Mauro Giuliani Allegro Op50 N.1 Classical Guitar Lesson. Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson.

Dec 15, 2017

Fingerstyle Classical Guitar Lesson

Mauro Giuliani Allegro Op.50 N.1

Hey guys, today I will show you how to play this awesome fingerstyle classical guitar piece that can be played on both classical and acoustic guitar.

The piece is called Allegro, and Mauro Giuliani composed it at the beginning of 1800.

It’s a composition in A minor featuring the famous Giuliani fingerstyle arpeggio, and it is one of the most famous pieces that beginners play on classical and acoustic guitar.

You can get the tab and the video lesson here!

Let’s get started.

Mauro Giuliani Allegro Guitar Lesson

I probably recorded this piece a little bit too fast. Now that I am listening to it, I feel like it’s a little bit too fast, so please, don’t refer to this speed. You can play it way less fast and still be effective and awesome to play.

Right Hand

The fingerstyle pattern used in this fingerstyle classical guitar piece is one of the most famous and used in classical guitar. Mauro Giuliani is a master of this music style, and you will find this type of arpeggios quite a lot in his compositions.

Let’s break it down into a few sections so that you can easily learn it.

There are two different right-hand arpeggios in this song.

The Red square is the arpeggio played at the beginning of each bar and is the song’s main fingerstyle pattern. It goes as follows: Thumb, index, middle, index, ring, index, middle, and index. You can also write this arpeggio like that: P i m i a i m me. It would help if you always put more emphasis on the 1st and 5th notes.
Yellow Square is much easier to play. You will play a very defined melody with the thumb, followed by a pedal note on the top string. Here the plucking pattern is pretty simple, and it goes as follow: P m P i (Thumb, middle, Thumb, index)

I highly recommend you practice this fingerstyle classical guitar pattern slowly and over one chord only before moving on to the next position.

There are a ton of fingerstyle exercises you can do to improve your technique. Check out some of them here.

Left Hand

Chords and Dexterity Improvement

Let’s talk about the left hand and how to play chords and improve your finger’s dexterity.

The chord progression is straightforward, and it goes as follow:

Am – Dm – E – Am – E – Am – Dm – E – Am/E – Esus – E – Am

All the chords are played in position one and will be simple to memorize as they are quite repetitive.

For each chord you are playing there, most of the time, there will be a response on the next bar with a melody on the bass note and a pedal on the top. This only occurs over the first 12 bars right before the coda.

If you struggle with the chord change, I recommend practicing the chord separately without the right-hand arpeggio. Play the chords in pairs for a few minutes before moving on to the next pair.

After the chord change improves, put the chord progression together and add the fingerstyle classical guitar arpeggio that goes with the piece.

Be patient and practice one thing at a time.

Control over speed.

Mauro Giuliani Allegro Guitar Tab

Free Guitar Sheet Music

Final Thoughts

Mauro Giuliani Allegro is one of the best fingerstyle classical guitar arpeggios you will find. This short piece of music has been played millions of times and has helped thousands of guitar players.

Fingers dexterity is one of the most important aspects of your guitar playing, and you should always spend part of your guitar practice working on pieces and exercises that can improve it.

I prefer practicing my fingerstyle technique (and my left hand) with a practical song just like this one. Still, you can also implement a ton of fingerstyle exercises in your playing that is less musical and more mechanical.

You can find a lot of guitar lessons online and interact with a guitar teacher every month.

Everything is good and helpful as long as you keep consistency in your guitar practice.

Take things to step by step and improve your fingerstyle guitar playing.

Good luck, guys.

Acoustic Guitar Challenge. Learn this Fingerstyle Melody in 24 hours.

Dec 13, 2017

Acoustic Guitar Challenge

Fingerstyle Guitar Melody in 24 hours

Hey guys, are you ready for this awesome fingerstyle acoustic guitar challenge? Today I want you to learn this fingerstyle guitar melody for beginners in 24 hours if you can.

This fingerstyle exercise is a super melodic guitar part that I wrote specifically for this challenge. It’s in a key of E major, and it focuses on a simple melody played using interval scales in 6th.

If you are a fingerstyle guitar beginner ish, I challenge you to learn this fingerstyle melody 24 hours and post the video on our private Facebook group here at the BlitzGuitar Inner Circle Private Facebook Group.

If you love fingerstyle guitar, take the challenge!

Let’s get started.

Fingerstyle Guitar Melody Video Lesson

Here’s the video lesson. You can get the guitar tab below, but if you prefer the pdf, you can access your BlitzGuitar Account and download it under the “BlitzGuitar Music Lab” tab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7JCwrE6rSQ

The Melody

Part 1

We can break the melody down into two sections.

