I have written this article because I have seen similar articles all over the internet and with every one I read, I felt like the writer completely missed the point. While other people may disagree with the points I make, I feel that these steps are absolutely crucial to developing as a guitarist and ultimately as a musician. You should write down the step headings and stick them up somewhere for you to see every day. Highlight steps 4, 5 and 6 because those steps will always apply to you no matter what stage you are in. Steps 1, 2 and 3 are a starting point for you to understand what you should focus on at the start. Once you have followed the first three steps you can tick them off.
1. Find a good source to learn from
This is the most important step because it will directly impact the rate you will learn. Learning from a good source is like setting a strong foundation for a house. If you learn from somebody who doesn’t know how to play or how to properly teach, you won’t get far. If you learn from somebody who can play and knows how to teach, you will have a strong foundation for your learning. There are many sources you can learn guitar from. The main ones are: teacher, online, books.
Teacher: I have written a detailed article at my guitar blog on choosing between private tutors and music school teachers. Have a read of it and consider the many issues between them.
Online: There is an abundance of resources on the internet to learn guitar. I have one tip if you choose this option: Don’t pay for anything! There are many people (like me) who are happy to provide free lessons because it is what we enjoy doing. Free sources can have just as high quality lessons as sources that charge you (such as the famous Jamorama). There is no need to pay for something that you can find for free elsewhere. If you are going to pay for anything, pay a real life teacher.
Books: Before the internet, there were books. New books are continuously being published on learning guitar but these books are the same as the online sources that charge you - their number one aim is to make money. Again my advice is to go with free sources. Borrow books from your local library if you want but I assure you that you will find the same material on the internet. In fact, the internet resources are superior to books because they may contain video lessons - something a book cannot do.
You can choose more than one source to learn from and it may help you out. Having two different sources teaching you the same thing is a great way to see something from a different view point.
2. Finding the right guitar for you
I have written a very detailed article about this step, so I will just explain why it is important. Playing the wrong guitar will frustrate you and restrain your development. If your goal is to learn to play heavy metal, buying a nylon string acoustic would be a bad choice because you cannot achieve your goal with it.
Finding the right guitar on the other hand will make sure you stay motivated and focused. If you cherish your guitar you will learn at a greater pace.
3. Learn to read music
There are two options for guitarists when it comes to written music: Tablature and Standard Notation. I recommend over time that you learn to read both. You can start off on tablature (also called tabs) because it is simple. Later on have a look at Standard Notation because it will show you things tablature cannot. Many people will choose not to learn standard notation and I can understand why. But if down the track you are constantly getting frustrated with tabs not sounding right, standard notation may be able to help you out. You don’t have to become a pro at it, but having a general understanding will speed up the learning process.
4. Set goals and practice everyday
If you only remember one step here it should be this one. No matter what stage you are in your development, setting goals and practicing everyday will make you a better player. A goal can be a simple ones like ‘learn the song ……’ or ‘be able to play … without making a single mistake’ or they can be long term goals such as ‘be able to improvise in any key’ or ‘perfect the technique of …’. Not setting goals will slow you down and many people without goals don’t improve at all. Take out a piece of paper now and write a list of what you want to be able to play. Then have a think of how you can reach those goals. Work out which items you need to do first and get started on it.
Practicing everyday is a must, even if you only play for a few minutes. Aim to improve your playing every day. Many people practice only a couple of days a week and wonder why they have trouble remembering anything. If you don’t play guitar in one day, you won’t improve in that day - it’s as simple as that. To practice efficiently you should have short sessions regularly rather than long sessions once in a while. Don’t practice for more than 40 minutes at once. After 40 minutes, get up and have a short break then come back to guitar later if you want to keep going.
5. Aim to perfect what you are doing now before moving on to something new
Many people are so excited about the thought of playing their favorite songs that they rush the first stages so they can try and learn what they want to play. Often these same people give up the guitar because it is too hard or they take ages to improve. Perfect the basics before you move on to anything harder. If you don’t perfect what you are doing now, it won’t be possible to perfect harder techniques and songs. You must learn to crawl before you learn to walk. My guitar lessons on my blog start off at the absolute basics for this reason. The first song I have listed to learn is ‘Mary had a little lamb’. Many people will skip those lessons on my site to get to more interesting songs but those who perfect those nursery rhymes are at a great advantage.
