Have you ever wanted to become a blues guitarist? Well now you can with the Learn and Master Blues Guitar course which was just recently released. If you’ve read my Learn and Master Guitar review, you know how much I enjoy Steve Krenz and his teaching style. Now he’s back with an all new course focused specifically on providing high quality blues guitar lessons.

The Blues Guitar spotlight series includes 6 high quality lessons DVDS, a Jam Along DVD + CD, and a lesson book. This is the most comprehensive blue guitar lesson course available and you will learn everything you need to play the blues. This includes the concepts, chords, techniques and riffs that you need to become a great blues guitarist. You’ll develop a solid understanding of blues notes, blues scales, and blues chord progressions. By the time you’re done you’ll be playing fast shuffles, the slow 12/8 blues, “blues-in-every key”, and a variety of blues songs like a pro.

Some of the innovative features of the course include the “Hearing the Blues” ear training exercises. Also don’t miss out on bonus interviews with blues guitar legends Jack Pearson and Johnny Hiland. You can pick up the Blues Guitar Course for just $99 and it comes with the standard 60 day money back guarantee. So if you have ever been interested in learning the blues, make sure to check out Learn and Master Blues Guitar.

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I recently got a chance to try out JamPlay, and I am thoroughly impressed by the site. For those who haven’t heard of it yet, JamPlay is a guitar membership site that offers high quality video guitar lessons with a variety of instructors. The site hosts a wide variety of content (more than 20,000 minutes worth) and you’ll find all the lessons you need to learn and master the guitar. Let me go into some of the pros and cons of the site in this JamPlay review.

JamPlay divides its lessons into three phases. Phase 1 is for beginners while intermediate and advanced guitar learners may want to jump in at Phase 2 and 3. Phase 2 focuses more on specific genres and styles of guitar while Phase 3 is centered around learning to play actual songs. In Phase 1 you will the guitar basics and fundamentals. The lessons start of assuming that you have no previous experience, so absolute beginners can start off here. After the first couple of lessons, you will understand how the guitar works, and how to play your guitar properly. Once you’ve advanced past the very basics, you’ll then start learning other beginning guitar essentials including proper posture, basic chords, strumming techniques, scales and much more. All in all, the beginner lessons do an excellent job of setting you up for the future phases.

Each of the video lessons are filmed in HD, so the quality is excellent. Most lessons are around 40 minutes in length and are divided into chapters for easy navigation. If you ever want to repeat any part of a lesson, it is quite easy to move back and forth. The lessons also include useful supplementary material that you can review after each lesson, and there is a place for you keep your own notes to refer to at a future time. You can also manually track your own progress on each lesson. This integrates with the Progress Report feature of the site which tells you at a glance which lessons you’ve started, mastered, and still need to work on. This is a nice way to make sure you stay disciplined with your guitar learning.

One unique aspect of the JamPlay site is that the instructors have filmed their own sets of lessons independently. Since everyone’s learning style is different, it is great to have to choice to find a teacher who’s teaching style is compatible with your way of learning. I recommend before start out, to browse through the first couple of lessons from each teacher and find the instructor that appeals to you the most. It is also possible to mix and match and if that works well for you. JamPlay has an impressive stable of 30 experienced guitar instructors. A few of them have over 30 years of guitar teaching experience so they definitely know how to teach you properly.

The other part of what makes JamPlay unique are its social networking features. You can make your own profile, share your interests like favorite bands and make new friends on the site. By participating in the JamPlay community, you will feel a lot more involved and will help your motivation for learning. The site also includes a very active forum, where you can get answers to your questions or just plain hang out. There’s also a daily webcam sessions with a particular JamPlay teacher which allows you to interact with the instructor over streaming video in a group chat environment. This is a really fun feature that I don’t think any other site offers.

Compared to a similar guitar membership site like Guitar Tricks, JamPlay does cost a little more per month ($19.95 to $12.95). However, the monthly fee is still quite modest, compared to what you would pay for private guitar lessons. Another downside with JamPlay is that you have the be online with a good broadband connection to enjoy the best possible experience. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to download the videos to your computer for offline viewing.

If you are serious about learning to play the guitar and enjoy the idea of being part of a guitar learning community, you should definitely give JamPlay a serious look. At least check out the free lessons they offer on the site to see if you like it. JamPlay suitable for guitar learners of all levels, and it’s definitely a fun and enjoyable way to learn the guitar.