The first part of the melody played with interval scales in 6th follow the E major scale on the first E string, and it’s harmonized with the 6th on the third G string.

Interval scales are a powerful tool that can emphasize the melody and make it stronger and more mellow.

The strings will be pluck simultaneously with index (i) and ring finger (a).

Guitar Tip: Start practicing the interval scale melody without the bass note.

The red color represents the fingerstyle guitar melody played with an interval scale in 6th.
The yellow color is a single note melody played with alternate fingering.

Part 2

The second part of this fingerstyle melody challenge is pretty similar and easy to play.

The melody will start again with the same melody, and it will end differently over an E major chord.

The red square represents the most difficult chord in this fingerstyle melody. This C# minor chord is quite stretchy and difficult to pluck. The stretch between the little finger and index finger is pretty wide so take it to step by step.

Advanced Fingerstyle Guitar Arpeggio Exercise

Dec 12, 2017

Fingerstyle Guitar Arpeggio

Advance Acoustic Guitar Arpeggio

Hey guys, today I will show you how to play this challenging fingerstyle guitar arpeggio on guitar. This is a lesson from my free ebook Fingerstyle Engine, available here at BlitzGuitar.com.

Many students have been asking me to post more intermediate/advanced guitar lessons, so I hope you will like this one.

This lesson is called “Arpeggio from Hell,” It’s a combination of the left-hand arpeggio, fingerstyle arpeggio, and fast fingerstyle plucking.

Enjoy this fingerstyle guitar arpeggio, guys!

Let’s get started.

Fingerstyle Arpeggio Video Lesson

This is the full fingerstyle video tutorial. Watch the video several times to familiarize yourself with the exercise.

It is indeed a pretty challenging exercise that requires speed, control, and left-hand fingers stretch.

Tab Here

The Left Hand Arpeggio

The left hand will perform a bunch of horizontal arpeggios on the 4th string, followed by a scale pattern. This guitar part is pretty jumpy, and it will challenge your left-hand control over slide and stretch.

Practice one arpeggio at a time before moving on to the next one.

What is a Left Hand Guitar Arpeggio?

A left-hand guitar arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time.

A chord is a combination of three or more notes combined. You can decide to play these three notes simultaneously by strumming or plucking the strings. This is probably the easiest way to start.

But you can also play the three notes of a chord individually and call that a left-hand guitar arpeggio.

This is an example of the E minor chord played simultaneously. The three-note that builds the E minor chord is E – G – B.

Chord Played Horizontally

Chord Played Vertically (Arpeggio)

Once you break the chord down and start playing the notes individually on one string, you will come up with a guitar arpeggio that looks like it.

Same note E G B, but this time played horizontally up and down the guitar fretboard.

This is the type of fingerstyle guitar arpeggio we are going to learn today!

The Chord Progression

We will be applying the concept of fingerstyle guitar arpeggio over these two chords.

E minor and D# diminished chord. Both will be played on the 4th string horizontally.

The E minor Arpeggio

The first arpeggio you are going to play is the E minor on the 4th string. The red square helps you visualize the arpeggio notes, while the yellow square represents the accompaniment.

Each chord is repeated twice.

The D# Diminished Arpeggio

The D# diminished arpeggio notes are D# – F# – A – C, and it will be played on the 4th string horizontally.

Here is the D# fingerstyle arpeggio.

Scale Pattern on One String

After the two arpeggios, we will be focusing on a scale pattern played on the 4th string. This is one of the things I love to play the most. Scale patterns are the best way to develop your technique, control, and strength.

I highly recommend you practice this part slowly. It will take a little bit of time before you can fluently play it, so be consistent and patient.

The scale pattern will be played with the thumb while the fingers will focus on the first string’s accompaniment.

The Last Arpeggio

You can then finish the exercise with the E minor arpeggio played in position one. This arpeggio is much easier than the first one as it is played vertically in one position.

Check it out down below.

Spice up Your Guitar Chord Progression using the 153 Chord Shape

Dec 1, 2017

Guitar Chord Progression

How to spice up your chords on guitar using the 153 chord shape

Are you bored with always playing the same chords over and over again? Well, I can’t really blame you!

We spend so much time practicing things such as technique, tone, dynamics, and melodies. But what about chords?

Today I will show you how you can spice up basic chords on guitar using the 153 chord shape. This chord is perfect if you use fingerstyle guitar, and it is very simple to memorize and implement in your guitar playing.

You can learn more about what fingerstyle acoustic guitar is here in this article I wrote a while ago.

