Like most method books, the Hal Leonard Guitar Method book doesn’t use tablature. Students will have to learn how to read notes. And that’s a good thing. The lessons start at ground zero for an absolute beginner and progress from there. Book one grounds you in rudimentary chords and note playing at the basic, first … Read more
This long-awaited series covering purposeful guitar practice is here! Unless you’ve already hit the big time with your guitar, you probably want to improve your guitar playing. That means you need to spend some time practicing guitar. Guitar practice can be fun (well sort of), and it’s fulfilling to accomplish something new with your guitar … Read more
Hello and welcome to my “Kids Guitar 1” review. Kids Guitar 1 with Marcy Marxer is a ten-lesson guitar course for young kids. The DVD teaches kids guitar chords to these easy, sing-along songs: Down By The Riverside, Skip To My Lou, Buffalo Gals, 100 Bottles Of Pop On The Wall, Polly Wolly Doodle, It Ain’t … Read more
If you’ve been following this Purposeful Practice Series from the beginning, then you’ve set some goals, and have been working toward them. Maybe your current goals are working through a method book, or learning blues guitar, or fingerpicking. But one of your bottom-line goals has to be — learning to play guitar songs, from start … Read more
What is guitar tab?Guitar tab is a simple way of writing out music for the guitar. It differs from standard musical notation in that, instead of just showing you what notes to play, it shows you the strings and the frets on which to play them. Unlike regular musical notation, which will show you the … Read more
Here are a couple of online and downloadable guitar tuners. These utilities let you hear the notes you need to tune your guitar in standard tuning, and for some, in alternate guitar tunings, such as DADGAD. Free Online Guitar Tuners Here are some sites that offer online guitar tuners. Play the reference notes for tuning your guitar … Read more
Fender Presents Getting Started on Acoustic Guitar — A Guide for Beginners offers a good demonstration on the basics of playing acoustic guitar. While the DVD titled “Getting Started on Acoustic Guitar,” the material is not specific to acoustic guitar playing. In fact, most of Keith Wyatt’s demonstrations are shown with an electric guitar. This … Read more
In this Purposeful Guitar Practice series we’ve offered ideas for scheduling your guitar practice time and using a digital timer to get the most out of your guitar-practice sessions. It’s important to manage your limited guitar-practice time, but it’s equally important to manage your guitar-practice energy. In Be Excellent at Anything, author Tony Schwartz feels that energy management is as … Read more
This effective guitar tip is called Grease the Groove (GTG). I learned GTG from strength and fitness guru, Pavel Tsatsouline. It’s a strength-building exercise technique that I’ve applied successfully to my physical fitness workouts. Grease the Groove is designed to get you past your “sticking points.” The GTG method for getting past sticking points involves frequent, but … Read more
When you’ve just started learning to play guitar, it can be easy to get to a point where you ask yourself “what song should I learn next?” Here are 10+ rock songs that sound great and aren’t that difficult to play. If you’re a rock player and you’re looking for something new to sink your teeth into, … Read more