Properly known as a tremolo arm, the whammy bar was introduced in the 1950s. There are a number of popular designs produced by the major manufacturers but the whammy bar was first developed by Fender and released with the original Stratocaster. Since then, legends like Jimi Hendrix and Eddy Van Halen have made the whammy bar a major part of their personal sound. For this reason, a lot of beginning guitarists want to emulate their favorite guitar legend and dive right in to using the whammy bar. This is a mistake however, and it’s important to take it slow when learning how to use it.

The whammy bar requires quite a bit of attention and coordination to use effectively so it’s probably best for advanced or intermediate guitarists. It produces a vibrato effect by temporarily changing the tension of the strings on an electric guitar. Once you’ve inserted the whammy bar into the body of the guitar, it’s possible to produce a higher pitch by pointing the whammy bar toward the bottom of the guitar and gently pressing down on the bar.

To produce a lower pitch, simply point the bar up toward the headstock and press down. This is done while playing a note (and sustaining it) or while playing a chord. This type of sound effect was first used in Blues and Jazz but has made its way more prominently into modern Rock music.

You have to be more vigilant to your guitar’s needs when you’re using a whammy bar because it causes the guitar to go out of tune more quickly than it would otherwise. Once you’ve mastered the basics, beginning to use a whammy bar can add some variety to your sound. It’s one of the more advanced guitar techniques that you don’t need to learn right away but it will improve your sound and allow you to put your own spin on classic chords and songs.

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The easiest and most flexible way to consistently tune a guitar is using the aforementioned reference pitch – a note played by a perfectly tuned instrument or available from a digital audio file. For instance, if you’re using the standard six-string tuning of E-A-D-G-B-E, you would start by tuning the sixth string (low E).

To do this, play a low E reference pitch and adjust the tuning pegs on your sixth string until the sound produced by the sixth string matches the sound produced by the reference pitch. Once your sixth string is properly tuned, you can use it to tune the other five strings on your guitar starting with the fifth string.

To do so, you’ll want to fret the fifth fret on the sixth string in order to produce an A note. This A played on your sixth string will serve to tune your open fifth string which itself is an A. In this way, the sixth string now serves as a reference pitch for the fifth.

Simply adjust the tuning pegs until the open fifth sounds the same as the A played by the sixth string. With sixth and fifth strings tuned properly, simply proceed in the same manner to tune the remaining four strings. The steps are as follows:

1. Play the fifth fret on the fifth string to tune the open fourth string.
2. Use the fifth fret on the fourth string to tune the open third.
3. Play the fourth fret on the third string to tune the open second.
4. Play the fifth fret on the second string to tune the open first.

If you follow these steps and the strings still sound dull or they go out of tune frequently and dramatically, you’ll need to replace the strings. The strings of a guitar wear out more quickly than the components of many other popular instruments so you have to be especially watchful when playing a guitar.

I favor the above method especially for beginners because it teaches them more about handling their guitar, but a guitar can also be tuned using an electronic tuner. Electronic tuners cost about $20 or less and can sense which string you are playing using a built-in microphone.

Simply place the electronic tuner within a few feet of where you are playing and then proceed to play each string, adjusting the tuning pegs based on the electronic tuner’s display. As you can see, using an electronic tuner is a simple way to quickly tune your guitar without the use of a reference pitch. As I said, I prefer to use the reference pitch method but either method can be effectively used for tuning a guitar.

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Nylon string guitars have a deeper, softer tone than their steel-string cousins whose sound is more bright and sharp. This difference in tonality makes nylon stringed guitars more expressive than other guitars on the market. Now, if you’re interested in playing popular genres like rock, jazz or country, this is not the instrument for you. Instead, nylon stringed guitars are better suited to play classical and Spanish style music.

This is because the nylon string guitar is especially suited to finger picking – a key aspect of classical and Spanish music. Of course, the guitars are also adequate for strumming and can be played with a pick but they simply won’t produce the bright, loud sounds necessary for country or rock music no matter how you play them.

