Free Guitar Lessons for beginners

Buy Jamorama | Jamorama review

2011-10-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Buying Jamorama is a good decision. If you have made it, You wont regret it. By buying jamorama, you can experience the satisfaction of mastering the Guitar by yourself and without expensive private guitar classes.

Many people want to learn guitar but are unable to afford the guitar lessons but if you want to really learn how to play the guitar then you can also do that by buying jamorama.

By following the jamorama course, you will learn guitar quickly and you can impress your friends with your new skills.

There are any people who have benefited from this course and you can benefit also. you can see testimonials of so many people who have now become good guitarists. There are some free guitar lessons online and also in this blog. Free guitar lessons are good however, jamorama gives you step by step instruction which is required to become a guitar player. You can buy Jamorama by clicking here

how to play the guitar

2011-07-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

If you want to know how to play the guitar, you have come to the right place. There are many way you can learn to how to play the guitar.

If you want to know how to play the guitar, you should know how to play guitar chords, tune the guitar, learn guitar scales and also should have little knowledge about music theory. If you want information about all this, you can look through my blog as I cover the basics of playing the guitar. You can post a comment if you have a question and I will be glad to answer your questions.

You can also learn how to play the guitar from a teacher. If you are learning from a teacher, you will have to pay lot of money as guitar classes are often expensive.

The alternative to learn the guitar online and there are lot of free and paid options. The free options are good and even I have provided some free guitar lessons in this blog however you can also choose the paid option. If you are reading this post, you perhaps want to know about the which are good options for paid guitar lessons.

I think the best are Jamorama and Jamplay.com

They have one of the best lessons online and you will have to pay a little amount but it will be worth it.

They teach you step by step and I think this is required for a beginner who wants to learn. For example Jamplay.com has so many lessons you can choose from and you can learn different styles of guitar playing.

It doesn't matter if you want to learn blues, rock, jazz, they have all the lessons you will need.

Even Jamorama is a very good option and you can check them out.

So the conclusion is that if want to know how to play the guitar, you can check these two sites that I have mentioned for the paid option and or you can browse through my site for some free lessons. I will be posting some more free lessons in the future, so you can subscribe to my blog or you can bookmark it.

Learn to play guitar online | learn guitar online

2011-05-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

You can learn to play guitar online. There are many free lessons that are available however they are basics and they don't teach you advanced techniques. It's always good to buy a good guitar course.

I have been playing guitar for 10 years now and I found some interesting online guitar lessons that you can choose.

I think they are the best. If you are really interested in becoming a guitar player, you can choose the following guitar courses with nominal fees below:

jamorama
Guitar notes Master
Guitar burning speed
Jamplay

You won't regret your decision of buying one course because a personal guitar teacher will charge three times more than this.

Guitar lessons for absolute beginners 2

2011-03-14T04:03:00.000-07:00

free guitar lesson for absolute beginners 1

2010-12-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

E Blues scale pattern

2010-09-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

As this blog is about free guitar lessons, it will be incomplete without the blues scale. There are many blues scale patterns however I would like to share one pattern which is can be played in any key.

The following scale is an E Minor Blues scale.

e----------------------------------------------12--15--
b--------------------------------------12---15--
g----------------------------12--14-15--
d--------------------12--14-------
a--------12--13--14-----------------
e-12-15---------------------------

Good sounding chord progressions.

2010-09-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Have you always thought what is a good chord progression. As this site is about free beginners guitar lessons, today's lesson will be about a simple chord progression which will sound good.

This chord progression is about using 1, 4, and 5 chords of any diatonic scale. 1, 4, and 5 chords means you have to play the first, fourth and fifth chords of the diatonic scale. You can check my how to make chords lesson.

If you are in key of C, then you have to play C Major chord, F Major chord and G7 dominant chord. You can use this pattern in any key.

There are many songs that are made with this simple but effective chord progression. Try this chord progression. You'll like it.

Music Memories

2010-08-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Most of us have some good Music Memories . We feel good when we listen to some songs after a long time. Those songs brings some good memories and a person also feels nostalgic. That is the magic of music

It has the power to bring our good memories back. Music also has power to motivate us, help us when we are heartbroken.

When I listen to some rock bands of 90's, I get back to my teenage days when I wanted to learn to play the guitar and I was searching for someone to give me free beginners guitar lessons

I feel we all get a very nice feeling when we listen to our favorite songs that we have not listened for a very long time.

I feel these Music memories make our life pleasant. What do you think?

Which guitar should you learn when you are a beginner?

2010-08-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

There are many people who start to play the guitar want to know if they can start with an electric guitar. A person can start with an electric guitar however it's always better to start with an acoustic guitar.

There are many reasons for this. One of them is that you will never regret the decision of learning the acoustic guitar

The following are the other reasons:

1) You can just buy a cheap acoustic guitar.
2) You don't need an amplifier or a guitar processor.
3) It is necessary to recognize the sound of acoustic notes.
4) It's always easy to play guitar chords on an electric guitar because the note sustains for a long time. Your strumming will be much better and you will understand rhythm more if you learn the acoustic guitar.
5) Most of the free beginners guitar lessons are taught on acoustic guitar.

So you can see that there are many reasons to learn the acoustic guitar. You can share your opinions by posting a comment.

5 great Guitar riffs.

2010-07-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

These are some songs that have great guitar riffs.

Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. I can listen to this song anytime.

Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine

Born to be wild - Steppenwolf

Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child

I love this song. excellent riff and excellent solo

Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie

Another great riff and amazing song by Joe satriani.

Making music your pofession.

2010-07-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

How much money does a band make when they decide to tour. I think these questions arises many times a band wants to tour.

I always was looking for some precise answers. If you have ever wondered how much you can earn when you are touring with your band, this video by great David Ellefson will give you some good details. I just thought I should share this video.

To listen to David's music, you can go to

http://www.myspace.com/davidellefsonofficial

This is the official website:

http://www.davidellefson.com/

Minor pentatonic scale

2010-06-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is a video guitar lesson for a simple Minor pentatonic scale

This is the tab for the pentatonic scale pattern that I played.

e-----------------------------------------------12---15
b-----------------------------------12----15----
g---------------------------12---14------------------
d-------------------12--14------------------------
a-----------12--14-----------------------------
e---12--15------------------------------------

Simple guitar chords.

2010-04-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

As I usually post about free guitar lessons, today's guitar lesson will be about simple guitar chords. When a beginner is learning to play the guitar, the person wants to learn simple chords to play and sing his or her favorite songs. Although there are many barre chords that are required to sound good, few simple guitar chords are necessary to play some easy songs.

So what are these simple guitar chords?

They are the open chords that are played on the guitar. These chords sound good when played on an acoustic guitar. To get more information about these chords, please watch this Simple guitar chords video.

Rock guitar lessons that every rock guitar player needs to know!

2010-02-28T03:42:00.000-08:00

There are many important rock guitar lessons. What can you do to make your guitar playing to sound like rock? I feel that there are two important things which are required for rock guitar playing.

There will certainly be many other things however I feel the two most important things can be the following:

1) Power chords
2) Pentatonic scales

You can play open chords when you compose your guitar rock song, however if you want to sound cool and make a good guitar rock song, you need to play power chords with some distortion.

You can play two or three power chords with distortion and you will get a feel of playing some rock songs.

If you want to play some rock guitar solos, you need to master pentatonic scale patterns. Most of the rock songs or rock guitarists use pentatonic scales to make good rock guitar solos.

Play the pentatonic scales and power chords using a metronome and you will be soon reach your goal of becoming a rock guitarist.

The Best Way to use guitar tabs.

2009-12-26T03:11:00.000-08:00

Guitars tabs are important for lot of people who play the guitar. There are many people who say that everyone should play by ear and not use guitar tabs. I agree that playing by the ear is an important thing however when somebody is learning to play the guitar, it will be difficult for the person to figure out a song by the ear.

Using guitar tabs can be beneficial when you are starting out. There are some things a person should consider when trying to play by tabs.

