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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Guitar Lessons for Beginners Online: Techniques, Tips And Grooves in Just One Pack

By Daren Slaughter

The first thing I will say to you is this: Unless you are practicing to be a professional, don't pick up the guitar unless you actually want to. The most valuable part of a practice session is that you actually enjoy it. If you want to be in a band, or want to play on the jam circuit, then I would recommend picking up your guitar once a day and spending at least an hour with it.

All the great guitarist have struggled at some point in learning to play the guitar. As far as guitar lessons for beginners there are different ways to go, such as a private instructor, signing up for classes at your local community center, self-teaching method with books and online lessons which I recommend because they're cheaper and flexible to a persons schedule. Whichever way you choose be sure to keep in mind there are no "play guitar like a pro in one hour" course. It takes lots of practice and dedication to become a good guitarist.

It's natural to lose your initial enthusiasm, but it would be a shame to stop using such a valuable tool with so much potential for making you a really good guitar player. Backing tracks need to be used in conjunction with your planned guitar practice sessions. If you are learning a solo or some licks from a CD or guitar tabs, play them with your backing as soon as you have the material in your memory.

However, I love my guitar, and nothing could ever separate me from it. My guitar is my best friend, and thats how you should treat yours. Look after it, clean it daily, change the strings regularly, even if they still sound ok to you.

With these you can learn picking patterns that you can apply to any songs you learn. You will also be able to pick up tabs for bluegrass fiddle tunes you can learn to play on the guitar. Try any bluegrass forums you find, as well as tab archives.

Practice doing alternate up and down strokes slowly and smoothly using a metronome to keep time. For bluegrass picking use a heavy gauge pick but as with everything, you should try different ones out till you find what's right for you. You will see and hear that a lot of bluegrass guitar playing consists of the guitarist playing bass notes and strumming in between.

For flatpicking solos you will have a much greater control over your playing by getting used to using a heavier weight pick. The main advantage to flatpicking over fingerpicking is tone. A steel string acoustic guitar sounds much nicer using a flatpick compared to fingerpicks, and using nails is totally out of the question.

Don't turn your guitar practice time into extended guitar solos. If you have a track of say, six minutes at your disposal, use it to practice licks and short solo breaks, the age of the twenty minute solo is long gone. Also, make use of your backing tracks to improve the basic aspects of your guitar playing like your timing.

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