learn-guitar.org

Pentatonic scale passing tones have been a mystery to me. Actually, make that any kind of passing tones on the guitar. Like I have written before, so much of this music theory stuff goes right over my head. In any case, I have been working on some of the pentatonic scales for a long time. I think it is fun, and it is really pretty easy to pick up the guitar and work on these scales whenever I have a few minutes.

In any case, I figured these passing tones would remain another guitar mystery for me for a long time… hoping that one day it would all be clear. Well, I suppose that’s what happened… because in my guitar lesson last week I was screwing around playing some pentatonic leads while my instructor played rythm… and I screwed up and played a bad note. Or I thought I did… but my instructor Tom told me it was a passing tone. I guess I played one without even realizing what it was.

So this is the deal with passing tones (and this works for the pentatonic scale - but I bet it works for other scales as well.) If you play other notes that are in between the notes of the scale… but you play them quickly and don’t stop or dwell on them, then you are basically OK. I think there are specific notes that are good passing tones, and a bunch of these make up the “blues scale"… but Tom is pretty relaxed (if it sounds good, then it is good!)… and he said that you could probably throw in just about any note and it would be OK as a passing tone.

Another part of this is playing swing rythm… but that is all for another day.

File under: pentatonic scale, lead guitar, passing tone

After a year of learning, I figured it was time to revisit my Jamorama review. This is the deal… I started playing guitar a couple of Decembers ago when I bought myself a guitar for Christmas. I am 40 something and I have never played a guitar before… and any other musical instrument. So I figured that I am a pretty tough case study for any guitar training or learn guitar type of system. So I figured it was a good idea to do some type of a Jamorama review.

So let me begin this review of Jamorama with a description of what you get…

In Jamorama Book one there is these headings - beginners - intro to strumming - intro to chords - reading tabs - first string notes - easy chords - healthy learning - various dominant chords. This is a killer introduction, and the 52 included audio clips let you hear what the lessons are supposed to sound like. This is great stuff for a true beginner.

In Jamorama Book two there is a bunch more - this is more intermediate level material, including sight reading - bass note runs - major seventh chords - various strum patterns and chord progressions. You also get an intro to scales and lots of different chords. Pluse you get 61 audio clips… these help you figure out what you are supposed to sound like.

In Jamorama Book three you get more advanced - the advanced level stuff includes minor scales - barre chords - power chords - ninth chords - diminished chords - and augmented chords. This book also has 31 audio clips to go along with it. The audio clips are downloadable MP3 clips that you can play on your computer or anywhere else you can play an MP3.

One of the coolest things about Jamorama is that it is all downloadable, so you can get it quickly… actually immediately. I hate ordering a guitar book and having to wait to get it delivered. Of course, this means that you need to be sure to remember where you put it on your hard drive. What I like to do is print out the PDF file, and then I have a hard copy of the course.

File under: Jamorama, jamorama review, guitar

The Pentatonic scale is giving me lots to study right now. I started off working with the Am (that’s the A minor) scale on the fifth fret. That one seems to be the easiest of the five pentatonic box patterns.

I have that Pentatonic scale pattern pretty much down. I know it, and can play it pretty consistently… although I wouldn’t mind playing it a lot faster. And that same pentatonic pattern can be moved around the neck. For instance if you play it at the 12th fret (12th position), then you are playing it in E. And if you play it all the way down the neck at the open position, you are also playing it in E. That’s all I know for now… but I am sure you can play the same pattern in other places on the neck.

The other pattern I learned was the G major pattern at the 5th fret. This one is a little tougher, because you are actually playing it over a total of five frets (instead of four frets with that Am box I mentioned above.) That means you are going to be moving your fingers around a little more.

All in all, it seems like some very useful stuff… all of a sudden I am playing some leads. It’s sorta amazing to me (as a complete novice still) that without knowing more than a couple of simple pentatonic box patterns, I can be playing lead guitar. Now that doesn’t mean my leads sound all that great… but at least they technically belong.

OK, I am just checking this one out, but I found some free guitar lessons that are available via Podcast. Since I just got an MP3 player for Christmas (and haven’t even set it up yet), I am not really all that up to speed on podcasts - but I bet you can use these free guitar lessons even if you don’t do the podcast thing yet.

