Country Guitar Lessons – Songs With Only Two Chords!
Posted by admin
The key to mastering country guitar lessons is to start with songs that have very few chords and the chords are relatively easy to play. It’s usually a problem to find tunes with that criteria, but sometimes a well-placed capo can be the fix.
However difficult the songs might be in your guitar music lessons, try using a capo to move the chords into a key that’s much easier to execute. But let’s take a look at some genuinely easy two-chord songs.
Achy Breaky Heart
The first song we’ll analyze is “Achy Breaky Heart” and it uses the chords ‘A’ and ‘E’. The strumming pattern is very simple with four evenly-spaced strokes on each chord like this:
AAAA | AAAA | AAAA | EEEE |
EEEE | EEEE | EEEE | AAAA |
Here’s the tabs for each chord:
A chord E chord
–0—- –0—
–2—- –0—
–2—- –1—
–2—- –2—
–0—- –2—
–x—- –0—
Ok, so here’s where some capo magic comes into play. For instance, you migt have a difficult time playing the ‘A’ chord in its native position, but you can change its shape. Simply stick a capo on the second fret and use a ‘G’ chord formation instead for the rest of your country guitar lessons.
And with the capo on the second fret, the chords to “Achy Breaky Heart” become ‘D’ and ‘G’ instead. Neat! It’s much easier to play in this manner for those who have larger fingers. Now, let’s take on another tune for your guitar music lessons.
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Does anything look familiar to you? It should because it has the same progressions as Achy Breaky Heart! Even the same strumming pattern. Check it out:
AAAA | AAAA | AAAA | EEEE |
EEEE | EEEE | EEEE | AAAA |
I hope that you nail that one pretty quick in other country guitar lessons from now on. You have no excuse!
The next one we’ll try is called Jambalya and just like the title, it only has two chords and they’re in this progression:
EEEE | EEEE | B7B7B7B7 | B7B7B7B7 |
B7B7B7B7 | B7B7B7B7 | EEEE | EEEE |
EEEE | EEEE | B7B7B7B7 | B7B7B7B7 |
B7B7B7B7 | B7B7B7B7 | EEEE | EEEE |
We’ve already covered the ‘E’ chord, so let’s look at the ‘B7’ chord:
–2—
–0—
–2—
–1—
–2—
–x—
Now, you might be looking at that ‘B7’ chord and thinking “Darn, that one’s a little tough.” Well, you’re right. Most beginners starting guitar music lessons can’t handle a ‘B7’ chord and so… we’ll use the magic of the capo once again!
Snap your capo on the second fret, and now you can play with the chords ‘D’ and ‘A7’. Use the same progression of the song of course.
Here’s the ‘D’ and ‘A7’ chords:
—2—- —0—-
—3—- —2—-
—2—- —0—-
—0—- —2—-
—x—- —0—-
—x—- —x—-
Don’t be afraid if Jambalya appears to have a more complicated chord progression because it’s only being repeated instead of going just one time through. Tricked ya!
I hope that you’ve learned something about easy songs and how you can change the more difficult chords by use of the capo. It’s so easy right? So the next time you try any more country guitar lessons, you’ll be ready for anything that gets thrown at you.
Learn Guitar Fast
Posted by admin
If you want to learn guitar fast, it’s all about understanding the basic concepts of the guitar before you put anything into action. If you take the time to follow these important concepts when it comes to learning the guitar, you’ll be jamming out in less time than you think.
(1) Have your play action properly set up by a professional.
Whether you receiv
ed a hand-me-down instrument or a brand new guitar, the play action should be inspected by a professional at your local music store. Just about any good guitar store should be able to do this for you because it’s rare that your guitar is in top-playing condition when you initially purchase it.
The guitar action that we’re talking about is the distance from the fretboard to the strings. It’s a very short distance, but means all the world if you want to learn guitar fast. Some problems associated with bad guitar action include buzzing strings, sore fingers, and straining on your hands. Think about it.
(2) Equipment doesn’t make you better. You make you better.
It’s a common misconception that having all the best gear for your guitar can help you become an expert at the instrument. Sadly, that very wrong. Only hard work and dedicating enough hours to practice can get you to the level that you want to be. Equipment and gear will only enhance your true talent.
(3) Know rhythm inside and out.
By rhythm, I’m talking about the beat and the tempo put together. If you can’t follow a consistent tempo, you need to learn, pronto! A general audience hears music in the order of rhythm and then the melody and that’s why it’s so important that the rhythm is as perfectly on target as it can be.
That’s why most new guitarists can’t learn guitar fast. They’re mislead to believe that the most important thing is the chords. Think again.
(4) Start easy.
As simple as this one sounds, its often overlooked. The simpler that you begin, the more accurate you’ll be at progressing into a fine musician. Like I stated earlier, focus on easy chords so that you can nail the rhythm first.
(5) Forget about being fancy with your strumming patterns.
This is reiterates what was mentioned above, but to learn guitar fast, you should start with strumming patterns that land on the quarter note beats to keep things simple. The simpler you begin the easier it will be to develop your musical ear and memorize the sound of each note.
(6) Learn songs with only two chords to begin.
