This video guitar lesson goes over how to play the song “The Only Exception” by, Paramore. We recommend you blow it up and make it full screen on your monitor so it is easy to see the chord diagrams that we put on the video for you. Good luck and if you like it please remember to share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or anything really… it all will be much appreciated.

We had a request to do this song by one of the students on Pick Strum Play so we decided to give it a go. It actually came out quite well and is a great beginner guitar lesson. There are really only three chords in the song (two have different shapes, but there are three true different chords).

The image of me (Jeff) on the right is a picture of me playing the g chord. From there I play a “d minor” chord and a “c major 7″.

If you have been looking for a song to help you work on your bar chords, this song is great because the intro has two of them. The D minor and C major 7 are both played using a bar chord. It may be a difficult switch for many of you going from the D minor bar chord to the C major 7 bar chord but with practice you will get the hang of it. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t get it right at first. Be persistent.

The way I would recommend learning this song is to play and learn the second set of chords in the song (g major, d minor, and c major 7) but using the easier fingering. At least until you get the rhythm and finger transitions down. Once you get that then try playing the intro.

If you found this video helpful please share it with you friends and help us get the word out that we are teaching guitar for free in HD. We also love feedback and are here for you if you have any questions. Comment on our posts to start conversations with other guitarists. Good luck learning The Only Exception and there will be many more songs to come.

This video guitar lesson goes over how to play the song “Everlong” by, Foo Fighters. We recommend you blow it up and make it full screen on your monitor so it is easy to see the chord diagrams that we put on the video for you. Good luck and if you like it please remember to share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or anything really… all will be much appreciated.

So pretty much that lesson was way longer than what we expected it to be so I hope you were able to hang in there through the whole lesson. There are many lessons on the internet that teach you how to play Everlong by the Foo Fighters but I don’t think you’ll find one that goes into so much detail and depth like the one here on Pick Strum Play.

My favorite part of the song is the bridge that is right before the singing part. When you need to stretch your index finger down about 5 frets. It’s hard to play but with practice you’ll be able to get the hang of it.

As you can see there’s Jeff making that chord! With practice you can too.

Don’t let yourself get too worried about this song, it really is not too hard – it is only a few chords. The tricky part is getting the rhythm and strumming patterns down. Once you get that you’ll learn it in no time. We tried our best to lay this out for you in the easiest way possible so you can learn it fast.

If you found this video helpful please share it with you friends and help us get the word out that we are teaching guitar for free in HD. We also love feedback and are here for you if you have any questions. Comment on our posts to start conversations with other guitarists. Good luck learning Everlong and there will be many more songs to come.

This hi-def guitar lesson video goes over how to play the song “Glycerine” by, Bush.

Glycerine is one of the easiest songs that Pick Strum Play goes over. This song uses a total of four power chords! That doesn’t make it a bad song though. Just super easy. Get it down and it’s really easy to sing along to.

Here are the steps you need to take in order to learn this song.

1. Learn how to make a power chord shape chord on your guitar.
2. Get yourself to be able to move the power chord shape up and along the fret board naturally by practicing.

This song is great for beginners that are looking to learn an entire song because it just uses power chords.

Something that I did not go into much depth over in the video is the portion of the song where you lightly touch the strings without pressing down on the frets to give it a blank tone. To do this just lightly touch the strings without pressing down on them. Check out the sound your making!

There really are only two main parts to this song and both parts use the same chords, so you should be able to get it down fairly quickly.

Make sure in order to get more updates to when there are even more great free HD song lessons here on Pick Strum Play sign up to the RSS feed, and become a fan on Facebook. If you haven’t already sign up to our Premium Email course on how to play the Pentatonic Scale. To do that just enter your name and email in the field in the upper right hand corner, and press submit.

Cheers, Jeff

Chords used in standard tuning: F Power Chord, C Power Chord, D Power Chord, A# or Bb Power Chord

This hi-def guitar lesson video goes over how to play the song “Cailin” by, Unwritten Law.

The truth is to many Cailin sounds like a fairly tricky song to learn on guitar but really it is quite simple once you get the hang of it. The chorus uses four main chords which include a C, D, G, and E. All major chords.

Here are the steps you need to take in order to learn this song.

1. Get the rhythm to the song down.
2. Get your fingers to naturally switch chords for you – you’ll get the hang of it. Easier said then done but with practice it can be done!

This is actually a great song to practice your chord changes with.

Something that I did not go to much in depth over in my video lesson for Cailin was the portion of the song that used Power chords. Make sure when you are trying to play this… slide your E power chord position to the F# power chord position, then on to the G Power Chord. Again with practice you’ll be able to get it. Play along with me in the video while you are learning how to play it. It will help considerably.

There are only four main parts to the song so it should be one that you’ll be able to catch on to pretty easily. Remember you can always pause the video if you are having troubles with one part, so don’t be afraid to use the pause button.

One part of the song that I did not go over at all is the little solo that is played. Maybe in the future there will be a video on how to play it. So make sure to stay active by commenting on the site. Sign up to the RSS feed to find out when there are new videos added.

Cheers, Jeff

Chords used in standard tuning: C Chord, D Chord, G Chord, E Chord, E Power Chord, F# Power Chord, G Power Chord.

This hi-def guitar lesson video goes over how to play the song “I Miss You” by, Incubus.

In Drop tuning – Check out the lesson on how to drop your guitar to drop D tuning.

Chords used in drop D tuning: B Power Chord, G power Chord, D Power Chord.

Looking at a guitar tab for the first time can be pretty frustrating if you do not know what the little lines and dashes mean and/or represent. So this lesson is going to go over what they are so you are a little less confused.

The lines are simply just the strings.  They are not notes like you would see in a music class they are simply just the strings.  It is actually just as basic as it sounds.

