How To Play Your Favorite Songs On Guitar…

Learning to play the 12 bar blues is fun. Some beginners may feel that learning blues guitar is some what daunting but that isn’t the case. There are only 3 main components to learning the 12 bar blues: what chords, what order and how to play the chords. In this article I’m going to walk your through all three. At the end of this article there’s a video lesson that supports the material you’ll read here, I suggest you watch the video as well.

So how do you determine what chords you should be playing for a 12 bar blues progression. Well it depends what key you want to play in. You start with the scale of the key you want to play in. Let’s say you want to play in the Key of A. So you’d look at the A major scale and from that you’d pick out the first, fourth and fifth notes from that scale. These correspond to the chords you’re going to play for the 12 bar blues in the key of A.

Let’s continue with the idea of the key of A. You’ve got the first, fourth and fifth notes from the scale. We’re going to now plug those into the 12 bar blues pattern which looks like this:

1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 4 – 4 – 1 – 1 – 5 – 4 – 1 – 5

The numbers of course correspond to the notes you would have determined already. Each number stands for one measure in the progression. So if we assume we’re playing 4 beats per measure then each number would be 4 beats of that particular note, or chord.

So let’s look at a short example using what we’ve learned so far. We’ll stick with the Key of A. First we need to review the A major scale:

A – B – C# – D – E – F# – G# – A

Next we pick out the first, fourth and fifth notes from that scale. For the key of A it would be A, D and E.

Finally we place these notes into the 12 bar blues progression above which gives us this:

A – A – A – A – D – D – A – A – E – D – A – E

That’s all there is to the theory behind the 12 bar blues. Of course you need to learn what type of chords to play and what feel to give your strumming. This is best left to the video I’ve recorded that’s below. Take a few minutes to watch that video now and you should be able to go grab your guitar and play a basic 12 bar blues in the Key of A.

Are you interested in learning to become a better guitar player? Why not consider a guitar instructional dvd to sharpen your skills? DVD and video guitar lessons are the qucikest methods to improve your skills when studying on your own.

MXTabs.net is extremely proud of our diverse collection of guitar, bass & drum tabs, and in the past we’ve highlighted tabs of several different musical genres, including Heavy Metal and Christian Rock. Today we’d like to continue that trend by turning our attention to Punk Rock Guitar, Bass & Drum Tabs.

The 20 bands listed below represent just a small sampling of the many great Punk Rock tabs available on MXTabs.net. Some of the groups are most accurately described as Post-Punk (The Cure), others as New Wave (The Cars) or Punk Revival (Green Day), but they’re all quintessentially Punk, meaning they’re loud, fast, and confrontational. In other words, they’re a lot of fun to play! Check ‘em out:

1. 88 Fingers Louie – guitar, bass & drum tabs
2. Adolescents – guitar, bass & drum tabs
3. Black Flag – guitar, bass & drum tabs
4. The Cars – guitar, bass & drum tabs
5. The Clash – guitar, bass & drum tabs
6. Crass – guitar, bass & drum tabs
7. The Cure – guitar, bass & drum tabs
8. Dead Kennedys – guitar, bass & drum tabs
9. Echo & the Bunnymen – guitar, bass & drum tabs
10. Elvis Costello – guitar, bass & drum tabs
11. A Flock of Seagulls – guitar, bass & drum tabs
12. The Germs – guitar, bass & drum tabs
13. Green Day – guitar, bass & drum tabs
14. Husker Du – guitar, bass & drum tabs
15. The Jam – guitar, bass & drum tabs
16. New Order – guitar, bass & drum tabs
17. The Ramones – guitar, bass & drum tabs
18. Sex Pistols – guitar, bass & drum tabs
19. Suicidal Tendencies – guitar, bass & drum tabs
20. Talking Heads – guitar, bass & drum tabs

If we’re missing a song tab by any of these bands, please take the opportunity to embrace the Punk Rock do-it-yourself aesthetic and submit a guitar, bass or drum tab to MXTabs.net. Thanks!

