Not Playing Guitar

Rhythm Guitar Octaves

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week I posted a lesson on How to Play Octaves on the Guitar. If you'd like an opportunity to put the octaves shown in that post into practice you should enjoy lesson on rhythm guitar playing with octaves. Click here to open Music Radar's site to view it.

If, like me, you have a little trouble finding the tab for this lesson then click the photo of the guitar player or the "View in gallery" text link underneath it. A new page opens with a larger version of the guitarist picture and a right arrow to show the tab.

Have fun practicing with the jam track. I'll be following up with some more examples of octave playing for you to try. Be sure to subscribe (it's free) so you don't miss them. Click here to subscribe by email or click here to subscribe in an RSS reader.

50 Ways to Become a Better Guitarist

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

The UK magazine site Music Radar recently published its list of 50 tips to help make you a better guitar player. There are a lot of tips that will help you to make progress in this densely packed list, enough to keep you busy for a long time. In fact there are so many that if you try to put them all into practice at once I'm sure you'll be overwhelmed. I think it's a great list to bookmark so you can revisit it from time to time and pick a tip or two to work on for a while.

Maybe you'll find my list of favourites a useful place to start. It's not that the other tips are not all valuable, they are, but there are just so many you can't work them all at once. These are just my personal favourites at the moment.

Tip #1 - Play With Other People
Tip #7 - Think outside the box
Tip #12 - Slow down
Tip #19 - Learn to build a solo
Tip #26 - Book a gig
Tip #35 - Realise it's never too late
Tip #37 - Think before you play
Tip #42 - Simplify your soloing
Tip #48 - Get off that forum

If you're in a real hurry to get going, then here are the 3 tips I think are the most essential. First, realise that it's never too late. Then immediately book yourself a gig, even if it's only playing for your grandma at the end of the month. Finally, get off that forum (or web site) and get practicing.

What About You?

Do you have a favourite tip in the collection, or your own personal one that didn't appear in this list? Click the comments link below to share it with us.

How to Play Octaves on the Guitar

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

This is a guitar lesson that will teach you just what the title says, how to play octave intervals on the guitar. But first - just in case you're not sure what an octave is - it starts with a very brief theory interlude. Scroll straight down to the second section right now if the word "theory" makes your eyes go all swimmy.

What's an Octave?

Remember the Do Re Mi song? I hope you do. Well when you get to the bit that goes "That will bring us back to do" that's an octave. You've climbed up all seven notes of the major scale and land back on the eighth note with the same name as the starting note. The fancy name of this interval "octave" is derived from the Latin word for eight.

When you play that same note twice in two different registers it gives the note a thicker and richer sound that some people find quite tasty. This technique is used in some solos and in rhythm guitar.

The distance from the starting note to the octave is twelve semi-tones. Those twelve semi-tones rather conveniently correspond to twelve frets on the guitar neck. So, for example, the E note on the open sixth string has an octave at the 12 fret of the same string.

But despite the convenience for our minds it is obviously quite impossible to play these two notes at the same time. Even if you have an improbably huge finger stretch you can't play two notes at once on a single string. Luckily for us guitar players though the octave interval of any note also occurs on different strings, and with a far shorter finger stretch to boot.

Octave shape on the sixth and fifth guitar strings

Because the guitar's tuning has a different interval between the 3rd and 2nd pair of strings than the other pairs there are two slightly different fingerings to learn. We'll start with the shape you use when the bottom note is on either the 6th or the 5th string, shown in the diagram below. The octave interval occurs two strings below the starting note and two frets higher up the neck.

You can move this shape along the 6th or 5th string to play any octave. To play a G octave, for example, there are two fingerings that start on the 5th and 6th strings:

Low G at the 3rd fret of the 6th string with high G at the 5th fret of the 4th string
Low G at the 10th fret of the 5th string with high G at the 12th fret of the 3rd string

Move these two positions up two frets and you play an A octave, two more frets a B, and so on.

Finger the low note with your first finger and the high note with your third (ring) finger. Keep your first finger low so it touches the "in between" string lightly to mute it so it doesn't sound as you strum.

Octave shape on the fourth and third guitar strings

When you play the starting note on the 4th or the 3rd string the octave is still two strings below but it is now three frets up the neck from the starting note.

Going back to our example G octave you can play it at these two places:

Low G at the 5th fret of the 4th string with high G at the 7th fret of the 2nd string
Low G at the 12th fret of the 3rd string with high G at the 15th fret of the 1st string

Again, use your first finger to play the lower note, but you'll probably find it's more convenient to play the higher note with the little (pinky) finger. It makes the three-fret stretch easier. If you move up the neck beyond the 12th fret you might find it becomes easier to use the third finger to hold the higher note of the interval. Experiment a little to discover what feels best to you.

Three easy steps to find any octave

This lesson has shown the two shapes commonly used to play octave intervals on the guitar. Remember these three easy rules to find the octave interval of any note on the third, fourth, fifth or sixth strings:

1. The octave is always two strings below the starting note

2. Move two frets up the neck for starting notes on the 6th or 5th strings

3. Move three frets up the neck for starting notes on the 4th or 3rd strings

But can you play octaves on the 2nd string?

You might be wondering if you can play octaves from a starting note on the 2nd string. The answer is yes, but I don't know of anybody that does it because of the huge finger stretch required.

Obviously, you won't find it two strings below as there are no more strings down there. Instead, you'll find it on the string below - the 1st string - and seven frets up from the starting note. But don't worry if your fingers won't stretch this far - the shapes above should suffice.

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5 Ways to Meet Your Guitar Goals This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

This post offers guitar learners five tips to help organize themselves to meet learning and playing goals in 2012.