In standard tuning the line at the top represents the high e string.  If you are not sure what that is, the high e string is the string that is the smallest in width.  When holding a guitar in your lap the high e string is the string that is closest to the floor.  Then the strings go down in order starting with the high e string then b, g, d, a, and low e strings respectfully.

Of course people use guitar tab for other tunings but for the sake of this first lesson we’re going to keep it simple and just talk about standard tuning.  If you want to see a video of how to tune your guitar to standard tuning click the link above where it says standard tuning..

Guitar tab is setup like this for one reason.  To keep it simple.  As I talked about in the introduction to the guitar tab series numbers go on the lines, and these numbers actually respresent which frets you are going to be playing.

I will get to that in the next lesson, but for now just get used to what strings are what.  It will make things a lot easier for you if you want to learn how to read guitar tab and essentially learn how to play the guitar the way that you want to.

<< CHECK OUT THE OTHER LESSONS IN THIS SERIES >>

If I told you that there was a way to learn how to play just about any song you wanted to on guitar without being that experienced would you believe me?  Well most of you probably don’t.  You may be thinking some of these things:

1. I don’t know how to read music.
2. It sounds way to complicated.
3. I just started to play.
4. There is just absolutely no way.

Well there is a way, and it really is not that hard.  It is called guitar tablature or as many people call it: “guitar tab” for short.  If you don’t believe me that guitar tab is so often used open a new tab and go to Google.  Type in the name of a song you want to learn on guitar followed by the words guitar tab.  See if anything comes up… Guess what, it’s also free

This is what guitar tabs allow you to do:

1. Read music by looking at numbers on the different strings.
2. Learn where your fingers go by reading the guitar tab.
3. Play the song you are learning back to yourself while playing along with the guitar tab you just learned.

It really is just as easy as that.  Well actually it is not that easy.  Just like anything else with learning how to play guitar it gets way easier with practice.  The more that you practice the easier it will come to you.

What I’m going to be going over in the next several posts are lessons on how to read and play guitar tab.  If you are interested in how to play guitar I would strongly suggest reading the articles I post in the next several days.  Good luck and really it is not that hard.

<< CHECK OUT THE OTHER LESSONS IN THIS SERIES >>

Eggnog - Drawing of a Guitar Player - by Jeremiah (Click the drawing to see it's full size)

This picture was drawn by my buddy Jeremiah with a pencil. It’s some guitar player, playing the guitar.

By the looks of it, this guy is really feeling the music because his head is up against the body of the guitar. I really liked this piece so I threw it up here on the blog.

If anyone is interested in purchasing a copy of this contact me by emailing me and I’ll get a hold of Jeremiah for you.

If you think this drawing is cool like I do make sure to share it with your Facebook friends by copying the URL above into your Facebook status! Comments to this post are also appreciated.

Just like how you like listening to your favorite songs loud, someone who likes to play guitar is going to like to listen to themselves play loudly.

Yes, some of you are going to be the shy type and not want anyone else to hear what you are doing while you are practicing. Hiding your knowledge and experience to show off at an appropriate time. Or maybe, you just play for yourself.

Most of you will play guitar loud. When you play acoustic, you slam down on the strings to try to get as much volume out of the guitar as possible. While playing electric you will be slowly turning the nob on your amplifier to get more wattage!

Reasons for Playing Loud

1. You want everyone to hear you.
2. It sounds way better.
3. It’s a lot more fun.

Whatever the reason is for playing loud you are doing it and it is not a bad thing. Here is the main reason why…

Playing Loud Leads To Learning Guitar Quick

At any stage in your life as a guitar player, beginner or expert, you will always be learning how to play. I still, along with other guitar teachers you come across will tell you they are still learning.

The more you learn about playing guitar and music, the more you know that you still need to learn. Playing loud music is what allows you to keep the drive going. Your drive to learn guitar.

I’m Not Saying You Should Turn Up Your Amps

Don’t misunderstand me. If it’s alright to turn up your amp because Jeff from PickStrumPlay.com told you it was alright to do then you are mistaken.

Making the volume higher is something that should happen organically. Meaning naturally you will want to make the music you are playing louder. The way this happens organically like anything else with guitar is with practice. Which is why I feel when you play your guitar louder, it will lead to quicker learning.

The reason for this is because of your passion for music…

Think of something that you enjoy to do. Maybe it’s shopping, or maybe it’s going to the movies. Whatever it may be it does not matter. So you got that in your head of  what you like to do. Alright put that aside in your brain for a second, and think about the instrument the guitar.

Do you enjoy the music a guitar plays? Do you listen to music regularly that a guitar is needed in order to make that music possible to be played? Did you understand that sentence (I know that probably didn’t make much sense but I tried re-wording it a bunch of times and that’s the best combination of words I could come up with. Whatever, I’m a musician).

But if you have been putting off playing the guitar, and you love the music that it plays… it’s time to learn! Stop putting it off and learn it. It’s obvious that you are passionate about it so fulfill the need that your body is telling you that is needed. If you wish you were able to play then don’t put it off.

Guitar and Passion

Passion is one of the key elements that drives people to do things. Just like your passion that you may have with (from before) shopping, or going to the movies, guitar can be one of those things too. The great thing about guitar though is that you are able to express yourself creatively.

When you learn to play guitar you can play songs that other people have written and play them your own style. A way that makes you feel the most comfortable to play. Slow it down or speed it up. It’s all up to you, the player.

Of course you can go and write your own tunes as well. Some of my favorite things that I play on guitar are melodies that I have written but no one else has even heard me playing them. That’s the kinds of things you can do when you play guitar. Just play for yourself, the music, and the passion you have and you will be all good.