Check out this awesome lick performed by our tutor Nathan.
Why not learn this lick yourself? check out the transcription below the video
Lick of the day!
Month: April 2020
Open Position Minor Chords
In this article you are going to learn another set of essential chords you need to know as a beginner guitarist.
Below is a tutorial video we made and a chord sheet to get you started. Have fun!
Pentatonic Scales Lesson
We have been busy this week making more content to share with our students and followers.
This week we are providing a set of scale diagrams to help you learn your pentatonic scales. We have compiled these in the form of an E-Book to download absolutely FREE!
All we are asking from you is to join our mailing list. We do not share or sell your details and we only email occasional things that might be of interest. Including FREE lesson content. What’s not to love!
Complete the form below and the pentatonic scale book will be sent to your inbox automatically.
We are always keen to know your thoughts and how you are progressing learning the guitar. Get in contact with us if you want a one to one lesson or have any feedback to help us improve.
Free Guitar Lessons
During COVID 19 we have been unable to teach any guitar lessons at our centre in Petersfield, Hampshire.
So we have been working on some free resources to help our current students keep learning and jamming at home as well as introduce new students into the benefits of playing guitar.
In this blog post I am going to introduce you to some of our free guitar lessons and resources to get you playing and keep you playing during lockdown.
Our Blog
We are going to be regularly posting videos, audio, transcriptions and articles in our blog. These articles are completely free guitar lessons and will provide resources for you to develop your skills.
YouTube
Did you know we have a YouTube channel with free guitar lessons? Well if not check out the link below to access our free guitar lesson tutorial videos.
Online courses
We offer free guitar lessons as part of an online course that is published on the popular site Udemy. Click the link below to learn the essentials on playing the guitar.
Online lessons
We are offering a free guitar lesson to new customers who want to try learning with us online. The free guitar lesson will last 30 mins with one of our experienced tutors. Simply contact us for more details and to book.
Thanks for reading! if you have any feedback, comments or want to get in touch, head over to the contact page.
Teach Yourself Guitar
In this article, we are going to look at all the resources available to help you teach yourself guitar.
At Guitar Academy, we provide one to one guitar lessons in Petersfield and Online. We know how to teach all ages and abilities to play the guitar and have done for several years. But its also good to be able to develop your skills independently and utilise the huge amount of resources available for personal development. Obviously, if you get stuck, you can always call on us to have a bespoke lesson with a real tutor.
YouTube
Youtube is a popular resource for a lot of things and is not lacking in videos on how to play the guitar. If you are looking to teach yourself guitar and happy to work on songs that may interest you, then YouTube is a good place to start. YouTube might not provide a structured way of teaching yourself guitar, but if you remain persistent and don’t let obstacles get in your way, you will be fine.
Did you know we have a YouTube channel… https://youtube.com/gtracad
Ultimate-Guitar.com
This website is THE website for guitar TABS. Guitar TABs are a great to teach yourself to play the guitar. Guitar TABS show you how to play the songs you love using a format called TAB. TAB is short for Tablature and is an easier form of sheet music for guitarists. Ultimate Guitar is a famous resource for FREE guitar TABS and is populated with 100s of TABS from contributors daily.
Click here to visit Ultimate Guitar
Books
Books are another great resource to help you teach yourself guitar. Books can provide a bit more of a structured learning path and allow you to concentrate on teaching yourself guitar free from distractions such as Facebook.
We do not have any book recommendations, in particular, there is simply too many and we have not read them all. But we do recommend when you have some techniques under your fingers, to start working on grade music exams using grade books from Rockschool. Graded music books are a great way to teach yourself guitar and provide you with a structured pathway for progress as well as allow you to gain recognised qualifications if you choose.
Click here to visit the Rockschool online store
Online courses
There are tons of online video courses to help you teach yourself guitar. Too many platforms to name but below is a few of our favourites. These online courses are a great way to teach yourself guitar as they provide you with a structured video course you can follow at your own pace.
Sites we like include: Udemy, Thinkific and Coursera
Conclusion
There is lots of resources to help you teach yourself guitar. But there are a couple of things you need to remember.
- Not all resources will be able to give you a structured and progressive route to becoming a great guitarist.
- You will encounter many setbacks and miss information. Do not let this stop your progression. Persevere and you will succeed.
If you get stuck you can always call on the professional to help steer you in the right direction. Guitar Academy provides online one to one tuition as well as face to face in our centre in Petersfield. If you want to book a session with us then get in touch! Our details are below
We hope you have enjoyed this article and found it useful.
Introducing: Classical Guitar Lessons
Guitar Academy Petersfield has delivered the best in Guitar tuition to all ages and abilities since 2013. Primarily focusing on contemporary music genres such as Rock, Pop, Jazz and Blues. We are now expanding our product range and introducing Classical Guitar Lessons!
That’s right! we are introducing Classical Guitar Lessons at Guitar Academy Petersfield.
Learning the guitar is fun and rewarding whatever your preference in the genre. But in this blog post, we are going to look at the benefits of learning Classical Guitar.
- Learning Classical Guitar Builds Confidence
Learning a musical instrument is hard work but also builds confidence. Learning guitar or classical guitar will allow you to build a skill that will last a lifetime and mastering this skill will give you a great sense of achievement.