If a person has made a decision of using guitar tabs, he should keep some things in his mind. A person should also practice scales and chord progressions. This will build a solid foundation for a musician.

When using the guitar tabs, a person should figure out what are the chords that are being used and if the person is playing lead guitar, the person should know what key the song is in. .

Generally knowing the key the song is in will help you a lot because, you will be able to learn some good chord progressions in that key.

When using guitar tabs, you should also figure out how the song is arranged. This will improve your songwriting skills.

If you keep these things in your mind, I feel a person can progress as a guitar player. So there is nothing wrong in using guitar tabs, if you know what you are doing.

Eventually, you will be able to play the songs by ear, if you keep on practicing.

guitar lessons for beginners.

2009-11-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

Anybody who has started to learn the guitar needs to know what he or she should learn! So what should one learn when someone is starting out?

guitar lessons for beginners

If you focus on few basics that I have covered in this free guitar lessons blog, you can start playing guitar in a very short time. When you are starting out, you need to build strength of your fingers and you can do that by practicing the chromatic scale and also learn to play few open chords.

These are a few things that I recommend for a complete beginner who is learning to play the guitar:

1) Learn to tune the guitar (Buy an electronic tuner) - Tuning is very important for a beginner and if you don't learn this, you will learn wrong notes and you don't want to do this. You need to learn the sound of the basic chords that you play and this can be done when your guitar is properly tuned. This is a very important skill for a musician.

2) Practice the chromatic scale - Chromatic scale has all the notes and is also a good exercise for your fingers. It will strengthen your fingers when you are starting out and is also good to learn the sound of the notes.

3) Learn basic chords - Chords are the backbone of music and it is absolutely necessary to lean chords. You can learn basic open chords and try to distinguish between the sounds of the different chords. Learning the guitar chord songs will help as you a musician. The main goal for any musician is to play songs by ear. When you memorize the sound of the different chords, it will help you a lot in future. Trust me on this.

4) Learn to change chords from one chord to another - How are songs made. Songs are made of different chords. When you are learning chords, you should also learn practice to switch between chords. When you switch chords you can make songs of your own or you can play songs of other people.

5) Learn the major scale - Learn how major scale is constructed and how chords are made from the major scale. Major scale is used for reference for many things in music. So you should know how to make a major scale and how to derive chords from the major scale.
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6) Making a practice schedule - You will have to decide which is the best time for you to practice. Practicing for half an hour or one hour everyday is very important. You will have to set your priorities and then make a practice plan.

These are some beginner guitar lessons that I feel are important.

More free beginner guitar lessons

:

Open chords
Guitar lesson for absolute beginner
Which guitar should you learn when you are a beginner?
Guitar lessons for absolute beginners 2
Holding a Plectrum and Strumming
Beginner guitar chords
Quarter note and eight note strumming

easy rock licks video.

2009-10-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

Easy rock licks

This is a free guitar lesson is about playing an easy rock lick.

You can practice these licks with out distortion first and then you can use distortion. You can get more information by clicking on my previous post about easy rock lick

You can post a comment if you want more information about this easy rock lick guitar lesson.

beginner guitar lesson (open guitar chords with tabs)

2009-09-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

Online songwriting

2009-09-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

In this free online guitar lesson, I felt I should post something about songwriting.

One important online guitar lesson is songwriting and when one becomes a guitarist, he or she should know how to write a song.

Songwriting is an important thing for a musician. Most of us who play the guitar love to play cover songs. Many of us have also picked up the guitar to play our favorite songs.

We should play some cover songs but we should also focus our skills on making new songs and using our creativity.

There are many things that we need to consider when making a song

Be unique when writing a song

You can be unique by focusing on your own mental pictures and experiences when writing a song. By this way, you can tap into your creativity. When you are composing your first song, writing something is difficult but keep on trying. Don’t think how the final song will be. Just write anything. You can tweak your song later and add details.

Be unique but also use some conventional methods

If you don’t want your songs to be completely different, I would like to illustrate some points that you can consider when you are making a song.

Most of the songs that we hear have the following parts:

1) Verse

2) Pre chorus

3) Chorus

4) Verse again or verse 2

5) Bridge

6) Guitar Solo

7) Verse or chorus again

This is a general pattern that I have mentioned and its’ not necessary that all the songs will have this pattern. Many songs have a different pattern and most of the modern rock songs don’t have a solo.

You can tap into your creativity and make a few changes as you like. A verse should be good and when the listener starts listening to the song, he should get engrossed in the song. A pre chorus is a part when the song changes from verse and the listeners subconsciously feel something new is going to come. It’s kind of a transition from verse to the chorus.

When the chorus of the song comes, that’s the time when the tune should be ‘catchy’. We have seen many times when people repeat some tunes of some good songs. So chorus should be very good.

Bridge is a part when the song changes and it breaks the monotony of the song. As a guitar player one can use a passing chord or some other chord which doesn’t belong to the diatonic scale. I feel these are few things that are required for a great songwriter and you can try them out. I would also like to emphasize on experimentation as more you experiment with what you already know in terms of chords and scales, the more unique and good your music will be. I hope you like this online free guitar lesson. There are also many songwriting contests online. You can take part in them after writing some good songs.

guitar chromatic scale lesson video

2009-06-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

In this free guitar lesson, I have explained about how to play a guitar chromatic scale.

E minor pentatonic jam

2009-06-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

E minor pentatonic jam is something random I played after recording E power chord and G power chord rhythm pattern on the Sony Acid pro software. In this video, I am using the Pentatonic minor scale.

Using a metronome to learn strumming.

2009-06-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Using Metronome with strumming patterns.

This free guitar lesson is about Using a metronome to learn strumming can be a very rewarding experience. You will come to know when to play in time and this will increase your skills when you play with a band. A drummer of the band usually gives the time and you can get the feel of playing in right time by using a metronome. You can download a free metronome on your computer.

There are many guitar websites that offer this. You can look up for this on your favorite search engine. If you are using a metronome to learn strumming, make sure that your tempo is low and you can start with 50 beats per minute or 60 beats per minute.

You can start the metronome and you can start playing some quarter notes and when you are comfortable, you can increase the tempo or beats per minute. So for every time you hear the metronome beat, you need to strum down when you hear the beat. At the same time you can change chords. This is called a quarter note strumming pattern.

When you hear the metronome beat and you strum down and up, every time you hear a beat, then this means you are playing eight note strumming pattern. These are easy strumming patterns you can start with and you can gradually mix both the patterns when you are confident.

Increase the metronome tempo only when you strum properly because when you are learning to strum accuracy is more important than speed.

I have also posted another free guitar lesson on this blog about how to strum with plectrum.

The reason behind using a metronome to learn strumming is that you build speed gradually and you will play in time.

Notes on Guitar Fretboard.

2009-05-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

This is the sequence of the notes on a guitar fret board.

e|F---|-F#Gb-|-G--|-g#Ab-|-A-|A#Bb|-B--|--C-|C#Db|-D-|D#Eb|-E-|
b|C---|-C#Db-|-D--|-D#Eb-|-E-|-F--|F#Gb|-G--|g#Ab|-A-|A#Bb|-B-|
g|g#Ab|-A----|A#Bb|-B----|-C-|C#Db|--D-|D#Eb|-E--|-F-|F#Gb|-G-|
d|D#Eb|--E---|-F--|-F#Gb-|-G-|g#Ab|-A--|A#Bb|-B--|-C-|C#Db|-D-|
a|A#Bb|--B---|-C--|--C#D-|-D-|D#Eb|-E--|-F--|F#Gb|-G-|g#Ab|-a-|
e|F---|-F#Gb-|-G--|-g#Ab-|-A-|A#Bb|-B--|--C-|C#Db|-D-|D#Eb|-E-|

# is for a sharp note and the small b letter is for a flat note. Places were you find the # and b letter, these are called enharmonic equivalents. The vertical lines are frets of the guitar.

Tuning the guitar 2.

