Learn Guitar – The Very Basics

Nobody likes to talk about the basics when starting to learn guitar. But they are important, and for a good reason. It is much easier to play the guitar if your technique is correct and efficient. The following guidelines will make it so much easier to learn the guitar without the difficulties associated with poor technique.

When you hold your guitar, place the body on your right leg, and the neck in your left hand. You should hold the pick in your right hand, between your thumb and your index finger only. 9 out of 10 of my new students have a tendency to want to hold their pick with both their index and middle fingers opposing the thumb. It usually takes me weeks to break that habit, so don’t start now!

In addition, be careful not to be chasing the neck of your guitar. Try to hold it so that the headstock is about at chest level. Hold the guitar close against your body and keep it under your control at all times.

If you haven’t already noticed, there are six strings on your guitar. The one closest to you, it should also be the thickest, is number 6. It is also the lowest string in terms of pitch on the guitar, so we also call it the low, or bottom string. The first string is also the top string and is the skinniest one on your guitar. If you have a classical guitar, it may not actually be the skinniest, but it should be the highest in pitch unless your guitar is really out of tune. The art and science of tuning is a whole other animal.

Now, let’s take the pick and pluck the first string. That’s called playing the string “open.” Now pluck the second string open, then the third string open. You’ve just played your first 3 notes on the guitar! I know, it doesn’t sound like much yet, but we have to start somewhere.

Your fingers are numbered 1 through 4, with your index finger being number 1, your middle finger being number 2, your ring finger is 3, and your pinky is 4. Now that you know how to play the first string open, let’s push down on the string with your first finger right behind the first fret. If you don’t remember, the frets are the small metal rails that go across the neck. There should be anywhere from 18 – 22 of them depending on the length of your guitar. Pluck the first string with the pick to make it sound.

The trick here is to push as close to the fret as possible without being on top of it. If you are on top of the fret, the note may sound muffled. If you’re too far away, or don’t push down hard enough, you’ll hear a buzzing sound instead of a nice, clear note.

Now try pushing down on the first string at the second fret and pluck the first string. Finally, push with your third finger on the third fret, and pluck the first string. When you push down on the second or third fret, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re still pushing on either the first or second fret. Whatever fret is closest to the soundhole or pickups is the one that you’re going to hear.

Try pushing down on one of the first four frets on various strings to hear what they sound like and get the feel for how hard you have to push. You might be surprised at how easy it is. Remember that you always use your first finger for notes on the first fret, second finger for notes on the second fret, third finger for notes on the third fret, and your pinky will eventually get used for the fourth fret notes. It might be tough right now, but you’ll get stronger.

Always remember these basic techniques as you learn more about how to play the guitar. These are things that even seasoned professionals have to remind themselves of periodically, and things that can turn an arduous task into one of enjoyment and fun.

How to Learn Guitar Chords

Want to know how to learn guitar chords? There are many great online guitar courses that you can take from your home when you want if you have access to

- a guitar (obvious)
- a computer with online connection.

Learning to play guitar can typically be compared with a child who is learning to walk. We normally learn to crawl before we can rise up on our two legs and walk. Don’t expect it to be much different when it comes to guitar playing. One of the basics of guitar playing is guitar chords because every piece of music or song is built on chords. The good news is that it’s quite easy to learn guitar chords if you get the right instruction and you practice correctly as well. There are numerous online guitar courses, some are even free. If you really want to learn guitar you should purchase a complete course from one of the top five guitar course providers in the internet. You also need to work out a time schedule, stick to it and track your progression. Moreover, you must allow yourself plenty of time – especially in the beginning – for practicing and you also need to utilize your practice hours optimally.