We're now well into the first quarter of the year and I hope you are progressing nicely towards your guitar goals. But if you are struggling, or even if you could just use a little boost, here are my tips to help you reach your guitar playing goals for the year.

Have a Goal

It’s obvious that if you don’t have a goal then you can’t reach it. Without a goal you might practice and play different things that you come across but you never really get anyplace you want to be; you’re in reactive mode.

To take control of your guitar progress have a picture of where you want to go with your guitar this year. Not a detailed plan, but a simple picture you can easily recall to mind. “This year I'd like to join a band”, for example.

Know Your Next Move

You have a goal for the year, great! A year seems like a long time, but is in fact all too short. To keep focus on progress throughout the year break your goal down into smaller steps; know at all times what your next move is.

Schedule Your Practice Time

If you want to get something done then schedule it. Take your guitar practice time seriously and set aside a specific time for it. If you just wait to let it happen when you're free you'll find that your time gets eaten up by other more pressing matters and you guitar practice will fall by the wayside.

Remember, the way a project gets a year late is one day at a time.

Organize Your Practice Time

If you don’t decide in advance what you’ll do when you practice then you can waste a lot of time. Take a little time each month, each week, to write down a plan of specific things you will work on. If you are serious about making progress then ensure that your plan includes a proportion of challenges so you’re not simply repeating what you already know.

Prepare Your Learning Material

As you make your plans prepare whatever learning material you need to put them into action. Don't rely on finding the lesson video you want on YouTube at the start of your practice session, that’s a recipe to spend your time watching videos instead of practicing. Choose your learning material – books, videos, tab – to match your goal and next moves in advance.

Here’s a quick recap of the five steps:

Have a goal – a picture of where you’d like to be in a year
Know your next move – set out a series of steps towards your goal
Schedule your practice time – don’t let it take a back seat
Organize your practice time – write down the things you’ll work on
Prepare your learning material – gather the books, tabs, videos you’ll need in advance

Get these five fundamentals in place and you’re well on your way to reaching your guitar goals this year.

Confessions of a Sloppy Player

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Today I’m happy to share with you a guest post from Dan Vuksanovich…

I never set out to be a sloppy player. I don’t think anyone ever does. When I first started playing the
guitar I had visions of Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen in my head. I was going to be a jaw-dropping,
pyrotechnic-slinging, immortal, history-making axemaster. Little did I know that I was planting the first
seeds of sloppiness before I ever even picked up the instrument.

Along the way I picked up bad habit after bad habit on my way to sloppytown. Here I confess my guitar
missteps for your educational benefit. Behold the recipe for becoming a sloppy player:

Overreaching – Wanting to be Randy Rhoads right out of the gate caused me to attempt to learn
music that was far too advanced for my skill level at the time. What do you get when you’re an
absolute beginner trying to play the solo from “Crazy Train”? Sloppy playing.
Impatience – The mere act of attempting to play advanced music too soon was not the whole
problem, but the impatience and unwillingness to do anything other than play note-for-note
transcriptions at the recorded tempo was a killer. Advanced pieces of music can be simplified
and slowed down to make them accessible for intermediate or even beginner level players, but I
had no time for this, and I paid for it in the end with an incalculable number of mistakes.
Frustration – I hated the sloppy player I had become, but frustration was the worst possible
response. Once frustrated, I would grit my teeth, tense up, and… you guessed it… become even
sloppier.
Rationalization – Not wanting to admit that I had some problems that I needed to fix let to
rationalization. I came up with a ridiculous number of reasons why being sloppy was OK. My
fingers were too thin. My pinky was too short. I had started playing the guitar too late in life. It
was all BS, but I believed every word of it.

Somehow I made it through college and the conservatory and ultimately earned my Master of Music
degree, but it felt hollow. I was nowhere near the player that I wanted to be, and it tore me up inside. I
eventually quit for a number of years because playing the guitar was pure misery.

In my 30s I cleared my head, vowed to start over and figure out where I’d gone wrong. Based on my
experience, here are some ingredients for becoming a solid player:

Humility – It’s not listed up there with the recipe for being a sloppy player, but arrogance
definitely played some part as well. It was beyond humbling for me to admit that I had spent
so much time doing things wrong and had probably cost myself a chance at being a successful
professional musician in the process. The admission, however, allowed me to start fresh and
approach the instrument differently than I had in the past.
Taking Ownership – There’s a lot of information (and misinformation) out there about how to
play and how to get better. It’s surprisingly easy to drown in a sea of conflicting information. In
the end I simply had to decide for myself, based on common sense and logical thought, what
made sense and what didn’t, and adjust accordingly as I went along. Sometimes the answers
aren’t found in your teacher’s studio or on YouTube. Sometimes the answers are inside you and
you just need to ask yourself what they are.
Enjoying the Process of Learning – In stark contrast to my experiences with the guitar earlier in
life, I now focus on the learning process rather than just the desired outcomes. Sure, one day I’d
still love to be as good as my guitar idols, but if I never get there, it’s OK. It may seem completely
counterintuitive, but the mere act of allowing yourself to fail will make it more likely that you
will succeed. Enjoying the learning process instead of beating myself up for not being Eddie Van
Halen yet has turned my time with the guitar into a completely enjoyable, almost meditative
experience. I’m getting better at an almost alarming rate, especially for someone who’s almost
40.

These days, at the age of 37, I’m still cleaning up all the messes I made of my playing, and I’m having an
absolute blast doing it. The feeling of accomplishment, of overcoming something that has plagued me
for the better part of my life, is unexplainably wonderful.

About the author: Dan Vuksanovich received his Master of Music degree in classical guitar performance
from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University in 1999. He currently teaches and blogs
about how to get better at guitar via his website, www.whyisuckatguitar.com.

