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Guitar Lessons for Dummies

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You may learn guitar from basic to advanced skills here. Hope our guitar lessons will be useful to you. Always share your opinion with us. We really appreciate your ideas and will make improvement constantly.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 1st Lesson

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Everyone can be a excellent guitarist. It is all about the learning method and constant practice. But before you do that, you need to have a right guitar, accessories and guitar lesson.

You can choose your guitar from four kinds. Acoustic guitar, which is perfect to play county and classical music, would be the best guitar for beginners. You can easily play music for a small group of people since acoustic guitar can produce loud and bright sound without an amplifier. It is convenient to bring your acoustic guitar with you to other places or countries because it is portable and does not require an amp.



For big fans of rock and jazz music, electric guitar is your choice.You may find electric guitar simpler to play due to the thinner strings and closer frets. But you have to purchase some equipment namely cables, effect pedal, cords and amp. Budget could be a main consideration.

You may also want to buy bass guitar or lefty guitar. Bass guitar only has four strings. They are good to play with rock or heavy metal songs. Lefty guitar is good for left-handed people. They can also play the guitar handily like the right-handed guitarists. It lets you use right hand to play chords or scales and left hand to pluck strings.

Some guitar accessories are helpful for you to learn guitar fast. Other than picks, strings and amps, equipment like guitar tuner and capo are useful. They help you play chords and tune guitar easily, and save your time. You may not buy all the accessories at once. I suggest you buying a turner, some strings and picks first. If you are really interested in learning guitar, you can then buy the capo and more picks later on. But if you are learning electric guitar, you must buy an amp. It brings a louder sound for your guitar.



You may find having a traditional guitar lesson is safer. but an alternative is to learn guitar online. Online guitar learning products are cheap.They may cost you $30 to $50. You can then reduce your budget.

After you have purchased an online guitar learning product, the whole learning progress is under you control. As long as you have a computer and a guitar, you can learn guitar everywhere and every time you want.

The products offer you lots of video guitar lessons, ebooks, sound tracks and guitar-related software. One of the advantages is that you can review the video as many times as you want. Stop until you think you have already learnt that technique or chapter. You can also login to their forum for help if you have any problems. The only difference between traditional guitar lessons and online guitar lessons is you do not have a real person sitting in front of you.

So start learning guitar today. Learn as fast as you can. You will be able to play guitar music in a very short time.

This is also published as Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 1st Lesson at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 2nd Lesson

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Changing guitar strings is easy. You can learn it in a half and a hour with this guitar lesson. After you have learnt it, you may want to do it at least once a month, as a regular practice. If you are a big guitarist, you should do it before each performace, which is to avoid breaking strings in front of a large group of people.

Some people may find changing guitar strings is a waste of time. However changing guitar strings is vital. The new strings will make your play the guitar easier and give you brighter sound. Learning the technique of changing guitar strings is really useful for a guitar player.

Purchase the strings that are suitable for your guitar. For acoustic guitar, buy acoustic guitar strings. Electric guitar strings are suitable for electric guitar. Classical guitar needs nylon strings or classical guitar strings. Last but not least, bass guitar strings, indeed, are for bass guitar. Do not use the strings and your guitar wrong.

You should consider the thickness of the strings as well. Strings of medium size are suitable for guitar beginners. You will have better sound with thicker strings, but it is difficult for guitar beginners to play with thicker strings as they do not have enough guitar skills. You may develop the techniques gradually with the thinner guitar strings. They are much easier to play.

Pliers, string winder and a soft cloth are useful for you to change the strings.



You have to place your guitar on a flat floor or table first. Do not change all the strings at one time. Do it one by one. If you remove all the strings at once, the tension of the neck will also be loosened. It will change the shape of the guitar neck and affect the sound of your guitar. You may think that removing all the strings can let you clean the fingerboard completely, but it is not the only way.

To help you loosen one of the strings, you may want to use the string winder to tweak the tuning peg. Start with the thickest one (the sixth string). Pull our the string from the tuning peg and the hole of the guitar bridge. You may need the pliers to help you. Once the string is removed, clean the fingerboard.



Then take out the strings you need from the package. Insert the string through the hole on the bridge and slip the ball in place. Take the string from the bridge to the other end. Bend the string when it is insert one inch in the tuning peg. Tweak the peg with the string winder counterclockwise. When it is tight like the other string, you are done.

It is your choice to decide how long the excess string should be cut. But I suggest you leaving as much as you can. It lets you have a deeper tone when playing guitar. And if you think it is too long, you can still cut it in the future.

This is also published as Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 2nd Lesson at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 3rd Lesson

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Holding a guitar pick seems to be simple. But doing it wrong may destroy a guitarist's life. Even though you have perfect guitar techniques, you cannot produce perfect guitar music. Your guitar teacher may not use too much time to tell you the correct way to hold a pick. I would like to ask you to spend a few minutes on this guitar lesson to learn it. It will make a difference.



In the past, animals bone and tortoise shell were the main material to make picks. But nowadays most picks are made of plastic. There are many shapes and sizes of picks for you to select. The decision is very personal. You should try different picks to find out the one that suits you the most. If you have no idea, I suggest you trying a medium gauge at the beginning. You will learn guitar easier with picks of medium size.

