How To Play Great Guitar Music

A great guitarist should not only know how to play songs with their fingers but also have some general knowledge about guitar such as the origin of guitar, types of guitar, guitar accessories and the new trend of guitar learning.

In the 14th century, the first guitar containing three pairs of strings was made in Spain. Due to the increase of trade, guitars became more and more popular in Europe. Singe string replaced the idea of pairing strings in the 18th century. It formed the appearance of the modern guitars. Now there are even guitars with four, seven, eight, ten or twelve strings.

Basically guitars can be categorized into Acoustic Guitars and Electric Guitars. But some people may also want to have two more types, Bass Guitars and Lefty Guitars.

Both acoustic guitars and electric guitars have six strings. Some people may prefer to play with their fingers. Some may prefer to play with a pick. The main difference between acoustic guitars and electric guitars is the latter ones need to be played with an amp while the former ones do not. Without an amp, the volume of your electric guitar must be very low. But you can produce loud and bright sound with your acoustic guitar alone.

Acoustic guitars are the best partner with country and classical music. As you may produce distorted sound effect with your electric guitar plus an electronic device, electric guitars are usually played with jazz, rock, blues and popular music.


Acoustic Guitar & Electric Guitar

You can choose to learn acoustic guitar or electric guitar first. It depends on your interest.

The most common bass guitars have four strings only. But five-string and six-string bass guitars also exist. Just like acoustic guitars and electric guitars, it is your choice to decide whether to use your fingers or a pick to play. Bass guitars are mainly used in heavy metal and rock music.

Lefty guitars are designed for left-handed people, allowing them to position chords with left hand and pluck the strings by using right hand. They are not as common as the righty guitars. In most guitar stores, there are not many lefty guitars. It may be quite difficult for you to find one. I suggest you surfing the Internet first to get more information or even buy one on the Internet.

Apart from having a guitar, you may also need some accessories to help you produce great music. You may regularly change the guitar strings. I would say it is better if you change all the strings every time. Do not think it is a waste of money. It helps keep your music quality in return. You may also need a stand to place your guitar and a tuner to help you ensure the tone of your guitar strings is correct.

For electric guitar players, you need an amp to make the sound louder. Otherwise only you can listen to what you are playing.


Amplifier

Some people find a guitar capo useful when learning guitar. It helps you to play difficult chords in an easier way because you may place a capo on the neck of your guitar as if you are using your finger to play a barre chord.


Guitar Capo

When you are searching guitar tabs, you may find the tabs containing six lines with numbers written on each line. This kind of tab is common for most string instruments. You can easily know which fret you should press. Of course, you may play guitar with a standard five-line staff. If you are looking for a bass guitar tab, you may also see four-line staff.


Guitar Tab

For the trend of guitar learning, it goes to learning online because of the lower cost and more flexibility for the learners. Most online guitar learning materials are downloadable. As long as the learners have a computer and a guitar, they can learn anywhere and anytime. They can even choose what to learn and review the content as many times as they want.

Some people may worry that this is only a one-way learning process. But it is not. The online courses always provide a forum or email assistance for the learners. There would be some professionals answering their questions weekly or even daily.

Most people find it is hard to buy a new guitar. They learn lots of skills from their guitar lessons. They know how to play great guitar music. However they cannot choose the best guitar for their own.

I have some suggestions for those facing that problem.

Buying a guitar is very personal. It all depends on the style of music you are going to play. Acoustic guitars are suitable for country and classical music while you should look for an electric guitar if you want to play rock and heavy metal music.

Then surf the Internet to see if there are any guitar stores offering discount or extra benefit. This little work may cause you about an hour but you may save money and get the best guitar product as a result.

Although I have mentioned buying guitars is a personal matter, having other people good at playing this instrument to accompany you is an advantage. Ask your guitar teacher or friends to go with you. They will be helpful and always give you good advice.

Choosing the best-for-you guitar is time consuming. You should try most of the guitars in the guitar stores before making the decision. A too small or too big guitar is not your choice. Your goal is to find the one you are comfortable to hold with.

