Band Website Template Functions

Rather than building a web page for your band from scratch, starting at hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for the layout plus computer programming, perhaps you should decide on a set to go solution. There are several band web themes available online, some much better than others of course, however they could save you lots of money and complications, since many vital features will be inside the site theme. On top of that, most of these website templates run on proven CMSs, for instance WordPress, which makes them simple to operate and also dependable. You’ll need to be careful to select a theme that will satisfy all of your increasing needs. One of the best WordPress band website themes is MyBandTheme. Band Sites with Classy Design! The following are the most important attributes in MyBandTheme you’ll want to use: CD Listing and Album/MP3 Sales Feature It doesn’t matter if you happen to be pianist or a rock band, you will possess records where you present your music. Your site ought to make the display of your albums simple for you, and eye-catching for your site viewers. If the website theme you are considering doesn’t make this possible, go somewhere else. Adding your latest records and tunes onto your site needs to be uncomplicated, and make certain the theme also has a good audio player included. If you don’t want to fork out any fees to 3rd party music and songs distribution corporations, than selling your music and songs on your own band’s web page is a clear-cut solution to making money from your songs. In the long run, you’ll want to be listed on iTunes as an example, but right now, consider a band site theme which has a internal cd selling plugin. The greatest music group themes allow you to market your music files right on the website, therefore you get all of your product sales through selling your music and songs directly from your web site, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all automatically. The payment processor company also happens to be important, you will want to make guaranteed your customers will be able to make their purchase with all major bank cards. Your site visitors would want to hear your music prior to making a purchase, so be certain that your band site template has an option for them to be able to play your audio files also. Concert Management The vast majority of bands perform at events, and ought to let their followers know the schedule of the shows. This can be easily maintained via your site, and naturally, the MyBandTheme band template supports concert and event management and also helps make it as quick as possible for you. Your site will need to be able to show a number of details of all of your concerts, for example the place, time, date, etc. A map to the concert venue is also an added plus, one which your fans will love. Presenting the list of your gigs is important also, as well as giving your fans a place to talk about your passed concerts. Social Networking, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Social websites such as Youtube and Bebo have got a profound impact on the web currently, and cannot be neglected. The band web site template can link straight to your group’s social network pages, thereby having a hub of social network pages focused around your band. As the bare minimum, Twitter and facebook links need to be integrated into the site. Ensure that your web theme has got this function! There are plenty of places on-line where you should publish things about your band, like Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, LinedIn, etc.. The ability to link to them out of your site, plus letting your visitors find out about those pages is a serious plus. Stunning Design Your group’s internet site needs to be beautiful, I think we’ll all agree with this. This is quite significant for the success of any kind of internet site on the internet, not only music websites. When deciding on your band website design, make sure the style and design is all that you expect it to be. Don’t settle for 2nd bests. In case it is not really that good, search elsewhere, until eventually you find the most suitable style and design . And naturally, bear in mind that your band has it’s unique style, hence it is advisable to be able to integrate it into the web site. I’m specially referring to your band’s custom logo design, but you’ll want to ensure the layout and image of the site theme you choose fits your style also. Information Administration You’re a musician, not a programmer. You won’t want to learn about Html and CSS, which is the reason you need a band web site theme that’s built on well-known content management systems, for instance the WordPress platform. The WordPress based MyBandTheme band theme makes the development of new pages onto your web site incredibly swift and easy, beyond the management of already present posts.

How to Bar Chords

Learning how to play barre (bar) chords is always going to be one of the most difficult techniques beginner guitarists will face. The good news is that they CAN be learned, it just takes a fair amount of practice and dedication. Good things don’t come easy, but with enough time, you’ll be laughing when you think back to not being able to play them, I promise. You'll get it soon! The key to playing bar chords is getting used to the correct technique, than practicing it over and over again every day, for as long as you need to. Getting it right might take a few weeks or a few months, it really depends on how well you learn the basic technique of how to bar chords, and how much you practice them. Here are a couple of tips on the correct method of barring chords. First of all, learn the correct technique. Watch our video guitar lesson on barre chords, you’ll have a chance to see my hands as I show and tell you exactly how to hold barre chords. Learn the 2 most important barre chord shapes first, the E shaped barre chord and the A shaped barre chord. You’ll learn them in the video tutorial as well. The E shaped barre chord gets its name from the normal E major chord you are probably already familiar with. Your objective is to move the E shape up the fretboard, with your first finger acting as the nut (or fret 0). The A shaped barre chord is similar to the E shaped one in theory. You move the A major over, just like the E shape. The difference is that you’ll be using your third finger to hold down 3 strings at once (strings D, G and B), and you’ll probably mute the high E string in the process. Don’t worry about it, it’s normal. Pluck the strings of the barre chord one by one, and make sure they don’t buzz. If they do, look at your fingers to see whats causing it, and pluck the strings again until it sounds good. Learning bar chords is much easier on electric guitars than on steel string acoustic guitar. This means that if you can do them on acoustic guitar, you’ll be able to do them on electric guitars, but not necessarily vice-versa. The lower you are on the neck of the guitar (closer to the headstock), the harder it will be to play these chords correctly, since the frets are so far apart. I recommend that you practice bar chords rooting at the fifth fret, than move closer to the nut once you get a feel for them. Bar chords are used extensively in all music genres, so you won’t be able to get around learning them. I know, it’s not the best news, I get so many letters from students asking whether barre chords are important or not, because they don’t want to learn them. One of my students actually wrote the following: …I have a deep and passionate hatred towards barre chords… I know it’s tough, but trust me: learn the correct technique, practice them, and YOU WILL be playing them soon. Make sure you watch the video lesson first, it’ll clear a lot of things for you.

