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Learn Guitar Online – Your Solution For Learning Chords On The Guitar
By Mike Hayes | October 17, 2009
I believe learning how each chord is spelt to be the absolute
best way to learn guitar chords. Most guitarists are unaware that
every chord contains it’s own unique set of notes; once you know
how to spell a chord you are free to play that chord anywhere on
the fretboard.
A few ways to learn guitar chords are …
1. TAB sites – not recommended; these days it’s popular to look
up a song on a TAB site, there you will find a series on numbers
that will tell you where to place your fingers; sounds like a
good idea doesn’t it? Actually it sounds too good to be true
…and of course it is!
Some problems are:
* although TAB will tell you where to place your fingers, you
never know what you are placing your fingers on i.e., you don’t
learn what notes you are placing your fingers on; it’s strictly
monkey-see-monkey-do stuff!
* often there is no chord name, it’s just a bunch of strings you
strum
* as with everything you get “for free” in the long run it turns
out way too expensive as the player is always at the mercy of the
person submitting the TAB!
* many songs are presented in bizarre tunings used only by one
particular group or individual. Which translates to the player
having to tune their guitar for song ‘A’ and then have go through
the whole messy business of re-tuning again for the next song.
If you don’t know what you are doing why bother doing it?
2. Chord books – On the surface this seems like a good option …
but is it? It’s definitely a better approach that TAB sites;
however, it’s wise to be aware of the inherent dangers of trying
to learn chords via chord books.
Learning hazard A. – Generic chord shapes: chord books generally
only present standard chord shapes on the first four frets of the
guitar. If the recording you are listening to has guitar chords
played higher up the neck of the guitar you could be in trouble.
Learning hazard B. – Learning random chords: simply learning
chord shapes without understanding their application is very much
like opening a dictionary and learning random words, the problem
being that random words or chords do not communicate. It’s
pointless to learn one hundred chords and not know how to sting
two of them together to play a song.
Learning hazard C.- Difficult chord shapes: Whilst most of the
time the chord shapes are technically correct they are quite
often not the chord shapes that professional guitarists would
use.
Why? Because chord book are generally authored by keyboard
players who know the correct notes of the chord but unfortunately
don’t understand the physical difficulties of playing a fretted
instrument … while a five fret stretch looks quite simple on a
computer screen when you try to play it on the guitar it’s
physically beyond most guitar players.
3 . Learn chord spelling – The best way to go! Once you know how
to construct your chords you can design your own chord shapes,
forget the difficult stretching and play chords anywhere on the
fingerboard.
It will also make life much easier communicating with other
musicians.
I invite you to use these tips when you are learning to play
guitar.
By now I’m betting you are ready to begin learning guitar with
“Song Templates” so now I would like to invite you to claim your
FREE Instant Access to my “How To Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse.
When you visit: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Chords, Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips | No Comments »
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