Its almost like there are two worlds in guitar playing. You have the guitarists
who like to use a flat pick, and then you've got the guitar maestros who use
a strict finger picking technique.

Getting the dexterity down for acoustic guitar finger picking can be a bit
of a hassle, and it almost seems as though the fingers don't want to budge.
With some simple exercises, the obstacle can be removed from the road.

Before we continue to explore finger picking, we first need to establish something. In the classical guitar world, where plucking the strings with the fingers is quite common, there is a labeling of the fingers. The labeling is simple, and knowing it will help you to guide yourself when you start working with these passages.

P = Thumb
I = Index finger
M = Middle finger
A = Ring finger



The abbreviations come from the Spanish words of Pulgar, Indicio, Medio, and Anular, and its a very easy system to work with.

By the way, one of the best beginning guitar books has always been
Frederick Noad's First book for the guitar

I even have it in my collection, and it helped me get started with classical technique.

Now that we know that the fingers are labeled as P,I,M, and A, we can apply this identification tool to simple guitar tab.

For this lesson we're going to simply focus on getting our fingers warmed up
with some simple plucking, using P and M for the chords and I for the single
notes. This is also a similar approach to the Beatles song Black Bird.



A word of advice. The key thing here is to take your time, because you want to
put your focus on syncing up the chord changes with the picking. I know that
seems obvious, but the plucking helps to keep a really good rhythm.

Stay tuned, because in the next lesson I'll show you how to put a little more "pep" in it ;)

So in the last guitar finger picking lesson, we learned about the finger labeling system of PIMA. Remember, it was P = thumb, I = index finger, M = middle finger, and A = Ring finger. If you need to, you might want to check out the last finger picking lesson, because this lesson will be an expansion of the piece that we were working on previously.

In the last lesson we were making use of the thumb and middle finger to pluck simple two note chords with, while using the index finger to insert some single note action, which helped to keep a good rhythm and produce a nice melody.

In this lesson we're taking it a step further, by not really doing much more with
the piece.

We're going to divide our chords up a little differently, and add more single note finger picking. By doing this, it will sound a little fancier and have a better rhythm structure. This produces a more interesting appeal, because the arrangement gives us a bass line as well, creating the effect that there are two different guitar layers happening at once, and yet - oh my gosh! its only one guitar player!!

Oh yeah, notice the last note where I goofed and had to erase it later and replace it with the correct note - sorry about that guys. Enjoy.

This will be easier if you have a way of recording yourself, or if you have a buddy that can play one of the parts. If you need a cheap recording solution, there's a recording program that I used to use called WavePad, and its not the best, but maybe they've improved it. You can find it
here.

Anyways, duo harmony is exactly what it sounds like - its simply two or more guitar parts that harmonize with each other, and this works best for lead playing. A lot of flashy heavy metal players are using this trick extensively today, and I have to admit - its quite addictive.

Let's take a look at several ways that we can do this. The simplest method is to take or write one set of notes, and then play the exact same notes, exactly one octave apart (either higher or lower - its your choice).

Here's an example, when put together they have an awesome effect.



Note for note, those passages are the same, but just one octave apart. Something that you hear a lot of in some of the more popular metal bands right now is another type of duo harmony. This is the same harmony that is common in Cuban piano work. In metal guitar, the sound of two lead parts played in this particular way presents a
sour, wicked result.

The formula for this approach is simple. Take a lead part, then when you go to harmonize with it, instead of playing it one octave apart, drop the starting note down 3 notes. That's a whole plus a half step, W+H.

Here it is in action:




And yet one more that I know about is below. The formula for this one is to take your first lead passage, and when you to the next one, drop the starting note (from the octave position) down 5 notes.



There are so many different ways that you can construct these harmonies, and the best way to get this locked into your head, is to do a little bit of experimentation with each method, and even better - see what you can come up with.

The key is really to start with the first notes of both passages. Come up with something, and then try to find the first note of your lick in a different area, exactly one octave higher or lower. After you get to that spot, you can then start to move the overlapping lick around to see what works.

Best of luck - I hope I explained this well and that this helps you guys out.

You know, I never thought to mention this, but I am left handed. Now this may not seem important to most, because there are certainly a lot of guitar players our their who are left handed, but most left handed guitar players who are capable of great technique and guitar speeds, typically choose to string and hold their guitars completely opposite.

This is not me. I play guitar the same way that most right handed guitarists play. What is the correct approach if you are a left handed person is just starting to play guitar? well, naturally there is no right or wrong way to go about it. I can remember when I first started playing, for the first 3 months, I couldn't do what most right handed guitar players had accomplished in that same amount of time.

