Jamorama Review 7

Summary: Jamorama Review 7

Jamorama Review

Guitar Lesson One From Jamorama - Getting Started

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Sitting Positions

There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual.

1. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg. 2. Position yourself at the edge of your chair. 3. Ensure that your back is relaxed but straight. 4. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly.

Standing Position

1. Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned mid-body. 2. Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar. 3. Rest your right hand over the bridge of the guitar.

Hand Positions

It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury.

Front View

Rear View

Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this:

Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts unneccessary strain on your wrist and thumb.

Fretting

When you play the guitar, you use your left hand fingers to press down the strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar. Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is called fretting. Here are some tips you will need to know:

1. Short fingernails are essential. 2. Use only the tips of your fingers to press the strings. 3. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. We will cover chords in lesson one. 4. Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing.

As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks. With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips).

Holding the Pick

Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below:

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about chords and by the end of this lesson you'll have learnt the A Major chord.

Don't forget, for the ultimate guitar learning kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamorama.com

Now you are ready to start your first lesson. Your aim in this lesson is to learn the A and D major chords and to introduce yourself to reading guitar tablature. This lesson is very important, so I want you to really focus.

Remember! It is more beneficial for you to practice multiple times during a week than to practice for one long session. This is because your brain processes information in chunks at a time and it can only hold a certain amount in short term storage.

For example, with phone numbers, it is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time. Yet if you give yourself time between practicing, even if it is just 10 minutes, you’ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More information on effective learning is contained in our Jamorama product at Jamorama.com.

Ok. That aside, let’s get started on the lesson. To start with, I want you to have a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information.

Frets The guitar neck is divided into what we call frets, making a fret board. Most guitars have around 20 frets. In this first book, we will focus on the first four, also known as the first position. In book 2, we will move beyond that. Notice that we number each fret starting at 1 at the head of the guitar.

Note: Each string on the guitar is numbered. When you hold your guitar as you would when using the casual playing position, the 1st string is at the bottom and the 6th string is at the top.

Notice also the term, ‘Tuning’ at the bottom of the above diagram. Tuning refers to the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to. In the above diagram, I have given a very common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E. The open 6th string is called low E. The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E. I will explain notes and octaves to you in a later newsletter, but for now, you only need to know the names of the notes in standard open E tuning.

Now make sure that your guitar is tuned to open E tuning (the most common tuning). If you don't know how to tune your guitar, then download my free guide to tuning your guitar from: http://www.jamorama.com/tuning/howtotune.pdf . Or if you are already a member of Jamorama.com, you can use our guitar tuning software to help you tune your guitar.

**Note: To open the above tuning.pdf file you'll need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download a free copy of this from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

We will stick to standard E tuning throughout this newsletter, but you can find other tunings to play with in our member’s area at www.jamorama.com.

Introduction to Chords

Now we are going to look at guitar chords. Guitarists use many different chords to make progressions or riffs that can then be used to create songs. If you are not familiar with some of these terms, it’s ok. We will cover everything that I am talking about in good time.

A chord is defined as a combination of 3 or more notes played together. To examine this, I want to take a look at chord diagrams. Chord diagrams are used to illustrate how a chord is played. They are very easy to use because they look very much like the neck of the guitar, in fact, the Jamorama chord diagram is a guitar neck.

As stated above the Jamorama chord diagrams are going to be pictures of an ‘actual’ guitar neck so it’s easy to make the connection between strings and fingering. There is also a picture of the type of chord diagram that appears in most other Guitar learning guides. I want you to be aware of that form of ‘standard’ chord diagram because you may want to use it when writing up chords on paper at home.

So, now that you know what a chord diagram looks like and how it matches with the neck of your guitar, it’s time to come back to what I said earlier about a chord being a combination of 3 or more notes played together. Finger placing symbols are added to the chord diagram so we know which notes to play. To start with, let’s look at your fingers.

We give each playing finger a number that we can then match up on the chord diagram (see below).

And now, let’s look at a full chord diagram. We will use the example of the A major chord:

Chord Diagram - A Major Chord In the chord diagram below you can see that the A major chord uses fingers 1, 2, and 3. Take note of how this chord diagram looks - we will use this style from now on.

The A major chord is constructed of the notes A, C# and E. We will cover notes a little later. For now, we will make chords without knowledge of individual notes.

Note that there is a red dot marking the 6th string on the above chord diagram. The red dot tells you that you are not to play that string. The sixth string of the A major chord is not played, but you play the rest.

Throughout this newsletter series, every chord diagram will be accompanied by a picture of the chord being held on the fret board and video and audio of the chord being played for you to check with. Pictured below is the A major chord being played.

Exercise: Playing the A Major Chord Position each finger with care, according to the above diagram. Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Play the first Audio or video example to hear how the chord should sound.

Now that we’ve looked at chord diagrams, I want to move on to strumming.

Introduction to Strumming In a strum there are two types of guitar stroke. They are up stroke and down stroke. Throughout this book these strokes will be notated as follows:

When you play a stroke, you strum across the strings just in front of the bridge of the guitar with the pick in your left hand. When strumming a chord, make sure that you play all of the necessary strings in the chord. The stroke direction will depend on which stroke is indicated; up or down as shown above.

Exercise: Strumming the A Major Chord Position each finger with care, according to the A Major chord diagram (above). Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Once you are sure that you are holding the A major chord correctly, practice strumming the chord in single downward strokes as indicated below:

While you play this, see if you can say out loud an even 4 count. Another option if you are a Jamorama.com member is to use the jamorama metronome - it will help you to stay in time.

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

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QuickTime - A Major (1.56MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - A Major (1.76MB)

QuickTime - A Major (4.00MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - A Major (5.87MB)

Audio

A Major Mp3 (0.75MB)

Try your best to start your strum from the fifth string each time you strum. A major, doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the top string, although if you want your music to sound professional, you’ll want to play this chord properly. Remember to stay relaxed. Your fingers may hurt a little but they will get stronger.

Now that you are playing the A major chord properly, let’s take a look at strumming another chord...

The D Major Chord The D Major Chord is constructed of the notes D, F# (F sharp) and A and is played using fingers 1, 2 and 3:

As with the A major chord: try strumming the D major chord in downward strokes with your right hand.

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

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QuickTime - D Major (1.51MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - D Major (1.97MB)

QuickTime - D Major (3.91MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - D Major (4.05MB)

Audio

D Major Mp3 (0.73MB)

Note: The top two, or fifth and sixth, strings are not played in the D major chord. Make sure that you start your stroke from the third string each time you strum D major, it doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the fifth string, although as with A major above, if you want your music to sound professional, you need to play this chord properly.

Hints for Buying a New Guitar Whether you’re buying your first guitar, upgrading or simply adding to your collection, your first priority is to do your homework. There are many different resources available and you should endeavor to use them all. Guitar magazines are a good place to find out prices and specifications on different models of guitar. You can get similar knowledge from browsing at your local instrument shop. Another great tool is the internet – you can check for the most competitive prices, get some information on the manufacturers and search for other guitarist’s reviews and opinions.

You really need to arm yourself well before you try haggling with your local guitar salesman.

Often you can find online auctions where guitars sell for incredibly low prices; however, I wouldn’t advise you to take this option. As a rule you should always play before you buy so that you get a chance to gauge performance.

Once you’ve got the background knowledge that you need on the guitar of your choice the next task is to set yourself a budget and stick to it. Don’t let salespeople talk you into spending more money than you anticipated.

Testing out new guitars in the shop can be an intimidating task for beginners. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not. Check the frets for buzzing by playing each one. Make sure that the neck is not warped by looking down it as if you were sighting a gun. Check that all of the volume and tone switches etc. are in good working condition.

It is a great idea to take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a possible purchase, so see if you can persuade a teacher of friend. Not only will they be able to offer helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public.

This FREE course in brought to you by Jamorama - The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Free Guitar Lesson Two From Jamorama -Tuning Your Guitar to Itself

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This is probably the most important piece of knowledge that you can learn when it comes to tuning your guitar. The process of tuning your guitar to itself is one by which you tune each string to another string on the guitar. Basically, it means that you can tune the guitar without having to use a tuner or pitch tool. The only set back about using this method is that your guitar may not end up in exact concert pitch. What I mean by that is that the strings may not run E, A, D, G, B, E as they would if they were in correct concert pitch (you would need a tuner or pitch tool to do that), rather they will all be tuned to whatever note the top string happens to be at the time of tuning. The first step is to get your fifth string in tune with your sixth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the sixth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string five should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the sixth string and let that note ring. As you let the sixth string ring, pluck the fifth string. If the fifth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the sixth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the sixth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the sixth string. If the fifth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the sixth string. It may take you a while to match pitches exactly but the more practice you get at this, the faster you will be able to do it.