2009-05-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tuning the guitar is very important thing. I have given some information about tuning a guitar however in this post, I will be giving precise information about how to tune a guitar. This is a picture about which notes to use to tune the guitar strings.

e---|---|---|---|----
b---|---|---|---|--e--
g---|---|---|-b-|----
d---|---|---|---|--g--
a---|---|---|---|--d--
e---|---|---|---|--a--

The above figure might be confusing but I will try to explain it. After a guitar is tuned, then at that time we will get the sounds of e b g d a e. e starting from the bottom e string (thin string of your guitar).

As explained earlier in my previous post, you will need a pitch pipe initially. You have to tune the bottom thin string to a E note. This means you have to blow your pitch pipe's E note and you will have to move the tuning pegs to the left and right side until you get an e note on your string which sounds exactly like your pitch pipe. It will be difficult to do this when you are a novice. The point at this time is not to lose hope and keep on practicing.

Keep one thing in your mind that when you are tuning a guitar, it's always good to loosen your strings and then you can tighten your string to get the correct notes.

Now will get back to the tuning tab above. I have assumed now that all your guitar strings are lose except you have tuned your thinnest e string to the E note. If can't understand this, I would suggest to read this whole post again. The reason I am saying this is because tuning the guitar is very important thing.

Please consider the vertical lines on the above tab as frets. After you have tuned your guitar's thinnest string to E note, you can tune your second string with the help of your first string. You will have to tighten the second string in such a way that you hear the same sound (e note) when you play the note on the fifth fret of your second string. the note on the fifth fret and the open e string should sound exactly the same. You will have to use the tuning peg to get the right note on fifth fret.

The best way to do this is play all the frets on the b string from the first fret to the fret you get the desired e note. When you are playing these notes, you need to alternate between the lower string and fret you are playing and move ahead every fret. So in a tab it will look like this

e---0---0----0---0---0-
b-1---2----3---4---5---
g---------------
d---------------
a---------------
e---------------

If you feel that the sound on fifth fret is same as the sound on e string, then you have tuned your guitar's b string.

There may be a time when you reach the sixth or the seventh fret and you hear the same sound on seventh fret. At this time, you need to tighten your tuning peg until you hear the sound on the fifth fret.

The same procedure is used to tune the upper strings except the 3rd string which is the g string.

In case of G string, you will have to compare the fourth fret with the lower b string and for the upper frets you will have to compare fifth frets note with string lower to it using the same procedure that I have mentioned above. If you have any questions you can post a comment. To get a more clear picture, I will be posting a guitar tuning video lesson soon and I hope you like this free guitar lesson.

Quarter notes and Eight Notes.

2009-03-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

This is a video where I give examples about Quarter notes and Eight Notes. These are also basic strumming patterns.

Basics of soloing 2

2009-03-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

In this post, I thought giving some tips about making a solo. As I have covered Basics of soloing in another post, I will giving discuss some specific things that we need to keep in mind when we are trying to make a solo.

If you have read my previous post, you must be knowing by now, that you need to play a scale pattern over the chord progression.

The best solos are made when your real musical self comes out and when you are playing the right scale over a chord progression. The music should come from inside you. You need to play the correct notes in the scale over the chord that is playing in the background.

This means that if your rhythm guitarist is playing a C chord, you know that you can use the C major scale to solo over it. This is basic stuff. To get to an advanced level from a basic level, you will sound even better if you choose the right notes of the C Major scale.

Your solo will sound good if you are using the notes C E or G of the C major scale. C E G are the notes of C major scale. If you play these notes when C chord is being played, you will make an amazing solo even if you are playing three notes. The trick is to play the notes of the chord that is being played by the rhythm guitarist in your band.

So if someone is playing an F chord, you can play F A or the C notes of the C major scale. When you first start this, you will have to locate the notes on the strings of your guitar. You will become proficient later on.

There will be a time when you don't have to look for notes. Your hands will go directly to the right note when a chord is being played. This happens after lot of practice and spending lot of time with your guitar.

To create amazing solos, you and your guitar need to become one. This means that whatever musical tone you imagine in your mind, you should be able to play that on your guitar. The pleasure that you will get from this is immense and I can't explain it in this post. You have to practice everyday to achieve that elated state of mind and make a solo.

Choosing the right guitar.

2009-01-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Choosing the right guitar is the most important thing for a guitarist. It's a myth that you need an expensive guitar to sound good. A $200 guitar will also sound good in a hands of a great musician.

So when you are starting out, it's not necessary for you to buy an expensive guitar. Practice and patience will make you a great guitarist.

I would also like say is there some qualities that you need to look for when you buy a guitar. I will mention them to you. Another important factor to consider is that you need to feel good when you pick up the guitar. This is extremely important when you purchase a guitar. You can feel comfortable with an expensive guitar and also with a low cost guitar.

You will have to make a budget and keep that in mind when you are going to your nearby guitar shop to purchase a guitar.

If you are buying an electric guitar, I would recommend an Ibanez guitar. I feel they are the best guitars in the market and the fretboard feel is also excellent.

Following are the things that you need to keep in your mind:

1) Check the fretboard. Play few chords and then play some scales. Does it feel good and is the fretboard smooth when you play the scales or it gives you an irritating feeling when you play them.

2) Check out how far are the strings from the fretboard. The gap should not be much because it gets difficult to play scales. You will have to use lot of finger energy and you will have a problem with speed picking. If you want to shred like Steve Vai or any other guitarist, this is a very important point to consider.

3) Always buy a guitar with a nice whammy bar, so you can add some variation in your solos.

4) Choose the color you like. I personally prefer white or black.

5) Plug in the guitar to an amplifier and listen to the sound without using distortion and with distortion. Do you like the sound?

The bottom line is go to your nearby guitar store and try as many guitars as you like. Do this even if it takes two hours and the sales representative is sick of you. After playing so many guitars, there is no doubt that you will come across some good guitars. Don't get confused. Make the right decision and only you can make that right decision for you.

I hope this post and article helps you.

Basics of soloing video!

2009-01-22T01:16:00.000-08:00

I have just uploaded a video on You Tube to give a better explanation about my basics of soloing lesson. Please rate and comment on You Tube. I will appreciate your feedback.

Easy Rock Lick.

2009-01-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

In this free guitar lessons post, I will give you a tab of an easy rock lick which is used by many rock guitarists. It's a movable lick and you can play it in any key. The lick is the following:

e---12p15--------------12p15--------
b-------------12--------------------12----
g---------------------------------------
d---------------------------------
a------------------------------------
e-----------------------------------

The above lick is in the key of E minor.

Play it continuously for a minute. Do it slowly, as speed is not important when you are first playing it. Use a metronome to mark your progress.

When you'll gradually build up your speed, you will notice that this lick sounds good.

You can create variations of this lick and you can check out the following example:

e---12p15------------12p15--------
b--------------13-----------------13----
g----------------------
d----------------------
a----------------------
e----------------------

You have to use your imagination and your musical soul to come up with your own licks.

You have to know one thing that most of the best rock licks are only three or four notes but these three or four notes pattern is played again and again which sounds cool. If you want to see a video, click on easy rock lick

These kind of easy rock licks sound good when they are played on higher frets.

Tuning the guitar.

2008-12-25T11:55:00.000-08:00

The most important thing for a guitarist is to tune the guitar. When your guitar is tuned, everything that you will play will sound right and melodious. In this tutorial, I will give you information about the most common method that is used to tune your guitar.

As we all aware, the guitar has the following strings:

E,B,G,D,A,E.

I will show it to you in the tab form:

E-------------------
B-------------------
G-------------------
D-------------------
A-------------------
E-------------------

It would be good if you can memorize these strings order. The reason I am telling you about this is because, we will be tuning our guitar in such a way that we hear the sound of E,B,G,D,A,E. This is called standard tuning. The question that will now arise is, How do we do this?

You will need a pitch pipe, keyboard or a piano to hear the E note for your lowest string. The most cost efficient way would be to buy a pitch pipe at your local music store.