Learning to hold a pick is simple. I am going to tell you the right way now.

As most guitar players are right-handed, I would only talk about using the right hand to hold the pick. Extend you right palm first and face it towards the sky. Then slightly grip the fist and place the thumb on the left of the index finger. Your thumb should only cover the first knuckle of the index finger. Do not cover too much.

Then insert the pick that you have just bought into the gap between the thumb and index finger. Just leave a small tip of the pick in the air. Holding the pick too firmly or loosely is not good. Hold to pick with the power that your can control it flexibly. Remember that using a pick should be very solfty.

Now pick up your guitar to try the pick. Strum the thickest string with the pick to see if you can produce clear and sharpe sound. You may want to strum it up and down with an even tempo. It is normal if your pick drops. You need to spend much more time on this practice. But trust me, you can do it in a very short time. You should also try strumming chords later.

You can keep your middle finger, ring finger and little finger touching your palm. You can also extend them. By extending them, you can use them to pluck strings, do tapping or adjust the volume button. It is also your preference. Both of them are correct.

When playing guitar with a pick, some people may hold the pick in different ways. I would say they are wrong but I personally do not like there methods. I would tell you what they are and your decide use them or not.

The first one is using the thumb and the middle finger, rather than the index finger to hold the pick. The second way is putting the pick into the gap between the thumb and the second knuckle of the index finger. Another way is to use middle finger, index finger and thumb altogether to hold the pick. I just leave it to you to choose the way that you like the most. Remember all of them are still correct ways as long as you can play great guitar music.

That is all about holding a guitar pick. Spend some time on practicing it. You will find this small change helps you produce better guitar music.

This is also published as Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 3rd Lesson at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 4th Lesson

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Guitar learners should not only focus on fingering or theory. A sense of rhythm should also be developed. But it is hard to ask your guitar tutor to teach you in guitar lessons and it wastes your time and money. Actually you can learn it with a metronome. It is very helpful for that purpose and every music learners should have one. I will tell you how to learn guitar with a metronome in just a moment.

Musicians usually use metronome to keep a steady tempo or beat when playing a musical instrument, by listening to the clicking sounds produced by the metronome. You can select different BPM (beat per minute) to play with. The range is normally between 40 to 200 BPM.



You will find metronomes mainly in two types. They are mechanism metronome and electronic metronome. There is a pendulum rod swinging on a mechanism metronome to give you a steady tempo. The beat can be adjusted by moving the rod up or down. If you move it up, the beat will be slower.



The latter one is more popular nowadays. It not only gives you clicking sounds, but also gives you blinking light. Electronic metronome is good to be used in big shows. You just press the button to choose the tempo and read the light. Nobody will know that you are counting beat with a metronome.

For those who do not believe the power of metronome, you can try a free online metronome first. The function is the same but you need to play guitar with a computer. I would say it is worth trying at least one time.

I know you want to learn guitar with the metronome right now but wait for a few more minutes. Before you do so, I suggest that you should let your brain to adapt to a steady tempo. You can turn on the metronome and randomly choose a tempo. Then try to follow the tempo by nodding head or stamping foot. You will later find that it is easier for you to play the music in a correct tempo.

After doing the small practice, you can take out your guitar and really play with the metronome. Whatever songs you choose to practice, I highly recommend you to begin with at slow tempo. Play the song slowly and try to play every note cleanly. Your brain will then be more familiar with the fingering patterns by doing so. Do not worry if the music you produce is not as same as the original song. It will be the same later.

If you can play the song perfectly in that slow rhythm, you can increase the speed a bit. But do not increase to much. You should do it step by step. Practice the song again with a faster tempo and also try to play every note cleanly. Repeat the same procedure until you can play the song perfectly with the original tempo.

That is how I practice guitar with a metronome. If you do not want to invest money to try the metronome, you can go to the Internet and find a free online metronome to start with. I strongly recommend you to have a try.

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This is also published as Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 4th Lesson at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 5th Lesson

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Most guitar beginners have the same question in their mind. Should I choose traditional guitar lessons (TGL) or online guitar lessons (OGL)? There is no absolute answer. Each of them fulfills different learners' need and has their own strengths and weaknesses. I am going to discuss them with you and give me my recommendation at the end.

Learning guitar should be fun. It should only bring you pleasure but not pressure. Many people want to start learning guitar but hang back because the price is too high. If you have done some research on the price of TGL, you will find that a half hour lesson may cost you about $40. If you want to have a lesson a week, you will need to pay about $160 every month.


Traditional Guitar Lesson

If you go to some online guitar lessons review sites, you will find that the average price of an OGL product is about $40. The learning material is enough for you to learn guitar for a half of a year. But it just costs you one of your TGL. If you have learned everything from the OGL product, you can buy another one at $40 or $50. It means that you only spend about $200 on learning guitar and you can learn for a year. It is really cost-effective.

Some people may worry the quality of OGL. To be honest, this is the main weakness. There are many OGL products on the market and you do not know which one is good or bad. And the content may not be as detailed as the TGL's. I will tell you how to pick the best product in another article.


