As the famous saying goes, “you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.”‘ And, as guitar teachers, this saying is paramount. As our business dealings are periodic, it is important that from the start students have trust and understanding in their learning which in turn will bring them back week after week.

Student goals

It is imperative to establish student goals early on so you, the teacher, are able to create an appropriate route to which they can be attained. When asking new students why they left their previous teacher I am often given answers like, “They had me playing chords when I wanted to play lead,” or “I like Punk but was learning Blues.” These answers show that the students’ goals were never explored and they were taught on the teacher’s standard syllabus.

Always start lesson one with a few questions such as:

• What made you want to learn the guitar?
• Have you ever played any other musical instruments?
• What sort of music do you like?
• Who’s your favourite guitarist?

These four questions will give you an overview of why the student wants to learn the guitar, allowing you to start planning the most appropriate route to take in achieving his or her goals.

What to teach?

All students will be different, each having his or her individual learning needs. But having a core teaching syllabus (consisting of essential scales, chords and exercises) is essential and most beginners will be happy to follow the same syllabus. Once the rudiments are in place you can then focus on their particular style of music and personal goals.

Remember “quality not quantity.” Many teachers will pile work on students in a vain attempt to “get their money’s worth,” hoping it will bring them back next week. But what usually happens is the student leaves feeling swamped and disheartened. The best thing to do is start slowly, gradually building the students confidence as you go. Start small by firstly introducing the instruments’ main parts and string names then introduce the plectrum and how to hold it. Next, look at the frets and how they are used to produce sound. The student will now not only better understand the instrument but more importantly feel confident enough to start playing it.

A good first song is “Horse with No Name,” as it only consists of two chords. It will not take long till they are committed to muscle memory and the left hand can happily go back and fourth between them. Next, introduce a few simple strum patterns to work in the right hand.

A good rule of thumb to remember here is “ears before eyes.” For example, have the student strum once, twice, three and four times on each of the chords and only when he has truly mastered that should you introduce the strum patterns in notation.

For the last part of the lesson I like to end with a guitar riff such as “Smoke on the Water” or “Sunshine of your Love.” It is a good way of introducing lead guitar and tab reading and gives them something cool to go home with.

Before they go

The first lesson is the ideal time to explain payment and cancellation policies and other terms and conditions, it is a good idea to have a guitar teaching agreement or studio policy, listing what the student can expect and also what you expect from your student. Having such a document leaves nothing to chance and everybody knows exactly where they stand.

Here is an example learning agreement. This document can be freely edited to include your details and also any extra conditions such as a maximum number of cancellations per term.

I hope this article has been of interest and given you a few useful ideas, pleas visit onlineguitartutor.com for more information on guitar teaching and loads of FREE resources.

12 Bar Blues

The ‘12 bar blues’ is the most common blues progression and with it consisting of just 12 bars and only three chords it is also one of the easiest. Below is an example of a 12 bar blues:

As you can see we have our 12 bars, each one containing either the numbers One, Four or Five, these numbers relate to what chord will be played in that bar.

To work out which chords to play we must first pick a key, for arguments sake lets choose ‘C’, this is now our chord One. To find our chord Four simply count up four letter names in the alphabet starting with ‘C’, this gives us ‘F’ making ‘F’ our chord Four, to get chord Five do the same but go one letter further giving us ‘G’.

Below is a table containing the most common blues keys and their related chords:

To get more of a ‘bluesy’ sound try using Dominant 7 chords in the place of the majors, as demonstrated below:

Now we know are chords and are 12 bar blues let’s put it all together in a song.

Before You Accuse Me – Credence Clearwater Revival

‘Before you accuse me’ is a typical 12 bar blues in the key of ‘E’ originally recorded by Bo Diddley in 1957 and has since become a blues standard.

The strum pattern is the same throughout the first eleven bars and is demonstrated below:

Watch out for the ties on the second and third beats of the bar, to keep the strumming smooth continue the eight note (up & down) strumming motion but do not connect with the strings.

On the eighth repeat of the song bars eleven and twelve change creating an ending to the piece. The chord in bar eleven is a movable ‘D7’ chord shape, the piece then ends with ‘E7’.

For those of you that want a bit more of a challenge here is the intro and solos.

Intro

The intro is a mixure of the ‘E’ major and ‘E’ minor pentatonic scales, watch out for the triplets throughout and the ties in bar three.

