A guitar is an instrument that enables you to play either melodies, chords, or rhythm, and everything at once. The simplest way to start, though, is by playing melodies. During this mini-course you will acquire the main skills and knowledge you need to play melodies on a guitar both by ear as well as from sheet music… Continue reading
Post Category → Lessons and tips
Rhythm, Meter, Tempo – What Are They?
One important part of a melody is the pitch but besides that we must deal with another highly important characteristic of notes – duration or length. You might have heard terms rhythm, meter, tempo. What are they? To produce rhythm, we need at least two notes, and they should not be played very far from… Continue reading
Chord Of The Week: D7
D7 is often the first seventh chord that one learns when starting to play guitar chords. In my children’s guitar method book I introduce the D7 even earlier than D major triad. I do it because very often the D7 is preceded by C major and then it is possible to leave the first finger… Continue reading
Chord Of The Week: F
Last week I was talking about grand barré and the difficulties that it causes in F-major. Let’s go on with exploring the possibilities of the barré – this time it is a medium barré (also called ‘half barré’). If full barré needs a fully extended straight finger to cover all the strings, then half barré means… Continue reading
Chord Of The Week: B9
One last time back to the barré, this time a bit different. As you can see from the picture, it is possible to use other fingers than the first to press down multiple strings. In this case it is the third finger. Some players also use fourth finger in similar cases. And that is basically… Continue reading
Chord Of The Week: C7
Once you have mastered some triads (chords that have no numbers in their name), it is time to widen your knowledge and learn a couple of seventh chords. A seventh chord is made up of a triad plus one extra third. It means that if for example in C-major you have three notes: c-e-g, then… Continue reading
How Many Chords Does A Guitarist Need
How many chords do you actually need to know? Let’s see what is your goal. If all you want is to strum accompaniment to an odd pop song then 10 chords is good enough. These would be for example A, Am, B7, C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, G There are plenty of famous songs… Continue reading
Chord Of The Week: E
It may be one of the first chords that you learned if you took up the guitar. If not then it is about time. E major triad is made up of three notes: e-g#-b. Why do we raise the g? Because otherwise the interval between the root and third would be a minor third that… Continue reading
Is The F-chord More Difficult Than Others?
This is the first post based on actual data from our ChordInvaders game. If you’re impatient and like data, scroll down to the graph. If not, we will start with an intro. The most common chord shapes on the guitar utilize as many open strings as possible (think about G or Em!). Obviously, using open strings… Continue reading
Different Shapes Of A Guitar Chord
The guitarist in this video (Bob Marley – Exodus) seems somewhat bored. Is it because he only has to play a single chord during the whole song? Am is probably one of the first chords that a beginner guitarist gets acquainted with. However, even this seemingly quite tough restriction leaves a plethora of possibilites how… Continue reading