Far and away the most common reason why someone stops going to see a guitar teacher is typically voiced like this:

“They sat there showing me all kinds of amazing stuff that they could do on their guitar, but I came away having learned nothing myself”

Yet when I talk to people who are considering starting out as guitar teachers, they are inevitably concerned about their own perceived lack of musical ability or comprehension of music theory; never their lack of teaching skills or experience.

One of the main reasons it is so easy to set up as a guitar teacher and become really successful at it, is that there are so many people out there doing it really badly. They’re not doing it badly because they are bad people – they are doing it badly because they make the assumption that it is all about being a great musician and seem to completely miss the point that it’s actually about being a good teacher.

When someone is paying you by the hour it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you must be seen to be doing something to earn your fee throughout the hour that is being paid for.

Skilled teachers however, know that the doing must come mostly from the student. When I run 3-day courses on guitar teaching, the first exercise I get trainee guitar-teachers to complete involves sitting in front of a guitar student and doing nothing at all. It is, at first, an extraordinarily difficult exercise for people to do properly!

The point is that students need time and space to take in what you have asked them to do, to repeat it enough times to get it into ‘muscle-memory’ and to satisfy themselves that they have really got on top of it. While all this is going on, the very kindest thing the teacher can do is sit back in their chair and project the sense that they are happy to wait patiently for as long as it takes. And the best way to project that, is to do and say nothing other than to quietly observe the student’s progress.

New teachers though, have a nasty habit of sitting forward on the edge of their seat, making all kinds of remarks intended to encourage the student, gesticulating with their hands and even – the worst of all crimes – attempting to solo over what the student is playing for no reason other than because they cannot feel comfortable just to sit and observe.

I have seen quite a few posts on various forums about guitar teaching that recommend a particular way to teach a first lesson on guitar. Many of these ideas appear to ignore the harsh truth that there is a vast difference between the learning ability of different individuals who take up guitar.

I have had students never having played before, successfully improvise a blues guitar solo by the end of their first ever lesson. But I have also had guys who were still trying to get a single clean fretted note out of the instrument at the end of that first hour. And I have taught people of every shade of learning ability in between those two extremes.

So the first thing I train guitar teachers to put into their lesson planning, is adaptability. Never make assumptions about the rate of progress that will be made by a new student.

After a few lessons you will get a feel for how fast or how slow to take an individual student over the jumps and through the hoops.

As a newbie guitar teacher, you are probably a hundred times more likely to attempt to teach too much, too fast, than you are likely to err in the opposite direction.

Sensible teachers consult their students. “Are you happy with your progress on that tune/exercise/riff/lick/ sequence, or would you like to run through it another couple of times?”

Almost always, I have found that students need, and want, to go over things more often than might appear necessary to the inexperienced teacher.

This one is mostly applicable to teaching people who have already been playing for a while.

Someone comes to me for lessons and, regardless of whether they describe themselves as a beginner, intermediate or advanced guitarist, I will always spend the first 10-30 minutes assessing what they can and can’t do; what they do and don’t know and most vitally, what they aspire to.

There is little more irritating for a student than to work with a teacher who makes assumptions about these things.

Teachers who assume you must have learned to read tab or standard notation, when maybe all you have ever done is learn by ear. Teachers who assume that you know the names of all the chord shapes you play when you have just picked them all up by watching videos of your favorite guitar players. Teachers who assume that you want to play in a band, when actually your main purpose is to use the guitar to record your own music on your home computer.

How to learn to teach guitar

There is no shortage of help available online when it comes to improving your musical knowledge and guitar playing skills. However, it is less obvious where to go to improve your guitar teaching skills.

Before the inevitable plug for my website that I know you can feel coming, let me say that there is no better way of learning to teach than by … well … er … teaching.

My first advice to anyone considering taking up guitar teaching for a living is to start teaching as soon as possible and to teach as much as possible. If you don’t feel ready to charge for this service then that is fine. Give lessons to family members, friends, kids at the orphanage – for free. You will rapidly improve how you teach if you take this advice and then after a few lessons, come back and read this article again and see if you are managing to avoid the 5 mistakes.

Loads more free articles, materials, helpful advice plus the largest guitar teachers’ forum on the net, all available at www.teachguitar.com

Happy Guitar Teaching and Playing!

Nick Minnion

Many people start playing guitar, because they hear a super heavy hardcore riff on the radio and it inspires them to become a musician. That’s cool because heavy metal is a fun genre of music that is also a rewarding genre for guitarists. The sound of a hardcore metal guitar is awesome; however getting ‘that’ sound can be difficult.