The point is that you will have to play the E note with your mouth using the pitch pipe and and match the tone on the guitar's E string. You can do this by blowing the pitch pipe and at the same time alternate pick the E string with your right hand and tighten or loosen the tuning peg to get the desired E sound. When the note on the guitar and the tone on the pitch pipe sounds the same, you have tuned your lowest string.

You have to consider one thing when you try to do this for the first time, you may find this difficult. But the golden rule is not to give up because I feel tuning the guitar is one of an exercise to develop your ear skills.

Developing the ear to recognize different chords or sounds is one of the most important goal for a musician.

So we have tuned one string. We still need to tune the other five strings. You can use the pitch pipe to tune the other strings the way you did with your first string. You just have to blow the B note for the B string, G note for the G string etc.

The another method you can use is a popular one and I will be posting a video lesson soon, as it's difficult to describe it by writing about it.

Minor Barre chord video.

2008-12-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

This a minor barre chord lesson by me. When I am explaining about moving the second barre chord shape, I have told to move two steps back from A Minor to G Minor, which is wrong. It's only one whole step. Please forgive me for this :)

5 Important Rules to Become a Great Guitarist.

2008-12-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

In this post I will share my opinions about becoming a great guitarist. As everybody will agree that, there are many things that are required to become a great guitar player. I will just focus on five things that I feel are important.

I will be talking more about mental exercises rather than finger exercises because I feel psychology plays an important role in everybody's life. Everything that we do has some kind of motivation. To become a great guitarist, you will need great motivation.

1) If you want to become a great guitar player, you need set a goal. You have to be clear about what you want. If you just want to play some chords and sing some songs, that's fine. This is because, this is your goal. Or some of you would like to play like Joe Satriani. Whatever your goal is, it would be really good to define your goal clearly. Once the goal is defined, you will know how much effort you need to put to achieve that goal.

If you want to become Joe Satriani or any of you guitar idol, you must have realized by now that you will have to put lot of hours everyday. You should be ready to make sacrifices. Always remember that there is nothing like "something for nothing". If you want something, you will have to give something.

2) Second rule is to practice regularly. This means you should practice according to your goals. Practicing everyday for half an hour is a good idea rather than practicing for four hours only on one day in a week. Consistency is the key to success.

3) Be different and experiment with your playing. This world needs a new guitarist and that guitarist can be you. You never know! You have to experiment as much as possible when playing the guitar and come up with new ideas and melodies. We all have a great potential in us that we need to tap.

4) Be patient and think positive. There will be a time when whatever you will play will sound bad and nothing will seem right. Don't give up. Keep on playing. Don't see where you are now instead focus on where you want to reach in the future. Visualize that you are playing on a stage and pulling off an amazing solo in front of a crowd. This will make you positive. This is the best advise I can give that you can use in your darkest hours.

5) Last but not the least, learn guitar chops like different guitar scales and chords. Study as much as you can about music theory. This really helps.

Basics of soloing.

2008-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Anyone who wants to play the guitar has always dreamed of becoming a lead guitarist. Singing along while strumming the chords is good and gives us pleasure, however playing a melodious solo over some chord progressions is something else.

In this post, I will be talking about the basics of playing a solo. Before anyone reads this post, one should be aware of making chords and also about chords in C major.

If you are aware of these concepts, then it will be easy for you understand this guitar lesson. I will be covering the most basic thing about playing solos.

I will be talking about the C Major scale but this lesson is applicable in all the keys. We should also know that a solo sounds good only when there is some nice rhythm guitar playing in the background.

Some of you may wonder, What is the 'nice rhythm guitar playing'? It's the chord progressions that are played by the rhythm guitarist.

All the songs have a chord progression. This can be a simple one or a complicated one.

Just for convenience, we will stick to a simple chord progression. Lets take the following three major chords which are in the key of C:

G Major.
F Major.
C Major.

If someone is playing these chords and you want to play a solo over it, you can play the C major scale

It may not sound completely right but the solo will fit with these chord progressions. The reason is because these chords are derived from the C Major scale. We have harmonized the C Major scale to get these chords.

As this a basic lesson, you can play the basic C scale and try to come out with a true original solo. This may be difficult in the start but some of you may be able to pull this off immediately.

One thing important in music according to me is experimentation. You have to experiment for years to come out with your own sound.

One problem may arise is that you may not have another guitarist friend who can play the guitar chords, so that you can play the solo.

To get around this road block, you can use the sound recorder option in your computer if you are using a Windows computer. You can play the chords mentioned above and can record it on your computer. When you have done this, you can play the recorded chord progressions and then play your solo over it. You will then experience the joy of making your first guitar solo.

One Man Band.

2008-12-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

There was time when I always wanted to make a band. I started playing the guitar and it was difficult for me to make a band. As I stay in India, rock scene is not that good. Me being a rock fan, it's very difficult for me to find a drummer and make a band. It's still fun to be a part of a band. What I am trying to explain is that what do you do when you can't find someone who can play with you. The first thing that comes on everyone's mind is to quit, give up or throw the towel. Or maybe even better, to play alone or wait for a miracle.

Miracles do happen in life however it's stupid for us to wait for something when you want something very badly.

I started talking to my brother who is in the United States and also a very good composer. He came to my rescue and told me that as I can't find a drummer, I can buy a software which is called Sony Acid Pro and can start making my own music.

I bought this software and I also bought the drum loops CD and suddenly I felt that I am jamming with an invisible drummer. There were different grooves or beats that I could choose.

If anyone who is in a similar crisis that I was in, I would recommend to buy a Sony Acid Pro software and drum loops CD. You can search for these products on a search engine that you like and you will get information about them.

If you have a drummer friend then buying all these products will not be necessary. As I have used the subject 'One Man Band' for this post, I need to share one more thing with you.

I would like to share something about the midi keyboard. A midi keyboard is a device that you can use with your computer and you just have plug in to your computer's USB port. You also need a software which will help you to create different sounds.

You can play bass notes using the keyboard and can also create other sounds. I don't have this instrument. I will be buying it soon after saving some money.

When you have drum loops CD, Acid Pro software, midi keyboard, then one can be a 'One Man Band'.

Major Barre chord video.

2008-12-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hi, this is a video that I have uploaded to explain barre chords. Check this out.

Reading tablature.

2008-11-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

Reading music is difficult and very time consuming. When you see a musical staff you'll be overwhelmed by the seeing different shapes of which you may not be familiar.

This doesn't mean that reading music is not good. In the long run, it helps a lot. As my blog has mainly tabs of what I am teaching, this post will cover "how to read tabs".

First question that will arise on your mind will be, what are tabs? Tablature is also called reading musical notation; however in an easy way. It's much more simpler than reading a musical staff. I don't know who invented this system however it's very helpful for all the guitarists.

The first thing to remember or I will say is to memorize that guitar has six strings.

The lowest thin string is the 'E' string. The right order from lowest string to the thickest string on the top of the guitar is E,B,G,D,A and E.

Check out the following figure:

--------------------
--------------------
--------------------
--------------------
--------------------
--------------------

By seeing the above thing, you may think what the hell is this! The six lines above correspond to the six strings of your guitar.

The following figure will explain it better:

e--------------------
b--------------------
g--------------------
d--------------------
a--------------------
e--------------------

Now check out the following figure:

e--------------------
b--------------------
g--------------------
d--------------------
a--------------------
e--2------------------

The number on the above figure indicates that you have to use your left handed fore finger to play the second fret on the e string. Frets are the vertical lines (partitions) on the neck.

e--------------------
b--1------------------
g--2------------------
d--2------------------
a--------------------
e--------------------

When you look at the above figure, you will have to play all the strings at the same time because this is an A minor chord and all the notes are positioned.

Other things that we have to remember is when you hammer on or pull off you use the 'h' sign and 'p' sign respectively. For more information about hammer ons and pull offs, click on Legato playing

The following is a hammer on example:

e--------------------
b--------------------
g--------------------
d--------------------
a--------------------
e--2h4-----------------

The above example means put your finger on the second fret and then hit your ring finger on the fourth fret in hammering style until you hear a sound of a new note.