Online Guitar Lesson

If you only want to treat learning guitar as a hobby, a high-quality OGL will be suitable and enough for you. It usually provides you many video guitar lessons. You can spend a whole day to only repeat a particular video lesson and acquire the skills. You need not learn step-by-step. Just choose your favorite topic and focus on that. You can learn quicker than you thought.

The quality of TGL is undoubtedly higher. You can learn from reading notes, learning theory to playing scales and chords. You can have a solid foundation. But as the syllabus is provided and set by your guitar teachers, you will probably not be allowed to choose topics to learn. You can just follow their ways.

For convenience TGL bring you many restraints. You need to match the schedule with your guitar teachers. You can only have lessons on specific days. It seems that you do not have much control. But learning through OGL will enable you to choose when and where to learn guitar. You only need to prepare a computer and your guitar, then you can start. You can even learn at the bathroom for the whole day if you want. It is more convenient for the learners.

If you want to have OGL, I would ask you a question first. Do you have high level of self-motivation? If not, it is not suitable for you. As OGL provides many flexibilities for you, you need to plan a learning schedule and stick to the schedule by yourself. You need to be self-disciplined. No one will check if you have watched the video lessons or spent time on practice.

I strongly suggest guitar beginners learning online first. You never know if you will give up half way. Start at a lower price. You will not regret so much even though you give up a month later. Also you can have more fun at the beginning because OGL do not only focus on theory. They aim to teach you how to learn a song in a very short time. It will build up your level of interest.

Buy an Online Guitar Learning Product Today!

This is also published at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies: 6th Lesson

Get The Best Guitar Lesson Online Now!

Are you puzzled with choosing a high-quality online guitar lessons! for yourself? There are many products promoted on the Internet. You do not know which one is the best. I do not know the answer too. But you need not look for the BEST online guitar lesson in the world. Your job is to find out the one that SUITS you the most. Although it seems to be a private decision, I want to share some tips on choosing the right online guitar lessons product with you.

It is important that you find out some demonstration videos of the product that you target beforehand. No matter what you want to buy, you must want to have a try in advanced. The demonstration videos give you this opportunity. You will know if the teaching method suits you. You will know if you can watch the fingerings or picking of the teacher. And finally you will get a general picture of that product. You would try several times before buying a pair of shoes. Why don't you do the same thing for buying online guitar lessons?

Then I strongly recommend you to check if the lesson is video-based. We love visual. We like having lessons by listening to someone's voice. It will increase your level of interest and learning progress. And more importantly, you can watch the fingerings, pickings, strumming, techniques like bending and even the face of the guitar teacher. It must be better than learning with texts or audio files only.

Some online guitar lessons not only provide you videos but also jam tracks. Jam tracks allow you to play songs with famous bands or musicians. You will become the guitarist in that band. If you are playing American Idiot by Green Day, you will become Billie Joe Armstrong. It is fantastic? You will also learn how to playing with other instruments as well.

There are many different online guitar lessons you can find on the Internet but some of them are not suitable for guitar beginners. Some target intermediate or advanced guitar learners. So you need to pay attention to the content of the product. I know you must want to learn fast and learn advanced techniques namely tapping and bending. But be patient. You can finally acquire them by step-by-step learning.

Another feature which is useful for you is called membership's area. You must face difficulties when learning guitar and you must need someone to help you solve the problems. I suggest you buy the online guitar lessons with this feature. Also some products offer you updates about guitar learning and even weekly phone calls. You will learn faster with them.

Last but not least, you need to think carefully about the bonuses. Most online guitar lessons products offer you a list of bonuses. They say you can get all of them free. But do not be fascinated by them. Some of them are really useless. You need to decide which will help you learn guitar. I recommend you to choose bonuses like metronome and ear-training software.

So you now know what to consider when choosing online guitar lessons. I hope you will buy the most suitable product for yourself with my tips in a very short time.

This is also published at ClearBlog.

If you are interested in finding the best guitar lessons, I strongly recommend you taking a look of Learn and Master Guitar review now.

Guitar Lessons for Dummies Reader Feedback

  • TheBigSquid Feb 9, 2011 @ 2:13 am | delete
    The guitar was the first instrument I ever played. I was hooked after that, had my ups and downs with it but once you understand the basics and get past the frustration then your all good. I wrote a post about it on my guitar lessons for beginners page.
  • TheBigSquid Feb 9, 2011 @ 2:13 am | delete
    The guitar was the first instrument I ever played. I was hooked after that, had my ups and downs with it but once you understand the basics and get past the frustration then your all good. I wrote a post about it on my guitar lessons for beginners page.
  • best-online-deals Jan 5, 2011 @ 9:08 pm | delete
    I always wished I knew how to play the guitar. Nice lens!
  • best-online-deals Jan 5, 2011 @ 9:07 pm | delete
    I always wished I knew how to play the guitar. Nice lens!
  • AcousticBluesGuitar Nov 1, 2010 @ 10:47 pm | delete
    You have some great tips on your lens - the amount of information available for beginners on the internet is staggering! Great lens
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