Variations in Metal Guitar Sounds

First let me note that there are many variations in metal guitar sounds depending on the bands style and how heavy they are. Just like any genre of music there are many variations depending on the band or song. Also lead players need a different tone when they are playing.

However there is a basic ‘metal guitar sound’; this is essentially loud and as distorted as you can be. Often it is common in metal to ’scoop’ the tone. This means that you should put your bass and treble near full and pull your mids back to around 3 or so. The results this can have may vary wildly depending on the kind of amp you have, so experiment with your equipment.

When it comes to your guitar, generally metal guitarists use humbucker pickups. This is because they reduce feedback and give off a warmer fatter sound. For this reason if you find you are having trouble getting a good sound out of your guitar maybe you need to think about whether you have the right kind of pick ups.

So try these ideas if you are having trouble getting the right metal guitar sound. Remember these are only guidelines for you to experiment with. Remember turn your amps up to eleven and rock out.

The Guitar Classroom offers many types of guitar lessons, including metal guitar, so if you are serious about your guitar learning, visit The Guitar Classroom and get your online guitar lessons

Nearly all instructors charge around $40/hour to train somebody to play the guitar. But there are various online programs that have been created just for guitar beginners and some of them may even offer free trials. However, one should be careful when choosing the trainers as many portals may claim immediate success. It does not matter how you choose to learn the guitar as it will anyway involve lot of practice.

Guitar Lessons for Beginners

It can be quite difficult for a guitar beginner to learn to play the guitar, which is why online classes are a great idea. You don’t have to bother about doing some thing wrong. The training audio, video, and text lessons would help you to do right things until you are able to play with confidence. There are several guitar lessons specifically designed for beginners.

Sometimes, the most useful idea is to go for a free trial, or to pick a program that gives money-back guarantee. The genuine courses always provide some guarantee for those that either find it too hard or don’t like the product. However, only a few private trainers feel this way.

It is also possible to learn various types of guitar lessons through the internet. One can easily take up bass guitar and electric guitar lessons online.

Guitar Beginner

As a guitar beginner, you need to understand and practice guitar with utmost patience. Quite often, students start learning guitar with a lot of enthusiasm and quit practicing after few weeks itself. You need to spend a fixed amount of time everyday for your guitar practice.

New pieces must be played very slowly at least 10 times before speeding up the effort. This might appear like a hard work, but this way your mind will program very securely, which would help you to play perfectly and at a much faster speed. Get familiar with your guitar and make sure that it is set up correctly. The process of learning a guitar has become much easier with the initiation of these guitar lessons.

Beginner Guitar Lessons

There is no shortage of beginner’s guitar lessons to watch or download, but their effectiveness depends on how the trainer presents the information to you!

For any help on Guitar lessons beginner, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the bass guitar lessons!

The Guitar Classroom is the place to go if you are looking for beginner guitar lessons

Learn the 12 bar blues from Griff Hamlin

The 12 bar blues is the most basic of blues progressions known to man, but it’s also the most widely used in all blues music.

The 12 Bar blues gets it’s name from the fact that it is a 12 bar pattern repeated over and over. The pattern is pre-determined and depending on what key you are playing in determines which chords you’re going to play for the 12 bar pattern.

In this article I’m going to explain what the 12 bar blues pattern looks like and give you an example of what chords you’d play for a 12 bar blues progression in the key of G.

The 12 Bar Blues Progressions

The 12 bar blues are usually looked at as a pattern of numbers. That pattern looks like this:

1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 4 – 4 – 1 – 1 – 5 – 4 – 1 – 5

The numbers in the pattern represent the number placement of a particular note taken from the scale of the key you want to play the 12 bar blues in.

Let’s do an example.

If you are interested in playing the 12 bar blues in the Key of G you’d want to first look at the G major scale which looks like this.

G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G

If we number the notes in that scale from left to right we get G = 1, A = 2, B = 3, C = 4, D = 5 and so on.

If we grab the notes we need for the 12 bar blues pattern we’re going to end up with G, C and D which are the first, fourth and fifth notes respectively.

Playing a 12 Bar Blues Progression

So we have the pattern and now we have the notes. Of course we’re not just going to play it as notes, we want to play chords for this progression. So we plug in the notes from the scale into our pattern and end up with this:

G – G – G – G – C – C – G – G – D – C – G – D

Generally the easiest way to play a progression like this is to use power chord formations. So for each of the chords you’ll need to use your first, third and fourth fingers. For this example we’ll play the chords like this:

G Chord – First finger on 3rd fret of the low E, third finger on 5th fret of the A and interchange placing the fourth finger on the 7th fret of the A string.

