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It is not that easy to pull out a definition of blues. You can tell that Robert Jhonsons’ Rambling on My Mind or B.B. King’s Everyday I Have the Blues is definitely blues, but what about van Halen, Al Di Meola or Pavarotti’s songs?

Of course, you could define the blues by the call-response structure, the dominant 7th chords, the shuffle rhythm, the I-IV-V progression and things like these, but the most accomplished definition is one that Eric Clapton himself gave to blues music in an interview in 1998:

My definition of Blues is that it’s a musical form which is very disciplined and structured coupled with a state of mind, and you are able to have either of those things but it’s the two collectively that make it what it is. And you need to be a student for one, and a human being for the other, but those things exclusively don’t do it. (Eric Clapton, 1998)

The Blues History

There are many books on the story of blues. It was born in the 20th century’s Mississippi Delta in the U.S., short after the Civil War. This music style was played by slaves and white people related to it as sorrow songs, plantation songs or workaday songs. The term blues was used for the first time around 1925.

It is believed that the band leader William Christopher Handy was the one to write the first blues songs in 1909, which was later published and certified. The song was initially called Memphis Blues and got the name of Mister Crump later. He got his aspiration from a blues song he heard in the Mississippi railway station six years earlier. W.C. Handy wrote other songs too, such as Beale Street Blues or St. Louis Blues and nowadays there’s a blues award named after him – the W.C. Handy Award.

What Do You Need To Learn To Play Blues Guitar?

In order to learn to play blues guitar, there are a couple of matters you need. First of all, you need to own an electric or acoustic guitar with strings made from other than nylon in standard tuning. You also need to know how to interpret tablature, as well as have some basic guitar knowledge and know how to play a few chords.

You also need some blues backing tracks as well as Eric Clapton CDs with blues classics, such as Blues Breakers, From the Cradle or Eric Clapton Unplugged and a good CD player with an auto-repeat shuffle. There’s also a plug-in for Winamp you can use to slow down music. A small chord book you can find in any guitar shop is also handy. But most importantly, in order to learn to play blues guitar, you need some good ears.

If you already have some basic guitar knowledge, you can learn to play blues guitar on your own, with the aid of a simple chord book. However, finding a blues guitar teacher who is willing to help you learn to play blues guitar in your area is definitely a good thing. If you have the time and money to take up private lessons, this will probably help improving your guitar playing skills.

Tags: Music by Zack Roberts
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Join us as we take a closer look at some tips that can help you to improve your lead guitar playing skills. We will also analyze different methods of achieving better playing speed as well as the benefit of playing along with guitar backing tracks.

When most young individuals take up guitar playing they usually have one goal in mind, and that is to be a rocking lead guitar player who sets their fans’ ears ablaze with their lightning fast solos. A large majority of serious guitarists have the talent and dedication to practice and to grow as musicians and often become excellent lead guitar players. However, some guitar students may not have the kind of patience or resources available to help them grow in their techniques and to achieve their dreams of being a great lead guitar player

There are a lot of different tips and tricks available out there that can help you improve your lead guitar skills and techniques. One of the most basic tips for improving your skills is to watch how you hold your pick and how you actually pluck your strings. This can have a dramatic impact on how the harmonics on your guitar are played out. For instance, it’s better if you don’t have a lot of the pick sticking out from your fingers, but instead have your fingers closer to the edge of the pick. Doing this will help you to bring out the sweet harmonics of the notes you hit, especially on a distorted guitar.

One of the most common aspects of playing lead guitar is learning how to develop a stronger hand so that you can play faster. Playing fast is an important part of being a lead guitarist, but there are a few things you should know before trying to improve your speed. One of the most important lessons to learn is that speed is useless without hitting the right notes. It’s better to perfect a scale you’re learning slowly, and then work on increasing your speed.

Another great tip and trick that has helped a lot of guitarists master the craft of playing lead guitar is playing along with guitar backing tracks. An individual playing along with guitar backing tracks can greatly improve a variety of different skills and abilities as well as the enjoyment of practicing along with an entire band.

Practicing your lead guitar skills to backing tracks for guitar also helps you to improve your speed and your improvisation techniques. These guitar backing tracks provide you with structure and help you to adjust to playing lead on top of another guitar playing rhythm. These guitar backing tracks can also be useful for doing gigs and playing live, which also is a great help to improving your skills.

