Guitar Mastery Simplified: How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja Read online

  Guitar Mastery Simplified

  How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords and Lead Guitar Ninja

  By: Erich Andreas

  http://www.yourguitarsage.com

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright © Utopahood LLC 2012

  Summary

  Introduction

  How to Choose a Guitar for Purchase

  Anatomy of the Guitar

  Posture

  How to Play Guitar Tablature – Part 1

  Dexterity

  How to Tune Your Guitar

  Guitar Strings and Tuning Your Guitar

  Tuning Your Guitar to Piano or Keyboard

  How to Play Open Chords

  Talent vs. Practice

  How to Master Strumming Quickly and Easily

  How to Read Chord Charts

  Number System Chart

  How to Practice to Chord Charts

  How to Use a Capo

  Fingerpicking

  Where the Notes Fall on the Fret Board

  Springboards

  Diatonic Harmony

  The Major Scale

  Relative Major and Minor

  The Power of the Pentatonic Scale

  Pentatonic Scale Diagrams

  Chord Noodling Improvisation

  Chord Noodling Maps in Open Major Keys

  Bar Chords

  The “CAGED” System

  How to Play Guitar Tablature – Part 2

  Tablature Symbols

  Hammer On

  Pull-Off

  Bend

  Slide-Up/Slide-Down

  Vibrato

  Tapping

  Harmonic (Natural)

  Harmonic (Artificial)

  Trill

  Tremolo Picking

  Palm Muting

  Tremolo Tricks

  Volume Swell

  Playing by Ear

  Introduction to Chord Construction

  Building Seventh Chords

  Summary

  A Cause Close to My Heart

  Resources

  Summary

  Chapters 1 through 3 will get you acclimated to your guitar and prepare you for what we plan on accomplishing in this book. Basically it's our warm-up! But don't skip it! There are reasons why athletes warm up before a big game!

  Chapters 4 through 10 are the core lessons that will carry you the furthest with your guitar playing. They cover foundational principles that are paramount to being able to play a LOT of songs in a short amount of time. They will answer the how’s and why’s to solid “core” playing. They are also often times the lessons that are NOT taught by guitar teachers, either because those teachers have not taken the time to develop their curriculum, or they don't want to take the necessary time developing these fundamental skills in their students.

  Chapters 11 through 24 focus on further developing the core that we learned in chapters 4 through 10. You will learn a lot of “ninja” tricks to better comprehend the fret board. You will understand when and how to play further up the neck. You will be introduced to scales and fret board maps that will FINALLY unlock the mystery of the guitar to you.

  Learning guitar is a step-by-step process. The reason that so many students have started learning the guitar and then quit was because of an incorrect order of steps and/or not enough time developing those core steps.

  This book is different. This time it’s different for you too. Each principle will build upon the next. If you follow this book in order, YOU CAN NOT FAIL!

  I suppose you could always quit, but I don't BELIEVE that's the kind of person you are!

  So where to start?

  EVERYONE should start on page one and walk through the book in order.

  Advanced/intermediate players may go through some beginning chapters more quickly. However, don't let your ego move you too quickly. There's a wealth of information in this book. Just because you understand part of the principle does NOT mean you have mastered everything about those principles.

  The mind that is open to learning will become greater. The mind that thinks it knows everything already will not grow! It will only be a rock star in its own mind... Even advanced players will learn from these core chapters.

  Take your time with each chapter. If you start getting frustrated, make sure you're not expecting too much of yourself before giving adequate practice to the specific task you're having an issue with. HAVE FUN!

  Thank You!

  Thank you for downloading my book. I really appreciate it! Please Rate, Review, and ‘Like’ this book on Amazon. I appreciate everyone’s feedback. Thank you so much!

  http://www.yourguitarsage.com/book-review

  Introduction

  Congratulations for finding this book and THANK YOU for purchasing it! By downloading this book, as well as my guitar resources at www.yourguitarsage.com and www.unstoppableguitarsystem.com, I am allowed to reach people all around the world...and for that I am very grateful!

  Before we begin, I want to let you know a little about myself and my approach towards teaching guitar. I have been playing guitar for over 25 years and have been in numerous bands (rock, metal, country, pop, classical, alternative) during that time. I have studied with many teachers and was a classical guitar major for 3 years before changing my major and graduating with a Music Business degree. I am a working studio guitarist as well as a guitar teacher, songwriter, producer and live performer.

  I LOVE playing guitar as a “job” and I am living my dream! I also LOVE imparting others with knowledge so that they, too, can fulfill their dreams as it relates to the guitar. I originally set out to teach a lot of people all over the world with a method that was fun, painless and to the point. I have taught guitar on and off since I was about 17.