Finding a Site

As already mentioned you will find lots of resources online that can easily instruct you on how to learn guitar chords. Your job is to find an online course that will fit your needs. The best e-learning sites are those that utilize multimedia for what it’s worth; pictures, videos, audios and written words. Especially when learning an instrument is the purpose, media files are essential. An image or a video can show you exactly the hand motions and finger positions so there’s no doubt about how to play it. Reading where to place your fingers during a song can for some be a bit confusing which can turn into bad practice habits. Also look for sites that contain positive user feedback and user forums where students can ask questions and get answers from others. That might be very helpful for you during the course.

Practice the Right Way

If you think that you can go to the internet and learn about these chords and then become a master guitarist, then think again. Learning to play guitar doesn’t work like that. Remember the metaphor about children who learn to walk that I mentioned above. What learning to walk is about is getting yourself into position and making your legs steady and solid enough to walk. Learning guitar is very similar; the right way to practice makes perfect. Your effort should be focused on applying what you learn online to your guitar playing. Hopefully you will know more about how to learn guitar chords.

Learn Guitar at Home

Did you know you can learn guitar at home, even if you’ve never held a guitar in your life? Whether you are picking up the guitar after several years or are a complete beginner there are several ways to get the most out of your guitar lessons.

Of course, you can hire an instructor and get personalized training. This can run into quite a lot of money and you will need to schedule the time for each lesson. For years this was how most people learned to play a guitar. Others were blessed with talented family members who passed along their talent for playing guitar.

Today the most popular method of learning is through online guitar lessons. These allow you to learn guitar at home, at your own pace. If you choose to learn from this method here are a few beginning guitar tips. Practise these tips until they become habit.

First, don’t procrastinate! When learning at home it is easy to put off your lessons until later. If you are to ever learn guitar at home you must practise. Practise is the most important part of learning.

Find a good place in your home for your practise sessions. A room with no distractions such as a tv or telephone will work best.

Set aside a time each day for your guitar lessons. If you were paying a professional instructor you would have to be punctual. Don’t cheat yourself by becoming complacent or lazy about when you practise.

You must recognize your own work habits. You, alone will know how fast you can learn. Each person will have their own way of learning. Adjust your practise sessions so that you can maintain them throughout the learning process.

Self discipline is a must. Good planning and goal setting will help make sure you follow through and actually do learn guitar at home.

I hope these few beginner guitar tips help. Nothing is more rewarding than relaxing with a smooth melody on your own guitar. Being self taught will make it even better.

Practice Helps You Learn Guitar By Ear

For most of us, learning an instrument requires an enormous amount of dedication – understanding fundamental principles and techniques before embarking upon long practices. Practicing long hours will finally reward the student with a working knowledge of the instrument. And, if they are lucky, after many years of hard work they may even become quite a masterful player. The guitar, especially, is held up as one of the more popular instruments to which people dedicate themselves. With images of musical grandeur in their heads they apply themselves night and day to the practice of guitar in the hopes of someday becoming proficient. But there are a rare few of us who can actually learn guitar by ear, an inherent skill that graces only the lucky among us.

Ultimately, you never know until you try if you can learn guitar by ear. If you are interested in taking up guitar and have a few chosen songs that you would really like to learn to play, try it out. If you play the song on a CD, those who can play guitar by ear can mimic the notes they hear on their own instruments. For those who have a working knowledge of the guitar – the ways in which to hold it and the tone that each vibrating chord makes the possibility to learn guitar by ear is far more probable. Until you really understand the sounds that each chord is capable of making, it will be difficult to replicate the sounds you hear in your music on the strings of your guitar.

In some cases it is possible to train yourself to learn guitar by ear. Begin by learning the sounds the strings make on your guitar; really process this and hear it in your head as well as your ears. Listen to how the sounds change as you change chords and begin to listen to the music on your CDs with an ear towards those chord changes. You will soon begin to hear chord changes in the songs that you have listened to over and over without ever previously recognizing those chords. It’s amazing how your ear changes once you begin to learn guitar; suddenly you are able to make those necessary correlations between the sound that your guitar makes and the sound that the guitar makes in some of your favorite songs. Pick one part of the song and begin to try it out on your own guitar; keep trying until you are able to replicate the sound. Soon enough you’ll be able to piece the song together; often sounds are just repetition of the same chords.

