This is the last guitar lesson about Am pentatonic scales, maybe in the future I will also make some other videos about how to play the pentatonic scales in tonalities like Em, Gm, Cm and Dm… but if you will think properly, you will understand that the scales have the same structure for every tonality – you just have to move them along the fretboard and in dependence of what position do you have – the same the tonality will be! So, I hope that many you will choose the option to think and study music, instead of waiting for me to show again what already was shown…

I remember that one great musician said that “if you want to be a great musician – you have to learn to count till twelve” – I mean in terms of music!

How to Play the Am Blues Pentatonic Scale Along the Whole Fretboard

I think that now is the time for us to start learning the Am blues pentatonic scale. It also can be played in 5 different positions along the whole fretboard, so first of all I would recommend to take a look at the previous guitar lesson of mine where I explained the simple Am pentatonic scale positions. And what is the difference between the simple Am pentatonic scale and the Am blues pentatonic scale? Understanding the difference will help you very quickly to achieve the needed results – or you can find the added notes on the picture below, I just made them with a different color – let’s make our guitar teaching as easy as possible!

How to Play the Am Blues Pentatonic Scale - All 5 Possible Positions

I may say that this is the second part of my previous guitar lesson in which I explained you how to play the A minor pentatonic scale in 5 different positions. Today we gonna learn how to combine them and play a single long Am pentatonic scale along the whole fretboard. As you already understood, first of all you will have to learn them very carefully one after another the way they are and only then you will be enough ready to start practicing this guitar lesson. Yes, you can also learn it with the help of the tablature I provide you at the end of this post, but my opinion is that it’s much more important to understand what you are playing cause this is the onliest way to become even a more professional musician and please, never forget that music is not just anything else than the creation of our mind!

How to Play the Am Pentatonic Scale Along the Whole Fretboard

From my own experience I may say that the first scale which a guitar beginner probably learns is the Am pentatonic scale. It’s a really easy one to play, it’s enough easy to remember, it sounds good and the most principal thing is that playing different guitar solo phrases with the help of the pentatonic scale can make a guitarist sound professional even at the beginning of his career. I may say that these are the main factors why the pentatonic scale is so popular among the newbies. All right, the other thing I observed is that 80% of all beginner guitar players know to play only one position and even don’t imagine that there can be played 5 different pentatonic scale positions in one and the same tonality.

Ok, this guitar lesson will teach you how to play all 5 A minor pentatonic scale positions. The same way these positions can be played in other tonalities like Em or Gm for example – the onliest thing you will have to do is just to move them along the fretboard. In order to get a better idea on how to do this let your imagination start working and try to observe that the 3rd Am pentatonic scale position is played at the same fret as the simple Am bar chord from the 5th fret. Now, in order to play the Gm pentatonic scale you will play the same structure but starting with the 3rd fret – the same as if you would like to play the Gm bar chord from the 3rd fret. So, after learning all these 5 positions of the Am pentatonic scale, you can play the same way the Gm pentatonic positions by moving all the notes 2 frets lower. The onliest position which you will not be able to move 2 frets lower is the first one – but this is also not a problem if you will understand that you can play this first positions at the 10th fret – exactly where you will play the Gm bar chord from the 10th fret. That’s all – as you see, there is nothing complicated!

How to Play the Am Pentatonic Scale - All 5 Possible Positions

Ok, these days I had a lot of fun because from my point of view I was involved in a very interesting project! If you remember that last week I made a musical article about the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 in which I would like to participate playing a guitar solo improvisation for their rhythmic section. I also promised to post my contest video here at this guitar blog as soon as I will finish it in order for you to see and discuss it!

So, here it is – my participation video which I submitted several minutes ago to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 contest! I wish the judges will like my guitar improvisation cause I tried to do my best and this is the first time when I am playing guitar having a classical orchestra as the background music. I also would like to wish good luck to the other participants who play especially guitar, I just think that electric guitar and classical orchestra is a very beautiful combination and a really rare one…

YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 - My Solo Guitar Improvisation - Rhythmic Section

Another interesting thing I’m gonna do in the next few days is to submit my video guitar improvisation to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra audition. The first time when I watched the video from the official YouTube Symphony Orchestra channel – I couldn’t believe my eyes, because the first thing which came into my mind was that this is a really great opportunity for a musician to be seen by millions of eyes and maybe even to build a successful musical career in the next few months.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 - Play Your Part on Guitar

The idea is that March 2011 is the month when the YouTube Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert at the Sydney Opera House and they invite musicians of all kind to be a part of it. Those who would like to participate in the event will have to submit a video audition for the orchestra or submit a solo improvisation to a piece composed specifically for the orchestra by American composer Mason Bates. The winners who will submit the best and most interesting videos will be selected to form the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 and invited to perform in March at the Sydney Opera House. As a rock musician I decided to take part in the “Solo Improvisation” category because as you already know I like guitar improvisation very much and I think that I am pretty good at it! I also would recommend you – my readers, to try yourself and get the backing music as soon as possible, take your guitar into your hands, turn on your musical imagination on and show the whole world that when you play your guitar – it’s worth to listen to it! This will give you lots of experience in a new style of music and as usual lots of positive emotions!

So, don’t loose your chance and don’t forget that submissions close November 28, 2010. I will post my entrance here at this guitar blog so that you will have the opportunity to tell me your opinion with the help of comments! Good Luck!

Today I was staying at home thinking about the factors why some guitarists have the luck of being famous and successful and others spend their whole life singing and playing in different clubs in front of 50 people. I don’t mean that playing in clubs it’s not the right level, sometimes a club concert can give your audience a better energy and emotions, but I’m sure that all of you first of all wish a stadium full of people jumping and shouting while listening to your songs! Ok, undoubtedly it’s true that in order to become a famous guitar player you have to sing good songs, have a nice look, a distinguished playing style, good sound, professional technique and so on… but besides that I think that there is another important factor which can help you to reach the top 100 guitar musicians – it’s your musical habits!

