Play Guitar Easy

Archive for November, 2009

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As an old Rock N Roll guitar player myself, the first thing I found out, when looking for free blues guitar lessons on line was this: I had learned to play guitar based on some really bad habits. My fingering and picking were all wrong from the start. In effect, I didn’t know how to play guitar correctly which made it more difficult to perform blues riffs.

When I first decided to learn to play guitar as a teenager, I was told that the keys in learning how to play guitar successfully were to be able to read music, to learn theory, and practice, practice and even more practice. But, who had the time, energy, and money, to do all that when you are throwing together a garage band? We had one accomplished player in the group who taught the rest of us only the tunes we were going to play at gigs. We learned the rest on our own – by ear!

I was also told to find an instructor who spoke my language and who understood that I needed to start at the beginning. I quickly found out that most guitar teachers are either not very good at teaching or they just can’t resist showing off their prowess. Most guitar teachers simply can’t communicate the basics. I think they forgot what it was like to be in our shoes.

Teaching anything takes a certain kind of personality. Can you remember a favorite school teacher? That teacher stood out from all the others because they knew how to reach you at your level. I can only remember two great teachers. I excelled in their classes. Well, it’s the same with guitar instructors. Most just don’t know how to reach us to teach us.

If you long to learn how to play blues guitar, you have only a handful of really good free online videos, and courses to choose from on the web. But, finding free blues guitar lessons is a frustrating exercise that will eat up hours of time as you dig through all that is being offered. There is just too much bad stuff out there.

So, what’s the next B. B. King to do?

If you have surfed the so-called free programs, you know that most leave you hanging or confused because they assume too much about your level of skill. They throw out technical terms as if we understand about open E tuning, 12 bar blues, tablature, and on and on they lecture. We get buried in theory that only Beethoven could understand. Most of these freebies are not for beginners or if you play other styles of music on guitar. Playing blues guitar has its own unique set of moves and techniques that must be learned on their own.

Now, it’s completely up to you to choose which free blues guitar lessons that will suit your level of understanding and skill. At some point you need to choose your favorite learn how to play the blues program and just go for it. This is the trick. Which program will move you along the fastest so that, within a few weeks to a month, you will begin to see and hear the enormous improvements that are taking place in your style of guitar playing?

My quest right now is learning how to play blues slide guitar. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do not only to impress family and friends but to accomplish a lifelong dream I’ve never let die. The sound of a great blues player just does something for me that I can’t explain.

Playing slide blues seems physically easy in one sense. You just drag a slide over the strings and instantly hear the effect. Well, I can tell you that, at first, it can be difficult to get sliding under control to play in tune and keep the accompanying buzzing and rattling sounds from making your cat run for cover! Now, slide guitar doesn’t require left-hand strength the way normal acoustic guitar playing does, but it does require learning the basics and learning the right touch!

Free blues guitar lessons are great to get your juices flowing but, if you really want to learn how to play blues guitar, my advice is to go to your local bookstore or look on line for a course that starts with the basics. You just have to start at the beginning if you want to sound like the great blues players.

Jim DeSantis

Jim DeSantis
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/free-blues-guitar-lessons-can-give-you-the-blues-420522.html

Playing the guitar is one of the most popular hobbies in America. Millions of Americans play the guitar as a leisure activity; and why not? It is one of the easiest musical instruments to learn and the most popular music of the day is played on the guitar. Many people do not realize how easy it is to really learn to play the guitar. Some people, who first begin learning to play the guitar, try to learn a very hard song from the start. Then they start thinking they will never be able to learn to play, that they just do not have that natural musical talent that some people have, when really they just picked a hard song.

Some people try to play the guitar for only about a week and expect to pick it up that quickly. If they cannot do it in a week, then again they think they just do not have that musical talent. All of that is nonsense Not even an experienced musician would be able to pick up the guitar and learn it in a week. He or she would know how the music works and understand how the guitar is supposed to played, but it still takes a little time to develop the correct motor skills with your hands and fingers.

Anybody can pick up the guitar and learn to play some of their favorite songs if they just stick with it for a little while and practice for only a short period of time each day. To begin playing the guitar, all you have to do is learn a few chords. Most rock, country, or other popular genres or songs can be played with only a few easy chords on the guitar. They say with only three or four chords you can play most rock songs ever written. Most people I have taught to play the acoustic guitar or electric guitar, if they would just listen to me and try it for one week, they could get down three chords in that week or two weeks and then be able to play a song with those chords.

