guitar playing and improve your ability to play guitar by ear, take your time and enjoy these interesting sounds.

The following chords are created from the “A” harmonic minor scale.

Learn Guitar Online, Carlos Santana – 5 Tips For Electric Latin Guitar Soloing

The natural minor scale is also known as the Aeolian mode.

5. Let to play the Dorian Mode:

2. Study chords produced from the Harmonic minor scale.

The “A” minor (#7) chord is also known as a minor/major seventh chord e.g., Am (MAJ7).

Let’s use the “A” natural minor scale as an example.

Learning new scales and chords can be very interesting, it is vitally important to be able to “hear” these new sounds, record the chord progressions and pay close attention to how each chord sounds so you can recognize them when you hear them new time.

Here’s 5 tips to help guitarist’s grasp the concepts behind Santana’s music.

As the name implies the Harmonic minor scale produces as interesting family of rich sounding chords.

4. Blues scale played over Harmonic minor chord progressions:

The following examples are given in the key of A harmonic minor, notice how the preference is for a straight minor chord for chord one instead of a minor sharpened seventh.

Obviously the harmonic minor scale will work well over the chord progressions created from that scale. Santana often plays the blues scale over the harmonic minor chord progressions.

By sharpening the G we create the “A” harmonic minor scale: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, A.

Guitarist’s who already know the natural minor scale can easily create the Harmonic minor scale by sharpening the seventh note of the natural minor scale.

3. Play the standard Harmonic minor chord progressions.

The notes in the “A” natural minor are as follows: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A.

Guitarist’s trying to learn Santana’s guitar solos often encounter notes and chords outside the standard guitar resource material of minor pentatonic scale plus power chord combination.

2-5-1 = B minor seventh flat 5, E dominant seventh, A minor./ 1-4-5 = A minor, D minor seventh, E dominant seventh. /1-6-2-5 = A minor, F major seventh, B minor seventh flat 5, E dominant
seventh. / 1-6-4-5 = A minor, F major seventh, D minor seventh,E dominant seventh. / 1-6-5 = A minor, F major seventh, E dominant seventh.

1. Learn the Harmonic Minor scale .

A number of popular Santana tunes are based on the Dorian mode. The song “Evil Ways” is in “G” Dorian the notes for G Dorian are: G,A,Bb,C,D,E,F,G. Whilst the tune “Black Magic Woman” is derived
from the “D” Dorian mode: D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D.

The most common chord progressions are the 2-5-1, 1-4-5, 1-6-2-5, 1-6-4-5 and 1-6-5 progressions.

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Online Guitar Lessons – Your First Decision

- Do you want to play the music you love most, and play it like a pro?

- Start learning how to read a tab, practice some easy fingerstyle exercises and then move,slowly, to some easy tunes. Thus, you’ll gain some control over the instrument, and you will also develop some skills with your left and right hands.

So, you’re looking for online guitar lessons. Or maybe you’re just starting to learn how to play guitar. Because you want to learn to play the guitar.

All steps require a lot of practice. Believe me, there’s no shortcut here.

That must be your first decision, as depending on your goals, there must seek for different types of online guitar lessons, and there are different ways to approach them.

- Then you’ll move to sheet music reading and more rewarding guitar playing techniques.

Now, where will you start?

- At the same time, you can learn (guitar tabs reading will help a lot) some basic guitar chords, and some simple strumming patterns. That will nicely complement your fingerstyle skills.

You will need to learn how to read guitar tabs, and choose and learn your plucking style.

- Do you want, perhaps, to play some simple charming melodies you always likes?

Now, it would be quite good to have your interests very clear from the beginning, but, if you don´t yet have it clear, here’s my recommendation:

Then you will need to learn how to read guitar notes and guitar sheet music, and learn some more elaborated fingerstyle skills.

- Do you want to play a better style, but just for yourself?

You will need to learn any more than basic chords and some strumming patterns.

Besides, not all step goals can be achieved without the coaching of a guitar teacher.

And, still more important, what do you want to achieve?

- Finally, you’ll have to climb to the top performing skills.

- Do you just want to strum the chords a song when you’re hanging out with your friends?

Here’s where you’ll get the most joy out of your guitar playing. You’ll need more advanced knowledge on sheet music reading, and top guitar playing techniques. And much, much more practice. A lot of daily practice. But I grant you that you’ll never regret it.