While playing music adeptly by ear is in inherent skill, you can still learn guitar by ear if you are dedicated and single-minded in your task.

How long does it take to learn guitar?

The age-old question, “how long does it take to learn guitar?”. It’s natural when starting on a course of learning to ask how long it will take. If you are starting to learn guitar you will be undergoing some changes in the way you spend your time, the way your muscles feel and the way you feel about learning how to play guitar. Right at the start of the course the boring and painful bits are making themselves felt and the rewards are not appearing yet. So how long does it take?

To some degree it depends on how old you are when you start to learn guitar. If you start in your late teens, as many people do, it could take some weeks before you are able to play a few chords and begin to play some easy guitar-accompanied songs. At this age you will possibly have friends who can help you with guitar tips if you don’t actually have a teacher. Once you are over the first hump of learning chords you will start to feel that you are developing your own individual understanding of the guitar.

Some people will learn guitar at music school for a couple of years. This will mean taking the guitar a little more seriously and learning a great number of chords and some music theory. You will be learning the guitar from books and DVDs, maybe augmented by some online guitar lessons. You will realize that the guitar is a fairly difficult instrument to learn if you are planning on really mastering it. Playing a few chords for some easy songs is okay but it could take years to get your head around reading sheet music and understanding guitar music theory.

You could speed up your progress by taking advantage f the enormous number of guitar lesson videos and written tutorials available on line. But no matter how much help you have your progress is not going to be rapid. There’s no magic bullet, you will learn guitar at your own pace, whatever that happens to be.

Some people concentrate on learning the notes on the guitar fretboard – where all the notes are located. If you use this approach you could stick with learning where all the natural notes are because once you know those, the sharps and flats will be obvious. Once you have an understanding of the major and minor scales and how their intervals work, you should be able to play in all keys.

You will also learn about barre chords. This is a technically demanding part of your quest to learn guitar and many people tend to shy away from it, but once you get the idea of the basic chord shapes that you can move up and down the fretboard, it will not be so daunting.

For many, many guitar players the minor pentatonic scale is the beginning, middle and end of learning guitar. If you know the root note of your song or chord you can match it with a minor pentatonic scale. So you are using five notes to compose and improvise guitar solos. What this means is that inside of a year you should have a reasonable mastery of the guitar and the question of how long does it take to learn guitar has changed for you because you know that every time you play you learn something new.

The Best Ways to Learn Guitar Tabs

One of the biggest difficulties that a beginner faces is learning tabs and that’s why easy to learn guitar tabs are very handy. Guitar tabs are one of the things that every guitarist needs to learn. They are a great place to start and there are plenty of different tabs available for every player. There are even tabs for beginners that are easy to learn guitar tabs.

Guitar tabs, or tablature, are the script for guitar music. These are easy to read scripts compared to actual sheet music. Actually, many people who can’t understand sheet music will use tablature to play music. Tablatures help beginning guitarists learn songs by teaching them where to put their fingers and how to strum.

Easy to learn guitar tabs are available all over the Internet and in music stores. Even monthly guitar magazines contain easy tablature for players to learn on. The bonus is that they learn popular songs, making practicing guitar more enjoyable. You can find all kind of guitar tabs online from various guitar lesson sites. Every tab that you find on the Internet will come with a difficulty rating and a star rating of how good the actual tab is. This allows you to find tabs that are in your skill level.

It is very easy for any guitarist to go out and pick up the tabs of their favorite songs, then get discouraged when the songs are too difficult. It is important to be honest about guitar skill level. Choose tabs that fit the skill level. Then you can grow with the tablature. That is the best thing about having easy to learn guitar tabs. You’d be amazed at the great songs available in easy tablature. There are also songs that will not work with certain equipment. For example, heavy metal song guitar tabs is totally different as compared to the acoustic guitar tabs. Also, don’t try any really hard picking songs when you are just beginning. Get used to the guitar. You should start with the simple songs before begin to play the more complex songs. The easy to learn guitar tabs are the best place to get your feet wet.