Once you find that, play the guitar as loud as you can. Strum every single string and play on every fret. Listen carefully if there is any buzz sound. You need not worry what you should play. A great song or a difficult scale makes no difference. You may even play the open strings. Remember you are not showing off but choosing a nice guitar.

For those looking for electric guitars, you need to plug in an amp first and then try the guitar. It ensures you can listen to the sound and lets you choose the suitable amp at the same time.

There is some more work before you pay for your chosen guitar. Try to bargain with the salesperson for a lower price. Never pay for the price printed on the product tag. You may usually get a discount.

Apart from directly asking for a discount, you may try a cheaper guitar and pretend that is your target. You may also tell the salesperson that other guitar stores are selling your targeted guitar with a lower price or extra accessories.

Ask for some free accessories like a guitar capo, strings and picks when you are about to take out your money. The salesperson may sometimes give you a discount for buying a guitar tuner or a guitar case as well.

Do not feel it is embarrassing. You do not always need a new guitar. It may be the only time you buy a guitar.

Hope my suggestions can help you buy the most suitable guitar with the lowest price and lots of free accessories.

If you are also looking for a guitar lesson, you may be interested in visiting Guitar Lessons Guide. There is a detailed review of online guitar learning products available. Hope it is useful to you as well.

You may have been thinking about the question - Can I learn electric guitar first? - for a long time and fail to find out the answer. Actually no one can give you the answer. You can learn either electric or acoustic guitar at the beginning.

The style of guitar music you want to play decides the type of guitar you should learn. If you like blues or rock music, then start with an electric. For jazz or country music lovers, you may choose to learn acoustic guitar.

So what if you do not know which style you like the most? You can still begin to learn guitar but I would recommend you to learn with an acoustic guitar. It is because electric guitars may bring you some disadvantages and inconvenience.

For most guitar learners electric guitars are easy to play. The thinner strings and closer gap of each fret allow you to form chords or play songs with less finger strength. You will feel that playing guitar is not a very hard thing.

But when you try to change to play acoustic guitar after practicing your electric for a while, there is a problem. It may be difficult for you to play clear chords with an acoustic. You need more strength to push the thick strings down. You need to extend your fingers more among the frets. It means you will need much more time to play your acoustic well. But if you begin with an acoustic, you can then easily play an electric later because you have build up a solid foundation.

Learning electric guitar first may also restrain you from discovering other styles of guitar music. Electric guitars are mainly played with rock, blues or heavy metal music. You will have fewer chances to play country or classical songs with them. It is not good for your musical development.

It is expensive to learn to play electric guitar first. You not only need an electric guitar which is normally more expensive than an acoustic guitar, you also need to buy accessories including effect pedal, cables, amps and cords. It means you need to prepare more budget and space.

It may not be worth for a beginner because you never know if you will give up learning guitar in a very short time.

Moreover, unlike the portable acoustic guitars, your electric guitar necessities are bulky. You cannot easily take them to party, church, garden or other places. If you really want to do it, you need to bring the accessories mentioned above with you as well.

There is also a problem that people playing an electric guitar usually receive more complaints than acoustic guitar learners from their neighbors or room-mates. As an electric guitar needs to be plugged into an amp in order to produce high volume, it is more distressing to the others who do not appreciate your music. You may have less time to learn and master the guitar.

Choosing which style of guitar to start with is a very personal matter. Whatever your choice is, you can also finally become a great guitarist with constant practice. But I would say beginning with an acoustic guitar is better.

Tuning a guitar is not as hard as you think. With regular practice, you will tune faster. And you will be eager to tune your guitar. The reason is that playing an out-of-tune guitar is a nightmare. Your guitar music will not sound good.

So in your guitar lessons, you should ask your guitar teachers to tell you how to tune the guitar first rather than to teach you how to play great songs.

How often do you need to tune your guitar? The answer is before every time you play it. Unlike the piano, guitars are easy to become out of tune. During the tuning process, you can also train your ears by differentiating the characteristic of variety of sounds and notes.

The standard tuning of a six-string guitar is E A D G B E, from low to high. Use this acronym, Every Body Go Drink And Eat, to help you to memorize. The first thing you need to do is to find out the low E sound of the thickest string, also called the 6th string.

