Trick Guitar tone

I've posted quite a few things here concerning songs, practice scales, and such, but I may have forgot the fundamental skill it takes to really learn these things. In fact, I just assumed you knew. (which was wrong of me since I'm creating a blog aimed at beginners)

So let's talk about reading tabs. What are guitar tabs?

Tab actually stands for tablature which is a short-hand version of sheet music that's able to be understood by those without much knowledge of musical theory and how to read the musical staff.

Honestly, it has its own limitations, but that's expected in a shorthand version. In reality, you can't fully comprehend a guitar tab unless you've already heard the piece that the tab is about.

Kinda sucks, but it's true. You see, guitar tabs have a very difficult time conveying tempo and rhythm without spending much more time on the tablature's composure.

At that point, it's not really short-hand anymore. You see the irony?

So what do all these things on the tab represent?

Well... let's start with the strings.

------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------

I'm sure you've probably gathered as much that these lines represent the actual strings on the guitar, but in a different perspective than you may expect.

e----------------------------------------------- b----------------------------------------------- g----------------------------------------------- D----------------------------------------------- A----------------------------------------------- E-----------------------------------------------

See, when I add the actual tone names, you'll notice that they are labeled by how YOU would view the guitar when you're looking down when it's in playing position.

e---3---3---3---0---0---0---0---0---0----------- b---3---3---3---0---0---0---2---2---2----------- g---0---0---0---1---1---1---2---2---2----------- D---0---0---0---2---2---2---2---2---2----------- A---2---2---2---2---2---2---0---0---0----------- E---3---3---3---0---0---0---x---x---x-----------

The numbers that appear on the strings are the fret numbers. These actually tell you where to place your fingers on the fret board.

You notice that these fret numbers are all lined up. That's because they're making chords. When you see them all lined up in this fashion, that means all of those strings are to be strummed at once.

So for the first chord, which is a 'G Major,' the tab says to press down the 3rd fret on the 'E' string, the 2nd fret on the 'A' string, the 3rd fret on the 'b' string, and the 3rd fret on the high 'e' string. Then strum all 6 strings.

You strum all 6 of them because the number 0 indicates a string to be struck, but not to be fingered.

There are also a couple 'x' indicators on the guitar tab. That means do not strike as part of the chord. Simple enough.

The entire guitar tab just says to strum the 'G Major' chord 3 times, then the 'E Major' chord 3 times, and then the 'A Major' chord 3 times. (while missing that first string on the last chord)

This is most of what you'll encounter as fast as guitar tabs, but there are a few who attempt to show tempo and rhythms in their tabs and you might see this...

____1___+___2___+___3___+___4___+___1___etc. e---3---3---3---0---0---0---0---0---0------------ b---3---3---3---0---0---0---2---2---2------------ g---0---0---0---1---1---1---2---2---2------------ D---0---0---0---2---2---2---2---2---2------------ A---2---2---2---2---2---2---0---0---0------------ E---3---3---3---0---0---0---x---x---x------------

Now that I look at this, it's a pretty dumb rhythm, but oh well. Numbers will be placed on the top of the tab in order to count out a rhythm. It's usually pretty tough to imagine in your head, so listening to the song first can really turn things around.

Be prepared for some weird stuff to show up in guitar tabs, or for them to be completely wrong! Remember, anybody can write and submit them, but that doesn't mean everybody can really write music by ear.

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How To Guitar Play- Important Tips For Beginning Guitarists
Fast Electric Guitar Learning Course
Best Acoustic Guitar Lessons

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How To Guitar Tune

"What is the bpm?" is a common question asked by beginning musicians, not just guitarists, when a seasoned musician, recording engineer, music instructor, or anybody of a similar career choice starts mentioning a tune's tempo. With so many things going on in a tune, there's plenty to worry about, but being concerned with the tempo is high-up on the list.

So anyway... what is the bmp?

Bpm is an acronym that stands for "beats per minute" and is a unit of measurement for most musical tempos.

I was in high school band (nerd alert...you don't know the have of it) and at the top of our sheet music we received you could view a general tempo marking which is a semi-broad term to describe a piece's tempo.

For instance, the word allegro means somewhat fast and andante means at a walking pace.

Now, occasionally, composers would mark what the desired bpm (beats per minute) of the tune was intended to be played in as well.

In that case, our director would pull out her giant ancient metronome that could beep out the tempo indicated at the top of the page. We would hear the beat, she would count us off, and then boom...we began.

So any common metronome that you purchase for your guitar will most likely keep track of the tempo using bpms.

A nifty trick for making a close estimate of a tempo without a metronome would be to really consider the term's meaning. BPM actually counts the number of beats per minute right?

That means if you hear a song where the beat appears to hit with nearly a second between the next, then that tempo is closer to 60 bpms. And so if something sounds twice as fast (like you can fit 2 beats into a single second) then it's closer to 120 bpms.