- You can play solo or in an ensemble
You can do this as a contemporary guitarist. But as a classical performer you are able to perform pieces without the need of backing tracks or other performers to make the piece recognisable to the listener. For example, you could pay a whole piece recreating a vocal melody and chord progression at the same time!
- Playing classical guitar can make a great career option.
Learning classical guitar will equip you with a set of skills that are desirable in the music job market. Such as sight-reading skills.
- It helps you focus
Learning classical guitar helps you develop your listening skills and focus. Learning classical is demanding and requires a lot of focus but is extremely rewarding.
- Its versatile and sounds great!
The skills you develop when learning classical guitar can transition across to playing contemporary music. Classical guitars also sound great.
Conclusion
Here is just a few reasons why we think learning classical guitar is pretty great. We are quite pleased to be able to introduce it as a service at Guitar Academy.
If you are interested in learning more and starting lessons, then get in touch with us today.
Open Position Major Chords
In this article you are going to learn an essential set of chords to help you start playing some of the songs you love.
These open position major chords make up a majority of songs and are essential for you to learn as a beginner.
Check out the chord diagram sheet below and the video to start learning!
AmpliTube
In this weeks blog post we are going to look at AmpliTube from software and hardware company IK Multimedia.
AmpliTube is a piece of software that emulates the sound of amps, pedals, speaker cabinets and how they sound with different mic configurations. This powerful program is a great addition to any recording guitarist looking to get a really good guitar tone without having to actually mic up an amp.
As a recording guitarist AmpliTube is great for trying out different guitar tones on your recorded electric guitar parts. It also allows you the scope to adjust and change the tone in post production. So if you change your mind about the tone you applied to your recording guitar, you can change it.
AmpliTube works as a plugin on all major digital audio workstations (DAW) such as: Protools, Logic, Cubase.
It has many cool features that allow you to craft your tone and access simulations of amps that you could only dream of owning. The software interface is also familiar as it emulates the look and controls of popular amps and pedals.
The full version is quite expensive at around £150. But you can also get a lite version for free that offers the ability to build on your software amp collection. Similar to in app purchases.
Either way we think its great and a great addition for any recording guitarist. Check out the links below for free and full version information.
On a final note, we think the software is very good but we found the installation and license manager to be difficult to use. Sometimes we experienced licensing issues getting the programs to work and when downloading some free apps from IK. There was lots of additional plugins that were download but not authorised. This made the boot time of DAW programs slow and also over crowded the plugin menus with software that were only in demo mode.
Learn more about AmpliTude here: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4
Download a FREE official version from their site here: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitubecs/?pkey=amplitube-custom-shop
Is there a formula for a hit song?
In this article, we are going to look at some of the common elements found in some of the chart music hits.
You could use these elements to inspire your own songwriting or provide you with a basis to start writing your own song. Or even to wonder if there is a formula for a hit song.
Statistics and Music
The arrival of streaming services like Spotify has allowed the music of the world to come together into one platform and allow us to consume as much music as we like with a click of a button. But it has also provided a potential to analyse and produce data based on the songs created and hosted on the platform. Back in 2015/16, Spotify posted a few blog articles with data based on the music hosted on its platform. Unfortunately in 2020, I can no longer locate the blog, but luckily, I kept some of the graphs.
Below is a pie chart with a list of keys of all the music contained on Spotify. You will see that a decent proportion of music is written in only a few keys.
So if looking to write a hit song, would you consider only composing in C or G major?
Another graph found from the same set of blog articles showed the data in popular music genres in the USA.
Obviously trends change and back in 2015/16 the Latin Pop, Emo Metal and Punk may have been really popular. But if your main ambition was to compose a hit song of the times, this type of data could make you think whether to compose in one genre or another and research elements of the style of that genre.
Chord Inspiration
The Four Chord Song by Axis of Awesome has provided us with food for thought when it comes to songwriting. So many songs have similar chord progressions in common. It could be argued that this does make up the formula for our hit song or again provide us for a basis to start composing for the first time.
Millennial Whoop
Another common aspect of popular music is cleverly demonstrated in the video below. Although titled “Millennial Whoop” the concept spans a wide range of music and long time period.
Is this another concept we should consider a frequent feature to include in “Hit” songwriting?
Conclusion
Personally I do not believe there is a formula for a hit song. The zeitgeist will always influence what we listen to and what is popular. But there are clearly some elements that are common and by having an analytical ear when listening to music will definitely expand your horizons and hopefully provide inspiration for your own compositions.
I don’t believe that any songwriter should write a song for the sole purpose of creating the next big hit. You should always write songs that show your creativity and if you are looking for global recognition, hopefully, that will follow later.
Hammer Ons and Pull Offs – Thunderstruck
In this lesson we are going to be looking at the techniques required to play the main theme of Thunderstruck by ACDC.
This track has a great riff that uses a lot of pull offs. In the excerpt below you will see the TAB has a lot of “P” and “H” instructions. P standing for Pull off and H standing for Hammer on. For this melody you are applying you fretting hand fingers aggressively down (Hammering) to play the notes and pulling off (Slight pull down, rolling off the note again with the fretting hand) with the same finger to play the open strings.
Give this iconic tack a go! start slow and build up speed and when confident try it out to the track.
You can download a transcription of the lead guitar part here below.