Easy to learn guitar tabs work so well because you learn by sound as well as by feel. Most of the times, you will choose a song that you are familiar with, so you know what it sounds like. When you play it correctly, you’ll hear it for yourself. Learning songs with easy guitar tabs will help you get confident with the instrument. It will helps to improve your guitar skill.

5 Requirements of Choosing a Learn Guitar DVD

Once you make the decision to learn guitar on DVD, the first step is to find out which learn guitar DVD will work best for your guitar playing skill level. There are many popular guitar instruction DVDs on the market, so it is important to compare and pick the one that suits you best.

The Perfect Learn Guitar DVD is…..

-Worth the Price Tag

The cost of guitar lesson DVDs can range from $20 to over $100, so you should shop around to make sure you are getting the best product for the money you are willing to spend. If you have a limited budget, you can find a learn guitar DVD that will cover the basics and give you a good start on learning to play the guitar. If you have a few more bucks to spend, a higher priced DVD may give you a little more of what you’re looking for.

-User Friendly

All guitar instruction DVDs are not created equal; some are more complex and meant for the more experienced user. Learning how to play the guitar on DVD can be as simple as inserting the DVD and hitting the play button, or it can be more complicated, depending on the one you choose. If you prefer something more advanced, make sure to read the instructions and get whatever information you need before you get started. This will make learning guitar more fun and successful.

-Good Tips and Pointers

Some learn guitar DVD programs give you the bare minimum, and this doesn’t always have to do with price either. The best program will have thorough instructions and plenty of pointers to cover any questions you may have along the way.

-Is High Quality

Whatever you do, don’t settle for a low quality guitar lesson DVD. And that includes buying some bootleg copy online. It is easy to find a reasonably priced guitar course DVD on the market today, and many of them are of very high quality with superb instruction.

-Has Detailed Instructions

Know your skill level and how you like to learn, and then find this type of instruction in the DVD you buy. You can find an assortment of teaching styles on any learn guitar DVD, including video lessons, audio lessons and more. Be familiar with what works for you before you buy, so it will be most effective for your needs.

Always make sure to look for the best features that most closely meet your own guitar playing needs. Look for the features mentioned above, and you can be sure to find the perfect learn guitar DVD for you!

The Effectiveness Of Easy To Learn Guitar Tabs

For many, learning how to play guitar is a realization of a lifetime of “rock star” dreams. And while most of us will never go on to enjoy a career as a guitar player, we can still enjoy the playing – integrating the guitar into our life as a hobby or even for use in an amateur band. But before we get that far, we must first understand the fundamentals of guitar playing. For some, such learning comes from skilled and reputable teachers who can provide hands-on instruction on a frequent basis. For others, it makes more logistical and financial sense to captain their own guitar instruction with the help of books, videos, and easy to learn guitar tabs.

Easy to learn guitar tabs refer to “tablature” a form of sheet music constructed for those who can not read traditional notes. Rather, guitar tabs deconstruct the song on paper – breaking it down and referencing how the player’s fingers should be positioned for each note. These easy to learn guitar tabs can bring the amateur guitar player into the world of music without needing the skill of reading music. It literally walks the player through the musical score and allows them to follow at their own pace. It’s no wonder, therefore, that guitar tabs are so instrumental in the learning process for beginners.

You can find easy to learn guitar tabs through a number of different venues including guitar stores and larger retail stores that offer a multitude of different instruments. But in this day and age, the Internet is by far the most comprehensive resource for easy to learn guitar tabs. There are a number of reputable websites where you can find guitar paraphernalia at affordable prices. There are also a bevy of industry publications – guitar magazines – that offer easy to learn guitar tabs for sale throughout their pages. No matter where you purchase them, however, keep in mind that most guitar tabs are rated according to difficulty – so be sure to consult the rating before making your purchase.

