Guitar Noise

Here’s a great example of how a simple pop song can help you to build up some solid technique in using partial chords, playing with finger-style or pick, and making some interesting chord changes on the fly. And to top it off, it’s even got some very easy (and short!) walking bass lines. Not to mention it’s a great work out for your basic rhythm…

Here’s a catchy little number written for you especially by Peter Simms, integrating a funky rhythm with some tasty blues lines. Enjoy!

This is another one of those songs that could easily have gotten onto the “Easy Songs for Beginners” page, especially if you’ve already worked on the two Guitar Noise Lessons on Travis style finger picking. While you’ll have to work at this one a bit, it’s not beyond the grasp of a beginner who’s ready to practice!

Don’t be put off by the “Intermediate” tag as beginners should have little problems putting this classic Who song into their repertoires. This is a great lesson on why playing strictly “by the record” can tie you up in knots and how important it is to simply have a good feel for the overall flavor of the song.

In this this lesson we’ll learn a Drop D tuning arrangement of the perennial New Year’s Eve standard, Auld Lang Syne.

It all started with being in Double Drop D tuning! Here’s a very easy chord melody arrangement of this popular Christmas carol.

Knowing a single major scale opens the world of modal soloing to you, if you know how to read the signs. We’ll take a look at how to recognize when to use the Dorian scale, and also take a moment or two to compare and contrast it with the minor pentatonic scale.

This is a traditional French carol, arranged so we can review some of our recent lessons on bass lines and Travis style finger picking.

This lesson is a simple DADGAD arrangement of a very well-known, traditional French Christmas Carol titled Il Est Né, which translates to He Is Born.

Here is another chord melody arrangement of a Christmas classic that most beginners should be able to get a handle on fairly quickly. As a bonus, it’s arranged so that you can play it either finger style or with a pick.

Not so much a lesson as a nice chord melody arrangement of this beautiful Christmas song, courtesy of Peter. Never too early to get started on your holiday material.

Man on the Moon is a beautiful song that beginners can play easily, and it doesn’t take all that much to add some very nice touches to it for a solo arrangement. It also offers a good look at how to “cheat” on quick chord changes.

We’re going to combine a very simple walking bass with some of our Travis picking (and “pinching”) and create a light, lilting arrangement of this Simon and Garfunkel song. Even beginners can tag along as we’ll be using chord shapes that involve only one or two fingers of the fretting hand!

It only takes a single note to change the minor pentatonic scale into the “blues scale.” And what a world of difference that one note can make! As in the previous lessons in this series, we’ll provide you with MP3 sound files in order to help you create your own solos.

Susan Schwartz returns to Guitar Noise with two stories of recent trips – one to the Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania and one to a small town in Maine where there happened to be an open mic night. You never know where you’re going to find a chance to play and enjoy music!

You never know who you’re going to meet in life. And, given the way things are these days, you also never know who you’re not going to meet yet still get to know and appreciate. Joining FODFest the past two years has hammered home, to me at least, the point that every life can make a difference in this world.

Guitarists nowadays think of rhythm in terms of “up” and “down,” the motions of strumming, instead of thinking of rhythm in much simpler terms – numbers and counting. In this, the first of a series of four articles, we begin to hone our strumming techniques so that any rhythmic pattern will be within our grasp.

Last time out we sampled the different flavors the major and minor pentatonic scales offered us as tools for soloing over blues progressions. While each had its owns merits, we can create an even more tasteful (not to mention useful) solo when we combine the major scale with the blue note elements of its own minor pentatonic. Come listen!

This an intermediate level lesson for those of you who use only a guitar pick and would rather not work on finger-style playing, but would still like to play a complete song arrangement on your instrument. So here is the classic jazz standard, “Autumn Leaves,” from Peter to you.

While it’s vital to use a chord progression to help you decide on a scale, knowing the style or feel of both a song and a scale is just as important. This lesson focuses on the minor pentatonic scale and why it is used so much for blues (and other genres) in major keys.