Jam Babble

Most of us are familiar with playing Pentatonic scales. Those are the scales I’m always talking about here on the blog and they are primarily the first scales most often introduced to beginners.

Why? Well they have fewer notes then a Diatonic scale and are usually used in most pop/rock lead guitar pieces.

The difference between a diatonic and pentatonic scale is the number of notes used. A diatonic scale adds in two notes that are skipped in the pentatonic bringing the note count to all 7 notes from the scale rather then the 5 or “penta” notes used in the pentatonic scale.

When you’re trying to become a faster guitar player it’s worth learning and practicing both forms of these scales. I think they add a different dimension to your playing and they also strengthen your understanding of the notes on the fretboard.

I found a good video by Jonathan over at Guitartipsweekly.com that explains the Am Diatonic scale. You can watch it below and it should clear up a bit more of the possible confusion that exists between the Pentatonic and Diatonic scales.

He’s used some really nice images along with the video that help explain what he’s trying to teach in this quick video lesson.

Just came across another new guitar lesson product today. I think it may have been out for a while now but thought I should let you all know about it none the less.

The program is samilessons.com they’re dubbing themselves “personalized online guitar lessons”. I don’t think personalized is the exact term they should use because I’m pretty sure the lessons you’re going to be purchasing are not personalized but rather personal… as in one-on-one.

I went through their sales letter and took a peek at the quality of the demo video on their sale page. The lesson quality looks similar to other programs I’ve come across. They are covering differing styles and they appear to be teaching you by learning song parts, of course this is just from the basic demo video I was able to catch.

Like most of these programs they all have some merit to be able to teach you guitar if you’re willing to put the effort in. The question that I always ask is how difficult do they make it to learn the basic guitar skills such as notes on the string, major and minor chords, barre chords etc.

If a program is using say the CAGED guitar system, well that’s a big plus in my opinion. I like that system as a method of learning to play guitar and it simplifies how much and what you have to memorize.

I am indeed a sucker for new technology. I posted a couple of weeks ago about eMedia’s Version 5 of their guitar lesson software. I found a full review today that I thought would be interesting to those of you who like to use their computer for learning guitar.

Personally I’m a bigger fan of using videos and dvd’s but I know there are some hard core PC and Mac users.

A quick overview. Emedia of course has been selling this software for several years now. The big feature I blogged about a few days ago was the recognition feature that recognizes whether you’re playing things correctly via a microphone that is connected to your computer and used as an input device for your machine.

I’ve come across a few hard core CAGED guitar system enthusiasts that feel this software should use this system to teach but I don’t believe they are.

There are more note and finger tracking tools in this version of their program then ever before and they’ve also added more songs to the already massive library of tunes the program teaches.

If you’re into using your computer for music lessons or have owned a version of Emedia before check out the full post now.

I recently just put together a Learn and Master guitar video review. I’ve for quite a while felt that this self study learn guitar course was one of the best available but couldn’t really find a way to get that across in articles and blog posts.

So I decided to do a Learn and Master guitar review in video format.

I have a copy of this course and feel that it’s not just the fact that it uses videos that makes it such a great product. It’s the combination of all the items in the course, how they interact and the lesson plan that was developed by course author Steve Krenz.

You see the video sessions are just the start of your journey to learning guitar using this product. Once you’re done watching a lesson you can refer to the lesson book which has 20 different sections, one for each session on the 10 dvd’s. The lesson book offers additional practice exercises and a refresher of what was offered in the video.

If you’re interested in learning to play guitar, and private lessons aren’t your thing, watch my review. Learn and Master guitar might just be the product you’ve been looking for to teach you how to play.

Continuing along with my post on becoming a better lead guitar player here I thought it would be worth while to give a quick reference to how you can learn to play faster.

I’ve read a lot about different exercises you can use to improve your speed when playing. One such article I read today gave a great over view of three different exercises you can use that will have you playing more accureately and faster in just a few weeks.

In order to do these exercises you’re going to need a metronome so if you don’t yet have one you’ll want to either get a software based metronome or buy an electronic one.

Here’s the original article on playing guitar faster but I’ll give a brief over view here.

