House Of Guitar

Before You Start Pg 1
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Before You Start Pg 1
Before You Start Pg 2
Lesson 0: Tabs
Lesson 1: Power Chords
Lesson 2: Easy Songs

What's up everyone! My name is Blade and I will be your House Of Guitar instructor.
 
We need to give you a little background information before you begin. This may be a little boring, but you MUST know this material before you begin.
 
Thanks for enrolling in the House Of Guitar. Best wishes to you.
 
Yours truly,
Blade.

Before You Begin #1: The first things you need to know before you start our awesome course is some basic guitar knowledge. You can use any type of guitar while using our course --- however, there are some problems with using an acoustic/classical guitar. Let's first go over the differences between the different guitars.
 
  • The Nylon-String Classical:This is the "classic" guitar (hence its name). There are many problems with using this guitar
    • The nylon strings can be very quiet
    • The nylon strings hurt your fingers more than steel strings.
    • The Classical guitar is not used in modern music
    • The techniques that you use with an acoustic or electric guitar cannot be used on a nylon-strung guitar.
  • The Steel-String Acoustic: This is the acoustic guitar that we all know and love. Used primarily in modern music, the acoustic guitar is
    • louder than the nylon-strung guitar
    • does not need external amplification (like the electric)
    • has a similar feel to the electric guitar
    • is easier on the fingers then the classical
    • You can use transfer many techniques from the electric to the acoustic (i.e. pull-offs, hammer-ons, vibrato, ect.); however, there are still many techniques that you can use on the electric guitar that you cannot use on the acoustic (i.e. bending)
  • The Electric Guitar: This is the base of rock and roll and blues. You can be more creative on the electric than you can on the classical or acoustic, and you can also change your sound to fit you. The House Of Guitar course does include some lessons specifically for the electric guitar.

We recommend you get either an acoustic or electric guitar unless you will only be fingerpicking (then we recommend the classical guitar). If you are a beginner, you will sound more sloppy on the electric than you will on the acoustic. Don't worry, the sloppy sound will dissappear with practice.

Before You Begin #2: Now that you have your guitar, it's time to tune. Most advanced guitarists can tune by ear, but that takes years of experience and can be very frustrating for beginners. The best way for beginners to tune quickly is to buy a tuner. It need not be expensive, but it is important that you get a durable one. I suggest an inexpensive one such as the Korg GA30 for $15 at WWBW.com.
 
Some tuners double as metronomes. Metronomes are a very important tool for every guitarist. They insure good rhythm and cleanliness. You will need a metronome for one of the lessons later in this course, so you might find it worth it to get a tuner/metronome. We suggest the Sabine MT9000 for only $30, which is not only a high-quality tuner but is also a metronome. If you would like to buy a metronome, we would like to recommend the Sabine Zip Beat 6000 for $20.
 
Will will suggest later to begin ear training exercises, such as tuning to an outside source with no tuner. Until then, please use your tuner for a quick reference. Be sure to tune every day before you begin. Some guitars have better tuners than others (they stay in tune better), so you may have to tune many times in a practice session depending on the quality of your guitar.
 
The order of the strings (from the lowest sound string (string 6, closest to you) to the highest sounding string (string 1, closest to the floor)): E - A - D - G - B - E (Every Afternoon Down Goes Boys Eating).

Before You Begin #3: This may be the most important "Before You Begin": the practice schedule. Your practice schedule is very important, and helps keep thing moving smoothly during your practice sessions. It helps in keeping you from messing around, and also makes sure you improve and no session is wasted.
  • A beginner's practice schedule who is just starting out should look like this:
    • Practice Time: Between 30 mintues to 2 hours (with 15 minutes break every hour). You should not play for more then two hours for the first 6 months.
      • The first 10 minutes include warming-up. Warming-up is the most important part of practice, so do not skimp on this part. Warm-up before you play and after every break for at least 10 minutes. This should include scales, finger dexterity exercises, and picking exercises. we will teach you how to warm-up correctly in Lesson 2: Warming-Up.
      • The next 20-60 minutes should include learning material. If you are taking guitar lessons, this is the time to practice your material. This is also the time to practice House Of Guitar material.
      • The remainding time should include "fun" stuff --- learning your favorite songs, improvising, messing around. You should only do this after you have completed the rest of the session listed before this.
  • An intermediate/advanced guitarist's schedule should look something like this:
    • Practice time: 1-5 hours daily (with 10 minutes of break on te hour if practicing 1-3 hours, 15 minutes of break on the hour after the 3rd hour)
      • The first 25 minutes should include warming-up. Make sure you always use a metronome. Include scales and finger/picking exercises.
      • The next part includes learning material. You will never improve until you set aside at least 1hour daily to practice learning material.
      • For the last 30-60 minutes, try to improvise. Improvising is a very important skill that all guitarists must have. Please see our lesson on improvising to better help your studies.

Make sure you do not forget to warm-up or to take your breaks. These help improve your speed and keeps you in good playing shape.

We will have a sample practice schedule at the bottom of each lesson page. For best results, please follow each practice schedule.

Nobody is a "natural" guitarist. Everybody needs to practice at least 30 minutes per day to keep up your speed and technique. To make steady improvements, plan on practicing 2 hours a day (remember that if you practice 2 hours daily that you will have 20-30 minutes of break time).

Please move on to "Before You Begin Pg 2"

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