Guitar Bends – Get Rid of Unwanted Noise

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

One of the problems I experienced when I learned to play bends on the guitar was the unwanted noises that came from strings next to the one I was bending. I got similar problems too when playing pull-offs and trills and even when playing single note lines where I would sometimes accidentally hit the wrong string with the pick. These noises are especially problematic when playing on an amplified electric guitar.

I struggled with these noises for a long time before accidentally stumbling across the playing techniques required to avoid them. In this video from Griff Hamlin you can discover how to block out unwanted strings by muting them with your picking or fretting hand.

I hope you enjoyed the video and learned some useful new techniques from it. If you’d like to learn more from Griff then check out some more free stuff from his Blues Guitar Unleashed course (affiliate link).

Review of Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:02:00 +0000

Guitar Zero is a book that tells the story of professor of cognitive psychology Gary Marcus' as he turns himself into a living experiment to investigate the question "Can a 39 year old with no previous musical background learn to play guitar?"

How Does Someone Become Musical?

Gary Marcus harboured a dream of creating music with the guitar. But his attempts had all led him to believe that he could never do it, until one day after a success at the Guitar Hero video game he came to wonder "Could persistence and a lifelong love of music overcome age and a lack of talent? And for that matter, how did anyone of any age become musical?"

Guitar Zero describes his quest to answer these questions and provides two main things to those interested in music in general and in the guitar in particular.

The Science of Learning Music

Gary Marcus has undertaken a thorough survey of the complexities of learning music. He describes the physical and mental reasons that make learning to play music such a complex task for the human mind and body. He compares the processes of mastering music and language and also investigates the the genetic and cultural origins of human music making.

Hope and Inspiration

Secondly, for would-be or budding guitar players of any age Guitar Zero provides hope and inspiration.

The book throws new light on some of the ideas, or excuses, that make adults think they can't learn music or learn to play guitar if they didn't start when they where six years old. Gary Marcus guides us through research evidence that shows that there is little real proof that our ability to learn something new declines significantly with age.

He shows via research and his own experience that it is indeed possible for a sufficiently motivated learner to learn guitar - or other skills - at any age.

But It's Not a Practice Book

Not surprisingly, his research indicates that the most important factor in learning the instrument is practice. But some kinds of practice are more valuable than others. Gary Marcus observes that effective practice focuses on playing weaknesses; you must always keep working on something new if you want to improve instead of just repeating what you know already.

The book doesn't offer a detailed practice program to show you how to learn the guitar step by step though. If this is what you are looking for then you might be disappointed.

You will discover lots of information about the general approaches to success with the instrument that will be helpful and inspirational to many learners. It also investigates guitar teachers and teaching methods in a way that will help you to identify good teachers and work with them to get the most from your time.

Conclusion

In conclusion Guitar Zero is an interesting and entertaining study of the mental and physical processes behind learning to make music with the guitar. The author's enthusiasm for the instrument and his wonder at the simple joys of learning to master new skills are obvious throughout the book and should help to inspire you to try and learn the guitar or any other skill that you've always dreamed of but never thought possible.

Solve Guitar Problems With This 3 Step Process

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

The other day I came across an interesting post about applying problem solving methods as a way to improve guitar playing. Learning to play guitar is definitely something that presents us with many different problems, both small and large. I got to thinking a little about my own problem solving processes and how I applied them to learning guitar skills.

I think that an explicit method for recognizing and solving guitar playing problems is an excellent tool. It helps me to avoid aimless practice or playing stuff I already know to avoid a problem instead of making progress. Here's one simple process that I find helpful in lots of situations.

Step 1. Describe the problem

The first step is to identify just what problem you want to solve. Take some time to describe the problem you face or the thing you'd like to do next to get it clear in your mind.

I like to write down a description of the problem on paper, this helps me to think it through and identify what is really going wrong. You might find it helpful to record yourself and you practice and talk through the problem. Ask yourself what exactly goes wrong? What were you doing when the problem occurred? What does the problem feel like - do you have tensions or blockages in particular parts of the body?

Step 2. Brainstorm solutions

You'll probably find that you get ideas about how to solve the problem while you describe it, but don't just jump on the first one that pops into mind. Instead, take a little time to make a list of all the ideas that you could try to help you solve the problem.

Grab a pencil and paper and give yourself ten minutes to list all the ideas you can think of. New ideas can occur to you later on too, so keep your paper handy so you can easily add to your list; sometimes a good night's sleep brings fresh insight.

3. Pick and implement

All of that description and brainstorming won't actually solve any problems unless you turn ideas into action. Choose one or more ideas from step 2 and get to work to implement them.

The biggest trap at this stage is getting hung up worrying about choosing the "right", or "perfect", solution. Don't fall into this trap, use your best judgement or pick the idea that appeals most to you and get busy putting it to work. Taking some action is more important than waiting to find the perfect action.

The first idea you try might not get you all the way to the solution you want. This is no big deal, you've already learned more about your problem and discovered one idea that doesn't solve it. That's much better than if you'd done nothing. You also have some easy options to keep advancing towards a solution for your problem:

Go back to the list of ideas from step 2 and put another one into action
Revise your problem description in the light of what you learned and brainstorm some new ideas to work on.

Try it and See

Try this three step process next time you come across a guitar playing problem and see how it helps you to keep moving towards a solution instead of getting blocked. Let’s summarize the three simple steps:

1. Describe it - get a handle on what the problem really is

2. Brainstorm it - create solution ideas

3. Pick and implement – choose and idea and put it into action

Don't forget to feed back what you learn in step 3 to improve your problem description and generate more ideas to solve it.

What About You?

