Play a Melody Between Advanced Chords

May 24, 2018

Play a Melody Between Advanced Chords

Hey guys, today I want to show you a very beautiful chord progression and melody played in E minor key.

The goal is to be able to play a melody between advanced chords without compromising the musicality and the over-ring of each chord.

There are three possible mistakes you can make when playing a melody between chords. These are:

Sloppy chords
Sloppy melody
Both chords and melody are sloppy

One of the most difficult thing about this lesson is to be able to make the transition between the chords and the melody as smooth as possible and I know that this isn’t an easy thing to do.

For that reason, we will take things step by step by learning the chord progression first, then once you feel ready, add the melody between the chords.

You could also try to learn the melody first before moving to the chords.

The thing I love the most about this guitar lesson is the chord progression with min7 add9 chords which I consider to be some of the most beautiful chords you can play on guitar.

The Emin7add9 chord is just a beautiful chord that you must have in your repertoire!

The Tab is available inside my Patreon account.

Time to start! Grab your guitar and let’s get started.

Tab Available on Patreon.

Tab Here

The Video

Tab Available inside Creative Fingerstyle Program

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A Super Easy Spanish Melody for Beginners! Fingerstyle Lesson

May 23, 2018

A Super Easy Spanish Melody for Beginners!

Fingerstyle Lesson

Hey guys, I hope you are having an awesome Wednesday.

I have played around with this easy Spanish melody for a few days now, and I am super happy to show you how to play it finally.

When it comes to playing guitar, especially fingerstyle guitar, you must have at least one Spanish melody/riff/chords in your repertoire. For me, it’s a must!

In this fingerstyle lesson, I will show you how to play a straightforward Spanish melody in three different ways.

The awesome thing about playing simple musical ideas like this one is that it’s easy to spice things up and add a little twist here and there.

The first melody is super simple, and it will be played on the bass notes only. We mostly play in alternate fingering except for the first note, which will be played with the thumb.

Then we are going to add a little twist at the end of each bar. We will play some fast notes, so don’t be scared!

The last melody will be the real challenge!

As always, take things step by step, guys. There is no need to rush!

Have fun.

The Video

Broken Chords and Beautiful Melody Combined. Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson

May 15, 2018

Broken Chords and Beautiful Melody Combined

Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson

Hey, guys, today I want to show you a useful and practical way to play broken chords on the guitar.

A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. If the A minor chord is built on the three notes A – C – E, I can play these three notes in progression (one by one) and call a broken chord (or arpeggio).

The difference between the broken chord and arpeggio is that the broken chord is played with over-ringing while the arpeggio is without over-ringing.

In this exercise, we will be playing few simple broken chords in A minor, E major, and A7 combined with a beautiful melody on the first string.

It’s a captivating chord progression that reminds me of Paganini’s beautiful arpeggios.

Each chord will be played in its fundamental, 1st, and 2nd inversion, so the same chord will have different shapes. We will also play the chords using a straightforward classical picking pattern so that it is easy for you to focus on the left hand only.

Overall, this is a very creative and beautiful exercise that will improve your fingerstyle technique and music theory, and musicality.

PLEASE learn one chord shape at a time. There is no need to learn the whole thing as quickly as possible, so don’t rush!

Let’s get started.

The Video

Broken Chords on Guitar

One of the fascinating things about broken chords is that they can create beautiful arpeggios on different inversions.

Here’s how it works.

The A minor Chord

The first chord we are going to learn is A minor. The three notes that build this chord are A-C and E.

We are going to play four broken A minor chord. Check the guitar Tab below to learn the four positions.

Each broken chord will start from a different note of the chord, so there will be fundamental, 1st, and 2nd inversion.

The E Major Chord

The second chord you’ll learn is the E major chord in four different shapes. The first two are pretty simple as they come from the same chord.

Remember each chord will be played in its Fundamental, 1st, and 2nd inversion, so memorize one chord at a time.

The A7 Chord

This chord is different than the previous two because it’s a dominant seven chord without the root note (we don’t really consider the Reference Root to be part of the arpeggio as we only use it as a reference).

Therefore there will also be a 3rd inversion, a chord with the 7th on the bass.

Guitar Tab below.

Ultimate Fingerstyle Alternate Fingering Exercise for Beginners

May 14, 2018

Ultimate Fingerstyle Alternate Fingering

Exercise for Beginners

Hey guys, I hope you are having a fantastic Monday. I just came back from a quick break, so I am super excited to get started with new guitar lessons!

Today I will show you what I consider to be the ultimate fingerstyle alternate fingering exercise for beginners. Practice this exercise, and I am sure your alternate fingering technique will improve drastically.