So, if it was that difficult for me, then why did I go this route? because I was told that I had too, and that playing my guitar in reverse would be harder to practice on. What do I think now? its rubbish of course. Just because a right handed guitar player might imagine it to be a difficult task, doesn't mean that a left handed person will have a hard time with it. I mean, asking someone to go against their physical or genetic design, is like asking them to walk on the ceiling.

Oh, it gets better!!

This is really quite fascinating. The other night I was reading about being ambidextrous, because I claimed to be so to a particular person once. She told me that I was not ambidextrous, but that their was a different name for my capabilities, and that I was only "half" ambidextrous. So, I put it out of my mind, but when I read this article the other night, I was blown away by what it had to say about ambidextrous people.

The article explained that basically if you can do one thing that you shouldn't be able to do with your unfamiliar hand, then you are technically ambidextrous. Here's where it gets good. The article went on to explain that most people who are ambidextrous, start out as left handers, and learn to become ambidextrous because we live in a right handed world. Fascinating!

This tells you that what you believe someone can do is only based on them being "gifted", "lucky", or "blessed" is total B.S. I've said it for years, but people just like to make excuses for themselves, I think. I mean that's easier to do, right?

Anyways, imagine that you wanted to become ambidextrous for some reason - could you do it? hell yes you could! When I was six I broke my left arm, and it was in a cast for a very long time. I loved to draw, and spent most of my time doing this. So, I had to learn how to write and sketch with my right hand. I'm way out of practicing now, but at the time I learned to develop my right hand pretty well.

This is something that doesn't get talked about enough, yet I know that the guitar players who baptize their guitars with their fluids of mastication are out their reading this right now, and yes, I said mastication, and no - its not something that you do in the shower. It would be very difficult to eat a cheeseburger while bathing, or would it?

Anyways, you either have drooled on a guitar before, or you've witnessed someone doing this and have laughed at them. I will admit that I used to do this all the time, and I wish that someone had documented it because it would have been hilarious to see. If I had this video, I swear to God that I would post it on youtube - honestly.

I'm getting ready to make a point here - no, this is not a bullshit article like maybe you thought it would be.

First of all, if you've ever made fun of someone for accidentally salivating on their guitar neck while they were practicing, then you should keep your mouth shut :)......*bu-dump-tisss* - I bet you went home and did the exact same thing.

So lets break this down. When you drool upon your guitar, what does this tell you about your current physical state? It tells you that your mouth was open for a period of time and that you forgot to swallow and that you stupidly allowed the fluids to flow out of your mouth, and onto Lucille, Betty, Mom, or whatever you've named that thing.

Now what does this tell you? It tells you that your mind was elsewhere. In fact, it tells you that your brain was so distant that you couldn't even control your basic motor functions - careful! don't make a mess in your pants!

Why was this happening? because all of your mental energy was being funneled to one place. Where? your hands of course. I could be wrong, but I would bet you that more beginning to intermediate guitar players drool on their guitars than advanced guitar players.

Advanced guitar players rarely find something so challenging to work on that would cause them to bathe their guitars in saliva. Sometimes it still happens though ;)

I feel bad for the advanced players and good for you if you are at the beginning of your guitar journey. Why? because what you are displaying when you have this "accident" is the shear mental power that you need to keep thriving in order to reach a certain level of guitar playing.

Perhaps you even get a headache after practicing guitar - that's great! this tells me that you are able to blot out everything and make true, and worth while progress on the guitar.

I'm telling you this because you need to be aware of this kind of mental dedication to your craft. I can't tell you how many times I have said, or have heard said "I play it perfectly, but as soon as I think about what I'm playing - I screw it up!". Does that sound familiar. Thinking hard about what you are playing is not the same as mental focus.

This may be the cause of your lacking of progress with a certain lick or song. I'm a strong believer that guitar evolution is 50% mental and 50% physical, and I talk about this a lot in my book, The essential guide to guitar virtuosity.

A strong sense of awareness is a very, very powerful tool for the guitar player. This is also why it is so important to focus in the right way. I don't know about you, but every time I'm recording a piece, its me - I'm their - I feel my inner spirit, but then when I go back to play the recording - it sounds like someone else played it.

This also tells you that the brain can really cloud your judge meant when practicing. This is also why it is so important to be somewhat self critical, but in a healthy way. You have to be honest with yourself in order to make progress. Dimebag Darrell for instance, used to carry a tape recorder around with him when he was a kid and play back what he had previously recorded. He was always asking himself "how can I make this better?" - "it seems to be a little bit off" - "I need to work on my fretting hand strength", etc.

So if you're having trouble getting into that "zone" sometimes, without the use of narcotics, then think about all the times that you drooled on your guitar. It can be a difficult thing to isolate the parts of the brain that you need, but it can be done, and perhaps you've done it in small instances.

Be aware that this is the mental place that you need to put yourself in.

Keep your head up - hardy har har.

