Advanced Blues Guitar - This Is How To Learn Online!

Earlier this year, I decided to really focus on my advanced blues guitar skills. Playing blues guitar has always been one of the things that really attracted me to the guitar in the first place, so I thought to myself, why not try to really master it? I searched the internet for the best advanced blues guitar courses and if I'm honest, most of the stuff available is aimed at beginners. I stumbled upon, (strangely enough it was actually through the website StumpleUpon.com) a website called...









www.UltimateBluesBackingTracks.com

They have a whole catalogue of blues backing tracks you can download and the cool thing is, the tracks all come with a bunch of blues licks and if you get the whole package you get a 10 week guitar course and a pentatonic scale 'mastery' course for free! Just what the doctor ordered!

I'm the kinda guy that has a massive collection of guitar magazines and about a million blues backing tracks. The trouble is, most of them sound kinda fake but these ones sound AWESOME! It says on the site that all the tracks were recorded by a real blues band and you can really hear it. I always jam along with them nice and loud and it sounds just like I'm playing with a live band.

I downloaded all 50 of the tracks and had a good look through the pentatonic mastery guide. It's really, really good stuff! It teaches you all of the scale shapes for the pentatonic and the blues scale and goes through some signature licks of some cool players like Clapton, Gilmour, BB King, SRV etc. Then I had a good read through of the 10 week guitar course and whoa, talk about go into the details! You get a bunch of lessons that are broken down into different areas like, Speed Exercises, Scales, Chords, Theory so with each lesson you're learning a bit about all the key areas you need to focus on to get better. I'm gonna adapt my own teaching materials for my guitar students to follow this method because it's arranged on the page so well, it's really easy to follow.

I'm really glad I gave the site a try, not only are the blues backing tracks AWESOME! Try getting bored with 50 different tracks to play along to! The sheer amount of tuition material you get with it, more than 500 blues licks and the extra free guitar courses totally make this a worth your while! The tracks are all really inexpensive and the amount of them means you have new stuff to play around with every time you practice. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this is the best system I've found for advanced blues guitar. Go get involved!

Click here for the best blues backing tracks

See you next time!

Dave

Learning lead guitar, the how to guide!

There are no easy ways to teach someone the discipline and knowledge that is needed when they first learn play lead guitar. It is a combination of natural talent, teachings and technique that will make you the best lead guitarist you can be!

Technique

Technique is one of the key elements when you learn to play lead guitar. A good teacher is essential to teach you the basic skills and allow you to perfect them. Playing guitar is like artwork, you need to practice and perfect your craft. Many lead guitarist in popular music groups will tell you they never stop learning and never stop perfecting there style.

Discipline

Discipline is what will take you from an average lead guitarist to a brilliant one. When you first learn to play lead guitar it is very important to be disciplined and be able to put the hours in that are needed to master your craft. A teacher can help you set a time schedule and program to keep you motivated and on track.

Body language

Body language is another important element when you learn to play lead guitar. Attitude and body language go hand in hand to give you the confidence you need as a lead guitarist. If you watch a music video you will always notice the confidence the lead guitarist has compared to his backup musicians.

Leadership skills

As a lead guitarist it is important to have excellent leadership skills. As the lead guitarist you are responsible for the backup musicians and need to be able to think on your feet and cover any mistakes that may happen during a set. This is something that will come with time but should always be on your mind when you learn to play lead guitar.

Learning positions

When you first start to learn to play lead guitar it is important to practice while in the seated position. Being seated during practice will help you to maintain full control of your instrument and allow you to concentrate on your practice. Always have both feet on the ground and have your back straight to avoid injury.

Correct hand positions

Learning the correct hand positions when you learn to play lead guitar is the most important element. Using the correct hand positions will allow you to move through cords with ease and avoid mistakes. It will also allow you to react quickly if one of your backup musicians makes a mistake or misses a note. Correct hand positions should be practiced regularly even by experienced guitarists.

Learning to play by ear

All professional musicians, whether they're playing jazz, rock, bluegrass and country music, have spent their first years of practicing bent over a half speed record player. You might be wondering what does this have to do with trying to learn to play the guitar by ear. As you will learn from this article, it actually has a lot to do with it.

Slowing Things Down

In order to learn to play the guitar by ear you have to begin with learning the melodies, chords and leads from a recording. To be able to do this, you've got to slow them down a bit. Some exceptionally gifted people with really good ears are able to learn to play some slow songs just by listening to them at a normal speed. However, even those folks have problems with learning faster melodies and need to slow things down.

Most of us can't even figure out slow songs just by listening to them at a normal speed. While most of us can match a note with our guitar or voice if it's the only thing we're hearing, we tend to get confused when lots of notes are played together. If you slow the music down, we can separate the notes and play them piece by piece until we learn the whole song.

Slowdown Technology

Years ago, the slowing down process was done using half speed tape recorders. However, as you slowed the music down, the pitch dropped. By the time you got to half speed, the pitch had already dropped a lot. Anyway, for most of us, half speed is still to fast. You will probably need a 1/10 speed in order to figure out certain pieces.

Fortunately, nowadays everything has been made easier with the aid of digital slowdown technology. You can now slow the melody down as much as you want, without having the pitch dropping.

Do You Really Have to Put So Much Work Into It?

You're probably thinking that spending so much time on figuring out each note yourself must be awfully hard. Why not just buy a book and get over this part?

Of course, you can buy a book, but, as it usually happens with all music theory books, it will probably be gathering dust on your bookshelf forever. If you really want to learn to play the guitar by ear, you will have to get involved in the process and figure out the notes from a melody yourself.

While figuring out note by note on your own is the best way to go, consulting a transcription book from time to time while you're trying to figure out the music is also good. Some beginner guitar players who want to learn to play the guitar by ear learn from a transcription book first and then play along with the original recording at a slower pace to get the rhythm.

You should learn to play the guitar by ear just because this way you get the most fun. Playing the guitar should be fun and this is why you should have started to learn it in the first place. However, the more you time you invest into the learning process by getting involved in practical activities, the faster the progress.