Of course, easy to learn guitar tabs should be chosen because, ultimately, they break down the song you want to play. So make your purchase, get motivated, and prepare yourself to learn guitar – the easy way!

The Best Way to Learn Guitar

If truth be told, there might be no best way to learn guitar, since what is best for one person might not be so for the next. Many people learn guitar in many different ways, and some of the world’s best guitarists learned with no help whatsoever. In saying that, however, there is an argument that questions whether or not that is relevant. Here is how that argument generally goes.

Guitarists who learn without tuition have to be brilliant guitarists, or they would never have learned without tuition. We don’t know how many failed to learn how to play a guitar for the lack of tuition, because only the most brilliant are able to do so. The argument goes on to state that in relation to those that were given tuition, very few became good guitarists without it. The vast majority of good guitarists were taught, so unless you are a genius you must have lessons to learn to play guitar well.

Hence, if your son or daughter says they don’t need lessons to learn because Jimi Hendrix didn’t need them, point out to them that they are not Jimi Hendrix. Nor Eric Clapton, who also had no lessons. Instead ask them if they want to be like the thousands or more of others who tried without lessons and failed. There is no doubt that learning how to play an instrument properly allows you to learn quicker and play properly.

Although a good guitarist, Hendrix relied largely upon use of feedback and other electronic gadgetry for much of his sound, although nobody can deny Clapton’s genius. The argument is that were he not a genius he would never have been successful without guitar lessons. Many failures can testify to that fact.

So what is the best way to learn guitar? The probable answer you will get is the way that the person you asked used. People generally know of no other way than that they used, although this is becoming increasingly less true as technology advances and the internet becomes a more significant factor in the teaching of just about anything.

It is unlikely that a guitar book is still the best way. In fact it wasn’t just the best way; it was also the only way at one time unless your parents were rich and could afford a private guitar tutor. There’s no doubt that private tuition is the best way, assuming that you are the only pupil. It falls down when you are one of a class of several, and the lessons are aimed either at the average learning rate or the fastest – never the slowest! So personal tuition is not necessarily always the best way.

When an audio tape or CD is added, the book becomes more attractive. You can now hear what you are meant to be playing, and if you use a CD or DVD recorder you can also hear what you are playing from the listener’s perspective. For some reason your playing always sounds better to you than to the listener. Especially when you are learning! With the CD, all you need is video and you are practically replicating the personal tuition. Only you can watch the lesson over and over again.

That is why a DVD is perhaps the best way to learn guitar. Perhaps. The benefits of a DVD other than the aforementioned replaying facility, include being able to see where your fingers should be and to hear what certain finger positions sound like, something that plain audio could not achieve. Even for advanced players, you need video to learn how to play guitar harmonics. However, although video would appear to be the Nirvana of guitar teaching media, there is one more that surpasses even video: the online membership site.

Membership sites of various types are growing all over the web, and have branched out into guitar teaching. A guitar tuition membership site can offer what a teaching DVD cannot: a multitude of playing styles, a multitude of guitar designs and a multitude of teachers. With a membership site you can choose the teacher that suits you best for the playing style that you prefer.

Classical, country, fingerpicking, blues, bluegrass, folk, pop, rock and heavy metal can all be found on the same guitar membership site. Special lessons are available for the kids. Not only that, but some lessons are specifically designed for rhythm, solo guitar and bass guitar. Hawaiian slack-key, slide guitar and other styles can also be found along with some other gems for the niche guitarist. Add to that the opportunity to choose from a number of different teachers, and you have something totally different and light years from the old book filled with chord diagrams and ancient songs to strum along to.

A membership guitar site can teach you playing techniques, such as harmonics, slides and spider walking for bass and lead. The best way to learn guitar is to have a guitar teacher you like, have lessons in your style of play and your type of guitar, and be able to play them back over and over again. Add to that a few minutes practicing new techniques, checking out what chords and scales the classical guys are learning and playing along to a few tracks on the site, and you really do have the very best way to learn guitar.