In an effort to make a more user friendly guitar instructional blog, I have just created and launched the official Guitar Speed Secret Blog, which is a sister site to Guitar Speed Secret.com.

I do understand that the topic of speed development and mastering advanced techniques is very specific, but I do get a lot of questions regarding these subjects. So, if this doesn't interest you - I'm still going to maintain GuitArticles, and I will try and stay on top of both blogs as much as possible, but you also know that I just added a lot to my plate, right? ;)

Anyways, check out the new blog, and you can do me a favor by participating in the poll on the right hand side, which will give me a better idea of what you would like to work on. You can choose multiple answers, and if for some reason the poll is too vague, let your voice be heard by emailing me or commenting.

It works best with user participation, because I can teach you more directly this way. Feel free to express your views, so that we can learn and share together.

Take care

I keep receiving questions about writing songs and/or guitar solos, and I get a lot of difficult questions in my inbox ;)

I was recently asked to do a series of videos, outlining how I go about writing a guitar solo, with effects and so forth. I decided to accept the challenge, though this is a very difficult thing to do. To turn on a camera, suddenly become inventive, and explain what is going on is a sure pathway to a headache, and today I definitely have one, but none the less - I delivered.

So in this next 3 videos I explain how I go about song writing and adding a guitar solo. I explained this to the best of my capabilities, using some common sense, and a little improvisation, but there is a lot of good information in this video series, and I do reveal some of my secrets that normally I wouldn't.

Hope this helps you out a lot and please enjoy - it took me 6 hours to make these 3 videos. Parts 2 and 3 are on the way.

Ok, so in the first installment, we laid down a basic drum beat, and added some cool sounding chords, keeping in mind a more interesting rhythmic structure.

Now we need some sort of a melody/intro to what will be our guitar solo. You will see in the video that I settled upon the D Natural Minor scale to line up with our chords, the first chord being D minor.

We'll also make good use of Duo harmony, where we take to melodic phrases and harmonize them with each other. You can find a lesson explaining the process of Duo Harmony by way of that link.

In the video we'll also go over note arrangement a little bit, which is very important for a melodic sounding solo. I won't give it all away, because you can certainly watch the video for yourself, but part 3 will be coming out shortly, which is where it gets really good.

Imagine that someone came to me and asked "what is in your opinion the most important guitar lesson on the site of GuitArticles? which of ALL of the lessons should a student pay the most attention to, and think about on a daily basis?". My answer would be THIS guitar lesson. This is not a how to, a step-by-step, nor does it even feature some sort of example by way of video, audio, or tab. No, it is just so important that it can not be summed up so easily with a multi-media file, or me saying "put your 1st finger here, and play this".

This article in particular can be summarized by one word. ATTITUDE. When I say attitude, I'm not talking about feeling "bad ass", or metal or anything like that. Even soulful, gentle, emotional music has attitude. When I say attitude, I'm talking about what you feel inside when you play music on any instrument, or what you can potentially feel inside.

The shear thrill and energy that you get from playing the guitar shapes your decisions in phrasing, note choices, timing, feel, and most importantly - how you produce the notes or chords.

If you've ever seen my videos when I'm improvising, you will notice that there are times when I get quote, unquote - medieval with the notes. In other words, the feeling of immediate alignment causes me to snap the hell out of the strings. Not break them, snap them with so much emotion that I have inside that it can only come out through my hands.

This feeling is similar in intensity to the feeling that you get when you are really angry, but in a good way, and chances are my best playing comes forth after I have been frustrated for a very long time. Its a valve - its a release, and anyone (and many do) can use it in the form of guitar. It doesn't matter whether you consider yourself artistic, creative, beginner, intermediate, advanced, or "skilled" on the guitar, we all are people and we all carry the same emotions - USE THEM.

Intensity is more important than technique or theory. Period. Intensity can even come in the form of playing something quietly or gently, because this requires a focus that is on the same plateau as playing something ridiculously hard and loud.

You should also come to realize that this kind of control of expression over your playing does not happen right away, and it certainly doesn't happen in the first few years of playing guitar. No, first you must create some things for yourself that only you may like, AND a guitar player has to develop a decent sense of coordination and skill. It doesn't take much, but the better you get, the more ideas you can express (because you'll know how to express them), and you will have broadened your mental and physical palette to be able to play with. When I say play - I mean experiment. It would be kind of hard to write these words if there were only two letters in the alphabet - get it?

Below is a video of me jamming over one of my favorite songs. This is not a form of self promotion at all, because I actually consider this to be my worst jam yet (there are lots of mistakes). The point is, pay close attention to how much energy I put into my playing. It is at times intense, because I'm all their - mistakes included. If you listen closely, you can hear just the guitar strings over all of the noise.

