The Sound Hounds

Knowing the notes on the guitar fret-board is like driving a car in your hometown. If you need to go across town, you jump in the car and cruise with ease taking the easiest path knowing all the short cuts and back roads. On the other hand, if you are driving in territory you are not familiar with, you may be lost and frustrated after making the first turn.

If you know the notes on the fretboard it will make everything else you do on the guitar much easier. Below are four methods I use to teach students the guitar fret-board:

Notes on the guitar fret-board

Here is the index of guitar goodies, tons of free resources for the guitar student:

Guitar Goodies

Have you ever wondered how to play a  song in the key of Eb (E flat)? When using a capo it is as easy as playing in any key. If you study this one small page you’ll always be able to play songs in any and every key easily.

Check it out!

Easy chords and the capo

I have reviewed some of my favorite guitar method books. You can see the reviews at:

guitarlessonsbybrian.com/book_reviews/index.htm

A friend once told me the best way to get familiar with the jazz standards is to buy the complete recordings of Frank Sinatra. Frank has recorded most of the jazz standards, or the songs that have become known as the Great American Song Book. About once a year I splurge and buy eight to ten cds in one day. I had one of these flings recently. I bought three cds by Steve Tyrell, one by John Pizzarelli, three by Pearl Django and the Frank Sinatra box set titled A Voice In Time.

My student, Matt Dunn, came to class yesterday with two giant binders. He had printed out all of the guitar goodies posted on my web site. There are over 300 pages of work sheets I use to teach guitar. We are walking through them one page at a time. I encourage students to do the same. They are free and there for the taking. You can find them at http://guitarlessonsbybrian.com/guitar_lessons/index.html

The C chord can be embellished by adding the 2 interval creating the C sus2 chord. The sus2 (suspended 2) is a beautiful chord and  is used in contemporary music and ballads extensively.

C

C sus2

When participating in acoustic jam sessions at bluegrass and folk events, the flat-picking guitarist faces a dilemma. When playing single note melodies the guitar does not have the volume that the fiddle, mandolin, and banjo does. What usually happens is you can see the guitarist playing but his playing is barely audible because the other instruments “accompanying” him are too loud. The solution to this problem is two-fold. First, the accompanying instrumentalists need to be aware of the problem. When the flat-picking guitarist takes the melody, they should make an extra effort to play very soft so the guitarist can be heard. Some of the accompanying instruments can drop out totally while the guitarist plays the melody, then resume when the fiddler or mandolin takes the melody. Second, the flat-picking guitarist needs to try to get more volume out of his playing. To get more volume he needs to use heavy or extra heavy picks. He needs to use heavy gauge strings or heavier than usual. Also, a full size dreadnaught guitar will get more volume than a smaller guitar. Finally, he simply needs to pick harder.

I hope this helps. If you have questions and comments just post them and I will respond asap.

Also, visit Guitar Goodies at guitarlessonsbybrian.com for freebies.

You can add a sus 2 (suspended 2 or add 9) to the minor chord also creating the m sus 2 chord (minor suspended 2). Just add the note that is one whole step above the chord. A good example would be the typical Em chord. Just add your pinky finger to the 1^st string 2^nd fret (F#) and you have Em sus2.

I hope this helps. If you have questions and comments just post them and I will respond asap.

Also, visit Guitar Goodies at guitarlessonsbybrian.com for freebies.

The sus 2 chord (suspended 2 or add 9) is a beautiful chord that adds color to a major chord. To get a sus 2 chord add the 2^nd interval of the major scale to the major triad. The major triad has the intervals 1, 3, 5. You may need to delete the 1 or 3 replacing it with the 2 to accommodate the chord fingering. An easy way to find the 2 is adding the note that is one whole tone above the chord as shown below:

C chord add a D note

D chord add a E note

E chord add a F# note

F chord add a G note

G chord add a A note

A chord add a B note

B chord add a C# note

I hope this helps. Visit Guitar Goodies at guitarlessonsbybrian.com for freebies.