Beginner Guitar Lesson – A7 Guitar Chord

The A7 Chord (also known as a Dominant A 7th Chord) is often referred to as a Blues chord. Once you learn to play it, you will understand why. It just has a real bluesy sound to it. It is definitely one of the easiest beginner chords to learn how to play. There are several different ways to play it, but I will demonstrate the easiest way in the following post.

The A7 Chord is found by first locating the 1(root note), 3 and 5 (A, C# and E) of the A Major Scale: A B C# D E F# G# A, and then adding a flat 7 note. To locate the flat 7 note, we first find the 7th note of the A Major scale (G#) and then go back a 1/2 step to the G.

So the notes of the A7 Chord are: E A E G C# E

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Chord Playing Tip: Be sure that you are pressing down on the string hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

The video below will further demonstrate how to correctly play the A7 Chord. Enjoy!

Learn Guitar Quick – The Minor Pentatonic Scale

By Robert M. Matthews

The name “pentatonic” comes from a couple of Greek words: “penta” – a prefix meaning five and “tonic” – which makes reference to a tone. Thus a pentatonic scale is a scale consisting of only five notes. This is opposed to the full diatonic scales which contain all seven tones of the musical alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G). The pentatonic minor scale is a very popular scale and is heavily used in blues, classic rock, heavy rock, jazz and other popular genres.

The minor pentatonic scale is the workhorse of blues and rock music. The minor pentatonic scale is formed by employing the scale degrees 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the natural minor scale. (Click on the link in the resource box below to download and examine your own copy of the minor pentatonic scales). The minor pentatonic gained popularity partially because it is one of the easiest scales to use. This is partially due to the fact that it only has five notes. Of course a lesser number of notes makes the scale easier to learn and remember, but there is another, more basic reason for the scales relative ease of application. With less notes involved, there are less opportunities for tonal clashes.

Let’s take an example: if you solo over a C minor chord, you will find that specific notes “work” or harmonize and others clash or are dissonant, and thus may only be useful as passing tones.

If instead, you solo over a C major chord, you will find a slightly different set of compatible notes.

Now if you simply improvise over a single C note-a C pedal tone, you will find that both sets of notes are compatible with the pedal tone. Certainly, for the solo to be pleasing you will have to be careful with the mixing of the major and minor tonalities in the phrasing. But, the fact remains that you will have more notes on your musical palette initially to work with. This is because, with less notes involved (pedal tone versus a chord) there is less opportunity for harmonic clash.
Such is the case with using a pentatonic scale versus a diatonic scale. The second and sixth scale degrees have been left out. This, once again, means that there are less total notes involved, which leaves less room for potential dissonant combinations.

In addition, chords tend to be stacks of major or minor thirds-often constructed from some form of the root, third, fifth and seventh. So the second and sixth degrees may be thought of as somewhat “less harmonic” than the other scale degrees. You can hear this in the major 6th chords (which add a sixth) and 9th chords. (The 9th chords add the ninth tone-which is an octave above the second). Both the 6th and 9^th chords have a harsher, more aggressive sound due to the addition of these two “oddball” scale degrees.

The pentatonic minor scale has occupied a prominent position in modern popular music for the past several decades. It is one of the most-used scales in blues, rock and other popular genres, partially because it is easier than many other scales to use. By leaving out the second and sixth scales degrees, the pentatonic minor scale creates a smaller chance for harmonic clash because a fewer number of notes are involved. In addition, the tones that are omitted are two scale degrees that tend not to harmonize as well as many of the other scale tones.

Robert M. Matthews (better known as Bob Matthews) is currently retired after more than 30 years of engineering and management experience.

As an avid guitar player for more than 35 years, Bob has created a website specifically for guitar players and future guitar players. The site is packed with a wealth of information and articles on guitars, music theory, guitar tips and lessons, as well as many entertaining and instructional videos.

Feel free to visit the site at http://www.Learn-Guitar-Quick.com for great guitar-related information. While there, be sure to claim your FREE PENTATONIC SCALES (and much more) available on the front page in the FREE BONUSES section in the right sidebar.

And… be sure to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GuitarBobb

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Beginner Guitar Lesson – How To Play a Chromatic Scale

This is a very easy to follow and well made beginner guitar lesson created by Peter Vogl on how to play a Chromatic Scale on guitar. The Chromatic Scale is a wonderful exercise with numerous benefits.  It will build strength in your hands, help to create calluses on your fingertips and also help to familiarize you with strings and frets of the guitar.

