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Rock Guitar for beginners

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It seems obvious to me that most beginner electric guitarists want to play guitars that look and sound like their favorite guitarist’s axe. For me personally, when I was about 14 or 15 years old, I was a big fan of Jimi Hendrix.

Naturally, I wanted a Fender Stratocaster. Then there was the Jimmy Page – Led Zeppelin addiction, so I wanted a Les Paul guitar.

For rock guitar, the Gibson Les Paul, or alternatively the Gibson SG are the most appropriate choices. Their solid mahogany bodies and necks, combined with powerful humbucking pickups are perfect for driving any valve guitar amplifier into warm ballsy crunching overdrive.

As far as guitar sounds go, the Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster are two opposite ends of the spectrum. The two most distinct sounding electric guitars that where the forerunners of every other electric guitar ever built.

In todays electric guitar manufacturing diversity, guitars either sound like one or the other, and sometimes halfway between the two with no distinct tonal character of their own. Not that that’s a bad thing.

An interesting thing about Les Paul, is that back in the early days when he was experimenting with the idea of electric guitars, and building various prototypes, he used the Epiphone factory as a workplace on the weekends.

He later took his electric guitar ideas to Gibson, who in an ironic twist, ended up buying the Epiphone guitar company.

Nowadays it’s possible to buy a Gibson Les Paul guitar, or a much cheaper Epiphone Les Paul guitar. The Gibson SG also has its Epiphone equivalent, the most accurate copy being the Epiphone G400.

Not so long ago I owned a beautiful Epiphone Les Paul which I got as part of a swap for one of my amplifiers and some cash at a music store. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen a guitar salesman look sad when I walked out the shop with what was clearly his favorite guitar.

I think he wanted it for himself.

At that time Epiphone was advertising their Les Paul models as having either a mahogany or alder body, and they weren’t telling which wood you’d get of the two. Lately, I see they’re listing a number of their Les Paul guitars as having mahogany necks and bodies.

Here’s the list, and a reason for the list is that I regard mahogany as a phenomenal tone wood. So much so that I recently had a guitar custom built for me, made almost entirely out of mahogany

Les Paul 1956 Goldtop – This one has P90 pickups, so not exactly humbuckingLes Paul Black Beauty 3Les Paul CustomLes Paul Custom Plus – mahogany body with flame maple topLes Paul StandardLes Paul Plain Top – mahogany body with maple topLes Paul Plain Top Plus – mahogany body with flame maple topLes Paul StudioLes Paul Studio Chameleon – These change color depending on which angle you look fromThen there’s the Les Paul Ultra and the Les Paul Ultra II, which have chambered mahogany bodies with quilted maple tops and maple necks.

Okay well…… You’ll notice that I’ve only included guitars with glue in, also known as “Set necks”. Apart from neck through body construction, a set neck provides the best neck to body join, which also adds to that classic Les Paul tone and sustain.

Some of these guitars definitely wouldn’t be considered as beginner electric guitars, like the Ultra and Ultra 2, but I’m really impressed that Epiphone have decided to make most of there Les Paul guitars exclusively out of the same materials that their Gibson counterparts are made of.

Something that you should know about the maple tops on Les Paul guitars is that tonally, maple has a resonance one octave higher than mahogany. This adds to the guitars ability to put out good harmonics. If you don’t know what that means – It just adds more treble, without taking away from the full rich tone of the mahogany.

Some time back I was asked to make a backing track of Sensitive kind, the Santana version.

Here is the intro guitar solo, done on my Epiphone Les Paul – Sensitive kind intro

At one of my gigs I was hounded repeatedly by a fellow guitarist begging me to swap my Epi for his Carvin Custom guitar. He said he was in love with the sound I was getting.

In an ironic twist, I later ended up selling the guitar to a friend of mine who has a music shop, and the customer who bought it from him was the same guy who ordered the backing track from me.

It seems to me that the Big Boys in the electric guitar manufacturing world have woken up. The Les Paul I got from Epiphone was quality through and through, and I think companies like Fender and Gibson realized a while back that unless you give a beginner guitarist a decent guitar to learn on, there won’t be that many of them around to buy any guitars later on.

All too often I hear from people that have tried to learn to play guitar, about how difficult it is to press the chords or progress beyond a certain point.