In any case, here is the link to these free guitar lessons: link to lessons

Now these free guitar lessons start at a REALLY basic level, such as the parts of the guitar, how to hold the guitar, etc.. I guess now that I am one learn into learning guitar I am not so much into this stuff (even though I sometimes forget where the nut is and where the saddle is - actually, I more forget which is which.)

In any case, this looks like a really cool “learning guitar” resource for beginners. And it isn’t all ultra-beginner stuff… it gets into strum patterns, chord transitions, and all that kind of stuff… so I recommend you take a look.

File under: free guitar lessons, learn guitar

So I went looking for Guitar chord charts today. This was spurred by me not knowing the B7 chord - yesterday I was looking up Christmas songs (in particular, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen chords). Turned out it was a simple song, but it had the B7 chord… which I didn’t know. Now I don’t have a chord chart… so I went running off to look it up online, and I found my favorite guitar chord site (more on that later.) But that didn’t quite do it for me, I decided that I needed to have a…

Guitar chord chart - how cool would it be to have a nice wall chart in my practice room. Or even better, a nice laminated chord chart that folded up and went into my guitar case. Of course, I have actually seen guitar chord computers out there, but I was more interested in a chart - something I could hold and look at. So I went looking for something that fit along these lines… and a free guitar chord chart would be even better.

Here’s a series of free guitar chord charts at this link. However, it is spread out over a whole bunch of pages. A good start, but not exactly what I had in mind. Nevertheless, you could print this out and it should come out nice. Wouldn’t make much of a guitar chord poster though.

But take a look at this chord chart… this is starting to look a bit more like it.

That’s it for now… dinner time. But I will continue my search for the perfect guitar chord chart.

File under: guitar chord chart,
guitar chords

Blues scale guitar riff - I just found a cool resource. Personally, I sure struggle with getting a blues sound out of my guitar. Of course, a big part of that is that I am still a beginner. But for some reason I can read about blues scales and blues chords, but when I play stuff it just doesn’t sound like the blues. So I am sort of excited about this book I just found - it seems to do a good job of explaining how to get a good blues scale riff going on my guitar.

The thing with the typical blues guitar scale riff is that you can look at the notes and play the notes, but there is more to simply picking those notes to getting a blues sound out of your guitar. And I am not talking about electric guitar here and setting up everything right. I am talking about a basic acoustic guitar. In any case, this book does a good job of explaining why this is so. I don’t want to give a complete blues scale lesson here (in fact, I am completely unqualified to do anything like that.) But if you are interested in the blues scale or doing any blues riffing on your guitar, then check out this resource.

Here is the link for for the blues scale guitar riff book. Actually, the best thing is that you can download a big chunk of this book for free. Enough to decide if you want to buy it.

File under: blues guitar scale,
blues guitar riff

So I am working on the pentatonic scale on my guitar now - and I am STILL having fun learning. I have been learning about the pentatonic scale in “The Everything Rock & Blues Guitar Book” by Marc Schonbrun. I will have to get a link up to the book at some point, but I am a little too busy right now. A lot of people complain about learning scales…

But so far I have been having fun with the pentatonic scale. Actually, the book quickly takes you beyond the basic scale and turns it into the blues scale by adding a couple of b flats in. And THAT really makes the scale sound a lot cooler.

Now so far I have only learned one “form” of the pentatonic scale - and there are five different forms… all in due time! None of this stuff with learning the guitar comes easy for me, I struggle with everything.

HOWEVER, I am spending some time with this - not the four hours a day some people seem to practice, but I am practicing my guitar three to five times a day, 15 to 20 minutes each time. I seem to have lots of little breaks when I can pick up my guitar, and doing it this way makes it fun.

So right now, I am working on the first form of the A minor pentatonic scale - that is the notes A, C, D, E, and G. You throw in the Em (E minor) and you end up with the blues scale. There is a bit of music theory mixed in with this book… which is OK with me. Hard to understand, but I can take it in small doses.

File under: guitar lessons,
learn guitar

Wow… I found some cool free guitar videos. This looks like great stuff for learning guitar. I haven’t been through all of it yet, but I wanted to put up a blog post - this way I know I won’t lose this link, I can always come back here to find the link to these videos.

It can be hard to focus on what you want to learn on your guitar, there are so many great resources.
Jamorama is still just about my favorite. And I also like the Principles. And Guitar From Scratch.

