Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tech Tip: Changing Between Chords

June 10, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Question. I find it hard to change between chords and when I do it sounds bad. Because of this I can’t make my guitar sound good. What can I do?

Answer. This is the most common problem for beginner guitarists. Don’t worry, nearly every professional guitarist has had your problem!

The best way to avoid this is to start with the easiest chord changes for your fingers. Also, there is a lot to be said for slowing down everything that you are trying to learn.

Before you try playing along with your favorite band, practice the chords and chord changes by yourself until they are flowing nicely. Play things slowly to get accuracy and once you have that you can start speeding up.

Playing things at full speed without first learning them properly will make your chord changes sound muddy and unclear. If you start slowly and build your chord changes progressively you will find that you can improve your playing and stay motivated. Remember, like anything, playing the guitar takes time and effort.

You can’t expect to wake up and play like a pro. If you keep working on it you will improve your playing and achieve what you want on the guitar.

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Learning to play the guitar with Jamorama in 2010

January 10, 2010 — Leave a Comment

2010 is here and the Jamorama Team are very excited about what 2010 has in store. It’s always awesome to hear about progress that has been made and read the feedback regarding your learning and playing.

During the Christmas and New Year period we really got the impression that many new guitarists out there are experiencing a sense of being alone in their pursuit of playing the guitar.

It was great responding to all those who needed help and lend support, ideas and encouragement for those just starting out. We are also excited that more and more of you are interacting with other Jamorama guitarists and the Jamorama Team on Facebook.

frustratedguitarist5 Learning to play the guitar with Jamorama in 2010

One of the main obstacles that budding guitarists face is the feeling of isolation. You can feel like the only one struggling and can easily be discouraged when you’re trying to play that new chord or strum pattern (for the hundredth time) and don’t seem to be getting any closer. Your fingers are sore and you think, ‘Why not just give up?’.

The great thing is you are not as alone as you think!

Jamorama on Facebook provides a place for you to come and connect with other guitarists learning the same techniques and experiencing the same learning difficulties as you. The whole Jamorama Team is very active in the online community and we also have some very helpful articles in the ‘Discussion area’.

So next time you’re struggling with a particular exercise, jump on Facebook and let us all know. There’s a high chance someone is having the same struggle or has just got past it. Remember, you are NOT alone!

Be sure to share your wins too – there is nothing better than finally playing that tricky riff you’ve been working on.

Connect with the whole Jamorama Team and other Jamorama guitarists today.


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Beginning with the major pentatonic

October 31, 2009 — Leave a Comment

Almost everybody uses the pentatonic minor blues box. It’s a fundamental building block for alot of  blues rock guitar and a really very highly versatile scale that will allow you to play licks, phrases and motifs across the neck.

BUT it’s definitely a scale with a dark and minor character: moody, doleful and chock full of midnight moonshine. What happens though if you manage to shake off those blues shackles and even crack a wry old grin into your sleeve every now and then?

Happy Blues Beginning with the major pentatonic

Happy Blues by Jen Jacobs @ www.type1diabetesart.com

Happy Blues
Jen J.
www.type1diabetesart.com

Well you must be feeling the good vibrations so it’s time to play a little happiness into your life!

So to complement the minor, today we are going to have a look at a simple Major Pentatonic Box and this has a much more uplifting “major” character. If this sounds a little like GREEK to you then “DONT PANIC!” because it’s all about creating a mood, it’s all about discovering the way different sounds and intervals (the gaps between notes in terms of both pitch and space) create, enhance or combine to communicate emotion.

IF you enjoy the inimitable sound of B.B. King then this post is also just what the doctor prescribed!

majorpent1 copy

Remember that you can of course combine elements of both the minor and major pentatonic scales so experiment away and see how much fun you can have changing the mood!

This is a great scale shape to start exploring that major feel, but do remember there are a whole host of related shapes:

If you have a look at the GUITAR LICKERS website then you’ll see that the scale I’ve illustrated above is just one of five others that you can begin to learn and experiment with. Each shape is slideable and will help you create exciting and interesting tone colour moods when soloing and improvising.

DONT FORGET THAT CRUCIAL VIBRATO!!

In the videos below have a close look at B.B. King’s vibrato technique – he predominantly uses his first or index finger to create a fast, fluttering vibrato through very rotational, almost circular and fast left hand movement. Idiosyncratic but also awesome and inspiring in its uniquity!   COOL!!

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Air Guitar Strings

October 20, 2009 — Leave a Comment

product airguitarstrings Air Guitar Strings

If you absolutely, positively must rock and roll all night, then there is no substitute for our patented Air Guitar Strings! Our strings are made of the best available air, that has been cold filtered to remove 99.99% of all toxins, smogs, acid rain residue and greenhouse gasses. Best of all, our strings have a LIFETIME GUARANTEE! Yessiree, you heard me right there Yngwie, if our strings don’t last the lifetime of your air guitar, just send them back and we will replace them at no charge!

Click here to order!

I`ve made a quick video below showing you just how easily and quickly these strings can be installed!

blank Air Guitar Strings

Cheers,

Jake Edwards.

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Richie Havens Open D

October 14, 2009 — Leave a Comment

Richie Havens Open D

“…turn the guitar up Mike please….”

Woodstock poster Richie Havens Open D

Awhile back I took a look at the open D tuning and I’d like to revisit it once more but with a focus upon the idiosyncratic style of seminal folk maestro, icon and messenger Richie Havens; the great and the good – Richie Havens

If there was ever a reason to pick up a guitar and sing, shout, dance or cry Richie Havens must have a thousand of them and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival in New York is something so inspirational to behold it’s nothing short of a call to arms, the divine fiat heralding the apocalypse, the second coming, the end of time, the hopes and tragedies of the human condition.

As the festival’s first performer, he held the crowd spellbound for nearly three hours (in part because he was told to perform a lengthy set because many artists were delayed in reaching the festival location), and called back for encore after encore. Having run out of tunes, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual “Motherless Child” that became “Freedom”.

At the end of the day when you strum that old guitar box, you have to make it yours and own it; no matter how you play it. SO here`s some more fuel for your fire: Richie Havens basic chord voicings for the open D tuning lifted directly from Richie Havens  own website.

And here is all the proof we’ll ever need…Handsome Johnny and Freedom performed live  1969 by Richie Havens..spellbinding!

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

Hey, look yonder, tell me what’s that you see
Marching to the fields of Concord?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with a musket in his hand,
Marching to the Concord war, hey marching to the Concord war.
Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Gettysburg?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with a flintlock in his hand,
Marching to the Gettysburg war, hey marching to the Gettysburg war.

Hey, look yonder, tell me what’s that you see
Marching to the fields of Dunkirk?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with a carbine in his hand,
Marching to the Dunkirk war, hey marching to the Dunkirk war.

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Korea?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with an M1 in his hand,
Marching to the Korean war, hey marching to the Korean war.

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Vietnam?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with an M15,
Marching to the Vietnam war, hey marching to the Vietnam war.

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Birmingham?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with his hand rolled in a fist,
Marching to the Birmingham war, hey marching to the Birmingham war.

Hey, it’s a long hard road, it’s a long hard road,
It’s a long hard road, before we’ll be free.

Hey, what’s the use of singing this song, some of you are not even listening.
Tell me what it is we’ve got to do: wait for our fields to start glistening,
Wait for the bullets to start whistling.
Here comes a hydrogen bomb, here comes a guided missile,
Here comes a hydrogen bomb: I can almost hear its whistle.

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