I also teach them a strumming pattern to play the chords with. That is all you need and you are set with your new hobby of playing guitars. I myself studied music for seven years or more before I tried to learn the guitar, so I did have a good grasp of music theory, but it still took me several months to learn to play well, because I had to develop the motor skills of moving my fingers on the strings and coordinating my fingering and strumming patterns.

It also takes a little while to learn to sing on top of keeping the beat and playing the guitar. But it can be learned quickly as well, if you just stick with and give it a real try. I did not have anyone to teach me when I first began playing the guitar. I just bought an acoustic guitar and taught myself to play. Every now and then people would give me pointers or teach me how to play something. I have taught other people to play also, and noticed that with a teacher it is surprising how fast people can pick things up.

I wish I would have had a teacher when I was learning. There are little tricks and licks on the guitar that only an experienced guitar player would know. So if you are looking for a new hobby, one that you can do whenever you want, with friends or by yourself, then learn to play the guitar. It is like riding a bike. Once you learn it, you never forget. It will be something you can take with you for the rest of your life, entertaining crowds and parties and serenading that special someone. And, if you do not have a special someone, it will definitely help your chances of finding them.

John Pawlett
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/hobbies-guitar-how-to-start-91939.html

What benefits will you reap from playing slowly? Surprisingly enough you might become a faster guitar player and more important, you will become a better musician and guitarist!

How is this possible?

Life is full of surprises. Many people have experienced that they somehow have run away from life by hurrying all the time. Well, what has this to do with you as a guitarist!

First of all I would like to state that from personal experience I have found that many guitarists practice scales and licks faster than they should.

What do I mean with that?

Our present technical skill as a guitar player sets a limit as to how fast we can play scales and licks without doing damage to ourselves in various ways. What can happen if you play too fast?

Here is a list of things that can happen when you practice scales and other exercices or solos too fast:

1. If you play guitar in a speed that is above your technical skill level you will probably build up tensions in the muscles controlling your finger movements and also in other muscles that should not be used. You are also exposed to muscle injuries that might take a long time to cure.

The muscle tensions that is present when you practice on your guitar will tend to be there when you perform also. The way you practice is reflected in how you perform.

2. Always playing fast on your guitar deprive you of the opportunity to find out new things all by yourself on the guitar. I remember that one of my guitar pupils once came to me and said that he experienced a “dearth of licks” in his guitar playing.

One way to develop more interesting solos is to practice slowly. This will give your fingers and brain time to take other paths on the guitar frets. This will help you find your own style and help you play in a more innovative way.

3. The risk of making mistakes on your guitar increases the faster you play. If you want to learn a lick as fast as possible, the most effective way is to practice slowly without mistakes. Every mistake you make as you practice slows down your progression as you confuse your muscle memory with things that shouldn’t be there.

How can you start to play slower?

1. Use a metronome. If you don’t have one already you can buy a cheap digital metronome. You can adjust the volume so not to disturb your friends around you. I don’t recommend that you use a metronome all the time but part of your practice time and especially when you want to play slowly and when you practice new material.

Some players feel like the metronome slows down when they play. Actually these players of course speed up unconsciously. It really is an art to keep a steady pace playing slowly.

2. Use part of your practice time to play extremely slowly with your concentration on playing as relaxed as possible in your whole body. Focus on pressing down the frets with minimal force and holding your pick with as little force as possible.

3. Learn to be aware of tensions in your entire body and especially in your hands. Be careful never to play faster on your guitar than your technical skills allows you to without building up tensions in your hands and the rest of your body. The way your body reacts when you practice is the way it will react when your perform.

In order to understand and be aware of tensions in your body I recommend that you learn muscle stretching and apply these exercises before, during and after your guitar practice sessions. Also learn muscle relaxation exercises.

The more relaxed you are as you play the better you will play on your guitar and the faster you will learn new guitar exercises. You will enjoy your guitar playing more and even your audience will feel the difference.