The following is a pull off example:

e--------------------
b--------------------
g--------------------
d--------------------
a--------------------
e--5p3-----------------

The above example means that you keep your fore finger on the third fret and your ring finger on fifth fret. Now play the top 'E' string and then lift your ring finger. You will hear two notes.

Tabs is an easy reference for learning new songs.

Beginner Guitar lessons Archive

2008-11-27T11:09:00.001-08:00

http://freeguitarlessonsbyfreeaman.blogspot.com/2009/09/beginner-guitar-lesson-open-guitar.html

Links

2008-11-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

Minor Pentatonic patterns.

2008-11-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

In this post, I will give you the tab forms of the most popular minor pentatonic patterns. If you more information about how this scale is formed, please click on pentatonic scale

For convenience, I am giving positions for E minor. These scales are movable and you can use them in any key

E minor pentatonic patterns

First pattern:

e-----------------------------------------------12---15
b-----------------------------------12----15----
g---------------------------12---14------------------
d-------------------12--14------------------------
a-----------12--14-----------------------------
e---12--15------------------------------------

The root note in the above pattern is note on the 12th fret on the 'E' string.

Second pattern:

e------------------------------------10----12----
b------------------------------10--12--------------
g-----------------------9---12------------------
d-----------------9--12------------------------
a---------10---12-----------------------------
e--10--12------------------------------------

The root note in the above pattern is note on the 12th fret on the 'E' string.

Third pattern:

e------------------------------------7----10----
b----------------------------8----10------------
g----------------------7---9------------------
d-----------------7--9------------------------
a----------7---10-----------------------------
e---7---10------------------------------------

The root note in the above pattern is note on the seventh fret on the 'A' string.

Fourth pattern:

e------------------------------------5----7----
b----------------------------5--8------------
g----------------------4---7------------------
d-----------------5--7------------------------
a----------5---7-----------------------------
e---5--7------------------------------------

The root note in the above pattern is note on the seventh fret on the 'A' string.

Fifth pattern:

e------------------------------------3----5----
b----------------------------3----5------------
g----------------------2---4------------------
d-----------------2--5------------------------
a----------2---5-----------------------------
e---3--5------------------------------------

The root note in the above pattern is note on the second fret on the 'D' string.

All of the patterns that are above are movable. You can move them and play in any key. What you can do is practice the patterns one at a time. When you are able to play them fluidly, you can combine the patterns. You will realize that you have made a new solo. Try to play some power chords and add a note of pentatonic scale which is in the key you are playing. When you do this, you will come up with a nice riff for your own song. Music is about experimentation and experiment as much as you can. The more you experiment and make new riffs, the more unique your music will be. In the end, we need to make our own style and trends whenever we play the guitar or any other musical instrument. The world is looking for new ideas and new music. If you can tap into your potential, you may realize one fine morning, the next big thing is you.

Song components and strumming pattern.

2008-11-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today I will explain what does a song comprise of. Any good song will have the following:

1) Melody
2) Harmony
3) Rhythm

The basic pulse behind music are beats. The best way to learn is always practice with a metronome. When I started I had no good guitar teacher who could teach me the guitar. So I started the wrong way and I had to go through lot of frustrations. I made this blog so that I can give an aspiring guitar player some of my experience. One of my experience is that, we should all practice with a metronome.

In the past, i used to practice without a metronome. When i started using this ticking instrument, I realized the results I am getting are mind boggling. You can download a metronome from the Internet. You can type free metronome in Google search engine and there are many websites that will give you a free metronome.

We will start with rhythm, as all the musicians play in the same rhythm during the whole song. Rhythm is very important for the song. This is because when the Rhythm is wrong, nothing sounds right. For example Rhythm can be quarter notes, eight notes, sixteenth notes, triplets, sixteenth notes triplets.

Quarter notes are one note per beat, eight notes are two notes per beat and sixteenth notes are 4 notes per beat. Triplets are three notes per beat. Sixteenth notes triplets are six notes per beat. You can practice strumming patterns with quarter notes, eighth notes and so on.

Strumming means the movement of going down and up using your plectrum against all the strings.

To practice good rhythm, you need a metronome as I explained earlier. Try with low beats such as 70 beats per minute or 60 beats per minute.

Try some quarter notes, as I feel they are easiest. This mean when you hear a beat at the same time you should strum down (I am also assuming that you have used your other hand to form a chord)

Whenever you hear a beat and you strum down or up once, this called a quarter note strumming pattern.

Now we will try eighth notes. When you hear a beat in this case, your plectrum should go up and down and when you hear the beat again, the plectrum should go up and down again.

As you must have already guessed by now that sixteenth notes would be strumming up and down twice when you hear one beat. The best way to make a good rhythm is to make a mixture of different notes. For example, you can strum quarter notes for two beats and then eight notes for two beats. This combination gives a flavor to the music.

You should experiment. You may realize that you have a made a cool strumming pattern for your first song. I will write more about strumming patterns in my next post.

The second most important part of the song is melody. This is what the singer is singing. This is the first thing that grabs our attention. You will have to use your creativity to come up with some excellent melodies.

The last part that I listed above is harmony. Harmony is nothing but the chord progression of the song. So we have to make a good chord progression for a song. We can do this when we have deep knowledge of chord formulas.

In the end, it's just the right combination of all these factors that make a good song.

Pentatonic scale.

2008-11-10T12:08:00.001-08:00

What is a pentatonic scale? This was the question i used to ask myself when I started playing the guitar. Finally, I learned that this scale is one of the most important scale for a rock guitarist. This scale is used by many famous guitarists.

I learned some pentatonic patterns and started practicing them endlessly. As usual, the hard work payed off and the results started showing. Suddenly I started sounding like my idols and I felt I have become a cool guitarist. Most of the guitar solos are made of pentatonic scales. When this scale is combined with legato playing, one is destined for greatness. I mean guitar greatness and becoming a guitar Guru.

If we want to derive the Pentatonic scale from the major scale, we have to eradicate two notes. I will give an example. As C Major scale has the following notes:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

I have put numbers below the notes so that I can simplify what I am trying to explain. As mentioned earlier, we have to eradicate two notes. The two notes that will be removed are '4' and '7'. '4' and '7' are the F note and the B note respectively.

After removing these notes, we get the following C major pentatonic scale:

C D E G A C

Penta means five and after seeing the above scale, you must figured out by now that pentatonic has five notes.

The following is a simple C Major pentatonic scale:

e------------------------------
b------------------------------
g--------------------2-----5--
d----------2------5--
a---3----5-----------
e------------------

You can practice the above pattern and I will post all the minor and major patterns soon. Cheers and Rock On!

Power chords lesson 2

2008-10-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hi, This post is also about power chords but power chords that are with Octaves. For more information about power chords, please click on Power chords If you don't know how to make chords, click on Making chords

When we add an Octave, the power chord doesn't have only the 1st and the 5th as per the last post. It also has an 8th, which is also called an Octave.

So, we will be studying some power chords which will have a 1st, 5th and Octave. Here are a few examples:

G5

e------------------
b------------------
g------------------
d--------5----------
a--------5----------
e---3---------------

C5

e------------------
b------------------
g--------5----------
d--------5----------
a---3---------------
e------------------

E5

e------------------
b----------5--------
g--------4----------
d---2---------------
a------------------
e------------------

A5

e----------5--------
b----------5--------
g--2----------------
d------------------
a------------------
e------------------

In the last two examples, you'll have to stretch your hands again however it's worth it. These chords are also movable and you can play them in any position. When you will move these chords to different position, the power chord will change.

For example, when you move the E5 chord one step ahead, it will become F5. As you must be knowing by now one step head means moving to the next fret. Whole step means skipping the next fret and then going on to the next fret. So going from the first fret to the third fret will be considered one whole step.

For some of you, this may not make sense however you can read it again and you can also comment and ask a question. I will be happy to answer your questions. I will also be posting some video lessons soon, so that everyone can get a clearer picture of whatever I am blogging.

