Claude Thomas, Guitar Playing Tips

By Allison Spurgeon

Learning a chord-based approach to playing the piano might have you rockin’ and rollin’ in not time, but many people want to know and understand what they are playing by learning how to read piano music. This could take time, a few months or even years, but those who learn to read piano music don’t have to hear a song before they play it. They simply look over the piece of sheet music and are able to ‘hear’ the score before them. Understanding the notes is like being able to read another language.

The first steps to learning how to read piano or keyboard sheet music involve learning the notes and clefs that a piece of music is composed of. This will let you know whether you need to play in a treble clef, or high tone, or if the piece is written for deeper or lower tones, called a bass clef. Next, you must be able to designate which notes are what, where they are located, and why they are there.

Notes are broken down and depicted individually on what is called a stave, the five parallel lines music is written on. Depending on where the note is on the stave, on the lines or in the spaces, this will formulate how a song should be played. Different parts of the musical score will detail each section’s notes all at once to help the conductor lead an entire symphony.

The next step to reading piano sheet music is a bit more complicated. The time signature is another important feature to focus on because it tells you at what pace the song should be played.

By Kevin Sinclair

In the world of music, there are a lot of different chords which comprise the sonic palette of every musician (unless of course, you’re a drummer- but even if you are, keep reading; there’s an opportunity to learn here). An open chord is one where none of the notes being played are flats or sharps. An open chord is typically the first, third and fifth notes of a scale. One of the more commonly used chords other than these are 7th chords: among them, D7, C7 and G7 to name a few.

To play a G7 chord on a guitar:
* Finger the third fret of the sixth string using your ring finger.
* Finger the second fret of the fifth string, using your middle finger.
* Finally, finger the first fret of the first string, using your index finger.
* The other three strings will be played open, which is to say unfingered.

With some practice, you’ll find it easy to keep your fingers curled to stay on the proper frets. Now, strum the chord. In a G7 cord, there is a difference of only one note from what is played in a G major chord.

Similarly, the C7 chord is played with only a one note difference from those found in a C major chord. When playing a C7 chord, begin by forming a C major chord on your fretboard as follows:
* Ring finger, third fret, fifth string.
* Middle finger, second fret, fourth string.
* Index finger, first fret, second string.

Then add to this:
* Pinky finger, third fret, third string. Now strum the five bottom strings to play the C7 chord.

To play a D7 Chord (much like D major, but with the seventh note added):
* Middle finger on the second fret of the third string.
* Index finger, on the first fret of the second string.
* Ring finger on the second fret of the first string.
* now strum the bottom four strings to play this chord.

When looking at the chord charts for these chords, strings which will not be strummed are represented with an X above them. To make sure that you are playing the chord correctly, first pluck each note on its own. Practice these chords, as well as moving from chord to chord. Try saying the name of the chords as you play them to get accustomed to the name, fingering and sound of each one.

A 9th chord is just like a 7th chord, but with an added ninth (a ninth is one octave higher than the starting note; known as a tonic, plus two frets).

A ninth chord is composed of: 1-3-5-b7-9.
The major 7th minor 9th chord is: 1-3-5-7-9
The minor 7th minor 9th chord is: 1-b3-5-b7-9

The major 9th chords are: -

* A = A-C#-E-G#-B
* B = B-D#-F#-A#-C#
* C = C-E-G-B-D
* D = D-F#-A-C#-E
* E = E-G#-B-D#-F#
* F = F-A-C-E-G
* G = G-B-D-F#-A

By Hyden Sanford

So, you want to learn how to play electric guitar? If you succeed, this will certainly be one of the most rewarding endeavors you can engage in and will stay with you for the rest of your life. Here I am going to give three key points that will give you the greatest chance of success. I am assuming you want to develop your skill to be a guitarist rather than learn a few chords and leave it at that.

Some of the most important points you need to learn how to play electric guitar are:

1. You will need regular practice. My advice is that the minimum practice time you will need to commit to your electric guitar is maybe 20 minutes, 5 days a week. This would be a minimum, and within reason it is safe to say the more the better, but if you devote this much time to the instrument you can expect a steady improvement of your skills. If this sounds like something you don’t want to do, then learning an instrument is probably not for you.