C Chord – First finger on 3rd fret of the A, third finger on 5th fret of the D and interchange placing the fourth finger on the 7th fret of the D string.

D Chord – First finger on 5rd fret of the low D, third finger on 7th fret of the G and interchange placing the fourth finger on the 9th fret of the G string.

Grab your guitar and give these chord shapes a try. What I mean by interchange the fourth finger on the 7th or 9th fret of a given string is: Pluck down twice on let’s say the G power chord formation, then place your fourth finger on the 7th fret of the A string and pluck down twice, while leaving your third finger on the 5th fret of the A string. Next remove your fourth finger and pluck down twice again on the regular G power chord formation. You’ll get the feel for what it’s supposed to sound like.

With this information you can now create a 12 bar blues chord progression in just about any key you can think of. All you need is the pattern I gave you above and the scale for the given key you want to play in and you’re all set.

If you’re interested in taking your blues guitar playing to a new level I suggest you check out both online and DVD Blues guitar lessons at LearningTheBlues.com.

You could also visit The Guitar Classroom and get you online blues guitar lessons

When beginning to learn to play the Flamenco guitar, it is paramount for you to learn this vital element from the very first, mastering the various types of compas. When you accomplish this feat, it will create within you a deep understanding of the rhythmic nature of Flamenco music. Establish an internal sense of the compas, and the guitar will come alive in your hands; ignore it and your music will languish, losing its emotional power.

Because emotional power is so central to Flamenco music, do not seek only to comprehend the mere theory of the beat structure, accents, and patterns of the music. Rather, seek to possess an inner sense of the music, one that transforms into musical expression through the movements of your hands and fingers, making them a vehicle through which flows the energy and momentum of the music. A true aficionado of Flamenco will always recognize your ability to play the compas strictly, unerringly, and with an inner sense in which you become one with the music. Without this strict attention to compas, any Flamenco master will judge your musicianship to be boring, even if you have a flawless technique and rapid fingers.

This internal oneness with these rhythms might come easily to you. More often, though, you may need to constantly focus on these rhythms’ sound and feeling. Perseverance pays big dividends in learning to play in compas. Absorb as much Flamenco music as you can, through concerts, videos, and recordings.

Rhythmic Forms: Toques

Learn to recognize the various rhythmic forms, called toques, that compose the whole of Flamenco music. Of all the toques, Soleares is the most important. Players must conform strictly to the compas at all times, during both the passages of rhythmic strumming (rasgueo), as well as in the melodic passages (falsetas).

Master two inseparable components, and you will always play in compas. First of all, your rhythm must be regular, compelling–the kind of impetus that compels its listener to move in time to the music. Second, your accentuation of beats and the number of beats that you have in each musical phrase must always fit the characteristic pattern of the particular toque that you are playing. When you have mastered playing in compas, you will be well on your way toward becoming a proficient and passionate Flamenco guitarist.

Los Angeles Guitar Academy Online features online Flamenco guitar lessons as one of its signature programs. Its world-class faculty unpacks the language of Flamenco music, explaining it in an easy-to understand format. Lessons proceed in a step-by-step manner, allowing students to master one concept before moving on to the next. For students who live near Los Angeles, LAGA has studios located throughout the metropolitan LA area.

Guitar Tricks is a guitar learning site for everyone, the beginner as well as the advanced guitarist is sure to benefit greatly from Guitar Tricks.

You can sign up for free with Guitar Tricks, and this way you will have access to 24 online guitar lessons.

Once you have sampled the free lessons, we think you will want to push beyond the sample lessons and begin targeting your own interests with the huge variety of resources found in a full access subscription.

Paid members have access to all of Guitar Tricks resources, among them over 3000 video guitar lessons in many guitar styles, like blues, country, rock or classical guitar lessons.

45 teachers are on the moment teaching at Guitar Tricks, all of them excellent guitar players/teachers with a lot of experience in teaching guitar. Guitar Tricks instructors can do more than play the guitar. The key distinction is that their instructors know how to instruct. Hailing from all around the world, and ranging from touring professionals to college professors, their teachers know how to teach you guitar easily and effortlessly.

With their unique learning process developed over the last decade, they take care of all of the “thinking” part of learning guitar – allowing you to pay attention to playing guitar and having fun. No more flipping through books looking for the DVD or flipping through DVDs looking for the booklet. A full access subscription with Guitar Tricks is the one of the best ways to learn guitar available.