The second step is to get your forth string in tune with your fifth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the fifth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string four should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the fifth string and let that note ring. As you let the fifth string ring, pluck the forth string. If the forth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the fifth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the fifth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the fifth string. If the forth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the fifth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The third step is to get your third string in tune with your forth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the forth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string three should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the forth string and let that note ring. As you let the forth string ring, pluck the third string. If the third string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the forth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the forth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the forth string. If the third string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the forth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The forth step is to get your second string in tune with your third string. Place a finger on your left hand on the forth fret of the third string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string two should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the third string and let that note ring. As you let the third string ring, pluck the second string. If the second string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the third string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the third string and then bring it back up to match with the forth fret note on the third string. If the second string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the forth fret note on the third string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The last step is to get your first string in tune with your second string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the second string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string one should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the second string and let that note ring. As you let the second string ring, pluck the first string. If the first string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the second string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the second string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the second string. If the first string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the second string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch and you will have tuned the guitar to its own strings.

You have just tuned your guitar to itself. If the guitar sounds a little out, you should go back and repeat the process – it is a little hard to master for a start but you should stick to it as it is a very useful skill to have.

Progress and Motivation An old piano teacher of mine used to record my playing at different times throughout my terms work. At the end of the term she would give me a tape that contained a selection of pieces that I had played running from work that I had completed early in the term to the things that I was working on at the end of the term. I would take this tape home and I would play it to my friends and family. People listening to the tape would say, “Man, you’re getting good”.

This did two things for me. First of all, it made me go back to my teacher for more lessons. Secondly, it made me practice more because I could see the benefits of working on something over time. Basically, the progress that I could hear on the tape motivated me to progress further.

I strongly recommend that you begin to record your practice sessions for future reference.

This FREE course in brought to you by Jamorama - The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Free Guitar Lesson Three From Jamorama - How to Read Guitar Tablature

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TAB or tablature is the most common method of writing out music for the guitar. It is different from classical music notation in that; TAB uses ordinary numbers and keyboard characters as opposed to standard musical notation which uses symbols. Because of this format, anyone with a computer can write or read TAB making it the most user friendly way to read and communicate guitar music. Also TAB relates directly to the fret board of your guitar meaning that you may easily see where you put your fingers.

In the full version of Jamorama, both standard musical notation and tablature are used. But for this six day course we will only use TAB. The reason for this is that tablature is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading.

TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can't be easily indicated. This shouldn't pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one.

OK. To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinniest. On a TAB diagram, the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top - The thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom. This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below.

The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:

Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play. This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written. Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below.

So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar. The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar. Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar called frets. TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets to press down and play.

For example, look at the tab diagram to the right and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played. The number refers to the fret that you should press down. In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn’t press down anything.

So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand.

Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, you can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

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QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Now let's see if we can start pushing down some strings. Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays.

If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly. If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below.

Tip: The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

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QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Let's try another one. Play the following piece of TAB:

This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret.

Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

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QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Things become a little more complicated when you are required to play chords, however the basic principals I have already outlined still apply. The only difference is that you will be required to play more strings and hold down more strings with your fingers. In this next example I will show you how to play the chord ‘A’.

A Major Chord

The first and fifth strings are played open while the second, third and forth strings are played at the second fret. The sixth string is not played in the A Major Chord and this is indicated by an X.

If you have read the TAB correctly your fingers should look like this:

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up

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QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

So now you know how to use basic tablature as it applies to notes and full chords. In this introductory set of lessons you will use TAB to learn different chords and by lesson six you will be able to play the full song, 'Rivers of Babylon'.

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about notes on the first string.

Don't forget, for the ultimate guitar learning kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamorama.com

Notes on the First String

Knowledge of the notes that are on each string is necessary for understanding guitar theory. The first string is also known as the high E string. The main notes in the first position on the first string are E (open), F (1st fret) and G (3rd fret). The first position refers to the first 4 frets of the guitar.

We will use these notes in the following exercise to introduce to you the concept of note picking.

Exercise: Note picking is a skill that is used in all types of music. For now, we will use it to familiarize ourselves with the note names on each string in the first position. Pluck these first string notes with a downward picking motion. Notice that your fingers should match the fret number when playing in the first position:

Try listening to audio for this example.

Audio

Picking the notes on the first string mp3. (456KB)

We will leave it there today in terms of guitar theory. Next time I want to get you strumming a whole lot more, but right now I want to look at something else and that is how to get a 'that' sound.

Getting ‘That’ sound – blues/rock guitar solo aka Jimi Hendrix. Many people around the world love blues, and many people love Jimi Hendrix, infact some would argue that he is the most influential guitarist to ever grace the planet. Blues/rock guitar tends to have a characteristic sound to it. Sure there is a style of playing that characterizes blues guitar, infact we cover this style in the Jamorama course thoroughly. There are blues Jam tracks and blues songs, the course will teach you HOW to play the blues guitar, but a question that often pops up is ‘Once I know how to play the STYLE, how do I get that ‘sound’ out of my amp"’. Ok, firstly let’s look at the aspects of a guitarist’s set up that have an effect on the final sound. - Ability of player to play that style. - Choice of guitar (i.e. Electric or acoustic"" Solid body or semi-acoustic, single coil pickups or humbucking pickups"") - Choice of amplifier - Settings on the guitar - Settings on the amplifier - Other miscellaneous items (e.g. strings, effects pedals e.t.c) So, from this list we can see that there is simply no ONE aspect that will directly change the sound, it’s the use of all of these things that point to the final outcome. A nice way of looking at it is to treat all of these aspects as ingredients to the sound recipe. By changing the ingredients or amount of, or order in which they are used you end up changing the final product. Obviously one of the most important of the ingredients is the ability of the player themselves. There is no point in having all of the ingredients to play blues guitar if the player can’t actually play blues style guitar… make sense? Let’s start with the guitar itself, the best choice of guitar would be a solid body electric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, or a Gibson lespaul, pretty much any solid body electric guitar will do. Once you have selected the guitar let’s look at the settings that are to be used on the guitar itself. You will want to select the neck pick up (the pickup that is closest to the neck of the guitar). This pickup gives a more rounded natural sound, often called the rhythm pickup. The on board controls of the guitar (the volume and tone knobs) are also very useful. To achieve a bluesy sound you should slightly roll off some of the tone knob, roll it back to about 7 or 8. Ok once you have this set up, look at the amplifier. Blues guitarists have a slightly overdriven or distorted sound. To achieve this I want you to make sure that you are plugging the guitar into the ‘Hi-gain’ input of your amplifier (if you only have one input then use that one. What you need to do next is to turn up your amp gain to a point where the sound coming out is slightly distorted (on most amps this would be just after halfway). If your guitar amp doesn’t distort or overdrive then there are other alternatives, you could purchase and use a distortion effect pedal. Ok, the amplifier’s EQ settings""" What do I do with those? Basically I want you to leave all the ‘EQ’ knobs in the middle (i.e. don’t boost or drop any of them). The bluesy sound really comes from having selected the neck pick up and by having the amp slightly distorting. Follow these tips, and I guarantee you that your next blues solo will now actually SOUND like a blues solo. Get into it! See you in the next newsletter.

Do you wish you knew how to read music like you know how to read English? Would you like to be able to play music from straight off the page"

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Jayde Musica is so easy to set up and use that you'll be having fun learning how to read music in seconds. I think you will find this to be the easiest, most effective way to learn how to read music. You will be amazed at how quickly you will enjoy using Jayde Musica.

Only a Screen Shot

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Features and benefits of Jayde Musica:

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It's as easy as 1,2,3. Just play the game, start making mistakes and learn from them! As you get higher and higher scores, you'll be surprised at how dramatically quick your music reading proficiency level will improve. This program is so simple to use, all it takes is 10mins a day!

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So download Jayde Musica now and learn to fluently read all the musical notes on all the staves in just a matter of days! Jayde Musica will never expire - you can use it all you like!Privacy information: There is no spy-ware contained in this program, we do not monitor your actions or email. When you register this program, we will not give your email address or personal details to anyone. Runs on all Windows and Macintosh operating systems. P.S. How else will you ever learn all those musical notes and be able to sight read them with ease" Click Here and Start Learning with Jayde Musica for Free Today.