If you decide that the nylon string guitar is for you, the next step is to actually pick out a beginner’s instrument. Compared to electric guitars or steel-string acoustic guitars, nylon stringed instruments are much cheaper. More importantly, a cheaper nylon stringed guitar plays well and, although the quality of the guitar increases with the price, it’s possible to purchase a solid one for under $200 that sounds quite nice. This is one of the major points in favor of nylon stringed guitars because it’s almost impossible to purchase a quality steel-string guitar for less than $200.

There are a few varieties of nylon string guitars that a beginner can choose from. Flamenco, Romantic and Baroque guitars are all popular varieties of nylon string guitars but the most common one you will find is the classical guitar. Also known as the Spanish guitar, the classical guitar is suitable for beginners because it lends itself well to the playing of several diverse musical genres. If you aren’t exactly sure what genres you are interested in playing, the classical guitar can play jazz, folk, flamenco and classical music.

For this reason, it’s a great learning instrument even if it is primarily a finger-picking guitar. One of the noticeable design elements that makes the instrument suitable to finger picking is that the strings are farther apart on a classical guitar than on a steel-string guitar.

Also, nylon stringed instruments like the classical guitar can be purchased with electronic amplifiers built into the body although this can significantly diminish the expressiveness of the instrument. If you need to amplify the instrument, consider clipping a microphone to the body as it’s cheaper and should have less of a distorting affect on the guitar.

Ultimately, the nylon string guitar is a great instrument with soft, deep tones that make it perfect for classical and Spanish music. Every beginner should seriously consider starting out with one.

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The steel-string acoustic is popular in a number of music genres including country, rock, folk and blues, primarily because of its clearer and louder sound quality. There’s a popular misconception that beginners should avoid the steel-string guitar because its strings are particularly rough on a beginner’s fingers but the steel-string acoustic is actually suitable for players of every level. Frankly, a beginner’s fingers are going to hurt no matter what type of guitar they start out on and a beginner who is interested in rock, country or any of the other genres favored by a steel-string guitar should start on a steel-string guitar. It’s just that simple. In fact, the sound of the guitar is far more important than how your fingers feel when you’re just learning to play.

Of course, cost is also a factor for beginners and you should expect to pay more for a steel-string guitar than for other types of guitars like the gut or nylon string acoustics. The benefit is that steel-string acoustics need to be tuned far less often than other acoustic guitars and are far more versatile so the price difference can be worth it.

Before you purchase your steel-string acoustic guitar, make sure it’s a solid top instrument. Some guitars have plywood or laminated tops and these don’t produce the brilliant sound that a solid top steel-string acoustic does. Keep in mind that a solid top is slightly more expensive and you can expect to pay about $300 for a new one.

If you’re considering a steel-string guitar, it’s also important to understand just how these guitars are amplified. Like any acoustic guitar, steel-string acoustics can be amplified using a detachable pickup or through a microphone that clips on to the guitar body. Steel-string acoustics can also be amplified using a transducer built into the body of the guitar that turns the steel-string acoustic into what is commonly known as an acoustic-electric guitar. You have to be careful when choosing a means of amplification for your acoustic guitar because you’ll want to choose something that amplifies the sound without distorting it. The lack of distortion is important because it’s the clear tones and bright sounds of steel-string acoustics that distinguish them from distortion-laden electric guitars.

There are other options to consider in steel-string guitars like what sort of body style you’d like or what sort of tonewoods comprise the guitar but these are decisions to be made based on personal feel and playing style. You simply don’t have the expertise as a beginner for these choices to have much impact on your playing but make sure to consider them when you’re purchasing your second guitar.

Simply put, if you’re interested in playing country, rock or folk, a steel-string acoustic guitar is definitely something you should consider. Its clear tones and louder sound make it the perfect guitar for these genres and set it apart from other varieties of acoustic guitars.

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First, before you start shopping, set a price that you’re willing to spend. Bass guitars start at about $200 new and $100 used. These entry-level guitars are a beginner’s best bet because they sound good, help you get a feel for the instrument when you’re starting out and constitute a fairly small investment so if you find out that the bass guitar is not for you, you haven’t spent $1,000 that you’ll never recoup.

Second, decide between a four, five and six string bass. In general, a four string bass is the most common and most suitable for bass guitar beginners. The five and six string bass guitars allow for greater experimentation and are useful for bass players who perform frequent solos. Beginners should start out with the basic four string bass because it’s an easier instrument to learn on. Neither the fifth or sixth strings are necessary for basic bassists so why pay for something you’re not going to use?

