Guitar Music Lessons - Make Your Fret Hand Stronger

You’ll learn in other guitar music lessons, that the ability for both your hands to work together simultaneously is vital. So when you realize that they’re not coalescing correctly, you have to place some blame and fix the problem.

If there’s a problem with your hands working together, try to pinpoint the culprit by slowing things down. Are you having trouble with your fingerings on the fret board or are you having trouble picking with your strumming hand. Learn what’s going on.

With most new guitarists, all the movements on the frets are sloppy and slow and will need extra work to develop. If you work on the strength in your fingers, you’ll definitely advance faster than some of your other guitar comrades.

So is there a fast way to strengthen the muscles in your fret hand and have them move at a faster rate? Most guitar music lessons might not know, but here’s just one of the exercises that you can try for this very purpose.

Let’s use five steps to strengthen our fret fingers and these are all about placing your fingers accurately...

1. Begin by putting your index finger on the first fret of the low ‘E’ string and your ring finger on the third fret of the ‘A’ string. Remember to bring both fingers down simultaneously, and then we switch positions. We put the index finger on the ‘A’ string of the first fret and the ring finger on the ‘E’ string of the third fret.

2. The next step is similar for the purpose of these guitar music lessons. Put your index finger back on the first string of the first fret, and this time place your ring finger on the ‘D’ string of the third fret as opposed to the ‘A’ string from before. Now switch their positions once again. Place your index finger on the ‘D’ string of the first fret and your ring finger on the low ‘E’ of the third fret.

3. With this step, do the same switching motion except, start your first finger on the first string and first fret and your third finger on the ‘G’ string of the third fret and then switch. The result should be your first finger on the ‘G’ string of the first fret and your third finger on the low ‘E’ string of the third fret.

4. You know the drill by now. Start with your first finger on the first string of the first fret and your third finger on the ‘B’ string of the third fret. Then place your first finger on the ‘B’ string of the first fret and your third finger on the first string of the first fret.

5. These guitar music lessons don’t have anything on you by now! The last step is to start with your index finger on the first string of the first fret and your third finger on the high ‘E’ string of the third fret. Then switch to your first finger on the sixth string of the first fret and your third finger on the first string of the first fret.

As a bonus tip to your practice, try to use finger picking as opposed to a guitar pick. If you start very slowly and develop accuracy first, everything else will fall into place much easier. Run through this exercise a couple times a week and you should definitely see some improvement during your next guitar music lessons.

What Are the 4 Types of Guitars?

Test out your guitar knowledge. Here are the 4 types of guitars.

Guitar Facts - 4 Types of Guitars

via Not Playing Guitar by noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) on 6/28/10

Since their origins in the ancient east almost 5000 years ago guitars have evolved into many shapes, sizes and styles. The modern guitar is most commonly found in four familiar forms, each most suited to the demands of players in different styles of music.

In this article we'll look at four kinds of guitar and their usual styles of music. Although there is little reason not to try a guitar in a style it's not usually associated with most players stick to the kind of guitar most suited to the style of music they wish to play. If you plan to learn guitar you will find it easiest if you choose an instrument suited to your preferred musical style.

Nylon String Classical Guitar

Since Antonio Torres Jurado designed and built what is widely recognized as the first classical guitar in Seville in the mid nineteenth century the form of this instrument has changed little.

The classical guitar's familiar silhouette is defined by the balanced proportions of its rounded body. The top is often made of cedar which gives a soft warm sound while the sides and back are traditionally composed of rosewood.

Classical guitars possess wide necks suited to finger picking individual notes. The nylon strings, originally made from cat gut, are broader and softer than their steel string equivalents which make them easier on beginner fingers.

The guitar is most commonly used to play classical or flamenco guitar but is also found in folk, Latin and pop styles. The softer sound of nylon strings is favoured by many jazz guitarists.

The classical guitar's strings do not work well with bending techniques used in blues and rock music.

Steel String Acoustic Guitar

Steel strings for acoustic guitar were made popular by guitar builder C.F. Martin in the early 20th century. Martin moved to the USA from his native Germany in 1833 and used an X bracing system popular in America for the tops of his acoustic guitars.

Martin added steel strings in response to demands from players for louder guitars. The higher tension of the steel strings was supported by the stronger X bracing system used rather than the fan bracing more popular with European classical guitar builders at the time.

The steel string acoustic has evolved into a number of different shapes and sizes. The most common found today are concert, jumbo and dreadnought forms. All can be found in cutaway versions that allow easier access to the higher frets for soloing.

The steel string acoustic guitar has a flat top. Its neck is typically narrower and more rounded than classical guitars, although the width, profile and length of the neck vary depending on the guitar's intended purpose.