You can use an electronic tuner, an online guitar tuner, a piano, a tuning fork or an audio file on your computer to find the low E sound to be the reference pitch. It will be perfect if you can remember the sound so that you do not need any extra resources to tune the guitar next time.

Once you have the low E sound, adjust the tuning peg of the 6th string to tighten the string. Pluck the string until it goes to the low E sound. Do not loosen the string but keep increasing the tension of it. It helps you get more true tone.

When you are done with the 6th string, place your finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string. You will have an A sound. Keep your finger at the same position and pluck the 6th and 5th strings together. Adjust the tuning peg of the 5th string until the two strings sound the same.

Then place your finger on the 5th fret of the 5th string and pluck the 5th and 4th strings together. Adjust the tuning peg of the 4th string until the two strings produce the same D sound.

Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 4th string and pluck the 4th and 3rd strings together. Adjust the tuning peg of the 3rd string until it produces the same G sound.

Place your finger on the 4th fret (not the 5th fret) of the 3rd string and pluck the 3rd and 2nd strings together. Adjust the tuning peg of the 2nd string until it produces the same B sound.

Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 2nd string and pluck the 2nd and 1st strings together. Adjust the tuning peg of the 1st string until they produce the same high E sound.

After that, check each of the six strings again. You may need to adjust the strings a little bit. Then you will have an in tune guitar.

A great guitarist needs to know not only how to play guitar with good techniques but also how to maintain the guitar at a high quality level. Spend some time on learning how to tune the guitar. You will have more fun if your guitar is in tune.

Guitar tablature, also known as tabs, is very common for people to play guitar music. They are easy to read and write. Even a guitar beginner learning guitar for only a few days can play songs with the tabs.

Guitar tabs usually have six lines. From low to high, they represent the strings on your guitar, E A D G B E. It means that the lowest line indicates the 6th string (the thickest one) and the highest line indicates the 1st string (the thinnest one). Bass guitar tabs, on the other hand, only have four lines.



The letters written before the lines tell you how to tune your guitar so as to play the song. They are always E A D G B E but you will also see some tabs showing D A G A D or D A D F# A D. It depends on the writer. So it will be better for you to check the tuning before playing your guitar.

The numbers, normally from 0 to 24, placed on the lines tell you the frets that you need to push down. A "0" indicates an open string. You need not press the frets but only pluck the string.



If the numbers are written vertically on the lines, you are going to play a chord. You need to push down the frets and strum the string at one time. In this example, you should play the C major chord four times.



The "x"s on the tabs are not mistakes. They show that you need not play that string. They are very common when your tabs have many chords.

You will also see symbols on the tabs. They tell you a technique should be used when you are playing the song. You will know what each symbol means by reading the list from http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org.

• h - hammer on


• p - pull off


• b - bend string up


• r - release bend


• / - slide up


• \ - slide down


• v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)


• t - right hand tap


• s - legato slide


• S - shift slide


• - natural harmonic


• [n] - artificial harmonic


• n(n) - tapped harmonic


• tr - trill


• T - tap


• TP - trem. picking


• PM - palm muting


• \n/ - tremolo bar dip; n = amount to dip


• \n - tremolo bar down


• n/ - tremolo bar up


• /n\ - tremolo bar inverted dip


• = - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls


• <> - volume swell (louder/softer)


• x - on rhythm slash represents muted slash


• - on rhythm slash represents single note slash

The following picture shows you how the symbols will be integrated into a tab. Of course this example is not a song. I just want to let you know how they will look like.



You may now have some questions in your mind. How long do I need to hold for each number (or note)? And which finger do I need to use? These are great questions. In fact tabs will not tell you the answers. You will not know the rhythm and the fingering from the tabs. So if you randomly find a new tab on the Internet, it is hard for you to play correctly unless you have listened to the song.

Spend some time on playing guitar with tabs. Find the great songs that you want to play for your family, friends, classmates or even strangers. But remember to read from left to right. You will have more fun and tabs will also motivate you to learn more guitar techniques.