  First, I just taught my friends and eventually 100s of guitarists professionally. I moved to Nashville, TN in 1990 and immediately hit the ground running. My clientele consists of students from ALL age groups and all walks of life including students, professionals, writers, producers, artists and record companies.

  Since I have always been so obsessed with the guitar, teaching sometimes up to 65 students a week was not enough! SO, I started teaching for free on YouTube. Last I checked in the fall of 2012, my YourGuitarSage YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/yourguitarsage has over 27 million views and over 95 thousand subscribers.

  On that channel I have taught hundreds of songs and techniques in MANY genres of music. I have received literally thousands of letters/e-mails from countries saying that they don't have the resources or money to take one-on-one lessons and that the only way they've learned how to play guitar was through me, Erich Andreas, AKA “YourGuitarSage”.

  Make sure you check out the Resources Page of this book to get a TON more free goodies and resources to keep you rocking on the guitar.

  SOOO…Thank you for allowing me to guide YOU in this great learning process. For that I thankful for this great opportunity!

  A word of encouragement - Some of the concepts that you are about to learn are quite “thick” with information; you WILL be challenged to do some serious thinking about the guitar. Your hands will be as equally challenged. Many guitar players can mimic other players, but often times they don't know the “whys” of what they are doing or even how to be creative themselves.

  This guide wil
l unravel much of that. Your fingers will be more challenged than ever before. Your mind will be stretched much further as well. There is a reason why babies drink milk from birth, yet as they grow older, start eating solid food. This learning process is the same and it is crucial that you keep that in mind.

  Before embarking on this journey, you must remember that you WILL get discouraged at times! You WILL get frustrated – and most likely, you will want your skills to progress faster…and to that I say, WELCOME TO THE CLUB! Most every musician wants things to move faster than they typically do. The greatest guitarists have ALL felt these frustrations and have also felt, at times, that they were not “cut out” for guitar. But like all good, worthy endeavors, we must strive for the mark.

  If gold were just a few inches beneath the soil in our own backyard, we would be digging it up all day and probably wouldn’t appreciate it much at all. But because it’s found deeper – and requires considerable effort to extract it – it’s much more valuable and appreciated that much more!

  So be encouraged!

  Remember that the time you spend on the guitar WILL pay off! Have FUN and spend as much time as you can playing, practicing and honing your skills. I promise you WILL see great progress!!

  NOW DIG IN!

  How to Choose a Guitar for Purchase

  Choosing a guitar is an exciting, but sometimes confusing undertaking because of all the variables that you might feel are involved.

  What brand is best?

  What type woods?

  Should I get an electric or acoustic?

  What style…size…string-type…color and then what about all the things you don’t know about guitars, right?

  Let’s simplify the process a bit.

  Firstly, you probably have an idea whether you want an electric or acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitars are those guitars (typically with a sound hole) that are loud enough to be heard without amplification. Sure you can hear an electric when not plugged in, but it sounds pretty wimpy without an amp.

  To seemingly complicate the matter, we have acoustics that can be plugged in for amplification, making them electric, and there are semi-hollow electric guitars, making them “acoustic” to a degree. The style of music and how you will be playing will often times be the determining factor as to what type of guitar you will want to get. Usually the heavier the music, the more an electric will suit you.

  There are not a lot of “Screamo” bands playing acoustically these days and not a ton of bluegrass players shredding a Les Paul through a Marshall stack.

  With that being said, the rules have been broken so there is nothing holding you back from doing either of those or anywhere in between. Let’s talk a bit about the differences between the two before going any further.

  Acoustic guitars don’t need an amp, so they are nice and portable. The action (distance from string to fret board) tends to be a little higher than electrics and the strings are typically thicker, making bending and intricate licks/noodling more difficult. They sound great playing open chords and fingerpicking.

  On the other hand, electrics usually have lower action making soloing and subtle movements easier. I’m asked a lot about what beginners should start with. For different reasons I would choose both, but most of the time, I would say an acoustic would be my choice. There is less to be distracted by with an acoustic and you can play so many different styles easily on the acoustic. When directing a student to a new guitar purchase, the main variables for me always come down to: budget, feel and sound (in no particular order).

  Trying a bunch of guitars in your price range will give you a great education on feel and sound. I KNOW you want the pretty red guitar, but don’t pick the guitar because it’s red if it sounds or plays poorly. The prettiness will get old. Poor sound or feel does not go away.

  If you have a $300 budget, there is no need in seriously looking at the $1000 guitars, although knowing what they feel and sound like would be helpful to your education. I have some expensive guitars and some “cheapos.” Sometimes more money gets you “more guitar” and sometimes more money just makes you think you are getting a better guitar.

  I recently played two different classical (nylon string) guitars. One was $5000 and the other was $100. Can you guess which one sounded and played better? You would be surprised.