6. Keeping a balance between theory and creativity
If you know nothing about music theory, your creativity will suffer. If you know absolutely everything about music theory, your creativity will suffer again. These two extremes should be avoided and a balance between theory and creativity can be achieved. Many people with advanced theory understanding will say theory enhances creativity and for many people it does. Many people who know absolutely nothing about theory will say theory limits your creativity, and again that is true for many people. But for most of us, having at least a basic understanding of music theory will enhance our creativity. As you learn and progress in your playing always consider whether learning more theory will enhance your playing. I have met two people with certificates all over their walls (literally) for their outstanding music theory understanding who had no idea what to do when I asked them to improvise. As the saying goes ‘you can have too much of a good thing’. My advice in this step is to learn music theory, but don’t think of it as a set of rules that your playing must follow. Try to think ‘outside the box’.
7. Always remember step four
I am repeating this step because people may not understand how important setting goals and practicing every day is for your improvement. If you haven’t already done so, grab a piece of paper and put two headings on it - GOALS and PRACTICE SCHEDULE. List goals you think will improve your playing and under ‘Practice schedule’ set out how you will achieve those goals while practicing. I will write up an article on my blog soon on how to get the most out of your practice sessions so check back soon.
SUMMARY
If you follow my advice, I honestly believe you will learn guitar so much easier and faster. Not only that, you will become a better player. If you have a teacher, ask them what goals you should work towards and how to do it. If you are learning on your own with online lessons, send messages to the writers asking for advice 
If you want to learn guitar from the very beginning for free, check out my guitar lesson blog at http://aaronmatthies.wordpress.com
By Jerome Tan
Ok, I guess you are here to find out some secrets to help you learn to play the lead guitar and I hope these secrets will go a long way to assist you in your development as a lead guitarist.
First, I’m going to shed some light on playing lead guitar. A lead guitarist always shows off his style in his solos, riffs and licks. Be it a wicked-sick solo, a heart-melting lick or a toned down riff, it all affects the music which the band plays. A good lead can sometimes change the mood of the crowd instantly.
Enough said, now let’s dive into some of the world’s most kept secrets in playing lead guitar!
Secret 1: Learn pentatonic scales!
Yes! Pentatonic scales are essential in getting your fingers in shape of quickly switching from string to string, without mistakes. It is the MOST important scale to master as it is the most commonly improvised scale to create solos in most styles of music.
Secret 2: Don’t rush into playing the guitar
What I mean is that playing lead guitar is a slow and progressive process. If you start by learning fast solos, you will never get far as you would be demoralized and frustrated. Take it slow, start with soloing slowing and pay attention to your picking and finger movements. FOCUS is the key.
Secret 3: Get a METRONOME!
A METRONOME! I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough. The metronome will help prevent you from going too fast or slow when you are playing your scales. BUT, its most important role is to get you up to speed. How to do that?
1. Set a speed which you are comfortable playing your scales
2. After playing a few times without making any mistakes, up the tempo by a little and continue playing.
3. Keep doing this and you will be able to play scales at a lightning pace.
Secret 4: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!
Enough said, practice makes perfect.
By Jason S. Parker
Looking to buy your first guitar or an upgrade? This guide will give you some solid tips for purchasing the most valuable guitars for the lowest prices possible.
Buy Guitars Online
If you want to save up to sometimes 75% or more off MSRP price, you should buy your guitar online. There are a wealth of online music stores to choose from. You may want to consider going to your local music store, finding the guitar you want, then buying it from your computer.
What’s definite is that you’ll almost always find the same guitar cheaper online than in your local music store.
Avoid Buying Unknown Name Brand Guitars
Both online and believe-it-or-not in your local music stores, retailers will try to pull a fast one on you. You’ll see no-name brand guitars with prices jacked up to the same price or even past better guitars. Obviously, this is so the music stores will make more money. Buy low, sell high, right?