There are tons of two chord songs that can jump start you on the way to playing great! Plus, many of these songs share the same two chords! Learn your first two chords accurately and you’ll find that adding more into your library will be a breeze.
These are six concepts that will put in the right frame of mind to learn guitar fast and become a great player. Don’t get caught up in all the musical theory and try to do too much at once. Take things easy to start and you’ll be just fine.
Lead Guitar Lessons – How To Start Playing Scales
Posted by admin
In most lead guitar lessons, scales are constantly promoted. When you open a guitar magazine or see a YouTube tutorial about improving on the instrument, you usually come across someone screaming in your face over and over again about scales, scales, and more scales!
So what do scales really do for you? They’re very effective at improving the skills of an experienced player. I’m sorry to say that, but it really applies to a player who is somewhat experienced and didn’t just buy the Toys ‘R’ Us guitar model yesterday with their mom.
But you must have noticed by now that everyone is promoting the idea of scales whether it’s lead guitar lessons, rhythm guitar lessons, or some guy on the street. However, no one seems to know why!
They must improve your health or your facial features or something right? Not exactly.
See, the problem with scales is that when you start to play some repetitive drills, you really loosen your fingers and get some better technique, but all you remember are the scales. You’re not remembering any beautiful melodies or sweet riffs by your favorite band. You just remember those static and boring scales.
“I don’t want to play scales then!” You might be yelling at your screen by now. Stop! Don’t fret just yet, (Lame pun) because we’re going to bend the rule a little.
What most lead guitar lessons don’t shine on you is the idea of creating your own scales out of the music you already enjoy hearing and crave to learn. A novel idea? I think so as well. The reason we want to do this is so eventually playing becomes second nature. Your fingers send signals to your brain and your brain shoots ideas back to your fingers. How harmonious.
For instance, we can take something called the “climbing scale” and actually apply it to a guitar solo if we so wanted to, but it serves great as a practicing mechanism all on its own. It’s like taking the tough part of a solo and focusing intently on it, but all over the fret board.
Let’s try it out in the key of “C” major.
Here are the quick steps to this scale:
1. Try it out on two strings of your choice.
2. Choose a key to follow. (ex. “C” major)
3. Play your “climbing scale” in sections of six notes.
I’m gonna start with the first and second strings for this example.
Starting with the second string, I’m going to play the following notes in the “C” scale:
————-1–3–5——-
–1–3–5——————
—————————
—————————
—————————
—————————
These notes are C – D – E (on the b string) and F – G – A (on the e string)
Now we’re going to move up the “C” scale and play the next notes while moving up the frets:
————-3–5–7——-
–3–5–6——————
—————————
—————————
—————————
—————————
And these notes are D – E – F (on the b string) and G – A – B (on the e string)
You’re getting the hang of it now! Let’s move up even more on the scale:
————-5–7–8——-
–5–6–8——————
—————————
—————————
—————————
—————————
Pay close attention and notice that these are not the same frets as you go up. These notes follow the strict pattern of the “C” major scale as outlined in all guitar music lessons.
So as you can see, this is one way to take scales and actually add some application to them! Fantastic I know. Remember this the next time you have your own lead guitar lessons and try to turn your favorite riffs into a creative practice routine that you’ll enjoying doing.
Guitar Music Lessons – Why They Can Make You Awesome at Guitar
Posted by admin
Guitar music lessons are really quite magical things. You see, they take pure, gentle, naive beginning players and turn them into monstrous shredding demons of the night! These players now prowl around in the dark searching for fresh brains!
Of course, that isn’t really what a guitar course does for you, but it ABSOLUTELY gives you more of a competitive edge over your fellow players that decided that “teaching themselves” was the way to learn guitar fast.
Now, the reason YOU are here is most likely because you want to take the EFFICIENT route and learn everything about the guitar correctly! Let’s check out some bullets of what guitar music lessons can really do for you.
1. You’ll learn to play SONGS!
This is the whole reason why you wanna pick up that hunk of wood in the first place right?! With guitar courses you’ll quickly learn the fundamentals and important strategies to execute all of your favorite songs with consistent practice.
2. You’ll learn special warm-up scales and techniques to sculpt super-fast fingers.
Self-taught guitarists might step onto the stage for a performance and screw it up horribly without these ritualistic pre-show warm-ups, but not you. Guitar music lessons will teach you all of the tips and tricks to get your fingers nimble, quick, and jumping over candlesticks!
3. You’ll develop rhythm and tempo.
These are fundamental ideas to all guitar music. Tempo is the consistent speed inside each tune. Rhythm is how you manipulate the tempo. Tricky eh?
4. You’ll learn how to play with other musicians in a band atmosphere.
Guitar music lessons is all about the application of your skill set and learning to play in a band or with other guitarists is extremely important to learn. You’ll develop techniques to play harmony lines, tackle improvisational lead riffs, and build chord progressions on the fly!
Take a look at these reasons and just TRY to convince me that learning guitar on your own is the “better” choice. Just TRY! Ok, I’m being a little pushy, but I hope you realize WHY a guitar course can substantially super-charge your skills to the next level and you have a little fun learning in the process! In this way, you can learn guitar fast!