Peter Edvinsson
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-lesson-the-art-of-playing-slowly-175449.html

While it’s absolutely true that musical talent is generally either there or it’s not, when it comes to guitarists, developing screaming fingers is something they all have to work at. If a guitarist plays with their heart, has some innate talent and a desire to truly practice, screaming fingers are a possibility.

To be able to take a guitar and play hot licks like a pro, however, some conditioning will need to come into play. Screaming fingers are, after all, made and not born. This means anyone who expects to pick up a guitar and play like a pro within a few hours is probably fooling themselves. The process of learning will require some time, patience and practice.

To ensure the best development of screaming fingers for guitar players, a novice player will need to set his or her sights on a few things. Number one in all of it will be a desire to learn to play the guitar and play it well. In order to have fingers scream across the strings like they are on auto pilot, it will be important to have a very good understanding of chords, finger placement and the such.

Getting started on the road to success involves some time and practice. The first thing is first, however, learn the guitar! This means take lessons, either face-to-face or online, learn the chords and learn finger placement while practicing it on a daily basis.

Once a basic understanding of the notes and finger placement is in place, the next step in developing screaming fingers involves a willingness to practice these things over and over again. For something to become second nature, it has to be practice. Just like learning to walk, ride a bicycle or write your name, screaming fingers will take repetitious learning to perfect and master.

The idea behind all the practice is to ensure that the mind drives the fingers exactly where they need to go when they play. The more chords are practiced, the more likely it is the movement to play them will become route. When this is the case, having true screaming fingers status is almost attainable.

The other major factor in creating screaming fingers is a willingness to exercise the fingers, as well. It’s important to keep hands limber and ready to play. Many guitar players who want to ensure they can pick up their axe and play it like it was made for them develop or follow an exercise routine for their hands. Whether it’s simply playing the guitar or working on limbering exercises during down times, keeping the hands moving and fast is an important consideration.

Going from beginner to guitar playing expert takes time and a little innate talent, it’s true. The fact is anyone with a heart for the instrument and an ear for music can learn to play and play well.

Developing screaming fingers, however, will require more dedication than just learning the guitar. To truly attain this status, a player needs to know the instrument about as well as they do themselves. The key here is time and patience.

Ray La Foy
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/commitment-is-key-to-playing-expert-guitar-138881.html

Can you hear a melody and then play it on your guitar? To have a good ear will help you a lot in your musical endeavors. Let’s see how we can improve this ability!

Learn to know your guitar

To be able to pick up your guitar and play any melody you hear would be nice I guess!

To understand the relationship between the melodies you hear and the frets and strings you have to use to play these melodies is something you can practice in different ways. Here are some suggestions:

1. Play around with your guitar. Yes, that’s right! Have a nice time with your guitar! First of all because it is fun and you probably play the guitar first of all for this reason.

This means that you try out things on the guitar. Play notes and listen how they sound. It doesn’t really matter if it is fantastic melodies you create. The important thing is that you gradually will learn how notes, strings and frets relate to each other.

2. Learn scales. Scales can be played for many reasons. One way is to develop a better understanding of the fretboard.

To accomplish this you should as soon as you have learned to play a scale on the guitar try to use it, experiment with it, try to create melodies with it, play patterns and so on.

3. Learn music theory. Well, this sounds a little bit intimidating maybe. But music theory can be as simple as knowing the names of the notes on the guitar. Take a few notes at a time and practice playing them on the guitar as you say the notenames aloud.

4. Learn easy melodies. Yes, very easy melodies like Mary Had A Little Lamb and other melodies with few notes in them. Then try to play the melodies starting on a different place on your guitar fretboard. This is a very effective way to learn to understand the guitar.

5. Transpose songs. You will develop your ear and your understanding of the relationship between chords by transposing the chords of the songs you can play by heart to different keys.

Let’s take the song Tom Dooley as an example. It contains only two chords in it’s most common form. If you play it in D-major it will be D and A7. If you play it in E it will be E and …well you can figure it out by yourself.

Try to play Tom Dooley in the key of C and see if you can figure out the chords.

To hear a melody and then be able to play it on the guitar is really both fun and of great use to a guitarist. By trying these tips you might find yourself a little bit closer that goal!

Peter Edvinsson
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-lesson-become-a-better-guitarist-by-developing-your-ear-126230.html