Do you have any favourite problem solving tips that have helped you to improve your guitar playing? Please use the comments link below to share them with us...

Photo by andrewmalone.

Blues Guitar Solos – 5 Tips on Phrasing

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Blues guitar phrasing is something I have to work on all the time. If I don’t pay attention then it’s too easy to get into bad habits, so it’s always useful to have a checklist of things to do… or not do… to keep your phrasing in good shape and avoid problems.

Here’s a nice video that offers 5 useful tips to get your phrasing into shape and keep it there (you might need to click here to see it on the blog if you’re reading this in a feed reader).

Here’s a short summary of the tips from this video.

1. Repeat ideas

Repetition is one of the fundamental elements of music. Build your solos out of blocks of only a few notes, and repeat them to draw in the listener. Use only a few notes and work them hard to create the most you can out of them.

2. Open up space

Use rests to create space in your music. It gives you time to come up with something new and heightens tension in the music.

3. Sing the notes you play

As Marty put it, singing the notes you play “connects with that inner music inside of you, that is a really good thing.” Singing also forces you to breath and introduces natural pauses that will help you open up space.

4. Dynamics – loud or soft

You can break up monotony in your playing through use of dynamics – how loud or soft you play. Mix things up and don’t just play everything at full blast.

5. Know when to get out

Finally, just like you have to end your phrases to leave space around them, you also need to end your solos to keep something in reserve for the next song.

If you enjoyed these tips then click here to visit Marty’s site for many more great guitar lessons. You can try out lessons free for three days. Note that I partner with GuitarJamz because I enjoy the quality guitar lessons it provides, if you decide to subscribe after following this link I may receive a small commission. You can learn more about Marty’s lessons site by reading my GuitarJamz review.

Oh, and by the way, to get the free jam-track Marty mentioned in the video click this link.

Guitar Chords – Learn to Finger Major 6th Chord

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Last week I posted a lesson on 6th chords. I got a question from a reader struggling with the major 6th chord form with its root on the sixth string, which is admittedly quite hard to play. I struggled for a long time to learn how to play this chord accurately, I think the difficulty comes with the way all four fingers are spread out.

I especially had problems with my third (ring) and fourth (little/pinky) fingers, they would end up on the wrong strings – third finger on the third string and fourth finger on the second string – which sounds terrible.

So here’s a step by step approach that I found really helpful to master this shape.

Grabbing Chords in the Air

I used the “chord grabbing” technique to learn this shape. If you’re not familiar with this technique, then click here to read a post and see a video that demonstrates it. I’ve found it’s a really useful technique for mastering many chords and helps to avoid the problem of having to slowly place fingers one by one.

However, at first I couldn’t get all four fingers into the right shape to grab this chord, so I approached it gradually.

First, I practiced grabbing the two-note shape shown below with just the 2nd and 3rd fingers. After a while my 3rd finger got into the habit of falling on the second string and not the third; my hand “memorized” this spacing.

Then I worked on the three-note shape below, adding my first finger to the previous two. This step proved quite easy.

Finally I was ready to work on the complete four-note shape, below. I’d still start by grabbing just the two notes with the second and third fingers to warm up, then move on to three fingers and finally all four.

It took me a while, but this approach eventually got me to the point where I can play this chord shape quite fast without my third and fourth fingers getting on the wrong strings to make a horrible dissonant sound. If you’re finding this chord tough to master then I hope this approach might help you too.

What About You?

Do you have any chord playing problems you’d like help with? I’d love to hear from you, click the comment link below to leave a comment with your question…

Guitar Exercises – Horizontal Fretboard Movement Part 3, Skipping Positions

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

This post in the series on horizontal fretboard movement with scales shows some exercises that skip over positions to train your fingers to make larger jumps up and down the guitar neck. This kind of movement will give you a new dimension to develop solos and improvisations.

So far in this series we’ve seen exercises that use use four-note groups from the major and minor pentatonic scales to play licks that move horizontally up and down the strings. Part 1 showed some exercises on minor pentatonic scales. Part 2 worked through some major pentatonic positions. In this part we’re going to work on some exercises that get us making larger jumps up and down the fretboard.

Exercise 1 – E Minor Pentatonic

This exercise walks up and down the E minor pentatonic on the fourth and fifth strings. We start with a four-note box with two open notes, then skip over a position to play a four-note box at the 5th and 7th frets. Then you drop down to fill in the position you skipped over between the 2nd and 5th frets.

This pattern of skipping over a position and then going back to it is repeated throughout the exercise. Focus on transitioning smoothly and accurately into the new position ready to play its four-notes. Use alternate picking throughout.

Exercise 2 – C Major Pentatonic

This exercise on a C major pentatonic scale follows the same principle as the first one. Each time you move up the fretboard (or down, on the descending part) you skip over a position. Once you get the hang of these large jumps you can quickly move up and down the fretboard to play licks in new registers.

When you have completed these two exercises you can go further by extending them to other pairs of strings and to other keys. You can also skip over two or more positions as you ascend or descend the guitar neck.

We’ll wrap up this series with a final part that integrates the skills you learn in these exercises into a complete piece. Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to be notified of the next part.

Guitar Chords – 6th Chords

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

This guitar chord lesson for intermediate players introduces sixth chords, shows you some fingerings to play them with and gives you an example progression to practice.

What is a Sixth Chord?

A 6th chord, also known as add6, is a chord built from a basic major or minor chord with a sixth scale degree added. The note formula is root, major or minor 3rd, 5th, 6th.

Sixth Chord Fingerings

The two chord diagrams below show a moveable fingering for the major and minor sixth chords. The root note for both is on the sixth string.

