String bending is the act of picking a note on your guitar and bending the string upwards or downwards to get a higher pitch.

Why do we need to learn how to bend strings?

The answer is because it brings character to our songs. Rather than just picking a higher note up in a scale, bending the string allows us to reach the same pitch or note ( from a lower note ) in a smooth fashion. You’ll hear plenty of string bending in Country Western and Folk guitar music. It’s used very often in Rock as well.

Learn How To Bend Strings

Here’s a tip for you. Many beginner guitar players tend to bend the strings using their fingers to push the strings up, then they complain that their fingers hurt or they don’t have enough strength to do their bends. That’s just wrong technique.  Instead, keep your fingers rigid and twist your wrist to get the string to bend. This gives your bending a lot more strength and takes the pressure off your fingers, creating a much nicer tone over all.

Here’s a pretty decent Youtube video that teaches views the basics of bending.

Guitar Lesson: Bending Strings

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String Bending Lesson – Learn How To Bend And Why

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For those of you beginners who want to learn to shred, practicing with the end in mind is crucial to your success.

Today, I came across a great little blog post titled ” Terry Syrek on Concentration ” from The Practice Room blog. I thought this particular article would be really apply to beginner guitar players such as yourselves, as well as intermediate players.

( For those of you who do not know who Terry Syrek is, just Youtube him. He’s one of the best shredders and improvisation guitarists I’ve come to know. He’s also released a book called ” Shred Is Not Dead ” – A DVD / book tutorial combination course covering shredding and building up your chops ).

This really great post talks about being efficient with your guitar practice sessions, and really putting your 100% concentration on the licks, scales or songs you’re trying to learn, as opposed to letting your mind wander off while you practice.

Now come to think of it, I think this is true. When I first started learning to play the guitar, I was mentally going through licks or scales that I would play – While I was practicing and also when I wasn’t.

Anyway, check out the article and apply what you read to your guitar practice.

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Guitar Practicing Mindset – Terry Syrek Words Out

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Beginner guitar basic hand positions for fretting and strumming

Here is a beginner guitar  tutorial for hand positioning on a guitar. We will quickly cover what your left and right hands will be doing

Your fretting hand is the one that puts pressure on the string and hold chords while your strumming hand will pluck the guitar strings or strum them using a pick.

Fretting Hand

First of all, have you thumb pressed up against the middle of the back of the guitar neck.

When your thumb applies force to the back of the guitar neck, it helps you anchor your hand firmly to allow your fingers to move freely on the fretboard.

A lot of beginners position their thumbs too high up on the top edge of the neck and this is bad technique. Why? Firstly, it makes it difficult to play the bass string properly. Secondly, your other fingers will have problems holding chords properly and they will have to apply more force in order for the notes to sound correctly. And in doing so, reduces your finger movement’s speed.

Strumming Hand

When you are strumming on the guitar, you need your forearm to be relaxed and loose. Only your forearm and wrist should have movement while the upper arm should remain firmly anchored to the guitar body.

Rest your inner part of your elbow on the top edge of the guitar body so that your forearm hangs naturally downwards pointing towards the strings. If in a seated position, try to position your body to be more upright to avoid possible shoulder injuries from playing guitar for extended periods of time – Take some breaks between practice sessions!

If you are playing on an acoustic guitar, strumming directly over the “hole ” will produce the richest, most resonating notes. And if you’re playing on an electric, playing over on of your pickups will be best on most occasions unless you’re trying to achieve a certain type of sound.

For more beginner guitar tutorials, be sure to check this website frequently.

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Beginner Guitar – Guitar Fretting And Strumming Hand Positions

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There are so many guitar tutorials of such high quality being provided on websites, more and more prospective guitar players are turning to the internet to find the most efficient way possible of learning how to play guitar. With such wide a variety of guitar tutorials, tips and tricks available, newcomers are gaining a significant edge that veteran guitar players did not have in the past.

These tutorials are designed by the very best of guitar instructors in the world, and the right guitar lessons can help you get better in the least amount of time and effort possible. Video guitar lessons are usually provided by websites dedicated to guitar instruction in the form of DVDs or downloadable AVI video formats. These can be obtained either free or charge or for a reasonably low-cost fee.

No matter what your skill level and experience, videos are the perfect way for you to polishing your  playing technique as well as finding out things you never knew about guitar before. Video guitar tutorials are great for novice as well as experienced guitar players looking for valuable playing techniques or guitar tips to further improve on their current abilities.

If you are wondering about the best way of learning the art of playing guitar, then you should really look to the professional guitar players for help. Find a reliable website that frequently adds new tutorials to their site often, guides you through systematic and regular practice sessions, and most importantly motivates you to play. If you follow this formula, incredible results will begin to show in very little time.

