Our friends over at Bluestonecommerce have added some guitars to their holiday inventory. Why not Click on the Picture below to visit their site and view their line of Gibson beginner guitars.

These reasonably-priced Gibson electric guitars make a great holiday gift for the beginning rocker…

But, if you want an enlightening, informative and surprisingly technical explaination of one of America’s classic iconic guitars, watch this VDO that I happend to find on YouTube. (Love that YouTube). You can learn practically anything there.

There it is – two of my favorites: Gibson and YouTube. (Not really crazy about the hair).

But let’s not forget the guitarists of last generation. A totally different style to be sure – but the technique is just as impressive. People like Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt – and of course, this guy – George Lynch…

Ya, I know – I had the same thought – not much of a lesson (more of an interview). But I still couldn’t stop watching. I would love to be able to play like George – wouldn’t you?

Music is made up of three basic elements, Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. All are interrelated and we should not try to isolate them because this will not take us where we want to be. We instead want to understand each of them in a unique way so when eventually combined they make a more poignant whole. Melody was first on my list so let’s start there.

Our melodies will make or break our playing – Period!

When we practice melodies we must remember that for each tune we work on there are probably lyrics for it. If you do not know the lyrics, stop and get a copy. Read them, speak them out loud, sing them and learn them until they become part of you.

Next, listen to the greatest vocalists sing these tunes. Listen to their phrasing, their articulation, how they use their mouths, tongues, teeth, lips, lungs, body posture or whatever they do to produce the sounds. Think about the ways we can incorporate all of those things into our guitar playing.

Unfortunately, the guitar is an instrument that has no air blowing through it so we have to improvise. Also the patterns of scales and chord fingerings we were taught when we started don’t help our creativity. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t learn them but many times practicing only these will leave us stale and stiff.

Case in point, did you ever transcribe a great jazz guitar solo only to realize that the fingerings needed to play it are no were near what we were taught about standard fingerings for guitar scales?

So what do we do?

Start off basic and I mean so basic that we’re probably way ahead of ourselves already. Be aware of the endless possibilities of making each note and then break it down to the point where we are left with only the rudimentary elements of producing a single tone on the guitar. The atomic tone so to speak.

For instance, if we play with only the thumb of our picking hand as opposed to a plectrum we get one type of sound. If we play only down strokes with our thumb we get a different sound again.

Let’s delve into this further as it is important.

If we play with our index finger, middle finger, a plectrum on the pointy end, on the fat corner, on the fat end, upstrokes, down strokes, whatever, we can make all kinds of sounds. In fact, there are so many possibilities we may never get to them all in our lifetime.

Hopefully you see where I am getting at and we haven’t even discussed the fingering hand yet nor have we discussed any particular notes, pitches, dynamics etc…

Don’t let that stop you. Start learning this now and you will be happy you did.

Ok what’s next?

Select 3 notes and work with only them while thinking about the spoken voice and how you would convey three words in a sentence. Think about how by changing the phrasing and articulation of our three words, or notes, we can change the meaning of them entirely. In fact pick an actual 3 word sentence and speak it with your guitar rather than using your voice. This is where we truly start learning melody.

If we were to find someone we don’t know and say to them; “What is your name?” We would get a response. Don’t forget that a non response is also a response. We must realize the actual response we get is dependent on how we phrase and/or articulate our words and realize that we can control this response only if we understand its relationship to our actual question.

I’ll explain. If we were to say those exact words in a teasing, tormenting and antagonistic manner we would get one response. If on the other hand we were to use an openly friendly demeanor we get an entirely different response all together.

By doing this simple thought exercise we realize that using the exact same words spoken in different ways produces vastly different responses.

By observing, understanding, and practicing this behavior we can learn to exploit and utilize this technique to our advantage to allow the full potential in our guitar playing that invokes the response were seeking, whatever that may happen to be.

The human voice is of particular concern to us because our ultimate goal is to emulate what it does with our instrument. We want to be able to communicate with our guitars the way people communicate when they speak to each other – which is not unlike melodies.

As babies, we were only able to make rudimentary noises to communicate. Years later, hopefully, we are able to form intelligent rational thoughts and convey them with our words using articulation and phrasing and word combinations to mean many things. We want to apply this to our guitar playing.

Remember, it took us years to be able speak in this manner and we should approach practicing melody with the same realization and not try to run before we can walk.

We should also remember that even babies can communicate in a very compelling manner without using words at all! So don’t be afraid if this practice routine seems too simple. It’s not the notes you use, it’s what they are actually communicating that is important.

What can we deduce from all of this?

When you start finding yourself practicing or playing those blazing fast cool scalar riffs, stop and think about how many times you hear actual people speak like that.

Now – ask yourself how long you would stay and listen to them if they did.