This FREE course in brought to you by Jamorama - The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Buying a Second Hand Guitar

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Often cheaper than a new guitar and just as ready to rock out, a secondhand guitar could be the perfect addition to your collection or the perfect thing to start you off, but how do you know that your potential purchase isn’t a potential dud?

The truth is that some fantastic guitars, while expensive when new, are relatively cheap secondhand. Sometimes you can find a custom or a limited edition guitar that someone is selling quickly for the cash and you can often get a real bargain if you know what you are looking for. It really pays to do the research before thinking about buying a second hand guitar as some sellers will push their price up to cash in, especially if they know they are selling to a beginner who may not know much about guitars.

So, as a beginner who may not know much about guitars, what should you look for when inspecting a secondhand guitar?

Let’s just say that you have found a secondhand guitar in the musical instrument section of the weekly classifieds and you are quite keen to go and take a look at it. Below is a list of hints that will help you when inspecting the guitar and talking to the seller:

When talking to the seller, ask them the following:

· The make and model of the guitar – It is best if you can do some research on the guitar model to find out the asking price elsewhere, both new and used, and whether or not other people are experiencing problems with it. You can find reviews for almost any guitar submitted at www.harmony-central.com/Guitar or you can go and ask at your local music store.

· About the condition of the guitar – If they are honest, the seller may tell you about any damage that is undetectable upon rough inspection.

· How long they have had the guitar – If they have had it for a long time, they should have a good knowledge of its history of use, repairs and maintenance etc. If they are not forthcoming with that sort of information, they may be trying to pull one over you.

When inspecting the guitar, check the following:

· The overall condition – Look the guitar over and make note of any obvious damage – guitars often take a bit of wear and tear and if its just small scrapes and scratches then the guitar will probably be fine. Look for rust also , not on the strings, but on the hardware that is holding the strings and the pickups. If there is any rust in these places… run! It’s not worth it. What good is a guitar that may fall apart on you in the near future? Trust me – leave it alone.

· The neck of the guitar – the neck is really important. Here are some areas to look at:

· Make sure that the neck is not warped or out of shape in any way.

· Check the area where the neck joins to the body of the guitar – look for cracks where it may have been broken in the past.

In the same fashion, check the area where the neck joins the head of the guitar.

· Check the action – Action is a word that describes how close the strings are to the fret board starting at the head of the guitar all the way down to the bridge. It is preferable to have the strings very close to the fret board as to make it easier to press them down (not so close that they are touching of course). If the strings are nice and close to the fret board all the way along, you would say that the guitar has a good action. Pictured right is a guitar with poor action. Notice that the strings sit quite far off the fret board. Guitars with poor action are harder to play and don’t sound very good. You can fix the action on your guitar by taking it to a guitar technician, but it will cost you between $20 and $50.

The Intonation of the strings. Intonation is a word that describes the accuracy of each individual note that the guitar can produce on any string. If the intonation is correct, every note on the guitar will be the correct pitch – If it is out, the guitar will be impossible to tune and it will sound horrible. To roughly check the intonation, play the E shape barre chord on each fret of the guitar. As you move towards the bridge of the guitar, you should hear the chord keeping its pitch – if not, the intonation is out and you will need to get a guitar technician to work on the problem.
If the guitar you are looking at is an electric, you must plug it in and see how it sounds through an amp. Ask the seller if you can play it through your amp and if you don’t have one, ask someone if you can borrow theirs. Try the following when testing an electric guitar through an amp:
Turn the amp up to a fair volume level and then play with the volume and tone controls by turning them to full and then back to zero. Test the pickup selector by flicking its switch back and forth. Carefully listen to any sounds that are being made while doing these things. You are looking for scratchy sounds or clicks that might indicate old or worn electrics.
Strum a single chord and while the chord is ringing start playing with the controls like before, still listening for scratches or clicks or any other nasty sounds. Guitar technicians can fix these problems and most guitars need to be done about once every 5 - 10 years. Just be aware of this fact or you could find yourself spending more money than you first intended.
Check the sound of the guitar – Before you buy, you want to know that the guitar sounds like it should? Once you have tested the guitar sound, go to a music store and ask to play on a new model of that guitar. If at all possible, use a similar amplifier to the one that you tested the second hand guitar on, and see if you notice any BIG differences. There is a simple rule that I like to follow: If you’re not happy with the guitar sound… Don’t buy it!

The most important thing to remember when shopping for any guitar is... Don’t shop impulsively. A guitar is a major purchase and you want to get the right one. Leave yourself time to go away and think about the purchase. If you have doubts when checking out a guitar, you are probably better to leave it and hold out for something that better suits you.

If you are new to the guitar and a little worried about testing guitar in public – don’t worry. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not so just go for it.

If you are still worried, take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a possible purchase. See if you can persuade a teacher or a friend – most musicians love to help newbies. Not only will they be able to offer helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public.

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play Guitar With Online Software

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Like for many who aspire to learn to play the guitar, my quest at proficiency has taken many twists and turns. I have considered taking formal classes at $30 an hour. While this method appears to be the best, it is expensive and requires a long commitment. In addition, due to my busy schedule I found it impossible to commit to a set schedule. I purchased the latest books, videos, and online software. By using each of these different delivery methods I learned a bit, and am able to play many basic tunes on the guitar. The purpose of this article is to share my thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of each method mentioned above. These opinions are based on my experiences and frustrations in my journey to learn to play guitar. So lets get started! My love affair with the guitar started about 12 to 15 years ago. I was listening to B.B King and was entranced by the sounds coming out of Lucille. I knew that I would love nothing more than to sit back at home and play those awesome songs all night! I thought it would be pretty cool to play some sick blues for a few of my friends at my very frequent (and often drunken!) parties. So I started to look for information on how to learn to play guitar. The Internet was not quite so replete with information as it is today (and I did not have a PC at my disposal) so I went to the bookstore and bought a few books. These books gave a pretty good basic history of the guitar and a cursory introduction into music theory. When it came to learning how to play, problems occurred from the start. The first issue was tuning the guitar! The instructions were to use a piano for tuning. I did not have one and I suspect not many people do today. The tuning fork was a pain and I suspect that my first few months of learning were done with an out of tune guitar. The next issue was hand and finger position. Six lines, frets and black dots are a poor way to show you how to place your fingers. Even if you have no problem with this, the dynamic nature of playing guitar is difficult to illustrate on paper. The next issue was reading the music. It was presented in a cumbersome and very boring manner. How did I know that I was playing the notes right? The big issue with the book method for me was a lack of visual step-by-step instructions that showed me how the fingers worked in unison, and how the notes (and songs) were supposed to sound. In later years, books on how to learn to play guitar came with CDs. This was a tremendous improvement and help. Tuning was much easier, and I could listen to what the songs I was learning were supposed to sound like. But many of the problems remained. I feel that books are not the best delivery method for learning to play guitar. Next came the videos. This media was leaps and bounds better than the books I had purchased. I could see and hear what the instructor was teaching. Tuning was even easier than before. Video close ups shed light on many of my previous questions on hand position and the dynamic nature of guitar playing. I was able to copy the instructor and actually play some cool tunes. I used the rewind function hundreds of times to reproduce something I had missed or was having troubles with. There were some very painful limitations to this method though. The first was boredom. You can only rewind the same tape to watch the same thing so many times. After that you lose interest. The next problem was that you really only learned to play whatever songs are on the 60 min tape. You were never (or at least not very well) given the tools to play other songs. This was quite limiting for me. The last issue was the actual camera angles of the videos. The shots were often too far or at wrong angles for you to see exactly what the instructor was doing. This was frustrating for me. So we get to my favorite method: Online software! Today's Internet gives us the ability to download full courses that allow you to learn to play guitar in the comfort of your home. Some of these courses are multimedia instructions that allow you to use technology to maximum effect. One such course is Jamorama. This course teaches the user TAB, and how to play songs by ear. It takes advantage of the thousands of TAB songs available for free on the Internet. The price is close to what you would pay for one hour of instruction, or what you would pay for 2 good books on learning to play guitar. This course overcomes the shortcoming of books and videos because it is dynamic. There are games that teach you to learn the tedious and boring tasks of reading and transcribing music. There are over 148 videos that show you step-by-step how to play songs. One of the more interesting things about Jamorama is that it also has 26 tracks that you play along with. In fact, you can turn off the guitar track and play along with drummer and bassist. This is a vast improvement over the other methods. The main benefit with this method, and with this course in particular is that it is more interactive! So what are the downfalls? Because these methods are made to appeal to a large audience with many different musical style interests, there are a lot of songs that just don't appeal to me. I personally have no interest in Nirvana, Van Halen or a multitude of Bands/singers that always appear on these types of courses. Much of the content is just not interesting and therefore some of the wealth of information that is offered is often wasted. I still believe that online software is the best way to go to learn to play guitar. The interactive benefits are excellent. This is also a very convenient way to learn! Learn to play guitar online like the pros. Check out my Jamorama Review to find out how you can be playing real songs in no time! Find everything you need to learn to play the guitar online by visiting my Jamorama Revieww Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/"expert=Mike_Leroos ---------- There are plenty of guitar teaching methods around - and I have tried quite a few of them - but I firmly believe that you can"t go wrong with Jamorama - The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Guitar Lesson ? Tuning Your Guitar to Itself

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! This is probably the most important piece of knowledge that you can learn when it comes to tuning your guitar.

