Learn Guitar Music Theory on the Fretboard

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Is it better to start of acoustic or electric guitar?

“Should I start on acoustic or electric guitar?"

This is the number one question I get asked by newcomers. First let me explain to you the difference between an acoustic and electric guitar.

The Difference Between Acoustic and Electric Guitars
The bodies of acoustic guitars are hollow boxes that serve to amplify the sound of the strings when they vibrate. Electric guitars are usually made of a solid piece of wood and the sound of the strings is picked up by electro-magnetic pickups. This signal is then sent to an amplifier.

Acoustic guitars can be played and enjoyed without any additional amplification. Electric guitars need to be plugged into an amplifier to truly hear their sound. Both acoustic and electric guitars include six strings, are tuned the same, and are basically, at least in the beginning stages, played the same. What you learn on one type of instrument will carry over to the other.

Steel-String and Nylon-String Acoustic Guitars
Acoustic guitars include steel-string and nylon-string varieties. The steel-string, or "folk guitar," is the standard type and is used the most in popular music. Song examples are "Yesterday" by The Beatles, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin, and literally a million other tunes.

Nylon-string guitars, which produce a softer sound, are primarily used in classical and flamenco music but they sometimes appear in more mainstream music as well. Song examples include "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton and "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams. Country music icon Willie Nelson, part rebel and part oddball, has strangely made a nylon-string guitar his instrument of choice which is uncommon in his genre.

Either type of acoustic guitar is suitable for beginners. You may want to stick with a steel-string since it's the most common. They will produce the sound you hear in most popular acoustic songs. There are a few benefits of the classical variety. Nylon strings are a little softer on the fingertips. Also, the strings are spaced slightly farther apart, which can give more room to chubby fingers.

Acoustic Guitar Prices
A good starter acoustic guitar will cost between $100-$200 by itself. For a bit more, you can get a pack that includes a gig bag (soft case), strap, electronic tuner, extra strings and picks. Acoustic guitars don't come in nearly as many shapes as electric guitars because their shape has an effect on how they sound. In general, you'll find this to be true about acoustic guitars: the bigger the body, the bigger the sound.

Electric Guitars
Electric guitars are as common in popular music as steel-string acoustics and even more common in rock styles (especially guitar solos). The electric guitar signal is frequently routed through devices that add special effects to the sound. These effects include reverb, distortion and echo. Electric guitar song examples include "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry, "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, the never-ending solo to "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and literally a million other tunes.

Electric guitars come in a wide variety of shapes, colors and pickup configurations but they are all played the same. There are no specific types or features that a beginner requires. It's all up to what you think looks nice, feels nice and fits your budget. Later, after your ear has had time to develop and can discern between all the different tonal characteristics, you may find that you prefer some models to others. Until then, don't worry about it. Just get a guitar and learn how to play!

Electric Guitar Amplifiers
Electric guitars don't make much sound on their own and need to be plugged into an amplifier to truly hear them. Be sure to factor the price of this additional item when you calculate the cost of buying an electric. Nothing fancy is required. A suitable starter amp can be bought for under $100.

Electric Guitar Prices
Electric guitar prices are similar to acoustic guitar prices ($100-$200) but with the additional expense of an amplifier. Most manufactures offer a package deal that includes a gig bag (soft case), strap, electronic tuner, extra strings, picks, plus an amplifier, cable and headphones. You can get all this for under $300 and it’s perfect for a beginning guitarist.

Which to Choose, Acoustic or Electric?
Any guitar will do, whether it is steel-string, nylon-string or electric, as long as it's a decent instrument in good working condition. I recommend that students use what they're most interested in playing.

In regard to which kind of guitar will better help a new player to develop, perhaps the biggest myth is that a student should begin studying on an acoustic and graduate to an electric. I completely disagree with this concept. In fact, one could make a good case against starting out on an acoustic. This is because acoustic guitars have thicker strings and higher action, which make them a little tougher to play. They put more stress on the fingertips and it takes slightly more skill to get a good sound. An electric on the other hand, has lighter strings, lower action and it's easier to access the entire neck. More importantly, most students want an electric guitar and are more likely to be enthusiastic about practicing with one. This whole argument aside, it really doesn't matter what you start on. Just start!