In the same vein, bass guitars can be purchased with or without frets. Like the choice between four or more strings, this is mainly a feature for individuals with a lot of talent and experience. Frets make the bass easier to play by clearly marking each semitone, producing a consistent intonation and generally making beginning bassists more confident in their handling of the strings. That being said, fretless bass guitars produce a distinct sound that some expert bassists crave. Without frets, the bassist presses the string directly against the wood of the fingerboard, producing a somewhat muted intonation compared to fretted bass guitars. The fretless bass also enables the use of vibrato and other musical effects popular in Jazz and Funk.

But perhaps the most important factor to keep in mind when purchasing the best bass guitar for you is just how comfortable it is for you personally. Everything from the weight of the instrument to the length of the neck to the width of the body can influence how comfortable the bass guitar is for you. Remember, how the guitar actually feels is far more important than how it looks or what it costs. Don’t settle on a guitar simply because it’s on sale or you like the way it looks.

One final feature to keep in mind is the wood the bass guitar is constructed with. The wood used in manufacturing a bass guitar has a significant impact on its tone. It isn’t something that a beginner should be concerned with but it is interesting to know that alder is the most common wood used for the body and maple the most common for the neck. The wood shouldn’t matter to your playing style until you’re ready to purchase your second or third bass guitar.

As a beginner, your choices are fairly simple and price will probably prove the most significant factor in your purchase. However, these other features will be important as you learn more about your instrument and progress enough to consider purchasing a second bass guitar.

In describing the different types of electric guitars, it’s best to start at the beginning of the electric guitar’s history with the hollow-body electric guitar. More than 70 years old, the hollow-body appeared in Swing bands during the 1930s and is still in use to this day. Also known as a semi-acoustic guitar, hollow-body guitars have both a sound box and electrical pickups. This produces a unique sound based on the vibrations of the open chamber in the body of the guitar combined with the vibrations from the strings. The hollow-body is still popular more than 70 years after its inception and its unique sound can be heard prominently in Jazz music today.

Even though the first electric guitar was the hollow-body, the solid body electric guitar is the dominant player in the electric market today. Debuted in 1950, the first solid body to hit the mass market was the Fender Telecaster. The solid body is the most radical departure from the traditional acoustic guitar. It’s comprised of a solid wood body and almost totally dependent on an amplifier. Solid body guitars require amps because they don’t have an empty chamber in which sound vibrates and is naturally amplified. Solid body guitars are noted for their clean, cutting sound totally divorced from the feedback that’s noticeable in hollow body electric guitars. The sound of the solid body is also more precise and it’s the natural starting point for anyone interested in learning the electric guitar.

An interesting cross between the solid body and hollow-body guitars is the semi-hollow-body. Built with a piece of wood running through the middle of the guitar, the semi-hollow-body has hollow chambers on the left and right sides of the body. Essentially a compromise between the hollow-body and solid body, semi-hollow-body guitars possess a relatively clear sound with less feedback than a hollow-body but enough vibration and resonance to still be suitable for Jazz. Unlike the hollow-body, the semi-hollow-body has a precise enough tone that it’s suitable for genres like pop, rock and country.

Aside from these three dominant types of electric guitars, there are a number of variations on the electric guitar with different necks or numbers of strings. For instance, some people may be familiar with the double neck guitar that allows the musician to play both the bass and six-string guitar at once. Also, although the six-string guitar is standard, electric guitars are available with any number of strings from six to twelve.

From the iconic solid body to the obscure double neck, there are many types of electric guitars that cater to specific playing styles, needs and genres of music. For this reason, it’s important to know how the guitar developed and exactly what options are available even though you may play the guitar your whole life and never own anything but a solid body.

If you are trying to learn guitar online, Guitar Tricks is one of those sites you need to check out. Guitar Tricks has been producing video guitar lessons for more than 10 years and was one of the first guitar membership sites to offer online video. The site hosts more than three thousand online guitar lessons taught by 45 different expert guitar instructors. Whether you are a beginner or expert, Guitar Tricks has lessons suitable for you.

