Economy picking is a monster of a technique that will allow you to play licks faster and with less effort than alternate picking once you master it. Many also refer to it as speed picking, a phrase coined by Frank Gambale who is credited with the invention of this technique. It is basically a combination of alternate and sweep picking.

For example, if the first note is on the fifth string, and the next note is on the fourth string, the pick will use a downstroke on the fifth string, and continue in the same direction to a downstroke on the fourth string.

Economy picking lends itself well to three note per string scales. Allow me to illustrate. If you begin a three note per string scale like the one I have shown below using an alternate pattern you will notice that after down picking the third note you would then be crossing over the next string in order to up stroke the next note. That's a lot of extra movement if you think about it.

Economy picking eliminates this unnecessary movement by down picking from the third to the fourth note in the scale. The resulting picking pattern is down-up-down-down-up-down-down-up etc.

To summarize: economy picking involves using alternate picking except when changing strings. Then you incorporate a mini sweep in the direction of the next note.

Although economy picking lends itself well to three note per string licks and scales, it can be applied to many situations. Basically, whenever you have just played a down stroke and the next note is on the string below just keep going down and then resume the alternate pattern. The same holds true if you use an up stroke and the next note falls on the string above.

A good way to start getting your pick hand used to this motion, and believe me it is awkward at first, is to play just the open strings on your electric guitar. Starting on the sixth string, play three notes per string using a down-up-down-down-up-down-down-up pattern. Play up to the first string and then back down to the sixth using an up-down-up-up-down-up-up-down pattern. When this becomes more familiar to you go ahead and practice it with three note scale patterns like the major scale below.

The economy picking technique sounds as though it would require more conscious thought to execute, but many guitarists learn it intuitively and find it an effort to use alternate picking. I personally found it rather difficult an in some situations prefer alternate picking, but don't let that discourage you from attempting to tackle this beast. I have seen what it can do and it is pretty amazing. If you would like to hear what applying this technique to your playing might sound like I strongly suggest you listen to Frank Gambale the father of economy picking, or speed picking as he refers to it.


Here is the three note per string G major scale mentioned above.

I recently made this video of me playing guitar for a guy who wanted me to do some video guitar lessons for his website. I thought I would post it here for fun!

Enjoy!

The blues guitar scales are really based off of the pentatonic scales with one extra note added. We call that extra note the "blue note" because it gives the pentatonic scale its obvious "bluesyness." The only real difference between the scales on the guitar and the same scales on any other instrument is the fact that there is more than one way to play them on a guitar. This is due mostly to the fact that the guitar is a stringed instrument and there are at least 3-5 ways to play any unique note.

The minor pentatonic scale is created using the root (or 1), flatted 3rd, 4th, 5th, and flatted 7th of a major scale. Notice that there is no 2nd or 6th scale tone used. There's an interesting reason for that but it requires a substantial amount of music theory to explain it and this isn't really the place for that.

To create the minor blues scale we take the minor pentatonic scale and add a flatted 5th (or sharp 4) to it. In the key of A, this creates a scale with the notes A, C, D, Eb, E, and G in it. Some people don't differentiate between the minor and the major blues scales. If someone calls a scale a blues scale, assume they mean the minor version.

A major pentatonic scale is created with the 1st (root,) 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th tone of a major scale. In C that would be C, D, E, G, and A. To make it a major blues scale you add a flatted 3rd which gives you C, D, Eb, E, G, and A in the key of C.

Notice that the rule governing relative major and minor keys/scales is also in effect here. If you look at the keys of A minor and C major, which are relative, meaning they contain the same notes, you'll see the same group of notes.

The A minor blues scale is A, C, D, Eb, E, and G. The C major blues scale is C, D, Eb, E, G, and A. Same notes, different starting point. This sort of thing happens all the time in music. This is of particular interest if you're playing blues lead guitar because you can see that your blues guitar scales really do double duty. Once you learn one pattern, it's really useful for 2 keys, one major and one minor.

