Acoustic Guitar Player

Laurence Juber playing playing an acoustic guitar arrangement of While my Guitar Gently Weeps is a great lesson in itself.

Watch his technique and see how much control he has in his bends and his ability to be natural and relaxed throughout this video.  Although the basic theme and chorus of the tune is repetitive, he manages to maintain an interest throught with his variations around them.  The more I hear of Laurence Juber, the more I realise the quality of guitar player that he is.

If you want to here another video of Laurence Juber playing a beautiful slow blues, go to the acoustic guitarist site

In case you missed my previous article about Lightning Hopkins the legendary acoustic Blues Guitar Player, here’s another song  complete with sunglasses, it’s a slow blues, talking style of vocal line. This is history and it’s wonderful to have it saved and preserved on video.  It’s from the American Folk Blues Festival 1964.  His voice is outstanding in this video, see how simple his guitar part is and it stands up.  I can hear a lot of what Hendrix based his style on in this tune.  I’d be struggling to say I’ve ever heard a better blues than this.

If you want to hear another Lightning Hopkins Blues click back the link to the left

This is Part 5 of the 6 part series in Guitar Chords - How to Make E chordsAs stated in the other articles on Making Guitar Chords ,  
chords generally have a 3rd, 5th and 7th.

So to make an E Major Chord we need the first third and fifth of an E scale

The first of E is E, the third is G# and the fifth is B

For the E minor, we flatten the 3rd (one fret lower), so the G sharp becomes G, we still use the 1st and 5th.

An E 7th chord is the same as an E but we need to take the 7th note of E and drop it one note. 
That will be a D natural, not a D Sharp.

So an E7th has a st, 3rd and 5th

For the printable TAB and Notation Click the link
Guitar Chords - How to Make E chords

Here’s another beautiful guitar piece on youtube video by the brilliant Andy McKee acoustic guitarist.  Notice how he uses a half capo that only covers some of the strings.  He  is one of the most natyrally percussive players that I have ever heard.  he’s playing a Lowden guitar, not unlike the ones Pierre Bensusan used for many years.  I like the tiny bit of vibrato he often uses when he holds a note.  Listen out for the bell like harmonics just after the 4 minute mark.

 For more music by Andy McKee check out Andy Mckee on youtube

These Chords are based around the Key of A.  The Key of A has 3 sharps (#) C sharp, F sharp and G Sharp.   As before in the last article, if you look at the music stave above, you’ll notice that I have numbered each note and also given it an alphabetical name.

I’ll also remind you once again that the way chords are made is generally by taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th of a scale.

If you look at the top line of music above, you’ll see it is A, C# and E, this is called an A major triad.  You could also play a couple of A’s C#’s or E’s  instead of just one, it’s still a A major chord.

If you look at the second line of music above, you’ll see it is A, C natural and E, this is called an A minor triad.  Also, just like the major chord, you could play a couple of A’s C’s  or E’s instead of just one, it’s still aa A minor chord.

The seventh chord consists of the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and also the 7th note, but this is IMPORTANT. Once again, as in previous article, look closely at the note though, in truth what is known as a 7th is really a flattened 7th, it is one note lower than the seventh note of the normal major scaleTo download the Free High Quality Printable version Click the following Link:

To download the Printable ‘How Guitar Chords are Made’ article, click the link:

How Guitar Chords are Made - A pdf notation and TAB

 For the previous article click How Chords are Made - Key of D

Tommy Emmanuel, the brilliant Australian guitar player playing Classical Gas on his Maton acoustic Guitar, quite a good combination.  A couple of days ago I posted about  Tommy Emmanuel’s youtube version of Amazing Grace.   This youtube of Tommy has him playing Classical Gas his style, a dynamic rhythmic intro and then it gets the Emmanuel steel String acoustic.  It’s great to hear different players of Tommy Emmanuels standard versions of such well known tunes.  Common song that we know so well in our heads that we’ve head numerous versions make it easy for us to notice the unexpected.  I love the percussion he creates on the guitar in this version, and the arpeggios around about the 4 minute mark.  This intensity that he expresses when he plays acoustic is rare.  Hats of to to Tommy Emmanuel, he keeps getting better and better.