There is one more lesson remaining for power chords and I will be posting it in a day or two.

Power chords.

2008-10-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Power chords are the backbone of Heavy metal and hard rock music. Anyone who wants to play heavy metal must know these chords. I will post a video of power chords in future. The video will give you a complete explanation of power chords.

Power chords are best used with a distortion pedal and with a technique which is called "palm muting". Palm muting is nothing but keeping the base of your palm near the bridge of your guitar and mildly muting the strings. This has a very good effect when you play the power chords.

Power chords are the chords where there is no 3rd. This means that a power chord is only made of 1st and 5th. An A power chord is written as A5 and a C power chord is written has C5.

So the point is that, if any note has a '5' next to it, it means that its a power chord.

The C power chords will have C and G note.

I will list some of the power chords for you:

C5

e---------------
b---------------
g---------------
d-------5--------
a---3------------
e---------------

D5

e---------------
b---------------
g---------------
d-------7--------
a---5------------
e---------------

F5

e---------------
b---------------
g---------------
d---------------
a-----3----------
e-1--------------

G5

e---------------
b---------------
g---------------
d---------------
a-------5--------
e---3------------

Please note that all these chords are movable. This means, for example, if you move the G5 chords to the next fret, the chord will become a G#5 chord. # indicates a sharp note.

There are two more movable power chord shapes you must familiarize yourself with. In the shape below, the chord starts from a G string, you will have to stretch your hand a bit. The shape is the following:

A5

e---------------
b--------5-------
g--2-------------
d---------------
a---------------
e---------------

Last but not the least, this is also another movable power chord shape:

e-------5--------
b--3-------------
g---------------
d---------------
a---------------
e---------------

Till next time. Cheers.

Suspended chords.

2008-10-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today, I will be talking about suspended chords. Suspended Chords have a unique sound. The sound is different from a major chord or a minor chord. As we all know that a major chord sounds happy and and minor chord sounds sad.

There are two kinds of suspended chords that we should remember. They are suspended 2nd or suspended 4th. The are also called "sus2" and "sus4".

It would be good for you, if you can remember, these following chord formulas:

Suspended 2nd - 1 2 5
Suspended 4th - 1 4 5

As you will notice from the above formulas, there is no third and it has been substituted by a second or fourth.

Third means the third note of the scale and fourth means fourth note of a given diatonic scale.

The above chords are seen in lot of rock songs. It's also used in the famous Summer of 69 song by Bryan Adams.

I will list the C sus4 and Csus2 chord below:

Csus4

e--1---------------
b--1---------------
g------------------
d------------3-----
a------------3-----
e------------------

The above chord is part of chord progression used in the hit song November Rain By Guns N roses.

C sus2

e-x-----------------
b--1----------------
g------------------
d------------------
a----------3--------
e-x-----------------

x means these strings should not be played.

You can try to figure out other suspended chords by yourself and if you have a question, you are always welcome to post a comment.

Major seventh barre chords.

2008-10-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

This lesson is about movable barre chords. If you want information about barre chords, please click on Barre Chords

If you want information about seventh chords, please click seventh chords

The following are the movable seventh barre chords:

C major seventh

e--3------------------
b-------5-------------
g----4----------------
d-------5-------------
a--3------------------
e--3------------------

C dominant seventh or C7

e----------6----------
b-------5-------------
g-------5-------------
d-------5-------------
a--3------------------
e--3------------------

F major 7

e---5-----------------
b---5-----------------
g---5-----------------
d----------7----------
a------------8--------
e---5-----------------

All of these chords are movable. This means that, they can be played in any key, you just have to move them to the right note or key.

Be patient and make sure when you are playing these chords that all the notes are ringing.

Seventh Chords.

2008-10-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

Seventh chords are one of the most important chords for guitar playing or any other instrument. I have a close friend who is violinist and he tells me that seventh chords are one of the most important chords for violinists also.

So what are these seventh chords. To understand these chords, we must memorize some formulas. I know memorizing chord formulas is a pain however if we memorize them, it will be good for us in the future.

Three formulas we need to learn are the following

Major 7th - 1 3 5 7

Minor 7th - 1 3b 5 7b

Dominant 7th - 1 3 5 7b

b represents flat

There are more dominant seven chords but I will cover them in the future. There is one dominant chord in every key or diatonic scale. The 7th chords have sound that resembles tension and chaos. Whenever you play a 7th chord, try to play a normal chord after the 7th chord and you will notice the difference. You will realize that a tension has been resolved.

I will be listing the diatonic 7th chords that are in the key of C. I use the C key because it doesn't have a sharp or a flat and it's easy to explain music theory with the help of C scale.

The following are open 7th chords in the scale of C:

C major 7

e----------------
b----------------
g----------------
d-----2-----------
a--------3--------
e----------------

D minor 7

e-1---------------
b-1---------------
g---2-------------
d----------------
a-x---------------
e-x---------------

x means you should not play these strings.

E minor 7

e----------------
b------3----------
g----------------
d--2--------------
a--2--------------
e----------------

F Major 7

e----------------
b-1---------------
g----2------------
d-------3---------
a-x---------------
e-x---------------

x means you should not play these strings.

G dominant 7

e-1---------------
b----------------
g----------------
d----------------
a----2------------
e------3----------

A minor 7

e-------3---------
b-1---------------
g----2------------
d----2------------
a----------------
e----------------

The next lesson that I will post will be about movable seventh chords. Practice these chords and try to learn the diferent sound of these chords. As we all know. all musicians should have good ears. At one point of time, we should be able to listen to a song or a chord and then play it on the guitar.

Minor Barre Chords.

2008-10-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today, this lesson is about two minor chord barre shapes. These are the most important minor barre chords that anyone should use when playing the guitar. Click on Minor Barre Chords for a video guitar lesson.

This is the first shape:

e---7---------------
B-------8-----------
G------------9------
d------------9------
a---7---------------
e---7---------------

The chord above is an E minor chord. 7 is the place where the barre should be.
This is the second shape:

e----5----------------
B----5----------------
G----5----------------
d-------------7-------
a-------------7-------
e----5----------------

The chord above is an A minor chord. 5 is the place where the barre should be. All these chords are movable and you can play over the fret board using any root note.

Try to play them and make sure that you can hear all the notes. If you want more information on major barre chords and what a "barre" is, please click on major barre chords

After you have practiced these chords and you can hear them, try changing them with the major barre chords that are in the same key.

Barre chords.

2008-10-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Today I will be explaining about barre chords that can be used when playing the guitar. Barre means we use our forefinger to press the strings in a straight line and form a barre.

The straight line will look like the following:
e-----1---------------------
b-----1---------------------
g-----1---------------------
d-----1---------------------
a-----1---------------------
e-----1---------------------

The ‘1’ in the upper tabs means you only have to use your forefinger to press all the strings.
There are three types of major chords that you can use There are more however I feel these are most basic ones that everyone should learn. They are the following:
I will mention D chord in all the chord shapes.

1st Shape:
e----2----------------
b---------3-----------
g----2----------------
d-----------4---------
a---------------5-----
e----2----------------

Please note in the above tab the second fret should be fretted by your fore finger and you should make a barre.

2nd shape:
e-----5-----------------
b---------------7------
g------ ---------7-----
d---------------7-----
a-----5----------------
e-----5---------------

Please note in the above tab the fifth fret should be fretted by your fore finger and you should make a barre.

e-----10-------------------
b-----10-------------------
g------------11------------
d------------------12------
a------------------12------
e-----10-------------------

Please note in the above tab the tenth fret should be fretted by your fore finger and you should make a barre.

All the above chords are movable. This means you can use these shapes with any root note. I just used the D chord for a better understanding.
These chords sound very cool and you don’t have to be stuck with the basic open chords. Practice them with patience and you will start enjoying them. These are the chords that are used by most of the professionals. After reading this post even you have become a pro. The next lesson that I will post will be about minor barre chords.