Ear Training Software

How can you know what note to play on your electric guitar if you don’t accurately hear music? How can you know what note to sing in case you don’t even know what key the song you are singing is in? Ear training and using ear training software is important for both performers & musicians! Ear Training Software You need a good sense of relative pitch to be a good artist. But in addition it ought to go without mentioning that it’s paramount to becoming a good songwriter. What on earth is relative pitch? It’s the capability to understand how notes and chords connect with each other. When you have a good sense of relative pitch, you are going to not simply be capable to tell precisely what notes you hear, most importantly, you are going to know which tone will sound good after that.Because of this, it is important for song writers as well as musicians. The first step in learning relative pitch is understanding precisely what intervals are. In music terminology, an interval is the difference in pitch between two given tones. Relative pitch, the ability to distinguish easily amongst various intervals, can be obtained through the use of different listening exercises. Examples include basic exercises like listening to then reproducing a particular series of notes. This calls for the student to grasp and reproduce the intervals. The good thing is these days it is increasingly easy to get good quality ear training. How come? The internet. Now you can download a top quality ear training software in a matter of a few minutes and start training your ears. Popular Ear Training Software EarMaster â€" Effective ear training program which guides you on the road to better musical ears, thanks to well sequenced lessons, tests, fun exercises. Auralia â€" Similar to EarMaster, but I think EarMaster is better (and cheaper).No related posts.

Green Day Guitar Lessons

I decided to include several Green Day guitar lessons on our site because of 2 reasons. Firstly, their music is easy to learn by beginners who like the genre, and secondly, they were one of my favorite punk bands from my younger years. I actually met them at a festival in Europe, and got to hang out with them (and their BIG Philippine bodyguard, Tiny). Punk on! Green Day was formed in 1987, and interestingly enough, only released 8 studio albums. The most popular of their albums (based on chart rankings) is their newest album, 21st Century Breakdown, which is available on vinyl as well, for all hard core punk fans. They’ve won tons of awards, with most of their albums having gone multiple platinum, so I think it’s safe to say that while you learn to play Green Day guitar songs, you’re not only advancing your technique, but making great music at the same time. If you want to learn songs from the band, check out some of our Green Day guitar lesson videos: American Idiot Tutorial If you like punk rock and want to get an introduction to playing it on the guitar, you’ll love our guitar lesson on American Idiot. You’ll learn power chords and the correct way to strum them fast, which is not as easy as you might think at first. You’ll also learn to play several really cool licks from the song, which will develop your alternate picking technique. If you are not that much into punk music, you may not enjoy this guitar lesson as much as some other ones, but I still recommend that you watch it and learn the techniques, since you’ll be able to use them in other songs outside of the punk genre as well. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Lesson I usually recommend our guitar lesson on Good Riddance to absolute beginners for several reasons. First of all, because it’s fairly simple to play, so the feeling of success will come pretty quickly, which keeps beginner motivated. Second, it gives newbie guitarists a chance to practice several very important techniques. First of all, you’ll learn to play several chords, as well as learn to change in between them. You’ll also have a chance to practice string skipping, as well as strumming, which really makes this piece an all around terrific song for beginner. Holiday Guitar Lesson If you are looking to learn easy Green Day guitar songs, you’ll really enjoy our guitar lesson on Holiday. It’s slower paced than American Idiot for example, which means it’s easier to learn and play. The song is in the key of F minor, and will give you a chance to learn to play power chords and chord progressions involving these diatonic chords. You’ll also learn a couple of cool guitar riffs, which sound great under distortion (and will surely drive you neighbors crazy ). When I Come Around Lesson When I Come Around is another great power chord song by Green Day, which will really get your hands moving all along the fretboard. Our guitar lesson on When I Come Around will probably be the most challenging in our lineup of Green Day guitar tutorials, since the combination of power chords, ghost strums, and an interesting strumming pattern will make it more challenging for some. If you like to listen to punk rock, you’ll definitely want to check out our video guitar lessons on Green Day songs. If you don’t like punk rock, you should still check out at least Good Riddance (since it incorporates a number of guitar techniques) and Holiday (to learn more about power chords).