The best online guitar lessons for beginners are where they teach you the fundamental basics such as the notes on the guitar fretboard, basic finger positions, and the guitar scales most commonly used in songs. Proper picking techniques for optimum playing speed, as well as developing left hand finger strength are also important.

Gaining this basic foundation is crucial to your future skill development. It is so important to start with the easy tutorials as the biggest mistake most beginners make when learning how to play guitar is forming bad habits, which are very hard to break later on.

photo credit: Last Hero

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Guitar Tutorials For Learning Guitar In Less Time

Guitar Software

The Jamorama guitar software is an extremely simple yet efficient guitar learning tool. Not only is it very effective at teaching you how to master a guitar in months, you can really master it and start jamming like a professional. The guitar tutorials teach you how to play the guitar by ear ( which is how I learned ), taking you step by step by the hand with weekly and monthly guitar lessons.

Here’s what some other people have said about the Jamorama guitar course:

“Jamorama was designed by Ben Edwards. Ben Edwards was the former lead guitarist of the popular down-under band “DegreesK”. Ben designed Jamorama to be fun and easy to use. Inside this cool program are jam tracks selected exclusively by Ben for people to play and practice. One does not have to endure repetitive and boring tracks or drills. These jam tracks were designed by professional musicians and are interestingly different from those usual play-along practice sessions. This session is designed like an actual live jamming session. Thus, by doing jam tracks, it is like you are practicing with these professional musicians in a live environment” – By Mike Darwin, Ezinearticles

“Getting a guitar teacher can become very expensive. Another option is to learn from friends who also play the guitar and to get a guitar tab tutorials book either referred by a friend or one you picked up from the local music store. However it’s not always easy to learn from a book. A lot of people just don’t get it so they need a teacher to explain everything. Jamorama is a package that combines a book using audio, video and a program to load those three components.” – By A Ghielli, Ezinearticles.com

“What I like about the program is that it mixes fun with their guitar learning approach and it covers most of the important elements when it comes to guitar learning. It gives you three bonuses which will help you on your learning ability. The learn-by-ear is good for learning guitar playing by listening. It is a game which provides the value of true learning. There are also music notes learning game and electronic metronome. Those are a good compliment to guitar learning process.” – By Jim Somchai, Ezinearticles

Do you want quick-start guitar tuts that will get you jamming in months? Don’t waste your money on one to one guitar instruction, they’re way too expensive. Jamorama is the only resource you will need for years to come!

photo credit: rochelle, et. al.

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Is Jamorama The Best Guitar Software Online Learning Program?

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Guitar Tips - Buying A Guitar

Before you can get started with your guitar tutorials, you first need to buy a guitar! Buying your first guitar can be a real dilemma – I can still remember my first guitar, I saved up my salary for months to buy it and I didn’t want buy the wrong guitar or worse, ending up with a lemon.

So here are some quick tips for for buying a guitar:

Decide which style of guitar you would most likely end up playing. Would it be rock? Metal? Jazz or blues guitar? Or maybe you want to be an all rounder? Once you find that out, it’s time to find a guitar that will give you the type of sound you’re looking for. Remember also that effects pedals and amps etc will also modify your tone quite a bit. I will cover more on that in a later post.

Do not make a rushed decision. Talk to people who have an extensive knowledge on guitars, or have been playing for many years. You can even go to online forums and ask, most people in forums who share your same interest are helpful.

As a beginner, look for a package if available. Quite often, manufacturers might bundle up guitar tutorials or courses to go with one of their guitar models. That would be ideal and would save you a lot of money. More often than not, a guitar store will offer you such packages.

In my own experience, every time I’ve purchased a guitar, I’ve been able to bargain with the guitar store and get some sort of discount. Try to get them to drop the price for you a little bit and also include accessories in for free ( like guitar straps, picks, guitar tuners etc ). It’s good to buy an amp or sound equipment at this time too because tying all these up together will just save you tons of cash.

The most important thing for you as a beginner, is to learn to check for the straightness of the guitar neck. If it is straight, then the intonation will be consistent throughout the fretboard. NOTE: if you buy a guitar with a slightly twisted neck, there is absolutely no way you can fix it. You can only fix a bowed neck but not a twisted one.

On a final note, hold the guitar and play some stuff. If you don’t know how to play yet, don’t be embarrassed, just pluck some a few guitar strings and listen to it. Does it sound satisfactory to you? Put your hand on the neck and ask yourself, ” does my hand feel comfortable on the guitar neck?”, ” Is it too wide, or too narrow for my hands ” ?

I hope these quick tips have given you more confidence in going out there and finding yourself your FIRST guitar!
photo credit: psd

Post from: Guitar Tutorials - For Beginners tips, chords, scales and course reviews

Guitar Tips For Buying A Guitar

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