You too can Play: Learn Guitar in Easy Steps!

Check out the various internet sites that offer online guitar tutorials & videos for students. When you select one:

1. Find the audio lesson play button.
This will be an audio file that will let a person hear a quality sound that is played correctly. It will also help the person have an idea if the notes that he is executing matches those of the audio file on the listed button.

2. Then go to the main tutorial screen.
The interactive part of the lessons may be found here. A guitar fret board is displayed and has a guide that will the student to see the proper fingering of the chords. He will also see the correct way to change chords and strum at the same time.

3. It is always recommended to see the hand's illustration page that will explain every detail and will show visuals on how to execute the hands and fingers.

These online lessons found on the internet can help a student to play the guitar in an instant - relatively speaking. It will help a person save time and he may no longer need the assistance of an instructor.

Most importantly, passion is needed to make learning to play guitar faster and easier.

A student can execute many strumming techniques on the guitar such as picking and chord inversions.

There are different ways of strumming which are sometimes hard to learn and difficult to perform.

However, there are a variety of ways a student can learn guitar strumming especially for jazz or country music.

A student's knowledge of strumming can develop aside from his usual strumming patterns if he learns more on chords and strumming techniques.

This will help him master many strumming patterns that will enable him to be more creative in his guitar playing and surpass his old style of strumming.

Here are some tips that will help to strum a guitar.

1. To be an expert on strumming, a student should first learn the basic steps and patterns as well as the proper way of down stroking and up stroking on the strings of the guitar. It is important that there is smooth execution and a balanced rhythm to the strumming.

2. He must keep a steady rhythm to his strumming; if he wants to have a slow pace on the strum he may do so as long as it is done smoothly and with precision. Sometimes the strokes tend to slow down or speed up if the chords are complicated or more difficult for beginners.

3. There are also strumming patterns that do not require a person to change the pace of his strum or oppose the down stroke or the up stroke. He must only do it with a nice and steady flow with a smooth flicking stroke all going in the same direction.

4. He must make sure that the rotation of his wrist is patterned to the motion of the guitar and his strumming.

It does not matter which stroke he is doing or what kind of skill levels he has in his strumming. Remember not to let the wrist tighten while picking or strumming.

There are many variations of strumming and they depend on the skills a person may have on the guitar.

The type of the guitar that the student is using will also influence the pattern of his strumming. For many who play the guitar, they see strumming as coming from the wrists and the fast or slow stroking during the strumming is regulated by it.


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You too can Play: Learn Guitar in Easy Steps!

How quickly can your fretting hand switch from one chord to another?

The speed and confidence you have in making chord changes will be key to further mastering the guitar and successfully playing and creating music for the instrument.

The key to learning any instrument, like most intricate human activity, is to develop brain and muscle coordination, more commonly called, muscle memory needed to play the instrument. If you picture a basketball player, for instance, the key to a good shooting performance is the proper hand-to-eye coordination in order to bring the ball up, prepare, aim, and throw it towards the hoop.

The different muscles of the arms, wrist and hands will learn the right movements and strength needed to score. Constant practice will condition the brain, eyes, and entire body to know the routine of shooting the ball.

This is similar to guitar playing. The muscles involved would be the arms, wrists and the fingers, with the eyes, ears and brain working in unison to relate the movements to the music being read and the notes produced by the guitar. This is the mechanism that works when a guitar player starts to change chords.

Luckily, there are simple techniques that can help the beginning guitar player to develop these muscle memories and ear training for proper chord changes. Read below and you will see that chord changes are not that difficult to do.

When changing chords, first memorize all the chords involved in the song, and then visualize exactly which fingers of the fretting hand are involved in playing the chords.

When playing simple barre chords, the most important finger is the index finger, which will squeeze all 6 strings across the fretboard.

So as you move towards playing the chord, you have to position the index finger across the proper fret, or place, along the fretboard before positioning the other fingers of the chord.

When playing a broken or simple chord, it is usually the index finger that is the most important finger. Primarily, the index finger and the thumb will form a stable anchor on the guitar neck in order for the other fingers to press the other strings of the chord.

The index finger is usually played on the lowest fret and the highest string (by pitch, or string 1), where it could more easily find the proper note, and the other fingers can follow to complete the chord.

When playing a particular song, keep time with the music, but anticipate in which bar and on which beat the next chord will continue. For beginners, it would be preferable to practice the entire song slowly from beginning to end, taking care to change to each chord on time and on tempo.