The steel string acoustic is one of the most versatile guitars and can be used to play just about any style. It is most commonly found in blues, folk, bluegrass, pop, rock and country music.

Hollow Body Electric Guitar

Despite steel strings, acoustic guitars were still not loud enough in large bands or noisy joints. But the arrival of electrified amplification in the 1930s created a real revolution for guitar players.

Electric guitars used a magnetic pickup fixed to the guitar's table to create a small current when the strings vibrated in its magnetic field. This current is then amplified by an external amplifier to produce sound.

Electric amplification gave guitars more volume and sustain. It also permitted use of lighter strings at lower tension which opened up lots of new playing techniques.

This kind of guitar is used in all modern styles but is most commonly associated with jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll.

Solid Body Electric Guitar

Early amplified guitars caused feedback problems because of their hollow body construction and loud playing volumes. Several builders developed guitars with solid bodies to overcome this problem.

The first successful commercial guitar of this type is the Fender Esquire, commercialized by Leo Fender in 1946. The Esquire became the Telecaster and Fender went on to create the legendary Stratocaster guitar in 1954.

These guitars use a solid piece of flat wood about an inch thick with a neck attached to it. The magnetic pickups are mounted in this solid piece of wood which vibrates less than the table of a hollow guitar to avoid feedback problems.

Names such as Fender with its Telecaster and Stratocaster and Gibson with its Les Paul model became icons of the rock era. These guitars are also used in many other styles such as the blues, funk, jazz, pop, country, just about anything in fact.

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Photo by momentcaptured1.

All content copyright (c) 2007 - 2009 Gary Fletcher. All rights reserved. Not Playing Guitar

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Guitar Music Lessons - Turn Playing Into A Career

With guitar music lessons, I’ve learned to love playing the guitar, and in turn, the guitar has treated me well. Similarly, the guitar can treat you just as well with time.

When I first started playing, I was jamming for fun in a small classic rock cover band in my mid teens and I had no idea what that would eventually lead to. Eight years later, I’m still playing to have fun, but I’m recording professional rock, indie, and hardcore albums and performing in front of hundreds of people in sold-out venues all over the area.

Throughout this entire process, I’ve acquired some great concepts and learning tidbits that made the difference between playing the guitar as a hobby and using it as a career. I want to share these concepts with you an hopefully they can have a great impact on how you treat your guitar music lessons.

Let’s take a look at three levels of guitar-playing that you can or may be accomplishing.
(1) Non-professional or amateur guitarist
(2) Semi-professional guitarist
(3) Guess...you got it. Professional guitarist

So what do each of these categories mean?

For non-professional/amateur guitarists, playing the instrument is fun and adventuresome. If you’re a non-professional, you’re most likely not getting paid for your performances, so you have an advantage over most professionals. You have the ability to choose where, when, and to what audience that you perform without worrying about compensation. When you’re done, you just get back to your private guitar music lessons.

Semi-professional guitarists like to get compensation for their performances but are not ready to make a steady income from it. If you’re in a band that plays shows, weddings, or other social events and appreciates a check at the end of the night, you’re a semi-professional. Most of these guitarists book the “fail-safe” dates like New Year’s Eve to make a big score, but the majority of income comes from some other source.

A professional-guitarist gets all of their income from playing whether that’s from being in the studio or doing live shows.

Notice, by the way, that the level of expertise on the guitar has nothing to do with the professional level that’s appointed. It’s simply based on how the performer gets their income.

At least with this information, you can decide where you are right now and where you want to be.

And be aware, there are going to be people that will tell you that being a professional guitarist just does not work and you can’t listen to them. They are incorrect, but let them have their own opinion.

Your mission is to keep up with your guitar music lessons, practice hard, and focus on your goals. Use this knowledge to make your next big decision regarding the guitar.

A guitar that tunes itself... Science fiction is reality...

Fret-King Super-Matic self-tuning guitar

via Guitar Noize by Jon on 6/21/10

Fret-King announce the Super-matic guitar featuring the Wilkinson ATD HD440 self-tuning bridge. There are presets that can be called up at the touch of a button as demonstrated in the above video - standard E, open G, DADGAD & open D or recalibrate to five additional ‘user created’ tuning presets.

The Wilkinson ATD™ self-tuning bridge, which has been under development by Trev and his team at ‘Auto Tuning Developments’ over many years, is a super low profile, real time electro-mechanical device utilising ultra hi-tech micro gearboxes, designed to retrofit unobtrusively in to a standard Strat® vibrato bridge rout, (or similar), with a micro hex pickup, controls small enough not to notice, and an intuitive one touch button controlling all the functions and features of this truly incredible device.