Best Blues Guitar Lesson DVDs

What do you need to do to learn blues guitar? Not much actually! In my honest opinion, I think it’s one of the easiest styles to play on the guitar, which is great news for beginner-intermediate players. If you are already somewhat familiar with basic lead guitar techniques, you could be playing the blues very soon. Blues DVDs You just need to learn the tricks of the trade, combine it with a hint of music theory, and you could be improvising to blues backing tracks very quickly. And no, that’s not a typo. You’ll be IMPROVISING and making up your own music on the fly. Now how cool would that be? I found many blues guitar courses available on the net, bought 4 which seemed worth the money, and narrowed the list of best blues guitar DVD courses down to 2 contenders, Blues Guitar Spotlight and Blues Guitar Blueprint. Here are the details on both: Blues Guitar Blueprint This blues guitar course is by Nate Savage, who also made Beginner Guitar System, which is a beginner guitar DVD course. You can read more about that course in my post on guitar lesson DVDs. Blues Guitar Blueprint is a terrific course, comprised of 2 lesson DVDs, 4 jam track CDs, and a lesson book. It is my pick for beginners. UPDATE: A lot of people wanted to find out more about this course, so I prepared a video review of it, here you go: As I said in the video, my students get a special discount off the course, in the form of free shipping. It all comes out to around a 15% discount off of the normal price Get  the Free Shipping Discount on Blues Guitar Spotlight >> Learn and Master Guitar: Blues Guitar Spotlight The Blues Guitar Spotlight is by Steve Krenz, who also made the famous Learn and Master Guitar DVD course. Blues Guitar Spotlight It is a DVD video course that consists of 6 DVDs, a book, and a jam track DVD-CD hybrid. The instructor, Steve Krenz does a good job of explaining everything you need to start playing the blues quickly, in a step-by-step manner, tailored to the needs of beginner guitarists. The video editing is very professional in nature as well, and they have added on screen tabs to make the lessons easy to follow. The lesson plan is very well put together, taking you from the very basics, and advancing as you progress through the videos. It teaches not just a couple of blues riffs and techniques, but also the underlying theory as well, which is what guarantees that you’ll be able to start improvising to blues jam tracks very soon after starting the course. Learn more on Blues Guitar Spotlight >> Which Blues Guitar Lesson DVD Course to Choose? I did watch them both, and would have to say that Nate Savage’s Blues Guitar Blueprint would be my pick, since it will be easier for beginners, and he has a more motivating teaching style. Steve Krenz’s Blues Spotlight is more detailed and covers more aspects of blues guitar, but it might be just a bit too much for beginners. Here is a detailed review of Blues Guitar Spotlight. Both these courses are well thought out, present the material in a linear manner where each lesson builds on the previous, have great editing with on-screen diagrams, and the content of the courses are great and perfectly able to get you jammin’ to the blues. Yes, they are DVD based blues guitar lessons, so they cost money. But if you think about the fact that a private guitar teacher charges around $30-50/hour, you’ll see that learning the blues via DVDs is much cheaper in the long run, and so much more effective than trying to find free lessons on YouTube.

How to Hold a Guitar Pick

Learning how to hold the guitar pick correctly is one of the first things you should learn when you decide to learn the guitar. If you learn it well in the beginning, you’ll never need to worry about it again, and it’ll make your learning experience much easier. Many beginners instinctively hold the pick between the tips of their thumb and index finger, which is incorrect, and will result in lessened stability. So, lets get to it. Correct hand position Step 1: Initial hand position Curl your hand as in the picture, almost as if you were showing a loose thumbs up. Your index finger is curled, and is parallel with your thumb. Grasp the pick Step 2: Pick placement Place the pick onto your index finger, and put your thumb over it. As you can see on the picture, you’re holding the pick between your thumb and index finger. The tip of your index finger and thumb are parallel, while the pick is perpendicular to them. Correct pick position Visible pick The size of the pick to be left visible will largely depend on the style of music you are playing. If you plucking individual strings very fast, leave only a little part of the pick out. If you are strumming, you can leave more of the pick visible. Holding the pick correctly, as described above, takes some getting used to, so don’t worry if it feels a bit weird at first. Practice, get used to it, and it’ll feel natural soon.

