Learn Guitar Blog

Learn to Play Air Guitar

All of us have probably tried to learn to play air guitar at least once. Now, some computer scientists in Finland have come up with a device that turns this rock fantasy into real music – an air guitar that really plays.

Learn to Play Air Guitar like a Superstar

The virtual guitar is the invention of Aki Kinerva and other computer scientists from the Helsinki University of Technology. All you need is a pair of gloves and a camera. Then you take a rock star pose, like you were holding a real guitar and just rock away.

The camera will be tracking your hand movement along the imaginary fret board, as well as the strumming of the other hand. Then the computer will receive the information and turn the gestures into licks and riffs. While you will probably not share the stage with Eric Clapton, the system gives any of us a chance to feel like a rock superstar.

Ever since rock music was born, teenagers, as well as many adults all over the world have been playing air guitar while listening to their favorite rock bands on the stereo. Now, these computer scientists in Finland have turned this habit into real music with an air guitar that really makes some sounds.

How Does It Work?

To make things even better, the technology is almost entirely invisible. The gloves that you have to wear are just a pair of normal orange gardening gloves. As you are playing (or in my case, learn to play air guitar), a web camera that is programmed to detect only the orange color will watch your gloves and track their movement.
In real time, software designed to recognize gestures will translate your hand movement into sounds. When you will be moving your hand down the fret board, the sound will go higher, as if you were playing a real guitar. It really feels and sounds as if you were actually playing.

What Can You Actually Play?

Sure, you won’t be able to do all you can do on a real guitar. You won’t be able to play songs like “Stairway to Heaven” on an air guitar. However, if it worked just like a real one, you would probably have to spend months to learn to play air guitar. With an air guitar, you get to feel like a rock guitarist within a few seconds. The things you can do are limited though.

If you want to learn to play air guitar with Kinerva’s technology, there are two models you can choose from: chord and solo mode. If you choose the chord mode, you will only be able to play four different chords. This is indeed limiting, but it’s enough for playing the opening chords of songs like “Smoke on the Water” and other rock classics. With the solo mode, it will be as if you were running up and down a pentatonic scale, which is the standard key of rock guitar solos.

The best thing is that you can’t actually play it badly. No matter how you’re moving your hands and mixing chords and solo notes, it will sound like you’re playing something.

The whole system works on an ordinary desktop computer. The inventors are now working on a Windows version and air guitar may someday become as common as Game cubes or X-boxes. Who knows, maybe it will even inspire some people to sit down and learn to play a real guitar.

Learn to play acoustic guitar on DVD

There are many different ways to learn to play acoustic guitar, but the best way is to learn to play acoustic guitar on DVD, it is also the cheapest. Most DVD’s don’t cost very much and are packed full of tips and trick, most are done by well respected professionals, just because you have not heard their name before does not mean they’re not any good.

Try and start off slowly and work your way up and following the, learn to play acoustic guitar DVD from start to finish is always the best way to go. Try and resist the urge to skip forward if you’re bored or edgy.

Selecting the right DVD for you

When you are looking for a, learn to play acoustic guitar DVD, there are so many DVD’s out there you may find it hard to choose. Try and pick something easy and if you don’t know which one that is try talking to the sales assistant, I am sure it wont be the first time someone has asked them. Try to pick something that has wide variety of tasks, don’t pick anything too specialized a general beginner learn to play acoustic guitar DVD will do fine.

How to take advantage of the DVD

One of the main advantages of using a, learn to play acoustic guitar DVD is that you can pause, rewind and watch it whenever you like. With a learn to play acoustic guitar DVD there is no set timetable and no restricting class times to abide by, you can do it whenever you like no matter what time it is just hit play and your on your way and ready to learn to play acoustic guitar on DVD.

Know and maintain your equipment

When you learn to play the acoustic guitar on DVD you will find that all guitars sound different not better or worse just different. Your first step should be to tune your guitar, you can get it done for you by a professional however it is a good skill to have to be able to tune it yourself. Always keep your guitar clean and well maintained you will get very sick of having to replace broken strings every time you touch it if you don’t maintain it correctly.

