Beginning Guitar Lessons

If your Beginning Guitar Lessons, then this is a MUST! I know your probably thinking, “this is NOT why I want to learn the guitar”, but trust me, create good habits and you’ll be on your way.

Beginning Guitar Lessons is no easy task, but if you follow some basic guidelines, it’ll make some things easier.

Below is a quick video from youtube on finger exercises.

I’ll never forget my 1^st electric guitar lesson, my teacher was constantly looking at the time, every question I had, he took forever to answer and my money was going down the drain.

I should’ve realized when we 1^st met; the vibe just wasn’t there. I’m not saying he wasn’t a good teacher, but what I am saying is that guitar lessons carry the personality of the guitar teacher who designs the course, so a lot of time it’s good to make a personal checklist when going shopping for a guitar teacher or finding an online course.

Below are some things to keep in mind:

• There will always be more ineffective guitar teachers than highly effective ones.
• Just because they can play a guitar great, doesn’t make them a great teacher.
• Have a plan of attack for what you want to be able to play. Don’t just assume that your teacher is going to do what’s best. He needs to know exactly what style of music you want to play, who you want to sound like etc…..Keep in mind, this is your money, and it’s important for your teacher to create a strategic plan to work towards you goals and expectations.

In today’s beginning guitar lesson, I’m gonna show you how to sound like a rock star. I know you all have probably jammed out in your car rocking your head back and forth while playing air guitar at a stop light before. (or maybe just me;) but how many times  have we actually taken a minute to actually hear what’s going in the song? Like how many main notes are being played over and over again?

If you do this enough, you’ll begin to figure out a pattern. Playing music is all about patterns which are called “Chord Progressions”. There is a huge amount of possible chord progressions, but only a few of them can make you sound like a rock star in minutes.

So, to better understand chord progressions, let’s take a look at the root notes on the C – Major scale. (Diagram below) If you number the notes from the C-major scale from 1 – 8 you will realize that the switch between notes 1,4 and 5 sound a lot more smoother than between any other note.

C-Major Guitar Scale

A guy with way too much time on his hands created this Funny video that shows you how the same chord progression can be used for many different songs: The progression this weird dude is using is : (C,G,Am,F) – He’s playing it on the C – scale.

Check it out!

Side note recommendation: The F chord is no joke to play when your starting off, so in order to play this progression, I would change the note of the progression to a different scale. (e.g.) Let’s take the G scale. Playing this chord progression on the G scale would go as follows:                                                                                                                                         (G –D – Em – C). It’s much simpler playing all those songs on the video by playing it on the G – scale.

Easy Guitar Lesson on Chord Progressions you can ROCK out to RIGHT NOW!

Ok, so now you hopefully understand that Chord progressions are the foundation of songs. Like the video above showed, the same chord progressions get used over and over and over again.

To make it unique they will sometimes change the timing on their strumming form a 4/4 to a ¾ etc….. or slow the song down completely. Below are some really popular chord progressions that I learned when I 1^st started playing guitar. The chord progressions are based on a 4/4 rhythm. So just like it says below, you basically strum down once, count 2,3,4 then move the next chord and do the same thing.

How should I strum? Right now, I would keep it simple and get the chord progression down first, just strum down, count 2, 3, 4(on beat, that means tap your feet or something to give you a rhythm) then move to the next chord. Once you have that set, you can move on to strumming more in between each chord.

A                    C                    G                  E7

Strum,2,3,4  – Strum,2,3,4 – Strum,2,3,4  – Strum,2,3,4

G                    Am                 Am                D

Strum,2,3,4  – Strum,2,3,4 – Strum,2,3,4  – Strum,2,3,4

I hope you enjoyed this super easy guitar lesson. On a serious note, these chord progressions are used everywhere. You’d be surprised how many of your favorite songs you may already know how to play by just using the chord progressions shown above.

What are you doin still reading! Grab your guitar and start playing

Lazy Ass!