GuitarTricks.com End of Summer Sale 2012

GuitarTricks End of Summer Sale I just got a letter from GuitarTricks, one of the big online guitar lesson websites, and you might find it interesting. They are holding a rather large sale, termed “End of Summer Sale”, where they are offering their 1 year membership for $99, instead of the regular $129. This equals a $30 savings, which means that the GuitarTricks monthly membership equals to $8.25. They still have the 60 day money back guarantee, so if you decide the site isn’t for you, you can get your money back. If you are not familiar with GuitarTricks, have a look at this review, and you might also want to take a look at GuitarTricks’s main competitor, Jamplay. So this is a pretty good deal, probably the lowest they can go. While JamPlay is gaining momentum, GuitarTricks is still a great site, especially since the lessons and guitar tools (metronome, tuner) are downloadable. At the moment, that’s their biggest advantage over Jamplay. If you’ve been thinking about joining GuitarTricks, now is a great time due to the summer sale. Lot’s of people sort of neglect the guitar during the summer, I’m sure you know what I mean The weather’s nice, you’ve got your vacation coming up, beach time, barbecues, so getting enough practice time during the summer can be a bit challenging. For most people, it’s much more straight forward to learn when the weather isn’t as good, when you’d be inside anyways. You’ll really be able to advance your skills regardless of your level of knowledge, so with the Autumn months coming, it’s time to start learning to play guitar once again

Five Tips on Learning Guitar Notes

To find your way around the fretboard of the guitar is very important. It will help you in guitar improvisation, sight reading, and in understanding chords and more. In this guitar lesson we will explore five ways to learn the notes on the guitar fretboard. How much do you need to practice? Learn the notes A couple of minutes a day with one of these exercises will help you improve your skills in finding the notes. In this guitar lesson we will focus on the fretboard, and on learning the notes on the guitar. I will show you several exercises which will help you memorize guitar notes, but you will have to work at it on your own time as well. So, lets begin with the fretboard itself. Guitar Notes Tip 1 Learn the basic notes, the notes of a C major scale on every string. Let’s see the first string on your guitar (high E string). The first note is an E. You will find F on the first fret. G on fret three, and so on. The sixth string on the guitar is an E too. It’s just two octaves lower but you will find the same note names on this string on the same frets two octaves lower. On the second string you will find the notes on the following frets: 0-B, 1-C, 3-D, 5-E, 6-F, 8-G, 10-A, 12-B On the third guitar string you’ll find the following notes: 0-G, 2-A, 4-B, 5-C, 7-D, 9-E,10-F, 12-G Figure out the names of the notes on the next strings by yourself but here they are in case you will double check. The fourth string: 0-D, 2-E, 3-F, 5-G, 7-A, 9-B, 10-C, 12-D The notes on the fifth string or the A-string: 0-A, 2-B, 3-C, 5-D, 7-E, 8-F, 10-G, 12-A Guitar Notes Tip 2 Learn a specific note on all strings.  Let’s use the note G.  Where can you find the note G on string five? Right, on fret 10. The G notes on the strings from the sixth string to the first are on the following frets: 3 10 5 0 8 3 Try this with other notes too. For example E. Guitar Notes Tip 3 Learn the names of the notes on a fret. We can start with the open strings starting from the sixth string to the first. The names will be: E A D G B E Now, play the notes on the third fret in the same order. At the same time try to say the names of the notes aloud. I will help you this time only by writing the note names down: G C F Bb D G Try this exercise on different frets and say the names of the notes aloud. Guitar Notes Tip 4 Learn the notes in a chord. Play any chord and name the notes aloud from string six to string one. This guitar exercise will also help you to understand how the chords are built. Guitar Notes Tip 5 In this guitar lesson you will use your ability to create random notes on the guitar. As you play notes on your guitar at random you also say the note names aloud. Play in an even pace, just fast enough to make this exercise a challenge for your mind so your mind will concentrate on the task and not wander off. Hope these help, be sure to check out our video guitar lesson on guitar Notes.