Solo One

Solo One kicks off with the bottom part of a ‘C7’ movable chord shape which changes to an ‘E7’ in bar four. Bars five to seven use chord tones applying an ‘Aadd9’ and ‘Amaj9’ tonality.

Bars nine and ten show a Freddie king inspired major pentatonic lick which is topped off with a classic blues turnaround in bars eleven and twelve.

Solo Two

Solo Two starts in a similar fashion to the intro using the ‘E’ minor pentatonic scale and also in bar four using the movable ‘D7’ shape. Bars five and six introduce an ‘Aadd9’ chord then return back to ‘E’ minor pentatonic licks which follow the chord changes this is all topped off with the same turnaround as in solo 1.

I hope this article has been of interest or at the very least gives you a great song to learn. In the next installment I will look at the ‘Blues shuffle’ through songs such as ‘Crossroads’ by Cream and ‘No Particular Place to go’ by Chuck Berry.

Palm Muting

Palm muting is a common technique in all styles of guitar music and is performed by laying the side of the strumming hand across the strings just before they meet the bridge. It is important to ensure the palm of the hand is placed correctly, if the hand is too far back no muting will occur if the hand is too far forward too much muting will occur.

Palm muting is shown in notation with the letters PM followed by a broken line, this line encases the notes that are to be palm muted.

The exercise below uses a G5 chord, which is played with an eighth note strum pattern with all down strokes. Practise applying palm muting to the chord as described above.

Palm muting is a very useful technique to add dynamics to a song, mixing palm muted and non-palm muted notes can also make the rhythm more interesting and help to drive the song along.

Below is the Intro to “Glycerine” recorded by Bush and taken from their debut album Sixteen Stone. The song comprises of only four chords but uses a mixture of palm muted and non-palm muted notes to create a syncopated rhythm, this adds interest to the otherwise repetitive chord progression.

Glycerine (Bush)

Below is a power chord riff taken from the intro to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metellica and features on their second album 1984’s “Ride the Lightning”. The riff employs chromatic descending power chords, which should all be played with down strokes and palm muting except for the last chord in bars two and four, which are non-palm muted and accented. The mixture of chromatic chords and palm muting creates a menacing riff, which is a major component of the metal genre. The riff is also a great power chord work out requiring both speed and accuracy so start off slowly making sure all of the notes are heard in each chord.

For Whom The Bell Tolls (Metallica)

Augmented & Diminished power chords

Augmented and diminished power chords are only slight variations of our original power chord shape. In comparison to our original power chord an augmented power chord has a sharpened fifth, meaning the fifth has been moved up a fret. A diminished power chord compared to our original power chord has a flattened fifth meaning the fifth has been moved down a fret. Shown below are all three types of power chord all starting on “A”:

A power chord contains two notes; the root and the fifth. In an “A” power chord played on the sixth string the root note is on the sixth string fifth fret and the fifth is on the fifth string seventh fret. To make this chord in to an “A” diminished power chord simply flatten the fifth by playing the sixth fret on the “A” string. To make an augmented power chord raise the fifth by playing the eighth fret on the “A” string.

The picture below shows the movement of the fifth:

To illustrate the use of augmented power chords I have chosen the main riff from “Lose Yourself” by Eminem which consists of a simple two bar power chord riff starting out with a “D” power chord in the first bar moving to a “D” augmented power chord in the second.

The riff should be played with down strokes (except the last note of bar two) and palm muted throughout. All of the chords should be played staccato. To play a chord staccato simply cut the chord short with a rest, this can be achieved by taking the pressure off of the chord. Beats two and four should be accented shown by a > under the note head.

You will also need to barre both the sixth and fifth strings using your first finger throughout in preparation for the 10th fret double stop at the end of the second bar.

Lose Yourself (Eminem)

To illustrate the use of diminished power chords I have chosen the verse from Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. The verse starts with a G5 chord that lasts for one and a half bars, on the third beat in the second bar the A5 chord is introduced with the rhythm changing slightly on the fourth beat from two eighth notes to a quarter note.

When playing the E5 in bar three remain in the power chord shape by using your third finger on the second fret of the “A” string, when it comes to the “F” diminished power chord in the final bar use your second finger on the first fret of the bottom “E” string.

Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)

Inverted Power Chords

Inverted power chords are formed by placing the fifth of the chord on top of the root making the fifth note of the chord the first note to be played. For instance, an F5 inverted power chord could be played with the root note “F” on the third fret of the “D” string and the fifth note “C” on the third fret of the “A” string. The “F” inverted power chord is illustrated below:

The most famous riff of all time Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple utilizes inverted power chords. Use one finger to barre both notes as appose to two as this will make changes quicker and easier. Watch out for the rests making sure you completely kill the sound. Ritchie Blackmore played the riff with his thumb and first finger while Steve Morse used a pick to give the riff a tougher sound, so perhaps experiment and find what works for you.

Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)

To give inverted power chords a fuller sound you can add the octave of both the root and the fifth. This is demonstrated in the intro to The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix.

To play the power chords use your first finger to bar the “E” and “A” strings and your third finger to bar the “D” and “G” strings. In the second bar use your first finger to bar the eighth fret and hammer on with you third finger.

The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)

I hope this article has been of interest. If you are interested in rhythm guitar and power chords and would like to study the subject further the Troy Stetina Metal Rhythm Guitar Series is a good place to start.

Also check out… Three’s A Crowd – Part 1

Repetitive strain injury is one of the most common injuries to affect musicians due to the repetitive nature of the occupation. Repetitive strain injury is caused by the inflammation of muscles and tendons due to repetitive movement and durations of holding the body in straining positions.

The wrist and neck are the two areas most at risk to the guitarist, beginners are particularly susceptible as they tend to exert greater force on the instrument.

Many factors in guitar playing contribute to bad posture resulting in neck and back injury, these include leaning over the instrument to see the fingers on the fretboard, low straps and low music stands. These are all easily rectified and can correct or prevent future back /neck problems.

To help prevent injury to the wrist take regular breaks, practice a variety of music helping to prevent repetitive movement, increase practice time gradually and most importantly warm up before practicing.

Warming up is extremely important to help avoid injury, improve technique and increase fluidity, with this in mind I have included some warm up exercises which are great for working alternate picking and improving dexterity and speed.

Ex.1
Start off playing the exercise slowly making sure to use alternate picking throughout. Ensure you use the tip of the finger to get the clearest tone.

Ex.2
This exercise is based around the open e string start slowly ensuring that both the open and fretted notes are sounded cleanly.

Ex.3
This exercise is great for improving co-ordination between the picking and fretting hand. The alternate picking can prove quite tricky so start off slowly.

Ex.4
Playing scales is also a great way to warm up, below is a G major scale. Use a finger per fret throughout starting with your second finger third fret of the bottom E.

EX.5
Below is an A minor scale, watch out for the finger shift on the G string.

Both The G major and A minor scales are ‘transpositional’ meaning you can move the shape and play in different keys. The note you start on names the scale, for instance if you started the major scale on the 5th fret of the low E instead of the 3rd you would play A major, if you started on the 7th fret you would have B major and so on.

Ensure that before starting to practice you spend five to ten minutes warming up that your music stand is at eye level and you have a straight back, you will thank me in a couple years!

The extra note in a major chord is the 3rd note from the major scale and the extra note in minor chord is the 3rd note from the minor scale. Below demonstrates the construction of these different chords:

The third note in a chord dictates whether it is major or minor. Because a power chord has no third, it is therefore neither major nor minor. This gives the chord its raw and powerful characteristics.

The late Link Wray (1929 – 2005) is credited for inventing power chords. He found that when adding distortion to a major or minor chord a dissonant sound was produced, by removing the 3rd the dissonance was lost with the chord still maintaining its diatonic functionality.

Below are the two most popular shapes for playing power chords:

The note your first finger is on names the chord. If you played the 6th string root shape on the first fret it would be an F5 because your first finger would be on an F. In order to move the shape and play different chords we need to know all of the notes down the 6th string:

And the 5th string:

Below are sets of exercises that consolidate all the information covered so far and assist in improving orientation along the two strings.

Start by trying all the exercises on the 6th string. As soon as there is little hesitation when changing from chord to chord try the exercises on the 5th string.

With the shapes learnt and the strings explored its time to put everything together. Below are some songs using Power chords, hopefully something for everyone.

Power chords are usually played with down strokes, this helps co-ordination making it easier to strike just three strings, it keeps the right hand in the same position allowing it to be used to mute unwanted strings or apply palm muting.