Tags: Music by Eugene W
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Those looking for a new pastime or hobby would do well to remember the benefits of learning the keyboard. But getting started out on this tough instrument will deter many new keyboard players away from becoming experts in their own fields of music. To help speed along the process and enjoyment, following a few guidelines would be in the musician’s best interests.

The first thing to remember in playing a keyboard is to have fun- after all, you’re learning because you want to- not because you have to. It is recommended to try and find songs that you may like and try to find music sheets detailing how to play them. Such music can commonly be found over the Internet, in music stores, and from fellow keyboard players who share same tastes.

Something to keep in mind while learning musical notes is to try and train one’s sense of hearing to hear musical notes. In doing so, keyboard players will be able to hear melodies and play them just by hearing them! This huge feat in musical skill will often take months to years to develop, but it’s something to strive for nonetheless. In the meantime, learn how to play notes and keep the idea of playing by ear ready for when one’s skill set improves.

Timing and rhythm are vastly important to the success of a keyboardist. Timing and rhythm can both be learned by obtaining a metronome, which is just a device that ticks or beeps based on different timing measures. It’s best to use such metronomes while reading sheet music, preferably of music that the keyboardist enjoys so that proper timing can be observed.

Using both hands while playing is another skill the keyboard players need to pick up as soon as possible. It’s good to use both hands even when it isn’t necessary, so as to better grasp the concept of playing with both hands. In doing so, players will be able to play more complex scores and measures of music without mixing up their hands in the process. Again, practice makes perfect!

As a last word of advice, it is important to have more fun than anything. Often times when a keyboardist makes multiple mistakes, he or she can do so without the listeners actually being able to tell a difference. This fact helps keyboardists relax, since they know that striking every key precisely isn’t vital to having a great show for an audience- since most of the time they won’t even be able to tell the difference!

Closing Comments

Keyboards are wonderful instruments that have brought the intricacies of the piano to modern-day industry. Learning the keyboard can be just as tough as learning the piano, but through technological instruction, the process is much more simple in design. Obtain a metronome, some sheet music, and some professional advice if funds permits. Above all, have fun!

Tags: Music by Chris Channing
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The keyboard is a wonderful instrument to behold, but learning to play it is another story completely. The piano, a close cousin to the keyboard, has long been revered as a culturally defining instrument. In essence, so too has the keyboard become a modernly successful version of the piano that much enjoyment comes out of playing.

Having a good time is what playing the keyboard is all about. Being able to show off one’s skills in front of others is always nice, too! The best way to start out is find a couple of songs that one thinks holds a special value to him or her, and learn how to play it. Buying sheet music online or through local music stores is always a fun adventure, and learning to play one’s most loved songs is more than rewarding in the long run.

Learning how to get the perfect listening ear for musical notes is one of the highest sought skills in keyboard playing. This is because anyone who can learn how to play by ear will essentially be able to hear a song and play it just from listening to it! This also serves great purpose for when the keyboardist with the perfect ear wants to record their own music into tablature. Thus, it’s a good idea to try and learn by ear as well as through reading notes.

Timing and rhythm are vastly important to the success of a keyboardist. Timing and rhythm can both be learned by obtaining a metronome, which is just a device that ticks or beeps based on different timing measures. It’s best to use such metronomes while reading sheet music, preferably of music that the keyboardist enjoys so that proper timing can be observed.

Next, it’s good to try and use both hands where applicable. Even when one hand can be used to play multiple notes close together, it’s good to use two hands to simplify the action and to help learn placement at a quicker pace. This way, less attention will be put onto trying to find keys with a certain hand, and more attention can be put on reading sheet music that most keyboardists require for learning.

As a last word of advice, it is important to have more fun than anything. Often times when a keyboardist makes multiple mistakes, he or she can do so without the listeners actually being able to tell a difference. This fact helps keyboardists relax, since they know that striking every key precisely isn’t vital to having a great show for an audience- since most of the time they won’t even be able to tell the difference!