Why a Video Guitar Course is a Good Way to Learn Guitar

A video guitar course has an advantage over learning from a guitar book, and is a good way to learn guitar because you can see and hear what you should be learning. It is possible to learn from books, since that is the way most of us learned to play before the computer came along with its online teaching techniques, and while you can still purchase guitar learning books in music stores, video courses are rapidly becoming more popular.

If you started at Page 1 in a guitar book and continued to the last page, you will be able to play guitar. A lot depends on the book of course, but that is generally so, and not only because the book teaches you well. It is because most books begin by teaching chords, since the written page is ideal for showing chord diagrams, and they fill a book up quite nicely. Therefore, if you reach the end of the book then you must be keen, and so will have learned how to play. That’s the logic.

Audio courses came along next, generally in the form of book with initially a cassette tape and then a CD demonstrating how the chord or passage should sound. You would also generally be given a few tracks to strum along to as well. These are still available, and such courses are still sold in music stores, both traditional and online.

It is video, however, that has had most impact in teaching beginners how to play properly. With video you can see how to hold your guitar properly, and how to finger your strings. You are also shown how to pick properly, either with a pick (plectrum) or your fingers. These are all vital skills, and video has made it so much easier to teach them.

There are those that can be available for different standards of player, and also online membership courses. Although you pay a monthly fee for the latter, such sites have a great deal to offer. Not only do they teach a beginner how to play from scratch, but also offer guitar tuition in a number of different styles, and also in the three standards of rhythm, lead and bass. The good thing about such sites is that you can take your regular course, and then try a few of the advanced solo techniques as a rest from your usual stuff. It maintains the interest and gives yoj a bit more fun that just going through a regular video.

However, back to the benefits of video, and why a video guitar course is a good way to learn guitar – or any other instrument for that matter. We have already stressed the importance of seeing the basic, such as how to hold your guitar and pick. The other is seeing how to play the strings. Have you ever learned a few chords and try to play them to a tune that uses them? Sand it sounded nothing like it should? Ring a bell? Sure it doers. A lot has to do, not only with the way your fingers are pressing the strings, but with the way your using the plectrum.

Downstrokes and upstrokes give different sounds – they have to, because in one you are playing the low notes first and in the other the high notes are sounding first. Yet you are rarely advised how to stroke your strings properly in book guitar tutors. In a video you can see exactly what your tutor is doing, and copy that the same way. Then it should sound the same. You should be able to work out if you have problems fingering the strings, because the sound will not be right because the string is not hard against the fret.

A video can also show you the variations of the various chords while they are being played, so you can hear the difference and understand why they are used. Understanding is a better teacher than rote playing. Seeing is better in every respect than listening to instructions or reading them, even with diagrams or photographs.

Hearing is also a very important part of learning guitar, and it is advantage with a video course to be able to watch the teacher play and hear what is being played. This is particularly the case with guitar playing techniques. How do describe a hammer-on, a slide or spider walking. How do you describe vibrato or pull-offs, or even how to play the pentatonic scale up and down the frets without demonstrating the techniques visually. You can’t teach these things from books, and Jimi Hendrix learned by watching other guitarists execute these techniques and then copying them.

It’s a great way to learn, but not everybody is brought the same way as Jimi was and video is the next best thing to the real thing! There is no substitute for watching a master of his instrument show you how it should be done, while at the same time explaining exactly what he or she is doing. It’s just like having your own private guitar teacher in your own home, teaching you personally.

There are one or two more reasons why a video guitar course is a great way to learn how to play guitar, but these are the major ones. One not mentioned is that you can replay each lesson time and time again until you have mastered it, and learn in your own time and at your own rate. Irrespective of your reason for preferring video, it is difficult to see anybody being able to learn as well and as quickly without it.