Sometimes, a simple melody can tell more than a hundred notes.
In this fingerstyle lesson, I want to show you how to play and interpret a melody in A minor.
The goal is to show you a bunch of expressive tools that you can use to make anything that you play more musical and expressive.
Of course, with a simple melody such as the one we will learn today, it will be pretty easy to apply these expressive tools. However, you can try to use them in other chord progressions and melodies.
We will talk about the vibrato and ritenuto technique and a thumb technique that will help you emphasize the notes of the melody.
Hey guys, in this electric guitar lesson, I will show you a lovely chord progression in the key of B minor.
I am finally back playing some electric guitar, so I thought I would share with you the things I am currently playing to get my technique back to a decent level.
This chord progression is beneficial for many different reasons:
Great for the picking hand. The picking pattern forces you to move across different strings.
Interesting rhythm. The pattern is played over a group of 3+3+2 notes.
Captivating chords. The chord progression in B minor works great with open strings.
In this lesson, I am using my electric guitar PRS Single Cut Trem. I am plugging in the audio interface Universal Audi,o and I used a Marshall Plexy plugin set up with a very low gain.
Strumming is one of the most popular guitar technique along with fingerstyle. With the strumming, you can brush the strings rhythmically to play chords.
It’s a very intuitive technique, and so many of us started playing the guitar by strumming simple chords.
When we start learning guitar, we are told to strum the strings with a guitar pick. You hold it between the thumb and index, and you strum up and down.
Using the pick is fantastic, and it works all the time. However, today I want to show you how to diversify this technique by strumming with the fingers.
The sound and tone of your fingers are very different than a guitar pick, so once you master this technique, you can decide when and in which song use it.
This lesson aims to show you how to get started with strumming without a guitar pick.
We will be mainly using six strings chords so that we can control the strings better.
In this video, I will share with you my ultimate guitar practice routine.
With this video, I am sharing the things I am currently practicing; however, that doesn’t mean you should follow the same routine. Remember that you are the only one who should plan your guitar practice routine as you are the only one who truly knows which guitar player you want to become.
At the moment, I can practice between 90 to 120 minutes a day (usually five times a week), so my guitar routine is based on three categories only:
Scales.
Chords.
Songwriting.
I hope you find this video interesting, guys.
Plan your guitar practice routine! Keep yourself motivated, and have fun playing music.
Repetition is the number one of the things that will make your guitar play better. If you repeat the same chord progression repeatedly, you will inevitably become good at it (unless you practice the exercise wrong).
The only problem with repetition is that after a while, it makes whatever it is that you are practicing repetitive and boring. If you can find a way to make repetition exciting and musical, practicing the same exercises for hours will not be a problem anymore.
In this lesson, I want to show you how to improve your fingerpicking technique by practicing a simple melody. The goal is to make this melody enjoyable to play so that you get bored quickly.
But how can you make a melody more interesting?
First of all, we will be playing the melody in four different positions. Each position will have a different left-hand fingering. This approach keeps you engaged with the exercise.
We will also pluck the melody with the alternate fingering pattern “Index-middle” or “Middle-index.”
The melody is in the key of G major. It’s a lovely classical motif that you will easily recognize.
I played the melody at 95Bpm. The melody is played with four semiquavers per beat; therefore, it can be quite fast at first.
You don’t have to get to this speed. I recommend that you start without the metronome. Memorize the notes and play them for a while. Once you feel ready, use the metronome starting from 40 BPM.
How can you make your strumming technique more musical and interesting? Should you learn more strumming patterns?
Well, of course. However, there is a way to make your strumming more interesting that has nothing to do with learning new strumming patterns.
We can, for example, make the strumming more interesting by making the chord progression more interesting. And how do we make chords more interesting? By strumming them with purpose.
In this video, I will show you:
How to strum chords up to a certain string (instead of strumming all the strings all the time).
How to add more color to chords to make the strumming more interesting.
By the way, I made a video in which I show you five strumming tricks. Make sure you check it out. There are some great strumming tips there too.
We will be using five chords in the key of D major. The seven chords that belong to the D major key are:
The arpeggio is a chord broken down into single notes. For example, the E major chord consists of three notes, the root note E, the major 3rd G#, and the perfect 5th B.
We can play these three notes together as a chord, or we can spell out every single note to create an arpeggio.
The arpeggio takes the name of the chord. A major chord will generate a major arpeggio. The same thing will happen with a minor chord.
We can also play arpeggios from extended chords such as major and minor 7th or suspended chords.
In this guitar lesson, we will look at the beautiful add9 arpeggios (both major and minor).
Here’s how we play them:
Major add9 arpeggios: Root note, major 2nd (9th), major 3rd, and perfect 5th.
Minor add9 arpeggios: Root note, major 2nd (9th), minor 3rd, and perfect 5th.
The chord progression is beautiful, and we will be exploring the following arpeggios: E | A | B | C#m | F#m | Am |.
Of course, we will learn them in the most melodic way possible.
Take it step-by-step and learn one arpeggio at a time.
Harmonizing the scale means to build a chord on each note of the scale. For example, the C major scale, which is made up of seven notes, generates seven chords:
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
We can play these chords in many different ways but in this lesson, I want to show you how to harmonize the C major scale melodically.
Three things!
Memorize the progression of chords: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C
We will always only use fretted notes. So we are never going to use open strings.
We will be using the C major scale. However, to cover as many chords as possible, we will harmonize the scale starting from the lowest fretted note. The note F.
Make sure you memorize the position of the root note for each note of the scale.
Follow the video to learn more about melodic harmonization.
