Guitar Noise

Whether you are a guitar teacher or a self-taught guitar player you are likely to come across problems related to playing in time and interpreting rhythm. In this series of articles TeachGuitar.com’s Nick Minnion looks at where these problems spring from and what can be done to address them.

If you know how to read notation, specifically the rhythm values of notation, you never have to worry about figuring out strumming patterns because everything is spelled out for you. In this lesson, we’ll use the main guitar parts from Jack Johnson’s song “Taylor” to demonstrate how easy strumming can be.

It’s time to explore what to do when we get around to playing with another guitarist. So here we start out with a simple arrangement for two guitars.

In this podcast we’ll work on getting the basics of the summer camp song “Puff The Magic Dragon” down, plus have a little fun with the bass line.

If you’re going to play an emotionally charged song, you can’t hide behind a single strumming pattern. In this lesson we take one of the highlight songs from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and arrange it for a single guitar, using many strumming and crosspicking techniques we’ve gone over in our Guitar Noise Podcast series. You’re going to have a lot of fun with this one!

Let’s finish our look at “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by looking at a slightly more complicated strumming pattern as well as learning about a new voicing of the G7 chord.

In this podcast we’ll continue to explore how to sing and play at the same time, using “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” as our example.

In this podcast we’ll take a look at getting comfortable with strumming with an eye toward being able to sing and play at the same time.

In this podcast we’ll make an arrangement for the last half of the verse and also do something fun with the chorus of the old Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.”

Our latest podcast begins a look at the Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” Not to worry – we’ve prepared a “cheat sheet” for you.

In this podcast we’ll make use of rests, combining them with simple arpeggios to create space while strumming, especially in slower songs.

This podcast gives us an introduction to some very important strumming techniques – anticipation, dynamics, and using rests as part of a strumming pattern.

Let’s wrap up our work with the traditional song, “Streets of Laredo,” one that some of you may recognize from Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings IV.”

In this podcast we’ll look at creating walking bass lines from D to G chords. We’ll also start to tackle the “chorus” section of this song.

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.

In this podcast we’ll start with a basic ”bass / strum” in 3/4 timing and then add some fancier work to both the bass and the strumming.

In this lesson we’ll still be using “Handsome Molly” as an exercise to incorporate the various lessons we’ve picked up in our podcasts thus far.

Let’s take stock of the many things we’ve learned so far and, over the course of the next number of GN Podcasts, put them to use in song.

In this podcast we’ll look at the feel of swing and of how “swing eighths” differ from the “straight eighth” notes that we’ve been using in our strumming up to this point.

For lack of a better way of putting it, we’ll be “stretching out” our downstrum – turning it from a typcial downstroke to something that’s more of a musical punctuation mark.