Guitar lessons for beginners and more

Tension: a Guitar Player’s Worst Enemy

If your a guitarist who fingerpicks, solos, or just strums, tension can be your worst enemy. I’m talking about the tension in your hands, arms, fingers, shoulders, or anywhere else! It’s important that as guitar players we are aware of tension and how it affects our guitar playing.

Why Tension is Bad
Tension can have a lot of negative effects on your guitar playing. One of the most noticeable effects is that it can tremendously slow down your fingerpicking speed or how fast you execute a riff or lead line. Tension can also really limit the amount of time you can play your instrument in one sitting without experiencing soreness.

If you’re having a hard time with strumming, tension in the hand and the wrist can prevent you from strumming smoothly. It can also give you a hard time when it comes to playing a really fast strumming pattern.

What to do about Tension
There a lot of ways you can prevent and all together eliminate tension from your guitar playing. The more tension you can remove the better. Here are some things you can try.

New Coldplay Viva La Vida Videos

Coldplay recently put up two new Viva La Vida videos on their website. They’re stellar! Check ‘em out.

If You Could Only Have One Effect Pedal…

This question is more for the electric guitar players, although acoustic guitar players might be able to chime in, but, if you could only have one effect pedal, what would you pick? Also, let’s say you have a good amp. If you want, you can pick an amp and one effect pedal.

My Pick

Saying that I had a good amp, with a decent clean and overdrive channel, I know that I would definitely pick a good delay pedal. If I had to pick an all around good delay, I’d probably go with the Boss DD-20 Giga Delay (pictured). Give me a delay and I’m a happy camper.

Your Turn

You can only pick one effect pedal. What is it? Post your comments.

A Great Way to Develop Better Rhythm and Time

When it comes to playing guitar, and playing it well, an unsteady rhythm and tempo just won’t fly.

Perhaps, you remember the video lessons on strumming patterns where I stressed over and over again (probably more than you had hoped for!) the importance of playing with consistent tempo and rhythm. You might know the sickest guitar riff or the most rockin’ strumming pattern, but if you’re timing is all off, then what good is that guitar riff or strumming pattern?

For some, a good sense of timing and rhythm comes very naturally to them. For others, this isn’t the case. However, no matter who are, we can all improve at keeping good time. Let’s look at some exercises we can do to improve our timing.

Meet the Metronome

First off, in case you don’t already know, a metronome is a nifty little device that sets a straight tempo to a click or a tick-tock. The picture on the left is an old-school metronome. Now days you can get an electronic metronome that looks just like guitar tuner. In fact, there are some guitars tuners that have built in metronomes.

Harnessing the Power of the Metronome

This might seem obvious, but simply setting the metronome to the tempo of a song you want to practice, and then playing along with the metronome, will definitely help you [...]

3 Reasons Why You Should Know Some Music Theory

Music theory. You know, it’s the way we understand how music functions and operates. If we’re honest, it can be kind of boring. It can be dry and tedious. For some, it can just be plain scary and nonsensical.

I love playing music, but I can’t say I fall head over heels for music theory. Maybe you’re like me.

However, understanding a little bit of music theory for guitar can only help us and make us better off as guitarists and those who compose or write songs with the guitar. Here are some reasons why.

1.) You Gain a Better Understanding of the Guitar Fretboard.

Music theory helps us understand how the notes on a guitar fretboard connect into the music we play. When we have a little bit of understanding of theory, the notes on the fretboard aren’t just merely notes, but there is actually a connection between them, and they relate and function together in a particular way. If we understand how the notes connect and relate to one other, how much more easily can we then creatively express ourselves through our guitar playing.

2.) You Gain a Better Understanding For How Chords Function.

Different chords have different characteristics such as major, minor, augmented, or diminished. It’s in a better understanding of music theory that we understand how different chords are characteristic to different scales and how those chords function in those scales. In our understanding of music theory, we also learn how to [...]

NIN (Nine Inch Nails) Live Rehearsal Videos

NIN posted up some videos of their rehearsals for their upcoming Lights In the Sky tour. I’m not even a big fan of NIN, but these are cool.
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How to Choose the Best Acoustic Guitar Strings

Choosing the right type of strings for your acoustic guitar can almost make or break the sound and playability of your guitar. It’s important that you select the right type of string, but with so many options, it can be hard to know what type of strings to get for your guitar.

Here are some important things to keep in mind that can help you with selecting strings for your guitar. For now, we’ll just look at choosing steel strings for the acoustic guitar. I’ll also give some recommendations of specific types of strings to try out.

What Type Of Acoustic Guitar Do You Have?

The body style of your acoustic guitar should play a role in what type of strings you choose. The most popular body styles are dreadnought and [...]

How To Use a Guitar Capo

Guitar capos are a beautiful thing. Not only are guitar capos practical, but by using a guitar capo, you’re given a whole new palette of options in the realm of creativity. You can even get a certain characteristic of sound in the songs you play. Every guitarist should keep a capo in their guitar case.

What Is a Capo?

A capo is a small tool that “clamps” down all the strings on your guitar. In a certain sense, it bars all the strings on a particular fret. This allows a guitarist to transpose keys. The capo shown on the left is a Kyser Capo, which is a pretty popular style of capo.

How Does a Capo Work?

As I said, a capo allows a guitarist to [...]

Minor Guitar Barre Chord Charts

Last week, I added some major barre chords to our ever growing list of guitar chords. This week, it’s time to add some minor barre chords. These minor barre chords are based on the same common position that can moved up and down the fretboard. Again, these barre chords bar all of the strings.

On these barre chord chart diagrams, you’ll notice that there is a little marking to the left of the diagram that has a number and “fr.” like 3fr. and 5fr. These markings indicate what fret you play the barre chord position on. So if the markings say, 3fr., you’d play [...]

Major Guitar Barre Chord Charts Added!

Our list of guitar chords has been updated with the most common major barre chords! These barre chords bar all of the strings (except the first type of F major chord).

If you are just learning your barre chords for guitar, be patient! It may come quick for some, but more than often, it requires time to build up the adequate amount of strength in your fingers and wrist to be able to play a clean barre chord. I won’t lie to you. Barre chords can be hard! So give it time.

On these barre chord chart diagrams, you’ll notice [...]