Once you begin to learn to play chords you finally start to feel like a guitar player. Of course it does take some time to flawlessly be able to play several chords and switch between them, but all beginners can get there with some practice.

Today I’m going to start you on that journey by teaching you how to properly play the E and G major chords. At the end of this article there is a lesson video that goes through the Tab and finger positions for the chords so I suggest you watch that as well as read this.

Tips Before we Start

Remember to use the tips of your fingers when you’re pressing on the strings. This ensure that you only press on the string you intend to. Using the fleshing part of your finger will most likely cause you to blunt the string above or below.

The E major Chord

E – 0 –
B – 0 –
G – 1 –
D – 2 –
A – 2 –
E – 0 –

To play an E chord you use your first three fingers and position them: second finger on 2nd fret of A string, third finger on 2nd fret of D string and first finger on 1st fret of D string. Play all six strings when you strum the E chord.

The G major Chord

E – 3 –
B – 0 –
G – 0 –
D – 0 –
A – 2 –
E – 3 –

To play a G major chord you also use the first three fingers and position them: second finger on 3rd fret of the low E string, first finger on 2nd fret of the A string and third finger on 3rd fret of the high E string. Strum all six strings when playing the G chord.

Practice making the shapes first before you worry about being able to strum the chord. It will take some time for muscle memory to build up in your hand and for the chord shape to feel second nature.

Take a few minutes to watch the video below that better explains the chord shapes, tab and a practice exercise to use.

Did you enjoy this beginner lesson on chords? There are 5 other major chords to learn and variety of minor, suspended and diminished chords. Why not consider teaching yourself using a beginner guitar dvd? Videos in both DVD and online are becoming the private lessons of the 21st century, so why not give it a try.

Learning guitar chords can be intimidating for a beginner. That’s why in today’s post I want to show you three different 3 string guitar chords. Two of these chords are what we could call half of the full major 6 string chord and are an easy way to get started with strumming multiple strings and switching between chords.

Take your time when learning the D7 chord, the shape can be difficult to make at first on the fret board, but with time it will become easier. A quick mention of the tablature I’ve used to explain the chords below. X’s stand for strings that are not to be strummed, numbers represent the fret number to play on a particular string and 0’s stand for strings to be played open without any frets being pressed.

Beginner C Chord

E — 0 —
B — 1 —
G — 0 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

To play this beginner chord place your first finger on the first fret of the B string, remember to use your finger tip, and strum the bottom three strings.

Beginner G Chord

E — 3 —
B — 0 —
G — 0 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

To play this chord, like the C chord, you only need to use one finger. Press the third fret of the E string down with your 3rd finger and strum the bottom 3 strings.

Beginner D7 Chord

E — 1 —
B — 2 —
G — 1 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

This chord requires you to use three fingers at once, so give it some time to feel right and don’t be frustrated if it doesn’t sound exactly right the first time. Place your second finger on the 1st fret of the E string, your third finger on the 2nd fret of the B string and your first finger on the 1st fret of the G string.

This is the intro to playing chords. Starting playing the chords one at a time before you try switching between them. Switching chord while continuing to strum takes some practice and you’ll get there but don’t try to rush yourself to quickly.

Below is a video that goes over these three chords again and also explains the best method to practice them.

Would you like to start learning more guitar chords? Ever consider learning at home? Why not try guitar lessons on dvd. Learn & Master guitar is a complete 10 or 20 dvd self study program to learn guitar at home, with integrated online support. Learn more in this Learn and Master guitar review now.

Most beginner guitar players tune their guitar using an electric tuner. It is of course the most logical way seeing that there are these small tuning devices for just the job.

What if you don’t have a tuner handy? You could be at a store playing a guitar for sale, a friends place who doesn’t own a tuner or around a camp fire trying to play sing-a-long songs.

Knowing how to tune your guitar by ear is an important beginner skill and that’s what we’re going to cover today. At the end of this lesson there’s a short video that covers everything we talk about here and provides a walk-through example. Take a few minutes to watch that video after you’re done reading.

