Chord of the day #6  

Posted by Guitar Player in

The chord of the day is the D Major chord. A very popular and very used chord. Very interesting sounding tho.




Back from the concert  

Posted by Guitar Player in

I'm back from the concert. It rocked. Sadly, in the time frame that the concert ended, Michael Jackson passed away. Me and a friend were chatting about one of his videos. I found out the other day. I don' really know what to say about his death. I think Brian May said that Michael is now with his good friend, Freddie Mercury.


I'll be away for a few days  

Posted by Guitar Player in

I'm going to a rock concert in another city, and I'll be away for 2 - 3 days. :)


Chord of the day # 5  

Posted by Guitar Player in

This is a very very very very ... (after a few hours) very very popular chord! It's used in alot of very well known songs. It's Am (A minor). It's a bit sad sounding, but works good with alot of other chords. Here it is:



Enjoy!


Chord of the day # 4  

Posted by Guitar Player in

The chord of the day is A7. It's a very bluesy sounding chord. It's easy to do also. Just play around with the chords I already gave you.

The secret to learning and mastering chords is playing them while doing something else. Watch TV or surf the net while mindlessly strumming chords. That way you'll be able to play them without thinking. You'll be surprised on how good you get in a short amount of time.

Tip: So you can measure the extent of your improvement, record yourself now playing some chords. Even if it sounds awful, do it. And be sure to check them after some time. A month, or two. You'll laugh in amusement.



Have fun with this one :D


Chord of the day # 3  

Posted by Guitar Player in

Hey guys. Sorry that I didn't do any new posts for a few days but i had some problems with my modem. Here's the chord for the day:



A tricky chord at first. Avoid plucking the E, the thickest string. It sounds great tho.


The Pose  

Posted by Guitar Player in

You may be wondering right now why a I talking about your pose when you only learned like 3 chords. It's simple. Building your pose takes time. And it really helps you with your overall look. Let me give you 2 examples. Who would you rather look like?:

Some guy:




OR

Slash:




??

I would choose Slash. I'm not saying imitate him completely. I'm just saying take something from everyone. Look on a list of famous guitarists and check out how they stand, how they walk on stage, how low do they keep their guitar? It's easy to play your guitar if you keep it on your chest, but it sure doesn't look cool. Keep your guitar as low as possible. Some around the area under the belly-button. I'm not saying lower it until the point you can't play. Just lower it enough to look cool. Check yourself in the mirror while you do certain moves with the guitar while playing, check your facial expressions, etc.

What about facial expressions? Well, what about em. When you do bends for example, when doing a very long and soulful one, do what B.B. King does :P

I hope you learned something from this post. Good luck and cya next time!


Chord of the day #2  

Posted by Guitar Player in

Today's chord is an E7 chord. It's a very bluesy sounding chord. In blues, 7 chords are often used.
Here's how it's chart looks:



If you do not know how to read this chart, here is an explanation, along with the first chord i ever posted here: click here


Chord of the day #1  

Posted by Guitar Player in

The chord of the day is a minor chord. Basically, minor chords sound sad and major chords sound happy.

This is Em (E minor):



How to read the chord diagram:

Imagine you are holding the guitar from the neck, and the body is 90 degrees from the ground. The body is down. Look at the guitar that way and you will see it. The black dots are where to pur your fingers. The numbers under the chart represent the finger number (1,2,3,4 since the thumb is excluded) and the "0" symbol means that that certain string needs to vibrate so you don't have to touch it. When you see a "x" symbol, it means that the string needs to be muted. Gently put your finger on it, without pressin it to the fretboard so it's muted.

Have fun with this one (or cry, in this case). More chords to come.


Stretching  

Posted by Guitar Player in

Soon, you will learn your first chord. Before we do so, we need to learn how to do a few stretches. It only takes about 5 minutes, good to do borefore you have a gig, before you play with your friends or before you want to do your daily exercise routine (wich can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on what skill level you want to reach). It's important to do a stretch in order to avoid any accidents that could happen during your play. Chill. It only takes a few mins and it will make you a better player also.

It's simple basically. Start streching your arms, your wrists, upper body, shoulders, just do circular motions, unwind your fingers (don't snap them. they will get weakened with time), etc. This will get more blood in those areas of the body. After you do this, get your guitar and start doing some fingering exercises. Do 1-2-3-4 on every string, etc. Even do some scales or chords if you know any.

Do this and you'll be ready to rock in no time!



The Parts Of The Guitar  

Posted by Guitar Player in

I will give you an overview of the parts of the guitar. I will explain what every part does.
I will be giving as an example Electric Guitar parts, since it's more complex and has all the parts that the acoustic has anyway.

1) The headstock:



2) The guitar nut:



It's the white slim piece of white plastic at the beginning of the headstock.

3) The Machine Heads:




Used to tune the strings to their right pitch.

4) The Frets:



The frets are these little metalic pieces that help make out the fretboard.

5) The Neck & Fretboard:

It's the same picture that you can see a few lines up from here. The fretboard basically contains the notes that you play. The fretboard is placed on the neck of the guitar.

6) The Body:

I think this is self explanatory but here's a picture:




This is an unfinished guitar body.

7) The guitar pickups:



Here's how they work: When you pluck a string, the vibration is picked up by these pickups. They are basically magents. The signal from the pickup is sent through the guitar and into your amp. An acoustic guitar does not have pickups.

8) The electronics:



Those 4 little buttons. 2 control the volume and 2 control the tone. Some guitars only have 2 of them. One for volume and one for tone. If you are wondering how the tone ones need to be, just keep them maxed all the way to 10.

9) The pickguard:

What it basically does it this: Prevents your pick from scratching the surface of the guitar. Some guitars have one, some do not.

That's basically all you need to know about the guitar parts.

Related posts to this one:

The First Steps



The First Steps  

Posted by Guitar Player in

Ok here are the things that you will need in order to start playing guitar:

1) An acoustic guitar or and electric guitar. I will explain the differences between the 2 in a later post. Here's how they would look:


2) A pick. If you play acoustic guitar, a pick could not be so important, since you would be doing some finger-style picking (I will explain this also in a later post).
You can buy a pick from your local music store for under 1$ and they look something like this:



3) Once you have your guitar and your pick, it's time to look for a tuner. You can find free virtual tuners on the internet, or you can buy one for around 10-20 $ at your local music shop. It looks something like this:



The way it works: If you look closely at a guitar, you will notice that it has 6 strings. They are called: E A D G B E from the thickest to the slimest. Sometimes, these strings go out of tune. This is where the tuner comes in. It tells you if a string is sharp (also referred to as "#") or flat (also referred to as "b"). You use the tuning knobs to adjust the string, until the tuner indicates that it is in tune.

4) A strap. A strap is usually a piece of leather that help you play the guitar while standing. It looks something like this:


5) Visiting this blog regularly. I will post here every few. I will start with the basics, the guitar parts, what styles can be played on a certain type of guitar, chords, I will teach you how to play popular songs, I will teach you advanced techniques so you can master the guitar as fast as humanly possible. From time to time I will throw in short tips, scales and little secrets.

Cya in the next post, where we will talk in depth about the parts of the guitar, how to position your hands when playing, how to hold the guitar and I will teach you your very first chord.




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