This guitar lesson is designed to help you make some sense of the 1st two scale lessons. The question is “Ok, now I know 7 short scale patterns in the Key of C on two strings, now what?” Well, I’ve always found that the best way to learn something is to put it into context as soon as possible.

Here’s what to do. Application Song # 1 will help to get you started. It features a 16 bar melody in the Key of C using all 7 short scale patterns. During the 2nd half of the melody section, the majority of the notes are on a single string. After the melody is played through once, the chord progression repeats, this is where you can take a 16 bar solo. After your 16-bar solo, you go back to the beginning of the tune (D.C Al Coda) and play the melody again, ending on C, the 1st fret of the B string (the Coda).

Things to keep in mind when playing melody:

1. Try not to worry too much about fingerings. Just go for the notes and use whatever fingerings are comfortable for you.

2. Use your ears. Don’t be intimidated by what the melody “looks” like on paper. Music always tends to look far more complicated on paper than it actually is.

3. Notice that when I used a particular short pattern, (Labeled above the staff), I didn’t always use all 6 notes in the pattern. I only used the notes needed for the melody at that moment. But, if you study each measure where a short pattern is used (1st 8 bars of the tune), you’ll be able to see that the holes in that measure did indeed come out of the pattern that I have labeled above the staff.

Things to keep in mind when improvising your solo:

1. Try to play melodically. Move around by connecting the 7 short scale patterns. Use the melody of the tune as your modality (center).

2. Use your ears. If you hear a note that sounds good to you, stay on it until it doesn’t.

3. Take lines from the melody, and insert them in your solo. In fact, memorize the melody and use the melody as your solo. Just change it around a little.

4. We cannot have music without rhythm. Experiment with different rhythmic ideas.

5. Learning how to play takes years, be patient with yourself and have fun.

Until next time – Rick

Moving those fingers around the fretboard, in this beginner lesson we go over few basic finger strength and dexterity exercises that will help you when you are starting out.

We call these exercises “Chromatic Warm-ups” and it will be something that you will do each time you pick your guitar up to practice or play. It’s a one note per string exercise and helps to build finger independency.

That’s one of the most frustrating subjects for beginner guitar players to deal with, to get you fingers to do what you want them to do. So hopefully you’ll get sometime to spend on this lesson. Until next time – Rick

Ok so you got the basics of the guitar down i.e. sitting, standing, holding a pick, parts of the guitar etc… Now its time to get this thing in tune! First if at all possible try and have an electric tuner handy, it just makes it a lot easier when staring out.

Don will take you through a few different ways of tuning your guitar in this lesson. In the video clinic section be sure to check out the complete and thorough video lesson on tuning. We get much more in depth in that clinic. This lesson is just a primer for you to get started playing the guitar. Until next time – Rick

So you just bought a guitar and not sure where to start… No problem you’ve come to the right place. In this complete beginner guitar lesson we will cover subjects like The

Remember this series of lessons are just for a quick start while you are waiting for your personalized guitar lesson plan. This way you’ll have a head start!

First things first… Take your time and don’t get frustrated. Learning to play guitar or any instrument for that matter takes some time to get the basics down, so stick with it. Once you get over the beginner curve your playing will skyrocket. Until next time – Rick

This is such a common question asked by our guitar students, and we can help break it down in a simple formula. For the most part everyone is different but what is equal across the board for all guitar players are 4 common subjects for practice and they are Scale Work, Chord Work, Rhythm Work, and Song Work. Let me explain…

The first thing you must remember is that short consistent practices verses long sporadic practices is  what will make the difference! An example would be practicing Monday for 3 hours and then not again until Saturday. Rather the better way would be 45 minutes on Monday – Wednesday – Friday; it’s consistency that will allow you to progress much quicker. So let’s take a look at the break down.

First subject I like to start with is scale work especially for warming up since it provides your fingers to stretch at a nice even pace. Now scale work can consist of many areas i.e. working on new scale patterns, different warm up patterns, lead guitar patterns, soloing over chord progressions etc… Next I move onto Chord work. This is where I keep working on previous chord lessons as well as move forward onto new material. Practice switching between difficult chord changes, or playing progressions etc…
 
Now I move onto Rhythm work… This can consist of anything from specific rhythm patterns, to playing with a metronome or drum machine and even lead work (believe it or not lead guitar requires a great sense of rhythm and timing and is frequently overlooked).  Lastly this is usually the students favorite; Song Work! Now I don’t time myself on this subject only because this is what we guitar players are working for, Right? This subject can consist of working on new songs, old songs, practicing or learning solos, just jamming or messing around, basically this is your time to really dig into the instrument and have some fun to keep yourself motivated and hungry for more knowledge.

In a nutshell take the time you have to practice and then divide it by 4 then take your 4 subjects Scales, Chords, Rhythm and Songs and get to work. I have been teaching guitar for over 12 years, and own many guitar instruction websites. I can guarantee you this will make your guitar playing skyrocket. If you have any questions feel free to contact me over at www.learnguitar.net  Rick Napolitano