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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Getting Started With Barre Chords
There are a few transition points when you’re learning guitar, where learning a new technique opens up a huge range of new avenues, in terms of what you can play. I think one of these main transition points is learning barre chords. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Tips For An Effective Guitar Practice Session
We all know that practice makes perfect, right? Especially so when it comes to learning to play the guitar, or any instrument for that matter. However, you need to make sure that your guitar practice time is spent effectively, to make the best progress. Here are 5 tips for your guitar practice sessions. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Steps To Choosing The Right Guitar Lesson Course
For guitarists nowdays, there are a multitude of different books, DVDs and other courses available, which often seem to offer amazing progress in just a few days - it seems all you have to do is watch the DVD / read the book, and you’ll be a virtuoso in no time! How do you choose between all of the guitar lesson products on offer? Read the rest of this entry »
