Here we are to the second part of the song.This part is strummed meaning it's not played note by note as the first part. Strumming requires you to have a relaxed wrist. The secret to a good strumming is to be able to get your hand as relaxed as possible without loosing your pick :) . If you're too tight, you won't get the same attack on the strings and it won't sound the same. The strings are stru...

I put together this little jam while I was trying to forget a bad day at work, lol. Always try to make the best of a bad situation. This jam is in two parts, one mellow and the other a little more upbeat. This one is good for working on those lead changes.

Some strings over a fingerpicked guitar track to make it a little 'emotional'.

A nice little acoustic soft jam loop to practice scales or leads over. You can find this one in the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. The basic chords are shown in the above image and it's played using fingerpicking. Behind the above chords is an acoustic guitar playing basic open chords. The mp3 below is an isolated guitar track showing how to play the chords above. Here is a little more detaile...

Knowing sixes on the acoustic can open up a whole world of acoustic playing. Sixes (6ths) refers to the seperation of these notes. Counting from one note to the next, in order if you like. For example, if D is 1 then B is 6 (D-1, E-2, F#-3, G-4, A-5, B-6). If we use E as 1 then C becomes 6, if F# as 1 then D is 6. If this doesn't make sense then don't worry because what's really important i...

Yet another section from one of my hack attempts at music. This one's interesting because the melody is harmonized and has a little up and down slide thing that I like to use. I use my index finger to alternate pick those fast runs at the end, but that's cheating! I imagine the "classical" way to do it is alternate you're index/middle finger for those runs, so try to learn it that way (i promis...

This is a nice little run mixing hammer-ons and legato slides. Look at the first pattern. It consist for two hammer-ons followed by a slide. Practice this pattern until the sequence is flowing. Start by doing the hammer-ons on the two strings so that you can play them without any pause. After that include the slide.The next pattern is basically the same but instead of going down the scale you're c...

Here is a cool way to spice up a C chord with hammer-ons and pull-offs. It is frequently played this way in country and bluegrass music. In my example I tuned all the strings down a full step, so it's actually a B-flat major chord pitchwise. You can try this with other open chords too, like Am, G, D, etc. Have Fun!

This is a graphical representation of the guitar fretboard showing what notes are on what fret. This assumes you are tuned in standard tuning and using a 6 string guitar. This will become a very useful tool when working on lessons on Guitartricks.

A friend tried to teach me the Shawn Colvin song called, "I don't know why." I couldn't really remember the song, but the chords stuck with me. So I play it like this now. You can do all sorts of variations either with or without a pick. This one is without a pick.

I was having so much fun with Al Gendron's January 25th Trick of the Week that I wrote one of my own using the same tuning but no slide. It reminds me of a Led Zeppelin tune, but I can't remember which one. In order to play it you have to retune your guitar. If you are a beginner you may not want to do this. You might break a string by tuning too far. If you do decide to retune,...