Get 5 Guitar Playing Tips to Help You Play Better Guitar.

In this helpful article, you will get <i>guitar playing tips</i> designed to help you improve your playing skills.  So let's get started... 

<b>1) The first guitar playing tip is to use good posture while playing the guitar</b>

You should sit up straight in an armless chair. If the chair has arms, you will not be able to hold the guitar properly for playing.  Sit up straight to protect your back.

If you get a backache after a bit of playing, you will realize how having good posture while playing the guitar is so important.

<b>2) The next guitar playing tip is to hold the pick firmly but not too firmly.</b>

If you do not grip the pick firmly enough, you may lose it during a vigorous bout of strumming!  But if you grip it too tightly, you may find your whole arm getting tired.  Middle of the road is the best guitar playing tip I can give you where pick grip is concerned.

<b>3) Choosing the right pick is another guitar tip that is important.</b>

Picks come in finger and flat styles.  Most guitarists use a flat one.  They also come in three different levels of flexibility.

Several professional guitarists have given me the advice of getting the softest, flabbiest pick I can find for learning to keep up with fast strumming.  It's easier on the arm.  Flabby picks are harder to use, however, if you are trying to pick out individual strings, as in adding a bass line, or flat-picking.

After some practice with a soft pick, you will probably want to move on to a firmer one.  A final guitar playing tip about picks is that the firmest picks make the richest sounds.

<b>4) Here is a guitar playing tip - learn to play arpeggios.</b>

It's fun, great for old folk songs, and sounds beautiful!  You won't be able to use a pick, though.  Finger the chord.  Now, pick the bass note of the chord with your thumb. You can use a thumb pick for this, however, it works just fine to use your thumb.  You will grow a little callus there which will make it easier.

Now use your index finger to pluck the third string.  Next, pluck the second string with your middle finger.  And then pluck the top string with your ring finger.  You've picked four notes.

If you repeat the sequence, giving each note the timing of an eighth note, you will fill a measure of a song written in four/four time.  This guitar playing tip will make people sit up and take notice, but it does require practice, and calluses, to play this way.  Try playing the strings in different order, and alternate bass strings.

<b>5) A final guitar playing tip involves the chord D.</b>

While playing the D chord, try adding your pinkie finger to the chord at the third fret.  This new chord is often called "D-suspended" or "D-sus."  Then play D again.  Now try lifting your middle finger so that the top string of the chord is open.  And back to D again.

You can do the same thing with the A-chord, but have to do the change on the second string.  Up one fret to the third makes A-sus, and you can also lift that finger to go down a step on that second string.  C-suspended requires you to go up a half step on the fourth string.  G-suspended requires you to do it on the fifth string.  Learning suspended chords is a guitar playing tip you'll find yourself using when you play contemporary songs.

I hope you've found these guitar playing tips helpful. It's important to remember that the best way to improve your guitar playing skills is to practice, practice, practice. Good luck!

Essential Guitar Tabs For Beginner Guitarists

When we wonder what guitar tab we need to get to begin to make up our repertoire, we usually think only about songs we like. We know that our choice in music does not suck in the slightest but if we are going to be playing our guitar and singing for audiences we need to get used to the idea that our taste in music will not match what our listeners want to hear. We may even take a look at popular choices in songs and get the uncomfortable feeling that we might have to play songs that we do not like. One thing guitar players are famous for is standing on their principles and not compromising on what they are going to play. The other thing they are famous for is giving the audience what they want. So a mixture of these two attitudes is probably going to form in your psyche as you peruse your list of guitar tabs on the internet. While we are on the subject of lists of guitar tabs remember to pay a visit to your local music store or online merchant for ready-made collections of easy guitar tabs. You can find titles like "Popular Songs for Acoustic Guitar" or "CMT's 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music".

One fact that has emerged from field tests conducted by buskers, night club performers and covers bands is that you should look for your repertoire in the songs of years gone by. Oldies are goodies. Another thing you should think about is whether or not you are an audience participation kind of performer. If you are still wondering about it one second after the thought enters your head, then you probably aren't. So stay away from songs that require you to yell, "Everybody now!!" or "Just the girls this time!". Likewise if you play solo acoustic guitar and have a voice like Johnny Cash you might want to stay away from Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". But do not walk away from songs you enjoy just because they might not seem immediately doable.Remember Jose Feliciano's "Light My Fire" and Eric Clapton's unplugged "Layla".

