Posts Tagged ‘Music Guitar’

Most of us really do not have the time to devote to signing up for guitar lessons with an instructor across town, and then remember to get there on time. Life is too busy, and resources can be limited as well. The solution is a guitar instruction DVD.

Although some of us are born with a natural talent, for the majority talent is ninety percent effort. I am not saying that everyone will be able to learn how to play a guitar, or any other instrument as far as that goes, but with hard work and a lot of practice it is possible.

How To Choose instruction DVDs

Look for a program that will cover all aspects of learning to play a guitar. This will include the following:

Guitar Maintenance And Tuning

You cannot sound good or even learn how to play if you do not know how to string and tune a guitar. If you already have these skills, good. Tuning by ear is training in itself, but there are electronic tuners available.

Music theory

In order to play, you must know scales, chords and everything in between. Learning the pentatonic scale as well as the blues twelve will take you beyond simple strumming a basic D or G.

Proper Technique

According to which style of music you are working on, be sure your guitar instruction DVD clearly defines the technique used for each genre of music.

Interaction

A good guitar instruction DVD will have jam tracks included for you to practice along with. This will help to develop your improvisational skills. All good lead guitarists improvise during solo performances at some point.

Practice will get you there a lot sooner than you think. Practice every day and if you can, get together with friends. Make learning fun.

Ear Training

Another essential learning process is the ability to pick out notes and chords by listening to them. Some people are naturals, some need to work on it. You will find out soon enough where you stand on this.

If the Guitar instruction DVD you choose has all of these elements, you have a good quality lesson format. Use it consistently and once you master all of the lessons, seek out new challenges.

Blues guitar chords are not really different than the chords you would find in many styles of music. What make blues music and blues guitar different is the fact that most of the chords are of the dominant family instead of the major or the minor family. In this article I’ll explain the difference and point you in the right direction to learn more blues guitar chords and spice up your blues guitar playing.

All chords in music are divided into 3 families: major, minor, and dominant. Altered chords usually get lumped in with the dominant chords also. All chords are built from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale. As the chords get bigger, we can start to add in the 7th tone as well, and even notes from the second octave of the scale. This would mean the 9th is really the same as the 2nd, the 11th is the same as the 4th, and the 13th is the same as the 6th. An interesting side note is that a 13th chord actually has every single note in the scale.

Triads are the building blocks of all chords. A triad is a chord that contains the requisite 1st, 3rd, and 5th and nothing more. The major triad has the 1st 3rd and 5th with no alterations. A minor triad has the 1st and 5th, but the 3rd note is flatted. To flat a note means to lower it by 1/2 step. B would become Bb for example, and C# would become a C.

The major chord family is notated by the word “major” in the name of the chord. A major7th chord has a 1,3,5, and 7 from the major scale. A major9 chord has a 1,3,5,7, and 9 (same as 2 but up an octave.) Major11 adds an 11, and major13 adds the 13 on top of that.

The minor chord family has the word “minor” in the name of the chord. These chords all have 1,b3, and 5 from the minor triad. A minor7 chord has a flatted 7 as well. Minor9 adds a 9 (not flatted), minor11 adds an 11, and minor13 adds a 13. Only the 3rd and 7th are flatted in all cases.

The dominant family is the most common in blues music. The dominant family is the default case. So C7 is really C dominant 7 even though it’s usually not notated that way. These chords all have a 1,3,5, and a flatted 7th. The 9th chord adds a 9, the 11th an 11, and the 13th a 13. In all cases the 7th is the only flatted note.

The most common blues guitar chords are the 7th chord and the 9th chord. The 7th can be used for hundreds of songs. The 9th is a great substitution for the 7th chord and can add quite a bit of spice to your playing. The 11th and 13th chords can take a bit of getting used to.

Obviously, on the guitar, we have to leave some notes out to play an 11th or 13th chord because we can’t play 6 or 7 notes at a time. Even most common chords that have all 6 strings have some duplicate notes to make them playable. Getting used to playing all of the 7th chord and 9th chord shapes will get you well on your way to great blues guitar playing.

The lesson that’s been missing from guitar instruction.

The traditional method of guitar instruction has always been a teacher student arrangement, but there is only so much that a guitar teacher can pass on to a student.

Talent isn’t one of them, but I have to agree with the old saying that talent is 90 percent effort, and while it’s true that the right guitar instruction will help greatly with bringing out your talent, the greatest tool for developing it is applying what you’ve learned.

While the classical musician has often had the opportunity to rehearse in an orchestra, usually a small school orchestra, the guitar student, especially when learning to play more modern forms of music, is excluded.

The guitar lesson that really rounds off your music study and practice, is when you learn to play in a band. The term “seasoned musician” springs to mind.

Maybe I’ve set my sights a little high, but I truly believe that in order to really become a master of the guitar, one needs a guitar course that mimics the real life lessons of being an active musician in order to truly maximize all the theory and practice contained in most guitar lessons.

So what do you do? You may not feel ready to go out and start a band, and even if you did, you wont necessarily be applying all the guitar instruction you’ve received on DVD or otherwise. You would need to play specific music pieces in the band, geared towards specific lessons.

Not a likely situation for a band that’s just starting up.

The solution for this is to use backing tracks, or Jam tracks. While this seems like an insignificant addition to guitar lessons, the resulting improvement in skill can be considerable.

What else should the best guitar instruction dvd teach you?

Ear training, better described as the ability to recognize notes and chords simply by hearing them, is an essential part of being a musician.

This does develop over time as a natural progression of learning to play guitar, or any musical instrument for that matter, but having a set method for learning and practicing this art can really speed things up.

Why is it important? Well, when you get to writing songs and playing guitar solos this is a handy talent to have. When you get this right you’ll realize you’re a lot more talented than you thought you where.

The true value of getting the best guitar instruction dvds.

Most people don’t really consider the long term benefit of learning to play guitar properly, and by properly I mean learning to read music, music theory, different styles of guitar playing, and getting lessons that go all the way from beginner to advanced lead guitar and soloing styles.

Getting a complete education in guitar puts you in a position to not only learn for yourself, but with time can turn into a fairly lucrative career teaching others how to play the guitar.

A complete guitar instruction DVD set gives you all the materials with video, and preferably a book should accompany that, so you have a reference for years to come.

The other reason to get a complete guitar course.

If you have it, you’ll use it. I’ve seen many guitarists who are stuck at a certain level. They want to play lead guitar, or blues solos and so on, but they’re still playing the same old rhythm guitar they learned way back.

When the drive to learn and master the guitar is there, it’s best not to stand in its way, and if two years from now you get the urge to learn something new on guitar, you’ll actually do it because the lessons are there already.