Five Tips on Learning Guitar Notes

To find your way around the fretboard of the guitar is very important. It will help you in guitar improvisation, sight reading, and in understanding chords and more. In this guitar lesson we will explore five ways to learn the notes on the guitar fretboard. How much do you need to practice? Learn the notes A couple of minutes a day with one of these exercises will help you improve your skills in finding the notes. In this guitar lesson we will focus on the fretboard, and on learning the notes on the guitar. I will show you several exercises which will help you memorize guitar notes, but you will have to work at it on your own time as well. So, lets begin with the fretboard itself. Guitar Notes Tip 1 Learn the basic notes, the notes of a C major scale on every string. Let’s see the first string on your guitar (high E string). The first note is an E. You will find F on the first fret. G on fret three, and so on. The sixth string on the guitar is an E too. It’s just two octaves lower but you will find the same note names on this string on the same frets two octaves lower. On the second string you will find the notes on the following frets: 0-B, 1-C, 3-D, 5-E, 6-F, 8-G, 10-A, 12-B On the third guitar string you’ll find the following notes: 0-G, 2-A, 4-B, 5-C, 7-D, 9-E,10-F, 12-G Figure out the names of the notes on the next strings by yourself but here they are in case you will double check. The fourth string: 0-D, 2-E, 3-F, 5-G, 7-A, 9-B, 10-C, 12-D The notes on the fifth string or the A-string: 0-A, 2-B, 3-C, 5-D, 7-E, 8-F, 10-G, 12-A Guitar Notes Tip 2 Learn a specific note on all strings.  Let’s use the note G.  Where can you find the note G on string five? Right, on fret 10. The G notes on the strings from the sixth string to the first are on the following frets: 3 10 5 0 8 3 Try this with other notes too. For example E. Guitar Notes Tip 3 Learn the names of the notes on a fret. We can start with the open strings starting from the sixth string to the first. The names will be: E A D G B E Now, play the notes on the third fret in the same order. At the same time try to say the names of the notes aloud. I will help you this time only by writing the note names down: G C F Bb D G Try this exercise on different frets and say the names of the notes aloud. Guitar Notes Tip 4 Learn the notes in a chord. Play any chord and name the notes aloud from string six to string one. This guitar exercise will also help you to understand how the chords are built. Guitar Notes Tip 5 In this guitar lesson you will use your ability to create random notes on the guitar. As you play notes on your guitar at random you also say the note names aloud. Play in an even pace, just fast enough to make this exercise a challenge for your mind so your mind will concentrate on the task and not wander off. Hope these help, be sure to check out our video guitar lesson on guitar Notes.

Guitar Learning Courses

Learning to play guitar via guitar learning courses is a viable alternative to getting personal lessons nowadays for a number of reasons. Not only is it much cheaper, but the multimedia elements found in the best online and DVD guitar courses make learning music more accessible than ever. If you’re searching for a way to learn guitar from home, read on! Learning guitar at home? There are several types of guitar learning packages available on the net and in stores, some of them are good, some of them are not. I’ve decided to split the courses up into 3 sections, depending on your needs, budget and general type of course: Online guitar courses DVD guitar courses Downloadable guitar courses Online Guitar Learning Courses The Internet has revolutionized education, including musical education. The better online guitar lessons I’ve seen, that have the largest value added, are video lesson websites. The great thing about video guitar lessons is that you can actually see and hear the instructor playing, which makes it a near perfect alternative to personal lessons. The only negative they would have compared to a personal teacher is the lack of feedback, but the best online guitar lesson websites have active feedback available as well. Here is a list of the better guitar learning websites with their main features and pricing: TheGuitarLesson.com TheGuitarLesson.com (this website) GuitarTricks.com GuitarTricks.com The biggest and oldest online video lesson website with thousands of videos, all of which are downloadable Lessons categorized by genre, which is perfect for learning specific styles once you reach an intermediate level Large online community Online guitar tools (metronome, guitar tuner chord charts, jam tracks) $14.95 / month Click the link for a  detailed review of GuitarTricks.com DVD Guitar Courses There aren’t many thorough DVD guitar courses available for beginners. There are a lot of DVD providers who produce single DVDs on specific subjects (for example lick library), but I am only familiar with 1 who provides a detailed course to follow for beginners. If you know of any other, please leave it in a comment and I will check it out. Learn & Master Guitar Learn and Master Guitar The oldest, most established DVD course available 20 DVD + 5 jam CDs + 2 workbooks in the course High quality, well structured lessons to get a beginner to an intermediate level Loads of theory included in the course The only negatives are that there aren’t too many songs to play and practice $149 for the entire course, which comes out to $7.45 / DVD Read a detailed review of Learn and Master Guitar Downloadable Guitar Courses I place the ebook and software type courses into this category. By software, I mean specifically the type of guitar software which offers a set guitar learning course for beginners to follow, and which is actually effective. eMedia Guitar Method eMedia Guitar Method Jamorama Jamorama Popular ebook based course, with some video and audio supplements Best for someone who doesn’t have that much access to the Internet, or DVD player Detailed, well structured course (but all the reading is a bit boring in my opinion) $39.95 for the downloadable version Click here for a detailed review of Jamorama I have purchased or have had a chance to review all of the above guitar learning courses, and have found them to be the best home based guitar learning method. You’ll find many more out on the Internet, some will be better, some will be scams, but the above are legit and top-notch.