I think it goes without saying, but this blog is intended to give you tips on how to overcome some problems when learning acoustic guitar or electric. So with that said, you should probably have a chord book of some sort that you are being guided by.  At this point you’ve probably already read a guitar lesson about open strings and the name of each note like the diagram below. To be honest with you, this is boring as hell, but unfortunately it will make our life easier down the road.

When I talk to people who are beginning  guitar lessons,  I notice they make things harder than they really should be, so I’ve put together some common obstacles that you may face when learning to play guitar.

Visualizing the chord in your head: I see this all the time, you start practicing your chord changes, and during each chord change you are rearranging your fingers or take them off the strings to put them right back in the same place.  Sometimes you don’t have to and by simply visualizing where the nearest note is and concentrate on whether you have to move some of your fingers makes it a whole lot easier.  A perfect example are the following 2 chord belows, Notice that in order to go from the A-minor to a C-major all you have to do is move 1 finger. Its little guitar tips like this that will make your chord changes smoother.

Choosing Wrong Chords to Practice: Some guitar chords are definitely harder than others and should be left for more advanced guitar lessons, the faster you realize that, the easier your life will become. (Side note: stay away from bar chords, at least for now) At this point, I know you want to sound like a rock star, but juuuuuuust before we sell out the nearest amphitheater we need to really focus on chord building and making sure that what we’re strumming is actually the right chord. Some easy chords that I always recommend are below:

Should I practice more than 1 chord at once? Yes, I’ve seen a lot of guitar teachers tell their students to just practice one chord at a time. I completely disagree, that’s not a solid learning process. I advise to practice 3 chords, e.g G, C, D one after each other over and over and over and over again. This technique has lot do with the way your brain processes patterns. By using patterns instead of single chords, you brain will bring up the information a lot quicker.

Are you beginning guitar lessons, or looking for guitar tips? if  so, then you came to the right place

Watching other musicians strum that guitar so effortlessly is probably what provoked your passion to learn to play guitar. For a lot of us, it was a rude awakening when we first picked up that guitar and actually tried to play anything. At least I know it was for me.

Below are some tips on how to build Calluses for your fingers
Eric Clapton advises students who are beginning guitar lessons to rub their fingertips with rubbing alcohol three times a day (for 5 – 10 min) for a week or two, this will eventually dry out your fingertips and build your callus faster.
This is the method I used to get my fingertips rougher. Unfortunately I had already been doing it the hard way for about 2 months, once I applied this tip I definitely saw a difference in 2 weeks.  The pain didn’t totally go away, but I did realize my endurance was building.

I’m Building Calluses, but how do I keep ‘em?
Well, I’m glad you asked, I just don’t think your gonna like the answer.  Continuing to practice is really the only way. Normally setting aside 20 – 30 minutes of practicing chord progressions and fingering techniques should do the trick. Don’t freak out if a layer of skin falls off, this is quite normal and should be expected. Once you skin falls off the new skin will come back a little stronger.

I’m Beginning Guitar Lessons, Does it matter what Guitar Strings I use?
Definitely, when choosing strings there are 2 terms you need to know:

• String Gauge: This is basically the thickness of a string. Normally strings with higher gauge will have a higher tension when tuned.  This is NOT the way you want to go when choosing guitar strings. I would recommend Elixir Super Light or Light string gauge or any brand with those gauges. At least until you get your calluses are built up. I personally use mediums, but I started off with Light as well.
• Guitar Action: This is the distance between the strings and the fret board on your guitar. You don’t want the strings to lift to high off the fret board. This will cause you to press down harder on your strings, which will in turn cause you fingertips to hurt more.
  On the same note, you don’t want them to low either, this will cause the strings to touch the fret and make a buzzing sound.  Action is more of a personal touch, so there is no wrong or right way of doing it. In order to get some more information on how to adjust your action, either check your guitar manual or a quick Google search will show you how.

Beginning guitar lessons can definitely be a challenge, but what you feel when you first play a song is incredible. Read the rest of this entry »