So how to we apply this scale to a standard 12 bar blues chord progression? What's cool is that the simplest approach is really simple. Whatever the first chord of the chord progression is, let's say it's A7, use that minor blues scale to solo over the song. There's no need to change scales at any time.

Keep in mind that this is only one possible approach, and in many cases it's not the best approach. There are several ways to play over a 12 bar progression, or any other kind of chord progression. Many of these approaches use some combination of major and minor blues scales.

It is easy to find the 5 "boxes" or patterns of the blues scale on the internet. A simple search should turn up hundreds of choices. Once you learn the blues scales and have them under your fingers. You'll want to start jamming with them and learning how to make the sounds you want to hear.

For more blues guitar lessons and help with your blues guitar scales, check out Playing Through The Blues, my blues lead guitar course.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Griff_Hamlin

Many people the world over decide to pick up the guitar and start playing because they are inspired by their favorite blues artists. Learning blues guitar is a fun and rewarding experience and in reality is not much different than learning how to play many other styles. In fact playing blues guitar is a great lead into other rock and jazz styles and many would argue that these later styles were influenced heavily by the blues. Below we will discuss the three components that make up the blues style.

Learn Blues Guitar Part 1 - The Feel

Mastering the feel of the blues is very important if you truly wish to become an expert blues player. In a normal 4/4 time signature eight notes break up the measure into eight equal parts.

For example: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

In the blues you will commonly hear of the music having a swing feel. The swing feel is created by dividing each beat into three pieces like so:

1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a

By dividing each beat into three equal parts we are creating what is referred to as eighth note triplets.

Listen to your favorite blues recordings and see if you can identify how many of them are using the swing feel.

Learn Blues Guitar Part 2 - Chord Progressions

Aside form the feel the blues chord progression is another dead ringer of the style that can't be missed. Almost all of the greatest blues songs every created follow the same I, IV, V chord progression and they also tend to follow a 12-bar pattern that repeats throughout the duration of the song.

The I, IV, V chord progression is most commonly played using all dominant 7th chords. For example if we were playing in the key of E the the I, IV, V would be E7, A7, and B7.

So it can be said that a big part of learning blues guitar is learning to play dominant 7th chords. So what is a dominant 7th chord you ask? It is basically a major chord with a flatted seventh added to it.

For example, if you have an A7 chord, you know that the chord starts on an A. Dominant 7th chords use the root, third, fifth, and flatted seventh of the major scale. An A major scale has the notes A B C# D E F# G#. So the notes in an A7 chord are:

root=A
third=C#
fifth=E
flatted seventh=G

You can use this same formula to find any dominant 7th chord or just get yourself a chord chart.

Learn Blues Guitar Part 3 - The Blues Scale

The final characteristic that distinguishes the blues from any other form of music is the use of the blues scale. For those of you who do not know this scale it is basically a minor pentatonic scale with a flatted fifth scale degree added into the mix. The blues scale is built from the root, flatted third, fourth, flatted fifth, fifth, and flatted seventh degree of the major scale.

Again let's take the A major scale (A B C# D E F# G#) and add the note qualities of the blues scale.

root=A
flatted 3rd=C
4th=D
flatted 5th=E-flat
5th=E
flatted 7th=G

So the notes in an a blues scale are A C D E-flat E G. You might remember that the notes in an A7 chord were A C# E G. Notice that the blues scale has a minor 3rd in it and the Dominant 7th chord has a major third. This relationship plays a significant role in the way blues music sounds to the listener. The other big factor is the flatted 5th in the blues scale. In fact this note is often referred to as the blue note because of its unique sad quality.

BB King once said "The blues is the easiest music to learn, and the hardest to master." There is definitely truth in that statement. The ideas above are the fundamentals to playing the blues and they are not very hard to understand. But learning blues guitar is not just about playing the notes and making them sound good. It's about tapping into your inner thoughts and feelings and just letting them spill out onto the guitar.

John Robert has been playing guitar for longer than he can remember. Aside from teaching guitar for the last three years he enjoys writing articles about playing the blues and other guitar related topics. If you are serious about mastering the blues you owe it to yourself to check out PlayingThroughTheBlues.info

It's hard to find a beginner guitar lesson that is actually fun to learn and play. Most teachers like to show you twinkle twinkle little star or mary had a little lamb. Sure they make for a first easy guitar lesson, but do you want to run home and practice a song you haven't listened to since you were in diapers?