That’s it for now but look for new articles in the future and remember; have fun, practice hard and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is an avid web developer who plays and teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. He owns an [http://www.hostsstation.com/]Asp.Net Web Hosting Company where you can contact him about hosting your guitar website/blog or just to learn more.
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Practice

What can I say about practice? Just do it and do it often! Do it everyday. When you think you have done enough do it again.

I am not just talking about picking up the guitar and playing a few songs I am talking about real practicing for the environment that you will eventually be playing in which is, of course, in an ensemble with other musicians who we hope will always be better than you.

Here are the basics…

When practicing always use a metronome!

If I didn’t make that part clear perhaps this may help: ALWAYS USE A METRONOME!

If you feel that you don’t need a metronome stop reading this article, stop practicing and go get some ice cream because you will get the same or even better results and you certainly will enjoy yourself a whole lot more in the process if you do. If you are committed read on.

Still with me?

When using your metronome try to feel your timing on different clicks. For instance for a swing feel have your metronome click on beats 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3. This will give you an instant swing feel and also take away that nasty crutch so you are forced to know where beat 1 really is.

We never, ever, want to rely on our drummer, who may be in the middle of a complex experimental improvisation just when you need him/her the most, to tell us where beat 1 is. How many times have you been in that situation?

Sound simple? It is!

Sound easy? Try it for a month and you let me know how it goes.

Let’s delve into this a little. When practicing using this technique of displacing metronome clicks for beats try these: practice a 3/4 tune using the metronome clicking once per measure and only on beat 2. Then switch to only on beats 3. See how the feeling changes. Practice it, learn it, feel it and then you can start to own it.

If you want to get fancy place the metronome to click every fifth beat while you play a tune in 3. This will shift the accents and feeling from bar to bar and will also allow your brain to break free from it’s learned behavior which is designed to make you not want to think.

What did you say?

That’s right! More times than not the human brain is your biggest enemy. It always seeks comfort and practicing in the fashion described above is not at all comfortable for your brain. In these cases I recommend telling your brain what my son often likes to say, “To bad…, so sad!”

We as musicians need to experience and comprehend the natural tendencies of the brain’s normal behavior so we can learn to truly challenge ourselves to open up our minds to the gargantuan creative possibilities that await us when we do. This doesn’t happen by accident nor does it happen by itself nor will it come easy. It takes an extreme effort on our parts.

Whether you have your instrument with you or not you can practice your timing. If you get a small battery operated metronome, which I recommend, you can bring it with you when you are driving back and forth to work. Practice the above examples in your car while singing. Don’t worry if you can’t sing you are trying to own these feelings and if you can’t articulate these feelings with your voice you will never truly own them.

I have outlined several examples for displacement of beats. The idea is simple enough so that you can come up with more deviations on your own and you should keep changing them when you practice.

The point here is that true understanding and your eventual ownership of various beats and feelings associated with them do not reside strictly inside those beats and feelings. By looking only inside the beats you are shutting off all creative thinking that is necessary to truly exploit their full potential.

Real understanding resides outside and you must find out what that means. To truly find it you must force yourself and be willing to look everywhere else but the beats themselves. This simple metronome technique will get you started and point you on your journey to achieving that goal. Don’t limit yourself to applying this technique only to timing but that statement is for another part of this series.

Have fun, practice and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is a Professional Audio Engineer and an Avid Web Developer who plays and also teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. His latest projects include the [http://www.iproductionguide.com/]Internet Production Guide and he owns a small [http://www.hostsstation.com]Asp Hosting Company. You can contact him at his personal web site [http://www.johnbelthoff.com]Studio JB.
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1. Decide on the type of music you want to play. Do you want to play rock? How about blues? Maybe country? The style of music you want to play will dictate the type of guitar you should buy.

2. People who want to play rock music will be best suited with an electric guitar. You may also find that an acoustic guitar may be useful for rock music too. Almost any song can be converted to an acoustic version.

3. When you buy an electric guitar you should stick with one made out of solid wood. These types of electric guitars tend to be more expensive then one made of plywood. But you will get a much better sound.

4. A good place to buy your new guitar is online. You can easily find reviews and comparison shop for the best guitar. This is great for beginners who don’t know where to start.

5. If your on a budget you may want to consider a used guitar. I good place to look is on ebay. There are plenty of guitar players out there looking to get rid of there guitar. Usually you can get a great guitar at an affordable price.

6. Its a good idea to test a guitar out before you purchase it. This means you should go to a store and try it out. If your buying an electric one the sounds will vary depending on the amp that is being used. When buying online you should check out there return policy.

7. Shop for brands that are affordable. Onyx, Legend, and Orion all have affordable models that are suited well for beginners. As you get better you can move on to much better guitars from Fender and Gibson.

