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Home Archives for Guitar Technique

How To Use A Metronome

May 10, 2018 By admin 2 Comments

Before looking at how to use a metronome, let’s look at why you should use a metronome. Using a metronome helps to develop a good inner tempo. New guitar players tend to play easier sections faster and then slow down when it’s harder.

Playing with a metronome can help your technique. There was even a study done with golf players using a metronome to help improve their golf scores! It actually works. Having a solid sense of rhythm can help your guitar technique too.

How To Use A Metronome:

  1. Get a metronome. There are several types of metronomes on the market. The original are wind-up metronomes. They simple click different speeds. Newer metronomes can be set for different time signatures which makes them easier to use. We carry one of the newer tuner/metronomes.
  2. Clap first. To get an inner sense of rhythm it’s helpful to simply clap or tap the rhythm before trying it on the guitar. You can clap the rhythm of strumming patterns. If you’re learning to read music, you can clap the rhythm of the notes.
  3. Then use it while playing. Once you are comfortable clapping with a metronome, then use it when you’re playing the guitar.
  4. Practice exercises. Using a metronome is an excellent way to practice scales or other exercises. You can start off slowly and gradually increase the speed.
  5. Use a metronome to check your playing. When you’re comfortable changing chords, record yourself. Then you can use a metronome to help you play in time. It’s easier to hear where you’re slowing down.

Examples of How to Use a Metronome

Clapping:

The first example is simply clapping to the beat. The metronome is set to 80 bpm, beats per minute.

https://worshipguitarclass.com/images/Metronome-Clapping1.m4a

Here is the same 80 bpm but set with an eighth note getting one beat. On the old wind-up tuners, you would need to set the beats to 160 pbm.

https://worshipguitarclass.com/images/Metronome-clapping2a.m4a

Here is a common strumming pattern called ‘down – down up – up down up’.

Here is the pattern clapped in eighth notes at 60 bpm. On a wind-up metronome it would need to be set at 120.

https://worshipguitarclass.com/images/Metronome-clapping3-60.m4a

Here is the same pattern at 80 bpm, or 160 on wind-up metronomes.

https://worshipguitarclass.com/images/Metronome-clapping3.m4a

Use a Metronome When Playing

Here is the pattern using a guitar with the metronome set to 60 bpm.

https://worshipguitarclass.com/images/Metronome-Strumming60.m4a

When you’re learning a new pattern it’s very helpful to clap or tap the pattern before trying to play it on the guitar.

I hope this give you a good idea of how to use a metronome. Using a metronome is very helpful for musicians at all levels.

As a music major in college, we spent hours tapping out rhythm patterns in their listening labs. The two basic elements of music are pitch and rhythm. Using a metronome can help you excel in your rhythm.

If you don’t have a metronome, we carry a very nice one that doubles as a tuner. Learn more here – Center Pitch Tuner/Metronome.

Filed Under: Guitar Technique

10 Tips to Master Playing The Guitar

January 20, 2017 By admin 4 Comments

Learning how to play the guitar can be a lot of fun. There are so many benefits to playing a musical instrument. There is no reason not to learn to play the guitar. Here are 10 tips to help you master playing the guitar.

1. Get a Decent Guitar

It’s difficult to master playing the guitar on an instrument that is difficult to play. I personally suggested to all of my guitar students to start off on a nylon-string guitar. They are easier on your fingers. Regardless of the type of guitar you play, it’s best to play one with low action. The ‘action’ is the distance between the strings and the fingerboard.

It does not have to be new. I have written an article on How To Buy A Used Guitar with specific suggestions to make sure the instrument doesn’t have structural problems.

Look for a guitar that has low action and check to make sure none the strings don’t buzz on any of the frets.

2. Get Good Instruction

It’s so easy to fall into bad playing habits that can hold you back. Look for a good guitar teacher in your area, or for good online tips and lessons. There are many fine players that can help to guide you in the right direction. I don’t suggest getting help from people who are beginners. You might also pick up their bad habits.