Beware of Junk
The figures I mentioned above are generally where the price of decent instruments start. While it's possible to find a suitable guitar even cheaper, it's also possible to waste your money (and time) on a guitar that's too cheap to be played. Some guitars are borderline toys. They are made to look like legitimate instruments, but they are unable to be tuned and nearly impossible to actually use. Beware of guitars sold in department stores or catalogs that aren't specifically guitar related. Also, most hand-me-down, garage sale, and flea market guitars are passed on for a reason: They're junk! You'll have a very hard time trying to play an inadequate instrument (if you're able to play it at all).

For hours of free beginner guitar lessons watch the videos posted at the Easy Beginner Guitar Songs website.

Play Until Yer Fingers Bleed!
Mr. Desi Serna
Website: http://Guitar-Music-Theory.com
YouTube: http://youtube.com/GuitarMusicTheoryTab
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrGuitarTheory
Facebook: http://facebook.com/desi.serna
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/guitarmusictheory
Podcast: Search Desi Serna at iTunes

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Guitar Scale Fingerings

“Is there a correct guitar scale fingering for the pentatonic patterns?”

Pentatonic Scale Fingerings
There are a few different ways you can finger pentatonic scale patterns. There is no perfect fingering and you’ll surely end up utilizing more than one depending on what you’re trying to play. As a general rule don’t use your index and middle fingers alone. This approach isn’t efficient and will make you look and sound like a hack.

Many guitarists learn the patterns best by using all four fingers. The notes of each pattern are spread across four frets. The exception to this rule is pattern three which is spread across five frets. Using four fingers allows you to use one finger per fret and makes it easier to visualize the patterns. You may prefer to use only your index and ring fingers. This approach helps many guitarists generate more power and control without getting adjacent fingers tangled up.

"Proper" Fingerings
Often you’ll hear opinions about how guitarists should and should not finger certain things. Some allege that there is a “proper” fingering for everything. You might find yourself falling into this line of thinking too. For example, you would think that it's more "correct" to use the pinky, or at least it's a bad habit to avoid it. But many players, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, and Eric Johnson do most of their scale/solo work with three fingers. I tend to favor three fingers too (although I use my pinky in my instructional guitar videos because I think it makes it easier for the viewer to see where I'm fretting). So obviously the theory of “proper scale fingerings” doesn’t hold up in practice.

With all this said, you have to find the fingerings that work for you. If you play and sound good, then you’re doing it right!

Friday, August 20, 2010

What’s the best age to start guitar lessons?

Guitar Lessons for Kids
Instruments are not toys and there's a necessary level of maturity required in learning how to play. My teaching experience has shown that the students who do best are teens and adults. Children struggle with a few things; their hands are small and not as coordinated as older students, and their interest in playing guitar tends to stem more from their fascination of the instrument and its players rather than a serious interest in physically practicing and playing.

Adult Guitar Lessons
Adults learn better and faster than teenagers, but tend to be more easily discouraged. Their mind set appears to be based on the idea that learning something new is for the young, not the old. As a result, adults sometimes feel out of place. Adults are also more self-aware with better-developed ears, which makes it harder for them to tolerate the sometimes unpleasant-sounding learning process. Less mature students don't know any better and think that they sound great from the beginning. Bottom line: Those who play a lot and stick with it do the best. Be patient and give yourself time to work everything out.

Get answers to more beginner guitar questions by visiting the Easy Beginner Guitar Songs website.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Learning How to Use Guitar Modes Lesson DVD Testimonial

This is what a recent customer had to say about my DVD, Guitar Modes - The Modal Scales of Popular Music.

"All I can say is WOW! I'm a singer songwriter & musician who's been playing guitar and keyboards for over ten years, but have never been able to get a handle on how to use modes in any sort of constructive way. Even though I'm classically trained in keyboard and knew the theory I was still confused about how to make it all work. Your tutorial not only dispelled the myths and dismantled some bad teaching I had received, but it also explained the core of what modes are about in an easy to understand practical and straigthforward manner which I was able to apply immediately to material I'd been working on.

I have a long way to go to fully explore and understand the depth of knowledge put forward in your tutorial, but it's like someone has opened a door to a musical garden of eden and laid out in front of me a veritable cornucopia of creative possibilities.

I now see that modes are (almost) like another form of modulation within a key itself, and this is the missing link I was looking for. I always knew when I listened to songs like Tom Petty's Here Comes My Girl that something was not normal about the verse, and that there was something I was missing (because you just don't get that sound from any traditional major or minor scale). I though it was modulation to a key I could not figure out, but of course now I know it was modal

Now I know...yes, now I know, everything is Modes...everything!