The Magic of the 5th Fret

Tuning your guitar by ear isn’t difficult. There are only three things you must keep in mind.

1.)The note of any given string is the same as the 5th fret played on the string above it
2.)There is one exception, the B string is the same as the 4th fret on the G string above it
3.)To tune the low E, or 6th string either match it to the tone of the open high E string or play the 5th fret of the B string (note the low E should be one octave lower then the E played on the 5th fret of the B string.

Example: The D string seems a bit out of tune on your guitar, to test you can play the 5th Fret of the A string above it and then strike the open D string. If the D seems like it’s lower or higher then the 5th fret of the A string adjust it with the tuning peg.

Be Careful

It can happen that the string you’re tuning to (in above example you would be tuning to the A string on the 5th Fret) is out of tune. If you sense this might be the case take a moment to first check the tuning of the string in question (in example above the A string). You can do this by verifying the tuning with the string above it.

Practicing

It’s a good idea to practice this technique each day you sit down to play. Before you start practicing take a few minutes to check all your strings to ensure they’re in tune. This will get faster as you practice and eventually become second nature.

Take a few minutes now to watch the video below. It covers the same concepts as in this article then walks you through a sample tuning of all the strings on your guitar.

Interested in becoming a better guitar player? Ever consider taking some guitar lessons for beginners? You can, and you don’t have to leave home to do it either. Thanks to online video lessons and DVD’s you can study guitar at home and improve your playing fast.

Learning to play different notes up the neck and on each string is an important part of a beginners foundation. After all chords and scales are all made up of a mixture of notes, if you don’t know where different notes are located on the neck you’ll sort of plateau with your learning sooner then later.

In this article I’ll show you the simple pattern you can use for learning the guitar notes on each string. We’ll first look at half and whole steps between notes and how they transfer to the guitar neck, next we’ll review the space in steps and frets between each note and finally an example to tie it all together.

After reading this post please watch the video at the end. It covers everything the post talks about plus a more detailed example. You should be able to find each variation of major notes A through G on the neck once you’re done this post and video.

Steps

The first concept to understand is what a step is. Steps, both whole and half steps, come from the concept of the piano keys and the space between each note. Between most notes there is one full step except for between the B and C notes and E and F notes. There is only one half step between these two sets of notes.

Frets as Steps

So that’s great, a half or whole step between notes, how do we play this on the guitar? Well good news, each fret on your guitar neck denotes on half step. So now you can use the space between each note on the guitar neck in terms of frets.

Here’s an overview of the spacing in terms of frets between each major note:

A to B = 2 Frets
B to C = 1 Fret
C to D = 2 Frets
D to E = 2 Frets
E to F = 1 Fret
F to G = 2 Frets
G to A = 2 Frets

Using the above information we now look at a simple example on your guitar neck.

Let’s start with the low E string. Playing that string open is an E note and what comes after an E? An F right? The spacing is only 1 fret between an E and an F so if we play the 1st fret on that E string we’ll be playing an F.

NEXT

After F comes G, from our list above there is 2 frets between an F and a G note so sliding up two frets to the 3rd fret is a G. Finally if we go from our G to the A note, another full step, we’re at the 5th fret.

This pattern will continue all the way up that low E string until you run out of frets, but I’m sure you get the picture with that simple example.

Next take some time to watch the video below. It covers the same concepts but also shows you what we’re talking about and gives a more in depth example. After you watch this video I suggest grabbing your guitar to give it a shot on your own.

Interested in learning more beginner guitar content? Ever consider trying a learn to play guitar dvd? You can gain access to lots of great content that you can watch and learn from in the comfort of your own home and on your own time.

Understanding where to play the different major chords (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) at different places on the neck can be a challenge. Thankfully there is a somewhat simple system that exists on the guitar neck that can help you find 5 different locations for each major chord.