But it is really cool to find guitar videos like this… especially for free. The only problem is something seems to be really messed up when I try to play the videos. The audio part is all broken up… don’t know what is going wrong. I am going to assume that it is either my connection or my computer - I just wish I could see these videos OK.

They are quicktime videos… and I think I am setup OK for quicktime videos (I am running Windows XP Pro) - they load ok, and I can see them - this guy is shredding away on his guitar), and I can hear them… but the sound is way messed up.

File under: learn guitar,Jamorama
, guitar video

After my last post about barre chords, I found this really cool video at Ultimate-Guiter.com. The video is basically a tutorial on how to play barre chords, and it is oriented towards beginners.

Check out the video on barre chords here.

This is the amazing thing about learning to play guitar in the age of the internet… I can’t imagine trying to learn to play guitar before you could download tabs, lessons, and entire courses about guitar.

I am pretty amped about this barre chord video… I just downloaded it and played it through for the first time. The download is huge - 35 megabytes, but it was worth it. As I mentioned before, I was just starting in on these barre chords, so this is pretty cool to come across a free video on how to play barre chords.

tags: guitar chords,
learn to play guitar
,
barre chords

So where are all the barre chord fans out there? It seems like after I was playing for only a month or two on the open chords, I started to hear about
barre chords. I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. Then a friend of mine spent a few minutes showing me how you can move a barre chord up and down the fret board, and I started to clue into why barre chords are cool.

The other thing about that basic intro to barre chords was that I started to understand just a little bit about the fret board and how you can figure out the various notes and chords. Now mind you I am not an expert… in fact, I am barely even a beginner. But just the slightest glimmer of understanding is starting to seep in.

It seems like the E shaped barre chord is one of the favorites… or at least one of the easiest barre chords. And it didn’t take too long for me to be able to form that E shaped barre chord and move it around. It didn’t always sound great (and it still doesn’t), but I am making progress. However, I still really stink when it comes to moving to it in any type of a timely fashion.

Then another friend pointed out that the good old F major chord is really a barre chord, since you are holding down the first two strings on the first fret. Well now, here is a barre chord that I can actually make with some degree of alacrity.

In my last post I asked if I could move this barre chord - the F major shape - around the fret board to make different chords. Logic seems to say yes, but I can’t find any references to it in any of my “learning guitar” books, or even any chord reference books.

Reference tags: guitar,
guitar chords

I am working on learning how to use my right hand on the guitar. For most folks, the right hand is the hand that you use to strum the guitar strings (while the left hand is the hand that you use on the fretboard to make notes and chords). As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working with the “Priniciples of Correct Practice for the Guitar” for the last week or two. This stuff definitely is NOT for everyone, but I think it is what I need right now in my path to learning to play the guitar.

In any case, I am working on my right hand right now. That is sorta wild, it means I am not even touching the fretboard of my guitar with my left hand. In fact… in some of these excercises I am not even making a sound with the guitar. How is THAT for a different way to learn guitar?

In any case, this right handing string shifting excercise is all about moving your pick (if you are playing pick style) or your fingers (if you are playing fingerstyle) to the various guitar strings in a very controlled manner. You do it painstakingly slow… and then you gradually get faster. But the real key is that as you move over the guitar strings with your right hand, you are alwasy focused on not having any tension in your body. That means in your fingers, your forearm, your bicep, your shoulders, your neck, your belly, your legs.

The key is you learn to play the guitar, and you learn to use your right hand on the guitar, without any undue tension in your body. That means your body will move more freely and easily as you play the guitar.

file under:
learn guitar,
guitar

links: Principles of Correct Guitar Practice

OK, here is a bit more on the Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar“. As I mentioned in my guitar chair blog entry… this is some intense guitar learning instruction. It isn’t for the faint of heart.

This course starts off with coaching you on how to sit with your guitar, and how to hold your guitar. After that, ” Guitar Principles” you get into the right hand string shifting excercise, where you just work on touching the six strings.

In other words, you are going to spend a lot of time with this course before you even make the first sound with your guitar. The key point is that you are becoming something of a guitar athlete… training your muscles to make the correct movements. And the principles course emphasizes that you REALLY have to focus as you are doing these very simple excercises. That is how you train your muscles. The theory is that later on, when you get around to actually playing your guitar, you will have trained your body in the exact way it needs to move.

