Learn Electric Guitar

Getting Ready For The Blues?

One of my favorite guitar playing activities is without a doubt to dig into some electric or acoustic blues songs. Slow delta blues, Texas shuffle or Chicago blues – it’s all good stuff to me! From the very beginning as a guitar novice, one of my objectives was to learn blues guitar. Don’t know why – it always struck me as genuine and real.

However, it wasn’t until quite recently that I got more serious about it. Having the opportunity to play with some truly great blues guitar players, I soon discovered that it took more than a superficial knowledge of the basic pentatonic scale (blues scale), 12-bar blues and your average blues chords and chord progressions to follow those cats around comfortably without messing it up or stepping on someones musical toes.

The guys were just smiling and being cool about my feeble attempt at playing. It was more my own pride and sense of not doing it quite right that got to me.

Just jamming and hanging around with them every now and then sure meant some real progress in my guitar skills. Still, it was stumbling across this guitar blues course: Playing Through The Blues that really gave me the push to begin learning how to play proper and convincing blues guitar without sounding like I was just messing around on my own or throwing random and rather stale blues licks out there.

As I’m progressing – and let us not try to fool ourselves here … this is a life long process of learning – I begin to grasp how to play blues lead guitar more convincingly.

Also I have finally begun to see the true value of, and get a better grasp of “comping” – playing behind a solo instrument or singer without getting in the way or sounding plain old boring. Some of the idea here is to know when not to play – a vital part of the blues for sure.

The blues may perhaps seem real easy and straight forward on the surface, but it is darned hard to pull of with the raw emotion and feel for the genre that is required.

The best part after all is that I feel much more comfortable now to just jam with people I don’t know that well. Even playing songs I haven’t heard before, or don’t immediately recognize, isn’t really that big a challenge. For sure, I wouldn’t dare to step up with major players like Clapton (yeah I know … dream on), but I’m sure you catch my drift. Since playing with others is a huge part of what music is all about (at least to me), having this ability to go with the flow is a major thing!

I suppose it may be a better understanding of the theory, the underlying blues guitar and blues music principles that has made me more relaxed in blues jam sessions with folks more accomplished than myself.

As the tradition is with all the best online guitar courses, you have a number of great jam tracks included in this how to play the blues course, in addition to video lessons, audio examples, written documentation and much more. It sure is great to have a jam track going when you want to rehearse what you’re learning until it sticks! No one here to give me an evil eye when I mess up :-)

If you’re interested in ways to learn blues guitar, I’m pretty sure you’ll find heaps of valuable stuff here for years to come. I’ve tried it out for a while now and I feel I’m only scratching the surface…

And, if you have any questions or comments about the blues or blues guitar playing, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch or leave a comment below! What is your preferred way of learning blues guitar skills?

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An acquaintance of mine, British guitarist and over all super nice fellow Phill Mason has released a brand new online guitar course: Crash Course Muso – Beginners Guitar Video Lessons.

He is graciously giving away several total beginner lessons for anyone keen on starting out to learn guitar.

And I must say, the quality of these lessons are totally jaw-dropping. The audio and video on these guitar lessons are nothing short of amazing (yes, of course I signed up to have a look – everything else would be cheating in my book…). I never, ever go about recommending something I haven’t actually tested myself.

Phill has chosen a wise slogan for his course: “Play first – learn later” With this he’s correctly stating that it is (to anyone but the hard-core – 100% theory-driven “guitar nerds”) far more satisfying to actually learn how to play some basic riffs and easy songs from the very beginning, rather than being bogged down with a lot of boring, “mumbo-jumbo” theory.

We all obviously want to actually learn how to play something worthwhile on the guitar, right?

Of course, the theory bit is also taken care of. After you have learned to play some rewarding stuff, you will be shown the basic underlying principles (in other words theory) as you progress. Smart move!

Phill has a very relaxed, pleasant and laid-back – still firm, direct and no-frills – style of teaching. This makes you believe in him as a teacher and trust in his ability to deliver the goods. You will also very soon begin to believe in your own abilities to actually learn guitar.

Is it all guitar rosy then?

