Essential Blues And Rock Scales

There so many scales out there that at times it seems that learning them can be confusing. Often many new guitarists don’t know were to start. The good news is that you do not have to learn every scale you only have to learn the scales that apply to your chosen genre of music. It is also a good idea to learn the scales in the keys that you most often play in first. My advice is to learn the following scales first, and in the following order, the minor pentatonic scale, the major pentatonic scale, and the blues scale, because they are the scales that are the most widely used in blues guitar, rock, jazz, bluegrass and country music. In reality these are the three scales that you hear more often then any others when you listen to the radio. The most crucial keys to learn to play these scales in are as follows A, D, E,  and G. In order to become a skilled guitarist you will have to learn to play these scales in all the keys, but if you are just beginning to play the guitar the keys of A, D, E, and G are a good place to start. In this article we will concentrate on the key of A, because it sits nicely in the center of the fretboard. 1. The minor pentatonic scale The minor pentatonic scale like all other pentatonic scales is made up of five notes the root note, flattened third, fourth, fifth and flattened seventh. In the key of A the minor pentatonic scale contains the following notes A - C - D - E – G. This is one of the more important scales that you should learn. Just about every guitarists has put this scale to good use in one form or another, some guitarist include Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and many others. Minor pentatonic scales work best if a song is... A.) In a minor key… B.) In a major key with a blues feel to it…

2. The major pentatonic scale

10 Realistic Tips For Improving Your Guitar Playing

One of the more trying areas of playing the guitar is when you get to point where you are no longer showing any improvement in your playing. All guitarists run into this same problem regardless of their skill level and ask the same question, “why is my guitar playing not up to the level that I would like it to be, and what must I do to get there?”

To make matters even worse we see and hear our favorite guitar players almost everyday, and it seems as thought they are always coming up with new tricks and are constantly improving upon their skills. When we read about our favorite guitarists in magazines in order to learn how to do what they do this leaves us even more confused. Becoming a fantastic guitarist is no easy task. It is a lot harder then it looks.

What is the answer to becoming a successful guitarist? Although there is no single answer to solving every problem there are a lot of theories and concepts that may help you get through the sticking points that are holding you back from becoming the guitarist that you have always wanted to be.

One of the first things that you must understand is that you do not have to be a genius in order to become a fantastic guitarist. The top two things that you must posses if you want to be a great guitarist are commitment and desire. There is no such thing as a great guitarist that is not passionate about music. They did not get to be were they are by being lethargic and uninterested.

These guitarists took it upon their self’s to go ahead and continually learn new things.

It is guitarists that dare to challenge them self’s that take the chance of failure. This is where a lot of guitarist lose the fight with low self-worth and give up. The problem is not that they took the chance, but that they could not pick themselves up again. When you understand that failure is a part of the growing process, and that it takes a lot of practices to nail down some of the techniques, then you have just learned the first thing that you need to become a skilled guitarist.

I have put together a list of ideas that I believe every guitar player ought to try out.

Learn to Play Guitar by Ear

Picking up any new song by ear can be both extremely frustrating and wonderfully satisfying. The most frustrating part of learning any new song by ear is the amount of time you have to put in listening to the same song repeatedly. In most instances by the time you have figured out the song you are no longer interested in playing it, this has happened to me a number of times. In the past I would play a song that I really loved repeatedly until I was ready to throw my guitar out of the window, and give up in frustration.

A number of guitarists have a difficult time when it comes to learning a song by ear. The problem is speed, if you can’t hear what is being played how can you expect to learn how to play it? Even some of the most advanced guitarists have difficulty when it comes to learning a song by ear that is play at its normal speed.

Many guitar riffs and solos are played so fast and contain such difficult manoeuvres that it makes it almost impossible to learn them by ear. For example take a guitar solo that is played by Steve Vai, Jimmy Page, Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, or Yngwie Malmsteen, in order to plainly hear and comprehend precisely what is being played by them is daunting task.

Wouldn't it make learning how to play the guitar so much simpler if you could only slow down the music? If you could slow down the music you would be able to hear each musical phrase note-for-note and have the time to duplicate these notes precisely as they are played.

Luckily, due to all of the advancements made in technology there is now software available that will slow down any piece of music for you!

Once you have the software you simply load any song that you want to learn into it, and play it back at any speed you want, without changing the pitch. With this type of software you can hear the precise notes, and even how they were played: using slides, hammer-ons, bends, pull-offs and so on. You have to be able to hear precisely what is going on in order to master demanding guitar riffs and solos. Without some kind of software for slowing down music it is almost impossible to learn to play the guitar by ear.