In most cases they’ve tried to learn guitar on something that could barely be described as a cheap knockoff, made by companies who’s only concern was to sell as many unusable guitars as possible in as short a time as possible to as many unsuspecting novices as they could.

My very first guitar was one of these. It was unusable, but for 19 bucks and a pretty finish, both myself, at the age of 12, and my mother where suckered in.

When it comes to rock guitars for beginners, I have two main recommendations.

Here they are.

You can click on any of the following pictures to get a bigger picture, user reviews and more info on these beginner rock guitars.

Epiphone Vintage G-400 Electric Guitar Worn Brown

Now I suppose you’re wondering why, after all that talk about the Epiphone Les Paul guitars, I recommend an Epiphone SG as a first choice for a beginner rock guitar?

Epiphone SG’s are called G 400’s.

It’s still got that great mahogany tone and set neck with humbucking pickups, but here’s the clincher for me…..

If you look at where the neck joins the body, there’s just an incredible amount of access to all the higher frets, unlike on a Les Paul where you’ve got this big bulky neck joint to contend with up there.

As a beginner guitarist that might not concern you too much, but a little later on you’ll really appreciate it.

On to number two.

Epiphone Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar Factory Restock Ebony

I’ve chosen these models specifically because they’re cheaper Epiphones without all the fancy quilted maples – which I love by the way, and extra trimmings, and because they’re guitars in the Epiphone range that have what it takes to last well into the future as trusted workhorses.

So yes, Epiphone does have cheaper electric guitars, but with these choices you can go from beginner to professional without stopping in between to buy a new guitar.

A guitar is worth so much more than the price you pay for it. When you’ve got something you’re proud to own that’s also a joy to play, it’s priceless.

I hope this post has been useful to you – Keep rocking.

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Learn to play the electric guitar, a better choice

While it is busy putting some lessons for Play-electric - guitar .net, it has become clear to me that to help someone another "get" how playing electric guitar, I really examine each thing just happens when I play the guitar.

One of the first things I realized, was that there is a clear link between strength and speed.

When I answer more quickly, the handle on my picks weakens légèrement.moins force and more speed. What makes an article that I think will read step if long ago about how too much of a grip on the neck of the guitar will slow your ability of quick change of chords or run lead fast runs.

One of my friends has a terrible problem with it.If I give my electric guitar playing, it exerts a pressure so much on the ideogram delivers désaccordé.Inutile say strings, it is not the fastest player by far.

Do not put guys, or all - he admits that he himself - but we have here is an example of an imbalance between the power and the rapidité.Trop power and no speed.

It is my opinion that this comes from him learn to play good markets with terrible action on acoustic guitars and heavy chaînes.Si he had learned to play on a decent electric guitar from early on, he would not have developed this problem.

He still plays a good acoustic steel market poorly set up string guitar with strong and heavy action strings, so I do not think that the problem will be get resolved soon.

People must understand that it is a bad habit that once it is incorporated into your subconscious is not so easy to break.

Parents buy their guitars children learn to play should also understand that.The argument of "We're going to see how they do with him before buy us something better" may be just a reason in itself why they get no better.

Guitars can be nasty things to try to play, especially steel string guitars acoustic, and some of them can be downright impossible to play.

Fortunately, an electric guitar is much easier to put in place nicely and with a little help from your guitar local repairer or luthier, at very little cost, may be required to play as well as some very expensive guitars.

It seems to me that your body is unable to exercise the same amount of force when speed is nécessaire.lorsque you play faster, your muscles need to relax a bit to get the job done.

Species - there is no if long time I had to play acoustic guitar Pinball Wizard .c ' is the kind of rapid pianoter.Le plectrum kept under my hand cos I couldn't keep it fairly serré.Il was kind of cold that day there.

On the web page I recently finished - how to use a pick, I'm going to talk about how my fingers extending outwards slightly from fast picking to the travail.Je believes that all six strings strumming perhaps a bit much this speed.

Anyway, to wrap this post now, I should say that, as a lesson in itself, if you learn to play the electric guitar and do so you on a decent electric guitar you yourself a distinct advantage when one wants to practice how to play quickly.

