>> Learn Electric Guitar

Learn Electric Guitar

When you want to learn electric guitar, the first thing you need to know is that it is almost no different than learning acoustic guitar. Stylistically, of course, you'll be learning drastically different things than the acoustic player. Power chords, high speed scales, and sweep picking are just some of the skills that the electric player works on more than the acoustic player

First, you'll need to learn to play the basics. One of the most basic weapons in any electric guitarist's arsenal is the power chord. This is a chord that consists of just two notes: a root note, and either a perfect fifth above or a perfect fourth below. The resulting sound is hollow, growly, and earth shattering. Think of the intro chords to Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water', and you'll know what I mean.

Power chords are the easiest and most commonly used chords in rock music for two reasons. One, it is easy to play power chords, since there are really only two shapes to worry about, and then you just move them around a lot. Two, it makes it easier to write a song that doesn't conform to the 'standard' rules of harmonic progressions.

Power chords are great, but nothing beats an excellent guitar solo. To pull one of those out of your bag of tricks, you'll need intimate knowledge of scales and notes. A note is just that, a note. Bang a key on a piano or pluck a string on a guitar, and you've played a note. A scale is a set group of notes put in order from lowest to highest that fit within a pattern. A very common scale used in western music is the major scale. In heavier rock genres, however, the natural minor and harmonic minor scales are relied on heavily. If you want to learn electric guitar, you must learn your scales.

To learn electric guitar, you must also use something known as "muscle memory". It's not enough to simply know where to put your fingers when you're learning scales and chords. You also need to teach your fingers themselves to know where the notes are.

This phenomenon is called 'muscle memory', and is essential to someone who wishes to learn electric guitar. When you practice a scale or a riff enough times, the motion is embedded into your fingers' natural motions. After a while, you no longer have to consciously think about each individual note, just the first, middle few and last. The brain sends a message to the hands to play a major scale, and the fingers comply, knowing where all the notes are seemingly instinctively. It is only when you have obtained this level of muscle memory that you are truly free to open your floodgates and let the creative juices take you to wherever they lead.

Take your time learning electric guitar. If you rush through a song, or try to learn something that is too difficult, you'll end up getting frustrated. Be patient and enjoy the ride as you learn the electric guitar!