Personally, I trust only Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Dean, Jasmine, Epiphone, Squire, Taylor, Norman, Martin, B.C. Rich, and Jackson guitars. There are other big brands that are probably being left out in this article, but if you don’t have a clue about buying a guitar, consider choosing from those top names only.
Guitars are Crafted for Different Styles of Music
It can be tough deciphering which guitar is made for what type of music, because the same top brands normally craft all kinds of guitars for all styles. If you’ve never bought a guitar before, you’ll want to call up an online music store’s 1-800 number (or your local music store’s) and inquire about guitar models related to your favorite music, then buy the guitar online.
You can often get good advice about purchasing a guitar from guitar website owners and articles, so that’s another source. Search for the Contact link to contact a website owner. Most would be more than happy to talk to you about what guitar will fit you best and in your price range, and they’d be willing to e-mail you links to guitars suited for you.
However, here’s a little insight. Fender has the Stratocaster for Rock and Classic Rock, the Gibson Les Paul and Les Paul Epiphone are versatile for many types of Rock and Blues, Ibanez RG Series guitars are great for Metal, and Martin makes a heck of an acoustic guitar.
Generally speaking, for Jazz, Blues, or Rockabilly try to buy a hollow body guitar. For Rock-and-Roll you can get away with buying a solid body electric with only one pickup or 3 single coil pickups. For heavier styles like New Rock, Alternative, Metal, and Punk, you’ll want two double-humbucker pickups for a screaming crunch.
Conclusion to the Ultimate Guitar Buying Guide
Good luck with buying your first guitar. Just remember, buy online and save up to 75%+ off MSRP price, avoid no-name brands to get the best value, and buy the guitar that suits your favorite style of music.
By Steve Laney
Easy guitar songs are one of the best things about playing guitar-you can take your acoustic guitar to parties or to the beach or whatever and pretty soon you will have a crowd of people around you all singing along to whatever you play-the best thing about easy guitar songs is that most people know the words too! I’ve compiled a list of a few different songs that are easy to play on guitar, but also guaranteed to make you look cool!
Now it would obviously be pretty tough to give the strumming patterns for each song here, so I have just given the chords and you will easily work out the strumming by playing along or if you already know the song!
Easy Guitar Song 1: House of The Rising Sun, as made famous by The Animals. This is a great song, very simple, and a great way to get people singing along. It’s in the simple key of A minor too, so if you feel like it you can throw in some simple Am pentatonic licks and sound really cool! The chords are: Am, C, D, F, Am, E, Am. It’s literally that simple, and to make it really cool you can throw in some easy flamenco style fast strumming!
Easy Guitar Song 2: Sympathy For The Devil, as made famous by The Rolling Stones. This is another great song-all the more cool if you can get someone to do the “oo-oo!” part in the background. Really simple chords, and it sounds great acoustic or electric if you feel like some high gain! The chords are: E, D, A, E all the way through except the chorus which just goes B to E again and again. If you listen to the original you’ll see what I mean.
Easy Guitar Song 3: Freebird, as made famous by Lynyrd Skynrd. An all time great song, and it’s pretty easy to play if you miss out the solo at the end-don’t worry no one will expect you to play it anyway! The song’s in the key of G major, but in true southern rock style if you want to play a solo you can switch between G major and G minor pentatonics you can sound truly cool! The chords for this easy guitar song are as follows: Note-These are the chords for the main verses G, D/F#, Em, F, C, D The chorus just cycles through F, C, and D over and over, and at the end before the solo when it gets fast it’s just G5, A#5, and C5 over and over.
Easy Guitar Song 4: Knockin On Heaven’s Door, as made famous by Bob Dylan, and then Guns N Roses. This is another all time classic song. Great fun to play, and yet really simple. This is another one in G major, although Guns N Roses tune down half a step so their version is in F#. The chords are: G, D, Am7, just cycled over and over again. Easy huh?
Easy Guitar Song 5: For What It’s Worth, as made famous by Buffalo Springfield. This is by far the easiest of the bunch, and a truly great song. It proves you don’t need monster technique or difficult chords to make great music. Excellent lyrics too. In the key of E major. The chords are: E, A, E, A…… and that’s it-simple but brilliant, as all the best ones are!