Enjoy!

View Tabs for this Lesson

How to Practice Guitar Effectively

By Robert Renman

An Effective Guitar Practice Schedule
Feel free to practice these things in any order, but always do #1 first, the warm up. You also don’t have to do them all in one sitting either. You can do a few at one practice session, and next time you sit down to practice, you do the other items in the list you didn’t do the first time, etc. Also, feel free to change the number of minutes for each to suit your own needs. Maybe you want to practice for 2 hours; maybe just 30 minutes – it is completely up to you. You can view this schedule as a general blueprint, which you can modify as you like.

1. Warm-up – 5 minutes. First of all – tune your guitar! Then, play anything you like, but don’t do anything that is really hard on the muscles in your hands. Let them get warmed up first.
2. Scales – 10 minutes . Work on scales you don’t yet know well. You probably have scales tabbed out and printed. Take your time and play these slowly with the metronome. Play the notes of the scale in question in any order, random, sequential, etc. As you do this, try to visualize in your head the patterns this scale creates on the fretboard. Over time, you will be able to “see” the scale on the fretboard without thinking much about it.
3. Arpeggios – 10 minutes. Do the same as with the scales mentioned above. An arpeggio is a group of notes which are played one after the other, either going up or going down, where the notes belong to one chord. Again, visualize and try to remember the patterns you play.
4. Chords – 10 minutes. Learn new voicings of chords. Learn new chords. Practice chord progressions with some of the new chords you are learning.
5. Theory – 5 minutes. Get a good book about music theory. There are many out there.
   Alfred Essentials of Music Theory: Complete Self-Study Course (Book/2-CD)
6. Technique – 10 minutes. Work on things that need improvement or that may be new to you, for example – hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, strumming, alternate picking, sweep technique, tapping, etc.
7. Fretboard training – 10 minutes. Set the metronome at a low BPM. Start with any note you want. Find and play that note for every click of the metronome on every string, but start with 2 strings at a time. Once you have that down, move to 2 more strings, then practice finding that note on those 4 strings. Continue with the last 2 strings and finally do all 6 strings. Play the notes in any order and direction. The purpose here is to find the note in question as quickly as you can. It will become “transparent” with enough training – you will be able to find any note anywhere on the fretboard without having to think
8. Work on a song – 10 minutes. Work on a song which has something challenging in it, something that gives you an opportunity to practice something new.
9. Reading music – 10 minutes. Work on reading TAB and music notation. Practice reading rhythms, notes and sight reading.
10. Transcribe something – ANY minutes. This is the best way to teach yourself, and it’s fantastic ear training. Listen to a few seconds of a song, over and over. Imitate best you can, try to figure out one note at a time. This means replaying the same sequence many times. After a while, you will be able to do this quicker, as well as picking out more than one note at a time.
11. Play anything – ANY minutes. Noodle around and play whatever you want – playing should first and foremost be FUN!

Important things to remember

• Always tap your foot with the metronome and the rhythm you are playing. That way, you will lock your body into the meter, and you will become good at playing tight. Good timing is soooo important! I cannot stress this enough.
• Use that metronome/drum machine! Any time you are working on something with a beat to it, get that metronome/drum machine going. You get two benefits at one time – you may be working on scales, chords, etc, but at the same time, you will also improve your timing when you practice this to the metronome.
• Visualize the notes you are about to play. Practicing enough will get you to the point where, for example, you can see the note “A” on the B string before you actually play it.
• Record yourself regularly, and then listen back to it with critical ears. What problems do you notice? Timing issues? Are notes played cleanly and accurately? Determine what the weaknesses are, and focus on correcting them.
• Sing the notes – as you are playing through, for example, a scale or an arpeggio, sing the notes as you are playing them. This will train your ear and will also help you learn where the notes are on the fretboard.
• Play with others – jam with friends, your teacher, anyone. Play something for your friends and family. Get a little gig somewhere – it will help you stay motivated. Playing with people with improve your ear and you will develop your musicianship further and quicker.

Hope you find these tips useful. Remember, a focused practice routine will lead to improvements faster.

Lastly, don’t forget the most important part – TO HAVE FUN!

——-

Robert Renman is a guitar player and guitar teacher in Canada. His website http://www.dolphinstreet.com has a large selection of free video lessons, as well as articles and videos about guitar equipment, and much more.

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Beginner Guitar Lesson: Finger & Thumb Positions

This lesson covers left hand finger placement, left thumb placement, and holding the pick.

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