Right Hand Technique.

2008-09-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hi. Today I will be talking one of a right hand technique that is very important if anyone wants to shred like a great guitar player.When I started out i always used to wonder what is shredding. Shredding is nothing but playing fast. One can play fast by practicing with metronome.

When anyone practices with a metronome, a person stays in rhythm. I will give an explanation about rhythm in my next lesson as I will giving you information about one important aspect of guitar playing. This technique is very important and I was not using it for many years.

This technique is called alternate picking. This means that when you practice any scales on your guitar, you have to pick everything up and down. Start with a downstroke of your plectrum and after that use an up stroke. Your motion should be down up, down up. This will help you to play fast in the future. When you use the alternate picking technique with a metronome, you will be fast in a very short time.

This is no rocket science. If you practise this with all the scales you know, you will be be good in a short time. In the end it all depends on how much effort you want to put in. Always remember, the more effort you put, the more you will get.

So keep on practicing and you will be there.

Legato playing.

2008-09-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Legato playing is done with a techniques that involves hammer ons and pull offs. Hammer on means playing a note and then pressing the other note with your next finger without using the plectrum.

If you have a finger on on the the third fret and first fret and you play the note on third fret. After doing this, when you lift your finger, you will also hear the sound of the first note. This is called pull offs. This method is used by lot of guitarists so that they can play fast.

You can try this on a scale pattern, especially the Major Scale

You will find out what you are playing sounds good and your right hand doesn't have to do lot of work.

I will post an exercise about legato playing soon.

My image

2008-09-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Chord formula.

2008-08-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

If you want to derive triads or chords, I've listed the formulas for some triads:

Major 1 3 5
Minor 1 3b 5
diminished 1 3b 5b
augmented 1 3 #5

major 7th 1 3 5 7
dominant 7th 1 3 5 b7
minor 7th 1 3b 5 b7

suspended 4th 1 4 5
suspended 2nd 1 2 5

b means flat
# means sharp

Making a song

2008-08-11T01:52:00.001-07:00

If anyone who pickups the guitar will also want to make a song in the future. Making a song will unleash a creative side of you.

If anyone wants to make a song and write good music, first step is to believe that we can write good music and can make a good song. If you have just started out to learn guitar, please note making a song is possible with one or two chords also.

We can all make songs by focusing on our good, bad and angry thoughts. You can make a happy song by focusing on your happy thought. Sad song by focusing on your sad thoughts. Just think about something and start to write those thoughts in poetic form on a paper. It may be difficult in the beginning however after some time you will realize that writing or making a song is not that difficult.

If you have been playing the guitar for a while you will realize that minor chords mean sad songs and happy chords means major chords. seventh chords add to the tension and drama that is needed in a song.

Anyway the point is to pick up a book and a paper and start writing after focusing on some of your life's event. You may find out that you have just made your first song. I would suggest to keep a small diary and a pen with you every time. Sometimes a song may just pop in your head. You can then pen it down on the paper.

Practicing with a Metronome.

2008-07-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi. I will be talking about importance of using a metronome when playing the guitar. Lot of people ignore the basic stuff and i was one of them. I never used the metronome to practice. I was able to build speed on the guitar however i was not accurate. I was a slow on one pattern and i would speed up on another. To be consistent in speed and timing, we should use a metronome.

Metronome can be used when we are playing rhythm or playing lead guitar. All the best guitarists thats i know have used a metronome to practice guitar. This is the only way we can be accurate and good when playing with a band or by playing alone. if we don't use it, we may be sloppy.

Metronome benefited me a lot and and i still use it. There is a metronome in a processor that you can use with your guitar. You can read your user manual to get instructions. There are many websites that give you a free metronome software. You can look for this on your favorite search engine. Just type 'free metronome' and press 'enter.

There are things that we need to know before we can use the metronome. These things are quarter notes, whole notes, half notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes etc. Many guitar players when they start practicing guitar overlook these things. I will cover this topic in my next post. Cheers.

Music Intervals.

2008-06-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today, I will be giving a brief information about Intervals. I will discuss the C major scale to give information about intervals. We will talk about an old system of intervals. This is important because when you are jamming with any good musicians you'll often come across many jargons such as major second and minor second.

I will be talking about major intervals. The following is the C major scale:

C D E F G A B C.

If you have read my previous posts, you will know that C major scale doesn't have any sharps or flats. For convenience, it would be good if you memorize the following:

C = root note
D = major second
E = major third
F = perfect fourth
G = perfect fifth
A = major sixth
B = major seventh
C = octave (even this is a perfect interval)

The sequence of the intervals will be the same in all major scales. I have listed the G Major scale for more information:

G = root note
A = major second
B = major third
C = perfect fourth
D = perfect fifth
E = major sixth
F# = major seventh
G = octave (even this is a perfect interval)

I will be posting more information about intervals in future. This is just basic stuff that everyone should remember.

Making Chords

2008-03-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Today i will be telling you guys how to derive chords from a Major scale. One should know the major scale completely to understand what i will typing in this blog.

I have a previous post which explains about the major scale. You can check it out in Blogger history.

We'll be studying the C Major scale and because it doesn't have any sharps or flats.

The C Major scales has the following notes:

C D E F G A B C

We'll make chords from the above notes. Chord is made by stacking thirds. This means you take a note in a scale and ignore the second note and go to the third note. After this we'll ignore the fourth note and then we'll go to fifth note.

For example, we'll take the C note from the above scale and ignore from the second note D and go to the third note E. We'll ignore the fourth note which is F and go to the fifth note which is G.

After following the above steps we get the following notes:

C E G

This is the C chord. By following the above procedure, you can get all the diatonic chords which are in the key of c and also any other major scale.

This is what we get when you use the above method with all the notes:

C E G = C Major chord
D F A = D Major Chord
E G B = E Minor Chord
F A C = F Major Chord
G B D = G Major Chord
B D F = B Diminished Chord

Thats all for now. Will post more lessons in future. Cheers! You can comment on this blog if you have any questions.

Iron Maiden

2008-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

I recently went to the Iron Maiden concert in Bombay and it was amazing. they played all of my favorite songs so i feel the 1650 rupees that I payed for their concert was worth it.

They played all the great songs such as Fear of the dark, Hallowed Be thy name and Trooper.

I was impressed by the crowd in Bombay as they were singing along with the band and Bruce Dickinson was amazing. I can't leave anyone out as everyone in the band were great.

I liked performance of Janick Gers. He was great.

I enjoyed the show and the best part was another complementary band which opened them. It was Steve Harris's daughter's band. The guitarist of this band was excellent and was playing some awesome riffs. It was inspiring to see all these great guitarists playing on the stage.

Will wait for them to come back to Bombay.

Rock Bands!

2008-01-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

I never wrote my influences. I picked up the guitar when i was 16 and I love Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and many other bands. I also love Metallica and Megadeth.

I love rock music and can't live with out. I also love Iron Maiden. I am going for their concert on February 1 in Mumbai and can't wait for it. I know it's gonna be a great show. I feel more rock bands should come to Bombay city but most of them go to Bangalore in India. This is bad. I felt very bad when Aerosmith couldn't come to Bombay and they performed in Bangalore.

Lets hope i get to see all my Favorite bands in Bombay (city i Love the most).

What is a major scale?

2008-01-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

Today I’ll talk about how the major scale is derived. To understand this chapter, you must understand what half steps and whole steps are. You must also know what sharp notes and flat notes are.
The major scale is derived from a W W H W W W W H formula.
W is equal to whole step.
H is equal to half step.

The 12 keys of music are the following:

A, A#,B,C,C#D,D#,E,F,F#,G,G#

We'll derive the C scale now from the above notes using the following formula:
W W H W W W W H

A whole step from C note will be D. A Whole step from D is E. A half step from E is F. A whole step from F is G. A whole step from G is A. a whole step from A is B.
A half step from B is C. when you reach C again, it's called as octave.
So the C major scale is the following:
C D E F G A B C

By checking the scale, you'll know by now that this scale doesn't have any sharp or natural notes. This is the only scale which doesn't have any sharp or natural notes.
Scales for other notes can also be derived by following the above formula. If you use the formula W W H W W W W H with D, you'll get the following scale:
D E F# G A B C# D
You can derive the other scales using the same formula. You can try it by yourself. If you have any questions or you can give me feedback by posting a comment.

