Archive for August, 2011

Learn How to Play Acoustic Guitar Step by Step

August 23rd, 2011

When you’re just starting to discover how to play the guitar, you may learn how to play acoustic guitar first. Experts suggest that you should for the acoustic kind first before jumping over electric guitar because the first kind is easier to understand. Fortunately, because we are living in an era where technology is on its peak, you can bump into various resources for you to understand how to play the instrument with ease.

Literally, thousands of Internet websites are available to guide a beginner on the learning stage. One will not just be guided on how to properly hold the instrument or tune it, even complicated processes like reading notes of various songs are taught as well.

Understand the Process of Reading Simple Chord Charts

Beginners should start on the basic processes if they wish to competently learn how to play acoustic guitar. The very first thing to do is to read simple chord charts. The moment when you’ve perfected learning this topic, you can discover hundreds or even thousands of tunes that you can play. Chord charts are related to diagram that contains vertical lines in order to represent the strings and the horizontal lines are those that represent the frets. On the strings are numbered dots used to symbolize fingers as they are press to make the chord. Once you’ve understood the hands and fingers position for the chords and their respective strumming techniques, you are half-way the road to proficiency. In no time, you can competently learn how to play acoustic guitar.

Master Reading Guitar Tabs

Tablature which is usually referred to as “tabs” is a kind of music notation specifically made for the guitar. Don’t confuse this to chords because tabs are read in a horizontal manner rather than in a vertical kind like that with chords. The numbers will show the fret that you must press on to make the note that you would like to get. When you learn how to read guitar tabs, you can start learning how to play a song.

Learn the Scales

Although you can argue that this lesson is normally found on piano classes, it is vital that you learn the basic scales and apply them on regular basis. The foundation of most melodies is the scales so after you learn about them, you will be able to learn how to play acoustic guitar songs easily.

The moment when you have mastered the scales and can already do them on your fingertips, you will for sure be very pleased to know that you are learning how to play your favorite song in a very fast manner. And this is the time when you will appreciate all the works to learn how to play acoustic guitar. The sound of guitar can invoke different feelings so you can trust the instrument to accompany you in any sentiment that you are currently experiencing.

Many people enjoy the fact that they can create beautiful music on their own; you will for sure appreciate this the moment when you became an expert in playing the guitar. To speed up the process of learning, learn through the use of DVD Guitar course online.

What’s Easier- Electric Or Acoustic Guitar?

August 21st, 2011

There seems to be a misconception floating around that starting your first lessons with an electric guitar is somehow more difficult than starting with an acoustic guitar. The opposite is actually more true.

The neck of an electric guitar is longer and thinner than an acoustic guitar. The action (space between string and top of fretboard) is generally lower on an electric guitar also. As a result, less strength is required to push the strings down onto the fretboard, thus making it easier to play.

The classical guitar would be next in line as far as ease of playing is concerned. This is because it has nylon strings which are more flexible than the wound steel strings of a dreadnaught acoustic guitar. The challenge with classical guitar, especially for those who have small hands, is playing a wider neck.

So, when rating guitars from 1. being the easiest to play, and 3. being the most difficult, my opinion is:

1. electric

2. classical

3. acoustic steel string (dreadnaught)

Now, when it comes to style, that’s another matter…

Each of the instruments I mentioned above are generally associated with a particular style of music. Electric guitars have a long history of association with rock and roll music. Likewise, classical guitars were developed to play classical music and acoustic steel string guitars are most often associated with country-western music. However, that does not mean they are restricted to these areas only.

Each style of guitar music has it’s own merit and unique level of difficulty. I doubt if it’s even possible to really compare such a thing as which style is the most difficult to play. We can all think of great musicians in each field… Eddie Van Halen, Segovia, Chet Atkins- all of whom were supurb guitarists in their particular style of choice.

The important thing to understand is that all the notes and all the chords are the same, regardless of the type of guitar you use. So when choosing a guitar for yourself, or your child, consider the style of music you (or they) want to learn and take it from there.