Both use four fingers and can be quite tricky, especially the major shape, so stick with it if it doesn’t come to you easily at first. Practice fingering both shapes up and down the fretboard using the fingers shown by the numbers on the diagrams.

Alternative fingerings for the major and minor 6th chords are shown by the diagrams below. Both these fingerings can be moved up and down the guitar neck - the root note occurs on both the first and fourth strings.

6th Chord Example

Here's an example progression from a rock song that uses major and minor 6th chords to create a nice walk down on the fourth string. The example is in Em and the chords are Am6 - G6 - F#m6 – Em. The progression can be transposed to any key using the chord formula: iv6 - bIII6 - ii6 – i.

Blues Guitar Licks – Adding Major 3rds to the Blues Scale

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

The other week I wrote a lesson that showed you how to use the major 3rd note with the minor pentatonic scale in your blues guitar licks. I came across this video lesson on that topic that I thought you might enjoy to see the ideas in that lesson in action.

In this video you’ll see some of the same positions for the major third note in and around the minor pentatonic blues scale and get ideas for using it in blues licks.

For more information…

Click here to visit GuitarJamz for more blues guitar tips and lessons (affiliate link).
Read my review of GuitarJamz membership.
Read my lesson on Blues Guitar Licks With Major Thirds.

Guitar Exercises - More Scale Position Shifts

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Here’s a follow up to last week’s post of exercises to build skill moving horizontally along the guitar neck between pentatonic scale box positions. The previous post contained exercises to shift between minor pentatonic positions, this set of exercises will add some major pentatonic scales for you to work on.

The major pentatonic scale uses the 1st, 2nd, major 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of the major scale and is frequently used in blues and rock styles. Let’s get started with a C major pentatonic scale on the 1st and 2nd strings.

C Major Pentatonic on 1st and 2nd Strings

Use alternate picking for this one and watch out for the change of strings to begin the descent of the scale. Play each series of four eighth notes in the same position. Shift your hand up to play the first note of the next series with the index finger on the 2nd string.

A Major Pentatonic on 2nd and 3rd Strings

For this exercise on the 2nd and 3rd strings we’ll work through A major pentatonic. The pattern on this pair of strings is different from the others so pay attention.

Remember to practise each lesson slowly and focus on clean and precise shifts from one position to the next. If you are familiar with your pentatonic scales then you can try taking these patterns and applying them on other pairs of strings and in other keys.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to be informed of more exercises in this series.

Guitar Exercises – Pentatonic Position Shifts

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Here are some exercises that will help build your proficiency shifting up and down the neck between scale positions. When you learn to move easily up and down the guitar’s neck you give yourself a new dimension to develop solos and improvisations.

E Minor Pentatonic Scale on 1st and 2nd Strings

In this first exercise you’re going to walk up the neck and back down again on the first and second strings using four-note groups from the E minor pentatonic scale. Use your third or fourth finger for the notes on the second string and each time the note on that string changes slide it up to the new position. Going down, use the same finger and slide down. Use alternate picking for this exercise, you can start on either a down or an up stroke (or even do both).

D Minor Pentatonic Scale on 3rd and 4th Strings

Here’s another variant, this time using D minor pentatonic. This time we’re going to explore a different fingering to shift up the neck. Each time you complete one four-note box with a note on the 3rd string shift your hand up and play the next note on the 4th string with your first finger. Again, use alternate picking throughout.

A Minor Pentatonic Scale on 2nd and 3rd Strings

Notice in this exercise on the 2nd and 3rd strings that the four-note boxes have different shapes because the guitar is tuned to a major third between these strings instead of a fourth elsewhere. You can use either of the previous techniques – or both – to shift up or down between positions.

When you learn to move horizontally along the neck you will free yourself from the slavery of single position licks, and you can play intervals and lines that are impossible or inconvenient in a single position.

Work through all these exercises slowly and focus on clean and precise shifts from one position to the next. It’s also a good idea to call out the note names or scale degrees as you play each note; this will help you keep track of where you are in the scale. Try to visualize, too, each of the five pentatonic minor scale positions as you pass through them.

I’ll be developing these exercises further in the coming weeks. Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to follow along.

Riffstation - Say Goodbye to Tab Searching?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Do you often spend time searching the Internet for chords or tab of the songs you want to play on your guitar?
Do you get frustrated when you find incomplete or inaccurate tabs, or when you don’t find any tabs at all?
Of course, you can buy official tabs, but again this can be time consuming and it’s not always easy to find a good arrangement. For example, unless the artist is very well known then there is little chance of finding a published tab book. Other times, you can find a tab book, but have to buy a whole book when you want only one song.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a friendly assistant who you could just ask for those chords whenever you have a piece of music you’d like to learn to play on your guitar? You might be lucky enough to know someone willing to do this for you. But if you don’t, then maybe Riffstation, a new software program for your PC, could be what you’re looking for.

Introducing Riffstation

Riffstation is a program for guitar players that offers features to transcribe a song’s chords, extract or suppress solo parts to learn them or jam along with the rest of the track, and help you assemble recorded riffs to build new ones.

I recently gave its chord finding features a try using the free 30 day trial version available from the Riffstation.com web site.

Riffstation Chord Finder

One of the most interesting features of Riffstation is that it proposes to identify the chords in an audio file. Using the software to find a song’s chords is very easy. There a just a few simple steps: browse to open the audio file you want to analyse, Riffstation imports the audio, draws a waveform, and finally analyses the audio to identify the chords which it displays as “bubbles” below the waveform (see the screenshot to the right).
You can play along with the song and see the chord changes in real time in the Chord Viewer in the middle area of the screen below the waveforms. While the song is playing this view shows you the current chord’s name and a fretboard diagram. It also shows you the next chord in the song with a countdown timer to the chord change. Finally, you can alter the key or tempo of the song as it is played to help you practice.

