Here’s another Mini Guitar Lesson by Mike Jones from Killer Guitar Tips.

Great guitar players do not just happen out of thin air. Great guitar players have practiced their art and practiced on a regular basis! But be WARNED… Many people practice the wrong things. They actually practice BAD habits. In order to progress you need to practice the right things. I know this sounds blatantly obvious but many, many people get this wrong. They practice things that they actually like which could be reinforcing their bad habits they have already acquired.

YOU’RE in the minority! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You’re in the select 5% of people who will be practicing the CORRECT methods and techniques that will catapult your guitar playing into hyperspace.

So stay tuned…

Let’s get straight on with this mini guitar lesson…

We will start with a really cool chord progression that’s great to play pentatonic riffs over when you are jamming with a friend, it will make you sound like a great player with no effort whatsoever!

So here it is, it’s real easy… Play one bar of each chord A, G, D, and A. Now keep on playing these chords over and over while your friend makes up a solo using the Am pentatonic scale at the fifth fret!! It sounds great.

Why not swop parts and get your friend to play the chords while you solo over this sequence in Am. Just listen to yourself sounding like a top pro player!

Now now have a progression you know that will fit in at any jam night or venue. You will be able to get up with a friend and sound like a real pro guitarist. It just takes a little practice ideally with your friend.

Another great little progression that goes along with this nicely and is the backbone of many great songs is a 4 bar sequence that repeats itself over and over again and is commonly known as the ‘turnaround’.

Lets take a closer look at this so here goes:

Play the 1st bar G, the second is Em, the 3rd is C and the last is a bar of D.

Play the rhythm of 4 beats to a bar and repeat this turnaround to your hearts content.

Again this is a superb jam sequence. Why not get your friends to jam along to it in the key of G. You play the rhythm and they solo over the top then change around, you solo they play rhythm.

Oh, and dont forget that my full guitar audio/video program is loaded with lots of amazing chord sequences that will allow you to lay down great sounding rhythm guitar that will astound your friends and rock your audience.

There are a great number of guitars out there, that’s for sure. Electric, Acoustic, bass, steel, classical and acoustic-electric just to mention a few. Then besides that there are a huge number of brand names for guitars. You have Fender, Yamaha, Gibson, BC Rich just to name a few. How does one go about deciding with all these guitars to choose from.

The style of music you’re going to want to play as well as the places you’ll be playing in will definitely have an impact on the choices you make. Let’s face it, if you’re going to be playing dances, or other such gatherings with lots of people, you will most likely need a guitar that can be amplified. That pretty much eliminates acoustic.

A common thought seems to be that acoustic guitars are best suited to country, jazz and that style of music. Electric guitars it is said are deemed to be best for rock, pop, the blues and so on. So if you want to go with this train of thought, the type of music you will be playing the most will also narrow down the field for you.

If you’re interested in playing steel guitar or a bass, then you have already narrowed the field down a lot. Now you simply need to choose between brand name and model. It has been said that learning to play a bass guitar or a steel guitar will take considerably more time and effort than learning to play either acoustic or electric.

The acoustic-electric is a unique guitar. It is unique in the sense that it allows you to play both electric or acoustic on the same guitar. The switch is as simple as plugging in or unplugging the patch chord. An acoustic-electric, just as the name sounds, is an acoustic guitar with a built-in electric pick-up. There are also a wide range of manufacturers, models and price range in acoustic-electric guitars.

If you have a preferred artist, and you want to simulate their sound, then that answers a lot of the questions for you on what type of guitar you should buy. It is pretty hard to simulate the sound of an electric on an acoustic. If this is the style of music and sound you are going to be looking for the majority of the time, then that is the type of guitar you should be looking for.

Most music shops though are pretty good about showing you the different guitars, and letting you see how they feel, and hear what they sound like. For beginners, unless you’re certain you want an electric guitar, the acoustic-electric makes an excellent beginner guitar.

Wendy Racklave writes for Playhouse MM which has details of inexpensive Ibanez bass guitars and affordable vintage bass guitar.

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Throughout the history of guitars, since it’s birth as an instrument, there have been several models and types that have made an impact. Not only just because of the way that the guitar has been built or that they feature the recent and most innovative designs and materials, but that they have been strummed by the best guitarists of all time.

Most likely, the most infamous guitar would be the Fender Stratocaster. First made by its creator, Leo Fender, founder of the world leading Fender Guitar company back in the 50s, the Stratocaster or Fender Strat as it is more commonly known, has taken it’s place amongst the history of music and rock and roll. Now enjoying a cult of followers from newbie guitar players and vintage guitar lovers alike, the Strat still empowers the best of todays musical groups.

The 1957 model of the Fender Stratocaster is probably considered to be the best and most collectable of the near 60 year run classic design. The 57 model features the famous 2 tone sun burst design, usually red and orange or yellow fading to black and can be seen being used by guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix, Metallica and Led Zeppelin during the recent years. After it’s inception all those years ago, the Strat was primarily used for playing blues style music until the likes of Jimi Hendrix blasted it into another world and started pushing the guitar and music to it’s limits and crashing into a new era. Jimi was one of many who was able to combine their talents with the Fender technicians and the team behind the Fender Custom Factory to make his own white signature model of Fender Strat. Leo Fender was famous for encouraging the worlds best guitarists to work along side them to not only design their own personally designed named models, but also re-evolve their existing designs through experimentation and customization.

The Fender Stratocaster has been used on a wide variety of different musical styles over the years from blues to thrash and jazz. It’s clean, clear sound lets the guitar player have the freedom to make any style and type of music accessible and the perfect build quality of each guitar is second to none. The main body of the strat is made from alder wood and the kneck is made from maple with a rosewood fretboard. The guitar includes a set of three single coil pickups which assists the generation of the the clean sound. There is a five way selector switch that allows you to switch between different combinations of the 3 pickups to produce very different tones and a series of volume and tone knobs.

The Strat is certainly one of the guitars that will go down in the annuls of time as being an almost perfect and extremely versatile instrument that had a hand in helping change the face of rock and roll and music made by guitars as we know it today. I am sure that Leo Fender was unaware that that when he first made the Strat in 1950, he would also be creating a cult and a legacy that will span well over 100 years.