When the student can play the entire song like this without chord errors, he can start increasing the speed to the song's proper tempo. It would also be helpful to identify particularly tricky guitar chord changes.

For instance, 2 consecutive bar graphs would be a relatively simple change, because the guitar player needs only to slide his index finger (which is already in the barre position) to its proper position on the fretboard and quickly press in the other strings of the chord.

Changes from simple chords to barre chords - and vice versa - and chords that are positioned at a far distance from each other along the length of the neck are more difficult to perform. Isolate these difficult changes and practice those chord changes.

If it is still to difficult with the slow tempo, don't play the last beat of the last chord and use the time to move your fret hand into position for the next fret. Keep practicing these changes until the short passage can be played without error.

Afterward, go back to playing the entire song as discussed above. When you can play an entire song properly, try different strumming styles to accentuate parts of the song, or a particular beat; or alternate strumming and light plucking to give volume and variety to the music of the song.

First, it is best to complete the song by actually copying how the original artist played it on the guitar; then you can add your own twists and extra technique according to your ear and taste. This will help you develop your hands for more difficult chords and finger playing techniques.

Do this for every song, and before you know it, you'll be playing a new song like a seasoned guitarist in a short period of time.

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You too can Play: Learn Guitar in Easy Steps!

Learning how to strum is one of the most basic steps in guitar playing.

After a beginner learns to do the basic 4/4 strumming, he can then move on to learning the 3/4 strumming technique.

If one wants to play a 3/4 song using a guitar, he must first know what 3/4 means: 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 are what musicians call time signatures. The time signatures are usually placed beside the clef sign.

The upper number (or numerator) indicates the number of beats per measure and the lower number (or denominator) indicates the kind of note that will receive one beat.

3/4 Chord pattern

In playing a 3/4 guitar riff, one has to count 1-2-3 and use this count as a guide when strumming the guitar. In practicing the 3/4 guitar strumming, one can use the chord pattern: D- A7- G.

This is a variation of the 4/4 chord pattern D-A-G-A. Again, this pattern is recommended because of the playability of the chords. This allows the player to be able to concentrate on strumming and chord formation simultaneously without prioritizing one above the other.

The strokes in practicing the 3/4 strumming pattern can be varied, depending on the player's preferences. He can practice the pattern using only downward strokes, or upwards strokes or he can use both alternately to get the feel of the guitar.

The traditional song "Down in the Valley" can be used by beginners to practice strumming the guitar with a 3/4 time. Another song which could be used in 3/4 strumming is the song "Time is on my Side" by Jerry Ragovoy.

Chord Shifting

Another important thing that a beginner must learn in 4/4 strumming is chord shifting.

This becomes an even harder thing to do in 3/4 strumming but it is not impossible to learn; it just takes time and patience. Don't let frustration get into the learning process.

Let's go back and review some of the important basic things one has to know in guitar strumming.

Playing position
When a beginner first holds the guitar and tries out some chords, he usually does these things in an awkward looking position. This is acceptable because beginners will always look at the fret board, put their heads closer to the left hand, etc.

But when you want to get serious about learning further things about guitar playing, he needs to be able to play the instrument using the right position.

Here are some few tips for playing the guitar in the proper position:

-position the body, legs and arms in a way that tension is avoided
-if tension is present, reassess the playing position
-tilt the neck of the guitar upwards and never tilt it downwards
-keep the body of the guitar as vertical as possible
-avoid slanting the top of the guitar so that you an see better

Holding the pick

If you are using a pick to strum the guitar strings, hold the pick in such a way that the hand is stress-free. So do not hold it too tight or too loosely. The pick should make good contact with the strings but should be done in a moderate way.

Reading tabulatures

When you are comfortable with playing some chords and chord patterns, you can then shift into reading guitar tabulatures. Tabulatures or tabs are great tools in learning how to play the guitar as they translate the musical notation into readable symbols that reflect the way to play a musical piece using a guitar.

The lines that are in guitar tabs represent the strings of the guitar. If you place the guitar adjacent to the tabs, you can see what this is all about. The numbers in the lines represent the fret number which is to be pressed by the player.

This is basically all you have to know to be able to start reading tabs. Tabs are comprised of symbols and signs other than lines and numbers. More advanced tabs also indicate the type of plucking or string bending technique that should be used for striking each note.

Learning how to play the guitar is an arduous process, but it's also fun. One must take it step-by-step and must not rush to learn more techniques if he still can't master the preceding technique. Have fun!

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