Guitar Tips, Music Tips and Product Reviews

The act of learning to play guitar is without a doubt quite fun, and believe it or not most people at one point have wanted to learn to give it a try. There are many times that you've seen the lead singer in a band begin to play, and you wonder how awesome it would be if you could do the same thing. But there are many people that have no idea what a guitar chord is, and there is no shame if you happen to be among them.

Instead of buying a guitar and hoping that it will just come to you, it's best to seek out a method that allows you to learn guitar through chords and chord progression. All music is based on chords; once you learn how they are played you can start to understand how music is made. Even if you have never taken a lesson you can still learn finger placement and how to strum so you can get the basics under your belt.

Everybody starts with the fundamentals when it comes to learning guitar chords. Even your favorite guitar player, although some are self-taught you can still trace their musical start to guitar chords. When you learn the major chords that most of music uses for songs you can begin to build a base of knowledge.

The majority of people will mistakenly believe that learning the guitar is very hard. Yes, it is quite a challenge, but hard? Absolutely not! Get rid of this preconceived notion and you'll be well on your way! Find a book that contains basic guitar chords and you'll be well on your way to wherever it is you want to be.

There is a fair amount of practice involved and devoting just a half hour each day to playing will improve your overall thirst for learning more. Remember to start with basic chords so you can understand how music is played. Since learning new chords helps build upon your hand flexing you will find that you can play chords you thought were reserved for professionals.

Once you learn the proper finger placement and which strings to strum you will be amazed at how fun and easy learning can be. Even if you have been challenged in musical talent department you can still learn how to play guitar chords. The root of every song comes from a guitar chord.

There is such a thing as a common chord, and such are the chords that everyone will learn. If you learn the common chords, then you can learn the major chords which will help you to learn many other types of music. You can combine simple and major chords to make some beautiful music!

It's also fun to learn with a friend because you can help encourage each other as you learn to play. There are several ways to learn, you can hire a teacher, you can teach yourself or you can take a music class with other students. Its best to have a teacher that shows you what a chord looks like and which strings to play. Often times we get frustrated because we feel we are not learning as fast as we would like. You cannot rush musical development, take your time and enjoy the process.

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Natural Harmonic

The easiest harmonics to produce are probably "Natural Harmonics. The technique used is to play with an open string. You would pluck the string with the right hand with your pick as usual, and at the same time mildly touch your left finger to the string at the proper point and then remove it immediately. Your left finger forces the string to stay still in that point, hence creating a node, while the rest of it vibrates. The clarity the harmonic relies upon how quickly you remove your finger. The most important thing about "Natural harmonics" is that where you place your left finger .This is so because it has to match the right placement of the node of the harmonic series you desire to produce.

In most cases you need to place your finger above the fret, not the gap in between them. You can acquire all the "harmonic" effortlessly with a little practice except the 9th fret that is somewhat difficult to get. The 12th fret is simplest and best lace to begin.

Artificial Harmonic

"Natural harmonics" being produced on open strings have limited notes which we can easily create. While "Artificial harmonics" include one more step and give a lot more openings, although they are much difficult to play. However, the principle is simple - we have just to shorten the string by fretting it somewhere. For instance a 2nd harmonic although still consisting of 2 equal notes split in the middle would sound higher because we have shortened the string by fretting it.

It also signifies that we have to move the point that we produce the node up by half the distance we have moved up the fret board (so that we are still hitting the exact center of the part of the string that is free to move). Since we work out the positioning of the nodes as a division of the part of the string that is able to resonate, all of the nodes will be closer at hand, and will act on the string slightly. To actually play the "harmonic", since your left hand is busy in fretting the string, you must place a finger from your right hand on the appropriate point, and use some other finger on the same hand to really pull the string - this is not easy - pretty hard to perform but with practice you can meet the task.

To create "artificial harmonics", implement the exact same rules , simply remember that you have to adjust for the amount you have moved up the neck.Entire complex melodies can be played by practicing artificial harmonics , but if you are moving your fret hand up the string even to play successive notes, you also require to change the place to match the "harmonic "you are producing.

Both the techniques mentioned above are equally at home on a classical or electric guitar.

It's Mike again from KillerGuitarTips.com

As promised here's another mini guitar lesson to give you a help in hand in your guitar playing.

This week's tip is a nice little chord change that crops up in many songs and is really effective but it does assume you have some understanding of playing the guitar. If not don't worry as my full course (due to be released shortly) covers every aspect from an absolute beginner through to monster guitar players.

A great piece of advice is to keep all these tips for future reference. As you will be building an archive up over time and can be referred back to and pull out from your bag of tricks.