Online Guitar Lessons – Your First Decision

Learn Guitar Tabs and Play Songs in Minutes

There is a reason why it seems that so many people can just pick up a guitar and play as opposed to other instruments which seem to require hours of classes and practice – and this is it. It is guitar tab that enables so many guitar players to be self taught, and precisely what will enable you to play any song in minutes.

An alternative means of showing you where to place your finger is not with numbers but with a compact diagram showing you the guitar neck from the pegs at the top down. This type of tab will show you what looks like a table with 5 columns and several horizontal lines. The lines that divide the columns are the strings and the horizontal lines are the frets. If you see therefore a black circle on the 5th line across and the third line down, you know you need to place your finger on the fifth string on the third fret.

You will also notice small numbers positioned on one of the lines/strings of the guitar tablature. This number is telling you what fret and what string you should be positioning your finger on. This way you can see at a glance where to position your finger: if you see a 5 on the 3rd line/string down, you know you must place your finger on the g string on the 5th fret.

When you look at a guitar tab you must imagine that you are looking at the neck of your guitar. There are six lines, each representing a string: e-b-g-d-a-e, with the first string at the top; so the bottom string of the tab is the lowest e which is the bottom string on your guitar.

As you learn guitar tabs you will become more and more familiar with each of these different methods and they will actually start to mold into one in your head as they are simply slight variations on the theme of easily displaying the finger movements that can then be mimicked by you.

For the most part, the only way to get good at something is to practice, practice – practice. Doing it the hard way is a part of getting there. Thankfully this is not entirely true for learning to play the guitar; in fact, you can learn how to play your favorite songs very easily and very quickly. The secret is this: Learn Guitar tabs and play any song in minutes. Sounds too easy? Keep reading!

Learn Guitar Tabs and Play Songs in Minutes

Learn Guitar Chords – Six Steps To Better Chord Changes

This technique let’s you concentrate on getting your fingers into the right position. It will be a lot easier to press the strings down properly then. It also helps your fingers to relax, when you’re in a hurry to get the fingers into position and strum a chord your poor fingers tend to get all tensed up and make more errors.

So, when changing chords, keep your fingers close to the strings, ideally only just releasing contact with them.

So get practicing and polish off those new songs you’ve been wanting to learn.

When you resume your practice you’ll be more concentrated. You might even be surprised to discover that your playing has improved during the break even while you weren’t practicing; while you were doing something else your mind kept working on the problem in the background.

Don’t strum or pick while you practice chord fingering, focus on making the chord shapes only with your left hand (or your right, for the lefties out there). Separate the steps like this and learning chords will become much easier for you.

When you’ve got the fingers moving smoothly into position you can start working on strumming or picking. Start by just pressing the strings down and pick them one by one to ensure they all sound correctly and are not muffled.

The less distance your fingers move when changing chords the better.

Are you struggling with your chord changes? It’s easy to get your fingers into a frustrating tangle when learning to play chords. Don’t worry about it, though, it’s normal. With these tips and a little patience you’ll get your fingers playing faster than you ever thought they were capable of.

Learn Guitar Chords – Six Steps To Better Chord Changes

Conclusion

A finger on the bass strings is generally a good choice to be the lead. This has the advantage of being easier to locate as it’s playing the root note of the chord. The other fingers are then placed relative to this root note.

4. Silence is golden

Stretch and wiggle your fingers to relax them. Place your palm on a flat horizontal surface such as a table or your thigh. Let your arm go limp and relax your hand and fingers completely. Take a few slow, deep breaths while you’re doing it.

When learning a new chord practice without pressing the strings. Simply move your fingers into place and touch their tips lightly on the string. Repeat the movement slowly until your fingers move easily into the correct positions.

Then you can start strumming in rhythm, but remember to go slowly at this point. Don’t suddenly be in a rush to play through the chord changes at full speed. If you practice slowly and concentrate on accurate finger placement the speed will come with time and practice.

3. Follow me!

2. One at a time

Try to find the smallest possible movement for each finger. When you have a finger that remains on the same string you can use the string as a guide, sliding the finger lightly along it to the destination fret. Experiment to find the easiest movement and don’t be afraid to come back and revise after working on other fingers.