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How to get rock guitar tone large

I guess I was lucky because I spent a small fortune on equipment that does not have to do what he promised in the ads. Pure heart stop announcement ART SGX 2000 distortion has promised that he would bring, turned towards the purchase of one who could teach me difficult to get the sound track, I wanted to.

The situation is different today, guitar effects processors me disappoint systematically in the beginning, only to later surprise me when I learned the secret.

I think this is a given that most of the effects of guitar processors are at best mediocre when you listen to factory presets.

You will need to connect a decent guitar in the first, is just an inescapable fact, but this is not what I'm talking about ici.Je I am going to just to think that you have sorted.

The first key element is the basic distortion characteristics.Noise can be thin and uneventful, but if the underlying tone is the law of nature, it can be transformed into something great.

To illustrate this point, I have a distortion pedal Overdrive non-marque recommended by a friend.

He drew a Multi Ken multiple effects mem-7.See, I told you it is a trademark of non - name .this thing has the right tonal character but terrible sounds by the erroneous amplifier.

This is because many amplifiers are the two other very rock tone key ingredients.

That basically for me, is therefore the first step towards your dream rock acoustic guitar - guitar great survey into something that distorts the signal in the right way.

Delicate here is that it is difficult to determine if step one is correct that you have two steps and three.

There are two main frequencies I look when you try to get good tone déformé.Il is the lower and upper midrange frequencies.

Perhaps you've experienced this before, where you get a loud noise on your amplifier, then take the amp in a friends place to discover that for some strange reason it just does seem right over.

It is likely that there is a drop-down list box back open, but not necessarily.The only difference is that it is in another room, and each room has a different frequency response.

If I use a guitar with an open back Cabinet speaker amplifier, I would like to have installed near a wall for low ajouté.Dépendant speaker amplifier, it is not always necessary.

If you have a good amp with wide then you should worry too much on the frequencies and refinement, but if your amplifier has one of these horrible fuzzy distortion sound as the tube amp it supposed to emulate, then the following critical areas, you need to look at.

Your guitar amp has a loop effects?

If this is the case you have luck, cos now all you need is a small graphiqueUn equation with these regular eq pedals 10 band is enough, but you can also try a chart 7 band for this.

Figure 10 bands I would recommend is MXR M108 10-Band graphical equalizer pedal seeing that I have used myself, and has all the right frequency.

Low frequency:Here, I tend to promote spectrum located approximately 100 hz.Je 250 hz sometimes makes things sound a little too suitable, but it is always an option to add just a little bit, depending on the sound that is already out.

Upper midrange:Critical frequency here is 4 khz.Si noise is too vague, I take down all over 5 khz, and I mean right BAS.je replaces any upscale is missing with 4 khz.

If the noise gets too piercing, relaxation on the 4 k and adding back a little of the frequency of the upper end can help balance things again.

These are principles that work, if you're playing through a guitar amp or direct registration.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2008 at 16: 35 and is filed under the tone of the guitare.Vous can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.Vous feed can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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5 Things You Do Not Know About Guitar Scales That You Should

Today we will look at 5 things you probably don’t know about guitar scales that you should.

Have you ever wondered why some guitar scales are called one thing in one scale book and called something completely different in another book?

What gives?  Who is right?

This brings us to the first point that most guitar players don’t know:

There is currently no standard or uniform system used throughout the world to identify scales by name. Whether you ask two musicians in the same band, or someone on a different continent, you may get completely different names for the same scale!

Some scales are pretty straight forward—they have only a few names.  For example, the Minor scale is also called the Aeolian mode or scale.  This scale is also sometimes called the Ancient Minor Scale.

Then there are those scales with many names.  For example, the Mixolydian b9 b13 scale is also known as: Phrygian Major, Phrygian Dominant, Spanish, Hejaz and it is also known as the Gypsy scale.

I am sure you will agree that this creates quite a bit of confusion when talking about guitar scales.  In fact, this brings up the next 4 things about guitar scales you probably don’t know…

A scale can be named many different ways.  However, scale names are usually determined by:

1.  The geographical region in which the scale is typically used, or found.

2.  The geographical area one lives in.

3.  The institution(s) and or teachers with whom one has studied.

4.  The number of notes in the scale.

You need to learn the mechanics behind scales.  When you understand how scales are constructed and work, you will find it much easier to understand even the strangest of scale names.