That means that you will be able to take those basic movements and incorporate them in your playing… at a much faster and smoother pace.

So far, I haven’t even gotten into the left hand. This is all right hand stuff. I think it will get a little more interesting when I start putting the two hands together. But right now, it is all right hand. Then it will be all left hand. Then you put them together.

Oh, and by the way… you might be wondering about that guitar chair. It is all about having the correct posture. So I had to find a chair that supported that correct posture and position for playing my guitar.

file under: guitar, guitar practice

OK, I just bought a guitar chair - I think I have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the Principles. What am I talking about? Well the “The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar“. Now I will admit… this is some pretty intense stuff, and it is definitely not for everyone.

Basically, ” Guitar Principles” is a course that teaches you how to practice guitar.

Now read that again… it isn’t about learning guitar, it is about practicing guitar. Of course, if you figure out how to practice effectively, and you follow through and do the practice… well then you will be learning how to play guitar. But this is a fundamentally different type of approach, and I have to warn you - it is pretty rigorous.

I bought the book first, and I was skeptical. But sometimes I am a glutton for punishment… so I decided to get the DVD. And did I tell that guitar principles was rigorous? I am 35 minutes into the first of the two DVDs, and I have basically learned how to hold the guitar properly and use my right hand to touch the strings. In fact, I was probably 30 minutes into the DVD before I actually made a sound with the guitar.

This is serious practicing, for the serious guitar student. Actually, I don’t know how serious of a student I am… but I am definitely hungry to learn. So far I have just scratched the surface with this guitar principles technique… and this blog post barely scratches the surface of what I have done so far. In fact, I haven’t even told you about my guitar chair and guitar mirror that I bought. Hopefully, I will find time to tell you more…

file under: guitar, learn guitar

I have really been happy learning guitar with Jamorama. Lately I just can’t seem to play enough guitar… I have definitely got the bug. If you have read any of my past entries, I just started getting into guitar a few months ago. And since I tend to be a “self-taught” kind of guy, I decided to try that route with learning guitar. So I bought a few books at the guitar shop when I bought my guitar. Unfortunately, they didn’t take me very far. So I started to search on the web…

That is when I found Jamorama - and I made a pretty quick decision to buy it. I was impressed with everything you get with (including an ear training game), and the price was super-reasonable. In fact, it cost quite a bit less than the quote I got for ONE music theory lesson from a teacher. And Jamorama isn’t about some dry music theory… it is all about starting to play fast.

Now don’t get me wrong, you aren’t going to be Jimi Hendrix in a week or anything. But the books and audios and all the bonuses you get in Jamorama set you up to learn quickly, and actually start PLAYING your guitar quickly. It has been tons of fun, and I my playing really sounds like music… and it wasn’t hard to get to that point.

Jamorama is HIGHLY recommended.

File under: Jamorama, learn guitar, guitar

OK, I am not the biggest country music fan… but Folsom Prison Blues is not your average country song. It is a really killer song, and I would love to learn to play it on my guitar“>. No problem… right? The guitar chords are super easy, even for a beginner like me.

The real problem is in the strum pattern, at least for me. However, I found a killer video online that shows a couple of different ways to do the strum pattern for Folsom Prison Blues.

This isn’t a professional video, it is just guy with a blog and a video camera. The video shows how to do the alternating bass picking strum style (also known as Carter picking). It is really cool, even though I am still struggling to really get the technique down.

In fact, there are really two videos… one that gives a pretty simple guitar strum pattern, and one that gives an even simpler pattern. Be sure to check it out.

OK, I just found another cool “learn guitar” resource… Guitar Lessons On Demand. What I really like about this one is that they have all kinds of video lessons for learning guitar. I like all the books and audios from the other sources I have been learning from, but I am running into a wall trying to get my strumming patterns down.

But the videos for Guitar Lessons On Demand clearly show the strumming patterns. Very cool. And one thing I really like is how they slow things down - in other words, they show the guitar lesson at normal speed, and then they slow it down so mere mortals can really see what is going on with the guitar.

Don’t take my word on it… go check out the free demo videos, they really show some great examples of how you can slow down the strum pattern and really see what is going on, both on the fretboard and with your right hand.