When it comes to fingerstyle guitar, alternate fingering is probably one of the most important developing approaches. So many melodies and patterns are played using alternate fingering, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be working on this technique.

Many times, beginner guitar players end up plucking the strings with one finger only, which kind of defeat the purpose of playing guitar using plucking technique. If you have to play with one finger, you might as well use a guitar pick!.

My goal is to give you practical exercise that you can use to improve your fingerstyle technique and fluidity, plucking control, and speed.

I also want the exercise to be fun to play so that you can keep coming back playing it and further improve your plucking technique.

As always, take things step by step and learn one bar at a time. You can’t improve in one day, so don’t stress too much about playing the entire exercise quickly.

Focus on the right-hand movement and pluck the strings smoothly.

Let’s get started!

The Video

The Alternate Fingering Movement

The entire exercise is based on one simple right-hand movement: middle – index – middle – index throughout.

The awesome thing about practicing fingerstyle alternate fingering is that you can literally develop any type of musical idea to play with the alternate fingering.

In this exercise, we are working on a melody in E minor key played on one string, which you can learn right now by following the guitar tab below.

How Fingerstyle Alternate Fingering Works

Once you become familiar with the melody, add the additional notes that complete the exercise.

For each note of the melody, you will add three open E. This is a crucial step because it will give you the complete alternate fingering pattern m-i-m-i to improve your plucking technique.

Check the guitar Tab below.

C minor Fingerstyle Melody for Beginners. Enough of E minor Key!

May 6, 2018

C minor Fingerstyle Melody for Beginners

Enough of E minor Key!

Hey, guys, today I want to challenge you with this excellent C minor fingerstyle melody for beginners.

One of the reasons we will be working on a C minor melody is because I want you to play in a different key.

Too often, guitar players always play in the same keys, E minor, A minor, G major, to mention the most popular.

Since I started teaching you guys, I mainly focused on easy keys, so as a guitar teacher, I feel I am the first one who should push you to learn stuff that is out of your comfort zone.

In this C minor fingerstyle melody, we will learn three chords and a straightforward melody. The C minor key is naturally more challenging than, for example, A minor or E minor key because we can’t benefit from the open strings.

There are three C minor flats, so the only two notes that can be played on the open strings are D and G. All the other notes will be fretted; therefore, the exercise is more challenging.

However, I did my best to write the most simple melody in this key so that anyone can give it a go and finally play something different.

The tab is on the screen so you can play along, but you can also download it inside the Creative Fingerstyle program available for members.

I hope you get inspired, guys.

Grab your guitar, and let’s get started.

Tab Available on Patreon!

Tab Here

The Video

The Chord Progression

In this C minor fingerstyle melody, we will be learning three chords: Cm, Bb, and Ab.

These chords can be quite challenging at first, so I have decided to simplify them into simple triads that can be players on three strings. The three triads will also share the same shape, so you only have to learn one shape.

Check the diagram below.

The Fingerstyle Pattern – Section 1

Section 1 of the exercise is mainly an intro played with the simple triads; therefore, there is no melody, and the arpeggio pattern is always the same.

This C minor fingerstyle melody is in 6/8, so there will be six notes per bar. For this intro, we will be playing a simple plucking pattern on three strings. Only.

I highly recommend that you split the six notes into two groups of three notes. I love the groove played in triplets. It gives a nice pace to the chords.

Check the diagram below.

The Melody

Once you feel ready with the chords, move on to the melody. Here things are a bit more challenging because we will have to combine the melody with the chord.

I did my best to write the most simple melody, so I hope you can learn it quickly and enjoy each chord’s sound and musicality.

This is the first part of the melody. You can download the full tab inside the membership area. Info below.

Same Chord Progression in 7 Different Ways. E minor Key!

May 4, 2018

E minor Key + Fingerstyle Technique

Amazing Chords and Melodies

Hey Guys, I hope you are having a fantastic Friday, and you are getting ready for this amazing weekend.

Today I want to show you how you play the same chord progression in 7 different ways using the fingerstyle technique.

As you probably know, I really love these videos where I show practical ways of playing in a specific key. Fingerstyle technique is an amazing approach that can make your guitar playing unique.

This video will play one of the most common chord progression in E minor: Em | C | G | D in several different ways.

The goal here is to really develop chord progressions that sound beautiful and “different” than what we already know. Each example will have a bunch of elements combined so that you can be challenged and have fun at the same time.

Guys, some of these chord progressions sound pretty difficult, but they are actually quite easy to play. I really encourage you to learn at least one of the chord progressions. We will be using simple plucking, open chords, tremolo technique, and super stretchy chords.