The Guitar Lesson

As always, let’s start with the video lesson to have an idea of what we are going to learn. This guitar chord progression is pretty simple and “basic.” There will be only two chord shapes to learn, and the fingerstyle pattern is pretty simple and straightforward. Check the guitar lesson down below.

The Chord Progression

Awesome! I am sure you like a guitar lesson. Let’s analyze the chord progression and learn the four chords you will need.

D major, A major, B minor, and G major

If you are familiar with the basic chord progression above you, probably realize that what I just played in the video doesn’t sound like the chord progression, you know.

The reason for that is because I am using a different chord shape that changes the interval structure and the voicing of the chord giving it a completely different sound.

Let me show you how to play this awesome guitar chord progression using the 153 chord shape.

The 153 Chord Shape

The 153 chord is a type of chords built on three notes: The root note, the 3rd, and the 5th. We call that triad (or chord).

The triad is the simplest chord in music, and you have been using it since you started playing guitar. In fact, all the basic chords you play are probably triads.

What a 153 chord shape looks like?

Let me show you the two-chord shape we are going to learn today. The chord progression we are about to learn has three major chords and one minor. For that reason, we will be learning two different 153 chord shapes.

The Major 153 chord shape

This is the major 153 chord shape. The number next to the notes refer to the left-hand fingering.

You will play the note on the 4th string with the index finger, the note on the 3rd string with the second finger, and the note on the 1st string with the fourth finger.

The index finger (the one on the 4th string) represents the ROOT note, giving the name of the major chord considering its position on the neck.

Example: Play this chord with the index finger on the 4th string fret two; this note is E; therefore, the chord will be E major,

The 153 Minor Chord Shape

The minor 153 chord shape is also pretty simple to memorize. We are lowering the 3rd the notes on the first string one fret down to change the chord from major to minor.

The left-hand fingering is the same, with the only difference in the first string where we will use the 3rd finger rather than the 4th.

Familiarize yourself with the two-chord shape before putting it together and play the whole thing.

If you find the chords too stretchy for your left hand, you can check this useful left-hand stretchy exercise here.

The Chord Progression Diagrams

Below you will find the chord progression written in chord diagrams. By using the chord diagrams, you will be able to see the chord shape as well as the distance between each chord. Obviously, the three major chords share the same 153 chord shape. Click to enlarge.

Acoustic Guitar Exercise. How to stretch your left hand Fingers

Nov 28, 2017

Acoustic Guitar Exercise

How to stretch your left-hand fingers

Beginner lesson.

Hey guys, today I will show you this acoustic guitar exercise that you can use to stretch your left-hand fingers. Guitar players with a developed left-hand fingers stretch can easily play chords and melodies without struggling. Also, fingers stretch allows you to learn more things easily, creating positive momentum and drive.

Overall left-hand stretch is one of the most important aspects you want to develop when it comes to acoustic guitar and fingerstyle guitar.

How stretchy are your fingers? Let’s find out!

The video lesson

Stretchy Chops

First thing first, I will show you the video lesson so that you can have an idea of what the exercise looks like. There are a ton of different variations of it. This is the acoustic guitar exercise using all the fingers, which allows you to stretch your left-hand fingers consistently. However, if you find yourself struggling, you can always decide to simplify it. I am going to show you how later on in this post.

The exercise and its structure

What to expect for Stretchy Chops

This acoustic guitar exercise is based on the famous symmetrical combination that all guitar players refer to as the 1234 exercises. This exercise is pretty common, especially for beginners. It is basically a straightforward and symmetrical way to start “moving” your fingers on the guitar neck by playing a sequence of notes going from the first finger (labeled as number 1) to the fourth finger (labeled as number 2).

This picture shows you the fingers stretch you can obtain by using the sequence. Notice how each finger sits on one fret.

If you start the sequence on fret one with the finger one, then the second fret will have the second finger, the third fret the third finger, and the fourth fret the fourth finger.

Pretty easy, no?!

How to perform the exercise

Fingerstyle guitar tips

Once you understand the symmetrical 1234 finger concept, we can then move on to the acoustic guitar exercise we are about to learn. This exercise guy is pretty straightforward; however, it can be quite challenging to play.

I am going to post the first part of the guitar tab. You can also get the detailed PDF tab plus an introduction to the exercise by creating your BlitzGuitar account and instantly access a ton of free fingerstyle guitar lessons. By the way, this is a lesson from my free ebook, Fingerstyle Engine. 100% free!

This is the tab

As you notice, the finger sequence is played on the second string, and you will be performing a 1234 pattern where each finger sits on a fret. You can start this exercise by playing the second string only before you add the first open.

Once you familiarize yourself with finger stretch on the second string, you can then add the first open string that will be alternated with the second string.