The process of tuning your guitar to itself is one by which you tune each string to another string on the guitar. Basically, it means that you can tune the guitar without having to use a tuner or pitch tool.

The only set back about using this method is that your guitar may not end up in exact concert pitch. What I mean by that is that the strings may not run E, A, D, G, B, E as they would if they were in correct concert pitch (you would need a tuner or pitch tool to do that), rather they will all be tuned to whatever note the top string happens to be at the time of tuning. The first step is to get your fifth string in tune with your sixth string.

Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the sixth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string five should be tuned to.

Keep your finger in position and pluck the sixth string and let that note ring. As you let the sixth string ring, pluck the fifth string.

If the fifth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the sixth string, it is in tune.

If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the sixth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the sixth string.

If the fifth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the sixth string.

It may take you a while to match pitches exactly but the more practice you get at this, the faster you will be able to do it.

The second step is to get your fourth string in tune with your fifth string.

Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the fifth string.

The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string four should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the fifth string and let that note ring.

As you let the fifth string ring, pluck the fourth string.

If the fourth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the fifth string, it is in tune.

If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the fifth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the fifth string.

If the fourth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the fifth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The third step is to get your third string in tune with your fourth string.

Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the fourth string.

The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string three should be tuned to.

Keep your finger in position and pluck the fourth string and let that note ring. As you let the fourth string ring, pluck the third string.

If the third string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the fourth string, it is in tune.

If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the fourth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the fourth string.

If the third string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the fourth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The fourth step is to get your second string in tune with your third string.

Place a finger on your left hand on the fourth fret of the third string.

The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string two should be tuned to.

Keep your finger in position and pluck the third string and let that note ring. As you let the third string ring, pluck the second string.

If the second string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the third string, it is in tune.

If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the third string and then bring it back up to match with the fourth fret note on the third string. I

If the second string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fourth fret note on the third string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The last step is to get your first string in tune with your second string.

Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the second string.

The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string one should be tuned to.

Keep your finger in position and pluck the second string and let that note ring. As you let the second string ring, pluck the first string.

If the first string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the second string, it is in tune.

If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the second string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the second string.

If the first string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the second string.

Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch and you will have tuned the guitar to its own strings.

You have just tuned your guitar to itself. If the guitar sounds a little out, you should go back and repeat the process ? it is a little hard to master for a start but you should stick to it as it is a very useful skill to have.

Is Learning the Guitar Taking You Forever? Well it needn"t be - Find Out More!

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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Guitar Lesson One - Getting Started

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Easy Guitar Lesson #1 - Learn the basics of playing the guitar.

Sitting Positions

There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual.

Standing Position

Guitar Hand Positions

It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury.

Front View

Rear View

Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this:

Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts
unnecessary strain on your wrist and thumb.

Fretting

Holding the Pick

Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below:

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first guitar lesson. In the next guitar lesson you will learn about chords and by the end of this lesson you'll have learnt the A Major chord.

Don't forget, for the ultimate guitar learning kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamorama.com

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : guitar hand fingers lesson position pick left fret thumb left hand sure jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Board Games Introducing New Games to Your Gaming Group

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! You have gone through the process of getting some friends together and you want to introduce them to a new game. The good news is that they are not looking to you as a master of this new game. They really want a guide to get them past the rules and get to the gaming goodness - the reason they came to the event to begin with. Be Familiar with Your Games What's the worst thing you can do with a new game? Read the rules in front of your gaming group. Some of these games come with Rule Guides of over 35 pages. It is not practical to read that as you go. Chances are you won't have anyone at your next gaming event if this is how you plan to handle it. The important part of this process is not complete mastery. It is maintaining control long enough for everyone to get the hang of the game themselves. What your friends want from the situation is to play the game with the correct set of rules. They want to know: * How do they win" * What do I do when it is my turn" * How do I interact with others? These are the points you need to cover at the very beginning, so they understand where all the explanation is leading. If you forget certain rules, it is alright to add them later. You're goal here is to get past the basic explanation so everyone can enjoy the game. You lose control of the situation and your friends' attention the minute you go to look up a set of rules in the rule book. Set Up the Game Before You Start This is one of the most important steps you can take to improve your success in teaching new people a game. Good speakers use props to enhance their presentations. You certainly don't need PowerPoint for this, but having the game as a reference is a great tool. This allows for two things. 1. You can use the game bits and cards to explain points. 2. People can play the game immediately after you are done. Introduce the Goal Every game has a goal. Some are simple goals, like If you have the most points by turn 10, you win. Other games have more complex, and really don't make sense until you review the rules of the game. Make sure you explain these goals up front and make sure you repeat them often. Whatever the goal, people like to know what they need to accomplish. This is what drags them through the process of hearing the rules. With the end in mind, they can get through and understand the means. If you don't do this, your audience will constantly be wondering how does this help me win? This is distracting to the learner and you want to eliminate it. If you can't explain it well at the beginning, give them keywords or something to latch onto, so they understand it when it shows up. You can even just say something like victory points are good, knights are good, cities and roads are good, or keeping all your resources is bad. Three is a Magic Number People like to learn things in groups of three. There is a rhythm and flow to things that come in a set of three. Many games have choices to present - do it in groups of three when possible. For example, you can gather a resource, attack your neighbor, or choose an opportunity card. Some games make it complicated - you get three things to do on your turn and each of those items offers several options. The best way to explain that is On your turn, you are going to do X, Y, and Z. For you to accomplish X, you have three choices. They are 1, 2, or 3. Let's go over 1 first. Don't force this concept where it does not exist, though. That just leads to confusion. You can look for patterns in the rules, though. Sometimes there are team decisions, defensive decisions, or offensive actions you can take. You can divide your descriptions into these categories if you wanted to. Wash, Rinse, and REPEAT! As you are explaining the game, it is beneficial to your audience if you repeat certain things, like how to win the game. Also, it is nice to do this if you are going through a set of choices. How do you do this" Let's go back to the X, Y, and Z example from earlier. You are talking about the first action you need to do on your turn, action X. You need to explain choice 1, 2, and 3. When you are done, you say something like OK, that's the first part of your turn. That was X. Now, let's take a look at Y. While doing this, rephrase the rules you just offered, rather than repeating them again the same way. This will help some of your group get it if they had not already. Introducing Game Terms Lots of games have common things, but they go by different names. Make these associations for your group and then introduce them to the correct terms for the game you are trying to teach them. A good example of this type of item is money. If you can get away without using the game jargon, that will help your group grasp concepts better. For example, if you are introducing Settlers of Catan, there is no money in the game. But, there are resources. You can equate these to money and talk about how you buy things with combinations of money, or esources. This allows you to add your own flair to the instruction and bring people into the game quicker. Talk to Me Teaching new gamers a game should be a conversation, not a boring lecture. People want to have fun, not watch you give a fancy presentation. Watch to make sure your fellow gamers are getting what you are saying and don't be afraid to go back and reiterate something you already mentioned - even if you have to revisit a concept several times. Don't single out people that are having trouble grasping the rules. One of the worst things you can do is set them up to look slow. They won't want to ask questions after that. It is also possible that they may not return for another gaming session. Here's A Personal Experience For You I got a new game, Starcraft the Board Game, about two months ago. I was sure my wife would be interested in checking it out, so she could kick my intersteller butt. This game had a 45 page rule guide. I did not follow any of these suggestions for myself and suggested we go through the guide and try to teach ourselves. Well, four hours later, we had gotten to the point where we actually started to understand what the rules were saying and we attempted to play. This was possibly one of the worst gaming experiences for her. To this day, she refuses to really try to play that game. We had a better experience this last weekend with Shadows Over Camelot. I introduced it to her and her mother. I watched a few videos on www.youtube.com about the game and was a little more familiar with how the game played. This went fairly smoothly. We attempted a game on Friday night with rules in hand. Then, on Saturday night, we played one game with the rules, but a little faster. We were enjoying it enough to give it a go for a third time - that was the kicker. This was a tense game with great team play and lots of table-talk. But, very little use of the rule book. This one was a success. It Can Be A Rewarding Experience Introducing your friends to a new game can be a very rewarding experience and a great way to get your games on the table and into rotation with your game group. Like any skill, practice makes perfect. Also, don't miss out on many of the learning tools available online. You can find quick-start guides, visual aids, and other suggestions on web sites like www.boardgamegeek.com. One Last Suggestion There is a practice at the country western clubs that actually can be useful for you in your gaming group. About an hour before the club starts hopping, the DJ opens the dance floor and teaches people how to do many of the line dances they will see throughout the night. Obviously, you won't be line dancing at your gaming party (are you") but the lesson is solid. Announce the games you will be playing before the event. If someone is new to that game, allow them to come early for an introduction to those games. That way, you don't have to take up game time with a rules introduction. Also, it allows fellow gamers to try to introduce games in a non-threatening environment. Once everyone is comfortable with this process, you can rotate who does the teaching at each event. By Barry Nadler Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : game rules games things gaming want people group turn good play jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