Learn and Master Guitar Discount Coupon

Update: There are no previously viewed courses on stock for the moment, I guess not too many people are returning the course… Beside TheGuitarLesson.com, which offers some of the highest quality guitar lessons for beginners on the Internet, another powerful course that is great for beginners is Learn and Master Guitar with Steve Krenz, which is a 20 DVD course shipped to your home. Discount on L&M Guitar The course is somewhat pricey, but you can now get a nice discount on Learn and Master guitar, that isn’t available too often, meaning you’ll get the course for $99 instead of the normal $149 price tag. So basically, you get a 33°% discount off of the entire DVD course. And money in your pocket is always better than money in someone else’s Disclosure: The reviews written on this site are carried it by professionals, who receive compensation from the companies whose products get reviewed. We test each product thoroughly and recommend only what we believe to be the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own. To get Learn and Master Guitar for the discount price of $99, all you need to do is click here >> Now as I said, I very rarely recommend other guitar courses, simply because I don’t think that there are too many good ones out there. In fact, this is only the second time I’ve ever recommended a 3rd party course. You’ll know from my guitar lessons on songs, that I aim for the highest possible standards in editing and valuable content. And so does Steve Krenz’s guitar DVD course. His lessons are well structured, and provide an effective way for beginners to reach an intermediate level of playing in a reasonable amount of time of around 20-30 weeks. This time frame may look scary for beginners, but believe me, I’ve taught about 100 people privately, and thousands online through my website. There are no shortcuts to learning the guitar, but if you learn from effective, structured material, your learning curve will be much shorter than of those who choose to learn from random YouTube guitar lessons. L&M Guitar with Steve is a very well structured, superbly edited course, full of valuable, timely content. And now that you can get the Learn and Master Guitar discount of 33%, it is worth the investment. The only problem I found with Steve’s course is that he focuses a LOT on technical elements, but doesn’t provide any good songs to practice them with, only rigorous exercises. This can get a bit tedious, but I’ve come up with a solution! I’ve partnered with Learn and Master Guitar, and get a $30 commission if someone purchases the course through my website. The $30 is exactly the fee of our 3 month premium membership… you may see where I’m going with this If you purchase Learn and Master Guitar through my website, I will give you my $30 commission in the form of a 3 month membership to my website, absolutely free. The techniques you learn with Steve’s course, along with the songs you’ll practice with my guitar lessons on popular songs is a really effective and valuable combination. Discounted Learn and Master Guitar + Free TheGuitarLesson.com = You ROCK!!! To be eligible, you MUST purchase the discounted Learn and Master Guitar course after click on one of the links on this page, for example this link This allows for the purchase to be tracked to my site, I get the commission, you get the DVD course AND a free 3 month membership to TheGuitarLesson.com. Nice and simple. Again, I want to emphasize that I would not have partnered with Steve if his lessons weren’t of very high quality, and didn’t live up to my quality standards and expectations. His course offers great content, and a great value for money at the discount price of $99, which comes out to $5 per DVD. The combination of his course and my lessons on songs can, and will get you to a strong intermediate level of playing, provided you practice the things you learn. So go ahead, order Learn and Master Guitar at the discounted $99 and contact me afterwards, and I’ll set up your free 3 month premium membership. This is a great deal that doesn’t come around too often, so take advantage of it before it’s too late.