In Conclusion

All in all, beginning on the keyboard is a tough prospect. But learning a bit here and there over the years will essentially make an expert of anyone, given enough time. Being able to play stunning performances on a keyboard on command is a valuable skill to have, and plenty of musicians make their living based on keyboards alone. Whether a hobby or a way of life, starting on this lifelong relationship with music is quite beneficial to growth and stress release for years to come.

Tags: Music by Chris Channing
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Whether you like it or not, guitar tabs will play a huge role when it comes to playing guitar. You might as well know what they are, their components, and everything else that make up the guitar tabs.

The Overall Structure of the Guitar Tab

Guitar tabs actually look like a standard staff. They are composed of horizontal lines, each line representing the string of the guitar. It’s also through the tabs that you can identify if you’re playing a bass guitar or an acoustic guitar: the former has 4 lines while the latter has 6 lines. The highest pitch is represented by the highest line while the lowest represents the thickest string in your guitar. Conversely, if you’re going to write notes in guitar tabs, the lowest note should be found at the lowest line and the highest at the topmost.

Meanwhile, every note is represented by the letters in the alphabet, and the lines of the tabs are numbered accordingly, depending on how many lines there are. Every number that is written on the line stands for the fret that will be receiving your wanted pitch.

The Difference between Guitar Tabs and Standard Staff

At first glance, you may assume that the guitar tabs and standard staff notation are the same. The truth is they’re not. They have a number of differences, which make it easier for you to determine whether you’re dealing with a guitar tab or not.

For example, the tabs of the guitar are highly similar to the fretboard. It’s also one of the reasons why it’s easier for you to learn guitar even when you’re going to deal with various guitar tabs. Moreover, unlike the usual staff notation where you can also see the measure and the beat, with guitar tabs, you can also identify the correct position of your fingers. Each of the fingers is also represented by a number, from 1 to 4. The thumb is not included.

Tablatures can also be converted to ASCII file, or plain text. You can make use of symbols, letters, and numbers. This way, you can at least have a good visual representation of the tablature. This also allows anyone share various guitar tabs of different kinds of music even in the World Wide Web. Most of all, tablatures are more specific to the kind of instrument you’re playing. Tabs used in violin are entirely different with the ones utilized by those who are playing the guitar.

Tags: Music by Z Roberts
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Join us as we examine the many benefits of using guitar backing tracks to play live gigs. You’ll learn how using guitar backing tracks can improve your skills and ability as well as making practice time more enjoyable, along with the many perks of using them to play live.

One of the most beneficial learning tools for a guitarist looking to fully master the guitar is to play a lot of live gigs. Playing live shows is great for honing and perfecting your skills and abilities under the pressure of playing in front of an audience. Performing in front of an audience will help you to gauge how far you’ve come and give you a chance to entertain people and put all of that practice time to good use.

One reason why some guitarists may not do live gigs is because they aren’t in a band and have no one to back them up on stage. Others may be in a band with members who aren’t as dedicated, or don’t show up to practices, so playing a live gig would be a disaster. Whatever the reason may be, these individuals are missing out on a great teaching experience that could really help them to master their instrument by not playing live.

This is where playing live gigs with guitar backing tracks can be extremely useful. Guitar backing tracks are the serious guitar student’s most effective secret weapon for improving their playing style and perfecting their instrument. These backing tracks sound great, like a professional band playing behind you to back you up. Do ensure that you do play along to professional guitar backing tracks and not “midi” based tracks. Professional tracks are available from online shops such as Planet of Rock.

Guitar backing tracks are great for private practice sessions as well. They increase your skill by allowing you to practice chords and scales as well as improvising solos to a live backing band. This practice experience also helps you to develop the timing skills necessary to play along with other musicians. They improve practice time by making it less dull and helping you to use the knowledge you have gained to create awesome lead work as well as perfecting rhythm techniques. By perfecting your skills with guitar backing tracks, you can also work on perfecting your tone. All great tone comes from the player’s abilities and how well they actually play; it’s not all about the fancy equipment.

Once you’ve gotten comfortable with your skills and abilities, you’re ready to put them to the ultimate test! Using guitar backing tracks for a live performance will allow you to express your creativity by using your knowledge to improvise great lead work and to thoroughly rock the crowd without worrying about your back up band messing up or missing the show.

Tags: Music by Eugene W
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