We add the first open string because we want to make sure that your left hand is positioned correctly. If you have to play the first open string, you are forced to lower the left-hand thumb and stretch your fingers to the maximum. Your hand will also be in line with the strings.

If your left hand isn’t positioned correctly, the first string doesn’t ring, so you’ll know that your left-hand position needs to be adjusted.

The worst left-hand position

How to kill your stretch for good!

In this picture, I will show you the WORST position you can apply to guaranteed failure.

Notice how the fingers are “rolling” on the side, and the thumb is sitting on the top neck.

This position kills your finger stretch and reduces the agility and fluidity of your fingers. If you ever find yourself playing using this posture, make sure you spend some time to fix that.

With this position, you will never be able to correctly perform Stretchy Chops as the first string will never ring out properly.

Final Thoughts

How much do you need to practice?

One of the questions I get asked the most is, “For how long should I practice this exercise?”

This is a fundamental question because, as with any acoustic guitar exercise, you want to make sure to allocate the right amount of time for it. Overdoing it will kill your improvement. Playing it for too little will not give you the results you are probably looking for.

I recommend that you practice this exercise for between 8 and 25 minutes. This is the right amount of time for you to fully engage with the exercise and maintain a high focus level. Before you heat 8 minutes, your brain is still “figure things out.” Once you cross the 25 minutes, the autopilot kicks in, so your fingers move, but your mind is somewhere else hence no improvement.

Practice this finger stretch exercise until you feel you are 100% focused on your fingers and feel the stretch and fluidity getting better.

Good luck with this exercise, guys, and please, make sure you take it step by step, practice slowly and enjoy the process.

Fingerstyle Spanish Guitar Lesson. Chords and Arpeggios for Intermediate

Nov 26, 2017

Spanish guitar arpeggio

Super guitar lesson about Spanish guitar arpeggio for intermediate guitar players. If you are searching for an awesome guitar lesson that can help you improve your fingerstyle technique and control, and fluidity, you better check this out!

This Spanish guitar arpeggio is marked as “intermediate,” so if you have been playing guitar for you days, you probably want to come back in few months or when you feel ready!

Also, guys, I recommend you practice guitar slowly and step by step. In this guitar exercise, you will find some difficult chord shape and rhythmic challenges that can really stress you out a little bit.

Practice the guitar with consistency and momentum, and make sure you don’t give up. Usually, the moment you are about to give up on an exercise is also the moment you are about to overcome a plateau and push forward. Good luck!

The Video Tutorial

Below you will find the full guitar lesson of this awesome exercise. You can also get the guitar tab at blitzguitar.com once you create your free account. Here’s the video lesson!

The Chord Progression

Let’s have a look at the chord progression you’ll find in this Spanish guitar arpeggio. Analyzing the chord progression will help you understanding and memorizing the exercise easily. You can also learn the correlation between the chords, so it will be easier in the future to learn a similar exercise.

Chord progression Em – Am – B – Em – Am – B – Em

As you notice in the picture above, each bar contains an arpeggio or chord. The difference between the two is that a chord has all the notes played simultaneously; with the arpeggio, we play the chord individually. Let me explain to you what that means by analyzing the E minor chord.

The E minor chord is composed of three notes: E – G – B. When you strum an E minor chord, you are playing these three notes simultaneously.
The E minor arpeggio contains the same three notes, but they will be played individually.

In this example, you can clearly see the three notes that compose the E minor chord played with the thumb at the bottom of the guitar Tab.

The 4th string fret 2 is E.

The 4th string fret 5 is G.

The 3rd string fret 4 is B.

On top of the arpeggio, you will also play the first and second open strings, which can be considered accompaniment.

The fingerstyle pattern

Let’s talk about the fingerstyle guitar pattern that you will be learning with this Spanish guitar arpeggio. One of the most important things to do when learning a new fingerstyle pattern is to break it down into small patterns. Check the picture below to learn more about the fingerstyle pattern.

We can simplify this fingerstyle arpeggio in two different sections.

The yellow section is based on two identical patterns, with the only difference on the bass note, played on the 6th and 5th string.
The red section is based on two notes only, and it will be played with the bass note on the 4th string.

The fingerstyle pattern is the same throughout the exercise; therefore, you have basically learned the entire exercise pattern when you learn one bar.

Dynamics and Performance

We definitely want to spend a few words on the dynamics and performance of this exercise. This Spanish guitar arpeggio must be played following these two features:

The thumb needs to be louder than the accompaniment, so you must practice the arpeggio, pushing a little more with the thumb and keeping the index and middle finger quiet.
Fluidity is key to make this exercise sound awesomely beautiful.