If you want to master playing the guitar, seek instruction from people who have already mastered the guitar. It will cut your learning time and keep you from hurting your hands.

3. Watch & Listen To Experts Playing The Guitar

When I was learning to play the guitar, I went to every guitar concert offered in our city. It’s so inspiring to see excellent musicians. In addition to attending the events, I also bought several of their recordings.

I remember one day listening to a particular recording of a song played by Julian Bream. It was mesmerizing! He played it so beautifully that I wanted to sound just like him. It inspired me to practice that song over and over.

Watching and listening to great guitar players can help you see what sounds you can get out of a guitar. A good musician can put his or her own interpretation on the music.

3. Practice Smart

It’s good to have a specific goal in mind whenever you sit down to practice the guitar. It’s ok to sit down and play the guitar for fun, but if you want to really master playing the guitar, it’s even better to strive towards improving.

Listen and watch your playing. Can you change to the chords faster? You can isolate parts of the song that are more difficult for you to play so you can work on playing that section smoother. Break it down to even the individual fingers. For example, the change from the chord ‘G’ to ‘C’ can be changing from ‘G’ to just the 5th String 3rd fret, then ‘G’ to 2 fingers, and finally ‘G’ to ‘C’, as seen in the example below:

The goal can be to eventually move all of your fingers at the same time. Any chord can be broken down into steps like this. When you practice, also focus on improving your playing.

4. Work On Your Guitar Technique

It’s an excellent idea to practice scales and techniques to improve your overall playing skills. How is your posture? There are several exercises that I always gave my guitar students to work on both their technique and speed. Here is one of the left-handed exercises that my students worked on:

Notice the thumb placement and what a difference that makes for chords that require your fingers to spread out more. I have noticed that even guitar players that have a different technique than mine still have to place their thumb in the middle of their fingers to make larger stretches.

To master playing the guitar, it’s a good idea is including both right and left-handed exercises. Here is a sample video of the right-hand technique with three simple picking patterns.

You can practice these on various chords, not just an ‘A’ Chord. Plus, these are simple exercises. You can certainly practice more difficult ones as your playing progresses.

5. Learn To Play With Relaxed Hands

It’s easier to play when your hands are relaxed. A famous violist once told a student after playing an incredibly fast piece that he relaxed between each note. It does require strength to hold down the strings, but you do not need to keep your right or left-hand tense then they are not playing.

There are little tricks you can try, like remembering to relax your shoulders when you play. When you consciously relax your body, your hands tend to relax too.

6. Visualize

We have amazing minds. There are so many passages in the Bible about guarding our thoughts. There are several ways to use your mind. You can visualize where your hands will move in advance. If you are reading music, you can visualize the notes without looking at the music when memorizing music.

I talk a lot about the mind in my ‘Organize Your Life Now‘ book. In the book, I mention a study done with basketball players. Here’s an excerpt from the book.

Speaking of basketball, another famous study was done with basketball players. Dr. Blaslotto, at the University of Chicago, split people into three groups and tested each group on how many successful free throws they could make.

One group was told to practice free throws for an hour every day. The second group was told to just visualize themselves making perfect free throws without actually touching the basketball. And, the third group was told to do nothing for 30 days,

After 30 days, he tested them again. Here are the results:

  • The first group improved by 24%.
  • The second group improved by 23% without touching a basketball!!!
  • The third group did not improve, which was expected.

In this study, visualizing yielded essentially the same benefit as practicing. This important discovery is that, when we see a successful result, something happens to us. With a clear end result in mind, it’s easier to accomplish goals of all kinds.

Watch your thinking. Sometimes even thinking that you can’t do something will stop you from progressing. Believe that you can master playing the guitar and never give up.