I hope you enjoyed these easy guitar songs-building up a selection of tunes like this is a great way to get your skills and your confidence up! You can check out songs chord And lyric categories if you want more! Enjoy!
Many learner guitar players go looking for songs to play that suit the mood of a singer alone on stage with his guitar. Maybe, like many people, you gravitate toward songs like “Smoke On The Water”, “Iron Man” or “Stairway To Heaven”. But there is a whole new direction to go looking for your guitar songs: the music and lyrics of Chuck Berry.
Chuck Berry’s influence on rock and roll is indisputable. Musical movements have always converged around a central figure and Chuck Berry’s songwriting talent and enthusiastic approach to sharing his music with diverse audiences have inspired many rock and roll performers and generations of music lovers. Chuck Berry’s songs are stories of people who meet life with unfailing optimism and they were ideal lyrics to blend with the new rock and roll rhythms.
Many legendary guitar players owe their success to Chuck Berry’s singular relationship with the guitar. His guitar playing is an extension of his personality just like his lyrics and like his songs, his guitar riffs and licks made young guys want to pick up a guitar and make it talk. John Lennon, Keith Richards, George Thorogood, George Harrison were among the many rock and roll celebrities who were inspired by Chuck Berry. Angus Young of AC/DC even adopted Chuck Berry’s stage move of balancing on one leg and propelling yourself forward by moving the other leg back and forth. It is called the “duckwalk” and looks nothing like a duck walking but somehow the name fits.
Chuck Berry’s songs are about pretty girls, good times and fast cars. The stories are easy to identify with and surprisingly easy to play. One Berry song that is a real landmark is “Roll Over Beethoven”. In this song Berry manages to fit in references to a couple of classical composers, a nursery rhyme and a some other rock and roll songs. It was written in 1956 and served notice on the music-loving public that rock and roll had arrived.
“Rock And Roll Music” is another song designed to announce to the world that there was a new force in the world of popular music. The song has been covered by The Beatles, The Beachboys and rock and roll pioneer, Bill Haley.
A song that has touched the hearts of millions, “Memphis Tennessee” is a poignant story unfolded in Chuck Berry’s plain talking style leaving the punch line of the story to the very end. This song was covered as an instrumental by Lonnie Mack and by Johnny Rivers who had a similar style of singing to Chuck Berry himself. An interesting side note to this song is that Berry played the slide guitar on the record and also played the bass and rhythm guitar.
Another song that springs an interesting predicament on the listener in the final verse is “No Particular Place To Go”, a song about young love thwarted by a car’s seat belt.
“Ridin’ along in my calaboose
Still trying to get her belt a-loose
All the way home I held a grudge
For the safety belt that wouldn’t budge
Crusin’ and playin’ the radio
With no particular place to go”
The phrase “no particular place to go” at the start of the song is imbued with lusty enthusiasm. By the final verse the phrase takes a tone of hopelessness and frustration. Just like real life.
So if you are looking for the quintessential guitar songs, do not go past the contagious rhythm and the deceptively simple lyrics of Chuck Berry. But remember your humility. As Jerry Lee Lewis’ mother once said: “You and Elvis are pretty good, but you’re no Chuck Berry.” And John Lennon said: “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”
Check out chuckberry.com if you wanna know more about the legend!
Ever see anyone bust out a sweet guitar solo? Ever wonder how they do it? Much of it is manipulation of scales. Scale are patterns of notes that, when put together is different ways, can create different kinds of feelings.
Let’s take a look:
This is a scale chart. It’s different from a chord chart in that you will only play one note at a time, instead of all at once.
Here’s what the tab (tablature) looks like:
e———————–0-3-0——————————
B——————-0-3——-3-0————————–
G————–0-2—————–2-0———————
D———-0-2————————-2-0—————–
A——0-2———————————2-0————-
E–0-3——————————————3-0——–
This is a first position scale, meaning that your first finger will take care of the first fret, your second finger with the second fret, and so on. Take your time and try to make it sound as good as possible. If you try to go to fast, you’ll end up making the learning process take longer.