This is part 3 of our constructing a guitar solo lesson, which by the way I totally forgot to post on the site, so I'm sorry for this. Anyways, as promised - this is where things start to get really good - hope you enjoy, and I don't apologize for the off colored comment at the end ;)

Sorry I'm not a better classical guitar player. I used to be decent.

Ok straight up I want to say that this is my version that I came up with when I was a kid. I like this, and I don't want anyone pestering me about how its not accurate and all that. It is accurate, its just an interpretation. The problem with most versions of this song is that they are draggy and depressing. This song was meant to be "uppety", because it is a song of joy.

Its a great piece because its a very old Christmas song from France, but it can be played all year round because of its structural diversity I guess you could say.

Real quick:

As mentioned at Wikipedia, this song was first published in the year 1553, and was not meant to be sung as a Christmas song, but rather a song to celebrate French nobility. Though the song contains religious lyrics, and respectively not everyone is in to that, they are still really beautiful. If you wish to know more about it you can check out the Wikipedia page here.

TABS


BRING A TORCH JEANETTE ISABELLA (this is the original file - sorry about its presentation)

|--------------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|--3-------------------0--1--0--------|--3-------------------0---------|
|------0--0-----0--2------------2----|------0--0-----0--2-----2---0--|
|------------4------0--------0--------|------------4------0---------0--|
|--------------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|--3------3---------2--------3--------|--3------3---------2---------3--|

|--------------------------------|------------------------------------|
|--3----3--3--1--0--0----------|------------------------------------|
|------0---------------2--0--0-|-------------------5-----5---4--2--|
|--5--5----------------------0--|--4---2h4h5-0-0-----------0--0--|
|--------------------------------|------------------0----0-----------|
|--3-------3--3-----3--------3--|-------0-----3---5--5------3--2--|

|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------0----0-----3----0-------------------------------|
|--0----------2--------5-----2------------2--0----------2-----------|
|--2----------0--------------0---------------2----------0-----------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--0----------2-----3--------2-------0-------0----------2-----------|
|__staccato__| |__staccato__|

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--0-----0-----3----------------------------------------------------|
|-----5-----2-----0------0------------------------------------------|o
|-----------0-----0-----0-0-----------------------------------------|o
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--3--------2-----3----3---3----------------------------------------|

Unexpected increase in consumer demand

Unexpected increase in consumer demand

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 21, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

A DUI will follow you everywhere. No matter where you go. No matter what you do. It’s a choice that has long-lasting consequences.

Halloween is just days away. By now you have probably picked out a costume. It is likely that you know where you are going and who you are going to meet there. But, have you decided how you are going to get home if you plan to drink alcohol? Take a few minutes right now to plan a safe ride home. Read more on how to plan ahead to avoid legal issues and embarrassment that go along with a DUI arrest and conviction.

Biodesign program aims to ensure all trainees have a better understanding of health equity and appreciate the ways in which new technologies can widen or narrow the gaps in access to care.

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Speaking today on the death of former deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Robin Newton MBE MLA said: “While I am the Speaker of an Assembly in which Martin McGuinness played an integral part as a Member, Minister and deputy First Minister, I am mindful that today a family has lost a husband, a father, a brother and a grandfather. On behalf of the Northern Ireland Assembly, I express my sincere condolences and sympathy to his family whom I know he held dear.

The Public Accounts Committee has agreed to invite Arlene Foster MLA to give evidence on its Inquiry into the Non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme.

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee has reiterated its determination to get to the bottom of the issues in its inquiry into the non-domestic renewable heat incentive scheme.

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The Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Infrastructure has criticised the delays in the issuing of Blue Badges for those with mobility problems.

The authors of "Oracle SOA Suite 12c Administrator's Guide" (2015, Packt Publishing) discuss the role, the technology, and the challenges.

What constitutes a real cloud solution? What does it take to build one? Recorded during Oracle OpenWorld 2016, this wide-ranging conversation features a panel of cloud experts drawn from the OTN community.

The first Oracle Developer Podcast for 2018 brings together a panel of experts whose specialties cover a broad spectrum, including cloud computing, big data, security, open source, agile, domain driven design, Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Internet of Things, and more. The thread that connects these five people is that they are part of the small army of experts that will be presenting at the 2018 Jfokus Developers Conference. February 5-7, 2018 in Stockholm.

In this freewheeling discussion the panelists talk about the trends and technologies that have captured their interest, the work that consumes most of their time, and the issues that concern them as IT professionals. Then, to wrap things up, you'll get a quick preview of their respective sessions at Jfokus.

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On March 8, 2020 people around the world celebrated International Women’s Day, the theme of which was expressed in the hashtag #EachforEqual. In keeping with that cause the podcast we bring you today features a panel discussion on building a diverse team. The panel includes three IT executives who remain very hands-on in software development, and are directly involved in helping their respective organizations achieve their diversity goals. 

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