While a few of my friends were still fumbling their way through nursery rhymes my guitar instructor was showing me real guitar riffs that rocked.

So lets kick things off with an beginner guitar lesson that won't just rock the cradle. : )

In this easy guitar lesson I would like to share with you my first ever lesson experience.

I'll never forget my first guitar lesson. I was playing an old black acoustic guitar that my dad had bought for 50 dollars. I had wanted an electric guitar badly, and asked him if I could get one. I remember him saying, "If you stick with playin' that cheap acoustic then I'll see about getting you an electric one."

From that moment on I was determined. After about a year of taking lessons and practicing on my own that christmas I got my first electric guitar and 15 watt guitar amp. So if your in my situation hang in there.

Ok now where were we?

In my first ever guitar lesson my teacher showed me a basic blues chord progression. It was fun and not to difficult to play. I remember practicing it for about 30 minutes a day, just playing it over and over until my hand began to cramp up.

Download first easy guitar lesson here.


I have written this riff out two different ways to show you how you can play the same basic rhythm on different parts of the neck.

The first example is the way that I learned it all those years ago. You will notice on the tablature that some notes are held on the same fret numbers but are on different strings. Make sure when playing them that you bar your first finger across the fret board in order to hold the notes down.

Not sure what I'm talking about?

When you bar your finger across the fret board you lay it down flat so that all strings on that fret are pressed down. This is a hard technique to master in the beginning because it takes a considerable amount of hand strength. And practicing bar chords is the only way I know to get better at it. So use this first example to help build your hand strength. Trust me you will need it later when you start learning other bar chords.

The second example is much easier to play. Instead of those awful bar chords you will be playing simple two note per string chords called power chords.

When playing this beginner guitar lesson strum the strings using all down strokes.

The best part about this easy guitar lesson is that it wont take much of your time to master and you will be learning something that is fun to play.

I'll bet once you play it you will realize how many rock and blues songs use these kind of chord progressions in their music. Players like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King to name a few.

So have fun with this easy guitar lesson and when you have mastered it check out my other lesson on pentatonic scales. The two go hand in hand.


Serious about learning the guitar?

Visit the #1 online guitar teaching program now!

"Fender" is the dream of every lover of the guitar. It's one of the most popular guitars, being used by many guitarists. Before going to buy one of the various types of fender guitar, let us take a overview of the Fender musical instruments corporation.

Arizona is the home of this guitar manufacturer. The wild success of Fender's "Stratocaster" and "Telecaster" guitars has helped it's rise to fame. A solid body is a feature of both of these electric guitars. Even though many popular brands of electric guitars are on the market today, the reputation and likability of Fender guitars is without comparison.

To date the Fender guitar at the top of the popularity list is the Fender Stratocaster. The Stratocaster is a solid body electric guitar which features a maple neck and maple, rosewood or ebony fret board. This versatile guitar also has three single-coil pick-ups. The Stratocaster is known for being able to produce a very diverse spectrum of sounds. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and many other guitar greats have chosen to use Fender guitars.

Likewise, another well-known Fender guitar is the "Fender Telecaster". This electric guitar has two single-coil pick-ups. The Telecaster is popular for its prominent sound quality. Even today, after almost six decades of its birth, the Telecaster continues to impress millions with its crystal clear sound. Many beautiful melodies have been developed on the Fender Telecaster.

Fender manufactures other electric guitars like the "Fender Esquire". Designed in 1950, the Esquire had one single-coil pick-up. This guitar is also a solid body guitar. Though essentially being a single pick-up guitar, the Fender Esquire never failed to impress the audience with its perfect tone and melody.

If you know the type of sound quality you want in a guitar, then it's not hard to select a Fender guitar to meet your needs. Fender electric guitars are available worldwide, plus there are many online music stores where you can purchase your chosen musical instrument.