So now you should have a common understanding of this musical acronym and you can give a brief explanation the next time someone asks YOU "What is the bpm?"

I'm in a bit of disbelief that someone actually wrote a song about beats per minute, but leave it to Kylie Minogue.

If you listen to any kind of music, then you've heard a guitar palm mute before. (Seriously) It's really as simple as that.

Guitar palm mutes are everywhere in different tunes and genres and it's a pretty fundamental skill that every guitarist should know how to execute well to perform any genre of music with a shred of competency.

If you're a beginning player and want to know the basis of a guitar palm mute, please visit my post:

How Palm Mute - Learning To Control The String Vibration

...before attempting the exercises mentioned here.

The main thing to palm-muting is knowing how to comfortably change between regular (open-strumming) and palm-muted notes or chords.

Exercise 1.

We're going to try a palm-mute on open strings, but we're going to completely disregard the tones we hear by muting the strings with our left hand.

Left hand mute: Place your 4 fingers (of your fret hand) on the strings without pressing them to the fret board. Use should hear a rigid tone (the opposite of a clean pitch) when any of the strings are struck.

The '*' will indicate palm-muted notes or chords from now on.

e--------------------------------------------------
b--------------------------------------------------
g--------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------*--*--*--*--
A--------------*--*--*--*--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--
E--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--------------------------

This guitar tab starts you on the low 'E' string with 4 open-struck notes, and then 4 palm-muted notes. Then it's repeated to the 'A' string.

Go through each of the strings from the lowest to the highest:

E - open then palmed
A - open then palmed
D - open then palmed
etc.

Exercise 2.

Repeat Exercise 1, but release your left hand from the fret board. (un-mute the strings)

You should hear clear tones and short ones during the palm-muted sections. Even though the strings are muted with the right hand, the pitches should still be very clear.

Go again from the low 'E' string to the high 'E' string.

Exercise 3.

We're going to double pick now at this point by using down-strokes and up-strokes with our picks WHILE we palm-mute the strings.

So... instead of putting only 8 notes to a pitch, we'll use 16 this time.

Do this exercise going slowly first and try to keep the down-strokes AND the up-strokes to be more consistent.

You probably don't need to mute the strings with your left hand. That was only to realize in the beginning whether your palm-muting was executed correctly or not.

e--------------------------------------------------
b--------------------------------------------------
g--------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------
A------------------*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-----------------
E--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------

e--------------------------------------------------
b--------------------------------------------------
g--------------------------------------------------
D------------------*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-----------------
A--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------
E--------------------------------------------------

Start with the low 'E' string, then to the 'A' string and so on until you've covered all 6 strings...

E - 8 open, 8 palmed
A - 8 open, 8 palmed
D - etc.

Exercise 4.

For this exercise, we're going to do the same work as Exercise 3 but with a faster tempo.

When you transition from doing slower palm-mutes to faster ones, you'll notice that the motion needs to be more fluent and automatic with double-picking.

Let one note move smoothly into the next with each stroke.

Exercise 5.

Now the next thing to take a stab at is palm-muted chords. With chords, the only difference is keeping more than one string palmed as you strum them.

You can use any chord of your choice for this exercise. (preferably one that's comfortable for you and without too many fingered strings like D or A)

I like to palm-mute the E Minor (Em) chord for instance.

So I'll form an Em with my index finger on the 2nd fret of the 'A' string and my middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 'D' string.

For this chord to sound correctly, I can actually strum all of the strings if I want. Check that you're not strumming more strings than you need for this exercise. (so your chord doesn't sound ugly)

I'm only going to strum the first four strings for this exercise to make things easier (realistically, you won't need to palm-mute all 6 strings very often)

Just like Exercise 2 we're going to do 4 slow and open down-strokes on our chord, then 4 slow palm-muted down-strokes. We'll repeat that action 3 more times after the first.

e--------------------------------------------------
b------------------*---*---*---*-------------------
g--0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0-------------------
D--2---2---2---2---2---2---2---2-------------------
A--2---2---2---2---2---2---2---2-------------------
E--0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0-------------------

This is what it would look like for me when I do the exercise with my Em chord.

Exercise 6.

You guessed it. This time we'll take that palm-muted chord and apply it to double-picking.

We'll be playing 16 total chords with 8 open chords and 8 palm-muted chords.

Again, try to keep your picking consistent and fluent between each chord strummed. Even though some chords are open and others are close, we still want them to sound like they belong together.

This exercise would look like this with my Em chord:

e--------------------------------------------------
b------------------*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-----------------
g--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------
D--2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-----------------
A--2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-----------------
E--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----------------

Remember you're going down and up with your pick. Repeat this 3 more times.

Exercise 7.

Now, take those chords you just played and speed them up to a faster tempo. You're still going to do 16 total strokes, but just with a slightly faster tempo. Then repeat the process 3 more times.

Make sure you're doing a good job of controlling the strings' tone with your palm-muting hand resting on the strings down near the tailpiece.