As you can see there are plenty of things you need to consider when buying a guitar. You need to keep thing simple and affordable when you are first starting out. You may decide that you don’t want to play the guitar at some point. Spending a great deal of money on an expensive guitar is simply not worth it when you are first learning.

To get more tips about buying guitars and playing them check out the site Learn Guitar Easy from Tom White

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_61447_48.html

Also, after getting a good beginner guitar, you might want to learn it by getting a good Beginner Guitar Instruction Course

Learning guitar late in life is open to anybody but the question is if it is easier to learn guitar as a young person, does that mean it is harder when you are older?

Older guitar students do tend to have some hassles learning music theory and note reading but it is worth the struggle and many guitar players use tab to learn material and tabs are available freely on the internet for any song or instrumental that a beginner could want to learn.

If you find yourself struggling with the more theoretical side of music, then you could make up for it by concentrating more on technique. You can learn a lot about the guitar just using your ear and a diagram of the notes on the fretboard, and remember that many guitarists who played all their lives never learnt to read music.

Changing chords is the first big hurdle for guitar players of any age, and can lead to a mental block for older students. So, just start with getting the chord shapes right and work on changing from one chord to the other slowly and carefully. If you are troubled by training your hands to do the chord shapes you might want to consider buying yourself a Gripmaster. This is a gadget that helps you strengthen your fingers and develop callouses on the fingertips. Also light gauge strings are a little easier for an older guitar student to practice on.

Something that is possibly a little more important for an older newbie guitar player is the need for daily practice. Make yourself a schedule and stick to it religiously. It might do some good to occasionally get a lesson from someone who is not your regular guitar teacher. Even from a friend who does not play in your style. The change can help keep you out of a rut.

Keep your guitar handy all the time. Sometimes if you have a bunch of family and professional commitments that keep you busy, you can do more playing by grabbing the guitar for a couple of minutes when you can, instead of trying to find a regular half hour a day. If this is the way you have to go to get your quota of practice, then so be it.

You will probably benefit from getting a decent guitar to learn on, whether electric or acoustic, and the general rule about acoustic guitars being kinder to the hands in the first couple of months of playing still applies.

Finally, you will possibly need to keep reminding yourself that the reason you started to learn guitar was basically to do with having fun. Don’t get too bogged down in the idea of guitar practice being what you “have to” do. Not having your parents to cook and clean for you, will put you at a disadvantage compared to most young people so don’t be surprised if younger students progress faster than you. The point is if you keep at it you will be playing any song you want within a couple of years.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

For a good beginner guitar course try Jamorama.
And to become a fretboard wizard try Guitar Scale Mastery RIGHT NOW!!!

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About the Author: Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is my blog which invites people who wish to learn how to play bass, acoustic or electric guitar to browse my guitar lessons, videos, articles and reviews. It is the ultimate resource if you are looking for the best way to learn how to play the guitar. http://playaguitarforfree.com/

Attitude

Attitude is an important factor when you learn to play classical guitar. When learning there are a few things you need to do before you start. You must be prepared to let go of all of your old habits, and be able to accept new habits and instruction easily. Many people fail at classical guitar because they cannot let go of old habits learned with modern guitar.

The art of classical guitar

Classical guitar is an art form that goes back many centuries. The traditions and history involved in classical guitar are wonderful and interesting. It is important when you first learn to play classical guitar that you take the time to research the history and beginnings of the classical guitar to give you a full understanding on the instrument.

Become one with your guitar

When you learn to play classical guitar you need to understand your guitar and make it an extension of your body. Movement should be smooth and fluid. Playing classical guitar should feel natural and spiritual, this will be displayed in your music and the way you appear when playing. Become one with your classical guitar and you will find everything else will come easily to you.

Relaxation

When you learn to play classical guitar relaxation is important. Learning to relax your body and move with the instrument will ensure you move through chords and notes easily. Sometimes it can be hard to let go of the stiff rigid stance we are used to when playing modern guitar, but once you let go and relax you will find your music will improve.

Teachings

Many teachings have been written for people who want to learn to play classical guitar. Finding the right method for you can be a long process. The best way to find the right teaching method for you is to research and try different teachings until you find the one that works best for you.

Basic principles

Understanding the basic principles when you first learn to play classical guitar is important to future success. Basic principles will provide you with a good foundation for success in the world of classical guitar

Classical guitar is a fun and rewarding instrument. When you first learn to play classical guitar it may seem as though you will never improve or become as good as the professionals. The thing to remember is the professional classical guitar players all started where you are. They were all once beginners too and they achieved success by practicing and mastering their craft.

About the Author
Christopher Buckley is owner of one of the internet’s largest guitar learning resources.To find out more about learning classical guitar, visit Learn Guitar Blog

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Learn To Play Classical Guitar