Another thing I really like with this guitar course is that it is really easy to join and quite inexpensive… and they give you lots of sample material and sample videos to check out before you buy. In fact, those sample videos have some great built in lessons even if you don’t buy the course.

File under: guitar lessons,
guitar

Let’s get back to Jamorama reviews… like I wrote a couple of days ago, I just purchased Acoustic Guitar Workshop - and I will be doing a full review of that soon. But right now I want to focus on my long time favorite Jamorama.

In terms of Jamorama reviews and key points, well… one of the things I really like about Jamorama is that it breaks everything down into digestible pieces… and it lets you download all the guitar music samples onto your computer. This means that you can work with it when you aren’t connected to the Internet. And when your connection is really slow, like mine often is, you aren’t sitting around waiting for a page or an audio file to download.

Another piece I wanted to cover in my Jamorama reviews is the Guitar Ear It software. This is some really cool “ear training” software. In my opinion, ear training is really crucial… the ability to recognize chords and notes gives you a huge advantage in your playing. A few people are gifted with this ability naturally, but the rest of us have to learn (or “train") our ears. The Guitar Ear It software that is included in Jamorama turns this training into a game.

More later in my Jamorama reviews (and really, all my “learn guitar” reviews)… but at this point I can say this: Jamorama is highly recommended.

File under: guitar lessons,
guitar, Jamorama reviews

Learn to play guitar quickly… that is the whole key for everyone that gets a guitar. When I got my guitar, the first thing I wanted was to learn guitar well enough so it sounded like I was playing music. I just wanted to learn to play guitar well enough to have fun.

Well, the really cool thing about the guitar, is that you can learn guitar very quickly. It isn’t that hard to get to a somewhat competent level, even if you have no musical talent at all. And take it from me - I have no musical talent or aptitude for any instruments… and I was able to learn guitar in a matter of weeks.

Now I am not claiming to be a virtuoso… but I was able to play very simple songs and melodies within just a few weeks. In fact, in just a few days I had learned to play my guitar well enough to just noodle along and string enough chords together so that I was actually having fun playing my guitar. In other words, I wasn’t just PRACTICING my guitar… I was actually playing my guitar (at least as far as I was concerned).

So if a forty something guy with no musical talent (and who never played an instrument) could learn guitar in a few weeks… what is holding you back?

Get yourself a guitar, get yourself a good “how to play guitar system like Jamorama“, and then start having fun!

So I am about to buy the Acoustic Guitar Workshop - this looks like a really cool program. I am still working to learn to play my guitar and I am having a blast doing it.

And I still love my Jamorama program… I am continuing to work at it, and making some great progress. But I decided to add some spice to the mix and shake things up… so I am going to buy the Acoustic Guitar Workshop program.

The thing I like about this is that it isn’t a static program - it keeps expanding and adding more material. Right now, the Acoustic Guitar Workshop has all these components:

Fingerstyle Blues, Pentatonic To The Blues, Acoustic Blues Slide & Bottleneck Guitar, Beginning Fingerstyle, Beginners Guitar, and Jazz Blues Chord. It also includes a whole bunch of MP3’s, a whole slew of guitar tabs, software for guitarists. They also have lessons from some top guitarists.

This really looks like a cool program - as soon as I get home (I am traveling now) I am going to buy Acoustic Guitar Workshop… so look for a review soon.

Acoustic Guitar Workshop,
guitar,Jamorama

Guitar lessons are something that I have avoided so far - but I am beginning to wonder if it is time to take some lessons. I got my guitar from Santa Claus last December… so I have been learning to play my guitar for the last four and a half months.

Mostly, I have been using the Jamorama guitar learning system - you can see my Jamorama review here - and it has been a total BLAST. I am really enjoying playing my guitar… and last weekend I got a chance to play with other people for the first time.

(What was really cool is that the people I played with are the same folks who inspired me to get my guitar in the first place - we were all on a long river trip together in Grand Canyon, and they played pretty every night around the camp fire… I decided that I needed to learn to play guitar right then and there.)

In any case, even though I am making great progress… I am just starting to think about guitar lessons at some point. More out of a sense of looking for someone to push me and give me direction. I have to admit I feel some loyalty to Jamorama, but I am not going to be dogmatic about how I learn guitar or about guitar lessons.

guitar lessons,
guitar, learn guitar
Jamorama

Learning how to play acoustic guitar - some people say it is harder to play an acoustic than it is to play an electric guitar. They also say it is more fun to play an electric guitar. I suppose it is all about why you want to learn to play guitar.