The following is a simple C major scale which anyone can practice.
E--------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------2-----------4--------5---------
D------------2-----3-----5-----------------------------------
A--3-----5-----------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------

The major scale is the most important thing in music. This is because; everything is compared to major scale. I’ll be giving some more details about this in future posts.

Half steps and whole steps!

2008-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

This is a new lesson. Today I will explain what a whole step and a half step is. This knowledge is required if you want to understand how scales are derived in music.

A whole step is when you keep your finger on the first fret and you skip one fret and go to the third fret. This is calling taking a whole step.

A half step is when you keep your first finger on your first fret and second finger on the second fret. This is called a half step. This also applies if your first finger is on fifth fret of any string and second finger is on sixth fret of that string.

No matter which string or fret you’re on, if you go from one fret to the next fret, it’s called half steps.

No matter which string or fret you’re on, if you go from one fret to another fret and by jumping a fret, you have done is a whole step.

That’s all for now. I’ll be posting some more lessons soon. Rock on.

Beginner lesson (chromatic scale)

2007-11-26T12:22:00.001-08:00

Hey check this out. It's a description of the first lesson I've posted.

Introduction to Music Theory 2!

2007-11-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

Hi. Today I will be telling you something more about music theory. You must have checked my previous post where I explained about sharp notes and natural notes. Today we’ll be talking about flat notes.

I’m still completing this blogger. If you have any questions, you can always mail me at the following email address:

baathaman@yahoo.com

The following is also called a chromatic scale:

A, A#,B,C,C#D,D#,E,F,F#,G,G#

The above notes are sharp and natural notes. Please note when you go from the left side of the note to the right side or in musical sense from A to G, you’ll find sharp notes between the natural notes.

However, if you move backwards from G, you’ll get flat notes (the symbol used for flat notes is b) between the natural notes.

So,

G# = Ab

F# = Gb

D# = Eb

C# = Db

A# = Bb

The above music theory will confusing. It was to me when I was learning it. You actually have to sit with your guitar and figure this all out. I’ll be posting a video lesson soon which will make this easier to understand.

The moral of story is G# can be called Ab and Ab can be called G#. This is also for the above notes.

Holding a Plectrum and Strumming!

2007-11-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

Today I will be talking about holding plectrum and strumming. Look at the video below and you’ll come to know how a plectrum looks like and how to hold it. There are many ways to hold a plectrum. I’ll be showing the best way. By this method, you’ll be able to gain speed in future which is the ultimate goal.

Strumming basically means moving your wrist up and down using your wrist with your plectrum.

Chords in C Major

2007-11-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

These are the chords in Video format. You can't hear my voice after C Major. I have given the sequence when the video is over.

Just check my fingers and try to place your fingers on the same fret and strings. All the strings should sound when you're using your right hand to strum the strings.

Introduction to Music Theory!

2007-10-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Another lesson from me. Today we’ll discussing music theory. Music theory is very easy to understand.

In music the first thing you have to remember is the following alphabets:

A,B,C,D,E,F,G.

These are the natural notes in music. This means they’re not sharp or flat. Always remember that except B and E, you’ll have sharp of all the notes. The symbol used for sharp is #

So let’s revise the above notes again as the following:

A, A#,B,C,C#D,D#,E,F,F#,G,G#

The above can also be called as keys. If you count them, you’ll notice that they’re 12. These are twelve keys in music. This means, that there are twelve scales in music. This is true for anything. Please note you’ll need to know this no matter which instrument you learn. You can sing in twelve different scales.

This is true for all musical instruments such as, piano, violin, guitar, harmonica etc. So this is very important.

It would be good if you can remember all these keys and It would be beneficial if you memorize them.

That’s all for now. I’ll post another lesson soon and will give the complete knowledge of music theory.

Beginner Guitar Chords

2007-10-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Beginner guitar chords

Here some chords for the beginners. These are chords in C major and you can try to play them. To Understand these easy chords, you should also understand how to read a guitar tab

I have also given a brief idea about reading tabs in this post.

When using your fingers to play these chords, you should apply enough pressure on the strings so that when you use your right hand to strum, you should hear the sound. Please note that your fingers should press only the intended string, it should not touch the other string.

When all the strings are pressed with your hand, use your right hand and move your plectrum for strumming. When you do this, you should hear the sound from all the strings. If you can’t, then you’re not pressing your strings to hard or maybe one of your finger is muting another string.

Here are some more chords

Am (A minor)

e--------------------------------------------------------------------

b--1-------------------------------------------------------------------

g------3-------------------------------------------------------------

d----2--------------------------------------------------------------

a--------------------------------------------------------------------

e-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G major

e------------3----------------------------------------------------------

b-----------------------------------------------------------------------

g------------------------------------------------------------------------

d-------------------------------------------------------------------------

a--1-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

e----2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dm (d minor)

e---1-----------------------------------------------------------------------

b--------------------3------------------------------------------------------

g--------2------------------------------------------------------------------

d-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

a -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

e-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

em (e minor)

e------------------------------------------------------------------------------

b-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

g-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

d----------2--------------------------------------------------------------------

a ---------2---------------------------------------------------------------------

e ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dm (d minor)

e---1-----------------------------------------------------------------

b--------------------3-------------------------------------------------

g--------2------------------------------------------------------------

d-----------------------------------------------------------------------

a -------------------------------------------------------------------------

e --------------------------------------------------------------------------

f Major. This will be a difficult chord for beginners. You’ll notice that ‘1’ is on two frets. This means you have to use one finger to press two frets. You will have to use a small barre

e---1-----------------------------------------------------------------

b---------1---------------------------------------------------------

g--------------2---------------------------------------------------------

d--------------------3------------------------------------------

a-------------------------4-------------------------------------------

e-------------------------------------------------------------------------

First lesson for Novice, Beginners.

2007-10-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

This is a first guitar lesson that I recommend for a complete beginner.

The first thing a beginner will need is a good guitar and patience. You can get a good guitar by visiting you nearest guitar shop.

I would recommend starting with an acoustic guitar rather starting with an electric guitar.

If you buy an electric guitar, please note you’ll also need a guitar amplifier which will cost a lot.

The first thing which you’ll have to do is, you’ll have to tune a guitar. You can tune your guitar by using a pitch pipe.

The first six strings of the guitar are as follows:

This is the lower string.

E-------------------------------------------------------------------------

B--------------------------------------------------------------------------

G---------------------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's important to memorize this pattern of E B G D A E. Because when you get these notes on all the six strings, your guitar will be tuned.

If you get the above notes, this is called standard tuning.

Using a Chromatic scale as a beginner guitar lesson

I would recommend you to play the guitar chromatic scale

E------------------------------------------------------------------1--2--3--4--

B-----------------------------------------------------1---2---3---4-----------------

G---------------------------------------1---2---3---4-----------------------

D-----------------------------1--2--3--4------------------------------------

A-----------------1--2--3--4-----------------------------------

E---1--2---3--4-------------------------------------------------------------

The above picture is in tab form. You can also check out the guitar chromatic video lesson

On a guitar neck you’ll see that there are vertical lines. These are called frets. There are usually 21 frets on a guitar but some electric guitars come with 24 frets.

1 means to keep your first finger on first fret of the sixth string (the fat string). 2 means keep your second finger on the second fret of the sixth string. 3 means keep your third finger on the third fret of the sixth string. 4 means keep your fourth finger on the fourth fret of the sixth string (the fat string).

When you follow the above procedure, please make sure that you’re pressing the strings hard enough and at the same time you are doing alternate picking with a plectrum. I hope you like this free guitar lesson.

Privacy Policy.

2007-10-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

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