Posted March 5, 2020

Advanced guitar techniques like sweep picking, travis picking, two-hand tapping open up a myriad of expression and creativity to playing. More than anything, the mastery of these techniques elevate the guitar into an instrument that is richer and fuller.

Posted January 23, 2020

Country guitar licks are like musical sentences strung together by different words, or musical notes. Guitar licks are a handful of notes that create short phrases and you can use these licks to help with your lead guitar playing and improvisation. 

Posted December 18, 2019

What key is this song in? That's a regularly-asked question when a guitarist wants to jam or play by ear. Guitarists can figure out how to find the key of a song with a few super easy methods. In this blog post we’ll go over a very simple way of playing the correct notes, even if you don’t know what key the song is in. 

Posted December 5, 2019

The pentatonic scale is the first scale any beginer guitar player should learn. It’s easy, it sounds great, and can be applied to almost any genera or song. The pentatonic scale is made up of 5 notes (‘penta’ is Greek for ‘five’) derived from the standard major scale or minor scale. This pattern creates a ‘box’ on the fretboard which is easily movable and playable all over the neck.

Posted November 14, 2019

Ghost notes are notes that are muted by a single fretting hand and are displayed by an “X” on guitar tabs. According to our guitar glossary, they “create a percussive effect with a slight underlying hint of a specific note.” But ghost notes may also carry another meaning. Some ghost notes are muted, but other times, a ghost note is a note that can be optionally played, that is, they’re notes that are not required but are there to embellish a piece if the performer choose

Posted October 17, 2019

Music vocabulary is all of the words and jargon associated with playing music, and in this case, all of the words associated with playing guitar. If you ever have trouble with what a word means within a Guitartricks lesson, look no further than our guitar glossary here.

Posted September 5, 2019

The guitar blues scales are 6-note scales similar to a pentatonic minor scale but with the addition of an extra note. What are the notes of the blues scale? And How do you find the blues scale? The major blues scale pattern is 1 - 2 - b3 - 3 - 5 - 6. There are major and minor blues scales and they’re used in blues music but are often used in other genres as well. We’re going to break down the difference between pentatonic and blues scales here, so continue on for all the de

Posted July 18, 2019

Phrasing is how a guitar player presents their notes and licks within music. Usually musical phrases are short licks or notes, each separated by space, and are full of dynamics and emotion. B.B. King was a master of the blues and also used phrasing to create his signature sound. 

Posted July 12, 2019

An arpeggio (ar-peh-jee-oh) is when notes in a chord are played individually in descending or ascending order. Instead of strumming a chord and hitting all of the notes at once, guitar players play arpeggios by picking the notes in succession.

Posted July 2, 2019

Dynamics are, according to the Guitar Tricks guitar glossary, “the loudness or softness of a piece of music. Latin words such as 'forte' (f - loudly) and 'piano' (p - softly) are used to indicate this within music notation. This is an effective and simple way to add emotional expression into your playing. It can work in both lead and rhythm play.”

You can use dynamics to emphasize certain parts of what you’re playing like a bass note or the treble notes. Seasoned g

Posted March 27, 2019

The Am chord on guitar, or also known as the A minor, is a triad composed from the A major scale. The most common ways to play it is in the open position, at the first fret, or as a barre chord in the fifth position. Since it’s a minor chord, it is often used in slow or mellow songs thanks to its dark sounding tone. 

Posted March 6, 2019

Jazz chords are chord voicings that are commonly used in jazz music. Technically there are no chords called jazz chords, but instead, jazz musicians generally like to use extended chords like 7th major and minor chords, dominant and diminished 7th chords, minor 7th flat 5, and 9th chords. 

Posted February 22, 2019

Suspended chords like the Dsus4 guitar chord, or an Asus2 are chords that can add some extra color or tension to an otherwise normal chord. To get a suspended chord, we replace the 3rd with a nearby scale degree, the 4th or 2nd. These chords are a lot of fun to play and usually only require the guitar player to lift or add one finger. 

Posted February 13, 2019

Chord progressions are the backbone of every song. From pop and blues to metal and punk rock, and much more, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with these simple concepts if you ever want to write your own songs or understand your favorite songs a little deeper. 

Posted November 16, 2018