It’s pretty hard to have an acoustic guitar site or blog without mentioning Tommy Emmanuel at some point.  Over the years I’ve seen him play many times in different settings, both acoustic and electric.  Although I’ve never been fortunate enough to play guitar with him , I did have him play one of my guitars one day in a shop when I was buying a Polytone Amp, he played some George Benson on my Gold Top Les Paul.

I find that solo acoustic guitar is on of the best ways to really hear a player, so I’ve posted this youtube blog article with Tommy playing solo guitar, the reason I chose Amazing Grace is because it’s a very common turn that most peple would know.  When you hear a player play a common tune it’s a great way to hear own personal musical voice.  Enjoy it.

Here is the 3rd article in the series of How Guitar Chords are Made, in this one I am covering D chords. 

Note how in the first article C Chords, the Key of C has no sharps (#)or Flats (b) , wheras the G scale has one sharp.  The key of D, you may or nopt know has 2 sharps, F and C are both sharp..this means one note or fret higher up the fret fretboard.
As before in the last article, if you look at the music stave above, you’ll notice that I have numbered each note and also given it an alphabetical name.

I’ll also remind you that the way chords are made is generally by taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th of a scale.

If you look at the top line of music above, you’ll see it is D, F# and A, this is called a D major triad.  You could also play a couple of D’s F#’s or A’s  instead of just one, it’s still a D major chord.

If you look at the second line of music above, you’ll see it is D, F natural and A, this is called a D minor triad.  Also, just like the major chord, you could play a couple of D’s F’s  or A’s instead of just one, it’s still a D minor chord.

The seventh chord consists of the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and also the 7th note, but this is IMPORTANT. Look closely at the note though, in truth what is known as a 7th is really a flattened 7th, it is one note lower than the seventh note of the normal major scale. Because of the construction of the guitar fretboard, guitar players often leave out notes of a chord, in the case of the D7, I have omitted the A note, but as before in the previous articles listen and you’ll notice that it still sounds right.

To download the Free High Quality Printable version Click the following Link:

How Guitar Chords Are Made - D Chords

 This is part 2 of a 6 Part series on Chord Construction for guitar.

In my previous article on How Guitar Chords Are Made I covered three basic C chords.  In this Article I shall cover three basic G chords.

As before in the last article, if you look at the music stave above, you’ll notice that I have numbered each note and also given it an alphabetical name, no big deal, no rocket science here.

Chords are grouped into three basic categories: 

Major, Minor and Sevenths. However I did have a very long discussion once with the great guitar player Ike Isaacs and he was leaving the question open ended about whether there was a fourth type.  But I’ll keep it simple here and agree with most of the planets musicians and say there are three.

I’ll also reiterate that the way chords are made is generally by taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th of a scale.

If you look at the top line of music above, you’ll see it is G, B and D, this is called a major triad.  You could play a couple of G’s B’s or D’s in it instead of just one, it’s still a G major chord.

If you look at the second line of music above, you’ll see it is G, B flat ( the little b = flat) and D, this is called a G minor triad.  Also, just like the major chord, you could play a couple of G’s B flat’s or D’s in it instead of just one, it’s still a G minor chord.

The seventh chord consists of the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and also the 7th note, but this is IMPORTANT. Look closely at the note though, in truth what is known as a 7th is really a flattened 7th, it is one note lower than the seventh note of the normal major scale. Because of the construction of the guitar fretboard, guitar players often leave out notes of a chord, in the case of the G7, I have omitted the D note, but listen and you’ll notice that it still sounds right.

To download the Free High QualityPrintable version Click the following Link:

Basics on How to Create guitar Chords

In my previous article I wrote about guitar chords consisting of a 1st , a 3rd, and a 5th. I thought I’d write a short article to reinforce the learning.

The key of C consists of the notes: C D E F G A B and for those that live in Europe, the B is often called H.

We established that a C major chord consists of C, E and G notes, which are the 1st, 3rd and 5th of C. Using that principle,  to create a C6 chord, we would add the 6th note of the scale of C, which is A.

We arrived at that because C = 1, D =2, E = 3, F =4, G =5 and C = 6.

A C6 chord = C E G and A.  The notes don’t necessarily need to be in that order when you play them.

