Capo

USING A CAPO

In order to make playing in difficult keys easier, guitarists use a device known as a "capo". This may look like a medieval instrument of torture but, as a guitarist, it's one of your best friends! It acts as a first finger substitute holding a barre, or can be alternatively thought of as a movable nut. If a key would normally mean lots of barre chords (and an aching hand) the capo will allow you to turn most of the barre chords into open string shapes.

Here's an example: you need to play a song that was recorded in Ab major and uses Bbm, Cm, Db, E, and Fm - all barre chords. If you put the capo at the first fret each chord can be played with the shape of the chord a semitone below it.

Actual pitch: Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb Fm

Capo 1 shapes: G Am Bm C D Em

Much easier, and it sounds better too! And that's not the only way we could do it...

Actual pitch: Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb Fm

Capo 4 shapes: E F#m G#m A B C#m

Or, for an extreme contrast...

Actual pitch: Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb Fm

Capo 8 shapes: C Dm Em F G Am

You will notice that as the capo goes up the neck the timbre of the guitar will change. This is something that songwriters use deliberately. They also use a capo to shift a chord sequence up or down a key to better suit their voice, which saves learning a new set of chords. Lastly, if you play guitar with a friend, using a capo high on one of the guitars can create a resonant sound with the two guitars playing the same chords high and low:

Actual pitch: G Am Bm C D Em F

Guitar 1

Open chords: G Am Bm C D Em F

Guitar 2

Capo 7 shapes: C Dm Em F G Am Bb

Materials are from the book Guitar.

6/8 Strumming

So, you know how to strum 4/4. So what about 6/8?

Obviously you can't strum like a 4/4 anymore when it comes to a 6/8 tempo songs. It wouldn't fit. Doesn't sound nice. So here it is a video for you..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swwaTqZ54oU&context=C40f2044ADvjVQa1PpcFNxnzgmxVF2wGSSlPXJN9rQNgiGGMul4LM=

Of course there are a lot more different types of strumming pattern for a 6/8. For this video, the metronome is set to 138bpm. The chords are used in the song 'Beautiful Savior' by Planetshakers. You should try that song out :)

I personally like Orianthi. So, there's this song, she played it in 6/8. Check it out and learn :)

Don't Tell Me That It's Over

And When I Look at You in the movie The Last Song.

Have fun!

Strumming Pattern

There's this strumming pattern which works like a charm. I learned this from a friend of mine. He used to teach me guitar. :)

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUekYFYbcak&context=C41dd74aADvjVQa1PpcFNxnzgmxVF2wB9576l13jQuy0mUWmF9wpk=

So basically, this strumming pattern is just down-down-up-up-down. It is very useful and it fits to almost every songs. To 4/4 songs. I will touch on 6/8 next time.

The chords I used are in the family of C. So if you want to explore more or practice more you can use different chords. And of course, different strumming pattern. Feel free to change the pattern. The great thing about music is it's not inside a box. The best thing is it challenges you to think out of the box. But make sure the beat and tempo is right :)

To improve your tempo and strumming, I strongly encourage you to select maybe a few chords, then START practicing it with maybe 90bpm. Then repeat it as many times as possible. You'll improve in that way :D

To get nice strumming sound, just practice. It takes time. No short cuts.

Happy practicing!

3 Guitar Tips You Cannot Miss

I've read this article and I figured out you might be inspired :)

A guitar is a beautiful thing, but, it can't play music alone. It needs you. And while a guitar is only as good as its master, the master can always improve. And, I hope to teach you a few tips here today about improving yourself fast and easy (and not to mention, fun!). The first thing you need to do is find a reason to keep playing. Is it for fun? Is it to become more technically adept? Learn a million songs and play at parties? Pick up girls (or guys)? What? So, this is your first tip: exploit your reason to play. The goal here is to get you spending more time doing something you love to do. If you just want to have fun, then me suggesting scales and rhythm exercises is gonna turn you off. So have fun! Learn cool tunes, grab a beer and invite a buddy over to jam. Speaking of buddies, perhaps you should consider how many friends you have that are musicians. Most people know a few right off the top of their head, but you should know a bunch more than that. In fact, you should have a massive list of musician friends ready to hang out and play with at a moment's notice. Why? Because you should always try to improve yourself by playing with musicians who are different or better than you. Everyone knows that art isn't created in a bubble. It takes inspiration, some background and, sometimes, a gentle push by a more talented musician. The last suggestion I'll give is a little bizarre and non-obvious, but let me try to get through it in a way that isn't crazy. So, you know how to speak, write and read. You can spontaneously create new sentences, paragraphs and even whole novels on a whim, most of them never heard before. And, you probably don't think much of it. This is everyday stuff. Well, I implore you to use the same sort of ability you already possess to restructure language and use it to restructure music. In short, learn to abstract every concept, chord, lick or note away from the context you learned if for. This will teach you that you can remix and reuse everything you've ever learned in new and interesting ways. The possibilities are endless, and if that doesn't excite you, then... what will?

Strumming

Okay, so right now you have lots of chords to play with. What about strumming then? I'll focus on strumming for now :)

Although it is possible to strum with your thumb, but the best tone for straight-on rhythm playing is produced by using a pick, or plectrum.