Browse dozens of Fender guitars and hundreds of other electric guitars at The Guitar Center. New merchandise every day!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Wright

Learning to play the blues is a rewarding but challenging task for many guitarists. The first thing I think we all learn is how to play the 12-bar blues chord progression. All though the concept of playing a 12-bar blues is easy to understand getting it to sound like B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and other blues guitar greats is actually pretty difficult. The intent of this lesson is to show you some easy blues chord progressions.

The 12-bar blues form commonly consists of just three chords. The I, IV and V chord of the key you are playing in. For example if we were playing in the key of E then the I chord would be E, the IV chord would be A and the V chord would be B. So the only chords we need for playing blues guitar in the key of E is E, A and B.


In it's simplest form the 12-bar blues would look something like this. Will use the chords in the key of E as an example.



| E / / / | E / / / | E / / / | E / / / |


| A / / / | A / / / | E / / / | E / / / |


| B / / / | B / / / | E / / / | E / / / |


E = I chord
A = IV chord
B = V chord

To spice things up we can add what's called a turnaround to the above progression.

The same progression above with a turnaround will look like this



| E / / / | E / / / | E / / / | E / / / |


| A / / / | A / / / | E / / / | E / / / |


| B / / / | A / / / | E / A / | E / B / |

There you have it! Some simple 12-bar blues chord progressions to get you started. I suggest playing them until you have them memorized and then start experimenting with moving the chords around a bit. Their are no real rules as to which chords should be played when so if it sounds good go with it and most importantly have fun. That is what playing blues guitar is all about.

Learn how to play blues guitar like the greats!

The minor pentatonic guitar scale is one of the most influential scales guitarists use. It is a scale made up of five notes per octave. To hear some of the many ways it is used just listen to any one of your favorite rock bands. Almost all rock songs use the scale in some form. It is also used heavily in blues. The beauty of the pentatonic scale is that you can't really play a bad note.

This scale is derived form playing only five of the seven notes found in the natural minor scale. If you take out the 2nd and 6th notes of the natural minor scale you are left with intervals 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. These are the notes that make up the minor pentatonic guitar scale. In the key of E minor the notes are named E, G, A, B, and D for intervals 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7.

Below is the fingering pattern for the minor pentatonic scale. I have written it out in the key of E minor but you can move the pattern up and down the neck to play the same scale in different keys. For example if you played the same pattern starting on The 7th fret of the sixth string you would be playing the B minor pentatonic scale.

E minor pentatonic:

|--X--|-----|------|--X--|
|--X--|-----|------|--X--|
|--X--|-----|--X--|------|
|--X--|-----|--X--|------|
|--X--|-----|--X--|------|
|--X--|-----|------|--X--|
*12th fret

This is one of the truly amazing characteristics of the guitar that set it aside from any other instrument. It is easier to play in different keys because the fingering patterns remain the same. All you have to do is move them up and down the neck to accomadate whatever key your jamming in.

For this reason I suggest that after you memorize the scale patterns I am showing you today try moving them up and down the neck. While doing this take notice of each new tonic note. Say it out loud if it will help you remember. Get this under your belt and when someone your playing with says lets jam in B minor you will know exactly where that is and have a minor pentatonic guitar scale pattern under your fingers to rock out with.

Unleash the Power of the Minor Pentatonic Guitar Scale

In order to play songs your first mission will be to learn some easy guitar chords. There are at least a dozen easy guitar chords you can learn right now that will give you the means to play hundreds of popular songs for the guitar. Below we will showcase some easy guitar chords and discuss some tips for practicing them.

The simplest of guitar chords will come in two different qualities. Major and minor. A major chord has a bright and almost happy sound, where as a minor chord can be said to have a dark, somber or sad sound to it.

Here are a few easy guitar chords of the major quality to get you started.