I really want to learn how to play guitar so I can sit out on my back patio and play, and so I can take my guitar on camping trips and play while I am sitting around the campire. It is tough to do either of those with an electric guitar.

So one of the first things I did when I got my guitar (and one of the best things as well) was to get the online Jamorama course. It is packed with great guitar instuction that really walks you through all the steps to learning to play guitar.

Now don’t get me wrong… I fully plan on getting an electric guitar some day. And it will probably be this year (might make a nice Christmas present). However, right now I am going to stick with my acoustic guitar.

And for learning how to play, I am going to stick with Jamorama.

acoustic guitar,
guitar, learn guitar

Learning how to play acoustic guitar - some people say it is harder to play an acoustic than it is to play an electric guitar. They also say it is more fun to play an electric guitar. I suppose it is all about why you want to learn to play guitar.

I really want to learn how to play guitar so I can sit out on my back patio and play, and so I can take my guitar on camping trips and play while I am sitting around the campire. It is tough to do either of those with an electric guitar.

So one of the first things I did when I got my guitar (and one of the best things as well) was to get the online Jamorama course. It is packed with great guitar instuction that really walks you through all the steps to learning to play guitar.

Now don’t get me wrong… I fully plan on getting an electric guitar some day. And it will probably be this year (might make a nice Christmas present). However, right now I am going to stick with my acoustic guitar.

And for learning how to play, I am going to stick with Jamorama.

acoustic guitar,
guitar, learn guitar

OK, I am getting obsessed with my guitar and guitars in general. A couple of days ago I got a chance to play guitar with some friends - and I got a chance to play a nice old Martin guitar. These just happened to be the same friends that inspired me to starting playing guitar about six months ago. I had so much fun watching them play guitar (and mandolin) around the campfire, I decided that I just had to get a guitar and learn how to play it.

In any case, that was last October… and for Christmas I bought myself a guitar. And I have been playing it almost every day ever since (except when I am traveling… it is hard to bring my guitar along on business trips).

In any case, I got a chance to get together with some of these folks this last weekend, and I brought along my guitar. This was really the first time I ventured out and tried to play my guitar with anyone. And these folks brought along their guitars and mandolins. One of them was a 12 string guitar, and one was a really nice old Martin guitar.

The 12 string was fun… really heavy, but that was a fun guitar and those 12 strings sure put out a lot of sound. And that Martin guitar sure was nice… but I like playing my Walden guitar better. Maybe (probably) it is just a matter of being familar… but I couldn’t wait to get my guitar back. I played the Martin for just long enough to not be rude.

guitar, Martin guitar, learn guitar

Learn guitar - this is all about learning how to play the guitar… I have been on this quest since I got my guitar for Christmas just four months ago. I went from struggling to play the most basic guitar chords to actually making early struggling attempts at barre chords.

Mind you, this learn guitar odyssey has been slow going for me - I am not a musical genius. In fact, I cannot play any other musical instrument. I am struggling to learn guitar - it does not come easy. However, I have learned how to play the basic chords - the ones that they call campfire chords, or open chords.

But this is the deal - while I learn guitar, I am having an awful lot of fun. I usually take 15 to 30 minutes out the day and just bang away at the chords… mostly just C, D, G (those are the basics that every needs to master when they are learning how to play guitar - if you know those three, there are an awful lot of songs you can play.) I also love the other easy guitar chords such as Em, Am, A, E, and F.

That F chord is one of the first real hurdles when you are learing guitar. I am now about 70% of the way there on the F chord.

learn guitar

I am pretty excited about learning guitar chords. I mean the whole finger picking thing and flat picking thing seem cool, but if I learn guitar chords… well I am pretty sure I can be playing songs in a matter of days or weeks.

This is the deal, if I learn the basic guitar chords - often called the open chords - then I can play a lot of songs. I am talking about the D chord and G chord and C chord. If I have those down then I can play the basic 1-4-5 chord progression… and look out, there are all kinds of 1-4-5 chord songs.