Of course what songs you choose is not going to matter much if you do not pay attention to how you sing and play the guitar. People pay to see performers who are better at something than they are. Which is where playing material that you like comes in. If you are playing a song that you consider to be a crowd pleaser but you personally think is a load of stomach chunks you give attention to  the part the audience likes. You already know what that is. That is why you do not bellow, "Hello darkness my old friend" or shirk on the enthusiasm when you sing the line, "Welcome to the Hotel California".

Okay so what we get out of all this is first, there are songs that crowds of people like and second, you can sing and play these songs in a way that highlights your particular talents. Now for a basic list of songs that have been known to please a crowd or two over a period of years:
Wild World by Cat Stevens
Imagine - by John Lennon
Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
Catch the Wind by Donovan
Can't Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley
Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks
Angie by the Rolling Stones
Everybody Hurts by REM
50 ways to leave your lover by Paul Simon
The 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon And Garfunkel
American Pie by Don Maclean
Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell
California Dreamin' by The Mamas and Papas
Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan
Mrs Robinson by Simon And Garfunkel
You're so vain by Carly Simon
Blowin' In The Wind by Bob Dylan
Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash
Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton
Gloria by Van Morrison (or Them)
Hotel California by The Eagles
Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
White Room by Cream
Sex And Candy by Marcy Playground
Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers
What Its Like by Everlast
Alison by Elvis Costello
Life By The Drop by Stevie Ray Vaughn
Melissa by Allman Brothers
Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones
Seagull by Bad Company
Mediterranean Sundance by Al DiMeola and Paco De Lucia
Classical Gas by Mason Williams

This list could be much, much longer, but you probably already see songs here that you would never play in a million years so all I can say now is I hope this guide to essential guitar tab has been helpful.

Acoustic Guitar Tab

If you enjoy the idea of learning the guitar and you visualize yourself sitting down and playing your favorite songs for your own enjoyment, acoustic guitar tabs give you the possibility of realizing your dream. You can pick up an acoustic guitar any time of the day or night and play without disturbing your family or neighbors. Some people even play the acoustic guitar while the family is watching TV in the same room!

Tablature, or tab, is the ideal way for any beginner guitar player to learn or for a more seasoned guitarist to learn new material quickly. A basic definition of guitar tab is a diagram showing the guitar strings with the frets where the guitarist is to play the notes indicated by numbers. Quite often a guitarist approaching a new piece of music will struggle with conventional music notation whereas tab is a quick and easy way of getting the feel of a new piece. Also a pianist or other musician can look at a piece of guitar sheet music and play it right away but would have no hope of playing from guitar tab because it is only written for one instrument. Another limitation of guitar tab is that you won't be able to learn the rhythm from it. You will need a strumming pattern diagram or, having heard the song before, have some idea of how to approach the playing of the rhythm. If you are prepared to live with these limitations tablature will be a great tool for you to learn your favorite songs quickly.

When you search the internet for acoustic guitar tab what kind of music can you expect to find? Well, the variety is astonishing. Basically acoustic guitar tab is written with the idea of the guitar supplying the basic accompaniment for the song. So if you are a singer wanting to interpret the lyrics, your interest in the guitar arrangement may be slight. The second thing acoustic guitar tab usually gives you is the notes for any distinctive melody or riff in the song - music that people recognize before they hear the words being sung. A simple example of this is the few notes repeated throughout the record of "Something" by The Beatles. Of course you are quite free to leave out or change any music to make the arrangement your own.

Acoustic guitar tabs are often fingerstyle arrangements of songs. These arrangements will not be readily available in music stores or the usual sources of sheet music on the internet. Fingerstyle arrangements can give you some added depth to your guitar playing even if you don't utilize all the techniques shown in the tab. Finally there is one advantage to using acoustic tab for electric guitar players. You can learn the muisc for the song without having to set up your guitar and amp. You can work on arranging your song for electric guitar once you know the chords and the basic structure.

I hope I have given you something to think about if you have not given tabs for acoustic guitar much of a look so far. If you look around you will be quite amazed at the range of popular - and obscure - music available.