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Rocking That Band Audition
So you’ve been practicing for years and feel that its now time to finally play guitar out of the confines of your bedroom. The next logical step for most guitarists is to join a band.
The first choice that needs to be made is what sort of band do you want to join? An original band or covers band? What style of music do you want to play? Rock, blues, country, funk, pop, metal or jazz? Whatever the style of music, original or covers these tips will help you get ready to rock that band audition.Searching For a Band
Depending on your location how you search for a band to join will be a bit different. You can search local online classifieds such as Craig’s List, Gumtree or in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia try Melband. Read More -
Effective Guitar Practice While Watching TV
While I don’t recommend practicing on the couch watching TV there will inevitably be times where you’ll find yourself on the couch guitar in hand vaguely watching TV or vaguely noodling on the instrument. I confess spending my teenage years doing this annoying my sister while she watched inane drama show like Neighbours or while being slightly distracted with test cricket during the Aussie summer.
Most of what you will do will require a lower level on concentration than practicing without distractions. Of course nothing is more effective than practicing without distractions. Read More -
Improvising With The E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Here we will look at the E minor pentatonic scale and how to improvise with it to create melodies and guitar solos. The E minor pentatonic scale is a handy scale to know as its used in heaps of rock and blues songs including:
Back In Black – AC DC
Black Knight – Deep Purple
Enter Sandman – Metallica
Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
Paranoid – Black Sabbath
Pride & Joy – Stevie Ray Vaughan
Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix
Whole Lotta Love – Led ZeppelinThe E minor pentatonic scale is also easy to learn a play with the main fingering pattern on the guitar using all the open strings.
Watch the video of the E minor pentatonic scale. Read More
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How To Learn The Notes On The Guitar Neck
Its one thing to know how to strum open string chords and play scale patterns up and down the guitar neck but to be a real guitarist and musician you should know the notes up and down the guitar neck. You would expect a pianist, trumpet player etc to know the notes that they’re laying so it shouldn’t be any different for guitarists.
One of the easy things when it comes to playing guitar is that you can learn a scale pattern such as the pentatonic scale. However many guitarists know the scale patterns but not the notes they’re playing. So how do you learn what notes you’re playing? Here are some tips and exercises to show you how to learn the notes on the guitar neck. Read More -
11 Best Beginner Guitar Songs – Part 2
What are the 11 best beginner guitar songs? Here is part 2 of a list of easy to play songs using a range of open string chords and strumming patterns making them a great set of tunes for beginner guitar players. The 11 songs are listed in order of difficulty to play.
7. Knocking On Heavens Door – Bob Dylan
This Bob Dylan song has been covered by many people including Eric Clapton and Guns n Roses. Like Stand By Me it uses just 4 chords – G A minor C and D however to play in the same key as Bob Dylan you don’t need to use a capo. This song introduces the A minor chord which uses the same fingering shape as the E major chord simply moved over a string over towards the 1st string (the thinnest string near the floor). Read More