*If you have never read guitar tab the horizontal lines represent the strings on the guitar. The bottom line is the top fattest string when your holding your instrument and the top line is the bottom thinest string. The numbers tell you what fret to place your fingers on that string. A zero means an open string with no fretted notes. The numbers I have placed to the right of the lines are the suggested fingers for fretting the notes. 1 being your index finger and 4 being your pinky.*

E major:

|--------0------------------
|--------0------------------
|--------1------------------ 1
|--------2------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------0------------------


A Major:

|--------0------------------
|--------2------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------2------------------ 1
|--------0------------------
|---------------------------


G Major:

|--------3------------------ 3
|--------0------------------
|--------0------------------
|--------0------------------
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------3------------------ 1


C Major:

|--------0------------------
|--------1------------------ 1
|--------0------------------
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------3------------------ 3
|---------------------------


D Major:

|--------2------------------ 2
|--------3------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 1
|--------0------------------
|---------------------------
|---------------------------


And now for some easy minor chords.


E minor:

|--------0------------------
|--------0------------------
|--------0------------------
|--------2------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------0------------------


A minor:

|--------0------------------
|--------1------------------ 1
|--------2------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------0------------------
|---------------------------


D minor:

|--------1------------------ 1
|--------3------------------ 3
|--------2------------------ 2
|--------0------------------
|---------------------------
|---------------------------


Easy Guitar Chord Practice Tips

The best way to get good at playing chords is to just start doing it. I suggest first that you learn each chord listed above and it's name. Memorize the fingering. When you think you know them well test yourself by having someone else name them off and see if you can play the chord from memory or use flash cards.

Once you have mastered each chord individually start putting them together. Try changing form one chord to another smoothly. It will be difficult at first but persistence is the key to success. Remember, even though your brain knows what to do your fingers have never had to move like this before and need some training. Practice for at least a half hour a day mixing up as many chords as you like. Experiment with what sounds good and most importantly have fun.

I hope you have found this lesson on easy guitar chords interesting and informative.

Happy Practicing!


Learn easy guitar chord songs

Hey everybody.

Today I decided to do something a little different than the usual guitar advice articles that I normally post on this blog. I wanted to do something fun and share with you a cool new site I stumbled upon the other day.

The site is www.guitarshredshow.com

Take a minute to search around. At first I thought it was a little stupid because it takes a few moments to load but if you love shred guitar I promise you will get a kick out of this web site.

Here is the link one more time. www.guitarshredshow.com

Enjoy!

Come back and tell me what you think!

Tablature was created as an easy way to share music and ideas for stringed instruments. Although many view it as a modern cheat sheet some of the earliest forms can be traced back to the 1300's. During that time the lute and other stringed instruments used it to notate many popular folk songs. Today it is most commonly associated with the guitar.

It has long been debated whether using guitar tablature is good or bad for the development of the player. While it is a stripped down version of standard notation I feel that is an essential part in the development of any guitar player.

As a musician it is important to be able to play by ear. Listening to a song and figuring out how to play it on your own is a rewarding experience and a vital learning tool as well. Using guitar tablature allows you to see where the notes should be played, while figuring out on your own how to play them.

When using guitar tablature as a learning tool a teacher can quickly explain and demonstrate what is written with out the student becoming confused with the notation.

So how do you read tablature?

The guitar tablature staff is composed of six lines instead of the traditional five found in standard notation. Each line represents a string on the guitar.

Here is where some people first get confused.

When you are looking at the staff always remember that the bottom line represents the sixth string on your guitar.

Don't know which is the sixth string?

When holding your guitar in your hands the sixth string will be the top fattest string on the guitar.

The top line on the staff is the first string and the bottom skinny string on your guitar.

Given that I think you can figure out which is the second, third, fourth, etc. :-)

That's half of what you need to know to start reading and writing basic guitar tabs.

Easy enough right?

On the staff of strings you will see numbers as in the example below. The numbers you see on each line represent the fret you need to place your finger on.

So where on the guitar would this be played?

If you said the third string, seventh fret then you are correct.

Their are two ways in which you will see the numbers laid out across the staff, horizontally and vertically.

When you see the numbers moving horizontally across the page from left to right they are sounded individually. Numbers that are stacked on the grid vertically are sounded together.

Here are examples of an e major chord written vertically so that all notes sound together and horizontally so that they are played one after another.

