Archive for 2009
You are currently browsing the The Guitar Lesson Review Blog blog archives for the year 2009.
12
Oct
2009
Guitar Chord Theory - Basic Chord Construction
Have you ever looked at guitar chord charts, and wondered how those chords were constructed? Or were looking for a chart for a particular named chord, but couldn’t find one?
In this series of posts, I’m going to look at some aspects of guitar chord theory, namely how guitar chords are constructed using the notes of various scales. This will hopefully give you an insight into where guitar chords come from, and some idea of how to create chord shapes on the guitar fretboard.
In this post, I’ll talk about how basic chord construction works for guitar chords. Later posts will cover how more complex guitar chords are created, using the same principles. Read the rest of this entry »
21
Sep
2009
Lead Guitar Secrets Review
I’ve just completed a review of Dan Denley’s Lead Guitar Secrets course, which is a great course for intermediate / advanced guitarists wanting to get a good understanding of how to play lead guitar solos. Read the rest of this entry »
13
Sep
2009
Create Your Own Jam Tracks
When you’re practising the guitar, especially when you’re practising improvising, it’s great to have a set of good backing jam tracks that you can use to play along with.
There are a few ways to get jam tracks - many guitar courses come with a sample, or you can buy them ready made, or you can record your own from scratch.
One thing I realised recently though, is that you can create your own jam tracks, not by recording them from scratch, but by extracting sections from existing tracks. Read the rest of this entry »
15
Aug
2009
Jamplay Review and Sample Lessons
Jamplay is a membership website with a vast range of video guitar lessons, which caters for all levels of ability and also different genres (rock, blues, jazz, fingerstyle, etc). They have many different instructors, each with their own unique approach to teaching the guitar.
Here’s a sample lesson from instructor Kris Norris, which discusses the use of counterpoint in rock guitar riffs. Watch out for the ’subliminal’ section in this clip! Read the rest of this entry »
8
Aug
2009
Beginner Guitar Chords - Handling Chord Changes
As a beginner guitar player, learning to play individual chords is one thing. Learning to change chords quickly, e.g. when playing a song is another matter entirely. Here, I’m going to give a couple of tips for helping you learn to switch chords faster, and have a couple of exercises in a PDF file that you can try out. Read the rest of this entry »
25
Jul
2009
G3 Live - Red House Blues
I’ve had the excellent G3 Live album (Joe Satriani / Steve Vai / Eric Johnson) on my ipod for a long time now, but just the other day, this track from that album came up on a playlist I had on, and I was really struck with the sheer virtuosity of these 3 players. It made me listen to the track over & over a few times!
I found this video clip of them performing this track live: Read the rest of this entry »
21
Jul
2009
Using ‘Pedal Notes’ For Modes - Part II
In a previous post on this topic, I talked about using pedal notes (constant sounding low notes) while playing the major scale modes, to try and hear the characteristic sound of the mode.
In that post, I suggested playing the pedal note tone on one of the lower strings, while playing the mode pattern on the upper strings, tuning the lower string as appropriate. This is a good technique to learn, as you can use it when practicing anywhere.
Here, I’m going to continue on from the previous post, detail the other modes, and there’s an MP3 file with the pedal notes, which you can use to practice with. Read the rest of this entry »
13
Jul
2009
The CAGED System For Learning Guitar Scales - Part II
In the last post on this topic (see Part I), we introduced the ‘CAGED’ system for memorising guitar scales, and showed the C, A and G scale patterns, using the C major scale as an example.
Now we’ll look at the other 2 patterns, E & D, and then look at the patterns overall, and see how they link together across the fretboard. Read the rest of this entry »
26
Jun
2009
The CAGED System For Learning Guitar Scales - Part I
You may at some point have come across the term ‘CAGED’ in relation to guitar scales, and wondered exactly what it meant.
‘CAGED’ is a method for helping you memorise different scale patterns on the guitar fretboard, and how they link together. If you’ve ever tried to learn scale patterns over the whole fretboard, and found them all blending into one, or had trouble remembering the shapes, the CAGED method could help you out. Read the rest of this entry »
19
Jun
2009
Using ‘Pedal Notes’ To Get The Sound of Modes
Much has been written on the topic of the modes of a scale, and how to play and improvise using them. In this post, I’m going to show how using ‘pedal notes’ can help you hear the overall sound of a particular mode. Read the rest of this entry »