How To Learn Guitar Faster With Less Practice

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! If you really want to learn to play guitar well you must do one simple thing before anything else. You must learn how learning takes place between your muscles and brain. If you understand the process that your brain must go through to train your muscles your practice sessions will produce predictably effective results. You have probably heard the term muscle memory. This is the process of your brain learning and storing a set of precise instructions for each group of muscles needed for every small task you want your fingers to perform on the guitar. When muscle memory is solidly established it becomes a naturally effortless and an almost unconscious act to play the guitar well. These tasks need to be practiced at speeds that are slow enough so that you can consistently perform them perfectly. If you practice the guitar at a tempo that produces lots of mistakes you end up teaching your muscles how to play the exercise with the mistakes included. Unfortunately muscles cannot distinguish between playing with mistakes and playing without them. Here are 12 tips for having practice sessions that will support the development of good muscle memory: 1. Prepare your whole body for the practice session. Practice while relaxed. Just like an airplane pilot checks over the plane prior to take off you should check your body for any tension, stiffness, tightness, pain or any discomfort. Tight muscles can become tighter during practice which can seriously limit the full range of motion needed to master the guitar. Even tension in the shoulders can travel to the arms and then eventually to the fingers. Stretch and warm your entire body before playing in order to stay loose. Begin practicing with slow, easy exercises to prepare your hands for more demanding new material. 2. Practice in a quiet, comfortable place where you are unlikely to be disturbed. 3. Commit to a specific time each day for practice. Begin each day with a firm commitment to a practice plan that includes the specific details of when, where and what to play. 4. Keep your practice sessions short, frequent and very specific. It is more effective to practice 20 minutes everyday than to practice two or three hours once a week. 5. Always practice with a metronome. Let me repeat that. Always practice with a metronome. It is surprising how often even good guitarists break this rule. Training yourself to play at a consistent tempo will make your music sound professional. This is valuable whether you plan to play just for friends at a party or in a stadium full of screaming fans. 6. Tune the guitar before each practice. 7. Determine your optimum practice speeds. For each part of a scale, exercise or song find the fastest metronome speed that you can play without making mistakes. Practice it for a day at 25% to 30% of that maximum tempo. Follow this with a day at 50% of maximum then another day at 75%. On day four practice at your old maximum speed. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you have a new, faster maximum speed. Be forewarned, however, that this routine might seem ridiculously slow but, hang in there because it really will pay off. 8. Do not try to learn too many different things at each practice session. Practice only small sections of an exercise or song at a time. Working on an entire new song, all in one setting, makes it more difficult for your brain to cement solid muscle memories. Just like a newborn baby can?t handle an entire meal of solid food we need to practice only a few, small musical spoonfuls at a time. 9. Work on the problem parts not just what you already know. This may sound extremely obvious but there is a tendency for new guitarists to play the easy parts over and over while continuing to stumble over the problem spots. 10. Spend the first ten minutes warming up, then split the remaining time equally between new exercises and new songs. 11. Set aside some time to just goof around with the guitar. Make sure to inject a healthy dose of fun in each practice session. If you have been working on blues scales then why not put on some jam tracks or even your favorite blues CD and try to improvise a solo. Select a favorite song to work on at the end of each practice session. 12. If you plan to perform in front of people ... Perfect your songs in private then practice playing in front of sympathetic friends and family members. Create a practice environment that is as close to the conditions of your upcoming performance as possible. If you will perform standing up then practice that way. Tell your friendly practice audiences to feel free to talk and laugh it up during your practice. This will help you learn to become comfortable in a distracting concert environment. Consider recording your practice sessions with a simple home video camera on a tripod. Opening night jitters can throw off your game no matter how well you know the material. If you have repeatedly practiced playing in simulated concert environments then the real deal can be a breeze. The bottom line: in order to play well you must acknowledge how your body is programmed to learn then design practice sessions that are complimentary. Recommended Guitar Lesson Program: Learn & Master Guitar has earned CompareGuitarLessons.com's highest possible rating for beginner through intermediate players: Rated 10 out of 10. This is a complete 15 DVD guitar lessons course for beginners through advanced intermediate players. The skills and styles covered go way beyond what we can cover in our free lessons; Acoustic Guitar, Rock Guitar, Classic Finger Style, Blues Guitar, Jazz Guitar and Country. This well produced program is authored by Steve Krenz, a 20+ year veteran guitar instructor, former player for "The Fifth Dimension" and current recording artist in Nashville, Tennessee, USA... Click Here For My Detailed Video Review of Learn & Master Guitar. OR Go To The Learn & Master Guitar Company Site For More Information or to Buy. Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : practice guitar play learn muscles practice sessions playing sessions just time brain jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 5

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Ok, let's pickup where we left off in the last lesson - 'House of the Rising Sun'.

Now, I realise that this song might not be in the style that you are specifically into, but it is a good song to get you started at playing something and using the 'tools' and notes you've learned. Plus, many songs in different styles share similar notes and tools. You will probably start to discover this as your learning progresses. So, don't be worried if this song is not your thing, it's just there to get you up and rolling, and stringing some notes together.

Today we're going to look at the 3rd and largest part of "House of the Rising Sun". But first, I am going to teach you a new warm up pattern. This one will be a touch more difficult than the last few. This pattern starts on the first fret and the sixth string (thickest string). You will play all six strings and use all your fingers. As always with these exercises, I would like you to use the correct fingering.

Warm up:

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 1 (3.35 MB)

In the above warmup, you will have noticed that the frets you played have the same numbers as the fingers you use to play them. Knowing that te finger and fret number are the same makes it easy to remember what to play. So, your fingers should be warmed up and ready to play. Let's get on with it...

Setion three: House of the Rising Sun

Whats important in this lesson is that we're going to put all the parts together. In tomorrows lesson I will give you a chance to play along with other instruments.

So, here's the 3rd part for "House of the Rising Sun". Take note and look at where the hammer ons and pull offs are.

Play this over until you think that you've mastered those changes.

The goal of a good lead guitarist is to play clear, crisp nice sounding notes over the chord changes. That's what you're learning to do here today.

Take your time and make sure you've learnt the changes between each chord.

It's important that you learn each section off by heart.

Well done! The next step is putting it all together and playing through it. Now, it's important that you get an idea of the how the song actually sounds so I want you to go through and listen to the track carefully and hear where the notes are. Try and get a feel for the rhtyhm of the song as well.

Once you've got a good listen and locked on to what the song should sound like, it's time to give it a go yourself.

Play the song from start to finish:

House of the Rising Sun

Well done. When playing through the song it's important to keep going over and over until it becomes familiar. IUf you do this you'll be on your way to playing like a professional in no time at all.

At this point, I would like you to practice the structure with all the changes in your own time until you feel confident with the piece.

Practice playing along with the track and you will quickly get the hang of the song.

------------------

Ok, if your feeling up to it we can move on. The next step for us now is to play the song again but on different strings. We will play the same notes but this time we will play them at what we call "up the octave". Don't worry to much about what that means at this stage. It's more important to just do it at this stage.

Play the following: House of the Rising Sun "up the octave"

Tip: There is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as") This is the audio of the song played out in full. Go over it carefully and track where the sections are.