Guys, this is an awesome lesson, and you are going to love it.

Let me know if you like it!

10 Awesome Acoustic Guitar Webpage you should Follow!

Nov 25, 2017

Acoustic Guitar Webpage

BlitzGuitar Marco Cirillo BlitzGuitar.com A simple guide to Acoustic Guitar Webpage

Hey guys, in this post, I will talk to you about Acoustic Guitar Blogs that you should follow.

As guitar players, we are fortunate to have access to so many webpages and social media to learn everything we want about the guitar.

Today I want to share what I think are the most awesome acoustic guitar blogs you should follow. Guys, this is my personal favorite list, and please, don’t hate if I don’t list your favorite. I honestly love everyone who’s holding a guitar!

I am posting the blogs in random order. They are all my top favorite guitar blogs, so there are all winners.

I wish he were my brother!

1. tonypolecastro.com

Tony Policastro is a really cool guy. Honestly, guys, I wish he was my brother! I bumped into one of his videos on YouTube a while ago, and I loved how he was delivering the lesson.

Tony is an awesome acoustic guitar teacher for beginners. His way of speaking and simple concept is pretty unique. He focuses on guitar playing and mentoring students on guitar routine, practical music theory, and fingerboard knowledge.

Mr. Polecastro is definitely a guitar teacher worth following. You definitely want to try Tony’s Acoustic Challenge, an online guitar method that can help you with your guitar playing.

With Tony’s Acoustic Challenge, you will receive one exercise every weekday. Each exercise takes about 10 minutes to be completed, so you should never get bored playing the same things. Because the exercises are concise, you should be able to practice even though you are busy. What an awesome acoustic guitar webpage!

This is a guitar program worth checking out. Well done bro!

A ton of value!

2. www.guitarlessons.com

This webpage is packed with awesome free guitar lessons. You will learn Acoustic Guitar Lessons as well as Electric Guitar tutorials. Nate Savage is clearly a quite skilled guitar player and guitar teacher. His lessons are always simple and really effective, and he also provides a ton of downloadable stuff.

Beginner videos
Rhythm videos
Lead Guitar
Blues Guitar
Acoustic Guitar
Electric Guitar

They also have life lessons, and this awesome feature called the “Free Guitar Toolbox,” which is a bunch of useful tools that you can use to really make your guitar playing better! I highly recommend you sign up for their newsletter as they run a lot of discounts and offers. Check it out!

If you are searching for an acoustic guitar webpage that can give you many awesome guitar lessons for beginners beautifully taught by one teacher, then guitarlesson.com is definitely the place for you.

Your best guitar buddy

3. JustinGuitar.com

Justin Guitar is the place where every beginner guitar player starts.

Guys, I have been teaching guitar for 15 years, and I can tell you one thing: Five out of 10 beginners know about JustinGuitar.com and start with the A major D major E major series lesson for beginners.

I actually found out about his webpage a long time ago when I learned about building my blog. Justin Sandercoe is a guitar player and guitar teacher from Australia. He was probably the first guy to start posting guitar lessons on YouTube and slowly build up a huge following on YouTube and JustinGuitar.com.

His acoustic guitar webpage is full of lessons—hundreds or even thousands of acoustic guitar lessons in fingerstyle and strumming.

There is a massive section full of Electric guitar lessons as well. Justin is well known for teaching songs most accurately. If you want to learn how to play the song exactly as recorded, you better check him out because this guy is super accurate.

He’s also the author of many guitar songbooks, which are really popular worldwide. You should definitely check out one of his best-selling at JustinGuitar.com. This guy has definitely earned his place in the top 10 guitar teacher on the web, and he’s still pretty consistent. Every time I go checking out his awesome webpage, I always found new lessons and tutorials available. Justin never got bored with teaching, hehehe! Well done!

Plenty of Guitar Lessons

4.GuitarTricks.com

This webpage has over 1.9 million members, guys.

On this webpage, you will learn thousands of acoustic guitar lessons in any style possible.

Fingerstyle guitar lessons
Country guitar lessons
Blues guitar lessons
Guitar fundamental
Guitar for beginners and intermediate

A ton of songs, A ton of guitar exercises. The difference between this webpage and Justin Guitar (which also has thousands of lessons) is that GuitarTricks.com also allows you to select which guitar teacher you want to learn from.

There are literally hundreds of guitar teachers you can learn from in one click, and the lessons are all HD and with downloadable tabs. There are also free guitar lessons you can get if you signup. Overall, an awesome resource for guitar lessons. If you are searching for a huge volume of lessons and a ton of guitar teachers to learn from, go for it!