Stay calm

Don’t get frustrated if you feel yourself getting frustrated stop the, learn to play acoustic guitar DVD and have a break there is no need to push yourself too hard. The DVD is not going anywhere. You don’t want to get to the point where you don’t like playing anymore, if you push to hard it will feel like a chore and it will be a waste of your time.

The main idea is to stay calm and relaxed and take your time because it’s not a race if you follow my easy steps you will find that you will enjoy the, learn to play the acoustic guitar on DVD.

Learn Lead Guitar

Many newbies are fascinated by the way lead guitarists are blazing through a solo and keep wondering how they can do that. They just can’t understand how these people figure out which notes can would sound right before playing them. The following article is aimed to show some perspective on how to learn lead guitar and begin to make up your own guitar solos.

The Blues Scale

What many beginner guitarists who want to learn lead guitar do not know that improvising doesn’t mean just playing random notes and hoping they will sound great together. Before you can learn lead guitar, you should know that professional guitar players usually draw their solos from a scale, which they are using as a template for improvisation. The blues scale, despite the name, is actually a scale used very often in all guitar solo styles.

How to Use It?

Try practicing this scale forwards and backwards, while using alternate picking and make sure you play each note evenly and cleanly. After you got this right, try to play each note two times before you get to the next one. Make up different ways to play the blues scale to challenge your playing skills.
Play the blues scale so that the root begins on the letter name of the scale you are trying to play. For example, if you want to play a C blues scale, you’ve got to find the note C on the fretboard and start the scale from that note.

Improvising

Once you’ve become familiar with the blues scale, you might want to take up some theory lessons and learn more on the different positions of pentatonic and blues scales. However, you can get to play a lot of great stuff just by using the single position explained above, so start practicing on making up your own solos before you memorize tons of scale positions.

Once you’ve managed to learn lead guitar basics, you can start improvising. The concept is fairly simple: all you have to do is string together some licks from the blues scale that sound good together. However, when you try to do it, you’ll realize it’s actually more difficult than it sounds. You might want to get some soloing lessons for beginner guitarists that want to learn lead guitar. Accesrock.com provides some good lessons.

After you did some practicing, you should visit the Home for all Guitar Lovers website that shows several guitar licks. You can try to memorize some of these and use them in your own solos. Don’t get frustrated if you play rather badly at first; if you like what you’re doing, it will get better over time.

Learn how to read guitar music

It is never too late or too early to learn how to read guitar music. Many guitarist start off by teaching themselves guitar music after studying a piece of music on the radio or on a CD. This is a great starting point and will allow you to understand different notes and cords.

Basic Elements

On a guitar, the tab staff has 6 horizontal lines. Each one of these horizontal lines represents a string on the instrument. The line on the bottom of the staff is the lowest “E” string on the guitar. The next line up from the bottom line represents the “A” string and so on. These are the basic elements when you learn how to read guitar music.

Chords

When your guitar tab displays numbers stacked vertically in a series, this is an indication to play these notes at the same time. When the guitar tab displays numbers in a series gradually on an incline, this is indicating these notes should be played one at a time. These are the first things you should know when you learn how to read guitar music.

Rhythmic notation

Rhythmic notation is how the songs rhythm should be heard when played. When you first learn how to read guitar music you should try songs you can access on a CD or radio so you can hear the rhythm before you commence learning the chords. Hearing the rhythm will make learning much easier.

A Major chord

An A major chord is the first chord you will learn to play and the first chord you will see when you learn how to read guitar music. An A major chord contains only 3 different notes. No more then 3 notes are used in an A major chord and these can generally be repeated more then once.

Discipline

The key when you learn how to read guitar music is discipline. Learning good techniques and having an excellent teacher will ensure you get the most out of your lessons. Once you have learned the basics of guitar music, you will find it easier to progress onto advanced guitar music.