Video Available:

QuickTime - House of the Rising Sun

Now that you have had a chance to play the song by yourself, you should be getting used to the changes between the notes.

Practice both ways of playing the song. In the next lesson we're going to put both versions together.

You should now be playing along with the audio tracks confidently and you should be getting used to changing between the notes.

In tomorrow's lesson we will be playing with the whole band. I won?t ask you to learn anything new. It will just be a matter of putting together all the elements that we have already learnt in the previous lessons.

Until next time!
For full course please visit Jamorama.com
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Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 2

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Warm Ups

By now you will have come across some of the difficulties and pain that come with learning the guitar. For most of you, just pressing down the strings and trying to play chords will have caused some moderate pain. Most of this pain will be in your fretting hand ( left hand for right handed players). This pain is normally felt in a few places; pain in your fingertips, sore wrists, stiff forearms and pain between your thumb and your fingers. Most of this pain is inevitable and will pass with time.

If you have serious continued pain in your hands then you should contact a health care professional. Repetitive Strain Injuries (R.S.I) and carpal tunnel syndrome are the most common serious problems that guitarists encounter. However for the vast majority of players these problems are not an issue.

The best way to avoid pain when you are playing the guitar is to dedicate some time to warming up. There are many ways you can warm up and every guitar player has a different method. In this lesson I will show you some basic warm up techniques. These techniques will also help you build hand strength and a little bit of speed.

In this first warm up exercise I want you to get used to using particular fingers. If you look at the diagram below you will see that each finger is numbered. Your index finger is 1, your middle finger is 2, your ring finger is 3 and your pinky is 4.

This following exercise is excellent for warming up, improving hand strength and increasing co-ordination. You will notice that I have tabbed out some single notes for you to play. Above the TAB I have written some numbers. These numbers indicate the fingers I would like you to use when doing the exercise.

Before we move on, I would like to introduce to you a musical symbol that we will be using from now on:

The symbol on the right is called a repeat sign. When you see this symbol, you go back to the start of the piece of music you are playing and play it over again.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 1 (2.45 MB)

As you can see, this is just a simple ascending a

nd descending pattern on the 1st string (thinnest string). First, you use your index finger, then your middle finger, then your ring finger and finally your pinky. The second part is just the same thing but in reverse.

This second exercise I want to show you involves three strings; the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It is important to notice the fingering used. This may feel a little awkward and frustrating at first but this is the correct way to play the guitar. Getting in the habit of using correct fingering will pay massive dividends as you progress with your guitar playing. Once again, play this exercise with down strokes only...

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 2 (1.04 MB)

The two exercises shown above are excellent for warming up your hands and i ncreasing your dexterity. If you are having severe pain when you are playing. STOP! It is much better to rest your hands and forearms for the next day's practice than to force yourself to injury. Work hard on the exercises shown in this lesson.

Now, let's get on with the lesson...

'C' Pattern and Scales - Boring right? Na-ah! It's time to look at some theory. Don't get scared, this is going unlock some amazing secrets to playing lead guitar. This mini course is based on a vital pattern which we will have you master - the 'C' Shape pattern. By mastering this pattern you will be able to play all of the notes you need to play the song, 'House of the rising sun'. To understand this pattern it's important to practice it and refer back to it often. In the full Jamorama lead course you wi ll learn more patterns and how to play the whole guitar fret board giving you access to all the notes you'll ever need!

OK, to teach you about the 'C' pattern we need to take a look at scales. Have you ever seen your favorite band or guitarist improvise a solo that sounded note for note perfect and left the crowd in awe and then think how on earth did he do that? The answer? Talent? Sure talent is part of it, but a more important aspect is scale knowledge. You see, weather it"s Jimi Hendrix, Kirk Hammet or Stevie Ray Vaughan, they all knew which notes harmonized well over thier chords to make it the solo wail.

Stop! Aren"t scales like boring Do, Re, Mi, Fa, sol that we learnt in school? Well, yes they are but what if I told you that they?re also the Stairway to He

aven solo, Van Helen?s Eruption or the famous solo in Hotel California? You might see them in a new light. In learning scales you increase your chances tenfold of playing a lead guitar solo or melody that will sound awesome. So what exactly is a scale:

? A scale consists of 7 different notes with the 8th note being the octave higher. ? Scales are built up of half steps and whole steps between notes and this determines what type of scale it is.

What does this mean? The diagram below of a major scale in the key of "C" helps explain it.

" The "Root" or "Tonic" decides what the rest of the notes in the scale are going to be. In the above example we see the root is "C" and the rest of the notes in the "C" major scales are D,E,F,G,A,B.

" All major scales follow a pattern of whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Major scales are going to be the main focus of this course for this is what has created the majority of popular music. '

This stuff is important to learn as we are going to use it when learning the patterns in the song 'House of the rising sun'.

The 'C Shape'

Finding the 'C Shape'. It's called the 'C shape'because it is based around the open C chord. Here you will see we have a simple C major chord. You can see the chord and its relative notes in the scale on the fret board. All major chords are made up of the root the 3rd and 5th note of the major scale (not always in that order). When you highlight the root note, 3rd and 5th in pattern one, it outlines an open "C" major chord. The diagram below emphasizes this point. The C Major chord is made up of root notes, 3rds and 5ths. As you can see in the diagram:

The 'C Shape' (or pattern) takes its name from the open C chord. If you look closely you can see the C major chord in the pattern. That's why we call this pattern the 'C shape', because using the C major chord is a good reference point to learning the pattern and its notes.

Here's the 'C Shape'

You can see the C major chord by looking at the root notes: "R", the 3rds: "3", and the 5ths: "5". This is important because its from these notes that we will learn how to play the song and use lead playing "tools".

Here's the 'C Shape' again but this time underneath you will notice the notes written out in TAB form so you can see how the shape works.

Introducing Picking There are two methods of picking the guitar string. These are up stroke and down stroke. Throughout this mini course these strokes will be notated as follows:

When you play a stroke, you pick across the strings just in front of the bridge of the guitar with the pick in your strumming hand. When strumming a chord, make sure that you play all of the necessary strings in the chord. The stroke direction will depend on which stroke is indicated; up or down as shown above.

Now try playing the scale again but this time descending.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 3 (744 KB)

It's important to become familiar with the notes in this scale because its these notes we're going to use to play the song.

This has been a big lesson for you. Go over it if you need to, some of the ideas are quite complicated to get straight away but remember to be patient with your learning.

Don't forget, for the Jamorama Lead Guitar Learning Kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games to accelerate your guitar learning. Visit Jamoramalead.com to find out more.

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : notes pattern play major guitar chord pain scale step shape scales jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 1

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Part One--Introduction to the Lead Guitar and How to read TAB Getting into Position. Information that every beginner should know before they start out! Using a pick . One of the most important things you must know if you want to progress with your playing. Introduction to TAB. The basis a lot of guitar music notation. Getting into Position Sitting Positions There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual. Even though it's an acoustic pictured below the same principles apply for electric. 1. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg. 2. Position yourself at the edge of your chair. 3. Ensure that your back is relaxed but straight. 4. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly. Standing Position 1. Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned mid-body. 2. Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar. 3. Rest your right hand over the bridge of the guitar. Hand Positions It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury. Front View-- Rear View

Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this:

Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts unneccessary strain on your wrist and thumb.

Fretting When you play the guitar, you use your left hand fingers to press down the strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar. Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is called fretting. Here are some tips you will need to know: 1. Short fingernails are essential. 2. Use only the tips of your fingers to press the strings. 3. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed within the frets. We will cover chords in lesson one. 4. Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks. With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips). Holding the Pick Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below:

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next we're going to have a look at the guitar neck and what the parts are. Don't forget, for the Jamorama Lead Guitar Learning Kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamoramalead.com Now you are ready to start your first lesson. We are going to look at the guitar neck and then how to read guitar TAB. Remember! It is more beneficial for you to practice several times during a week than to practice for one long session. This is because your brain processes information in chunks at a time and it can only hold a certain amount in short term storage. For example, with phone numbers, it is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time. Yet if you give yourself time between practicing, even if it is just 10 minutes, you"ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More information on effective learning is contained in Jamorama at Jamoramalead.com. Ok. That aside, let"s get started on the lesson. To start with, I want you to have a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information.