Each chord progression will help you improve your fingerstyle technique as well as your musicality and overall playing. Still, if you feel that the lesson is too difficult, you can always pick another lesson from the fingerstyle lessons archive.

The Video

Easy Guitar Melodies. How to Create Beautiful Melodies on One String.

May 3, 2018

Easy Guitar Melodies

How to Create Beautiful Melodies on One String

Usually, when we talk about improvisation, songwriting, and composing, beginners will slowly step outside of the room, thinking it’s way too advanced for them to write or improvise easy guitar melodies.

I have to agree that creating your own music can be a quite tough process that requires a lot of skills and musical knowledge and technique, and musicality.

It is also true that we can simplify such a process and make it beginner-friendly if we know where to start.

So how do we write beautiful easy guitar melodies on guitar?

We will start with one string, then add another one when you feel ready.

The awesome thing about writing melodies on one string is that we can narrow it down to seven frets only to feel overwhelmed. Also, we will improvise the melody over two chords only.

This is a fingerstyle guitar lesson for beginners who want to improvise simple guitar melodies on guitar with a simple system that works, and it’s fun and creative.

Obviously, there will be few struggles along the way, but challenges are good and make us better so, embrace the challenges and don’t stop until you are happy with your melodies.

Grab your guitar, and let’s get started.

The Video

How Does it Work?

It all starts with a Chord Progression

First of all, you will have to identify one or two chords that are simple to play. For this exercise, we will play an A minor chord followed by a G major chord.

Both chords will then be played as bass note only.

Check the TAB below.

Learn the A minor Scale on One String

Once you identify the chords, you can then learn the relative scale on one string only.

We start with one string only because we want to limit the range of notes we are going to use to create our guitar melodies. If we would start the exercise on two or three strings, you will have too many possibilities, making the exercise really difficult for beginners.

Here’s the A minor scale on one string.

Combine Chords and Scale

The E string’s A minor scale will give you eight notes that you can use to create simple guitar melodies.

Before we get started with some ideas, play the scale combined with the two chords, A minor and G major.

Create your Own Melodies

It is time to create your own melodies.

I am going to show you different examples so that you can get inspired. Remember to experiment with this system and come up with your own melodies.

In this guitar lesson, I will show you the A minor scale on the B string and how to combine both strings. This is when you can really create beautiful sounding melodies.

Check this example below.

You can have access to the full tab by becoming a member. All the YouTube tabs are available inside the Creative Fingerstyle Program.

Probably the Most Simple Fingerstyle Guitar Chords For Beginners

May 2, 2018

Fingerstyle Guitar Chords for Beginners

Most Simple Chords on Guitar

A few years ago, one of my beginner students asked me when I would teach him some advanced chords. I thought about it, then I asked him, “When you say advanced, do you mean different chords?” He kind of looked relieved “Oh yeah, different chords!”

The difference between Advanced and “Different” chords is pretty simple. Advanced chords are usually difficult to learn, “different” chords can be as simple as basic chords, but they sound more interesting.

In this lesson, I will show you how you can easily create different sounding fingerstyle guitar chords that are actually easier than some of the basic chords you already know.

The concept is simple: Find two notes that work for each chord. When we change a chord, the only thing that actually changes is the bass note.

This way of playing fingerstyle guitar chords is compelling because it’ll open up many different chords that are easy to learn and play. Beginners love it because it feels like playing something different that is not too challenging and demoralizing.

As always, take things to step by step. It will take time to become familiar with this concept.

Once you are ready, make sure you expand the concept in other keys and different rhythmic ideas.

I hope you get inspired.

Good luck!

The Video

Guitar Chords that don’t Move!

So how can we play two notes that sound good on each chord?

It is safe to say that sometimes, music works just like math.

After experimenting for a while, I came up with a formula that works all the time, and if you use it, it will work for you.

The Perfect Formula for Easy Chords

If you are playing in a major key, let’s say D major, select the root note (D) and perfect 5th (A) and place it on two strings.

The root note on the second string frets 3 and the A on the first string fret 5.

Check the diagram below.

The chord progression is D | A | Bm | G, but rather than playing the basic chords, we will apply this simple concept.

The chord inside the red square remains the same. The bass note inside the yellow square represents the root note of each chord.

As you can see, the chords are pretty simple to play.

This concept can be extended to any chord progression. It is also possible to make it more articulated with more challenging chords, but we will focus on guitar chords for beginners for this lesson.

Good luck, guys.

Awesome Fingerstyle Exercise for Speed, Stretch and Fluidity! E Minor Arpeggios!

Apr 30, 2018

Awesome Fingerstyle Exercise for Speed, Stretch and Fluidity!