I found it a little unfortunate that the playback cursor doesn’t move through the chord “bubbles” in time. There is an offset caused by the zoom controls at the left end of the chord line. I think this would be more intuitive than following the countdown in the middle area.

Update: Dan Barry, one of Riffstation's developers got in touch with some information on this, "We're going to implement some of the suggestions you had such as highlighting the current chord to play in the chord strip. We will also be fixing some bugs which are still present in the trial version before paid release."
There’s no cursor in the the chord line during playback.

Is Riffstation Good at Transcribing Song Chords?

So far I’ve tested Riffstation in its default automatic mode with a number of songs that I already have the chords for. The input files were 320kbps MP3 files that were either downloaded from Amazon or ripped from CD.

The documentation states that automatic mode only finds major, minor and 7th chords. Riffstation did a pretty good job of identifying the basic major and minor chords for simple songs. It even performed quite well on more complex songs with extended or altered chords such as sus or 6 chords, recognizing the base chord name nearly all the time.

For all of the three or four chord pop/rock songs I fed it Riffstation got the chords right. For songs with more complex chords it was a little less accurate but it still gives you a good starting point. There are some tools that allow you to tune the chord analysis and manually correct chords too. The semi-automatic analysis supports major and minor 7, sus2 and sus4 chords in addition to major, minor and 7th chords.

Summary

Overall the software performed very well and could be a very useful tool if you want to learn to play pop and rock songs. For more complex songs it will give you a very good starting point but you’ll still have some work to do to transcribe the details and chord types the software doesn’t support.

At €39.99 for the full version Riffstation has plenty of interesting features for guitar players. You can learn more and download the free trial version for yourself at the Riffstation web site. I’ll be reviewing more of its features in future posts, be sure to subscribe to the feed using the link below so you don’t miss them.

Blues Guitar Licks With Major Thirds

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Here are some example blues guitar licks that will show you how to incorporate the major third of the current chord into the first position of the minor pentatonic scale.

When you use the major third of each chord in the blues progression you really make that chord stand out. You'll get lots of points at the jam session as someone who really knows where they're at. Provided you use the thirds in the right places, of course...

In the example licks we're going to work in the key of G major, so our I, IV and V chords will be G7, C7 and D7 respectively. Each lick is going to target the major third of the current chord. This note is not part of the minor pentatonic scale, but is easily found within the position.

Major Third Target Notes

The major third target notes of each chord around the first minor pentatonic position are shown in the fretboard diagram below.

On the I chord - G7 - target the major thirds shown by green dots: fifth string 2nd fret, third string 4th fret, first string 7th fret.
On the IV chord - C7 - target the major thirds shown by blue dots: fourth string 2nd fret, second string 5th fret.
On the V chord - D7 - target the major thirds shown by orange dots: fourth string 4th fret, second string 7th fret.

The extra notes for the I and IV chord are the major 3rd and the 6th of the I chord. They are part of a scale called the myxolidian scale, but you don't have to worry about that fancy name. I find it's much simpler to simply think of them as extra notes added around the minor pentatonic position.

Licks on the I Chord

Here’s an example lick on the I chord that plays around the 3rd at the fourth fret of the 3rd string. An easy way to identify this note is to think of the G7 bar chord at the third fret.

This next lick uses the 3rd at the second fret of the fifth string. The current chord is also played as part of the lick to further underline it.

Licks on the IV Chord

Here is a lick using the major third of the C7 chord at the fifth fret of the second string.

The second C7 chord lick incorporates some chord hits in the second measure. These are followed by a short series of notes that leads back into the I chord, ending on its root note.

Licks on the V Chord

The following two examples on the V chord make use of some playing effects with the major 3rd notes. In the first example below, the b7 of the scale box is bent up a half step to the D7 chord’s major third. You can slide up to the 7th fret of the third string with your third (ring) finger and perform the bend on the string below with your second finger.

In this final lick the major third of the D7 chord is played as a trill – a rapid alternation between the two notes using hammer-ons and pull-offs.

These licks show some examples of how to use the major third of the current chord in licks based on the first minor pentatonic box. The major 3rd really makes the sound of the chord stand out in your playing. When you practice with it you will learn to listen and follow the progression better because if you hit these notes on the wrong chord they will sound odd.

Have fun practicing these licks and making up more of your own with the major third.

Did You Practice Guitar Today?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:34:00 +0000

Yesterday was New Year's Day, the first day of 2012. Did you practice or play your guitar? I did. I hope you did too.

Almost half the responses so far to the question What Will You Do to Play Better Guitar in 2012 are "Really take time for that practice session every day." But how many actually practiced on the 1st of January?

But I only missed one day…

"How does a project get to be a year late? ... One day at a time." -- Fred Brooks

In his book The Mythical Man Month, Fred Brooks told about his experience managing the IBM OS/360 project. Fred Brooks' observed that a very large delay in a project arises from a number of small and seemingly insignificant slippages that occur every day.

This same observation applies to your guitar projects. It might not seem like a big deal to miss those twenty minutes of practice today. But each day you skip those seemingly insignificant minutes adds to the delay that could prevent you from reaching your guitar goals for the year.

So, if you didn't practice on the 1st January, be sure to put that right today. If you keep your attention on that little task of practicing today, every day throughout this year, you can be sure you'll have made significant progress in your guitar projects by next December.

How will you practice on more days?

What do you need to change in your daily routine to make that practice session happen, without fail, every day?

The thing that has worked best for me is to fix a regular time when I'm sure I can practice, undisturbed by other events. Pick a time that suits you and let everybody know about it. Making your commitment public boosts your motivation to stick to it.