Writing guitar music

When you learn how to read guitar music it is important to watch how the music is written. Take notice of the use of the chords in different sections of the music and take note of how easy the chords flow. When you become more advanced and start to write your own guitar music, these techniques will help you.

Learn how to play air guitar

Your first step when you learn how to play air guitar is finding out what air guitar is. It’s not just pretending to play guitar there is a lot more to it then that, try to think of it as expressing technique through your movements and making it a visually pleasing experience.

To start with I will give some steps to follow to make your air guitar expericane more enjoyable and how to setup a good environment to that will assist you when you learn how to play air guitar.

Your environment

You will need to have a big room to practice in when you learn how to play air guitar as it can get a little crazy sometimes. Try and clear all large objects out the room and beware of anything overhead as many people have been injured when they first start to learn how to play air guitar. You will not need to worry about the noise created from the air guitar as this is a silent art form.

Preparation

There will be no real need for preparation, but one thing you might want to do is stretch a little and warm up as many muscles as you can because it can get pretty physical when trying to learn how to play air guitar. Any serious injury could mean the end of a great air guitarist’s career and there is just not enough air guitarists’ in the world as it is so please be careful at all times.

Fitness

Some people don’t realize the rock fitness required when you learn how to play air guitar, but it is very physically demanding instrument. Try to work out at least once a day to maintain peak physical fitness.
You will need to focus most of the time on your arms as they will be used the most when you learn how to play air guitar and remember what I said before be very careful not to hurt yourself.

Pick your tunes

When it comes to picking the music you wish to play when you learn how to play air guitar try to steer clear of things like Frank Sinatra and Britney Spears, as these don’t lend themselves well to air guitar. Try and pick something with good guitar riffs and long solos because not much fun when you’re standing around waiting, for you cue to start.

Now remember when you learn how to play air guitar use it wisely as the air guitar can be a powerful tool that should not be taken lightly. I think the most important thing you should take away from this is that fitness is the most important asset to an air guitarist and you will need to maintain good physical health. Most people may think that the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is all fun and games but it takes serious dedication to be any good.

Learn Guitar Video vs. Private Lessons

There are various reasons why you might want to learn how to play the guitar. Maybe you want to impress your friends with your music skills, play at campfires or even set up a rock band where you would be the lead guitarist. Or maybe you just feel it’s in you, but you haven’t found a way to express it. Playing the guitar is a good way of socializing and being the center of attention, but if you really love to do it, the personal satisfaction that it gives you is definitely the most important.

Once you’ve decided you want to learn how to play the guitar, there are several ways you can do it. You can learn by a theory book, order a learn guitar video or take up private lessons. Learning by a book can be real difficult unless you’re a real good autodidact. Otherwise, you would probably get bored at some point, especially when you come across some difficulties.

Learn guitar videos come in different forms. Both private lessons and learn guitar videos are more interactive methods that are better at keeping you focused for a longer time.

Private Lessons

Taking up private lessons is definitely the best way to learn how to play the guitar. A good teacher will provide you with personal attention and design a customized teaching strategy to suit your learning style. A private teacher will spot your mistake faster and prevent you from developing bad habits that are more difficult to correct later on. He/she will also give you positive feedback and improve your motivation.

However, private lessons are not for everyone. They require you to travel to your guitar class every time and then back home, which can be a tremendous waste of time. If you have a family and a job, you probably can’t afford to sacrifice so much time for learning how to play the guitar. In addition, they can also be quite expensive. If you go to a reputable teacher, you will probably have to pay a pretty high price per hour.

Learn Guitar Videos

If you don’t have the time and money to take up private lessons, learn guitar videos may be the right choice for you. You can subscribe for some free online video lessons, pay for a registration if you find it more reliable or order some guitar lessons on DVD. Whichever way you may choose to do it, make sure that the provider also offers support and feedback to your questions.