Run through these exercises and you should be tightening up your ability to switch between palm-muted and open notes and chords over time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My important guitar supplement links:
How To Guitar Play- Important Tips For Beginning Guitarists
Fast Electric Guitar Learning Course
Best Acoustic Guitar Lessons

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How To Guitar Tune

Playing chords on guitar is kind of the meat of the instrument. Depending on your style if you choose to be a rhythm or lead guitarist, you might play more chords than the other.

However, learning chords and learning to play chords on guitar in a smooth and reliable fashion can determine how well you perform common tune from then on. Here are some things to think about when focusing on your chords.

1. Pay close attention to your posture.

It's hard to complete a few of the simplest chords when your hand is all folded up and contorted into an odd arrangement. Relax your fingers, use only the tips, and keep your hand perpendicular to the guitar neck.

2. Hash it out even when it's frustrating.

Playing chords on guitar is bound to make anyone frustrated in the beginning with the weird finger formations and strumming patterns to add, but you can't give up. Learning to suck it up and roll right through the discouragement is important to playing better.

3. Don't worry about speed at the moment.

You have to start slow in order to go fast and chances are, you can't play very fast to begin with. There's no sense in beating yourself up when you don't have any speed because you're probably not at the point where speed is that important anyway.

4. Stay loose.

There's a lot that you can focus on with your playing technique, but keeping your fingers nimble and loose by any means is important as well. Do some stretches before you practice and when you're not near the guitar squeeze a stress ball or do some typing on the computer.

5. Practice the transitions.

The most difficult part of playing chords on guitar is getting smooth transitions from one chord to the next. Practice making one chord and seeing how quickly you can get to the next. Switch up the combinations and time your efforts or listen for any faults in your movements.

6. Play more REAL songs.

Guitar tunes are all around you and just about all of them use chords to play. So that means if you're busy learning a typical guitar tune, you're doing something to improve your guitar chords.

Sometimes there's no greater source of frustration than playing chords on guitar, but the sooner you get over that hill, the sooner you'll be open to libraries of guitar tunes. Try a few of these strategies out for yourself and start making your chords smooth and steady.

When I come across other guitarists my age that say that they just learned how to play the guitar, I usually feel the curiosity to inquire how they did it. About 8 out of 10 times the person will reply with "I taught myself to play."

Now, as much as people might say this, you have to admit that it's a bit of a contradiction.

I mean really, how would you have the knowledge to teach yourself a skill that you formally had no knowledge of? Did I just blow your mind?

But seriously, there may not really be such a thing as knowing how to teach guitar to yourself, but knowing where to get your information and how to acquire skills from reliable sources is what it's all about.

There are always going to be guitar courses and lessons for beginners and that's what teaching guitar to yourself involves really. It's about having the initiative to create your own guitar future by making intelligent choices that will build upon yours skills.

Next time that you're faced with a decision to read, watch, or purchase anything having to do with your guitar skills, think about its intentions and if they fit into your play of learning the guitar of your own accord.

For more information please read my article:
Teach Guitar To Yourself - Unlock The System To Learning Guitar

If you're looking to acquire skills and that are common to most guitarists like learning common guitar chords, you're thinking on the right track. With millions of songs out there, having a knowledge of the most common chords that guitarists use will open the door to the majority of those songs.

Deciding what the most common guitar chords used is kind of relative. I mean, you can't really take a poll or anything because new songs are being created every single day. So, here's a short list of what I personally think are the most common. Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion as well.

What are they? (in my opinion)

The Chords: 'C', 'D', 'A', 'Am', 'E', 'Em', 'G', and 'F'

e--|--0--|--3--|--0--|--0--|--0--|--0--|--3--|--1--|
b--|--1--|--2--|--2--|--1--|--0--|--0--|--3--|--1--|
g--|--0--|--3--|--2--|--2--|--0--|--1--|--0--|--2--|
D--|--2--|--0--|--2--|--2--|--2--|--2--|--0--|--3--|
A--|--3--|--x--|--0--|--0--|--2--|--2--|--2--|--x--|
E--|--x--|--x--|--x--|--x--|--0--|--0--|--3--|--x--|

Even you're not that proficient at forming chords just yet, you'll need to practice up. Even though these are common guitar chords, orienting and reorienting three or even four fingers is common.

What are some songs these are in?

These common guitar chords are used in tons of classic rock and acoustic guitar tunes. If you're trying to find them in metal or hardcore song, try again.

Just a few songs and bands that use common guitar chords:

• Most songs by AC/DC including "Back in Black" and "Shook Me All Night Long"
• Tom Petty songs including "Mary Jane's Last Dance"
• Green Day's "Good Riddance"
• Oasis's "Wonderwall" (chord variations are used)
• Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"

Again, these are just a few, but do some study and find what songs are easy to play with these chords and you might be able to get away with a small set without learning too many more.