Ten Positive Habits Which Will Help You to Become a Better Guitarist

Image Credit: Daniel Leininger

Habit 1 – play as much as possible – when I was 15 years old I was playing about 8 hours a day including band repetitions, guitar lessons, recordings and so on… it’s impossible to be a bad player if you spend half of the day with a guitar in your hands. I remember that for many times I was playing guitar even while watching movies, TV… or when I was coming tired from school, I was sitting in my sofa with closed eyes, but at the same time playing the C major scale!

Habit 2 – try to learn new songs not with the help of tablature, but picking up by ear – this will for sure improve your hearing and improvisation capabilities. For example I learned to play by ear the first three albums by Led Zeppelin and many other songs of bands like Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Whitesnake… even nowadays I don’t feel the need in tablature when I need to learn something new.

Habit 3 – play scales every time in a slow tempo – this will make your solos sound more concrete in the fast one. Believe me that you can hear every single note from a speedy solo of a professional guitarist!

Habit 4 – your solos must sound good with and without distortion – lots of guitar newbies rely on distortion if talking about going to the stage not knowing your solo very well, yes – when there is too much noise maybe you will be lucky and your audience will not observe your solo mistakes, but what you gonna do in the recording studio?

Habit 5 – practice your guitar staying on your feet as like you are already on the stage. The difference is very big when you practice your guitar sitting on a chair or staying on your feet. Try it and you will feel that you hands have another position while you are not sitting and just think about that a real rock star is jumping and running around the stage during the whole concert.

Habit 6 – find time and record on your computer every idea of a new song, solo or guitar phrase which is coming into your head. Don’t let this ideas disappear as quickly as they come, instead of this build your own library of good ideas which later you will use in your own songs. You never know what will be you next song and you even don’t imagine how useful is to be prepared for some new compositions.

Habit 7 – don’t be lazy and change the strings on your guitar every two maybe three weeks, depends on how much you play. You must understand what a quality sound is and never allow yourself to play on old strings! A good sound usually leads to a better inspiration!

Habit 8 – try to find time and learn at least one new solo every week, just think about that it’s 52 solos during every year… this will give you an unforgettable experience!

Habit 9 – Watch a guitar concert at least one time per week. You will never become a professional guitarist if you will not know what other guitar players are doing on the stage… the same I would advise you to watch as many as possible guitar schools of different experts or at least those from YouTube. And here is the best YouTube guitar lesson channels list.

Habit 10 – Another good habit is to read all possible books and news related to guitar. There is so much information nowadays related to guitar and it is so much interesting to look through all of it that you will forget what means a boring evening! This will also inspire you to make better riffs, have more energy at the repetitions and maybe even will help you to become the leader in your own band because your band mates will respect you more then you think if they will observe that you really know more things than they expected.

I am sure that if you will follow all these steps your guitar playing will be improved 10 times or more. And the most important thing is that you will also grow up as a musician and as a personality in general.

Dave Mustaine - A Heavy Metal Memoir Book Review

Today I am gonna talk about a book which every self respected thrash metal guitar player should have in his musical library! Do you have a musical library? If no, then I advise you to start collecting some books, movies and everything else because a real musician should know lots of things about music itself besides just playing his favorite instrument. So, “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir” book written by Dave Mustaine could be your first travel through the history of thrash metal.

Yes, I can freely say that it’s a biographical book which describes Mustaine’s life from early childhood till nowadays, (release date – August 3rd 2010). It covers absolutely everything starting from the days when Mustaine left his home and started to live his restless life moving from hose to house looking for a better life. His interest in metal appeared when a friend from a record store helped him with albums of such bands like AC/DC, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. For sure that those were the days when Dave decided to try a guitar in his own hands.

The story continues with the band Panic which he later left in order to join Metallica… in this part of the book you can read all the untold stories and secrets, with other words – the real truth the way it was. And undoubtedly you will read about Megadeth, everything about band members, concerts, studio work and so on.

After reading some other reviews of this book on the internet, I observed that many bloggers write that in this book Dave Mustaine was too sincere… but for me, this means that if you are a great fan of Megadeth and especially Dave Mustaine – this is the first book you should have on your table tonight. And the price is about 20$ (depends from the shop), which is not so much money if compared to the information you can find out and the pleasure you can get out of it! I wish you good luck and don’t forget to start gathering your library today cause maybe in the appropriate future some of your books will help you to achieve great success in your musical career!

The Blue Noize Blues Competition Winner

I am writing this post because finally these days the winner of the blue noize guitar contest was announced! You can read the detailed information from the original source, but what I want to do is just to add a little notice why the winner is the winner, because from my point of view there where really many good solos and I think that it was hard to decide which one was the best of the best …it’s just all about emotions! As I told you before in my other posts – the most important thing in playing any kind of instrument – is not only the speed, quality technique or a beautiful melody – it’s about transmitting the audience your feelings! …and that is what I think the judges liked the most in themattchandler’s solo. You’d better watch it with your own eyes, but I’m going to practice some new riffs I’m gonna film for you in the appropriate future.

Today I would like to show you one of the best pentatonic phrases composed by me. To tell you the truth – it’s not so easy to play for a newbie, especially in the fast tempo – but I am also sure that your great desire to become a superhero guitarist will help you a lot. I also advise you to look with attention at the tab at the bottom of this post because it will help you a lot to understand all the details, I mean where to use the legato technique and were to play using the pick! And don’t forget to practice it in the slow tempo in order to achieve better results in the future… training in the slow tempo is the mother of high speed solo

Speedy Pentatonic Phrase