Using guitar tablature is a breeze but their are a few more advanced notations you should familiarize your self with.

Here is a list of other symbols you may encounter while reading tablature.

• h - When placed before the number tells you that the note is to be played using a hammer on.
• p - When placed after a number indicates a pull off.
• t - When found before a note means that you should tap the note with your right hand.
• / - This symbol placed before or after a note tells you that you need to slide your finger up or down to the next note.
• b - When placed before or after a note will tell you to bend the note.
• ( ) - You will typically see this after a bent note along with a number for example (9). This tells you that the target note of the bend is the 9th fret. On some occasions you will not see a b before the bend.

  *Any note in paranthesis is assumed as a target note that is either bent up to from the previous note on the staff or first plucked in the bent position and then released to the next note on the staff.*

• ~ - This symbol indicates that you play the pitch with vibrato.


• x - An x is used to notate a string mute. Several in a row on adjacent strings will notate a rake.
• < > - Any number found surrounded with this symbol should be played as either a natural or artificial harmonic.

Now that you have a better understanding of how to use guitar tablature find some great tabs of the songs you like and use this tool to help you learn to play them. Learning to play songs in their entirety will greatly increase your playing and help inspire new ideas in your own playing. There are many sources on the internet that supply free guitar tabs of popular songs.

Understanding the major guitar scale and how it is constructed is the first step in understanding western music theory. Chords, modes and other scales will almost always have a direct relationship to the major scale. Once you learn the major scale you will quickly be able to understand how chords are built and where the seven different modes of the major scale come from.

Major Guitar Scale Basics

The major scale is a seven note scale and is sometimes called the Ionian mode. It is made up of a series of intervals that have a specific relationship to one another.

What is an interval?

An interval is the distance between two notes. For example on your guitar the distance between the 1st and 2nd frets is considered to be a half step. Likewise the distance between the 1st and 3rd frets is a whole step.

The major scale is made up of a series of whole and half steps in the following pattern:

W W H W W W H

To further illustrate let's take the C major scale. The notes in a C major scale are:

C D E F G A B

If we now take the notes and the interval make up we get this:

C(w) D(w) E(h) F(w) G(w) A(w) B(h) C

The second C at the end is an octave at which point the cycle repeats itself.

Many people use numbers to identify the different tones in the major scale. Since there are seven different notes in the major scale they are numbered 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 accordingly. Compare this to the C major scale and you have the following:

C(1) D(2) E(3) F(4) G(5) A(6) B(7)

This is important to understand because when you begin to study other scales and chords they will refer to these numbers as being either flatted or sharped. For example if you saw something like 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 this would mean that you would need to flat the 3rd, 6th and 7th scale degrees of the major scale. So the notes in the C major scale would end up being C D E-flat F G A-flat B-flat and the name of this new scale is actually the natural minor scale.

If you do not understand it yet don't worry. It's a lot to wrap your head around the first time. Just make sure that you understand that their are seven notes in the major scale and that they are numbered 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 respectively. Also memorize the W W H W W W H interval make-up. You will better understand the rest when you learn other scales and modes.

Major Guitar Scale Patterns

To see how the major scale works across all six strings of the guitar here are a few different fingering patterns for the C major scale with the root on the 6th string 8th fret. I have numbered the notes in the scale as we discussed above.

1 |--7--|--1--|------|------|
2 |-----|--5--|------|--6--|
3 |--2--|-----|--3--|--4--|
4 |--6--|-----|--7--|--1--|
5 |--3--|--4--|-----|--5--|
6 |-----|--1---|-----|--2--|


1 |--6--|------|--7--|--1--|------|
2 |--3--|--4--|------|--5--|------|
3 |--1--|------|--2--|------|------|
4 |--5--|------|--6--|------|--7--|
5 |--2--|------|--3--|--4--|------|
6 |-----|------|------|--1---|------|


1 |------|------|--2--|-----|--3--|--4--|
2 |------|------|--6--|-----|--7--|--1--|
3 |------|--3--|--4--|-----|--5--|------|
4 |------|--7--|--1--|-----|--2--|------|
5 |--4--|------|--5--|-----|--6--|------|
6 |--1--|------|--2--|-----|--3--|------|

In part 2 of guitar chord theory we discussed how to construct major and minor triads.