Changing guitar strings is easy. You can learn it within 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 performance, which is to avoid breaking strings in front of a large number of audience.

Most guitar beginners think that it is not worth spending time on changing guitar strings becuause they find that hard. But it is vital to change guitar strings 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. You need to have acoustic guitar strings for your acoustic guitar. Electric guitar players have to prepare electric guitar strings. If you have a classical guitar, you should purchase classical guitar strings or nylon strings. The last type is bass guitar strings. They are suitable for bass guitar. Remember not to misuse the strings.

You should consider the size of the strings as well. Strings of medium size are suitable for guitar beginners. Thicker strings are good to produce better sound but guitar beginners may find the thicker strings hard to play. You may develop the skills gradually with the thinner guitar strings. They are much easier to play.

To ease the process of changing guitar strings, accessories such as string winder, soft cloth and pliers will be your choice.


String Winder

While you start changing the strings, find a flat table or floor to place your guitar. It would be better if you change the strings one by one. It is because if you loosen all the strings first, you will also loosen the tension of the neck. It will change the shape of the guitar neck and affect the sound when you are learning guitar skills with your guitar. You do not need to remove all the string together to clean the fretboard. You can do it step by step. Remove one string, clean the fretboard and put a new string on it.

Use the strings winder (if you do not have one, just buy one. It is cheap.) to tweak the tuning peg of one of the strings to loosen the string. Start with the thickest one (the sixth string). Take the string out of the peg and the guitar bridge. It will be easier if you use the pliers to do so. Use the cloth to clean the neck when you have removed the string.


Guitar Bridge

Then take out the strings you need from the package. Put the string itto the bridge and huddle the ball in it. 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.

You will now have some excess string to deal with. You can cut it as much as you want. But do not cut too much. You will not have deep enough tone for playing guitar if you do so.

Changing guitar strings is easy. You will do it quicker and quicker with more practice.

Guitar picks are a common accessory for playing guitar. No matter you are learning acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar or lefty guitar, you will want to play with a pick. Some guitar players only focus on learning guitar techniques and fingering, but holding a pick in a right method is also important. You will produce higher quality of guitar music by holding it correctly.


Guitar Picks

You can find picks in different shapes and sizes. Most of them are made of plastic while, in the past, they were mostly made of tortoise shell or bone of animals. It is your choice to choose to use which kind of picks. There is not much difference. But for guitar beginners, a suggestion is that you should start with a medium size pick. It is more comfortable for you to use. You will learn guitar easier with this size of pick.

It is really simple to learn how to hold a pick. You can acquire it in the following five minutes.

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.

You should then find a pick and put it into the gap of the index finger and thumb. It is a good idea to insert it deep. When your are playing guitar, your only need to use the small tip to strum the strings. Also do not use too much strength to hold the pick. A little bit power is alrealy okay otherwise you cannot use the pick flexibly.

Then it is time to play with the guitar. Use the pick to strum one of the strings up and down. Sometimes your pick will fall down. Do not be sad. Repeat the step above and try again. It is a bit difficult at the beginning but you can do it. If you can strum the strings clearly, you can try strumming a chord now. Again it is easy as long as you practice more.

There are two ways to place the rest of your fingers - middle finger, ring finger and little finger. Some people like to grip them and others like to let them open. You can decide on your own. I am used to let them open because it lets me do more for my guiter music. I can use the three fingers to pluck strings. I can do tapping in a simple way. And I can increase and decrease the volume easily.

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.

You can use the middle finger, instead of the index finger, and the thumb to hold the pick. The second one is to insert the pick into 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.

Holding guitar pick correctly is really a simple task. If you used to do it wrong, it is time for you to change. I hope my tips will be helpful to you.

Many guitar beginners think themselves have a good sense of rhythm but it is not true. It needs to be practiced by time to time. A good idea to develop it is to learn guitar with a metronome. Everyone who learns music needs a metronome to practice with. Knowing how to play guitar with great techniques is not enough for a guitar player. In this guitar lesson, I will talk about how you can use the metronome.