Anything negative to say at all, it can’t all be total guitar nirvana? Well, the only thing I have found so far is the fact that this is strictly a total beginner guitar package as far as I can see.

If you have some basic skills already in place, you might want to opt in for the more advanced, paid options. Mind you, these are still very, very cost effective.

Even if this is, by nature and design, basic guitar skills being presented, you are also being shown how to do proper right hand (strumming hand) damping of the strings. A vital lesson to be learned early on indeed!

A rocking good way?

If you’re seriously interested in the fastest way possible to learn electric guitar, then I would urge you to have a look at the Crash Guitar Course! For a free guitar course option, it doesn’t get any better that this – definitely amongst the absolute best online guitar courses I’ve come across so far.

Five thumbs up … eh…, could I borrow three of your? You’ll get them back – promise! :-)

Technorati Tags: beginner guitar, guitar video lesson, guitar video lessons, learn electric guitar, learn guitar, online guitar course, online guitar courses

Hello Fellow Guitar Player!

In this section I will try try my best to answer various guitar related questions I have received over the years.

This is often times questions related to learning how to play guitar. However, there will also be the odd question about guitars in general, such as guitar maintenance and repair.

Do you have a question? Do feel free to contact me, or post it in the comment box below!

OK, let’s dive into some guitar related Q and A, shall we?

An Easy Way to Learn to Play Electric Guitar

Q: I’m a teenager and have very little experience with guitar playing. I just want to know how to play a couple of notes.. Can you help?

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A: If your on a budget, the easiest way is probably to have a guitar playing friend showing you some simple tricks and tips. I will guess you even know a guitar playing teacher at your school or perhaps a relative which can help you out for free.

There are also quite a good number of beginner guitar videos to be found on YouTube…

I will have to advice you that you will be far better off if you can afford some qualified instruction. It is quite common to pick up bad habits, and these habits is always harder to correct later on. Do it proper, right from the start and you will be on your way in no time!

Maybe you have someone who can help you find (or borrow) a beginner guitar book or DVD, or better still buy one of the many good online guitar courses?

Without a doubt , the best (and subsequently most expensive) is to be have a private guitar tutor.

My best advice is perhaps to never give up and do your best with what you have. Remember, some truly great guitar slingers are self taught :-)

Sore finger tips and callouses

Q: Any tips about ways to build callouses?

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A: Perhaps the best tip in my opinion, is to make a commitment to yourself  – telling yourself that you’re going to stick with it until you’ve learned how to play the guitar. Like anything else, this takes time.

Then, you should consider how to set a schedule for regular practice. I always recommend that – when ever possible, you practice at the same time every time. It is very important to get into the habit of practicing!

It is never wise to practice playing guitar in long passes without rest. 30 to 40 minutes and then a short break tends to produce better results.

Remember to have some reachable goals for your playing. When you have found exactly what you want to learn — which licks, styles, songs etc.) it is just a matter of practicing those until you have them nailed.

Above anything else, do make sure you’re having fun and that you’re playing the type of stuff you really dig yourself.

As for your question about sore fingertips and callouses – these things will be fixed over time with regular playing. You will remember to take regular brakes, right?

You might consider using a guitar capo on say the second fret. This will make your guitar easier to play when you’re starting out.

Another useful tip is to have your instrument looked at by a qualified person to figure out if it might benefit from some minor adjustments. A better playing comfort will be helpful both in the shorter and longer perspective!

Help with guitar teacher

Q: Help, my guitar teacher has my doing scales and stuff, and I only want to learn how to write songs!

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A: Have you taken the time to explain to your guitar teacher what it is that you really want to learn?

Often times we assume that people really ought to know what we want. However, no one are mind readers – at least not as far as I know. So you definitely want to sit down and map out a plan of what it is that YOU want and need.

If there is no such communication between teacher and student, then the teacher will begin showing you stuff he/she knows will be beneficial to you in the long run, chords, scales … that kind of stuff.

Again – you must be absolutely clear about your goals! If you want to learn how to write songs, say so! Others want simply to learn a particular style of playing, some folks want to join a band. There are many reasons why people want to learn electric or acoustic guitar and your teacher should definitely be made aware of them.

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