6. Relax

Break the movement down by thinking about one finger at a time. Place the fingers lightly on the strings in the position of the chord you’re leaving. What movement does each one have to make to get into place for the next chord?

Don’t get so carried away with your practice that you forget to take a break.

5. Economy of movement

Introduce these six techniques into your practice routine one at a time and you’ll be amazed how easy learning new chord changes becomes. You’ll have the confidence to tackle songs that you avoid now because you feel the chords are too hard for you to play. Your chords will become cleaner, and you’ll be able to change faster and with less mistakes.

1. No pressure

When working on your fingers one at a time as the previous tip suggests you’ll find it’s a good idea to choose a lead finger that you place first for each chord.

Beginners frequently lift their fingers away from the strings when releasing a chord. This forces the fingers to move further at each chord change and is a handicap to developing speed.

Buying A Guitar – Do You Know What To Look For?

When buying a guitar for beginners I usually recommend a nylon stringed acoustic or an electric, as they will be the easiest on the fingers. However, students with small hands may find the wider neck of a classical guitar hard to play because of the reach involved. Something to consider in this case is a 1/2 or 3/4 size. Musical style, personal preference, quality and price are the key determining factors to consider when buying a guitar for intermediate and advanced players.

The action is simply how high or low the strings are set on the fretboard. This will greatly affect the playability. If the strings are set too high they will be difficult to push down and you will be working harder than necessary to play the instrument. On the other hand, if the strings are set too low they will likely interfere with the frets, which may cause a buzzing sound as you play.You should check each fret thoroughly before buying a guitar. This can be done by using the first finger of your left hand to play each string at every fret up and down the neck. Do you here any buzzes? Does the guitar sound in tune at every point? Is it easy to push the string down? If you are unsure about doing this, then try to take someone who plays guitar along with you as you shop.

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3. What is the tonal quality of the instrument?

If the neck is straight the intonation will be consistent. This means that when a specific note or chord is played at different points along the neck it will remain in tune. If the note or chord sounds out of tune at different points, then the neck may be crooked or warped. You can check the neck by looking along it’s edge. Begin from the base of the body and continue on up to the base of the head. You should see a straight line. If you don’t, the neck may be bowed, twisted, or warped.

Necks come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so you will need to determine what feels comfortable to you. Some necks are round and some have a v-shape angle to them. When you cradle the neck in your hand be aware of the fit. Thin necks tend to be easier for small hands, but are generally not as strong as heavier ones. For example, a 12-string guitar will have a heavier neck than a 6-string. Buying a guitar that is the wrong size for your hand can be a factor in developing carpal tunnel syndrome.

7. What are you willing to spend?

1. What style of music are you interested in playing?

Buying A Guitar – Do You Know What To Look For?

2. Are you a beginner, intermediate, or advanced guitarist?

Tonal quality refers to the unique sound of each individual guitar. When you strum the strings or listen to it being played what do you hear? Does it sound deep, bright, soft, dull, tinny? The instrument should resonate (transmit the full vibrating quality of it’s sound) clearly.

Buying a guitar is an important decision that my students have often asked me about. They want to know what they should be looking for. This is an important question because no two are ever exactly alike. There is a wide variety of types, styles, colors, makes, and models to choose from. The question is, which one is right for you? If you don’t know what to look for when you’re buying a guitar, you could end up spending a lot more money than you really need to. On the other hand, getting a “deal” may also get you a lemon. Following are some important questions to consider.

The basic skills required when learning to play are the same regardless of the style of music you may be interested in. However, you should understand when you are thinking of buying a guitar, that some are more suited for a particular style than others. Getting started in the right direction can help you to avoid costly mistakes. Do you like Rock’n Roll, Jazz, Bluegrass, or Classical music? Considering your own personal tastes can help you to determine whether to buy an electric or an acoustic guitar for example.

6. How does the neck feel in your hand?

5. Is the neck straight?

4. How is the action?

Guitar Lessons And Practice – The Most Critical Fact

There’s no mystery in learning to play the guitar, but though rewarding it’s a way of
hard work.

And you want to learn to play your guitar in an optimum way, so you’ll awaken the
admiration of everybody listening to you.

Attitude: It is the main thing you must have in mind. I’m talking here about a strong and
decided state of mind and body that puts you on the track of all the effort needed to meet your goals. Without hard work you won’t get anything great in life. You won’t even be a fair guitar player.

