Would you like to be able to play the guitar really well? If your answer to this question is yes, then you must acknowledge the need to take guitar lessons. There are quite a few good reasons why you should consider taking guitar lessons, the most obvious of which is to improve your skills and make progress. Once you have decided to take such guitar lessons, you must weigh your options carefully. You can opt either for lessons with the teacher, or for guitar lessons that are available online.

As has been said before, taking guitar lessons is an excellent way to speed up your learning time. You must realize that however talented you may be, you won’t be able to perfect your skills unless you benefit from some guidance in the form of guitar lessons. If playing the guitar is something you love, you will probably feel the need to make some progress and become even better with the guitar. This is an achievable goal, provided you are able to set some definite tasks and goals, and measure your progress. The most efficient way to achieve all this is to take guitar lessons. They will give structure and focus to your learning, and help you make progress faster. Learning a little here and there may lead to some progress, but it will most likely be slow and scattered. When learning how to play the guitar is what you really wish for, guitar lessons are your best option.

The Internet has made many things more accessible and convenient, and guitar lessons are no exception to this rule. Getting your guitar lessons and improving your guitar skills or learning to play your favorite songs is now easier than ever. There are web sites where you can purchase guitar lessons on DVDs and start your lessons as soon as possible. This way of learning how to play the guitar is very convenient for a number of reasons. First of all, it is considerably less expensive than taking guitar lessons with a teacher. More than six hours of guitar lessons on DVDs cost about half of what you would pay for just one in-studio lesson with a teacher. Some people argue that a teacher’s input is very valuable, but what happens once the lesson is over and you have no additional material to help you practice? You simply have to remember everything that the teacher has taught that week, whereas with guitar lessons on DVDs you don’t have to worry about forgetting something, because all the information you need is readily accessible. This is yet another reason why DVD lessons are an excellent way to learn how to play the guitar. Furthermore, you need no additional materials to assist you in the learning process. Everything you need can be found on these guitar lessons DVDs and no additional videos or books are required. What’s more, you can use the DVDs whenever and wherever you please. If you feel like learning a little bit right now, you can do so, and not have to wait till it is time for another lesson with your teacher. In other words, you can be your own teacher and set the pace of your learning as you see fit.

Playing the guitar is something wonderful that many people wish they were able to do. If learning how to play the guitar is what you have always wanted, don’t waste another second. Guitar lessons DVDs are available online at very affordable prices.

The guitar is among the most popular instruments, and many people wish to be able to play the guitar like other people they see or hear in concerts, on television, or with any other occasion. If you are one of those people who would love to learn how to play the guitar, you should know that guitar lessons are no longer as money and time-consuming as they used to be. Learning how to play the guitar in the traditional way is slowly losing ground, as self-study guitar lessons are becoming increasingly popular. The guitar lessons that are designed for self-study are slowly replacing the face-to-face lessons that used to take up quite a lot of your time and were quite expensive.

What are the advantages of taking guitar lessons in the form of DVDs? First of all, they represent an excellent way for beginners and intermediate guitar players to learn how to play the guitar, respectively perfect their technique and art of playing. As compared to the traditional ways of learning how to play guitar, these DVDs come with the major advantages of allowing unconditioned access to the lessons that beginners need for the improvement of their skills and technique. In other words, these guitar lessons DVDs are at your disposal to be used at any time you want, unlike a guitar teacher whom you would only see once a week. You can play these DVDs whenever you like, whereas with a teacher and an in-studio guitar lesson you are certainly not presented with this option. Secondly, these guitar lessons available on DVDs are considerably less expensive than lessons with a private instructor. In fact, half the amount that a teacher would charge for half an hour of guitar lessons is enough to purchase three DVDs, which have over six hours of guitar lessons. Furthermore, you don’t have to use any additional materials to help you improve your technique and learn faster. These lessons are all you need to take your guitar skills up.

If you are under the impression that learning to play the guitar is an impossible task, or one that you cannot complete without the help and guidance of instructors, you are mistaken. Of course, learning to play the guitar is not something you can pick up overnight; yet, with the availability of these DVDs, the process of learning to play the guitar was significantly simplified to your advantage. You don’t have to take anyone’s word for it; you can go online and check out these guitar lessons DVDs yourself. There are audio and video samples for each DVD, so that you can decide for yourself whether or not they are worth purchasing.

Teaching yourself how to play the guitar is not only an achievable goal, but also quite an easy one. If you are worried about missing out on the objective and constructive criticism that a private instructor can give you with regard to your progress and the way you play, you can rest assured that there will be plenty of critics to assess your evolution as a guitar player. Your family and friends will love it every time you’ll be able to play something new for them.

First, we will learn how to tune a guitar with a tuner since it is fairly straight forward.

Basically you need to first turn your tuner on and then sit it down in front of you. Some of you might have to plug into the tuner if you are playing an electric guitar. If you have an acoustic guitar, most tuners have a built-in microphone and will be able to here the strings as you strike them.

Next we want to set our tuner to 440hz which is standard tuning for a guitar. Knowing how to tune a guitar to standard 440hz tuning will allow you to play along with the lessons here at Guitar Lessons Central.

First we will start with picking the top open E string(6th string) with our pick and let it ring out. At the same time, turn the tuning pegs clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on whether you need to go up or down in pitch. Do this while looking at the tuner to watch for the indicator light to come on, indicating that you are at 440 Hz. If the indicator light stays on, then you are on pitch. If you tuner has a needle, that needle should be pointing at the 440 Hz mark on your tuner. Now we can move on to the next string.