Ok, let's have a go:

We'll start by playing an 'A Major' chord in the open position, using your 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger play one bar all downstrokes and on the beat.

Next lift off your 3rd finger to reveal the open B string (this chord is called Asus2) and play one bar.

Next using your 4th finger hold down the B string at the 3rd fret (1st and 2nd finger remain unchanged at the second fret throughout this piece), play one bar (Chord is called Asus4) and finish off by playing one bar of A Major to complete this four bar sequence.

Here's another cool little trick i would like to give you before i sign off for this week. It's a great trick creating cool sounding chords easily by using all the open strings within the chords.

Ok follow me... We are going to play an A major (A) chord with a difference... The fingerings are: 4th string 7th fret with your 3rd finger....3rd string 6th fret 2nd finger and 2nd string 5th fret 1st finger and 1st string is played open this chord is an A major (A). OK now strum one bar....

Now you need to move the whole chord shape down the neck two frets keeping the 1st string open. This is a G6 chord. Play one bar.

Now we need to play a Dsus2 chord. Here are the fingerings... 4th string open... 3rd string 2nd fret first finger... 2nd string 3rd fret 3rd finger and again 1st string open, now play one bar.

To finish off we now play an A Major chord in the open position... 5th string open... 4th,3rd and 2nd string are played at the second fret with fingers 1,2,3 and the 1st string is ...you guessed it open.

Play one or two bars of each chord over and over for a killer chord progression that sounds great on its own, it's great to solo over and fantastic for writing your own songs...

Until next time, keep practicing!

Warmest regards Mike

This short article contains some common guitar myths on the subject of natural talent. We will talk about that how natural talent is not a replacement for hardwork and for learning the specific proficiency. By practicing with guitar backing tracks you will achieve the benefits to polishing your skills.

Natural talent is a pretty talked about phrase in the guitar community. Some people remain unable to excel in mastering their instrument because they do not have natural talent.

There are quite a few guitar players who can be trained the musical instrument quickly because all the people aren't naturally gifted as a musician or guitarist. Lots of musicians may have a natural talent for their musical instrument or style, but that does not mean that only these individuals can be taugh and master the guitar. Yes, natural talent matters a lot but someone who picks up a guitar and has the drive, enthusiasm, determination, and dedication can learnand develop into an outstanding guitarist.

Mastering the guitar simply involves individuals to apply themselves to learning the necessary tools and skills in order to successfully produce music that shows who they are and what they are about. You have to take some time to learn all these tools, techniques, and skills if you truly want to master the guitar. It is essential to learn all these things because a guitar player requires them to play effectively.

According to this myth, skillful guitarists just magically knew how to play, and overlooks the fact that they sacrifices many hours of practice to acquire and perfect their skills. But there are no guitar geniuses who haven't spent hours and hours of practice and study to promote their talents and skills.

The reality is that even the most gifted guitar players had to work, learn, and practice. You can practice and develop your skills by various different modes. To practice along with guitar backing tracks is one of the most advantageous means to polish your talents and skills. You can perfect your skills and apply your freshly learned knowledge by playing with guitar backing tracks. Guitar backing tracks assist you to develop better tone as they focus on toning up your accuracy. These tracks are easily accessible from retailers such as Planet of Rock.

You can make your Practice sessions more pleasurable by using backing tracks. You can play along with a whole band rather than running never-ending drills. You also can perfect your improvisation proficiencies. Guitar Players can rock the stage while performing the live shows and other types of gigs by employing backing tracks.

Anyone who follows the indie rock music scene may have already discovered the New Moon soundtrack. I heard it for the first time a few days ago and I'd like to give a quick review.

If you know anything about the New Moon series and these bands, you're probably confused by the fact that all of these bands have produced original music for this soundtrack.

To be honest, I had never even heard of the show or the movie until I found out about the soundtrack recently. It wasn't until after reading a review for the album that I even knew what it was.

I'm still confused by the fact that these bands are on the New Moon soundtrack. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half of these bands had never even heard of the show before they were asked to make music for it.

Whatever their motives were for agreeing to do this together, the end result is pretty fascinating. I've found myself listening to this soundtrack quite a bit since I got it last week, and while I'll never see the movie, I'll definitely be listening to this some more.

With big names like Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Thom Yorke, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and others, this is the best compilation CD I've heard since Dark Was the Night came out earlier this year.

The guitar based songs here are great, and some thrilling solos capture the vampire essence of the movie throughout. The electronic based tracks are pretty intriguing too, with a spooky feel to them that blends right into the theme of the soundtrack.

Forget about what this was made for. These could all be the songs for a Hannah Montana soundtrack for all I care. If the music is this good, I'll be buying it.