Guitar lessons for beginners and more
I was really excited this morning when I found out that Guitar International Magazine featured Guitar Friendly in a series they are doing called “10 Great Guitar Blogs.”
If you don’t know, Guitar International is an online guitar magazine that is a one stop spot for artist interviews, guitar news, reviews, contests, columns, and much more. For only being just one year old, Guitar International has already established itself as an authoritative voice for everything guitar.
I wanted to take time and recognize some of the really excellent guitar blogs out there, and in doing so, ultimately thank the people who’ve done an absolutely outstanding job in providing the best quality content about guitar on the web. Plus, it’s just downright fun giving away and receiving awards.
These blogs were selected based on four main criteria: (1) content quality, (2) content consistency, (3) design, and (4) voice. By content quality, we’re referring to the quality and level of comprehensiveness of the information on the blog. By content consistency, we’re referring to how often the blog is updated with new, fresh, and unique content. By design, we’re referring to the overall look, feel, and usability of the blog. And by voice, we’re referring to that unique element and tone that sets a blogger out from the rest.
Truth be told, there are many excellent guitar blogs out there, too many to feature all in this post (and probably some that I’ve overlooked). Many were nominated by the members of the Guitar Bloggers group at Guitar World. So, if you’re blog didn’t receive an award or get mentioned, don’t take it personally, just shoot me an email, so I can keep you in mind for the future.
Without further ado, I proudly present to you the 2010 Guitar Blog Awards in the following five categories: Guitar Instruction & Lessons, Guitar Gear & Reviews, Guitar News & Information, Other Guitar Related, and New & Upcoming.
At Guitar Friendly, I’ve focused most of my efforts on the more instructional aspect of guitar with lessons, tips, tricks, etc. and I’ve had many people tell me that Guitar Friendly has been a really helpful resource for them in this way. However, what I don’t cover a lot here (although I do sometimes) is the other side of playing guitar that focuses on gear like: guitars, amps, effects, etc. That’s why I’m excited to introduce a new guitar blog to you: GuitarGear.org.
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.
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 [...]
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.
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
You might have noticed that on Guitar Friendly’s home page, in the middle column, there is a newly added “Subscribe to Guitar Friendly” area. This is a new and easy way for you to stay up to date with all the newest guitar lessons, videos, and tips added to Guitar Friendly!
How does it work?
You can either subscribe by email or to our RSS feed. If you subscribe by email, whenever there is new content added to the Guitar Friendly blog, whether it be guitar lessons, videos, tips, or anything else, you will receive an email of that content right to your email box.
If you subscribe to our RSS feed, you will need an RSS reader. One free and easy to use RSS reader is Google Reader. All you have to do is add the URL of our RSS feed into your reader.
What’s so great about it?
The beauty of subscribing to Guitar Friendly by RSS or email is the fact that [...]
Welcome to Guitar Friendly! I find the first post to a blog kind of awkward unless introductions have been made, so first let me introduce myself to you. My name is Brett and I’ve been playing guitar for quite a few years now. I started playing when I was just a kid. Now, I am [...]
My name is Brett and I'm a musician, songwriter, and a bit of a web geek. I love helping others learn and grow as musicians. My hope is that Guitar Friendly would be a website that helps you become a better guitar player.
If you so dare, I also have a ukulele lesson website that helps you learn how to play ukulele.
Click here to learn more about me.
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