Sunday, March 7, 2010

Master & Learn Guitar - Revealed: Detailed Instructions On How To Properly Hold Your Guitar Pick

While you are learning to master and learn guitar playing techniques with your left hand, you will want to ensure that you are also not forgetting about your right hand technique.

Many new guitar players when learning to play the guitar are unsure of how to properly hold a guitar pick. Holding a guitar pick properly is imperative in order to play your guitar chords and guitar scales like a pro.

An improperly held guitar pick will stop you short of being able to master and learn guitar right hand picking techniques such as learning the art of alternate picking.

Before we take a look at how to hold your guitar pick, make sure that the thumb and first finger of your right hand are clean and dry. This will ensure that your guitar pick will not slip away from your fingers.

Let’s take a detailed look at 9 easy steps that will ensure you are holding your guitar pick properly.

1. Take your guitar pick and place it under your right thumb.

2. Pretend that you are growing your thumb nail and have approximately 4/5ths of your guitar pick tip showing.

3. Now turn your guitar pick towards yourself in a 45 degree angle turn. Your guitar pick tip should be pointing towards you now with your thumb pointing parallel to your guitar and body.

4. Place your first finger underneath the guitar pick.

5. Your first finger position placement will be on the right hand side of the guitar pick going from center to the right hand side of your guitar pick.

6. From this point on you might need to slightly adjust your guitar pick tip position. The key here is that you want to hold your guitar pick comfortably, and accurately enough in order to be able to play your guitar scales and chords properly.

7. Final finger placement: With your remaining three right fingers you can either curl them up into a loose fist, or you can lock all three fingers below the first string. If you are muting your guitar strings with your Palm then have your right pinky rest comfortably below the first string.

8. Make sure you have a fresh guitar pick: Having a fresh guitar pick at all times will ensure that you are getting a crisp and accurate sound from your right hand when you strum or pick your guitar. After about two hours of playing and practicing, you will want to switch to a new guitar pick. Any longer than two hours and your guitar pick tip will wear down making it more difficult to accurately play guitar scales. If all you are doing is playing guitar chords then you can use your pick longer unless you are arpeggio playing your guitar notes.

9. Choosing the right kind of pick: You will need to buy a couple of different variety of guitar picks as there are many pick choices to choose from. A general rule of thumb when buying your first guitar pick is to purchase a medium light guitar pick. From there you can decide if you want to play with a firmer or thinner guitar pick, or just keep with the medium light style of guitar pick.

Practice Guitar - Revealed: 4 Easy Tips To Practice Your Guitar Chord Changes

One of the first things a new guitar player will learn is how to play basic guitar chords. As soon as you learn how to play a minimum of two chords it is time to learn how to practice your guitar chord changes.

Guitar chord changes are when you switch from guitar chord to another guitar chord in a smooth and flawless motion.

If you are finding chord changes to be challenging while you practice guitar, let’s take a look at four easy tips on how to practice your guitar chord changes.

1. Memorize your guitar chords: The best way to practice your guitar chord changes is by memorizing your guitar chords. By memorizing your guitar chords you will be able to know where to place your left hand fingers on the fret board more quickly and more efficiently than if you are just guessing where your fingers go on the fret board.

2. Practice chord changes without strumming: Practicing your guitar chord changes is challenging enough without having to worry about the rhythm aspect of your guitar chords. Don’t worry about practicing your right hand rhythm technique for right now. Once you have mastered your guitar chord changes, you can incorporate switching your guitar chords with the various strumming patterns you have learned.

3. Keep your fingers on the strings: Try not to move your left fingers away from your guitar fretboard. By moving your fingers away from the guitar fretboard, while you are switching guitar chords, you will not be able to change chords as quickly. As you memorize your basic guitar chords, you will recognize that some of your left fingers will barely have to move. You will also begin to recognize that some guitar chords have the same notes which means that your fingers may already be in position to play part of the notes for the next guitar chord.

4. Know what chord is coming up: If you walk, drive a car, or ride a bicycle you will understand that you just don’t stare at one object while traveling. If you do, you will crash into something else. The solution from crashing is to look all around your surroundings and know what’s coming up ahead. The same goes with guitar chord changes. The more you look ahead of your music, the more you will avoid crashing into the wrong guitar chord. The more you know what guitar chords are coming up, the quicker you will be able to switch to the next chord.

5. Practice in the dark: By allowing yourself to practice guitar in the dark, you will be forced to ensure that you have memorized the right fingering for your guitar chords. Once you are able to play your guitar chords in the dark, the next step is to practice your guitar chord changes in the dark as quickly and smoothly as possible. If you’re not sure if you are playing the right guitar chord in the dark then practice guitar near a light switch. As soon as you think you have the right chord, turn the light on, and then check your left hand fingering to make sure your fingers are positioned correctly on the fret board.

Learn Guitar: Beginners Guitar Chords: How to Play the C Major Chord

As a new guitar player one of the first things will want to learn is how to play your guitar chords. There are many different kinds of guitar chords. When starting out, however, you will want to learn what are called your basic guitar chords.