When you know how scales are put together, not only will scale names make sense, but also most importantly, you will see many applications for each scale.

Now here is a tip that will help you identify certain guitar scale synonyms.

When you look at some scale names, you will see things like b2 and b6, etc.  What you need to know is the following are interchangeable in scale names:

2 = 9

4 = 11

6 = 13

This means the Mixolydian b13 scale can also be called Mixolydian b6.  A Lydian #9 scale is also known as a Lydian #2 scale.  A Mixolydian #4 could be called Mixolydian #11.  A Locrian Natural 2 scale can be called a Locrian Natural 9 scale.

This article just scratched the surface of the mechanics behind scale names. To learn how to make total sense of guitar scales and modes and apply them to your guitar, check out the ultimate guitar scales resource. Visit  GuitarAccelerator.com now to turbo-charge your playing with your mastery of guitar scales.

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Guitar Lesson: The Basics of Alternate Picking

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Alternate picking is the most common and efficient way to play notes on individual strings.

Alternate picking requires that you strike the first note with a down-stroke and the next note with an up-stroke.  The pattern is simply repeated for each successive note.

To get started with this technique we will look at a basic and very effective alternate picking exercise.

Here is how to play the alternate picking exercise shown above…

To start the exercise, begin on the first string, 1st fret.  The number combination 1-2-3-4, represents your fret-hand fingers.

Your fret-hand fingers are numbered from one to four (index to pinkie).

To play this exercise, place your first finger on the 1st fret and pick the note. Pick this note with a down-stroke.

Next, place your second finger on the 2nd fret and pick this note with an up-stroke.

Now place your third finger on the third fret and play this note with a down-stroke.

Finally, position your fourth finger on the fourth fret and pick this note with an up-stroke.

You are now ready to repeat this pattern starting on the second fret.  The exercise 1-2-3-4, should be repeated on each fret until your fourth finger reaches the twelfth fret.

You then play the exercise backwards (4-3-2-1) to the 1st fret.  This exercise should be practiced on two or more strings every time you practice. This exercise will help improve your guitar technique. It’s also a great warm-up exercise.

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Boss GT pro review - guitar effects processor use

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When Roland first came out with their COSM effects processors, I bought one – the Roland GP 100, after which I took a long break before buying anymore of their stuff.

I wasn’t convinced they had solved the amplifier simulation problem, but seeing as I’d bought the thing, I did my best to get a decent sound out of it.

Listening to my old recordings with it, they turned out sounding quite good, but I had to do a lot of tweaking back then to get those sounds.

A lot later I bought the Boss GT 6, and initially I was very disappointed with it, then I learned a few tricks like using the booster peddle simulation to improve the amplifier models tone, and which amplifier models worked best.

I slowly fell in love with it, but like most Roland and Boss products at the time, you had to really experiment and tweak. Once you found your formula it was plain sailing.

Composite object sound modeling is supposed to simulate the sound of various guitar amplifiers, and I think they’re a lot closer now.

The truth of the matter is that sometimes they’re so darn good that the thought of them bringing out a newer version bothers me.

What if they don’t have the same amplifier models I use now, or they change it so it doesn’t sound the same?

I was lucky when I moved up from the Boss GT 6 that they still had the same Peavey 5150 model that I liked so much in the GT pro, and it sounded much the same.

The Marshall models seem to have changed, but I prefer them now.

