I'm back  

Posted by Guitar Player

I've been away for some time but now I'm back.

I'm planning on releasing a new guitar backingtrack so you can practice on it.

See you in a few days!

Warm Up Exercises  

Posted by Guitar Player

In the past I've given some tips on warming up. Now I am going to give you some exercises that you can play to warm up.

Now, before we begin, why should you warm up before you play the guitar?

Well, first of all you can injure yourself. If that doesn't determine you to warm up, then think of it as this: If you don't warm up, you won't be at your best when you play. You performance could as well be as 50% without a warm up.

Or think of it as this: The best guitarists in the world warm up before a practice session, a concert or a recording session. All of them. They probably have a good reason for it :)

Ok enough with the blabber. Let's get to the exercises:

Exercise 1:

Some scales. I would advice you use a metronome. I will say it again. Use a metronome. And agai... never mind :)

When you want to play any instrument, you need to be able to play to a beat. If you can't keep a bit by tapping your foot, nodding your head or follow the beat of the drum machine, metronome, etc, you won't get very far.

Now, back to the point. Do some scales, VERY SLOWLY. If you want to be able to play fast, you have to start slowly. Like do scales, at 60bmp, one note per beat for a min or two. After a minute or two, you can get a little faster. Remember this is only the warm up. Just keep it slow for the first minutes.

Here's an example of a scale:



Of couse this is not the only scale you are limited to. You can even do some chromatic scales (1-2-3-4) but by doing these scales, you practice 3 things at once:

1) You warm up
2) You practice your scale shapes
2) You gain dexterity by moving your finger within certain patterns

Exercise 2:

Now, it starts to get more exciting. You can start doing fragments of scales now. Do them alone, connected, your choice. Let me give you some examples.



I hope this was helpful. Have a nice practice session :)

Working  

Posted by Guitar Player

I'm working on a metal back track now :) It will be done in a day or 2 :)

Done :)  

Posted by Guitar Player

It's done hehe. I hope you like it. It seems the sound quality dropped a little when I uploaded it to YouTube.



Have fun improvising :)

Surprise coming up  

Posted by Guitar Player

I've got something for you guys/gals. It's going to be done in a few days (I hope) and I think you're gonna like it.

Warming up - some more tips  

Posted by Guitar Player

I can't stress this enough. Warm up!
Why? Here's the logic behind this. By the way, this applies to a lot of instruments.

If your fingers/hands are warmed up, blood flow will be better, which enhances your playing. How many times did you pick up your instrument, and just started playing.

Did you start feeling some pain in fingers/arms? Did you play really bad? Were your fingers like stuck? That's because you didn't warm up.

Here's an older article of mine on stretching and warming up: http://soulfulguitar.blogspot.com/2009/06/stretching.html

Play some slow exercises for a few minutes. Play some simple chords. Do some stretching exercises on the guitar. Massage the areas of your body where you feel tense.

Cya soon!

Basic Chord Progressions  

Posted by Guitar Player

If you already know some basic chords, it's very possible you've tried to write some basic songs.

If that is the case, I'll show you some basic chord progressions.
Now, before I start, I'll tell you this: Lyrics don't show you what chords to use, and chords don't tell you what lyrics to use.

Now, on to the progressions: (you can play with the strumming)

Some Basic Progressions:
1) C - F - C - F
2) G - D - C (famous "Knocking on heaven's door" Progression)

Some Folk Progressions:
1) C - G7 - C - G7
2) C - C - G7 - G7

Some Blues Progressions:
1) C - F - C - C ( I - IV - I - I)
2) F - F - C - C (IV - IV - I - I)
3) G - F - C - G (V-IV-I-V)
4) C7 - C7 - C7 - C7
5) F7 - F7 - C7 - C7
6) G7 - F7 - C7 - G7

Hope the lesson was useful. Keep on rocking! I'll come with a lesson at some point that explains how to build your own progressions and how to transpose these ones for example into other keys.

I'm back  

Posted by Guitar Player

Hey guys, I know I was gone for some time :)

I've been working with my band and got distracted. Posting should resume in a few days :D

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