7. Record Yourself

To hear what you actually sound like, it’s very beneficial to record yourself. I was shocked to hear how bad my rhythm was the first time I recorded myself. It also helps to video yourself playing. It’s very helpful to see yourself and see how you can change it.

As you continue assessing where your playing is today, you can see how to improve it. Get a metronome to help your rhythm. It’s great to practice your scales and exercises using a metronome.

8. Practice Songs Slowly

One of the best ways to master playing the guitar is to practice songs very slowly. Try to play the songs with excellent technique. One of my guitar teachers, Pepe Romero, told us that he always practices his concert pieces at a very slow tempo before speeding them up.

Master each song at a very slow tempo before trying to play them faster. Be patient with yourself.

9. Play For Others

Learning to play in front of others is a good skill to develop from the beginning. I always made my guitar students sing in front of me and also encouraged them to participate in student recitals.

The more you perform, the easier it gets. It helps to build your confidence with playing the guitar.

10. Keep Learning To Master Playing The Guitar

Learning to master the guitar should include learning Music Theory on the Guitar and reading music. You can always keep learning more songs and more about music. It can be a hobby or career that’s both fun and rewarding!

Filed Under: Guitar Technique

7 Guitar Care Tips

November 10, 2015 By admin 5 Comments

7 Guitar Care Tips

When you buy a guitar, here are a few simple tips to keep it in excellent condition. Guitars are made from living wood and can be damaged if they are exposed to too much heat or dryness. There are also a few easy things you can do to keep the strings sounding good, for example just washing your hands before you play.

For those who prefer pictures, here’s a fun info-graphic of the 7 tips shared in the video above:

 

After you have a guitar of your own it is important to take care of it. The first thing to do for your guitar is to buy a case for it. This seems like such a silly piece of advice but your guitar is more fragile than you think and is easily dented. A decent guitar case can help to protect it.

The softest part of a guitar is the wood is on the top of the instrument. Investing in a good case is a good step towards protecting your investment. If it’s an expensive instrument, hard shell cases provide the best protection. Hard shell cases usually cost over $100. If you have an inexpensive guitar, you should still at least get a guitar gig bag. This will make it easy to carry your guitar and protect it from dust and some dings.

As already mentioned, don’t leave your guitar in a hot car.It can cause the neck of your guitar to warp, which will never play in tune. There is also the risk of the wood cracking.

If you are in a very dry climate, invest in a humidifier that can fit inside the sound hole of the guitar or in the guitar case. Otherwise, the wood can get too dry and crack. I’ve even seen bridges pop off guitars. They can be quite expensive to repair.

Simple habits can help extend the life of both your guitar and strings. Washing you hands before playing washes away the sweat and dirt that could have clogged your strings. Your strings will sound better when they are ‘clean’. Then, getting in the habit of wiping down your instrument after playing will also pick up excess dirt and grease on the instrument. The new microfibers is an excellent choice for cleaning the guitar.

Periodically, it’s a good idea to remove all of your strings and use a fine steel wool pad to removes any grease or dirt that has accumulated around the frets. Wipe around each fret with the steel wool, then wipe it down once more with a soft cloth. Then, you can apply fretboard oil to help keep the wood in great condition.

Guitar wax is another step to insure that the wood on your guitar is protected. You may want to wax the instrument a few times a year. There are several waxes made specifically for guitars.

With a little care, you guitar will look and sound great for a very long time. Hope these tips are helpful and that you enjoy playing your guitar for many years.

Filed Under: Guitar Technique

7 Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners

August 11, 2015 By admin 8 Comments

These are the first seven basic guitar chords we teach in the Worship Guitar Class course. They are excellent chords to learn for beginner guitar students. If you don’t know how to read guitar chord charts, there is an article here on How To Read Chord Charts that may be helpful.

1. A Chord

The first chord is called an ‘A chord’. Here is the chord chart as well as a photo of how to hold it down on the strings. It’s best to  have short nails on the hand holding down the strings. Play on the tips of your fingers, right behind the frets. If you press down on the top of the frets the strings will sound muffled and if you press too far from the frets the strings can buzz.

