As important as it is to have a good song to play in the first place, proper use of guitar technique just adds an entirely new layer to a guitarists playing. Your guitar playing will lack heart and soul if all you do is replicate the notes as they are written down, even though you do hit them in the correct order. A good guitarist should strive to learn all the techniques he/she can master, and the benefits will surely become obvious. Don’t be fooled into thinking these techniques sound too advanced for the beginner, you don’t have to be playing lead guitar to master them.
There isn’t one technique mentioned here that can’t be found in a rhythm part in a number of different songs. So it follows therefore that even rhythm guitarists need the talent to pull off these so-call ’special moves’.
Guitar Lessons
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are two methods to the same general technique. If you want to play two or more notes on the same string, rather than fretting and picking each one individually, the guitarist literally sounds each note with their fretting hand and skips picking the note each time. If the note is higher up the string, then the guitarist hammers-on the new note by fretting it with enough force to sound the new note.
If the second note is further down the string then you perform a pull-off. The name is a misnomer, you don’t simply pull off the note, you actually pluck the string with the fretting hand as you pull your finger away in order to sound the note. These are very useful for rapid sequences of notes that are close together.
Guitar Lessons Online
Bending
Bending is the act of changing the pitch of a note by pushing a ringing string along a fret. This allows for a smoother transition between note by changing the tension in the string. This movement through the microtones of two notes can be very effective in slow bends. A string can also be unbent back to the original note for a smother transition back. This is very popular technique with a lot of lead and rhythm riffs making use of it.
However, this technique can be difficult to learn. You need to pay attention to the pitch of the note while performing the bend. If you get it wrong then the note will sound flat or sharp (depends on whether you over or under bend the string). However dont let this put you off, once mastered this technique is very satisfying. It really does make a huge difference to the sound you can produce.
How to play Guitar
Lots of people today are making use of the high availability of online sites that promise to help you learn to play the guitar. The internet has given us a whole new media when it comes to learning to play the guitar, whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro.
The media of the streaming video has allowed people to learn from the comfort of their own front room, at any time of the day or night, whenever they like. Not only that, but it has blossomed into a huge industry - there are a massive amount of sites that you can visit that promise to teach you a very high standard of guitar tutorials. In this article, we will explore some of the advantages of the online tutorial, and some of the things that they can offer you if you are considering learning to play the guitar.
1) The convenience
We are lucky to live in a time when convenience and easy availability of goods and services is part of our social make-up, and when it comes to learning to play the guitar, this is no different. As we stated earlier, by learning to play the guitar online you can learn wherever and whenever you want. More and more everyday activities are becoming more and more convenient (like shopping, for example).
Traditionally, guitar students would commute to an instructor’s studio - taking into account the journey time and travel inconvenience it usually meant putting an evening or an afternoon aside for a lesson. Now, however, you can learn for a few minutes at a time if you so wish, and even fit learning to play the guitar around other activities.
2) Choose your own instructor
The majority of online tutorial sites give you the advantage of being able to choose from a wide variety of instructors. This means that instead of just finding someone who is close to your home, you can browse through a number of biographies and see sample lessons before you decide. The biggest advantage of this, of course, is that you can find someone who is specific to your needs.
Take a look at a few different instructors so that you can find one that best suits your particular style - do you prefer a hands-on or more visual approach, for example? You do not have to stick to just one instructor - in fact, by taking lessons from two or three instructors you get a great sense of balance, and a lot of people can lean a lot faster this way.
3) Flexibility
You have the flexibility to choose what you learn, rather than in a one-to-one situation where you often find that you can only learn what the instructor wants to teach you. With an online program, you get to learn what you want to learn.
4) Affordability
The math is relatively simple: if 100 members of a particular site pay $10 each, then the site generates $1000. This revenue can then be used to film and produce even more lessons. The whole business premise of the online tutorial is that they can provide more lessons for less money. In order to learn to play the guitar, a lot of people don’t want to spend a whole lot of money.
The value of the online training is clear. A lot of the websites offer membership for around $40, which represents great value for money when you consider how many lessons are open to you when you join up. With a one-on-one instructor you will be looking to pay something between $30 and $60 per half hour lesson.
The only significant downfall when it comes to online learning, is that there is no-one there to ask a question to when you get stuck. It can seem a little frustrating at times when you come across something that you don’t understand. This, however, is a pretty small disadvantage when you consider all the benefits of learning to play the guitar online.
Copyright 2009 Liam Gibson of ReviewsMetro.com