Tip 1: Learn your Pentatonic scales (sound familiar) I’ve been talking about this a lot in different posts. You want to learn the first shape and then play it forwards and backwards. Do this first for accuracy by starting in the open position playing the scale forwards then backwards, moving up one fret and doing it again.

Tip 2: Play the scale along with a metronome. It’s good to be able to play it all the way up the neck but also practice doing it in time with a metronome. The exercise they suggest will work well.

Tip 3: Pick up and down. Not all beginner guitar players do this but double picking with double how many times you’re hitting your string in the same time frame you used to only hit it once.

So check out that original article and start integrating some of this into your practice routines.

Solo and lead guitar is what facinates an awful lot of beginners. Unfortunately it’s also that part of learning guitar that takes the most work. There are some things you can put your time into learning that will be very useful. This article is going to be a fast primer on learning to play lead guitar and developing your own solos.

Scales

Soloing and lead guitar starts with scales. If you don’t yet know your Blues and pentatonic scales this is something you should start on right away. If you’re not using a guitar lesson program that’s no problem. There are lots of free videos out there you can access which will provide a lesson on playing pentatonic scales.

Once you’ve learned the basics of these scales you want to practice them forwards and backwards to first master accuracy and later improve your speed. You should do this for all the shapes of each scale. At first don’t worry too much about what key it is you’re playing in, you want to master moving around the scale.

Improvising

Next you want to start working on making up some licks of your own. Play around inside the different scale shapes you’ve been practicing. This will help you improvise inside the scale shapes. Playing the scale backwards and forwards is great but it’s not really original. Making up small solos of your own within the shape is the first step to being a creative lead guitar player.

Since the shapes maintain the same for each key you’re playing in licks and pieces you create when practicing are transferable to any key you may just have to move the position of the shape up or down the fret board.

Keys

Once you have a solid understanding of the scales backwards and forwards it’s time to start introducing keys and theory. If you haven’t done any theory study before this will take a bit of time for you but it’s something you are going to want to do.

Understanding what chords fall into which Keys is important. You need to know this so if you’re jamming with someone you can quickly recognize which scale you can play from that will fit the particular chord progressions.

Next you’ll want to memorize which scales match up with each key. From this you’ll be already to play along on the fly with friends or a band when they’re jamming.

That’s the intro to learning to be a great lead guitar player.

When you first start learning to play guitar, no matter how you choose to learn, you’re going to have to break through a mental barrier that exists. This is especially true when start trying to learn major and minor chords.

You see the positions we want our hands to go in aren’t natural to anything we’ve tried to do before. Also the concept of strumming with one hand, making a chord with the other then changing to another chord without stopping strumming takes some serious concentration as well.

Add on top of this that eventually you want to be able to play guitar faster and there’s a lot going on at once.

I want to help set your mind at ease a little. All beginner guitar players have this trouble at first. They tend to stumble feeling like their hands just can’t do it. They can’t form these chords. It isn’t true and all beginners face this.

Here are a few things you can try as you’re learning this new skill.

1 – Separate strumming from fretting. For the first little bit just practice making chords with your left hand. Switch between the different chords and aim for getting the right shape.

2 – When playing chords, even when you stumble making a particular chord shape don’t stop strumming keep on moving ahead. Separating out your strumming hand and fretting hand in your mind is important since they are independent.

Like most things in guitar you want to first aim for proper technique and then add in speed. Doing these two things (practicing chords shapes without strumming and continuing to strum even when you have trouble keeping up with your fretting hand) will improve your ability over all.

There’s a system you can learn on the guitar neck to help you learn major chords using easy to remember chord shapes as barre chords. The system is known as the CAGED guitar system, it’s not often taught in guitar lesson dvds how ever it’s becoming a popular method among online guitar videos and other formats.

The basic premise is by using five major chord shapes C-A-G-E-D (also used to make up the name of the system) you can position them as different barre chords on the neck and create other major chords.

EXAMPLE: You can make an E major chord not just in the E position open but also by making a barre chord with a D shape at the 2nd fret, a barre chord with a C shape at the 4th fret, a barre chord with an A shape at the 7th fret and a barre chord with a G shape on the 9th fret.

All three of those examples yield an E major chord and notice how they also incorporate all five different chord shapes from the CAGED guitar system.