The sound is clearer, almost brighter, but in a good way. maybe this has something to do with the increased bit depth.When you’ve found the amplifier simulation that you like, there’s very little tweaking needed or eq. On the GT 6 there where certain tricks that I learnt to get the most out of an amplifier model, but the GT pro doesn’t need them. Also, they don’t work the same. This is a completely different animal.Now I can record straight into my PC’s usb port, and the noise level is virtually non existent. No more banging my Mackie mixing desk to sort out the dry joints either.A separate compressor, independent of FX 1 or 2 groups.The dual channels are one of my favorite features, seeing as you get to have a different amplifier model for the left and right channels, and delay one of them by up to 50 milliseconds. Here’s a recording of my favorite 5150 stereo split – Boss GT-pro dual channel rock demo – Custom patchThe sound over headphones is virtually the same as what comes out the monitors. On the GT 6 this wasn’t the case. Late night jamming just got a whole lot more fun.It’s rack mountable, so for the studio it’s perfect. I was getting tired of leaning over to change things on the floor. My back isn’t what it used to be.The acoustic guitar sounds, both for turning an electric guitar sound into an acoustic one or making an acoustic guitars piezzo electric transducer sound like a miked up acoustic just don’t do it for me. They do have some use though, like background strums or making things sound different.The distortion and overdrive peddles they’ve modeled don’t behave the same as their analog counterparts, but to be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t fiddled with them too much. It’s kind of pointless when you’ve got some great amplifier models to do the same job better.No foot peddles, but I guess I knew I’d have to buy them separate.There is only one speaker cabinet simulation that’s worth using, which is the 8 by 12 double stack. This is about the same as the GT 6, so no big difference there. Would have been nice to have more though.

All things being equal, the Boss GT-Pro Guitar Multi Effects Processor still gets me the sounds I need to copy any song or guitar sound I want.

If you’re thinking of buying a Boss GT-Pro, or you want a bigger picture and some user reviews, you can click the image above for more info.

Sure, there may be some differences, and sometimes Boss is off the mark a bit, especially in some of their original speaker models, but nothing that a bit of good eq can’t fix. This is so much more than just getting by, and believe me, I’ve plugged guitars into real valve amplifiers that didn’t sound half as good as what’s coming out of this digital box.

Admittedly this isn’t always the case, but when you’ve got so much to work with, you inevitably find what you’re looking for. Here’s a video I made to demonstrate one of the Marshall patches I use. The settings are further down the page.

This first one is the sound patch I used for point 5 of “Here’s the real difference”. I called this one 5150 drive stereo.

The preamp channel mode is Dual – Left and right, and shows D-L/R. Channel delay time is set at 50ms, which seems to be one setting for both channels.

Channel A: Type is 5150 drive. Gain is 8, bass is 80, middle is 100, treble is 60, presence is 0, level is 64, gain switch (Gain SW) is high, Solo SW is off, speaker type is 8×12?, mic type is CND87, mic distance is On Mic, mic position is 7, mic level is 100 and direct level is 0.

Channel B: Type is Metal Lead, Gain is 8, Bass 80, Middle 70, Treble 100, presence 85, Level 45, Gain switch is High, Solo is off, Speaker 8×12?, microphone type is CND87, mic dis = on, mic pos = 10, and again the mic level is 100 while the direct sound is 0.

EQ settings: Equalizer on, Low cut 55hz, Low EQ +10dB, Lo-Mid is 0dB so no need to worry with that one. Hi-Mid f (frequency) is 4.00kHz, Hi Mid Q = 1, Hi Mid EQ +3dB. High EQ is 0dB and High cut is flat. Level is 0dB which just means your not boosting the signal but the EQ still works.

Delay settings: These aren’t really crucial to the sound, and it’s always a matter of personal preference, but here’s what I’ve used for this one. Type = Pan, Delay time = 536ms, Tap time = 50%, feedback = 24, High cut = 11.0kHz, Effect level is 14% and direct level is 100%

Signal FX chain: I like keeping things as close to what they would be in the real world so no biggie here. Preamp first, then EQ, Noise gate, Digital Delay. I don’t know why the noise gate is there where it is, but it seems to work.

This one works great for a bluesy Stevie Ray Vaughn sound stratocaster neck pickup position, and cleans up very nicely when you back off a bit on the guitars volume control. It’s also quite effective as a main hard rock sound when you use higher output humbucking pickups.

Here are the settings: Channel mode is Single, Channel select is channel A, Type is MS HiGain, Gain is 8, Bass 80, Middle 50, Treble 50, Presence 0, Level 50, Gain SW High, Solo Off, Speaker type is 8×12? again (the only one I use), Mic Type CND87, Mic Dis = on mic, Mic Pos = 7, Mic Level = 100, Direct level 0.

EQ settings: These are the same as 5150 stereo, but here they are again anyway. Equalizer on, Low cut 55hz, Low EQ +10dB, Lo-Mid is 0dB so frequency doesn’t matter. Hi-Mid f (frequency) is 4.00kHz, Hi Mid Q = 1, Hi Mid EQ +3dB. High EQ is 0dB and High cut is flat.

