Guitar Tricks Blog

Posted March 15, 2019

Fingerstyle guitar is when guitar players play without a guitar pick, and only with their fingers. Beginner guitarists may learn fingerstyle guitar by simply practicing without a pick. There are a number of fingerstyle techniques and Travis picking is one of the most common. 

Posted March 13, 2019

Basic guitar chords on guitar are generally open chords like C major, D major and F major. For anyone taking guitar lessons, these are the very first chords you learn because their fingering is simple and straightforward. These chords are also the most commonly used chords in popular music.

Posted March 8, 2019

It’s International Women’s Day and to celebrate, we want to highlight our most popular song lessons on female-led artists and bands.

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 27, 2019

Easy guitar songs are important for the beginner guitar player because learning how to play a song is arguably the whole point of learning any musical instrument. The songs below only require you to know about three or four chords, but with so many music-inspired movies recently, let’s take a look at some songs that you might hear in cinemas real soon.

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 February 8, 2019

Guitar practice means finding a comfortable space and working on a specific skill, technique or song. There are a number of different ways to practice guitar but thanks to Guitar Tricks instructor Lisa, here are some really easy steps on how to practice and how to create a simple, yet effective practice plan.  

Posted February 6, 2019

It's important to know guitar exercises to train your fingers to perform correctly. Guitar exercises are often used to practice specific elements of guitar playing like open chords, scales and so on. Here are some exercises to help you strengthen your fingers and form so that you have a solid playing foundation going forward.  

Posted February 2, 2019

One of the most common questions we get is this: “How long does it take to learn guitar?” or “How long does it take to get good at guitar?” 

This is a tough question to answer because everyone who plays guitar has different goals. Some may want to learn how to play a song, or learn how to play a specific chord progression, or play blistering solos. Getting good at anything, whether it’s playing guitar, learning a new language or anything else, it requires a ton of practice. 

Posted February 1, 2019

Hey everyone. Billy here from Guitar Tricks! As you may have noticed, we updated our lesson page. You may want to think about the new lesson page as two halves, the top half and the bottom half. The top half houses the lesson video and the notation, while the bottom half has more information like the lesson description, tutorial content and progress, which we recently updated. Here’s how it all works. 

Posted January 24, 2019

Guitar strings are arguably one of the most important elements of any guitar. You can't play guitar without strings! If you talk to any guitar player, you’ll know that everyone has their string preferences. If you ask a guitar player which brand of guitar strings they prefer, they will usually give you the same answer: Elixir® Strings.

Posted January 16, 2019

Every aspiring guitar player should first learn how to play a handful of beginner guitar chords. Luckily Guitar Tricks has a vast library of chord charts for you to learn. And if you don't know how to read a chord diagram, we got that covered, too. The majority of music in pop culture uses the same group of chords. If you

Posted January 11, 2019

Knowing how to read guitar chord charts is a valuable and essential skill for any aspiring guitar player. In this article, you'll learn how to understand guitar chord charts.

Posted January 4, 2019

If you just bought a new guitar or maybe you’ve been playing the same one for years, it’s always important to have a handful of tools to make playing and maintenance easy. Did you know there are tons of great apps for your guitar? There are so many apps out there that could improve your guitar experience. Here are just a handful of great, useful apps for your Android smartphone.