Full Access Subscription with Guitar Tricks

A full access subscription with Guitar Tricks will give you:

The price? Just $14.95 a month

More info or to sign up with Guitar Tricks is available in The Guitar Classroom, at the page for Guitar Tricks

These programs are fronted by professional musicians trained to give you the best tuition possible; many have performed with well known bands. Say goodbye to boring repetitive teaching methods; with the aid of audio, video and the written word these lessons are made to be interesting, easy to understand and most importantly fun.

Learning to play guitar online is really cost effective when compared to the old tutor/pupil model of yesterday, besides fuel and time savings there is the added advantage of being able to take your lessons whenever it suits you. Many programs will get you off to a fine start with free guitar lessons, nothing to pay or commit yourself to and if you decide to move on to the main course later on you will find the cost of the whole course far less than traditional teaching.

When looking for online guitar tuition always take a look at the free beginner lessons no matter what your ability; good guitar programs remain constant in their style of instruction and so the free lessons will give you an insight into their teaching method.

Always take a tour of the website before committing yourself, the program should have a feedback page with comments from pupils both past and present to help in your decision, there will also be an ‘About Us’ page where the instructors will introduce themselves and give some information of their experience and qualifications.

These interactive lessons were put together by musicians and are easy to navigate and understand, if you find yourself unsure of anything just hit replay. You will also be able to contact your instructor by email or live chat.

Being able to learn to play guitar online has many advantages and progress will be quick and straightforward when coupled with that magic ingredient – PRACTICE!

Learn to Play Guitar Online: Sign up for our Brilliant Free Six Part Series Now – You’ll be Playing Your First Song by the Fifth Lesson

You’ll literally have one of the most powerful, extensive & cutting edge music sequencers found anywhere at your command.

Make Your Own Beats

Sonic Producwr - Music Production Software To Make Your Own Beats

9 Different percussion categories:

Dozens of different styles included for each!

Sonic Producer is loaded to the max with strings

Hundreds more choices, just in strings alone

Piano? Name the piano style you want, you’ll find it here – including harpsichords!

Cymbals & Chimes .. same deal

Horns & Brass … of course! Again … hundreds upon hundreds of different styles to choose from!

And With A FULL 16 (!) Tracks, you want professional style mixing – you get professional style mixing. Overlay and mix sound after sound, creating a custom beat that’ll be unleashing hell on your musical scores.

You want to make your own beats? Check out Sonic Producer

Download Jayde Musica

Most people I know who play an instrument, guitar or any other instrument, do not know how to read music, or they know just a little. Most of them do not like to learn how to read music, they find it boring, they want to make music, not trying to read a lot of dots on a paper with lots of lines.

Well, learning to read music is boring, but it can be very handy to know how to read music, and for some types of music, for example classical music, is it quiet essential you know how to read music.

Learn To Read Music With Jayde Musica

A nice way to learn is a program called Jayde Musica. It is a sort of computer came, and while you play the game, you get better at reading music.

Check out Jayde Musica

Anyone who wants to improve his/her music reading should download Jayde Musica and start playing the game, at least once a day, for say half an hour or so. Within a few weeks you will be amazed at how much your music reading has improved.

You can download a simple version of Jayde Musica for free, although it is recommended you get the paid version, which of course has more options. The Guitar Classroom has more info about Jayde Musica

Lear to play the guitar with Jam Play

The number of frets on an electric guitar makes a difference because of scale length. Scale length is the distance from the bridge of a guitar to its nut. If you have two guitars of different scale lengths (a Fender and a Gibson for example), put the same gauge strings on them and tune them to the same pitch you will notice that the Gibson’s strings are looser. The reason for this is that the Gibson’s Scale length is shorter than a Fender’s. Go to a guitar store and check this out for yourself if you want. The scale lengths are different and you will see that their respective scale length affects string tension. Tighter strings can make a guitar more difficult to play and can also affect tone.

If a guitar has an extra two frets then obviously it has a longer scale length. This means that if you have a 24 fret guitar your strings will be tighter relative to what it would have been if you had a 22 fret guitar.

Scale length will also change the position of your pickups along your strings vibrating length. This is important because there is a harmonic at the 24th fret and if you have 22 frets the harmonic sits over the pickups. Many people including myself feel that 22 fret guitars sound better. However, it is also true that many players feel that 24 frets gives a player more flexibility.

I would recommend you try both out for your self and see which one you prefer to play with. There is a trade off between the flexibility of having 24 frets and the tone and playability of 22.

You can learn to play guitar by joining JamPlay or Guitar Tricks they both charge just a small monthly fee, and are excellent online guitar schools. For more info click one of the banners on this page. You could also purchase one of these online guitar lessons