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?

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.
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Beatles Guitar Lessons

The Beatles were one of the most productive bands in history. They used many instruments, sometimes entire orchestras when composing their songs, but thankfully, many of their songs have really great guitar covers.

beatles-guitar-lessons

TheGuitarLesson.com offers several The Beatles guitar lessons, and as always, all of them include animated on-screen tabs and chord diagrams, which make following the tutorials easy as pie.

Have a look at our collection of guitar lessons covering The Beatles songs below:

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How to Jam on Guitar with Other Musicians

how-to-play-guitar-jam-session

Playing at jam sessions is an important milestone in the life of all guitarists. Getting together with other like-minded people is great fun, fosters friendships, and will really advance your guitar skills.

After playing guitar for 20+ years, I've had my share of jams, good ones and bad ones.

There are a number of guitar skills you already need to be comfortable with in order to be able to play acoustic or electric guitar at jam sessions with other musicians, here they are in no particular order. Read more

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Solo Guitar Lessons for Beginners

If you prefer playing the electric guitar and are comfortable with the basics from our beginner guitar lessons, you'll be glad to know that we have several solo guitar lessons on our website, each one giving you step-by-step guidance on learning the most popular riffs and solos. As you know, our video tutorials contain animated tabs, which makes them very easy to follow, especially for beginners learning the electric guitar.

Be Like Slash!

Be Like Slash!

The main advantage of learning lead guitar with our solo video lessons is that we concentrate on teaching you through making you play real music, not just single exercises. Through learning to play popular riffs and licks, you'll be advancing your lead guitar skills as well. This combination of practicing through playing songs will mean that your practice sessions will remain exciting, you'll actually want to practice as much as you can, since you'll be making great music. This is the biggest advantage of learning songs, you'll stay motivated and really want to play as much as you can, due to the fact that you'll be playing the solos you've been listening to for years.

We have several guitar lessons on popular songs which use awesome guitar solos for you to learn. Here are the top 3 watched lessons on guitar solos we have at TheGuitarLesson.com, check them out:

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Quickly Learn the Notes on the Guitar Neck (Step-By-Step Guide)

Being able to instantly identify, and move to different notes along the fretboard is a must know skill for anyone serious about learning to play the guitar. Knowing your way around the neck of the guitar is important for playing chords and chord progressions, for improvising, and an absolute must if you want to start writing your own songs as well.

Learn those notes!

Learn those notes!

Learning the notes on the fretboard is not really hard, it just takes some studying. Thankfully, the guitar is built in such a way, that allows us to easily identify the notes on 4 of the 6 strings, after learning the notes on the low E and A strings. This is due to the relationship between the notes on the strings. If you haven't done so yet, watch our video guitar lesson on learning guitar notes, I explain the following on video, which makes it even easier to digest.

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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

Initial hand position

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.
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Too old to learn guitar at 30? 40? 50? 60? Think again!

Undoubtedly some of the most frequent letters I get here at TheGuitarLesson.com are from people asking whether they are too old to learn guitar. In fact, the "Am I too old to learn guitar" subject line letters come from people in all age groups.

It's funny because I've had 13-14 year old kids ask this question, adults of all ages of course, and even a 74 year old grandfather who wanted to jam along with his grandkids.

 

This topic seems to be on the mind of all adults considering guitar lessons, so let's talk about it for a second. Read more

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How Long Does it Take to Learn Guitar?

The question lots of people ask me when they start thinking about learning to play guitar is, "How long will it take me?"

Well, it depends on several things, not just how talented you are. Sure, having a talent for music and a good ear will help you achieve results, but in the long run, the guitarist that practices diligently and in the correct way will win over the lazier, yet more "talented" musician. Why?

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Minor Pentatonic Scale Positions

The minor pentatonic  scale is a much used scale by musicians in many genres, from blues to rock, and if you are just starting to learn soloing and how to improvise, learning the 5 positions of the minor pentatonic scale will be invaluable to your efforts.

Need a hand?

Need a hand?

I always recommend that my students learn the minor pentatonic scale forms as a first step in learning improvisation. You probably know the first form already, which can, by itself, be used to make up nice sounding riffs and improvised solos. But learning the other 4, altogether 5 minor pentatonic scale positions will allow you to move along the fretboard to wherever you want, whenever you want, and produce some truly outstanding solos.

Don't take my word for it, listen to BB King albums, Clapton songs, and a bunch of other artists. They all use the various shapes of the minor pentatonic, so should you. Here are the positions of the minor pentatonic: Read more

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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

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...

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