Your video will prove indispensable to anyone involved in the creation of music, for me personally it's been the final
piece of the puzzle."

Many many thanks,

Clint O.

Learn more about guitar modes and sign up to receive a free DVD preview.

Play Until Yer Fingers Bleed!
Mr. Desi Serna
Website: http://Guitar-Music-Theory.com
YouTube: http://youtube.com/GuitarMusicTheoryTab
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrGuitarTheory
Facebook: http://facebook.com/desi.serna
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/guitarmusictheory
Podcast: Search Desi Serna at iTunes

Friday, May 28, 2010

Electric Guitar and Amp Set Up

My guitar theory video lessons feature a Paul Reed Smith CE24 electric guitar played through a Line 6 Pod Pro. I use the Pod's left/mono XLR out in Live mode. It goes into a Mackie mixer and then I take a line out into the camera.The Pod Pro sounds much better than the regular Pod. I think it's the XLR output that makes all the difference. It's not a real amp, but an amp modeler. I agree with the purists that the tone from real amps is better, but amps are impractical in some settings. The Line 6 products are very easy to use and sound good enough to me.

A favorite trick of mine is to create a patch with the drive and channel volume all the way up, and then turn the volume on the guitar down to about 3 or 4. You can get some great blues tone this way particularly on the Line 6 BLACK PANEL amp model. If you crank up the reverb and add a little delay, it can sound like you got a cabinet cranked up in the next room.

By the way, turning the volume on the guitar down works well on my PRS because rolling off the volume doesn't also take away the high end. If your guitar sound becomes muddy when you do this, then look into installing a volume pot mod. It only costs a few dollars.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

What key is Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo in?

Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo is based on the A minor pentatonic scale and A minor scale (natural minor or Aeolian mode).

The intro uses the chords F5 G5 A5 and then a C5. This chord movement is very common and stems from a 4 5 6 chord progression in the A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode, C major scale). But only power chords are played (if you listen closely you can hear that a 6th interval is added to the F5 and G5 giving it a blues shuffle style). Instead of using the full minor scale over these changes the guitars mainly stick to A minor pentatonic (as heard in the riff at the end of the chord figure).

The E7 (0:28 in the video) is technically a key change, but you could treat it like a blues 5 chord and continue playing A minor pentatonic over it. You could think of it as the 5 chord in the key of A major and play A major scale patterns over it. You could treat it as a blues key change and play a mixture of E major and E minor pentatonic scales over it. Or it could possibly be thought of as a 5 (V7) chord in A harmonic minor (but this might sound a bit too exotic for this bluesy rock song). Or you could not play over it at all, as is the case in the song.

The verse (0:51 in the video) uses the chords A5 C5 D5. Again, these power chords still stem from the A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode, C major scale). All of these notes are also found in the A minor pentatonic. The guitar riff that occurs after each line of the verse is the A minor pentatonic with a chromatic passing tone added (blues scale). See guitar tab below.

Verse Riff: A Minor Pentatonic "Blues" Scale Patterns 3 & 4
E----------------------|------------------|
B----------------------|------------------|
G------14--14-12-------|----------12b(14)-|
D----------------14-13-|-12-10------------|
A--12------------------|------------------|
E----------------------|------------------|

So you can see that Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo is based on minor chord progressions and pentatonic scale patterns. This is very common in blues and blues-based rock songs.

Monday, May 3, 2010

How to Play Guitar with Small Hands and Short Fingers

"Any tips for guitar players with small fingers/hands?"

With guitar playing, there are advantages and disadvantages with all hand sizes. If you have small hands or short fingers, then my advice is to not try to play like you have big hands or long fingers.

I met Brent Mason, one of Nashville's top session guitarists and an amazing player, and was surprised at how small his hands were (he's a little guy). He can do things that I can't do as well with my long fingers (like fret some chord shapes and play rapidly in tight spaces). He plays to his strength and I have to play to mine.

I usually feel more comfortable playing scale patterns that are spread out, like three-notes-per-string patterns. A guitarist with smaller hands probably does better to use scale patterns that fit into smaller positions.

Find what you can do well and... do it well! You may need to play some things differently than the recordings or skip them altogether, but this shouldn't hold you back. It certainly isn't holding Brent Mason back (see video linked to below).

Brent Mason Has Small Hands
http://www.youtube.com

Learn Guitar Music Theory on the Fretboard - Lessons By Desi Serna