I don’t know if I feel like recommending this webpage if you are totally beginner. Honestly, guys, you should never start learning guitar without a guitar teacher because you are more likely to pick up bad habits.

It doesn’t really matter which acoustic guitar webpage you feel like using; make sure you always take some private lessons with a guitar teacher!

The guitar player, “Who made it!”

5. www.goliathguitartutorials.com

Gareth Evans is quite popular on YouTube. He started posting fingerstyle guitar tutorials in 2001 and slowly became really popular in 2005. Gareth Evans is currently the solo guitar teacher on YouTube with the most subscribers.

His fingerstyle tutorials are always based on popular songs that he personally rearranges and transcribes on tabs. All the tabs are free to download at his webpage GoliathGuitar.com.

Over the past years, Gareth Evans uploaded some awesome guitar lessons that have reached millions of views and helped thousands of acoustic guitar players worldwide with an acoustic guitar. His video performance has improved and has become extremely entertaining to watch. If you love fingerstyle guitar songs and you want to learn full songs from him, make sure you check out GoliathGuitar.com to access a ton of free fingerstyle guitar lessons.

The British way of Teaching.

6. www.learnguitarinlondon.com

Drue James is a London based fingerstyle guitar player and guitar teacher. He’s becoming more and more popular on YouTube, and his webpage LearnGuitarInLondon (LGIN) currently has hundreds of free acoustic guitar lessons. I really like his approach. He’s a very consistent and dedicated guitar teacher for beginners.

As a beginner himself, he really understands how to teach simple songs to his audience, which has now reached over 150.000 subscribers. The guitar lessons are always well structured and easy to follow, and I love the fact that this guy improved so much over the past couple of years.

His YouTube channel has improved a lot, as well as his webpage. Over the past years, he has been focusing on teaching more fingerstyle guitar and classical guitar, and he’s also the author of a few guitar methods on chords, fingerstyle, classical guitar, and bar chords.

Drue James is an example of how you can become a better guitar player by helping others learning this awesome instrument. If you are just starting and need some easy to follow free guitar lessons and a dedicated teacher, make sure you check him out. His acoustic guitar webpage “LearnGuitarinLondon” is packed with guitar lessons and fingerstyle tutorials for beginners.

Detailed guitar lessons.

7. SwiftLesson.com

Rob Swift is an awesome guitar teacher, guys. I bumped into him a while ago when I was doing some research about Patreon. This webpage allows you to donate money to a creator in exchange for a product/video. Rob has probably the most guitar lessons patrons ever.

By the time I am writing this article, he has around 2478 people supporting and learning from him. He’s a very dedicated guitar teacher and also an excellent singer-songwriter. His ability to explain a song most simply and add his own feel to it really made him one of my favorite.

Teaching with clarity isn’t easy, guys, and Rob Swift does it perfectly. His guitar lessons are focused on songs and music theory, and practical guitar exercises to improve your technique. If you feel like supporting him and access hundreds of detailed guitar lessons, plus contributing and donating to his Patreon page, go ahead and click the link here to start learning.

This guy is definitely worth trying. Btw, you can have access to a ton of his tabs and sheets of music by donating just 1$ a month. Well done, Rob! His Patreon is a great acoustic guitar webpage packed with valuable lessons.

Really good looking acoustic guitar webpage!

8. Fender.com

Fender is usually always associated with guitar and bass guitar. They have been around since 1946, and they do represent the Electric guitar world! Recently they came up with this awesome new feature called Fender play. It is basically a membership site where you can have access to a ton of guitar lessons for just 19.99$/month

Awesome cameras and a tone of valuable songs. If you love to learn songs and only have a few minutes a day practicing your guitar, Fender Play is definitely worth trying.

They also offer 30 days free trial! You have: Personalized lesson plans Progress tracking Learn at your own pace Step by step lessons Professional guitar teachers.

All in, the Fender play is an awesome membership site for beginners and intermediate guitar players who want to have access to a ton of value at a low price.

A ton of guitar lessons!

9. JamPlay.com

Another awesome guitar place full of acoustic guitar lessons in any style and shape. Honestly, guys, this is a pretty awesome webpage. There are different sections where you can learn. The Lesson tab will take you to the page where you can learn.

Beginner guitar lesson
Style and Genre
Skills Builder
Learn Songs
Master Classes
Live lessons

There are also hundreds of guitar courses and workshops available for any level and style. You can have access to 86 di erent guitar teachers and over 5000 guitar lessons. Honestly, guys, I don’t really know if you really need all this stuff as I believe that nobody can ever play so many things and so many di erent styles of music simultaneously.

I think the way you should approach this type of webpages is to narrow it down to what you essentially need and really practice a few things at the time.