Delay settings: Same as 5150 patch above. Okay, I’m getting lazy now.

Reverb: Type is Hall 1, time 2.5s, pre delay 0ms, Low cut 165 Hz, High cut 4.00kHz, Density 10, Effect level 39 and direct level 100. The effect chain is the same as 5150, but with reverb after the delay.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm and is filed under guitar tone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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An Enlightened Guitar Lesson for Guitar Song Writers and Composers Part 2

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It’s time to take the Circle of Influence even further.  In the first part of this exercise we looked at tracing your favourite guitar player’s influences back one generation.

So for example, if your favourite guitarist is guitar player A, you find out who guitar player A’s influences were.  Next, listen to and learn how to play songs written by those influences.

Now let’s take this even further…

Let’s say your favourite guitarist was influenced by guitar player “B”.  After you have listened to guitar player B, find out who B’s influences were.  Let’s say guitar player B was influenced by guitar players E and F.

Now look for recordings of these artists and listen to and analyze their work.

Who were guitarists E and F influenced by?  Continue this process and trace the circle of influence back as far as you can.

As you do this you will probably find some overlapping influences.  For example, a lot of contemporary guitar players have been influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chet Atkins…

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Next, look for different bands, or guitarists that were influenced by guitar player B and listen to their music.  See how they were influenced by guitar player B.  What is similar and what’s different?  Is the influence strong or hard to hear?

Now locate their influences.

Trace their influences back further and further.

In addition to listening to all this great music, you should also learn to play some of these songs as well.

When you do this exercise you will hear that a lot the same compositional techniques are shared between artists.  Even the most original and unique guitarists where influenced by musicians that came before them.  Sometimes you can easily hear these influences other times the influence may be very subtle.

If you are an aspiring composer or song writer, you can take this musical influence listening exercise even deeper.

Pick up a copy of a good music history book.  Preferably find one that has recordings of the musical examples contained in the book.  I would highly recommend making the investment in the books and CDs—this way you can take notes and mark up the book anyway you like and listen to the audio anytime you want.

Work your way through a music history book and listen to the recordings.  Listen to the music and also listen for similarities and differences as you move through musical styles and time.

You don’t have to read through all of the details of the composers’ lives, although this can often be quite educational and entertaining, just focus on the music and what is integral to the style of the music.

You should also do this for music of the 20th century.

Learn about the history of jazz, blues, country, rock, folk, etc.  As you do this, start to listen for commonalities and differences across styles.

What chord progressions are favoured in each style? How does this change over the years?  What scales are used? What meters are used? What characteristics are shared across styles?

The next thing to look at is music from different cultures.  Repeat this process with styles of music from different cultures and historical periods.

As you can now see, this is a big listening exercise.  You could easily spend a couple of months on this or even several years!  It’s up to you how far you want to take it.

As you listen to all of these different styles of music you will discover that each style of music has its own unique set of aesthetics.  Some styles may share a significant group of aesthetics, while others will share little or none.

This means that for you to understand and appreciate each style of music you will need to develop a different set of ears to hear within each style.

A great way to do this is learn some music theory.  With guitar music theory you will understand the building blocks of music.  When you understand how music works, you make it much easier for your ears to understand what is going on in a piece of music.  Think of it like this—if you don’t know what a G7b9 chord is do you think your ears will?

Guitar Music Theory it’s easier than you think!  Here’s a quick and easy way to learn the basics of guitar music theory -> guitar theory.

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Guitar Technique Tutorial: How to Perform String Skipping

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Have you ever been working on a guitar song and get to a part where your pick-hand stumbles a bit?

Frequently the cause of this pick-hand stumble is because your pick-hand has to jump over two or more strings to play the next note.  This is called string skipping.

In this tutorial we look at the guitar technique string skipping.  You’ll learn what it is, how to perform it and you’ll learn some guitar technique exercises to help you master it.

String skipping simply means that you are playing notes on one string and then skip over one or more strings to play the next note.  String skipping can be quite tricky at times.  So let’s look at some exercises you can work on to master it.

Be sure to practice each exercise slowly and make sure you produce clear notes.