My favourite time for this kind of activity that I really want to happen every day is first thing in the morning. It's quite easy to get up half an hour earlier and get to work while I'm still fresh and the day's events won't interfere.

What about you?

What techniques work best at helping you ensure you get in daily guitar practice? I'd love to hear about them, so please use the comment link below to share them with us.

Photo by Rob Ellis.

What Will You Do to Play Better Guitar in 2012?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas readers. I'd like to take the opportunity of this special end of year occasion to thank everyone who reads Not Playing Guitar. I enjoy writing what I hope are useful and enjoyable lessons and posts and I plan to write lots more next year.

As the year draws to an end you might be thinking about your guitar plans for the next year. What new skills and songs do you want to learn? What do you want to improve on? How will you do it? To get you thinking about ways you can improve your guitar playing next year I've put together a reader poll.

Taking small steps is the best way to progress and advance. So instead of a list of 264 guitar projects you could do next year to move closer to your dreams I'm asking you to choose just one. What is the one most important thing you need to do to improve your guitar playing in 2012? Choose from the ideas proposed below, or add your own, it's up to you.

In the meantime enjoy the holidays and don't forget to make some time to play guitar.

Whatever you plan to do in 2012 to play better guitar, one thing will definitely help you… click here to subscribe to Not Playing Guitar.

How teaching guitar can improve your own guitar skills and knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Today’s post is by Aaron Matthies of Live & Teach Guitar…

At some point in your development as a guitarist you may consider teaching guitar. While there are obvious benefits in teaching guitar (mainly making money), there is one major benefit most people overlook: teaching guitar improves your own playing skills and knowledge.

Have you ever explained to somebody how to properly play a bend, use sweep picking or explain the theory behind the Pentatonic Scale? If you have, you will know that you really need to know your stuff to explain it properly. On the other hand, if you have never done this before do you know those techniques and theory well enough that you could explain it to somebody effectively? Teaching guitar forces you to really think about what you know and by explaining all these concepts to somebody else you actually strengthen your understanding.

When you have to demonstrate to a student how to properly bend a note (or any other technique), you really need to focus and make sure you play the note perfectly so the student doesn’t pick up on poor technique or bad habits. This focus on your own playing will force you to really analyze what you’re doing and if you’re actually using proper technique. So by merely teaching guitar you can really give your own playing a boost and correct any bad habits or poor technique you may have now.

What about increasing your knowledge? Similar to technique, when you have to explain theory to a student it really forces you to make sure you really understand what you’re talking about. If you don’t know how to explain all the different intervals in a scale for example maybe it’s a sign that you don’t fully understand them yourself. Having to explain theory and concepts to a student will open your eyes to your own understanding.

Do you need to be an expert to teach?

Not at all. The truth is you can become an expert by teaching guitar; you don’t have to be an expert first. Even if you only consider yourself an average player, you can still teach beginners and do a fantastic job. Don’t ever think you aren’t good enough to teach because if you wait until you’re an ‘expert’ first, you may have to wait quite a long time.

Steps to get started

Even if you start off with a single student, you can dramatically increase your own skills and knowledge. It won’t take long before you get the hang of teaching and can start to attract more students. If you feel like you’re not improving on your own, then teaching guitar is an effective way to get ahead.

If you have never taught before, your first step is to find an absolute beginner who you will feel comfortable teaching. This could be a friend or family member. You could even teach your first student for free while you build your teaching skills. Once you have your first student you will get the feel for teaching and decide if you want to teach more students and earn money. The great thing about teaching guitar is you can take it as far as you want to go. You can build up your student base until you teach full time or you can stick to a couple students - it's entirely up to you.

About
The website www.liveteachguitar.com can provide you with in-depth guides, lesson materials ready to print and give to your students as well as articles to help you be a guitar tutor. The site gives you everything you need to teach so you don't have to worry about preparing anything for lessons.

Easy Blues Guitar Chords in Key of G

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Here's a beginner lesson that shows you how to play blues in the key of G with easy guitar chords.

The blues in G uses the three chords G7, C7 and D7. The chord diagrams below show easy open chord shapes you can use to play them.

If you find this G7 shape too hard to play then you can simplify it and play only the top four strings. Then you have only one note to finger - the first fret of the first string. The second, third and fourth strings are played open.

The C7 chord shape is just like a normal open C chord with your little finger added at the third fret of the third string. You can simplify this chord and play only the three notes that form a little triangle on the third, fourth and fifth strings. Finger it in the same way as the D7 chord:

First finger on the fourth string, second fret
Second finger on the fifth string, third fret
Third finger on the third string, third fret

Learn each of these chord shapes and practice changing from one to another until you get comfortable with them. When you feel ready you can start to practice the blues in G using the chord grid shown below.

Blues in G

The chord grid below shows the chords for each bar of the 12 bar blues progression in G major. To learn it you can break down the grid into three sections of four bars each. Practice each section separately until you master it, then put them together to play the whole 12 bar blues.

That’s all for this lesson, I hope you’ll enjoy learning and playing the blues in G with the easy open chord positions it’s shown you. If you have questions about playing blues guitar please use the comments link below to ask.

Guitar Techniques - Mute With Your Fretting Hand

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Here's a post in the playing silence series that describes techniques for muting the guitar strings with the fretting hand. If you're a beginner to intermediate player these techniques will help you to improve your guitar sound.

We're going to learn about the following three techniques used to mute guitar strings with the fretting hand.

1. Fingers rest on one or more strings with just enough pressure to mute them.
2. A fingertip frets a string while the side of the finger mutes a higher string.
3. A finger pad frets a string while the tip mutes a lower string.

