The 1st, 4th and 5th chords are the most important chords in any key signature. They are often referred to by roman numerals, or the I, IV, V chords. In the key of F they are F major (I), B flat major (IV), and C major (V). Learn what other chords work well in this key signature.Read More »Chords In The Key Of F
I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend. You may have seen it before, but this time – we’ve changed it up a little to make it MUCH more user-friendly and easier to read.
Here it is….
You may be saying, ‘well wait a minute. I’ve seen something like this before. You’re right. It’s actually segments of the famous chord wheel. But as I mentioned before, we’ve made it easier to read.
The chord wheel allows practical application of chord theory. You can determine which chords belong to a given key and analyze any progression instantly.Read More »Chord Wheel Guide
So what happens when you’re on your own and simply can’t figure out a strumming pattern, or one isn’t available?
This has been the question for some of our members. I have a lengthy tutorial about this, but I’ll touch base on this concept right here to refresh some of our member frustrations.
Learning WHAT style to strum and when is actually REALLY easy, but the concept is tricky.Read More »10 Steps To Playing A Cover Song
Ah…the hard part right? Nope.
This goes back to listening to the lyrics and how the singer arranged the lyrics to go along with the song. Many times, artists will write the lyrics first -then the chords (and vice-versa.)Read More »How To Strum And Sing
Tthe absolute key to learning how to strum a song is feeling it as well as getting a sense of the type of song you are playing. That will set the framework for the entire song, including the lyrics.
Let’s look at a few artists and three points that make up their sound:Read More »Strumming: Getting A Sense Of The Genre
One aspect of guitar strumming patterns that should not be overlooked in an acoustic guitar lesson consists of the options available to create a more dynamic sounding rhythm part. An interesting guitar part doesn’t necessarily need a lot of basic guitar chord changes, but just playing dynamically with a single chord can be quite interesting tonally.Read More »Dynamic Guitar Strumming
The slash sheet exercises below are quite simple. They are arranged as quarter notes on the staff that you see, but really you should just… Read More »Slash Sheet Strumming Exercises
First things first…
Strumming, for a guitarist, generally is used specifically to refer to when a guitarist loosely plays a series of basic guitar chords with the same rhythmic set of up and down strokes.
One common mistake among beginner guitarists is to use guitar strumming patterns in place of proper rhythmic control or to try to regulate any guitar into a strumming pattern. This is usually only used for more background rhythm parts, and shouldn’t be confused with acoustic guitar lessons on techniques that are intentionally more precise.Read More »Guitar Strumming Basics
This chart gives you three chord/family fretboard positions that help you play chords and chord-based licks all over the fretboard in any key. You can move automatically from I-IV-V in three different places on the guitar (per key) using the same three or four note chord fragments you played when we discussed the DAF formation lesson.Read More »DAF: Chord Fragments And Families
This style is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars. Pattern picking is the use of “preset right-hand pattern[s]” while fingerpicking, with the left hand fingering standard chords. This involves playing a steady bass pattern with the thumb and filling out some syncopated rhythms with the fingers of the right hand (assuming a right handed guitarist). It is a great accompaniment style for folk and ragtime music among other styles.
The essence of the Travis pattern is the steady bass against the syncopated figure played with the fingers. The use of the term “syncopated” is perhaps stretching it a bit. This term refers to a rhythm that is “off beat” with reference to the basic pulse. In this case the overall rhythm of the Travis pattern is not syncopated, however when you break the pattern down into its two elements, one part (played with the thumb) is on the beat, and the other part (played with the fingers) is sometimes in between the beat, hence the term syncopated. It is important to understand however, that when both thumb and finger are working together this should not produce a off beat jerky rhythm but instead a lively yet comfortable feeling groove with a steady pulse.Read More »Travis Picking