If you are a beginner, it is definitely an awesome way for you to access thousands of lessons, but at the same time, you also want to make sure you don’t spend too much time browsing.

Old style songs.

10. GuitarForBeginners.com

Guitar for beginners is an awesome webpage if you want to learn an easy song on acoustic guitar. Kirk Lorange did an excellent job compiling all these awesome songs together. The arrangements are pretty simple, and the tabs very accurate.

Kirk was probably one of the first guys to introduce the different camera angles on the top of the guitar rather than in front. I don’t know how effective that can be … it makes me dizzy. I think this is an awesome lesson to check if you like hits and old classical songs rearranged perfectly for acoustic and classical guitar.

The repertoire isn’t modern but definitely well organized.

Overall we can honestly say that guitarlessonforbeginner is an awesome acoustic guitar webpage full of great lessons and tools to really make your guitar playing better in a few weeks. You will also learn a ton of songs and have fun playing the guitar from the day you start.

As you notice, there is a lot of stuff out there. And if you think about it, I only mentioned 10 websites. How do you really figure out what do you need? Well, if I can give you a piece of advice, I would say, “PEOPLE DON’T BUY PRODUCTS, THEY BUY EMOTIONS,” and that means you should do a little bit of research and find a couple of guitar teacher that really inspire you.

Don’t just look at the number of lessons you will get at the lowest price. Instead, find an online teacher that really resonate with you. Someone that reflect your vision and teaches you with passion. Spend a little bit of time researching that then, start playing and stick to it. Don’t spend too much time browsing along and debating.

Stop pondering on who’s the best guitar teacher and start practicing and playing. Stick to it, and you will learn consistently. Keep changing things around, and you will get bored of your “never learning” guitar rot. Good luck with that, guys. Hey guys, I didn’t put myself on the list, but I also have fingerstyle guitar courses.

If you want to improve your fingerstyle guitar and make an awesome and positive change in your guitar playing, make sure you check out my guitar courses down here.

The Worst thing to Avoid when Practicing Guitar. Three killing Remedy!

Apr 12, 2016

Practicing Fingerstyle Guitar

What’s the worst thing you can do when practicing fingerstyle guitar. Knowing the difference between a good or bad can make a huge difference in your daily or weekly practice schedule. After years of teaching, I came up with the “Worst Thing to avoid when you practice Guitar.” These are the things you want to avoid 100%. Save time and improve faster! Keep making these mistakes, and you will be wasting time, lose confidence, and give up playing guitar.

How do you know you are practicing the right way? This is quite a difficult question to answer. When you practice at home, and your teacher isn’t around, you can easily practice songs, chords, scales, and techniques in the wrong way. Beginners and intermediate guitar players face the same problem all the time when practicing fingerstyle guitar. Most of the time, you practice for a week then realize the exercise isn’t right. In most cases, you can easily pick up the bad habit too. Let me show you what’s the worst thing to avoid when you practice or play guitar.

Posture

Why Bad Posture is Killing Your Playing!

Pianists, violinist, flutists, and drummers always have a nice, correct, and healthy posture. They look so relaxed and energetic.

On the other hand, guitar players always come up with new, interesting, and completely wrong ways to play guitar! Wrong posture, eh … too energetic, couch playing, and wrong size guitar.

The first thing you have to do if you want to improve faster and avoid bad habits is to practice using your hands’ right position. Sitting on a chair isn’t enough, though. You must follow three things if you want to as much benefit as possible from your daily practice.

Remember: Practicing the guitar is just like a workout routine. Try to lift iron using the wrong posture, and you will get injured.

Hand Position

There is a major rule you must follow when you are practicing fingerstyle guitar. Your hands must play and pluck correctly! It is quite easy to pick up bad habits such as wrong position, unusual plucking, and buzzing frets. I am going to give you all the info you need to use your hands correctly. Follow each rule and stick with the plan. You will improve faster!

Right Hand

When it comes to fingerstyle guitar, their right position looks like this one:

The thumb in front of the fingers, pluck downward (most of the time on the bass notes). The fingers pluck the strings smoothly. You can either use nails or just flesh. When plucking, the palm doesn’t move at all (or very little).

There is one major rule you want to follow when you pluck the string:

Make sure you use finger articulation only. No grabbing or pulling strings!

Fingerstyle mistake 1

The thumb is far too close to the index finger if you have this position; the thumb and index clash when plucking simultaneously.

Fingerstyle mistake 2

– Leaning the fingers on the body as support. This is a technique that Mark Knopfler uses. Although guitar players are using this approach, I highly recommend using the standard or “Classical” posture. With this technique, you are sacrificing the ring finger. Also, it doesn’t really help you playing a fast arpeggio.