Basic beginner guitar chords are located within the first three frets of your guitar. Beginner guitar chords are great way for guitar players to get started without feeling overwhelmed by all of the note possibilities on the guitar neck of the guitar.

When starting out with beginner guitar chords, the C major chord is a great beginner guitar chord to learn. C Major is a great chord to learn on because this chord will teach you the basic foundations of proper chord technique with your left and right hand. If you can play the C major chord, you’ll pretty much be able to play all of the other basic guitar chords found on the first three frets of your guitar.

Let’s take a look at how to play the C major chord.

1. Place your left first finger on the second string first fret.
2. Place your left second finger on the fourth string, second fret.
3. Place your left third finger on the fifth string third fret.
4. Strum the chord

With a little more detail, let’s now expand our study of the C major chord.

1. Place your left first finger on the second string first fret: When playing your guitar chords, remember to place your left fingers as close to the fret of your guitar as possible. The further back on the fret board you play, the higher chance you have of having a bad sounding note.

2. Place your left second finger on the fourth string, second fret: When pressing the guitar notes down with your left hand fingers; press hard enough to hear the guitar note. If you press to lightly you will not be able to hear the guitar note.

3. Place your left third finger on the fifth string third fret: You will want to make sure that your fingers are not touching any of the strings around the notes you are pressing on. If your left hand fingers are touching any other guitar notes; try shifting your fingers around, or moving your wrist forward.

4. Strum the chord: You are now ready to strum your C major chord. With your right hand holding a guitar pick, in a downward stroke, strum all of the guitar strings except for the sixth string. The sixth string should not be played. In order to not hear the sixth string, you can mute the sixth string with your left hand thumb. This will prevent you from being heard if you accidentally hit the E. string with your right hand.

Beginner Guitar Online - Super Easy Introduction to Guitar Strumming

In the process of learning how to play your guitar chords, you will want to get started and apply these chords to a musical situation like a favourite song.. If you have learned even just one guitar chord, then you are ready to begin learning how to strum on your guitar.

Strumming on the guitar can seem like a mystery when watching other players flawlessly play rhythm on the guitar. What looks difficult, is in reality, a combination of practice and what are called strumming patterns.

Let’s take a look at how to strum on your guitar in three easy mini lessons to describe how to get started strumming your guitar.

1. Guitar strumming: It’s great to learn how to play guitar chords, however, It’s even more fun once you figure out how to strum your guitar chords. Guitar chord strumming consists of learning rhythm strum patterns that will utilize your right hand while holding your guitar pick. With your guitar pick you strum your hand up and down the guitar strings with the chord that you are playing with.

2. Strum patterns: Basic guitar strum patterns consist of what are called down stroke’s and upstroke’s. Begin to Mix and match your Up and down stroke’s with your guitar chords. Mixing around your up and down strokes will allow for variation in the sound of your guitar chords. As you improve your strum pattern technique, you will discover a whole new world of strumming pattern variations that will add life and creativity to the guitar chords that you are learning.

3. Get Started: Pick your favourite guitar chord. With your right hand holding your guitar pick, count to yourself the following; one, two, three, four. Repeat this to yourself four times so that you have in your head what is called a 4/4 time signature. In a downward motion strum your guitar four times. You have now played the most basic guitar strum pattern available. Next, strum upwards four times counting 1234. Next, we are going to vary your strum pattern. With your right hand strum down and then strum up. Do this 2x. In other words: down, up, down up. While you are strumming your guitar remember to count out loud. For example: Down=“1“, Up=“2“, Down=“3“, Down=“4“. Repeat this strum pattern over and over, and try different strum pattern combinations such as up=1 up=2 up=3 down=4.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

How to Play Your Guitar - Revealed - Super Quick Chord Changes

As you’re practicing guitar, you will reach the point when you will know more than three chords. It is at this point in learning how to play your guitar that it is imperative to begin practicing your chord changes.

When learning how to play your guitar you will encounter what are called chord changes. Chord changes are switching from one guitar chord to the next guitar chord in a smooth and fast motion. One of the most challenging things that hinders a new guitar player when learning to do chord changes is accurately and quickly switching from chord to chord.

Let’s take a look at 3 easy steps that will help you to achieve super quick chord changes.

1. Memorize your guitar chords
2. Learn the ergonomics of guitar chords
3. Module chord practice

1. Memorize your guitar chords: In order to begin switching from chord to chord super fast, you need to memorize as many guitar chords that you have learned as possible. The more you have your guitar chords memorized, the easier it will be to play your guitar chords individually. This in turn will allow you to transition to the next chord more quickly due to not having to figure out your chord fingering.

2. Learn the ergonomics of guitar chords: This might sound more complicated than what it really is. Chord ergonomic playing is just finding the best fingering for the chord you are playing that will allow you to transition to your next chord as quickly and smoothly as possible. For example, there are two ways to play the A major basic chord. You can use your first three fingers (1, 2, and 3) which is what most beginner guitar players learn how to do, or you can learn how to play a major with the last three fingers (2, 3, and 4) and discover that using this fingering position will allow for smoother and quicker chord changes.

