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Do You Even Know How to Use that Effects Pedal?
By | Guitar Tone & Effects, Site News | 5 Comments
As an electric guitar player, for the longest time now, I’ve had a hard time getting a good tone. As you probably know, good tone comes from a good amp and good effects chain. You can have the greatest guitar, but if you run it through a crappy amp and effects, your really great guitar will sound really crappy.
What I’ve done is started from the ground up on my effects pedals. For awhile now, I’ve been using a Line 6 PodXT Live, but I’ve found it doesn’t really suit me well since I use my amp and don’t use the amp modeling on the PodXT Live. So I’m buying a couple different pedals to suit the type of music I play.
All to say, I’ve been making some changes to my current setup. In the process, there is one thing that I’ve been reminded of as I’m making some upgrades that is important for all guitarists to keep in mind.
Taking it Slow
The mistake I’ve seen others make is to buy pedal after pedal without taking the time to learn how each pedal fits into their tone. It’s a myth that the more pedals you buy the better you will sound!
When getting a new pedal [...]
How to Transpose or Change the Key of a Chord Chart
By | Beginner Guitar Lessons, Guitar Chords, Intermediate Guitar Lessons, Music Theory | 12 Comments
What do you do if you find a chord chart of your favorite song, but it’s not in the right key?
The term transpose simply refers to changing the key of a song. You can transpose a piece to either a lower pitch or a higher pitch. So for example, you find a chord chart is in the key of A but you want to play it in the key of G. Surprisingly, this isn’t very difficult to do if you know a small bit of the theory behind it.
Let’s look at this.
Scales and Roman Numerals
Each song is generally based upon a scale. Most popular songs that you play on the guitar are based on the major scale. There are seven notes in a scale. So in the key of C major, you have the notes: C D E F G A B.
The chords of that song are then built off of each note of the scale, which would give you seven chords for that key. However, each of these chords will have a different sound. Based upon a major scale, some chords will be major, others minor, and one chord will be diminished.
We don’t have time to look into how each of these chords are built, but a major scale has this structure, which can be represented by roman numerals:
I ii iii IV V vi vii^o
The uppercase roman numerals represent major chords. The lowercase roman numerals represent minor chords. The lowercase roman numeral with the superscript circle represents a diminished chord.
So let’s take a C major scale and use the above roman numerals. In a C major scale, you will have the following chords [...]
How to Become a Better Guitar Player: Ask for Help
By | Musings | 3 Comments
I learned a very important lesson as a guitar player this past week.
I’m not sure if this a universal experience for guitar players, but I remember when I first started learning guitar I was incredibly insecure and lacked confidence whenever I played in front of other people–especially, other guitar players who I knew were better than me. I’d end up getting so nervous! Maybe you can relate?
Even today, it can be sometimes intimidating to be in the company of those who I know are a hundred times better than myself.
However, I’m learning what a great opportunity that presents itself when I find myself in those positions where I’m in the company of guitar “greats.”
I have a friend named Patrick. Patrick is a guitar performance major here at school, and he spends over 28 hours in the practice rooms practicing guitar. That’s not counting all his other course work for school. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my friend’s discipline and dedication. I’m always blown away by his guitar performances. He is a hundred times better than I’ll ever be.
But rather than being intimidated, I decided to ask Patrick for help last week. For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to start learning new stuff on the guitar. I’m kind of in a rut and need something new to bite into. My friend was thrilled that I asked him. We ended up spending over an hour looking into new techniques.
All to say, it can be easy to be intimidated by the guitar greats that we encounter, but rather than shying away, use those encounters as an opportunity to learn something new that can help bring your guitar playing to the next level! Often these guitarists would be more than happy to show you something new.
Major Triad Positions: One Way to Learn the Guitar Fretboard
Are you up for a challenge?
In a recent previous post, “Guitar Lessons: Scales & Learning the Guitar Fretboard,” I mentioned a few things you can put into practice to master the guitar fretboard. One of these suggestions was to learn your triads over the fretboard. Triads can help “connect the dots” for how individual notes across the fretboard interact and relate to one other.
Just a forewarning, this discussion needs some understanding of how guitar scales work. This might make more sense to more intermediate players. If you are just beginning, you will want to check out guitar scales explained.
What are triads?
A triad is a group of three notes played simultaneously. Triads are made up of one note with a major third and a perfect fifth above it. In plain speak, a triad is just a three note chord. There are different types of triads: major, minor, augmented, and diminished.
For now, we just want to talk about and focus on major triads. If we understand major triads, we can understand the other ones better. [...]
Guitar Lessons: Scales & Learning the Guitar Fretboard
It’s true that knowing guitar scales and learning the guitar fretboard is invaluable for taking your playing to the next level. A knowledge and understanding of your instrument opens up a wide variety of creative possibilities (e.g. soloing, improvising, etc.) for how you actually play your instrument.
In the past, we’ve explained the theory behind guitar scales and we’ve also took a more in depth look at how to build a major scale. This information is essential to your growth, but we’ve never really had any guitar lessons that look at the ways you can actually learn guitar scales and learn the guitar fretboard.
In this guitar lesson on scales, let’s look at a three ways you can learn guitar scales and learn the guitar fretboard [...]
Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners: Round Two
By | Guitar Chords, Practice Tips | 12 Comments
This is a continuation of last week’s post of 10 easy guitar songs for beginners. Check those out if you haven’t already. Chords, lyrics, and videos of each songs are included so you can play them!
The best thing a beginning guitar player can do is to apply all the new chords they are learning to playing an actual song. After all, isn’t that why you’re learning how to play guitar in the first place?
So again, here’s my picks of some easy guitar songs for beginners that you should be able to pick up right when you are first beginning guitar (or even if you’ve been playing awhile! These are good songs still!). There’s a mix of some new pop songs and older classics in this list.
Click on the song title to view chords, lyrics, and a video.
Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners
1.) House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
2.) I’m Yours by Jason Mraz
3.) Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne
4.) I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash
5.) Viva La Vida by Coldplay
What would you add to this list?
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