How I Learned to Play Guitar

One of my online students asked me how I learned to play the guitar, and I thought this would make a nice post for all to read. It might motivate you, it might set you off, but anyhow, it will show you one thing most importantly: if I could do it, you can too. I was not born with a guitar in my hand, and I am not even very talented. I just loved it from the start, and stuck with it. My Guitar Story You see, anybody can learn to play the guitar. Be it, there are super talented guitarists, but unfortunately I am not one of them. If I was, you’d be watching me on MTV being harassed by hundreds of girls not writing on my laptop Ok, no more fantasizing, here is my guitar story… The first time I held a guitar was late high school I believe. I could already play the trumpet well, since I’ve been learning it since the age of 8. I loved the trumpet as well, but the fact is that the trumpet is an instrument that you can’t really play by yourself. You needed a band. But school was almost over, and there weren’t too many bands looking for trumpet players. This is sort of why I turned towards the guitar. Not entirely because I wanted to play in a band, but rather because I loved playing music, and wanted to keep on playing even after school band days were over. So I bought a guitar, and started learning. Now remember, this was back in the last century, the Internet was not all that big, there were no DVDs yet, so my only choice was to buy guitar books, or get a personal teacher. I started out with the first option, learning from a guitar book. And well, that didn’t get me very far to say the least. I didn’t understand chord diagrams and all the ramblings about the different techniques, so the book was a waste of money. I still have the book for some reason though, saw it the other day somewhere, but I don’t know why I even kept it. So after I realized that the book wasn’t getting me anywhere, I somehow got hold of a guitar teaching software, the name I can’t remember. That was better, since it had pictures and sounds as well (just MIDI back in those days). This was better than the book, and actually taught me the basic chords and fingerings, strumming, and very simple songs to start out with. I finished the curriculum of the software fairly quickly, and was again left with nothing to learn from. So I’m ashamed to admit it, but I stopped playing for about a half a year altogether. Than school ended, and I decided to pick it up again. And I haven’t stopped since. I bought a set of VHS tapes (my first video guitar lessons I guess) which got me off on the right track, and got me practicing more and more. The more I played, the more I loved it! And that was the first time I realized that the guitar would stay with me for the rest of my life. I love the way the neck vibrated in my palm when I strummed a chord, I loved how my fingers started hurting after playing too much, and I loved the way people looked at me when I started playing. I love everything about the guitar, and you will too! Remember that the more you play, the better you get, and the more you’ll want to play. I just had a conversation with a superb guitarist over the weekend, who’s been playing for over 30 years. I asked him whether he remembers the beginning, and all he could say was the same. He’s loved every moment of playing ever since the beginning (which is sort of weird, since I distinctly remember not enjoying it when I couldn’t play anything yet ). So the moral of the story is that we all have different experiences with the guitar, but anybody could theoretically learn to play guitar. The thing that sets guitarists apart from regular people is that guitarists have the strength, patience and perseverance to keep on going even if it seems hard at times. Remember that practice, makes perfect, and if I could learn to play, you can as well.

The 5 Biggest Challenges of Learning the Guitar

Having a website that provides beginner guitar lessons means that I get a ton of mail from students telling me what they find most challenging and asking for advice on different aspects of how to learn the guitar. I get letters from by beginner students from every part of the globe and from all demographic groups, so I think it’s safe to say that these problems will be universal amongst beginner guitar players. School of Rock There are many similarities found in the letters since most beginners run into the same problems, so I decided to do a quick post about the most common ones, as basically every novice guitar student will find something useful and relevant among them. Here are the most asked questions and problems my online guitar students have, and what to do about them. Changing Between Chords â€" This is definitely the first problem beginners run into. They learn to sort of hold down a couple of chords (which takes a considerable amount of getting used to in itself), than they realize that they’ll need to change in between all of these chords.Solution: Remember what it was first like to hold down a C major? Seemed impossible, but got easier. The same thing with chord changes. Learn how to change between chords correctly, and work at it. String Skipping â€" Another common problem beginners face is when they have to pluck 2 non-adjacent strings, they just end up not hitting the right string.Solution: The more you practice, the more your picking hand gets used to the strings. You’ll ultimately be able to pluck whichever string you want without even looking at them, which will be great, but getting such an instinctive feel for something does not happen overnight. Practice makes perfect! Barre Chords â€" I would say that at least half of the letters my students send me relate to problems with barre chords.Solution: Your hands need to be strong and coordinated to be able to play bar chords correctly. Once you know the correct technique of playing barre chords, you’ll need to practice them a LOT to get them sounding right all, or at least most of the time. Which Song to Practice â€" This question comes mainly from students who like to skip between songs, without really learning them and thereby mastering the techniques taught in the song. What usually happens is that they start learning one of the beginner guitar songs, run into a problem and decide to go for another song leaving the first one behind. But the new song is a bit hard as well, so they try something else, and so on. The result is that without having learned any of the songs and thereby not having improved at all, they feel like they’ve looked at every song, and don’t know what to do next.Solution: Don’t give up on learning a song when you run into the first sing of difficulties. Rome wasn’t built in a day! No Time for Practice â€" We live accelerated lives, which means that a lot of my guitar students don’t have time to practice.Solution: The lessons are short and to the point, watching one a couple of times will take you about half an hour. You can print out the tabs afterwards, and practice the techniques without having to watch the video over each time, which means that you can practice and just fool around at any time of the day afterwards. And really, even 5 minutes at a time will be to your benefit. While you’re watching TV, while something is in the microwave, while you’re talking on the phone, while you’re waiting for someone or something, etc. So my point is to have your guitar out where you can see it, making it easily accessible, and pick it up whenever you can. So, now its time to unveil the ultimate, 100% guaranteed, super-duper extravagant secret to learning the guitar. Are you ready? Here you go: Believe me when I tell you that all of the learn guitar overnight, or in 5 days, or in 5 weeks programs are a bunch of bull. The people who make it seem easy, the rock stars, the classical guitarists, the guitar teachers have all been playing for many years, even decades! The best guitarists of all time, like Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Jimmy Page,Santana, etc. have devoted their life to learning the guitar. So the moral of the story is that you shouldn’t get discouraged when you’re not shredding like Slash after 3 months of playing. Playing the guitar is a wonderful hobby, and will bring countless hours of joy to you and your loved ones. It takes a considerable amount of practice, but will be soooo much more than worth it.