Now let's look at each of the techniques in a little more detail.

1. Fingers resting on one or more strings

This technique is used mostly for rhythm guitar. You rest one or more fingers across the guitar strings to silence them. It can be done between strums to play a rest or to create a short staccato feel. Other times the strings are strummed while muted to create a percussive scratching sound.

There are two different ways to perform the technique depending on the type of chords played. When playing bar chords you simply lift your fingers a little. The strings leave contact with the frets but your fingers keep enough contact with the strings to stop them vibrating. When playing other types of chords you reach with one or more fingers to rest them across the strings. You might have to briefly release the chord if you don't have a spare finger.

2. Side of the finger mutes a string

Sometimes you need to mute just one string to eliminate a note that might accidentally sound if you strike the string. You can use this technique when playing single notes, chords, and often when playing intervals such as sixths (XXX:link) or octaves - there is a string to mute in between the two strings that form the interval.

You can use this technique when the string to mute is below a fretted note - i.e. a higher string. Simply lean the finger fretting the note towards the bottom of the neck so that the side of the finger touches the next string. The part of the finger that mutes the string is either the fleshy pad below the finger tip or the side of the finger. It depends on the position of your hand when making a chord.

You might have learned that you should keep your finger tip straight, perpendicular to the neck to fret a note correctly. This is one case where you have to break this rule so the side of the finger can mute the adjacent string. You usually don't have to lean the finger too far and the tip should still remain securely in place on the string it is fretting.

3. A finger tip mutes a string

When the string you want to mute is on a lower string, above the fretted note it is not very convenient to learn a finger towards the top of the guitar neck. So what do you do if you want to mute a string that is above the one you're playing? The answer is to reach over with your finger tip.

To perform this technique you have to adjust the way you finger a fretted note. Instead of pressing the fretted note with the tip of the finger you use the fleshy pad just below the tip to hold the note. The finger tip extends up just enough to touch the string above and mute it.

This technique can be used when playing bar chords with their root on the fifth string. The tip of the index fingers extends upwards to mute the sixth string. The technique is also often used when playing bended notes to prevent noise from adjacent strings as you release the bend.

Conclusion

The techniques presented in this lesson might break the rules you have learned about good technique - fretting with only the finger tip, keeping the finger perpendicular to the fretboard. They are used in many guitar styles though, so it's worth mastering them. I hope you'll have fun learning and playing with them.

Photo by jsome1.

Rhythm Guitar - Latin Funk

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I love to play funky rhythm guitar. Here’s a video I came across that demonstrates some nice ideas for playing funky rhythms with a Latin feel. I hope you enjoy it.

Hand-wound Guitar Pickup Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Here's news of an opportunity for electric guitar players to win a hand-wound custom shop pickup.

I received news of this offer from Rice Custom Guitars, a family business that "crafts the finest quality custom made guitars". They have some nice looking guitars to drool over on their web site. Hey, it's free to look...

The guitars might be beyond your budget, but from now until 31st December, Rich and Chris Rice offer you the chance to win a set of their hand-made Stratocaster style single-coil pickups worth US$250... absolutely free.
Rich Rice describes the pick-ups like this,

"These pickups are my personal favorites for S-Style guitars. Their clarity, string-to-string balance, and versatility are sure to impress you. I’m excited to be in a position to give this set away to a deserving musician, and sincerely hope you will enjoy their benefits.

MR-S pickups come standard with flat polepieces and parchment or black covers. These pickups are Quick-Dip™ potted to eliminate squeal while maintaining desirable microphonics.

Featuring AlNiCo III magnets and vintage style hand winding, MR-S pickups are very touch sensitive and responsive to playing dynamics. Wind options include magnet type, magnet size, magnet stagger, wire gauge, and strength of wind."

To enter the prize draw simply visit the competition page by clicking here – you’ll simply have to leave your name and email address. If you're lucky enough to win they'll ship you the pickups anywhere in the world.

Good luck!

Gary

Disclaimer: I am not in any way associated with Rice Custom Guitars. Just thought you could be interested in the giveaway opportunity.

Guitar Practice Tips - Learn Licks Easier and Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Fletcher) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Here’s a guitar practice tip that will help you to learn licks and solos easier and faster.

Learning new licks or solos on the guitar can be a frustrating experience. Some licks or solos are just so hard to master that you think you'll never be able to learn and play them all the way through to the end.

Each time you practice the lick you get so far, but some tricky passage trips you up and you've lost the timing, the fingering, or the pick direction. You mess up. You go back to the beginning and start again... Each time this happens the pressure inside you builds up making it harder and harder to get through that barrier.

You seem to be stuck in a loop where you play the first part of the lick over and over but keep messing up somewhere in the middle. You need a change of process to get through the barrier…

Work Backwards

A process that I’ve found works well in these situations is to practice the lick or solo from the end. Instead of working from the first note to the last, I work backwards from the last to the first note.

It might sound strange but this process makes it easier to learn the lick. It takes away the pressure created by the barrier and somehow is more motivating because what I play always gets to the end of the lick.

Here’s how I do it. Take the last notes of the lick, start with just two or three notes, and learn to play them - right from the beginning you're through to the end of the lick. Try it and see how good that feels.

Once you've got those last notes down add a new note or two to before them and work through to the end again. Notice how this process puts you in control - it's you that chooses the notes you work on, not your fingers crashing somewhere in the middle of the lick. I think this is another reason why the process feels good.

Repeat this process – add a note or two at a time, play through to the end - until you get to the beginning and you've mastered the whole lick.

Conclusion

If you're struggling to get to the end of a lick without messing up, give this technique a try. You'll find it's very powerful. I find it works well for other things too - solos, chord progressions, songs and scales.