Generally you will find alternate picking to be the most efficient way to play passages on non-consecutive strings.  But this rule is not set in stone.  Sometimes it will make more sense to use sweep picking.  Context should be the ultimate judge.

This exercise skips over one string and should be played ascending to the 12th fret and then backwards to the first fret.  The exercise is shown for strings 3—1, but should also be practiced with the following string groupings: 4—2; 5—3; and 6—4.

This exercise skips over 2 strings and like exercise 1 it should be played up to the 12th fret and then played backwards to the first fret.  The exercise is shown for strings 4—1, but should also be practiced with the following string groupings: 5—2, and 6—3.

The above two exercises just used the finger combination 1-2-3-4.  You can also do string skipping exercises with different finger combinations.  For example, 1-2-4-3, 1-3-2-4, 1-3-4-2, 1-4-2-3 and 1-4-3-2, etc. can all be used with string skipping.

To finish off this tutorial, I want to leave you with a tip.

When you encounter an area in a song where you frequently make errors,  you should aim to isolate and eliminate the trouble spot.

Let’s say that you are having trouble with the string skip from the fourth string to the first string in the example shown below.

What do you do?

You isolate and eliminate.

You look closer and discover the actual trouble spot in the passage:

So what you do is focus on just the trouble spot.  In other words, ignore everything else and just focus on the notes on the fourth string and the first string.

Practice these two notes:

Once you feel comfortable with this, expand out by adding in one note before the string skip.

Practice this until you’ve got it down. Then add in the next note after the string skip.

Now focus on this passage until you’ve got it down.

Next, simply repeat this process until you’ve added in the notes in the phrase before and after your string skip and bingo-you’ll have that string skip nailed down!

Are you interested in some powerful string skipping chop-building exercises?  Check out Mega Chops: Scale Mastery Beyond Hanon.

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Guitar Tutorial: The Forgotten Art of Warming Up the Right Way

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Would you ever even think of doing this?

You go the gym…

You put on your workout clothes…

You load up a barbell with a huge stack of weights and then…

You just start lifting.

That’s right.  No warm-up, or anything like that.  You just jump right in and go full-out.

You would never think of doing that would you?

Of course not.

You know that’s a recipe for disaster.

But let me ask you this: “Before you start playing guitar, do you warm-up?

Most guitar players don’t warm-up at all.  They simply grab their guitar and start to play.

Well, let me ask you this:

“Are you at your best on guitar when your fingers feel cold and stiff, or are you going to play at your best when your fingers are warm, loose and limber?”

The answer is obvious.

There are many effective things you can do to properly warm-up.  There are two broad categories of warm-up: off-instrument and on-instrument.  Today we will look at the off-instrument component.

A warm-up should contain a sufficient number of exercises that will warm your body’s core temperature and allow for mental readiness and focus on the task at hand.

A warm-up will increase deep muscle temperature, increase the viscosity of joint fluids and increase the range of motion in joints.

In other words, a warm-up gets you ready to play!

The idea behind the off-instrument warm-up is that you warm-up your body before you even pick up the guitar.  This means you would do some very light cardio and some very light stretching.  You would do this for 2-5 minutes and then start your true practice session with your on-instrument warm-up exercises.

The light cardio can be as simple as walking or marching in place, running in place,  or jumping jacks.  The idea here is to simply warm your whole body up.

For stretching, you should perform some light stretches that will get your whole body ready for practice.  Remember that your whole body is involved when you play guitar, not just your hands.

Obviously the focus is on the hands and forearms, but other body parts are used and some will need to remain stationary for extended periods of time.  This is not easy on the supporting body parts.  This is why you want to warm them all up.  For example, think of what your neck, shoulders, and back have to do when you practice.  So it just makes sense to perform some light stretches for your neck, shoulders, back, abs, arms, hands and legs.

Here you will find a PDF you can download with 12 stretching/warm-up body exercises  – PDF.  These stretches were created for the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine.

Before you begin the light cardio and light stretching, remember it’s always best to consult with your doctor before you start any physical fitness program regardless of how light it is-just to be safe.  Don’t take any chances.  Also, if you experience any pain it’s time to stop.

So there you go, you now know the basics of how to do a simple off-instrument warm-up.  Try it out at the beginning of your next practice session and I’m sure you will notice better results from your practice time.

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