Now that you understand timing you can start to play some songs with chords in. When playing basic rhythm guitar you can do a downstroke (v) or an upstroke (^). A downstroke should go away from your face towards the floor and an upstroke the opposite.
In this online guitar lesson I show you how to read guitar tabs the right way. Learning how to read guitar tabs is very important if you are going to progress with the guitar.
Here is a good simple exercise that is designed to force your mind to use the fingers on the left hand independent of themselves. This is meant to be done on a table or a flat surface, but it can also be done on the guitar or just in the air as well.
Chords
The major 6th chord (eg. E6) is based on the major triad. Once you have built the major triad from the major scale you add on the major 6th. If we are using E as an example this note would be C#. The E6 chord would therefore be E G# B C#. Here is the chord in tab…
The dominant 7th chord (eg. D7) is based on the major triad. Once you have built the major triad from the major scale, you add on the flat 7th. If we are using D as an example this note would be C. This is because C# is the major 7th of D Major and so the flat 7th would be C. The D7 chord would therefore be D F# A C. Here is the chord in tab…
By learning three simple guitar barre chords forms, you will be able to play any major, minor, seventh or minor seventh chord you want. See these online guitar chords.
In this online guitar chord library, you’ll learn most of the guitar chords available along with the correct finger placement.
In this guitar lesson I show you several common guitar chord progressions which you can play along with.
Guitar Power chords are used by many artists because they are basically a chord which can be moved around almost anywhere on the fret board. Power chords are based on the root note and it’s perfect fifth.
On this page you’ll find all 12 keys which you are able to play music in. By following this chart, you’ll be able to construct songs and sound in tune.
A natural harmonic is like a bell sound, and is produced by lightly touching a guitar string in a specific place. The most common place to play a natural harmonic is on the 12th fret. You play the harmonic by very lightly touching the string above the 12th fret bar
To do a run on a chord is very simple. It adds a rather unique beat to a song. Run on chords are great when you are accompanied by a piano or even just a solo. All you are doing is hitting a series of three notes in between chord changes.
Guitar slash chords are basic open chords, which are made fuller by adding a different root note (ie. the lowest note in a chord). For example, if you played the C chord and wanted G as your root note, it would be called C/G. This is a slash chord. The first letter is the chord you play and the second letter is the root note.
Sus chords (which is short for suspended) replace the third of a chord with another scale degree. For example, a C major chord, C-E-G, becomes a Csus2 by replacing the third, E, with the second, D (to form C-D-G). Because the third determines the major or minor quality of a chord, sus chords are neither major or minor.
All chords are based on triads, and that is why they are so important. A triad is a group of 3 notes which can be major or minor.
Equipment
Distortion pedals basically use some form of electronic device to insert square shapes into the sine waves, giving them the powerful drive that defines a lot of music, for example old metal like Metallica and nu-metal like System Of A Down. They basically distort your sound, ranging from a light crunchy distortion to a very heavy distortion.
Techniques
Artificial harmonics are good because you can produce a harmonic on any note, rather than just E, A, D, G and B. In order to understand them, you will need a basic understanding of natural harmonics.
A string bend is when you change the pitch of a note by bending the note to change the length of the vibrating string.
Guitar Tapping is basically like having an extra left hand finger to help you perform hammer-ons and pull-offs. Instead of an extra finger, you use either your pick or a right hand finger.
Hammer On’s | Pull Off’s | Trills
A simple definition of a hammer on is, slamming one of your left hand fingers onto a fret to produce the sound. I say slam, but it shouldn’t feel like you’re breaking your fingers!
Left hand muting is used to create a scraping sound by striking the strings while they are muffled. To acheive this, you simply rest your left hand fingers over the strings and then strike the strings to create the scraping sound.
Palm muting on the Guitar is something that can be difficult at first, but is easy once you get used to it. This technique is commonly used in heavy metal, and is what produces that heavy crunching sound.
A pick slide is a technique that creates a scraping sound and often empasises an important part of a song. All you need to do to perform a pick slide is hold the pick as normal in your hand and slide the edge of the pick down the string away from the pickups applying slight pressure.
Guitar Pinch harmonics are what can make your guitar squeal. In order to understand them, you will need a basic understanding of natural harmonics.
If you’re strumming some chords and then go into some soloing or single note playing, the feeling is often like going from 1st to 5th gear in one go. It’s difficult to make it smooth, and keep it all in time.
A slide is basically a technique which will brighten up your lead guitar playing and bring it to life. A slide is where you slide from one fret to another on the same string without releasing the pressure on the string.
This lesson is about Guitar string skipping. I think this is really important because I believe people get too involved with simple, one string, then the next string down/up then the next string down/up.
Theory
A selection of notes arranged in ascending or descending order is known as a scale. One of the most common scales is the C Major scale…
Tuning
The final result of this will be the tuning of C G C F A D. Anything played in drop D tuning, you can play in drop C tuning, it will just sound considerably more low and heavy. This tuning is becoming increasingly more common today and the recent Metallica album, St. Anger is written almost entirely in drop C tuning!
Drop D Tuning is commonly used in Nu-Metal. All you do is tune down your low E String from an E to a D (ie. 1 Tone or 2 Frets). So where you did have the standard E A D G B E, you now have D A D G B E.
When you have recently restrung a guitar, you may find that it easily goes out of tune. This is because the strings have not been stretched out properly. I will now explain what you should do when restringing a guitar if you want it to stay in tune after.
Tuning down your guitar means to tune each string down to a different pitch. When you tune down a half step, you tune each sting one half step lower than the standard tuning (A half step is the same as 1 fret). This means going from
Tuning down your guitar means to tune each string down to a different pitch. When you tune down a whole step, you tune each sting one whole step lower than the standard tuning (A whole step is the same as 2 frets).