This can be a bit difficult to understand by reading it so I have a short four minute video for you to watch on the topic. After watching the video you should be able to go grab your guitar and practice the shapes made in the video along with finding out other variations of major chords else where on the neck.

This is a fun little system to incorporate into your practicing and adds a new dimension to playing your major chords.

Happy Practicing!

It’s not talked about much online in guitar forums, communities or blogs but it’s the one skill you need before you even pick up a guitar to succeed. That’s DISCIPLINE.

I know this as well as the next guy, possibly even better because I struggled with this when I started and still do. Getting excited about learning something new and buying a new program, piece of software or gadget to help you is great but without discipline you’re not going to follow through and succeed.

I wanted to give you 3 tips on developing discipline in learning guitar. Take a note of these if you’re having trouble or if you’re a beginner starting out they should help. If you’ve just bought a new guitar lesson dvd or learn to play guitar course before you tear it open read these and keep them in mind as you go. It might help you stick at it when times get tough.

1.) Plan: If you’ve bought a home study guitar program or if your taking guitar lessons privately having a plan is a must. If you’re taking a lesson from someone else then part of your plan is done. You’ll be told what night and when your lesson is all you have to do is show up. If you are using a self study program then you need to decide when you’re going to watch, read or listen to lessons and how often.

You can adjust this as you get started but decide up front what you’re going to commit to and how often so you can stay consistent, which is the next step.

2.) Consistency: You might think of this as the same thing as discipline but it’s not. What I want you to do is be consistent with your learning an practicing. If you’re going to watch one lesson each week do that, and try to do that on the same night each week.

This is especially important for practice, you should practice almost every day. I wouldn’t try and practice for an hour every day when you first start, maybe 10-15 minutes is good but be consistent and create the habit of practicing guitar and you will grow to have a practicing habit. This is a great thing to have as you become a better and better guitar player.

3.) Be Realistic: Expectations can kill you when you’re starting out on something new. Remember, learning to play the guitar isn’t like learning to play guitar hero. You can sit down for a night and learn to play guitar hero and maybe even be half decent by nights end, how ever real guitar playing is a heck of a lot tougher then that.

Have milestones, and if possible work them out with your teacher or browse through the course you’re using and look at how the lessons are laid out. Some products, like Learn and Master guitar, have a time line for how long it should take to learn a particular skill. Challenge yourself to meet these goals, but don’t think you’ll be playing like Clapton or Hendrix in a month.

This is a bonus tip but it always helps me out when I’m starting something new. Visualize yourself being successful. Think about playing those great solo’s, amazing your friends and playing at parties for other people. Maybe that isn’t the reason you started learning to play guitar, so for you use what ever your reasoning was. Visualize the dream, the big payoff. This will keep you motivated and disciplined even when you really don’t want to be while learning.

For a great lesson plan that uses a timeline and helps you stay focused read the Learn and Master Guitar Review.

I talk a lot on here about using guitar lesson dvds, online guitar lessons and other self study methods for learning to play guitar. Of course that isn’t the only method it just happens to be the primary methods I’ve used to teach myself.

If you happen to be one of those guitar players or beginners that enjoys the interaction with a private guitar teacher here are some tips to follow when choosing your teacher for guitar lessons.

1.) Using Classified Sites: Sites like Craigs List and Kijiji are full of ads for guitar teachers. The majority will teach from their home, which isn’t a problem, but ask for their credentials as a guitar teacher. They don’t need to be professionally or classically trained but they should have some solid back ground and experience with playing.

2.) Local Music Stores: Visiting your local guitar or music store is a great source of info for choosing a guitar teacher. Often stores will offer lessons in house, if this is the case it’s a solid bet because the teachers will be top notch. Of course you will likely pay a bit more for it this way since the store wants to make a few bucks and so does the teacher.

A second way to use a music store to your advantage is to ask for referrals to people they know or see if there are any ads up in the store for teachers.

3.) Music Schools: Not ever city has a professional music school but some do. If your city is lucky enough to have a music school you can likely take guitar lessons there. Schools such as these offer a variety of levels of guitar as well as styles.

The price point will likely be higher here but it will be well worth it because the quality of instructor and consistency will be well worth it.