Remember a triad is any chord consisting of three notes. The root, third and fifth of the major scale and the different chord qualities like major and minor are made by either flatting the third of leaving it the the same.

For a quick refresh of this visit guitar chord theory part 2.

Today's lesson will consist of learning how to construct diminished and augmented triads. First let's discuss the diminished triad since you will probably encounter it more frequently than the augmented triad.

Guitar Chord Theory - Diminished Triads.

Diminished chords are nothing more than minor chords with a flatted 5th.

Minor Chord

l-----l------l------l-------l
l-----l------l------l-------l
l-----l-m3-l------l-------l
l-----l------l------l--1----l
l-----l------l------l--5----l
l-----l--1---l------l-------l

Diminished Triad

l-----l-------l-------l--------l
l-----l-------l-------l--------l
l-----l-m3--l-------l--------l
l-----l-------l-------l---1---l
l-----l-------l--b5--l--------l
l-----l--1----l-------l--------l


So if you build this chord off of a C major scale like we have done the previous major and minor triads you will have the notes C, E-flat, G-flat as your root, third and fifth chord tones.

Guitar Chord Theory - Augmented Triads

Augmented triads are the opposite of diminished triads. Starting with a major chord you will then want to raise the fifth to get the augmented triad.

Major Triad

l-----l-----l------l-----l
l-----l-----l------l-----l
l-----l-----l--3--l------l
l-----l-----l------l--1--l
l-----l-----l------l--5--l
l-----l--1--l------l-----l


Augmented Triad

l-----l-----l------l-----l------l
l-----l-----l------l-----l------l
l-----l-----l--3--l------l------l
l-----l-----l------l--1--l------l
l-----l-----l------l-----l--#5-l
l-----l--1--l------l-----l------l

Now you know how to build diminished and augmented triads using the major scale as your guide. Their are many different ways to play these triads across the guitar neck. I recommend getting your hands on a good chord book or chart that will show you basic chords along with their inversions. This will enable you to be able to play chords in any position on the neck.

Discover thousands of guitar chords at Guitar Chord Legend

Bending Guitar Strings is a method used primarily by lead guitar players to give the guitar a more vocal quality. The idea behind a string bend is to raise the pitch of the note without lifting the finger off of the fret-board or using another finger to fret the note. The result is a smooth glissando into the next note.

This can be a difficult technique for the beginner to master. The easiest way for you to accomplish a string bend is to use two or more fingers. For example, fret the note to be bent with either your second or third finger. Bend the guitar string with that finger as far as you can. Not so easy is it? This time place the first and second fingers on the same string behind the note you intend to bend. Now bend the guitar string as far as you can. It's a lot easier isn't it?

When playing you can either bend the string up or down to create the desired effect. Both are equally efficient. The idea of bending guitar strings, is to bend up to a specific pitch. Practice this by playing a note and then moving down the string one, two or three frets and bending the string back up to the original note played.

As you become familiar with this technique in your guitar playing you may want to find a few new creative ways to use this method. Here is a few tricks I have picked up along the way.

• Try bending a note into a few different pitches. For example play the original note, bend up a half step (one fret), then release the note and bend it up a whole step(two frets). David Gilmore uses this approach in quite a few of his signature Pink Floyd solos. Experiment with the concept targeting different notes to bend up too.


• Another popular technique among many blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King is to pre bend a string before it is picked and then release it to it's original note. Pretty cool huh!

I hope you will enjoy using string bending in your playing and utilizing some of the more creative approaches that I discussed here.

Become a master of guitar scales

Vibrato on Guitar is a subtle technique that almost always goes unnoticed to the passive listener, but you should familiarize your self with it because it is a great artistic tool to have. It can add warmth, depth, and sustain to a note. I suspect you probably already use this technique, but maybe never really thought about what it really is or how you can control it.

Vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch up and down. The amount of change is usually a very small amount just enough to make the note sound like it's shaking or vibrating.