3. Module chord practice: Learning to take your chord switching playing abilities to the next level will require practice. Take two chords and practice switching between the two chords back and forth for two minutes. Take two brand-new chords and practice switching these chords back and forth over and over again for another two minutes. In a 10 minute module unit you can practice switching guitar chords using 10 different chords.

How To Play Guitar Good - The Mysteries of Alternate Picking Revealed.

Once you have begun to learn all of your beginner guitar chords, and basic guitar scales, you will want to make sure that you are utilizing the best right hand technique possible in order to play your guitar is accurately and as fast as possible.

In order to learn how to play guitar good you’ll need to learn the right hand guitar technique called alternate picking. Alternate picking is also a great way to learn how to play your guitar chords correctly, and introduce the concept of arpeggio playing.

The good news is that you can start applying these simple alternate picking techniques immediately to your guitar playing.

Let’s take a look at how to apply basic alternate picking to your guitar playing.

1. Hold your guitar pick correctly
2. Practice using up and down strokes
3. Alternate your guitar strokes
4. Apply alternate picking to your scales
5. Apply alternate picking to your chords

1. Hold your guitar pick correctly: You want to make sure that you’re holding your guitar pick correctly. If you play guitar only with your fingers this will be a great opportunity for you to learn how to play with a guitar pick.

2. Practice using up and down strokes: The basic concept of alternate picking is quite simple. With your guitar pick you will be picking each note and alternating between down and upstroke’s.

3. Alternate your guitar strokes: Once you have the basic concept of alternating your guitar strokes for each string, (up and down, one note at a time) you can now alternate your guitar strokes. For example instead of picking: up, down, up, down; you will be using the pattern of: up, up, down, down, etc. The possibilities of alternating your guitar strokes are limitless.

4. Apply alternate picking to your scales: On the first note that you play your guitar scale with, pick down. The next note you will pick up. When you have mastered going up and down on your guitar scales the next thing you want to do is to have your first note be plucked upwards first. The second note will now be a down stroke, and so forth.

5. Apply alternate picking to your chords: Alternate picking your guitar chords will do three things. The first thing alternate picking will do is ensure that you are playing correctly each of the guitar notes on the chord you are playing. The second thing alternate picking will do with your chords is introduce you to guitar chord picking patterns. The third thing alternate picking will do with your chords is introduce you to what is called arpeggio playing. Simple arpeggio playing is playing the guitar chord one note at a time. Arpeggio playing is also great for playing guitar chords with slow songs.

How To Play Guitar - Beginner - 4 Must Have Guitar Effect Pedals: Distortion, Delay, Chorus, and Reverb.

If you don’t own them already, at some point, you will encounter what are called guitar effects. Guitar effects are used to enhance the tone and sound of your instrument. Guitar effects can dramatically change your guitar sound, or simply make your guitar sound sonically rich.

When you enter the world of guitar effects, it can be quite overwhelming to know what the best guitar effects to purchase are. From stomp boxes, to full rack mount guitar effects, there is an unending supply of sound available to enhance your guitar playing sound and abilities.

Let’s take a look at 4 must-have guitar effects that you will want to utilize in your guitar playing experience.

1. Distortion
2. Delay
3. Chorus
4. Reverb

1. Distortion: If you’ve ever heard a hard rock band, chances are you have heard a guitar player that is using distortion. Believe it or not, distortion is not just limited to heavy metal playing guitar players. Many jazz guitar players incorporate distortion into their sound. Even rock and blues players will incorporate a light distortion sound, giving their clean tone an extra edge to the sound that their guitar produces. There are unlimited types of distortion available to the guitar player making distortion a great way to craft your own unique guitar tone.

2. Delay: Think back to a time where you were yelling your name in a concrete stairwell, or shouting your name across a canyon, and while you were calling out your name you heard your name repeat over and over. You have just experienced delay. Another name for delay is echo. Delay as a guitar effect is basically when the sound that you produce on your guitar repeats itself over and over again. There are short delays, and long delays. Short delays are great for adding rhythmic variation to your guitar. Long delays are a great way to add excitement within your guitar solos.

3. Chorus: The idea behind the effect known as chorus is when you have an overlapping blend of voices sounding together. Chorus on the guitar is similar to having many guitar‘s overlapping together. Chorus is a great guitar effect when played on a clean guitar tone. Both electric and acoustic guitars will sound great with chorus added to the sound mix of your guitar.

4. Reverb: Very similarly related to delay is the effect called reverb. If hearing the sound repeat over and over again is called delay, the part of the sound that continues onward after you’ve stopped playing is called reverb. Right now, clap your hand in the room that you’re in. If you’re in a small room your handclap will not last very long. In a large auditorium however, the after sound of clapping your hand might last for a few seconds. You’ll also hear the effects of natural reverb by yelling your name in a concrete stairwell, or a canyon. Reverb is a great guitar effect that can add depth to your sound. Thick Reverb guitar effects are generally not recommended playing with live because reverb can muddy up your guitar sound. Instead, try adding reverb to your guitar in a studio recording. In a home studio recording, reverb can make your guitar sound amazing.