There are a couple of different types of software on the market, and I have tried them all. Some are good and some are just bad. The one that I use and recommend can be found by clicking on the following link:

 Riff Master Pro

Slow Down Any Guitar Solos, Guitar Riffs, And Music, this one is very reasonably priced, and it not only slows down music, but very importantly it does it without changing the pitch. Another great feature is that you can change the key that song is played in, for instance if you wanted to learn a song by Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan both of whom tune down their guitar a half step all you have to do is change the key of the song thus avoiding having to change the tuning on your guitar.



http://www.riffsnstrings.com/guitar_tips/learn_to_play_guitar_by_ear.htm

Adding Vibrato to Your Musical Phrasing

Out of all of the technical tools that a guitar play can posse, vibrato is probably one of the most expressive. Musical phrases that go on forever without the use of vibrato can sound dull and lifeless. Adding vibrato to your musical phrasing in the appropriate places and circumstances will make your phrasing much more exciting.

Classically trained singers spend years trying to master vibrato when they sing, where as a lot of guitar players do not spend much time if any trying to master vibrato. The majority of guitar teachers do not put much value on teaching this technique or just take vibrato for granted and unfortunately they do not emphasize the importance of learning this technique.

In my opinion the most expressive vibrato is one that is wide and played in a slow to medium speed. Although there are times a narrower vibrato is needed, typically over a soft and slow musical passage. At times a fast vibrato can be effective, but be careful when you use a fast vibrato, because it can produce a sound that is out of control and out of tune. I seldom use a narrow or fast vibrato and I never use a vibrato that is narrow and fast at the same time.

Following is a list of some common problems that a lot of inexperienced guitar players have with their vibrato.

The vibrato is so fast that it sounds like a tiny insect that is buzzing around your ears, and the notes typically sounds like they are out of control.

The vibrato is not wide enough in range, it is to narrow. Unless you are playing a soft and slow musical phrase a narrow vibrato will make the notes you are playing sound timid and faint.

Many inexperienced guitarists do not use vibrato enough causing notes to die out rapidly and sound lifeless and boring especially at the end of a musical phrases.

Some guitar players over use vibrato. Many inexperienced guitarists stuff in as much vibrato at possible. The overuse use of vibrato lessens its impact on the listener.

Use a Metronome To Improve Your Technique, Speed, Control & Accuracy

If your guitar playing is nowhere near the level that you wish it could be at there could be a variety of reasons. There are a number of skills and techniques that you must master in order to become a great musician. The focus of this article will be on technique. There is no substitute for technique when it comes to conveying your creative vision to others. You can be a brilliant musical, but if you do not have the ability to get your music out of your instrument, it will be next to impossible to express yourself musically in the way that you want to. Technique alone, like any other musical factor, is not the most significant piece of the musical puzzle, but without technique, it is impossible to play what you really want to hear.

Most musicians will agree that a metronome is a valuable tool for developing both control and accuracy on your instrument, but many guitarists do not know how to get the most out of using a metronome. I am repeatedly asked, “How do I use a metronome to develop more speed?” In this article I will address that question. Keep in mind that the approach to practicing your guitar that I describe here should be incorporated into your practice time and balanced out by all of the other musical elements. You want to make certain that all of the musical abilities that are pertinent to you to achieving your goals as a musician are constantly being improved upon.

One of the most asked questions concerning the use of a metronome is “what tempo should I begin with?” The answer to that question all depends on your present level of skill as a guitarist, the particular exercises and technique you are working on, and whether or not you are playing 8th note triplets or straight 8th notes. If your are playing 8th note triplets you will have to set your metronome to a slower speed then if you were playing straight 8th notes, because if you play 8th note triplets you have to play three notes for every click of the metronome. Where as if you were playing straight 8th notes you would only play two notes for every click of the metronome.

Before you begin to incorporate a metronome into your practice you should make a detailed list of the techniques and problem areas of your guitar playing that you wish to improve upon, and write down next to them the goals that you want to achieve concerning speed. Next you will want to evaluate how fast you can play a specific technique comfortably at. Write down the results, all of these things will help you to evaluate your present skills and show you were you must improve before you can play at the level that you wish to play at. Once you understand your present playing abilities and the exact technical challenges that you are facing, overcoming them will be that much easier. A