AChord

To get a sense of how to hold down the chords, I suggest watching the first lesson of our course. It’s free on the website. You can find it about 1/4 of the way down the page – Click here. My training is with classical guitar and you can certainly avoid hand injuries with good guitar technique.

2. E7 Chord

The next chord to learn is called ‘E7’. Here is the chord chart and photo of the chord. Chords are made up of 3 specific notes and when anything else is added you add the number of the note to the chord. An ‘E7 chord’ is an ‘E chord’ with the ‘7th’ note added. Once you can play the chords and are getting used to the guitar, you may want to eventually learn Music Theory for the Guitar.

To really learn the chords, it takes practice. Play 4 strums on the ‘A chord then change to ‘E7’ and strum 4 times. Practice changing between ‘A’ and ‘E7’ until it’s easy and comfortable for you.

E7Chord

3. D Chord

The next chord is called a ‘D chord’. The 6th string open is not a part of the ‘D chord’.  Notice the little ‘x’ underneath the 6th string. That means you do not strum that string. This is what often distinguishes experienced guitar players from beginning guitar players. They know what strings to avoid.

D-Chord

With the chords ‘A’, ‘D’, and ‘E7’, you can literally play hundreds of songs. Practice changing between these three chords and when you can change them without hesitating add the next one, a ‘G chord’.

Don’t rush immediately to the ‘G’ chord until you feel confident with the first three chords. It’s better to memorize them and feel confident about the chords before taking on too much. Then, when you do try the ‘G’ chord it will be easier because you’ve already had success with the previous three chords. Here’s a quick chart of all seven chords.

7-Beginner-Guitar-Chords

4. G Chord

I have found that ‘G’ tends to be a bit more awkward for beginner guitar students to learn. Once mastered it often becomes one of their favorite chords to play. It may be because whenever you overcome a challenge you feel good about it. One of the tricks to playing it well is to make sure your thumb is behind the middle of the fretboard. This is especially true for people with shorter fingers.

 

G-Chord

The chords ‘G’, ‘A’, and ‘D’ also fit for many songs. When this gets easier, move on to the ‘C chord’.

5. C Chord

Like the ‘G’, this is a chord that many people find awkward in the beginning. Most people make the chord by placing the index finger down first. You’ll actually be able to change faster if you hold down the 5th string first. Place your 3rd finger on the 5th string and then add the other two. Eventually all of your fingers should go down at the same time.

C-Chord

The chords ‘G’, ‘C’, and ‘D’ are also used for hundreds of songs.

Next, we’ll learn some minor chords. There are four basic types of chords – major, minor, augmented, and diminished. These two chords will probably be like a breath of fresh air. They are easy chords to learn and to play.

6. Am Chord

The ‘Am chord’ is very easy to change to from a ‘C chord’. You simple move one finger. The 3rd finger shifts from the 5th string, 3rd fret, to the 3rd string, 2nd fret. The first two fingers don’t need to move. It’s also very closely related to the ‘A chord’. It’s just one finger different from ‘A’.

Am-Chord

The last chord is the chord ‘Em’.

7. Em Chord

It’s quite easy to change to from an ‘Am chord’ to ‘Em’. Pick up all three fingers and bring the 2nd and 3rd fingers up one string each. Here is the chord chart for ‘Em’. Look at the two chord charts and you can also see how the 2nd and 3rd fingers just shift up and down one string.

Em-Chord

There you have it. 7 basic chords that are useful for all beginner guitar players.

For easy step-by-step guitar lessons with worship songs check out our course.

JW Worship Guitar Class Lessons

Step-by-step guitar lessons for learning to play worship songs on your guitar. Click here to Learn More

Filed Under: Guitar Technique Tagged With: guitar chords

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