The CAGED system is based on the chord shapes for C, A, G, E and D. The system works so that you can find barre chords on the neck using the five different shapes for the above mentioned chords to make up all of the major chords on the guitar.

EXAMPLE: a barre chord with an E shape at the 3rd fret is a G chord.

By first understanding how the CAGED system works and then finding the different variations of other major chords all over the guitar neck you can easily learn where to play any major chord in a variety of locations.

The video below is an explanation of the CAGED system as well as an example using the E major chord of how it works and the different variations using an A, C, D and G shape to form an E chord on the neck.  Watch the video and take note how you can make an E chord using these different shapes on the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th frets. This process can be repeated for any major chord.

I’d suggest after watching the video you grab your guitar and spend a little time finding the different variations of other major chords on the neck. There is value in memorizing all of these variations for each chord, especially if you jam with others a lot.

For starters just focus on learning and using the CAGED system. It makes learning different variations of major chords a lot easier.

If you’re interested in learning more great techniques like the CAGED system but don’t necessarily have the time for private lessons why not try a guitar lessons dvd? Get a great education in guitar by watching videos at home, learn at your own pace.

Around this time last year, in “honor” of Valentine’s Day, I wrote a blog post featuring Guitar Tab of Anti-Love Songs. Apparently, I was in one of my moods and had decided to address those (like myself) who maybe weren’t in the right state of mind to celebrate good ol’ Saint Valentine.

Well, this year I’ve had a change of heart (pun intended?) and have decided to do an old-fashioned, “I heart Valentine’s Day” post featuring Guitar, Bass & Drum Tab of Popular Love Songs. The selected songs represent a wide range of musical eras and styles, but they all share one very important theme: the expression of love and devotion.

Enjoy, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Are we missing one of your favorite love songs? Or do you think you can write a better tab of one of the love songs listed above? Is so, please submit a guitar, bass, or drum tab to MXTabs.net. Thank you!

We’ve had the Tab Folder feature available for MXTabs.net members for sometime now. Still, if you have yet to give it a try, here’s a quick refresher: If you come across a MXTabs.net guitar, bass or drum tab that you’d like to LEARN, simply look directly above the tab body, find the Tab Folder and then click “I want to learn this.” If you ARE learning said tab, click on “I am learning this,” and if you have MASTERED said tab, click on “I already know this.”

We created the Tab Folder to make it easy for you to share your favorite guitar, bass & drum tabs – as well as your learning progress – with not only your fellow MXers (via the MXTabs.net Profile Page), but also with your friends and family on Facebook (via the MXTabs.net Facebook App for Song Tabs).

Now we’re taking the sharing to a whole new level, by allowing you to Automatically Post Your MXTabs.net “Tab Folder” Updates to Your Twitter Account!

How can you accomplish such a magical feat?

If you’re already an MXTabs.net member and have your own Twitter account, it’s easy. First, login to MXTabs.net, click on My Account (located at the very top of the page, on the right-hand side), scroll to the bottom, click “Authenticate With Twitter,” enter your Twitter username and password, then click “Allow.” And that’s it! Any changes made henceforth to your Tab Folder will automatically be posted via your personal Twitter feed in the following manner:

kaliphonia I want to learn this “The Underdog” guitar tab from MXTabs http://bit.ly/5SB0Ph

On the other hand, if you’re a guitar, bass or drum player with a Twitter account, and you’re looking for an easy way to share your favorite tabs, simply register with MXTabs.net and follow the same steps as above.

Finally (phew!), if you’re an existing MXTabs.net member wondering what all the fuss regarding Twitter is about, what better way to find out than to register with Twitter and give it a try? Not only can you follow MXTabs.net on Twitter (where you can get site updates, general music news/reviews, chat directly with The Sheriff, and participate in the occasional give-a-way), but there a TON of bands, record labels, music promoters, radio stations, etc. to interact with is well. Check out this Artists, Bands and Musicians on Twitter Spreadsheet to see for yourself.

We hope you enjoy this new feature of MXTabs.net, and we hope to see you in the Twitterverse soon!