learn acoustic guitar
Intermediate Level Lessons - Become A "REAL" Guitar Player!
These lessons will add refinement to your playing and fill in the missing pieces. We're going to STEP OUT OF IMPROVERS GUITAR and into a more accomplished level of playing! Through some very simple concepts I'm going to show how to learn acoustic guitar so that you achieve some genuine style but, a word of warning! Don't step into this section until you feel fully comfortable the Improvers Level lessons and have a number of songs under your belt from the Songbook OK?
Remember that guitar lessons are only effective when you take the time to learn each one thoroughly and be responsible about the speed of your progress.
How Chords And Scales Fit Together
Since we are learning the how chords and scales match to produce music first we must go over the scale - the melodic side of the equation.
Gaining some fluency with the scale is important. Here we'll begin by ascending and descending exercises.
The next exercise is great for picking - double notes.
Let's now extend that to triple notes across the entire scale. Alternate picking becomes much more tricky here...
Running through scales in sequences are the absolute best way to drill them. Once you become comfortable with these patterns the scales will quickly become automatic.
Another scale sequence but this time in 2's. Pay attention to the accuracy of your alternate picking, practice slowly and smoothly.
The switch here to shuffle phrasing is great for your picking and will breath new life into the scale sequence.
So far we've been looking at the melodic side of the musical equation. Let's turn our attention now to the harmonic side of the coin...
Rinse and repeat the process with the V chord in the key - D major
Now the IV chord - C major. This gives us the corner stones of the key. I - IV - V
Chord VI in the key is also very important and represents the relative minor. It's also a great substitute for chord 1 and can be used as a surprise cadence from V - VI.
Am is chord II in the key and sets up some really classic II - V - I cadence points. Let's take a look at how we can tie into it with the melodic scale.
We cannot complete our key without the barre chord of Bm so here's how the G major scale is going to work with it including all it's resolution notes.
Finally we have the mystical chord VII - the Diminished chord. Actually we don't have to concern ourselves too much with it so simply knowing the shapes is enough.
Bass Notes And How To Use Them
Being able to isolate your bass notes from your chords is essential to graduating out of beginners level guitar...
You'll find that there are more than just one choice for chordal bass notes, let's take a look at the most popular options here.
I often use this shorter strumming variation and in this lessons I'll show you how to do it. It's very useful!
Turning our attention now to the chord of D. There's actually a lot you can do with this chord in terms of adding interest with different voicing's and bass notes.
This lesson will focus on using bass notes with the chord of Em.
OK, let's take what we have learned so far in the module and apply it all with a shuffle feel for some variation in rhythmic colour.
And finally let's change rhythmic colour again by applying a 3/4 time signature and strum.
Blues Guitar Lessons
All musicians, let along guitar players, should know how to speak in the simple language of blues. It's a universal language for musicians everywhere. First, blues chords.
Blues music is often played with a specific 'chugging' rhythm. Let's take a look at how easy it is to perform it...
Now for the standard blues framework - the 12 bar blues.
At the end of every 12 bar blues you'll find something called a turnaround. I've selected 2 of the best sounding ones available to show you.
2nd blues guitar turnaround. It's great especially if you can employ some hybrid picking.
Let's put the entire thing together now. 12 bar blues with turnarounds. This will give you the complete picture.
Up to know we've been working with chords however blues is equally possible with walking bass lines... here's a great one for you.
Hybrid Style Guitar
Mixing guitar techniques is a great way to break out into new ground. Here I'll show you how to mix strumming and fingerstyle.
Now for a second pattern, the idea is the same but it's always useful to have variations at your disposal.
Adding Ornaments To Chords
Let's use a pick and mix together lead in bass runs with chords... it's great fun. Let's look at the chords first.
Now here's the strum pattern well use for this module. Hopefully you've already mastered it from a previous lesson! It's perfect for ornamental chord playing.
We're going to isolate individual chords with ornaments. First let's look at our tonic chord of G and apply some bass lines to it.
Now with out bass lines worked out we need to cycle them around and around to form practice circles. It's very rewarding practice.
Rinse and repeat the process now with our chord IV - C major.
Again... cycle the ornaments around maintaining a C chord. Later we are going to get into progressions so drill this step well!
Lastly let's take our all important V chord - D major. This is super important and will give you the ability to endlessly invent your own ornaments.
Done all the work? Great. Now let's put it all together into some specially designed practice progressions. This is were it really counts - the real world of guitar playing.
Here's another practice progression for you! Cycle it until you are comfortable with everything and don't forget to be creative and improvise.
Last ornamental progression No. 3. I think you're getting the hang of it by now!
Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons - Level One
I'm going to give you just a 'taste' of fingerstyle guitar technique!
My hope is that it's going to ignite in you a desire to continue and to learn more.
Actually, I'm working on a more modern series of fingerstyle guitar lessons for all of you...
It's too large for this site so I'm going to make it into a separate website instead.
The key with all fingerstyle guitar lessons is to practice the right hand patterns extremely slowly.
It's only when you brain has deeply learned the patterns that everything will 'click' and come together. Be patient.... take your time.
