Most guitar players start out strumming with a basic up-and-down pattern. It works, but it often sounds stiff or flat. With just a few small tweaks, you can make even the simplest chords sound much more musical. In this lesson, I’ll show you three simple ways to bring your strumming to life using accents, spacing, … Read more
Bossa Nova is a musical genre originating from Brazil which features the guitar as the main accompaniment. This mellow and beautiful style uses syncopated rhythms with a fingerpicking style of playing. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to play Bossa Nova rhythms on guitar starting with basic patterns on one chord to more advanced patterns … Read more
A great way to learn the guitar is by mastering the basic chords and putting them together in a chord progression. This simply means a series of chords that are repeated to create the structure of a song. This lesson covers 7 easy guitar chord progressions to help you understand what chords work together. You can … Read more
This lesson covers 12 easy and practical guitar strumming patterns that will help you improve your playing. Strumming is an essential part of playing guitar because it’s what connects harmony (the chords) with rhythm. You can use nice chords but without being able to strum properly, your delivery falls short. We’ll first clarify some basic … Read more
If there’s one song every guitarist should know, it’s Happy Birthday. In this lesson, we’ll cover the chords and melody with tabs in four keys, strumming patterns, and a complete fingerstyle arrangement. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to build a real solo arrangement, there’s something here for you. Already know the basic chords? … Read more
If you’re learning to play guitar, you’ll find that strumming is an essential skill to learn on the instrument. Before you even start learning to play single note melodies, riffs, or solos, I think strumming is an excellent way to get into learning to play guitar. Having a good sense of strumming allows you to … Read more