Fingerstyle mistake 3

Grabbing and pulling strings. This is something kids do quite a lot. The sound is usually sloppy and buzzing. Make sure you pluck the string gently with flesh or nails.

Left Hand

The left hand is probably the most difficult thing to get right, especially if you are self-taught. The problem here is that it is quite simple to get it wrong. Thumb and fingers must work together in harmony. Misuse the thumb, and you will compromise the quality of your playing.

Mistake 1 – Left Hand Thumb

Most of the time, especially if you are self-taught, the thumb position guitar players use is completely wrong. The thumb should always be placed STRAIGHT BEHIND THE NECK. I have seen all kinds of weird approaches: horizontal thumb, the Hook thumb, and the Upside-down thumb. If you currently use one of these three weird approaches, you probably struggle with bar chords, stretch, intermediate chords, and fluidity. Chords change quite difficult and sloppy, and you are wondering why it sounds so bad.

By using the right position, you will gain more control and accuracy. You will be able to hold the chords down for longer. The bar chords will sound much better. The stretch will improve. Practicing fingerstyle guitar can be quite frustrating if you don’t follow these few rules.

Let me show you a quick exercise you can do every day to fix the thumb problem. It is an asymmetrical exercise up and down the fret-board that forces you to keep the thumb straight. Do this simple exercise every day for five minutes. I can guarantee you will improve the position of your thumb quickly and with no pain. But remember: You have to do it every day for at least a couple of months. Are you up for the challenge?

In “Fix the Thumb, you will be work on your thumb and finger positions. Follow these three rules if you want to gain more control and fix your fingers.

Keep the thumb straight behind the neck. It should be placed between the 1st and 3rd fingers. Bring the thumb with you when sliding up and down the neck. Your thumb’s fingertip should be below the neck edge so, no thumb sitting on the top neck. This is the classical guitar posture! Get this position, and your playing will improve drastically.
Hold the fingers down at all times. Notice that the left-hand finger pattern is always the same 1-3 repeated on different positions. Make sure that when you play with the 3rd finger, the 1st finger is still down. Check the pic down below.
Always alternate index and middle finger with the right hand. Don’t double pluck with the same finger. By using alternating fingering, the exercise will sound smooth and fluent.

Work hard to improve your thumb position. It will change your playing!

Mistake 2 – Left Hand Fingers.

Fingers are another painful thing to fix. Most of the time, if you are lucky, you will naturally use the left-hand fingers correctly. It is quite straightforward. You press down the string with the fingertip. However, there are people you would struggle to figure out how to play the notes correctly and come up with something like that:

Now, this stuff is hard to fix. If you got used to playing that way, I could guarantee you that:

You can’t stretch your fingers at all.
When you play a melody, you can’t hold the note down for long.
Speed is impossible.
Hammer on and pull off just doesn’t work.
Bar chords … forger about it.
You probably also have sore fingers all the time.

How do you fix that?

The first thing you have to do when practicing fingerstyle guitar is to make an effort and commit every day (or every time you practice). The good news is, you know what to fix. I see many guitar players getting frustrated because they can’t play certain things yet; they don’t ask the “Why” and “How” questions.

“Why I can’t play it” and “How do I fix that.”

Fix the left hand’s fingers with this simple exercise. Make sure that:

The thumb is straight behind the neck.
Press the fret with the fingertip and not the phalanges.
Stretch the fingers as much as you can.
Place the fingertip close to the fret-wire.

Mistake 3 – The Left-Hand Position.

Another important thing you must get right is the left-hand position—the angle.

Notice how important it is to have the palm and wrist in line. The fingers are perfectly placed, and the thumb is straight behind the neck. This is the right position to use. I highly recommend you work hard to get the left-hand position right. You will gain:

Stretch.
Control.
Speed.
Accuracy.

The only thing you can do to have a perfect left-hand position is to make sure you follow the roles you have learned about thumb and fingers.

The worst left-hand position on the guitar.

Pic 1: The palm touches the bottom neck. This is a horrible way of playing guitar as it reduces the ability to stretch the fingers. Chords, even the basic ones, are difficult. Lower the thumb and always make sure you have space between neck and palm.

Pic 2: Weak fingers. In this position, your fingers “bend” downward. This position is quite annoying because it makes your playing flaky and weak. It would help if you always kept the fingers strong with the joints going upward.

If you struggle with your technique and you are willing to make an effort and improve it, make sure you work on one thing at a time. There is no point trying to fix everything in one go. It takes time to fix a bad habit. Don’t get frustrated. Try every single day. You will be surprised to see how you can improve your technique by working on it even just a few minutes a day.

Good luck!