Their are two ways you can achieve this while playing the guitar. The first method is called radial vibrato. This method involves actually bending the string up or down from the original note and back at a continuous rate. This type is most commonly associated with rock music and is the way most of us learn how to do it. The second method is axial vibrato. To use this method you have to rock your finger from side to side. It does not create as wide of a change in pitch as the radial method due to less overall movement, but it can be rather fun to experiment with.

Their are certain electric guitars I have seen that facilitate the use of the axial method. Electric guitars that have a scalloped fret board like that played by Yngwie Malmsteen allow the player to actually push down on the string to vary the pitch.

The effects of vibrato on guitar are subtle, but mastery of it can really bring out emotion in your playing. Practice it in your playing, but don't just throw it in there and move on. Experiment with what it would sound like if you used axial instead of radial or if you varied the speed a little.

It's time to shake it up!

Become a master of guitar scales

The sweep picking technique is an advanced guitar technique in which the player picks notes on consecutive adjacent strings by moving his/her pick in a continuous down or up stroke. The term sweep is used to describe the continual motion across the strings. If you have never heard just how wickedly awesome this technique can be listen to players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Jeff Loomis, and Frank Gambale.

The best way to explain it simply is to compare it to strumming a chord. Strumming and sweep picking are similar in that your pick moves across several strings in the same direction. The difference however is in the fretting hand. When strumming a chord you would hold the chord shape and allow all notes to sound in unison with one another. This is not the case with sweep picking. The idea behind sweep picking is to play a broken chord or arpeggio, sounding each note individually.

To execute the sweep picking technique you will first need to practice the right and left hand components separately. Begin with your right hand. Let the pick fall from string to string as if you are strumming a chord. It should be smooth and continuous. Do not separate each pick stroke by lifting up or away from the string. Instead, drag the pick over the strings in a fluid motion.

Mastery of the left hand is going to be the most difficult. I know it was for me. the trick to get each note to sound individually is to immediately mute each note after picking it. To do so lift your finger off of the note so that it is resting on the the string.

*Important! Lifting your finger completely of the string in a fast motion will create a pull off and the open string may ring while playing the next note. That is why you need to mute each note after it is played.*

Many times you will see two or three notes that are on the same fret. In this case you will have to roll your finger, simultaneously muting the previous note and letting the current note ring.

Sound hard? It is.

I suggest taking each finger one at a time and practice rolling it over two or three strings. Make sure your goal is to get each note to sound cleanly.

So are you still excited about sweep picking?

This is not a technique for the squeamish. It will take a lot of time and frustration to master. I suggest practicing it at least 20 minutes a day sometime during the middle of your practice session when your hands are nice and warmed up. Start with smaller arpeggios that span maybe three or four strings. As you get better try playing the big daddy arpeggios that cover five and six strings at a time.

Become a master of guitar scales

In this alternate picking guitar lesson you will learn why it is by far the most important picking technique you should learn. No matter what other techniques you decide to apply in your playing you will find that it is the mainstay for all guitarists. Guitarists like Steve Morse and Al Di Meola use it almost exclusively in their playing, claiming that it is the only guitar technique that will allow a player to achieve the purest tone possible.

It's up to you to decide which picking techniques you will incorporate into your own playing, but if you master nothing else, master the technique of alternate picking. It will add to your style a great sense of clarity and a sharp unmistakable tone.

The concept is simple. Your pick hand uses a down-up-down-up etc. pattern continuously for the duration of whatever lick or riff you are playing.

This can be difficult when playing licks containing only one note per string such as arpeggios, and also riffs that skip strings. That is why techniques like sweep picking, economy picking and hybrid picking were developed.

A good way to get your pick hand accustomed to this technique is to simply play any open string on your guitar using the alternate down-up-down-up pattern described above. Practice switching strings without stopping. When you feel comfortable moving your pick hand from string to string while using the technique then it is time to start adding some fretted notes with your other hand. For some great exercises that will help sync up your right and left hands check out my guitar lesson on building finger strength.


Alternate picking guitar lesson exercises.