  For one, I was not in the mood to drop $5000 on a classical, so that price range was not a consideration. However, if I did not look at the prices or brands, the $100 guitar played and sounded as good as the $5000 model. Now, this does not always happen, but it happens. There are some great cheap guitars and some terrible expensive ones. Higher prices usually equate to better woods, craftsmanship, etc., but manufacturers are getting really good at producing good guitars at cheaper prices.

  DON’T let the price alone dictate a guitar purchase. You will be sorry. So, figure out what your budget is and try to stick to it. You can get an acceptable $150 acoustic or electric if you know what to look for. I have guitars priced from $100 to several thousand dollars, but none were purchased regarding price alone.

  Let me clarify: more expensive guitars TYPICALLY equate to better guitars, but be careful in using price to determine a guitars worth.

  Feel is an important variable in choosing an instrument. In fact, there are so many other variables other than the guitar itself that dictate sound (strings, pick, technique, etc.), whereas feel is a harder thing to change on a guitar. For smaller folks and kids, there are ¾ and ½ size guitars that might be easier to play chords on. There are different full-sized acoustic bodies like jumbo, dreadnought and parlor as well. But you don’t need to know the names.

  Use your common sense. If a guitar body is too big, try a smaller one. Electric bodies usually run much smaller than acoustics.

  String action is also important as high action (string height) can make chording and fretting difficult and discouraging. The only way for you to know what is “normal” or “high” is to try a bunch of guitars. Try some expensive ones too, so you can get an idea for different price ranges and what the extra money may or may not buy you.

  Keep in mind that string action can usually be adjusted, if everything else works for you. Many electric guitars have adjustable bridges. Acoustic guitar bridges can be “shimmed” or trimmed to give optimal action. Most guitar necks are also adjustable.

  However, neither of these adjustments are ones that I would suggest beginners to attempt. I prefer to have an expert adjust them, however with experience and trial/error you can get pretty good at this type of thing. Okay, so all that said, make sure the “feel” of the guitar is the best out of all the guitars that you try.

  Sound is the other important variable. Different woods and their ages, string types, pick type etc., are some of the variables that dictate sound of the guitar. Make sure that you are comparing apples to apples, such as comparing guitars with the same pick, playing the same songs, etc.

  Even playing in different rooms will make the guitar sound differently. If playing several electrics, make sure you are playing them all through the same amp with the same settings. A bad sounding guitar through a great amp will typically sound better than a great guitar through a bad amp, so USE THE SAME VARIABLES!

  Buying a first guitar is best done at a store where you can get an education in the process. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, try a bunch of guitars and get what you want. Be polite, but you are getting ready to spend some money, so don’t be rushed or talked into something that does not resonate with you (feel, sound and budget). It’s okay to consider other prices and find out about different woods, etc. but ultimately it’s what YOU are most happy with, not the sales person.

  Take brand names with a grain of salt. There is not a best guitar, only what’s best for you. There may be more suitable guitars for specific jobs, but keep an open mind. That is, don’t buy a guitar just because of the name. I have brand name guitars that you would know and others that you would not, but I love them all for different reasons.r />
  BUDGET, FEEL and SOUND… repeat the mantra after me… BUDGET, FEEL and SOUND… BUDGET, FEEL and SOUND. Now go fall in love with a guitar!

  Click here to receive free videos on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost your guitar playing ability.

  Anatomy of the Guitar

  As with learning anything new, it’s very important to become familiar with nomenclature. I’ve provided this graphic so you can learn and can get used to using the proper terms for the components of your guitar. You’ll just sound smarter, too!

  Click here to receive free videos on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost your guitar playing ability.

  Posture

  The First Guitar Lesson That I Teach EVERY New Student

  No matter the style of playing, EVERY student must understand a few basic principle techniques that they will use for the rest of their guitar playing. THIS is the guitar lesson that covers them!

  I’m going to break this down into some basic bite-sized pieces:

  Posture - Make sure that your guitar is supported by your guitar strap. Don’t have it so low that you can’t play your chords correctly. No amount of “cool look” replaces bad playing. If you are not using a guitar strap, make sure that your guitar is supported by your legs, arm/body etc. so that you are NOT holding the guitar in place with your fretting hand. That type of grip will only ensure that you won’t be able to play chords/scales well.

  Hold the guitar pick comfortably, but firmly between the index finger and thumb.

  Hint: If you are doing a lot of heavy acoustic-type strumming, check out some thinner picks, instead of medium and heavy gauge. They will tend to pull out of your hand when strumming the guitar, if they are too thick. Also, if you do go with a thin pick, get “nylon” type guitar picks as they tend not to split like standard picks do. Save the medium and heavy gauge picks for more intricate electric or acoustic playing. I use all different gauges depending on what I’m playing. My rule is: the more intricate the picking the heavier the gauge and vice-versa.