Frets The guitar neck is divided into what we call frets, making a fret board. Most guitars have around 20 frets. In these first lessons, we will focus on the first four, also known as the first position. Notice that we number each fret starting at 1 at the head of the guitar

Note: Each string on the guitar is numbered. When you hold your guitar as you would when using the casual playing position, the 1st string is at the bottom and the 6th string is at the top. Notice also the term, "Tuning" at the bottom of the above diagram. Tuning refers to the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to. In the above diagram, I have given a very common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E. The open 6th string is called low E. The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E. I will explain notes and octaves to you in a later newsletter, but for now, you only need to know the names of the notes in standard open E tuning.

Now make sure that your guitar is tuned to standard E tuning (the most common tuning). If you don't know how to tune your guitar, then download my free guide to tuning your guitar from: http://www.jamorama.com/tuning/tuning.pdf. Or if you are already a member of Jamoramalead.com, youcan use our guitar tuning software to help you tune yourguitar.**Note: To open the above tuning.pdf file you'll need a copyof Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download a free copy ofthis from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.htmlWe will stick to standard E tuning throughout this newsletter, but you can find other tunings to play with in our member"s area at JamoramaLead.com. Guitar Lesson - How to Read Guitar Tablature TAB or tablature is the most common method of writing out music for the guitar. It is different from classical music notation in that; TAB uses ordinary numbers and keyboard characters as opposed to standard musical notation which uses symbols. Because of this format, anyone with a computer can write or read TAB making it the most user friendly way to read and communicate guitar music. Also TAB relates directly to the fret board of your guitar meaning that you may easily see where you put your fingers. In the full version of Jamoramalead, both standard musical notation and tablature are used. But for this six day course we will only use TAB. The reason for this is that tablature is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading. TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can't be easily indicated. This shouldn't pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one. OK. To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinniest. On a TAB diagram, the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top - The thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom. This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below. The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board: Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play. This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written. Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below. So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar. The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar. Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar called frets. TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets For example, look at the tab diagram below and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played. The number refers to the fret that you should press down. In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn"t press down anything. to press down and play. So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand. Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, you can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"): Video Available: QuickTime - Exercise 1 (1.35 MB) Now let's see if we can start pushing down some strings. Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays. If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly. If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below. Tip: The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"): Video Available: QuickTime - Exercise 2 (1.04 MB) Let's try another one. Play the following piece of TAB: This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret. Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"): QuickTime - Exercise 3 (1.11 MB)This was your first lesson of this mini-course there are six lessons so stay tuned or go to http://www.jamorama.com to start your full course. Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : guitar string tuning fret hand play look neck diagram fingers lesson jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #4

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Welcome to Part Four of the Beginners Mini-Course on Learning How to Play the Acoustic Guitar. In today's lesson we have a lot to cover. We will be playing all of the chords that you have learned: C, A minor and D, and we will be trying a new time signature with these chords. Don't worry too much about what this means it will be explained. By now you should be able to play and change between these three chords. If you followed the lessons carefully you should find these exercises a logical and easy progression from what you have previously done. It's great to have you with us... Today's lesson is based around trying to play a specific rhythmical strum on the guitar. The first three lessons have challenged your fretting hand. This lesson is going to challenge your strumming hand. It's a bit different to what you have already learnt but if you are patient you will pick it up in no time. Being able to play particular strums and rhythms is an important and often under practised part of playing the guitar. Many musicians get caught up in learning crazy chords or playing speedy scales. This can often lead to the neglect of rhythm which is the basis for all music. Remember in the last lesson we talked about warming up and using the correct fingering. Before you start this lesson, just try another one of these warm up fingering drills. This following warm up exercise involves the 6th, 5th and 4th strings (three thickest strings). Once again I would like you to use correct fingering when you are playing this. Remember your index finger is number 1, you middle finger is number 2, your ring finger is number 3 and your pinky is number 4. Play in down strokes and take your time. Try and make each note ring clear. Remember it is better to play slowly and accurately than to sound muddy and unclear.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 1 (2.53 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 1 (3.48 MB)

Now that you have finished that warm up pattern it's time to move onto the main part of the lesson which is some work on strumming. Before you start on this I am going to explain some simple music theory to you. Don"t get intimidated by this as it is pretty simple.

You may or may not have noticed that most of the things you have played previously have been in groups of fours or numbers that are divisible by four. Most music is like this and if you don?t believe me turn on your radio. Try and count out in fours while listening to the playing. I am confident that you will be able to count out in fours to most pieces of music you will hear.

So previously when you were strumming up and down you were playing HALF beats. That is why I had you count out, "one AND two AND three AND four AND", to split each beat in half and strum in eights. What we are going to do now is instead of working in groups of four, we're going to work in groups of three. So now you will count "one AND two AND three AND". This splits the everything into three. It's actually very simple.

In this next exercise we will play just A minor for two bars. This time playing in groups of three. Keeping the same style of strum. So you strum down and up and count aloud "one AND two AND three AND"

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 2 (1.41 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 2 (1.90 MB)

What you've actually been doing is playing in 3/4. This is a called a time signature. It's called 3/4 (three four) because you count "one, two, three". In the previous lessons you've been playing in 4/4 (four four) becuase you count "one two three four".

Ok, let's push those boundries a little...

Exercise:

Basically, what I want you to do is skip one of the strums in the 3/4 strum pattern. In terms of what you have been counting I want you to skip the AND of the first beat when you are strumming. So what I want you count now is "one two AND three AND". Watch the video to see what you need to strum or give it a go and see what I mean...

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 3 (2.82 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 3 (3.90 MB)

Note that I have put hollow strumming symbols below the tab chart. This is because I want you to make the strum but I don"t want you to hit the strings. When you see the hollow strum symbol, that's what that means. Listen to the count on the JAM track and try and play along. This will feel a little awkward at first, but like everything we have asked you to do, it is achievable. Keep working at it and you will be able to do it. You may notice that the JAM track provided is quite slow. This is because I want you be able to play this perfectly and in time. Now it's time to learn a new chord. This new chord is called E:

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 4 (2.80 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 4 (3.88 MB)

Now that you've got that chord we're going to do a slight alteration of the E chord. It's very simple but very effective. We're going to play the E7 chord. Basically the '7' part means that you alter the normal E chord slightly. All you have to do is remove your 3 finger from the chord. Here's the E7 chord:

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 5 (2.80 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 5 (3.88 MB)

Now we're gonig to play the E chord and the E7 chord back to back using the strum pattern we had before when we were play in 3/4. I still want you to count aloud because this will help with changing your chords in time.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 6 (2.89 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 6 (3.93 MB)

Now we're going to do a quick exercise with the chords we've learnt so far using the 3/4 strum pattern you've been practicing. Things are getting quite tricky now so pay attention to the video and be sure that you are getting the changes between each chord. These exercise is the hardest and longest you've done so far so keep up the good work, its not easy stuff. This is a neat little progression and you will hear how nice it sounds.

Remember that if you're having troubles listen closely to the audio tracks and watch the video. These are invaluable tools in helping you with these exercises.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 7 (2.80 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 7 (3.88 MB)

Well done on that last exercise. Things are really looking more and more like a song and soon you'll be playing "House of the Rising Sun" in no time. There's just one more thing for you too look at in this lesson. We're going to look at one more chord. This one is a tricky one and may take a little while to learn. This is because this next chord you have to hold down 2 notes with one finger! Sounds trickey, its not easy but it's possible with practice and patients.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 8 (2.80 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 8 (3.88 MB)

Now you have six different chords at your disposal, C, D, A minor, E, E7 and now F. That's great! These are all the chords you will find in "House of the Risin Sun". So now all we've got to learn is the structure of the song. You're almost there. You're well on your way to becoming a complete guitar player

Next lesson we'll look at the chords that go together and the first part of the song.

If you have been completing the lessons in full then you are doing well and I think you are committed to becoming a good guitarist. Keep going! There are only two more lessons to go before you can play the whole song with the Jamorama Band.

Until next time! You can learn more about Jamorama ? the ultimate guitar learning kit! by CLICKING HERE. Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : exercise play chord time video count playing strum going chords video available quicktime jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #3

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Welcome to Part Three of the Beginners Mini-Course on Learning How to Play the Acoustic Guitar. This mini-course gives you a taste of what's covered in The Jamorama Acoustic Guitar Learning Kit! In this course you will learn powerful tips and skills to get you playing the acoustic guitar with the fluency and accuracy of a professional, and by the end of it you will be able to play a full song by yourself

This lesson continues on from lessons one and two. In lesson one you learnt how to start playing and how to play the chords C and D. In the second lesson you were shown how to read tab. This lesson will be similar to the second part of lesson two, however I plan to introduce you to the chord A minor. Once you have mastered A minor, we will try and practice changing between the three chords we have learnt; C, A minor, and D.