Once you feel comfortable with this scale, let’s try taking it to the next level. We’re going to play the same pattern, but this time from the 5th fret. since we’re no longer playing and open string, it means everything gets bumped down, and we have to employ the 4th finger. Let me show you what I mean:
e———————–5-8-5——————————
B——————-5-8——-8-5————————–
G————–5-7—————–7-5———————
D———-5-7————————-7-5—————–
A——5-7———————————7-5————-
E–5-8——————————————8-5——–
This is the pentatonic scale in A. If you slide this pattern around, you can play the scale in different keys all over the fretboard. Practice this over and over until you’re sick of it. This is how incredible guitarists start their day.
This is the full pattern by JamesLimborg:
To begin our lessons we are going to use colors to represent notes on the guitar. Look below and notice the colors we will use to represent each note. A note is a tone of a certain pitch which can be created in a number of different ways. For example, if you were to push down a single key on the piano, you would be playing a note. To play a note on the guitar, you would fret or push down on a string to create a tone of a certain pitch. In this lesson, we will learn where each note is located on the guitar fretboard.
The image below illustrates a guitar fretboard and shows all the notes along the Low E string. The low E string is the largest string and will be in red. The color for the strings will be slightly different than the color for the notes. The high E string, is the thinnest string, look below.
The notes and each color have been illustrated in the table above. We will use each of these colors to represent each of these notes in our lessons. There will be twelve different notes we need to learn on the guitar fretboard. |
The 12 notes along the Low E string are: E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D#
We will illustrate these notes and their placement on the Low E string. Looking at the fretboard above and notice the 6 notes to the left of the guitar fretboard. These 6 notes represent the 6 strings used on the guitar. These six strings when tuned, will be the Low E string, A string, D string, G string, B string and the high E string.
Look at the image of the guitar fretboard above and notice the E note. This E note will represent the Low E string when played open. If you picked the Low E string with out fretting any note, you would be playing the E tone. Of course to create this E note, your guitar would have to have the proper tuning.
If you were to fret or push down on the Low E string on the first fret, you would be playing the F note. The next note on the Low E string 2nd fret is the F# note. This is the (sharp symbol #). To get a sharp note, we would move 1/2 step above the previous note. 1/2 step on the guitar would be 1 fret. The E note will never be sharp. Look above and notice there is no E# note.
As we move along the Low E string, we reach the G note. Look above and find the G note at the 3rd fret. As we move up 1/2 step or 1 fret on the low E string we will reach the G# note, 4th fret.
Moving along the Low E string we reach the A note at the 5th fret. Moving to the next fret we have the A# note.
At the 7th fret, we run into the B note. Find that B note and notice there is no B sharp note. You will never have a B# note. We will learn more about this when we construct the major scales in that chapter.
The next note at the 8th fret will be the C note. Then we would have the C#, D D# and finally back to the E note again. I say again because on the guitar, every note repeats after 12 frets. To prove this, look at the G note on the 3rd fret, you will find the G note repeated at the 15th fret, 12 frets away from the 1st G note.
You can figure out each note on each of the six strings using the same process as we did above. The image below will now show you how to find the notes on the A string. Look at the image below. The first note will be the open A string in yellow. The next note on the A string 1st fret will be the A# note. Each note is figured out the same way we did on the Low E string. Notice there is no B# or E#. There never will be a sharp for these two notes. Notice that the A note is repeated after 12 frets. All the notes would repeat after 12 frets, this goes for every string, scale and chord.
The image below shows all of the notes of the fretboard ascending. The first homework assignment will ask you to fill in all the notes of the guitar fretboard ascending. It has already been done for you, but it is a good idea to fill in the blank illustrations on lesson 1. This will be a great help in learning all the notes of the guitar and their placement. Use the illustration below to help out. Then try to fill in one of the illustrations from memory.
Look at the image below. This image has all the notes of the guitar, but the A notes are circled. Notice that some A notes have different colors. Playing each A note and its particular color will sound the same tone. The yellow and green colored A notes are at a lower octave than the yellow and blue A’s. The yellow and blue A’s are at a lower octave than the yellow and orange A’s. Play each A on the fretboard and compare to each other. Remember your guitar needs to be in tune and you will find audio files to help you tune your guitar.
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Good luck 