Mechanism Metronome

A metronome is useful for a musician to achieve constant beat or tempo. It will produce a group of steady clicking sounds. You can listen to the sounds and learn guitar at the same time to ensure that you play the notes in a correct speed. There are different kinds of tempo for you to choose. A metronome can usually provide you 40 to 200 BPM (beat per minute).

You may find metronome in two types, mechanism metronome and electronic metronome. Mechanism metronome has a pendulum rod. It will swing and give you a tempo. You can adjust pendulum rod to choose faster or slower tempo.


Electronic Metronome

There are more and more guitar players use electronic metronome. The reason is that apart from giving you the beat by producing clicking sounds, there is also blinking light to indicate the tempo. You can use electronic metronome in concerts or performance to count the rhythm secretly. No one will hear the clicking sounds if you set it right.

There is also some free online metronome available in the Internet. You can try how useful a metronome is with no cost. I strongly recommend you to have a try once with my tips below.

Before learning guitar with a metronome, I would like to ask you to do one thing first. Switch on the metronome and find a tempo that you feel comfortable. Then spend a few minutes to experience the tempo by moving your body back and forth or stamping your foot. This little task may help cultivate your brain to get used to a steady 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.

Using the metronome may be a bit boring at the beginning. But it is really a good tool to help you become a better guitar player. Find a free online metronome and gave a try. If you find it helpless, you may go back to your original learning way anytime you want. But just try once.

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

For OGL, you can visit some online guitar lessons review sites to research the price. I have done this for you. You may buy an OGL product at $30 to $50, depending on what learning material you want to have. The cheap ones may only offer you e-books and sound tracks while the more expensive ones normally contain a list of guitar video lessons. But no matter which one you choose, it is still cheaper than the TGL.

One of the downside of OGL is some of them may not be of good quality. Everyone can upload their products to the Internet and sell the products. You never know which one is good until you have bought one. But do not worry. I will tell you how to choose a high-quality one in the next article.


Online Guitar Lesson

Although the quality of OGL may vary among different products, you can still gain a lot once you have found a high-quality one. The reason is that the high-quality ones usually include a list of video guitar lessons. It is just like having a real person teaching you. You can watch how his/her fingers move, which frets he/she is playing. And the most fascinating thing is you can rewind and watch the whole process again and again. It ensures you can learn the skills. It is really enough for you to play many songs for fun.

TGL is really suitable for guitar learners who want to be a famous guitarist all over the world. You can learn from basic to advanced level. You will learn how to read notes, play chords and scales gradually. The only downside is you can just absorb what your guitar teachers tell you. It is uncommon that you can select a particular topic to learn. It is because TGL usually have fixed syllabus. You can only learn step-by-step.

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.

Self-motivation is an important aspect to consider if you want to have OGL. You need to organise everything from when to watch videos to how long to practice fingering or scales. You are the only one to control yourself. There is no guitar teachers punishing you if you do not practice enough. So think clearly if you can commit certain time to learning guitar online and follow the plan.

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.

I have recently found a detailed review of 5 online guitar learning products at Guitar Lessons Guide. Visit to get more idea on online guitar lessons

Are you finding out the best online guitar lesson on the Internet? If yes, you must feel a bit frustrated because you have too many choices. Just like buying a good guitar, buy online guitar lessons product is difficult. You need to consider many things. Now I would like to point out some aspects that may help you decide whether an online guitar lessons product is good or bad.

First you need to watch the demonstration videos on the webpage. Some websites show this kind of videos for you to get a brief overview of the product. Some may even offer you free guitar lessons to experience. They may not be informative or useful but you will know if the teaching way is suitable for you. But remember that if there is no demonstration available, it does not mean that product is not good. I highlight this tip because it will give you some general idea.

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.

What makes an online guitar lessons product complete or user-friendly is having a discussion forum. That let you communicate with your guitar teacher or other learners. You will get the latest news about guitar learning. You will also learn more through this feature because there are people answering your questions. And of course you can help the others too. It creates an environment like traditional guitar lessons. You are not learning alone.

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.

If you are not sure how to find online guitar lessons, you may visit Guitar Lessons Guide. There is a detailed review of four popular online guitar learning products.