So far, the chords that you have learnt have all been major chords. Major chords give music a happy feel. Minor chords, on the other hand, lend a sad or melancholy feeling to music. Minor chords are constructed in the same way as major chords except that the third or middle note of the chord is flattened (something that is explained in full later in the jamorama book).

Let's take a look at the A minor chord:

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 1 (2.14 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 1 (2.5 MB)

Exercise:
With this exercise, I want to get you strumming up and down. I would like to introduce to you a new technique to help with your playing. When you are practicing the lesson above I would like you to count out loud. This sounds easier than it is, but it is something you need to learn and it is an achievable skill. It works like this; on your down strum I want you to count "1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4" and on the up strum I would like you to say "and". So you should be saying "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4". Most guitar music is broken down into beats of four but later on in the course we'll look at something a bit different. Try the exercise below and remember to take a look at the video if you have any problems:

A minor chord

Tip: You can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 2 (2.30 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 2 (2.80 MB)

As you can see the difference between practicing this chord and the previous chords you have learned is that you are doubling up on the strum. The way I would like you to do this is by strumming up when you bring your hand back up. Take your time with this. Watch the video provided and try and play along. Your strum should be constant and in time. The track provided is slow and with a little pratice you should be able to play A minor with up and down strum.

Now we are going to work on changing between A minor, C and D. As above, I would like you to continue using an up and down strum and counting out loud. So if you continue with your, ?1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and", it will help make the next lesson a lot easier.

Exercise:

Next I want you to practice going from A minor to C. This should feel like a realitively smooth and easy chord change. It also sounds good and should with a bit of practice feel very natural. Just to remind you, you should be strumming up AND down while you perform this exercise and counting out aloud, "one and two and three and four and", in time with your strum. Note that each 'and' is written as '+' in the following exercise... This is just so that it fits properly under the TAB.

Tip: You can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 3 (2.33 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 3 (2.88 MB)

Adding the up and down strum may mean that this will take a little longer to master than the previous chord changing exercises in lesson 2. Don't worry though, just keep working away at it until you can play along comfortably with the audio track provided.

Now we will move onto the next exercise. This one starts on C and then goes to D. Once again I would like you continue with the up and down strum and the counting aloud as in the previous exercises in this lesson.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 4 (2.33 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 4 (2.87 MB)

You're doing great here! Just as a quick note, when you play a group of chords in order it is called a "progression" or a ?chord progression".

By now you will have come across some of the difficulties and pain that come with learning the guitar. For most of you, just pressing down the strings and trying to play chords will have caused some moderate pain. Most of this pain will be in your fretting hand ( left hand for right handed players). This pain is normally felt in a few places; pain in your fingertips, sore wrists, stiff forearms and pain between your thumb and your fingers. Most of this pain is inevitable and will pass with time.

If you have serious continued pain in your hands then you should contact a health care professional. Repetitive Strain Injuries (R.S.I) and carpal tunnel syndrome are the most common serious problems that guitarists encounter. However for the vast majority of players these problems are not an issue.

The best way to avoid pain when you are playing the guitar is to dedicate some time to warming up. There are many ways you can warm up and every guitar player has a different method. In this lesson I will show you some basic warm up techniques. These techniques will also help you build hand strength and a little bit of speed.

Unlike the previous exercises in this lesson there is no need to continue with the up and down strokes. All the strokes in these two exercises will be single notes using down strokes. It is important to note that in these warm up exercises you will be playing single notes as opposed to chords which you have been practising in this lesson and in lessons 1 and 2.

In this first warm up exercise I want you to get used to using particular fingers. If you look at the diagram below you will see that each finger is numbered. Your index finger is 1, your middle finger is 2, your ring finger is 3 and your pinky is 4.

This following exercise is excellent for warming up, improving hand strength and increasing
co-ordination. You will notice that I have tabbed out some single notes for you to play. Above the TAB I have written some numbers. These numbers indicate the fingers I would like you to use when doing the exercise.

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 5 (2.50 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 5 (3.05 MB)

As you can see, this is just a simple ascending and descending pattern on the 1st string (thinnest string). First, you use your index finger, then your middle finger, then your ring finger and finally your pinky. The second part is just the same thing but in reverse.

This second exercise I want to show you involves three strings; the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It is important to notice the fingering used. This may feel a little awkward and frustrating at first but this is the correct way to play the guitar. Getting in the habit of using correct fingering will pay massive dividends as you progress with your guitar playing. This time you will notice that this exercise is played using a combination of UP and DOWN strokes...

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 6 (2.90 MB)
WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 6 (3.52 MB)

The two exercises shown above are excellent for warming up your hands and increasing your dexterity. If you are having severe pain when you are playing. STOP! It is much better to rest your hands and forearms for the next day's practice than to force yourself to injury. Work hard on the exercises shown in this lesson.

In tomorrows lesson we have a lot to cover. We will be playing all of the chords that you have learned; C, D and A minor, and you will be introduced to the strumming you will need to play the song 'House of the Risin Sun'. If you followed the lessons carefully you should find these exercises a logical and easy progression from what you have previously done. It's great to have you with us.

Until next time!
Jamorama.com

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Technorati Tags : exercise lesson chords play minor video pain strum guitar exercises playing jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #2

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Guitar Lesson - How to Read Guitar Tablature TAB or tablature is the most common method of writing out music for the guitar. It is different from classical music notation in that; TAB uses ordinary numbers and keyboard characters as opposed to standard musical notation which uses symbols. Because of this format, anyone with a computer can write or read TAB making it the most user friendly way to read and communicate guitar music and therefor the easy way to learn to play the guitar. Also TAB relates directly to the fret board of your guitar meaning that you may easily see where you put your fingers. In the full version of Jamorama, both standard musical notation and tablature are used. But for this six day course we will only use TAB. The reason for this is that tablature is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading. TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can't be easily indicated. This shouldn't pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one. OK. To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinniest. On a TAB diagram, the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top - The thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom. This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below. The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play. This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written. Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below. So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar. The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar. Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar called frets. TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets to press down and play. For example, look at the tab diagram to the right and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played. The number refers to the fret that you should press down. In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn?t press down anything.

So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand.

Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, you can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 1 (1.39 MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 1 (1.7 MB)

Now let's see if we can start pushing down some strings. Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays.

If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly. If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below.

Tip: The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 2 (1.07 MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 2 (1.2 MB)

Let's try another one. Play the following piece of TAB:

This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret.

Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 3 (1.15 MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 3 (1.4 MB)

The first and 3rd strings are played open while the second, forth and fifth strings are played at the first, second and 3rd frets. The sixth string is not played in the C Major Chord and this is often indicated by an empty space on the stave or sometimes by an 'X'.

If you have read the TAB correctly your fingers should look like this:

Video Available:

QuickTime - Exercise 3 (1.15 MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 3 (1.4 MB)

Before we move on, I would like to introduce to you a musical symbol that we will be using from now on:

The symbol on the right is called a repeat sign. When you see this symbol, you go back to the start of the piece of music you are playing and play it over again.

Exercise:

Just to make sure that you are getting the TAB concept, I want you to play the following D chord. Take note of the repeat sign:

If you were playing the D chord, you were correct. Check with the video below:

Tip: You can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available: QuickTime - Exercise 4 (2.14 MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - Exercise 4 (2.5 MB)

Don't forget, for the Jamorama Acoustic Guitar Learning Kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games to accelerate your guitar learning. Visit Jamorama.com to find out more.

Jamorama Review - Become Fantastic Guitarist Using Jamorama... Get Jamorama Instant Download by Clicking Here Now! Technorati Tags : guitar exercise play video string example right strings fret download available jamorama review

Date Published: Dec 27, 2011 - 5:28 am

Feed: Jamorama Review 7 - AggScore: 45.6

Summary: Jamorama Review 7

Guitar Lesson One From Jamorama - Getting Started

Free Guitar Lesson Two From Jamorama -Tuning Your Guitar to Itself

Free Guitar Lesson Three From Jamorama - How to Read Guitar Tablature

Buying a Second Hand Guitar

Learn to Play Guitar With Online Software

Guitar Lesson ? Tuning Your Guitar to Itself

Guitar Lesson One - Getting Started

Board Games Introducing New Games to Your Gaming Group

How To Learn Guitar Faster With Less Practice

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 5

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 2

Learn to Play The Guitar mini-course Lesson 1

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #4

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #3

Learn to Play The Acoustic Guitar Mini-course #2

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