E Minor Arpeggios!

Hey guys, today I want to show you how you can combine different techniques in one awesome fingerstyle exercise.

We will be focusing on three different aspect of your technique: Fingers stretch, speed and fluidity.

When I first started playing guitar (22 years ago), teachers used to teach these three techniques separately. I used to practice Abel Carlevaro for the fingers stretch, scales and arpeggios for speed and mechanical exercises for fluidity and strength.

It was slow and frustrating!

Nowadays practicality is the most important aspect of modern teaching and as a teacher I feel I have to do my best to provide the most effective exercises that can not only help you improving your technique but also keep you motivated.

Few days ago I received an email saying “I learned one of your melody in one day and played for my wife!”.

That’s my mission!

In this awesome fingerstyle exercise I am going to show you super fun arpeggio sequence in E minor key to be played with alternate fingering.

The left hand arpeggios will be mainly played on the first string so it should be easy for you to memorize them however the positions are pretty stretchy so really make sure you take things step by step.

Almost the entire exercise needs to be played using right hand alternate fingering.

The most friendly way to go through the exercise is to learn the left hand first then focus on the right hand.

Honestly guys, this is one of my favorite exercise so I hope you get inspired.

Have fun learning and playing this awesome fingerstyle exercise.

The Video

Left Hand Arpeggios

Honestly guys, the left hand is the most exciting part to learn in this awesome fingerstyle exercise.

We will be playing a bunch of minor and major arpeggios on one string that will make angry and happy at the same time.

It is a fact that these type of arpeggios are super fun to play however they are pretty challenging at first so it will take time before you can play the up to speed.

Each arpeggio is repeated four times following this order: E minor, D major, A minor then we will play a C major and D major chord with a simple melody.

Check the diagram below to learn how the arpeggio looks like on the TAB.

Notice that the D major arpeggio is the is the only chord with a note on the second string. The E minor and A minor will be played on the first string only.

Right Hand Alternate Fingering

Once you learn all the arpeggios and chords you can then start focusing on the right hand alternate fingering.

If you want to make this awesome fingerstyle exercise sound beautiful you have to play each arpeggio alternating with middle and index finger.

It is a pretty challenging task at first, but after a while your fingers will become extremely fluent.

The only time the alternate fingering isn’t required is when you’ll play the chords and the last arpeggio in E minor.

Check the diagram below.

Emotional Melody in A Major on Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar

Apr 28, 2018

Emotional Melody in A Major

Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar

Hey guys, today I want to talk to you about melody and fingerstyle and how important it is to work on your tone, dynamics, and musicality.

In this fingerstyle guitar lesson, I will show you a beautiful melody in A major I wrote a few days ago, and as you learn it, I want you to focus not only on the notes but also on the dynamics and tone you’ll use.

Improving your tone and dynamics is as important as improving your technique and fluidity, yet we spend very little time considering our notes’ quality and timbre.

The technique doesn’t make you unique; tone does; however, they are both essential when it comes to developing your overall skills on the instrument.

Think about the Blues player B.B. King or the acoustic guitar player Tommy Emmanuel. Why are they so unique? Is it because of the number of notes they play? I don’t think so.

It’s the tone that made them unique, and it takes a lot of practice to get there.

Now that you have that in mind, I want you to start practicing and playing, thinking about the notes and thinking about the tone/timbre of each note you are playing.

Use this emotional melody to get started and keep it simple by focusing on just a few notes.

Pluck the strings close to the neck for a dull and mellow sound or play closer to the bridge for a brighter timbre.

Practice your tone and dynamics for a few minutes each session; you’ll be surprised with the results.

I hope you get inspired.

Let’s get started.

The Video

How to Practice this Emotional Melody

Once you decide to improve your tone and dynamics, you should always practice the same melody twice.

For this emotional melody, I would spend a few minutes learning one or two chords and then finding the tone I like.

How to Find your Tone

The tone is about the way you pluck the strings.

If you play the same melody twice, plucking the strings with a different angle, the melody will sound different.

I spent a lot of time trying to find the tone I had in my head, and after a while, I realized that plucking the strings with a 45-degree angle really gave me the tone I was looking for.

Play the melody several times but pluck the strings with different angles. Also, try different positions too. Usually, if you pluck the strings near the bridge, the sound is much brighter, whether if you pluck near the neck, the sound will be duller.

Switch Things Around

Don’t get stuck practicing the same thing over and over.

When it comes to finding your tone, it can be quite frustrating at the beginning, so take short breaks between sessions and don’t play the same thing over and over again.

Make it enjoyable and realistic. Set small goals one step at a time.

Good luck, guys.