The coin doesn't count...

These small pieces of plastic are held between your thumb and forefinger (don't use your second finger because you might want to pluck a string with it at the same time as holding the pick). Picks come in various shapes and thicknesses. For acoustic strumming a thin one is easiest to begin with and might give the best tone for jangly but not-too aggressive rhythm playing. Thick picks put up more resistance against the strings and take a little more effort, while also inducing a little more volume.

The essence if good strumming can be summarized as follows:

• evenness of tone
• avoiding bass strings that are not meant to be hit
• the ability to strum up and down with equal facility
• controlling the volume
• keeping steady time

It also means knowing when and how to leave out strums.

As you can see there are arrows on top of the notes. Follow them. "Up" arrow means strum upwards and "Down" arrow means strum downwards.

The picture above is to help us to get started in strumming. To practice, do these following:

1. Hold down any chord. Maybe you can start from holding down an E Major chord. Or C Major. Anything that is comfortable for you.
2. Tap your foot, count to yourself, or get a metronome (if you have one, use it. If you don't you can check out the right side of this blog, or any other online metronome).
3. Set the metronome going at a medium tempo (around 80 to 90 bpm).

This exercise is in 4/4, which means four beats to each bar. Strum downwards every other beat, then on each beat, then twice on each beat (8ths or quavers), then four times on each beat (16ths or semi-quavers). Depending on how fast or slow you're going you may find that strumming twice or four times to a beat is too difficult just going downwards. The answer is to strum down and up.

The picture above shows different styles if strumming pattern. Of course there are A LOT of different patterns. But you can start from this.

This exercise gives nine strumming patterns. The first is a strum in straight 8ths. Notice how with each example some strums are taken away; the chord is allowed to ring. The rule is: the faster the tempo the longer a gap you can leave. With IV there is the introduction of a "tie". This is the line joining the 5th quaver to the 4th. A tie means you strike the first of the joined pair but not the second. Instead, the first lasts for the length of time of both notes. In any song you could use any one or a mixture of strumming patterns. Your choice will depend on mood, tempo and "groove".

Some extra tip:

To learn how to let loose of your hand while strumming, you can do this...

After washing your hand, hold an "imaginary" pick. Dry your hand. Not using any towel or blow dryer. Like how we "fling" our hand.

We tried this method beforehand, and it works!

Some of these materials are from the book Guitar.

Chords

Here's the first lesson for the beginners...

Chords.

So what are chords? Chords are the combination of notes.

Basically chords are above the song lyrics. For notes and theory they are different story. So at least to be able to play a song or two, you have to learn chords, whether you like it or not.

Here is a chords table. To make everything simple, the "KEY" on top left is like the head of the family. The rest across the column is the family members. So I call them 'The Family Chords' or 'The Chords Family', based on your own liking.

	Major			Minor
KEY	1	4	5	2	3	6	7
C	C	F	G	Dm	Em	Am	Bm
D	D	G	A	Em	F#m	Bm	C#m
E	E	A	B	F#m	G#m	C#m	D#m
F	F	Bb	C	Gm	Am	Dm	Em
G	G	C	D	Am	Bm	Em	F#m
A	A	D	E	Bm	C#m	F#m	G#m
B	B	E	F#	C#m	D#m	G#m	Bbm

*Actually there's a line in between column 5 and 2

You can copy paste this and print it out to practice. If you do not know how to press the guitar, go check out some websites about chords. This is one.http://www.8notes.com/guitar_chord_chart/

Of course there are a lot of other websites. The link above is just a reference.

This is a simplify version of that bigger table. This was my first chords table. Learn it.

C	Am	F	G
D	Bm	G	A
E	C#m	A	B
F	Dm	Bb	C
G	Em	C	D
A	F#m	D	E
B	G#m	E	F#

So you might be wondering why are you learning all these? They are the basics. I remember my coach taught me that basics are important because they are the foundation. If you want to master a skill, go for the basic first. Same goes to the guitar. Master the basics first.

Oh I almost forgot, get a pick :) A thin pick for strumming an acoustic guitar.

About your guitar

To learn guitar, you have to have a guitar. :)

I'm not advertising anything...

Basically there are six strings on a normal left-handed guitar.

The thickest string is the 6th string. The thinnest string is the 1st string. So from the sixth string until the first string, the key of each open string is EADGBE.

E------------------

B------------------

G------------------

D------------------

A------------------

E -----------------

So to memorize them, this is an easy way:

Elephants And Dogs, God Blesses Everything.

REMEMBER THESE! :D

Introduction

Greetings!

Thanks for visiting. If you have the desire to learn guitar, LEARN! Don't procrastinate. If you have never touched a guitar before, you can start by learning the beginner's material. I hope you'll learn something out of this. If you have any questions please do ask me and I will do my best to answer you.

One important thing before you begin: Remember that to be able to play guitar you need to practice. Once again. PRACTICE. And of course to sacrifice your pretty, shiny long fingernails (don't worry, it's only your left hand :D).

Have fun!