Now it might sound like I know a lot about guitar chords, and guitar playing in general… but I really don’t have a clue. I just started a few months ago, and I have exactly zero musical talent. And believe me, I am not just being modest. I really am slow at this stuff. But when you just have to learn to play three chords to be able to start playing songs… well that is achievable by just about anyone.

There are some other useful guitar chords to learn off the bat. I like the Em chord (that is the E minor chord). I like it because I like the sound of it, and because this might be the easiest chord there is to play. The Am is another chord that is easy and sounds cool. Then there is the F chord… every beginner’s nemisis (including me). But if you just keep banging away on it, you will get it.

learn guitar chords

Learn to play guitar - what is the best and quickest way to learn to play the guitar? That is the driving question that so many folks want the answer to. Should you buy a book, take some lessons, get a “learn guitar DVD", or what? This question is something that lots of beginning guitar players struggle with…

I have been working on this thing -learn to play guitar - since I got my guitar last Christmas. I definitely wanted to get that guitar, and I wanted to learn to play the guitar quite badly. I have been working with Jamorama, and I have been really happy with this course.

In my struggle to learn to play my guitar I have also been buying up lots of other books. I even have one on music theory, and another course on ear training. I guess this learning guitar thing has gotten to be something of a passion.

And that is what it pretty much needs to be if I am going to learn how to play guitar with any real skill… because the bottom line is that making music does NOT come easy to me at all. Nevertheless, I am having lots of fun… and feel no pressure. My expectations for my guitar playing is pretty low.

However, now I have a little pressure… I am going on a bike trip soon - basically a week long camping trip with a bunch of other folks. One of those going is bringing a guitar and encouraging others to bring any instruments they might have. Hmmmm. I can hardly play, and haven’t never played with anyone else, or in front of anyone else. Should my guitar stay or should it go?

Time to start really cranking on my practicing and learn how to play the guitar!

learn to play guitar,
guitar,
Jamorama

So I decided it is time for some guitar lessons. I am doing great… been playing for maybe six weeks now. I still love my Jamorama program… for a self-taught program, I am really having a hard time finding anything better than Jamorama.

But I am finding myself lapsing into playing the same chords that I really like to play, and I think I could get a bit more of a push from a few guitar lessons…

I figure if I take lessons, then I might have someone pushing me out of my comfort zone. And being such a beginner, it would be nice to have someone to ask questions. I figure if I get some guitar lessons right now, then it could fix some bad habits that I have right now… bad habits that might be harder to correct after I have played for a long time.

So how do you go about finding a guitar teacher - someone that can give you guitar lessons? That is a darn good question. I figure I can start by asking some of the guitar players that I know. And I should try asking at some of the music stores around.

The one thing that I do know is that there are good guitar lessons and bad guitar lessons… good guitar teachers and bad guitar teachers. It is just like anything else. I want a good teacher, and I know there are plenty out there. So now it is time to start searching for my teacher. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So I guess we will see if I am ready for guitar lessons.

File under: Guitar Lessons

Well, I just bought this course recently, so I thought I would give a quick Jamorama review…

First off, you get a bunch of stuff when you buy Jamorama, so you have to download all kinds of stuff. That isn’t a real problem at all… but just make sure you stay organized so you get everything. And so you don’t lose it somewhere on your hard drive once you download it.

What you get with Jamorama:

Jamorama Book one - beginners, intro to strumming, intro to chords, reading tabs, first string notes, easy chords, healthy learning, various dominant chords, and a whole lot more. This is a killer introduction, and the 52 included audio clips let you hear what the lessons are supposed to sound like. This is great stuff for a true beginner.

Jamorama Book two - intermediate, including sight reading, bass note runs, major seventh chords, various strum patterns and chord progressions. And intro to scales, and lots of different chords. You also get 61 audio clips that let you actually hear what things are supposed to sound like.

Jamorama Book three - advanced, including minor scales, barre chords, power chords, ninth chords, diminished chords, and augmented chords. This book also has 31 audio clips to go along with it. The audio clips are downloadable MP3 clips that you can play on your computer or anywhere else you can play an MP3.

In addition to the three books and all those audio clips, you get a whole bunch more… including an ear training game and guitar tuning software. This course is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED… you can check it out by clicking here.