Brain Stew (Green Day)

Lithium (Nirvana)

Song 2 (Blur)

All The Small Things (Blink 182)

All Day And All Of The Night (The Kinks)

I hope this article has been of interest. There is a lot here to get your head around so take it slowly, just by knowing how the notes progress up a string (remembering that E and B do not have sharps) it is now possible to work out any note on the guitar. And that’s something many players cannot do!

Also check out… Three’s A Crowd – Part 2

Key signatures?

The key signature is shown on the stave just after the clef but before the time signature. The key signature is shown as sharps or flats on certain lines or spaces telling the performer to play that note one semitones higher for a sharp or a semitone lower for a flat:

In the above example, there is a whole note on the line representing an F so the performer would play the first fret on the high E (first) string but the key signature tells the performer to play every F as F# so the second fret on that string would be played instead.

As the name suggests the key signature is an indication of the key the piece is written in, with the sharps or flats shown in the key signature being present in a certain key. The number of sharps or flats present in the key signature relates directly to a major scale.

Building Major Scales with Sharps

Major scales are built using a formula of tones and semitones – a “tone” being two frets distance from a note and a “semitone” being one. Below is the formula for constructing a major scale:

When using this formula to work out a C major scale we get all natural notes, meaning there are no flats or sharps:

If we then take the fifth note from the C major scale, which is G, and using the formula construct a G major scale we get our first sharp:

If we continue to build major scales this way a pattern emerges in the way sharps build through the different keys:

The fifth note in a major scale is the new key and the seventh note is the new sharp. The number of sharps in the key signature is directly linked with the number of sharps in a major key, the example below would be in the key of A major, the key signature shows the three sharps in A major F#, C# and G#:

Building Major Scales with Flats

The theory is much the same as with sharps except the next scale comes from the fourth degree rather than the fifth. If we go back to our C major scale but take the Fourth note which in this case is an F then using the formula Construct a F major scale we end up with:

Bb is used rather than A# because this maintains that each letter name is present only once in the scale. If we continue to build in the same way we did with the sharp keys, a pattern emerges with the flats:

As shown above, the fourth note is not only the new key but also the new flat. As demonstrated with the sharps the number of flats in a key signature directly relates with the number of flats in a key, the key signature below has three flats Bb, Eb and Ab so is in the key of Eb major:

So far we have covered how to work out 15 different key signatures 7 sharps and 7 flats not forgetting C major, which has neither.

Through using mnemonics, the process of working out what key is represented by a key signature and what notes are sharpened or flattened becomes easy. Just follow the steps below:

How Many Sharps?

• Count down this mnemonic till you get to the key you want:

Go Down And Eat Bread Father Christmas

• E.g. E is the forth word so E major has four sharps.

What Sharps?

• Bring Farther and Christmas to the front of the mnemonic:

Father Christmas Go Down And Eat Bread

• Count up by the number of sharps
• e.g. for E major count four
• This gives you Farther Christmas Go Down

E Major = 4 sharps F#, C#, G# and D#

How Many Flats?

• Count down this mnemonic till you get to the key you want:

Fred Blogs Eats All Dogs Get Cracking

• E.g. E is the third word so E flat has three flats.

What Flats?

Bring Fred to the back of the mnemonic:

Blogs Eats All Dogs Get Cracking Fred

• Count up by the number of flats
• e.g. for E flat count three
• This gives you Blogs Eats All

E Flat = 3 Flats Bb, Eb and Ab

Relative Minor

Every major scale has a relative minor scale that shares its key signature. A relative minor scale is built from the sixth degree of its relative major scale, for example below is C major and its relative minor:

Relative minors are easy to work out on the fret board, simply put your fourth finger on the Major scale root note for example A fifth fret then place your third finger fourth fret, second finger third then your first finger in the second fret. The note your first finger is on is the relative minor (F#):

This now makes the subject more complex if we are faced with this key signature:

How do we know if it is D major or Bm?

This can be achieved through listening to the piece and seeing if it has a major or minor key center. Try listening to the two examples below one of the chord progressions is in the key of E minor and the other G major both would have a key signature of one sharp.

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Example 1 clearly has a major key center with example two having a minor key center. If the music is in the form of a score or chord chart simply look at the first and last chord if they are minor the piece is in a minor key if they are major it’s a major key.

Here are two PDF’s one for the mnemonics, the second containing a list of key signatures and relative minors, once you think you have got it try this Java game to test your knowledge.

• Mnemonics for Major Scales (Right-click and “Save as”)
• Key Signatures (Right-click and “Save as”)