Guitar Today

Here is a fun video of Tommy Emmanuel playing just about every variation of the boogie blues progression in known existence. Emmanual can be seen hamming it up and show-boating for fun before he really gets the boogie started. Enjoy!

Kids Can Play Guitar - $11.99 DVD
This DVD for kids 8 and up explains the basics of guitar in a way that is fun and informative for kids. Mel Reeves covers the different types of guitars, teaches kids how to read music chord fingerings and diagrams. DVD instructional videos are an excellent way to get your kids excited about learning an instrument.

Rock Guitar for Kids Songbook- $6.99 paperback
Hal Leonard is a well known and respected authority on publishing guitar instructional books. This book is for any child who is ready to start learning about guitar on their own time. It is easier to have a book rather than hire a guitar teacher because your child can go back and re-read certain parts any time they are having trouble. You also don’t have to concern yourself with scheduling.

Kids’ Guitar Songbook
For any parent wishing to see their kids strumming away on their very own guitar. Kids’ Guitar SongBook will teach your child all the basics of playing the guitar. They will learn to tune the guitar on their own, proper way of holding the guitar and some basic notation. It also has many fun easy songs that kids can play on their own while they are beginning to learn to play the guitar.

 A guitar arpeggio is a broken up guitar chord where each note is played individually instead of playing them all in one strum. It is like taking a guitar chord and stretching it out, note by note across several strings and frets on the guitar neck.

Arpeggios are a great easy way to add interest to your guitar solos by using them to transition from lick to lick or even to another key. You don’t have to be a Guitar Hero like Yngwie Malmsteen or even Zakk Wylde to make use of arpeggios in simple forms here and there. It is easy and sounds great to take one chord and play it in the form of an arpeggio within your normal guitar soloing routine.

There are three ways to play an arpeggio:

Conventional guitar picking - This would be the method of picking you are likely used to by now. It is simply plucking notes individually alternating between up and down strokes.

Hammer on / Pull-off technique- You can mix hammer-ons and pull-offs ‘ into any peice of music to give it a smooth guitar solo style.  When playing a multi-string arpeggio on the guitar you may want to use either a hammer on or pull off, or several of them to add more interest to your playing.

Sweep-picking technique - Sweep picking is an easy guitar method to master which produces a very cool effect. You can practice sweep picking by fretting a guitar chord that you are comfortable with (such as a Am) and strumming with a rigid wrist to pluch each note individually. Use a sweeping motion of the pick and combine with your fret hand technique to sound each note of the chord indivually.

Example of a major guitar arpeggio:

Practice this arpeggio using each of the three techniques for arpeggios that we have covered in this online guitar lesson