Listen in a different way: Until now most likely you listened just to enjoy it. From now
on, you’ll listen music to enjoy it and learn from it. You’ll listen trying to find out how
the player is playing every specific part of the piece; what is the player intending to
give; what difficulties is the player encountering, and how is he/she going through them;
how would you like to have that part played.

You’re learning guitar because you want to play on your guitar your favorite music, and
you want to enjoy the feeling of drawing out of your guitar those enticing sounds.

Practice efficiently: During the time segments you assigned to practicing, do just that.
Practice. Practice the lessons, exercises, scales, chords, pieces you must practice. Be
clearly sincere with yourself. Don’t fool yourself, thinking that you are doing your
practice when you’re only playing something you like to play and not what you must play.

Play with others: Whenever possible, specially when you have reached a playing knowledge
and skills (and it isn’t required very much), play sometimes with other guitar players.

Look for a teacher: Yes. Look for a teacher. If you are learning to play guitar on your
own, there’ll be a time when you’ll need the guidance and advices of a guitar teacher.

There are many things than cannot be written and read. They must be shown and explained
over the guitar itself. And I guarantee you that you’ll be amazed about what you will
learn.

Remember. Attitude, change your listening habits, practice daily and efficiently, play
with others whenever possible, and have a teacher to make your knowledge perfect.

You’ll be surprised about how much you can learn.

Practice daily: Yes! Practice daily! Not less than two hours a day (one in the morning,
and one in the afternoon, evening or night). I told you that it would be hard.

I won’t tell you that they are easy. I’ll tell you that you can definitively do them,
just putting will and work. Like everything deserved in life.

Guitar Lessons And Practice – The Most Critical Fact

Let’s go through them.

Take it like that, and you’ll become a very good guitar player.

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Electric Guitar Strings – How Do You Know Which Ones To Choose?

Electric Guitar Strings – How Do You Know Which Ones To Choose?

Stainless steel strings produce a bright sound and great sustain. On the bad side, because stainless steel strings are rougher, they are harder on your fingers and cause the greatest fret wear.

Before I do that, let me tell you a little bit about what the main differences are between all of these types of strings.

Nickel-plated strings are the most popular because of its distinctive bright tone and reduced fret wear. It also has a smoother surface than other alloys which makes your playing smoother, faster and easier on the fingers.

The thinner (lighter) the string, the easier it is to bend, which makes them preferred by lead guitarists. On the other hand, rhythm guitarists usually prefer the medium or heavy gauge strings because of the heavier tone and the notes sustain longer.

First let’s talk about the thickness of the strings, which is called string gauge. The string gauge is determined by its diameter in inches. Usually you will see strings that range from .008 – .038 for thin sets to .12 – .52 for the thicker sets. Although different brands may have different names for their string sets, they are commonly divided into these categories… extra super light, super light, light, medium, medium heavy, heavy and super heavy.

Like I said before, there are many different brands of guitar strings available to you. Some of the more popular ones are… D’Addario, Gibson, Elixir, Ernie Ball, GHS and Fender.

So if you are a beginner, I would suggest starting out with a light gauge string because they are easier on your fingers. Light strings will be easier to press down on and easier to bend once you get into string bending. You can even go to a super light or an extra super light but lighter is not always better. When you are first learning with these really light strings, you may unintentionally over-bend your notes.

There are hundreds of different electric guitar strings to choose from. There’s probably… I don’t know… dozens of different brands of guitar strings that you can buy as well. For all I know there could be more, so how do you know which one’s to choose?

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Besides coming in different thickness, strings also are made from different materials. What your strings are made of will influence how your notes will sound. The main alloys that strings are made of are nickel, chrome and stainless steel.

Well, if you are looking for an answer to that question, chances are that you are a beginner, so I’ll tell you what I think a beginner should start out with.

So, start off with the lights and after you have been playing for a bit, you can decide if you need to go lighter, heavier or stay at the same gauge. If you find that you have an aggressive touch, you can go to a heavier gauge. If you fingers are having a hard time bending strings, you may want to try a lighter gauge. If the style of music you like to play has a heavy sound, then it only makes sense to try out the heavier gauge strings.

Experimenting with different brands and gauges is really the only way of finding out which electric guitar strings are right for you.

Chrome strings produce a warmer tone and provide a smooth finish to help your fingers move around easier.