High Quality Video Guitar Lessons

For beginning guitar learners, Guitar Tricks has created a Guitar Fundamentals learning program. The course is split into two parts and when you have completed this self paced course, you will be able to read music, play chords and understand basic song structure. You are then ready to tackle the Intermediate lessons where you will learn how to play different styles of guitar, like blues country and rock. All the different techniques are demonstrated to you and you will learn many guitar tips and techniques that will make you a better guitar player. Once you have reached a more advanced level you then have the ability and the freedom to learn any of the guitar styles and techniques that you are interested in.

Guitar Tricks offers several different lesson formats. They have short licks, multi-part tutorials and full blown courses. All the videos are in beautiful HD format and the quality is quite amazing. With so many lessons, you might think it would be hard to find what you want. However, Guitar Tricks allows you to search lessons by topic or even by artist style. If you want to play like Jimi Hendrix then go look him up!. Also, if you have a favorite Guitar Tricks instructor, you can search by their name as well and bring up all the lessons they teach. Although all the content is available online, each of the video guitar lessons can be also be downloaded right to your computer. The provided video player allows you to loop through specific sections of a video which is great for practice.

In addition to the diverse selection of lessons, there are a couple of other important parts of the Guitar Tricks site as well. First the Guitar Tricks community is really excellent and the forums are a great place to get your questions answered. There are thousands of members, and the content that is archived there is amazing. The other thing I really liked was the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. The Jam Station allows you to simulate playing along with a real band. It is a really useful learning tool and with more than 150 tracks and counting, you will always have something new to practice to.

All in all, Guitar Tricks is an excellent membership site suitable for guitar players of all levels. If you are curious to see what the lessons are like, check out the video guitar lessons that Guitar Tricks has let me post on the site. Plus, if you sign up for their free membership, you will get access to 24 more free lessons to get you started. Once you have sampled all the content, a Guitar Tricks membership will cost you just $14.95 a month. If you have seen the price of private guitar lessons, you know this price is a steal. If you are truly serious about teaching yourself the guitar, then do yourself a favor and check out Guitar Tricks today.

Pros
+ Enormous library of video guitar lessons
+ Wide variety of instructors to pick from
+ Free trial video guitar lessons let you test before you join

Cons
- Some of the older lessons aren’t in HD

Perhaps the greatest tool a novice guitarist can have is a good instructor, who can usually be found at your local music shop. Guitar lessons can be costly, but having a live person there to answer your questions and to guide you toward becoming the guitarist you’ve always wanted to be can be invaluable. There’s no substitute for a good instructor and a strong relationship between the teacher and the pupil.

Beyond the personal, hands-on assistance an instructor can provide, there are plenty of other tools for new guitarists. Magazines like Guitar World and Guitar Player, for example, can be very useful. Most guitar magazines include some combination of player features, gear reviews, how-to articles and fully tabbed songs. Check out several magazines before deciding which one best suits your needs.

If playing others’ songs is your goal, tab books can be very helpful. Many tab books are available. Some books feature all the songs from a particular album. Some feature a collection of songs from a particular band. Some feature a collection of songs in the same genre. And some feature “easy tabs,” which are simplified versions of popular songs.

For those more interested in creating their own music, a chord chart can be very helpful. This is usually poster-sized chart showing the most commonly used chords. Also, many books are available with information and charts on chords and scales, which can help a great deal when writing riffs and solos.

Two pieces of equipment that can be purchased rather inexpensively but that are both essential for playing guitar well are tuners and metronomes. A chromatic tuner will help you tune your guitar by displaying the note being played and whether it is precisely in tune or not. A metronome, which uses clicks to help you keep time in a given rhythm, can be invaluable when there’s no drummer around — or even if there is, if your drummer is as new to his instrument as you are.

The Internet might be the greatest tool of all for a new guitarist. Without much difficulty, one can find tuners, timekeepers, chord charts, scale generators and guitar tabs for free on the Internet. That might not be the best news for the sellers of such devices and information, but it can be a boon for the cash-strapped guitarist.

And when you find yourself struggling to maintain your motivation, there’s nothing like live music to snap you out of the doldrums. Seeing your favorite songs played live and in person is an exhilarating experience that’s always for a boost of energy when trying to learn the guitar. In addition to simply seeing first-hand what’s possible on a guitar, it can also be useful to see how a professional guitarist plays certain riffs and solos.