2. It is very valuable to get a teacher. This is not as essential as the practice time mentioned above, but it is probably the next most important thing. Some people can learn some good skills without a teacher, but if you really want to learn the instrument, then it is better to play it safe and get a weekly lesson for either half an hour a week or an hour a week if you want to fast track the process. When finding a teacher you should make sure that the teacher is both competent, but as well as that, teaches a style you are interested in. For example, if you mainly want to learn how to play electric guitar, then you are probably more interested in blues or other popular/rock oriented styles and a teacher that was primarily a classical guitar teacher would be a mistake. This may result in you loosing interest in the instrument due to not observing progress toward where you want to go with your guitar.

3. Invest in one of the leading online guitar courses. In addition to regular practice and finding a good teacher that suits you desires for the instrument. It is useful to engross yourself in online lessons that supplement the material your teacher is showing you. You will learn additional skills through an online guitar course and can use “study” time to fast track your perspective of where your practice will end up going by looking at a range of lessons early in the piece. Similarly to selecting a teacher, it is important to get one of the courses that is tailored to your current level of ability and where you want to go with the instrument. These courses often come with a variety of extras including backing tracks to start to jam with as well as written, audio and video lessons.

By Vin Hayes

Concert promoters can easily be thought of as major event planners. Every detail of the concert has to go off without a hitch and that responsibility lies solely with the promoter. Concert promotion is a demanding career that requires serious attention to detail. In order to be an effective and successful concert promoter, a high level of organization is necessary. Losing track of important contact names, dates, telephone numbers or venue information could prove disastrous.

The world of concert promotions is full of contracts, legal agreements, insurance policies and riders. In order to make the best business decisions, a concert promoter has to have a working knowledge of all of these legal documents. Not understanding parts of a contract or rider can lead to confusion and difficulties down the road.

Concert promoters can make a huge amount of money, and then, they can lose money as well. Most people don’t realize that quite often, concert promoters actually use their own money to fund a concert event. All of the event expenses are his or her responsibility up front. Once the tickets have been sold, the band gets their cut and the bills get paid. It’s only then that the promoter gets what’s left. For this reason, it’s of the utmost importance to get as many paying customers in the door as possible.

Some of the major costs involved with concert promotion are the venue rental and event insurance. The promoter contacts the venue and works out a cost for the duration of the event. Some venues will require up-front payment while others may require a down payment with the remainder due at the end of the concert. Insurance is absolutely necessary and helps to protect the venue owners, concert promoter and band from possible litigation.

In addition, the concert promoter bears the cost of all advertising promotions and other marketing costs. Promoters these days have a variety of choices for marketing. They can use the internet, radio, TV and even flyers to get the word out about their event. Marketing, when done properly, usually takes up a fairly substantial portion of the concert promoters budget.

A successful concert promoter understands how to advertise to get the most people to buy tickets for the show. They’ve got to have a good sense of the band that they’re promoting as well as their fans. Whether a concert attracts a huge audience or a small one depends on how well the event was promoted, plain and simple.

By Mike Edward

Having just the right amount of patience will be enough to keep you going on learning the guitars. At some point, when you’ve mastered the craft of guitar play, you’ll also get tired of doing it but the feeling is rewarding. Upon grabbing hold of your own guitar, learning the basics will be a bit easy if you know how to sing a tune. Also, it’s a hint that you can become some rock star someday. But if you don’t have plans of becoming the next famous guitar player in the world then take guitar playing as a means to sooth your day after being in a bad mood or crazy situation.

The secret of a good guitar player is having not only a tuned up strings for play but also a heart and ear for music. When you are one with your instrument, it is a good feeling somewhat compared to being at a light and high state. Notice famous guitar players today who close their eyes and feeling the vibe of the music they create? That is a higher level of guitar playing that you should aim to achieve.

Upon learning some basic tunes and mastering them by heart, try out other songs that you can play and sing along with a few friends or perhaps the whole family. Be resourceful in finding some good music to play as there are a lot of free guitar tabs available in the internet today. Available free guitar tabs can help you out in enhancing and challenging what you can do and what more you can do as you go along the whole guitar playing experience.