File under: Jamorama Review

guitar, jamorama guitar course, learn guitar chords

Wow, there sure are a lot of great places to learn to play guitar online, and lots of them are even free. In fact, I wonder how beginners even got by before they had so many great resources to learn guitar online.

Of course, that is silly. People have been learning to play guitar for a very long time… long before computers even existed. Nevertheless, the amount of online resources for guitar players is incredible.

What I am finding is the key thing I need is to maintain focus as I learn to play. The guitar is not the most complex thing in the world, but I have really become amazed by all the nuances. There are so many styles and techniques for playing, it is just amazing. And there are just as many teaching and learning styles.

So back to focus - like I said, there are some great free resources - one of them that I keep running into is Guitar Noise, with its beginner lessons. I will probabaly do a short review of Guitar Noise at some point… but it sure looks like a great site at first glance.

OK, let’s get back to focus. I can already see that with so many great free resources out there, the problem is that not many of them are really complete. They give you a lesson here, a lesson there. But I haven’t found much that can really take you by the hand and walk you through a system. And that means your focus suffers. And for me, efficient learning suffers when you lose focus.

Of course you might not be interested in efficient learning. You may be willing to just noodle around. And I will agree, noodling can be fun. But right now I want to get good enough with my guitar to play with others… and I want to get there FAST.

Here is one course I have bought: Jamorama… review to follow.

OK, I am now seven days into learning to play my new guitar, and my fingers are still sore and they still hurt.

I know this is going to pass soon. In fact, it is already getting better. But…. ouch. I have probably been playing an hour to an hour and a half a day. And I have gotten to the point where my guitar playing doesn’t hurt my fingers much more whether I am playing or not playing.

That is a good thing - it means that my fingers aren’t slowing down the amount of time I am playing my guitar. In the first few days, I was really limited to how much I could play - my guitar playing just hurt my fingers so much.

I know this sounds like just so much whining… and it is. But nevertheless, I am having fun, despite my sore guitar fingers.

From what I understand, if I got a classical guitar with nylon strings (ie, a classical acoustic guitar), then it would have been a lot easier on my fingers.

Same thing with an electric guitar - I guess they are much easier on fingers.

But I wanted a steel string acoustic guitar, and I am really happy with it.

Really, the sore fingers thing just is NOT a big deal. It is just something to whine about. I couldn’t be happier playing my guitar.

Well now, is it really possible to get free guitar lessons?

Of course it is! After all, my neighbor Will got some free guitar lessons a few years ago - and now he has his own rock and roll band, and I have even seen him perform. He is even writing his own songs!

So how did Will get his free guitar lessons? Well, he got them from a friend of the family… a friend of his Dad’s, who is a really kind soul and likes to teach guitar. He doesn’t ask for any compensation, just that sometime down the road his students do the same for another person who wants to learn to play guitar.

So how do you go about getting free guitar lessons? I am not quite sure… but I am going to be searching around the net. I am sure there are some good sites out there that provide some free lessons or at least free guitar tutorials. If you know of any, let me know - just leave a comment and then we will be building a knowledge base for everyone.

In the meantime, here are some not quite free resources that look awfully solid. I am a tenacious learner (or at least I can be), and a very thorough researcher… so I will be checking out ALL of these and reporting back. And I will also be looking for free guitar lessons:

Learn To Play Guitar With Jamorama
Stripped Down Guitar
Acoustic Guitar Workshop

So just how do you set about to learn how to play the guitar?? There are lots and lots of people who are willing to give you their opinion. Sort of like there are lots of people willing to tell you what guitar to buy.

Since I am a rank beginner and I want to learn to play the guitar, I have quite a keen interest. Should I take lessons? Buy a book? Get a video?

I tend to be a pretty good self-learner, and I am a big fan of self-published information products that sorta break the normal rules for any given learning situation. So I have been poking around and have found some very highly recommended courses. The first one that I am going to check out is this course on learning to play the guitar.

It includes audios, books, games, and ear training. I haven’t ordered it yet, but I plan on doing so soon.

Naturally (or so it seems to me), along with the Christmas gift of my acoustic guitar, I also got a couple of books from the music store about learning to play guitar. One of them looks really good, the other one looks a bit stuffy but should still have some good stuff in it. More on those books later.

So the big question is how am I going to learn? Do I take lessons? How about videos? Books?

What will it be?

What style do I want to learn?

So many questions?