Next, start at the open A string(5th string) and do the exact same procedure as described above. Keep moving down the strings until all are correctly tuned to standard tuning. That wasn't to hard now was it?

A little suggestion though, if you go to sharp (higher than the pitch you are looking for), it's a good idea to drop back down below the pitch you are looking for and then slowly come back up to it. Always remember it's a good idea to tune up to the pitch! This little tip on how to tune a guitar will help you keep your strings sounding the way they should, and not going out of tune as much.

Also too, after going through all the strings, you should quickly do it again. After tuning your guitar, some of the strings may have gone out of tune slightly while you were tuning the others strings. This is especially true if you just put new strings on your guitar. So it is a good idea to double check to make sure that they are all still in tune. Now you are ready to play!

Bluegrass is a real stretch, though. My mom plays violin, but never “fiddle” (a violin becomes a fiddle when your spouse is in jail and the car’s on the front lawn). And my younger sister is just getting good enough at guitar to make quick chord changes.

I’ll consider the song a success if my polka-loving dad wakes up in his rocking chair and says, “Hey, you could two-step to that!”

One thing I’ve done to make the song easier for my sister is to show her how to use a capo to avoid barre chords, which is the topic of today’s newsletter.

But first, I want to dispel two illusions about capos:

1) Using a capo to avoid difficult chord shapes is lazy

I wonder if this attitude stems from America’s puritanical work ethic. Wherever it comes from, understand that musicianship is all about efficiency–getting the best results with the least effort. Even when playing difficult passages, good musicians do whatever they can to minimize strain. This approach not only helps them avoid injury, but it also improves the music.

So if playing a song in Bb using all barre chords gets you the best sound (like when playing reggae or funk, styles that require a lot of left-hand muting), then go for it. But if you’re crooning a tender love ballad that needs smooth chord changes, save your fingers–and schnookum’s ears–and play open chords with a capo!

2) You should play songs in the capo position of the original song

Sometimes this is a good idea. Capoing some songs, like The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” is impossible without dramatically altering the guitar part (put a capo on the 5th fret, and you run out of real estate as soon as you hit the second measure). But most songs can be played equally well in a variety of capo positions.

Which key is best? If you’re singing with the guitar, choose the key that’s best for your voice. The voice is usually the most important instrument, and everything else defers to the voice’s requirements. Playing “Closer to Fine” with Capo 2 just because that’s how the Indigo Girls did it is like buying shoes in your friend’s size because you liked the way they looked on her.

Enough with the dispelling. Here’s how to avoid difficult chord shapes by using a capo. Let’s use my sister Margaret’s predicament as an example.

“Devil’s Dream” is usually played in the key of A. The chords are A, D, E, and the ever-despised Bm, a barre chord. Why it’s played in the key of A, I don’t know, but that’s how I learned the melody, and there’s no way I’m learning that fingertip-flayer using a whole new scale shape. On the other hand, you could float the Macy’s Day Parade through the pauses in Margie’s barre chord changes. Time to bust out the capo.

First, we need to choose a key that Margie can play in. Let’s use the key of G. If we transpose “Devil’s Dream” to the key of G, we get the finger-friendly chords G, C, D, and Am. For more explanation of transposing, read my three newsletter issues on chord families, starting here.

Now we need to figure out where to put the capo so that Margie will be playing those chord shapes (G, C, D, and Am), but because of the capo, will actually be playing in the key of A.

To do this, you need to know the musical alphabet. If you don’t know it, here it is, but you should memorize it. Notice that some notes (called accidentals) have two different names (divided by a “/”). Also, keep in mind the pattern starts over at the beginning once you get to G#/Ab.

A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab

You really should memorize this. Really. There are some tricks to it, but that’s for another newsletter.

OK, so where do we put Margie’s capo? Let’s try inching up the fretboard fret-by-fret until her G chord (the I chord in the desired key) becomes an A chord (the I chord in the despised key). Well, if you put the capo on the first fret, and play a G chord shape (It’s just a chord SHAPE now, right? We’ve entered Capoland!), the chord is now a G# (or Ab) chord–one note higher in the musical alphabet.

And if you move the capo up to the second fret, now you’re playing an A chord (A is the next note in the musical alphabet after G#/Ab). So to play in the key of A using G chord shapes, capo 2.

Think of it this way: When we changed from the key of A to the key of G, we lowered the key of the song a whole step (two notes of the musical alphabet). To compensate, we need to capo 2 to raise the key back up to A.

In short, to figure out how to play a hard song using easier chord shapes but keeping the key the same, follow these four steps:

1) Choose a new key that’s easier to play in. G’s usually the easiest.

2) Fret the I chord of the new key (the I chord is the chord the key is named after).

3) Inch up the fretboard with your capo, raising the name of your chord by one note in the musical alphabet, until you reach the I chord of the original (despised) key.

4) Transpose the other chords in the song from the despised key into the desired key. You’re done!

Once you get good at this, you can do it in your head. There are other shortcuts too (experts, have at it in the comments section of the blog!), but this will get you started.

Also, note that this process might land you on Capo 10 or 11. Yow! You’d need surgical instruments to play up there. Go back to step 1 and choose a different easy key.