Working out a C6 chord is quite easy, however some of the other chords such as C9, c13 etc gets a little more complex.  Whoever wrote the rules originally didn’t write in a very user friendly manner.  I will be writing more in depth information about chords in the very near future, as I said this is just a short refresher article…with a little more info.

This is part 1 of a 6 Part series on Chord Construction for guitar.

How chords are made is not that difficult to understand.  You will require a tiny bit of patience and the ability to count up to 13 and also know the alphabet from  A to G.

Having a good understanding of how chords are made will help you with your guitar soloing and accompaniment, many guitar players bypass this type of information.  I would encourage you to get on top of the basics of this info and a whole lot of newe areas of your playing will open up.

If you look at the music stave above, you’ll notice that I have numbered each note and also given it an alphabetical name, no big deal, no rocket science here.

Chords are grouped into three basic categories: 

Major, Minor and Sevenths. However I did have a very long discussion once with the great guitar player Ike Isaacs and he was leaving the question open ended about whether there was a fourth type.  But I’ll keep it simple here and agree with most of the planets musicians and say there are three.

Major chords have a strength about them, they are reasonably bright sounding, I could say ‘happy’ sounding but it’s not quite correct. Examples would be C, D, G, A, E with no numbers written after them.

Minor chords are very sad sounding, the saddest of all being the D minor chord.  Many composers for films will write in the key of D minor T evoke sadness in a a film, think tissues and hankies. Examples would be: Dm, Em, Gm, sometimes written with a minus sign D-, E- or Dmin or Emin etc

Seventh chords imply movement.  They are just major chords with an extra note, their sound creates a feeling of wanting to go to another chord. The way that a seventh chord is generally written is:  G7, E7, A7 etc.  They are commonly used in Blues music and variations of 7ths are common in Jazz, they’ll often look like G7b5#9 etc but let’s keep it simple.

The way chords are made is generally by taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th of a scale.

If you look at the top line of music above, you’ll see it is C, E and G, this is called a major triad.  You could play a couple of C’s E’s or G’s in it instead of just one, it’s still a C major chord.

If you look at the second line of music above, you’ll see it is C, E flat ( the little b = flat) and G, this is called a minor triad.  Also, just like the major chord, you could play a couple of C’s Eb’s or G’s in it instead of just one, it’s still a C minor chord.

The seventh chord consists of the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and also the 7th note, but this is IMPORTANT. Look closely at the note though, in truth what is known as a 7th is really a flattened 7th, it is one note lower than the seventh note of the normal major scale. Because of the construction of the guitar fretboard, guitar players often leave out notes of a chord, in the case of the C7, I have omitted the G note, but listen and you’ll notice that it still sounds right.

In these examples I have used only three note chords, for some situations, using a thrree note chord can be better than a full chord.  Regardless what you use, it’s still valid, three, four, five or six.

To download the Free High QualityPrintable version Click the following Link:

How Guitar Chords Are Made TAB

NOTE: Part 2 will be available within four days.

For Blues Scales go to the following link at my other blog/site:

http://acousticguitarist.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/blues-scales-learn-guitar-tab-and-dots/

This guitar scale is the final one in may six part series on Pentatonic Scales.  As you my remember from my previous web blog posts, I decided to do a short series because many players have difficulty following through if there is too much information.  To work steadily through a half a dozen scales won’t hurt too much but the benefits will be many because a little self-discipline goes a long way.  And the way I have written most of these scales is a little unusual to try and prevent players monotonusly running their fingers up and down the fretboard, but the fingerings are interesting and I know from experience that they will force you to think a little when you play them.

Most guitar players avoid the flat keys, they stick to C, D , A , G and E, because they are guitar friendly.  So let’s break the habit a little with this one and do a B Flat.  The key of B flat includes the notes B flat, C, D, E flat, F, G A  and B flat. 

But the Pentatonic I’ve used (penta being 5) is Bb, C, D, F, G .  Note the fingering of the exercise, I jump to the 5th fret after playing the open G and a few of notes later I jump up a fret.  And then decscending I move back to fret one.  Playing this way will force you to think.

To download the printable guitar scale in TAB and music notes click below:

TAB and Music Notes Guitar Scale Pentatonic Major in B Flat

My next set of six short tutorials will cover Chord Construction Made Easy