Invisibly incorporating the microprocessor control circuitry, the ATD™ bridge allows the player, with just one touch of the function button to automatically tune the Super-Matic™ to standard E-tuning. Tuning status is confirmed in the hi-visibility display, designed to be viewed whilst playing, and overall tuning is assured with the built in chromatic tuner.

Check out the Fret-King website for more info and photos.

via MusicRadar.com

UPDATE:
Sound On Sound have posted a nice interview with Trevor Wilkinson from Summer NAMM 2010

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Tech Tip: Changing Between Chords »

Here's some information for beginners on changing between chords. It's a problem. Some would consider an epidemic!

http://jamorama.com/blog/tech-tip-changing-between-chords/

Posted via email from guitarmusiclessons's posterous

Rhythm Guitar Riffs On I-IV Chord Progression In E

This is a great lesson from the very informative "Not Playing Guitar" blog that usually provides some great tips and lessons. This one is all about rhythm guitar riffs and will be highly beneficial to you rhythm players out there like myself :] Enjoy!

Rhythm Guitar Riffs On I-IV Chord Progression In E

via Not Playing Guitar by noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) on 6/16/10

Here's a simple rhythm guitar part that uses ideas from my recent lesson Easy Guitar Riffs To Practice. It's a simple I-IV chord progression that might form the verse of a song. The chord riffs are based on open E major and A major chord positions.

You can download the free printable PDF version of this Rhythm Guitar Riffs On I-IV Progression In E.

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All content copyright (c) 2007 - 2009 Gary Fletcher. All rights reserved. Not Playing Guitar

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Guitar Music Lessons - 10 Easy Tips To Play Guitar Faster

Guitar music lessons like this one attempt to stress the importance of playing accurately when trying to go faster. See, only a small percentage of guitarists actually reach their speed goals with high precision while the rest can play fast, but rather sloppily at the same time.

Speed should go right along with good accuracy because showing good technique on the instrument is about your right and left hands working together harmoniously and increasing skills at the same progression.

So what should you do first? Play slow. Yep, you need to let off the gas and put on the brake for awhile.

One thing that usually trips up new guitarists is that they get so frustrated with what they hear on the radio because it's fast. But what you need to keep in mind is this is only the final product. You never actually get to view or hear the process that happened to reach those speeds. For all we know they had tons of guitar music lessons and were encouraged to play every single riff at a crawl first!

Let's take a look at 10 fairly easy strategies that you can use to improve your speed and vamp up those technical skills:

1. Buy thicker picks. Stronger, normal-shaped picks are better for solid technique. If you start with thin picks, you'll lose some solidarity in your accuracy and timing.

2. String your guitar with a medium or heavy set of strings. Read the string thicknesses on the package before purchasing them because the strings you want should have the thinnest at .012 and the thickest at .052. Newly purchased purchased guitars usually come with thinner strings, so they'll need to be switched for the purpose of our guitar music lessons.

3. Do slow warm-ups. Your fingers are full of muscles and just like you learned in high school gym class, you need to warm-up before you do the real activities. The purpose of starting slow here is so you can get your fingers used to the different distances and variations between the frets.

4. Play with a metronome. A metronome is the perfect way to measure how you're improving during your guitar music lessons. Start by setting an average tempo and doing your warm-up routine and then as you improve, start to increase the bpm of the metronome slowly. It's best to start around 60 bpm to begin.

5. Adjust the "action" on your guitar to eliminate buzzing. The "action" on your guitar refers to the distance of the strings from the frets. Usually the action setting is different for each player, but we just want to make sure there isn't any buzzing on the strings when fretted during our guitar music lessons.

6. Progress from eighth notes to triplets. If you're hitting a steady stream of notes on your guitar at each bpm, you're probably playing eighth notes. The next step is to put those notes into sets of three and set the metronome to 120 bpm when you're reading to progress.

7. Combine the different eighth note riffs. When you've worked your way up to around 110 on the metronome, start putting the eighth notes and eighth note triplets together. When you start this, set your metronome back down to a lower tempo and work back up again.

8. Stick in some hammer-ons. The hammer-on technique is a nifty skill of playing notes by pressing your fingers onto the frets quickly without picking the strings. Fit these in with your eighth note work in your guitar music lessons.

9. Practice the pull-off technique. The pull-off technique is the opposite of the hammer-on and when you stick these two together, you'll see your speed start to really develop.

10. Slide around. Learn the slide technique so you can create major interest in the riffs that you practice. Even at this stage with the hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides, keep everything consistent with your metronome.

All guitarists want to play fast. That's almost a blatant fact, but you this will only happen when your fingers are ready for it. Practice some guitar music lessons of your own with these ten tips in mind and you should see your speed improve consistently with each accurate riff.

For more information, go to this website: Guitar Music Lessons