Electric Guitar vs. Acoustic Guitar – Which is Better for Beginners?

One of the most common questions I get from new guitar players is to answer the epic question once and for all, and decide whether it is best to learn on an acoustic guitar, or an electric guitar, and to start with electric guitar lessons or acoustic guitar lessons. First of all, the second part of the question is flawed. If you are a total beginner, you don’t need to differentiate between lesson types yet, since at this stage, you are still just trying to learn very basic techniques, which are the same for both types of guitar (check out our free basic guitar lessons). Electric or acoustic? Now back to the original question of whether learning on an electric or acoustic is more suitable for beginners. This is a very interesting question that causes many disagreements between us guitar teachers as well. There are advantages and disadvantages of learning on either type of guitar, so I will try to list them all, and after you get a chance to read the pros and cons of both sides, I’ll give my opinion as well. And don’t skip forward, read the article in full, I want you to see things objectively before you hear my subjectivity. So, lets start off with the electric guitar. Electric Guitar Pros and Cons Advantages of learning on an Electric Guitar: Disadvantages of learning on an Electric Guitar: You need to buy an amplifier as well, which is extra $$$. Finding the right tone is not that easy for beginners who know nothing about electric guitars and amps, and a bad sounding guitar might put them off. Being able to play something on an electric will not mean that you can play it on the acoustic guitar as well. Acoustic Guitar Advantages and Disadvantages Pros of learning on an Acoustic Guitar: If you can play something on a steel string acoustic guitar, you’ll be able to play it without any problems on an electric, something that cannot be said vice versa. Many people (your household) will prefer the naturally soothing, calmer tone of the acoustic over the distorted, amplified electric. You don’t need to buy any cables, or an amplifier to start playing. Cons of learning on an Acoustic Guitar: Much tougher on your fingers than an acoustic. Absolute beginners will probably only be able to play for about 20 minutes before not being able to fret any strings any more, due to the immense pain shooting in their fingertips. Of course, this only lasts a couple of weeks, until you start developing calluses. The harder strings also means that playing chords, especially barre chords will be much harder. More string buzzing due to the harder strings. Wider fretboard, something beginners will not always enjoy. More brittle than electric guitars. So, now you know both sides of the story. You want to know my opinion? I learned to play on an acoustic guitar initially, and started playing an electric later on. I am quite comfortable with the fact that even someone like me, with over a decade of experience, sometimes can’t play something on an acoustic, but gets it on the first go on an electric. Sort of wants me to take beginner guitar lessons all over again No, seriously, the electric is much easier to play, there’s no doubt about it. So why is it, that I still recommend that beginners learn on acoustic guitars? Simple. In the very beginning of your guitar journey, your single aim is to learn very basic guitar techniques, that you will be building on later on, regardless of the fact that you’ll be playing the acoustic or electric guitar. As you read in the pros section of the acoustic guitar, If you can play something on an acoustic, you’ll be able to play it on the electric, but not necessarily vice versa… The biggest frustration I, as a guitar teacher have with recommending the acoustic as a starter guitar, is the fact that I know how many beginners give up really quickly after a very short period of time, simply because they find the whole concept of learning the guitar too hard. I am tempted to think that if I recommend the electric, which is easier to play, I might be able to save some of the “quitters”. But this is probably not the case. Teaching yourself to play the guitar takes perseverance and dedication, since you will run into problems on both types of guitars. If your personality is not such as to hurdle these challenges, or you are just not that in love with the guitar, than it will not have mattered that you started learning on an easier to play electric. People who stick with it, and actually become guitarists, all have dedication towards music and the instrument itself. For them, initially learning on an acoustic will not mean an excessive challenge, but a chance to develop calluses quicker, strengthen their fingers faster (and stronger), and develop their guitar technique at a more advanced level. They know that building a sound set of skills is more important than taking the short road, since it might backfire later on. So that’s my 2 cents, but listen, I always say that if you are unsure, don’t listen to anyone. Read up, gather some opinions, than decide for yourself based on simple logic and intuition. Always the best way to go.