Introduction
- About – The whole idea of this site is to speed up the learning process…
- Inspiration – Some artists are captivating with just a guitar and a microphone…
- Guitar Gear – Roadmap. Ideally, you’d play your electric guitar with a metronome and without an amp for a while to be nice to your house mates…
- Guitar Care – No Hot Cars, No Sudden Temperature Changes, …
- Guitar Setup – I do all my own setups, and here’s what I do…
Beginner
- Guitar Parts – Head: The part where the tuning keys attach…
- Holding the Guitar – Classical Guitarists prop up their left foot, and hold the guitar very upright. In this position, their wrist is straight and they have easy access to all the strings…
- Fretting the Strings – On your fretting hand, arch your fingers and press straight down with your fingertips to help each string ring out…
- Holding the Pick – Hold the pick between the first finger and thumb…
- Names of the Open Strings – There are several tunings, but the most common one is Standard Tuning, also called EADGBE…
- Tuning the Guitar – The notes of the open strings are 5 half steps, or 5 frets apart, except for the 3rd to 2nd string, which is 4 half steps apart. We can use this to tune the guitar…
- First Position Notes – This is easy to get this down if you learn one string at a time…
- Reading Music – Musical notation is a way to save your musical ideas on paper…
- Ear Training – Melody Lines – Ear Training is an important skill to add to your arsenal. Let’s start by listing to and playing back some simple melody lines…
- Song Writing – Lyrics and Melody Lines – It’s never too early to start developing your song writing skills…
- Reading Chord Diagrams – Chord diagrams show you how to finger chords…
- Open Chords – Open chords are played in the first position and typically contain an open string…
- Basic Strumming – This video shows a smooth down and up motion. The strum is actually a gentle arc…
- Basic Strumming Rhythms – Hear are some basic strumming rhythms to get you started…
- Muting Techniques – There are 3 common types of muting to help you gain expressive control over your sound…
- Chop – You can combine different types of muting with strumming to make some interesting effects and rhythmic patterns…
- Play with a Rhythm Track – Being able to keep time is an essential skill in order to play with others, or multi-track your own creations…
- Record Yourself – Recording and hearing yourself played back can be very instructive…
- Ear Training – Open Chords – Hearing chords is a little more difficult than hearing the melody lines. Let’s start by listening to and playing back some simple open chords…
- Song Writing – Rhythm and Harmony Lines – Record a single note melody line from your Song Writing – Lyrics and Melody Lines lesson. Play it back and try playing some chords. See which ones fit…
Intermediate
- Seventh Position Notes – Just like the first position notes, the seventh position notes are easy to get down if you learn one string at a time…
- Reading Tab – Tablature (TAB) is another way to notate guitar parts…
- Hammer Ons and Pull Offs – A Hammer On is a technique where you rapidly, with some force, put a finger of your fretting hand down on a string to make it sound…
- Picking Styles – There are a lot of ways to use the pick to control or influence the sound…
- Fingerstyle – Using the finters of your right hand independently opens up a whole new style of playing with it’s own sonic texture…
- Ear Training – Arpeggios and Ornaments – Arpeggios are broken chords. Let’s start by listening to and playing back the notes of some broken chords…
- Song Writing – Fingerstyle – Go back to one of your chord progressions from your Song Writing – Rhythm and Harmony Lines less. Instead of strumming the chords, play a pattern with your right hand over the left hand fingerings…
- Bar Chords (CAGED) – Bar chords allow you to play chords in any part of the neck for fast changes and tight voicings. There are 5 basic chord shapes that are movable…
- Reading Lead Sheets – Lead sheets are a form of short hand notation, designed to write quickly and take less space…
- 12 bar Blues – The Blues is credited with being an important influence on rock and roll, jazz and most modern genres…
- Ear Training – Bar Chords – Bar chords can have a different sound than open chords. Let’s start by listening to and playing back some chords…
- Song Writing – Rock and Blues – Blues is based on the I – IV – V chords… Rock pulls from a larger palette…
- Scales and Key Signatures – Have you ever wondered how they decided which sharps and flats make up a key?…
- Circle of 5ths – The Circle of 5ths is a diagram used as a quick reference for all sorts of key and chord information. Here’s how it works…
- Transcribe Easy Songs – Have you ever wondered: “How did I play that?” That’s the problem the Ear Training exercises should help you solve…
- Pentatonic Scales – One of the oldest scales is the Pentatonic Scale. Much of modern rock is based on it…
- Slide – The Slide is a technique where you play a fretted note as normal, and then slide your fretting finger to another fret, usually up 1 or 2 frets…
- String Bends – Bending strings is a technique where you play a string as normal and then bend the string with your fretting hand to raise the pitch of the note…
- Tremolo and Vibrato – Tremolo means different things to different people…
- Blues Scales – There have been several variations of the Blues Scale used over the years. Most commonly, the Blues Scale refers to the 6 note scale derived by adding a #4 / b5 note to the Pentatonic Scale…
- Playing Blues Lead – The Blues isn’t just a scale or chord progression, but rather a particular feel…
- Sight Reading – Get an easy book of music in the key of C (no sharps or flats) and practice sight reading…
- Play all the way through – Pick an easy song you like. Set your metronome to a nice slow pace…
- Write Short Songs – Short songs are often long phrases, or the stitching together of a couple smaller phrases…
- Play Along with Backing Tracks – Playing along with a Backing Track can be more interesting than playing to a click, and encourages you to play complete songs at speed. It’s good practice for playing with others…
Advanced
- Know All the Notes – Learn the Entire Fretboard in Days, not years!…
- Chord Construction – Chords are built from the notes of the scale or key…
- Triads in Every Position – This gives you alternate ways of playing the Basic Triads…
- Harmonics – If you lightly touch a finger to a string at a node, pluck it and quickly remove your finger from the node, you can hear a bell like harmonic sound…
- Advanced Chords in Every Position – Here we build on Triads in Every Position…
Join the discussion and share your tips.