Review Spotlight - NextLevelGuitar.com

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Next Level Guitar is another site with a heck of a lot of material to help you with your guitar journey. The spokesman and co creator of this site is David Taub. He's also the teacher in a majority of the lessons on this site, although there are others.

While this is a great site with a lot of material, be aware it is not free. You can sign up for a free trial and get access for a limited time, but after that you will have to pay for access. If you're willing to pay then this site has a lot to offer for guitarists at all levels.

This is where Next Level Guitar excels. Not only does it provide a great section for the beginner. It also provides a comprehensive set of tools for just about any level. If you're okay with paying for the privilege, you will find everything you need at this one site.

If you're not ready to fork out money for your lessons just yet, don't dismiss Next Level Guitar. Just like GuitarJamz, Next Level Guitar has countless lessons and song tutorials available for free on Youtube. 

David Taub has a great teaching style which keeps you interested and moving forward. You should definitely keep Next Level Guitar as one of your main resources on Youtube at the very least.

Please note, I do not receive any payment from any of the sites I review and recommend. I'm simply providing you with a recommendation for a service that has helped me on my guitar journey. Good luck, and keep playing!

Review Spotlight - Mahalo.com/guitar

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Maholo.com isn't just a place to learn the guitar. This site provides lessons and advice on just about any topic you can think of. So, when visiting, don't forget you need to go to the guitar page to access the content you're looking for. Once you get there you won't be disappointed. 

Mahalo.com's dedicated guitar page is one of the most comprehensive, free guides for the Newbie guitarist you will find online. They start with the assumption you know very little about the instrument. They go through everything step by step, from the parts of the guitar, to how to hold a pick. They assume nothing, which is very refreshing. It's far to easy to forget how foreign an instrument can be to someone who's never picked one up in there life.

At Mahalo there is more than one instructor that you will be exposed to, but, for the most part, your guitar journey will be guided by Jen Trani. She's a great teacher, with a style that's easy to follow. She will keep you interested.

Mahalo also offers a lot of Youtube song lessons for beginners. Just go to Youtube and search Mahalo guitar. You'll find them very helpful. Their lessons are always geared towards beginners, so you will rarely have trouble following along.

Please note, I do not receive any payment from any of the sites I review and recommend. I'm simply providing you with a recommendation for a service that has helped me on my guitar journey. Good luck, and keep playing!

Review Spotlight - GuitarJamz.com

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In this post I'm looking at another great site for some free guitar lessons. GuitarJamz.com is a different animal from Justinguitar.com. The site is much more commercial. There is a lot of premium content you can pay for. But there's still a lot of great material available for free, and hey, what's wrong with a guy trying to make a buck?

This site is the brain child of Marty Schwartz. He has a good beginners section here as well, but you have to sign up for a free trial to access most of the material. So if you're only interested in free stuff, this might not be the site for you.

Marty also has a vast library of Youtube videos available. Just go to Youtube, search for Marty Schwartz guitar, and you'll have access to beginner lessons on many of your favourite songs of yesterday and today.

Once you've learned the basics, which are freely available at Justinguitar.com, Marty is a great source for expanding your personal song catalogue. If you're not worried about spending a little money, he's also got a lot of material to help you on your guitar journey as well.

At GuitarJamz.com you'll find all kinds of material. Pretty much anything you're looking for. It just isn't free! It's up to you to decide if you want to pay to learn guitar or not.

As far as personality goes Marty is laid back, and a very good teacher. He goes through each part of a song at a pace that any beginner can follow. His method works. He keeps it simple, but he's not boring. I don't know about you, but for me I find it hard to pay attention to a teacher that has zero personality!

Please note, I do not receive any payment from any of the sites I review and recommend. I'm simply providing you with a recommendation for a service that has helped me on my guitar journey. Good luck, and keep playing!

Review Spotlight - Justin Guitar.com

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Over the next few posts I'm going to be reviewing some of my favourite sites for teaching beginners guitar. Be aware I will never give negative reviews on this site. I don't believe in it. Regardless of what I think about a site, someone has put a lot of effort into it. If I don't like a site, I simply won't talk about it. I'll let you make your own decision. Anyone familiar with my other blog Life Changes - Advice and Inspiration, will know I believe in keeping things positive!

The first site I want to recommend to all the Newbies out there is Justinguitar.com . The best part about this site? It's free! The site was developed by, and is maintained by, Justin Sandercoe. Justin started the site over ten years ago, and I've been using it faithfully for the past couple of years.

Simply put, Justinguitar.com is full of material to get you started on your journey. Justin uses a video format to present his material and he provides a comprehensive beginners course, as well as a great intermediate section. By the time you've covered the main material in this site you'll be well on your way to your dream of playing guitar.

What really separates this site from the competition though, is the easy manner of Justin's personality. You really feel comfortable - almost as if you're sitting in his living room having a chat about the guitar. He puts you at ease.

Justin is constantly updating his site so check back often for new material. He has a great collection of song lessons to get you started, and he has a section on developing your technique as well.

Justinguitar.com is, arguably, the most comprehensive free site available for the Newbie guitarist. It's a site I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. So what are you waiting for? Head on over there and get things started!

Please note, I do not receive any payment from any of the sites I review and recommend. I'm simply providing you with a recommendation for a service that has helped me on my guitar journey. Good luck, and keep playing!

4 Things Every Newbie Guitar Player Needs to Know

                                  Image courtesy of Jiggoja / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Starting any new journey in life can be a little overwhelming. Learning how to play the guitar is no different. Where do you even start? While there is a long way to go before you can play your favourite Zeppelin or Stones songs with any degree of competency, it doesn't mean you won't get there. 

If you start with some fundamental things that will give you a strong foundation, you'll get there in no time. Be patient though, and expect to practise - a lot. No one ever said it would be easy! But it will be fun, and man will you a feel a sense of accomplishment if you stick with it.

Keep in mind just two short years ago I was sitting where you are now. I wanted to learn, but I didn't know where to start. I didn't want to take lessons. I just wanted to teach myself. I found what I was looking for through trial and error.

I don't want you to go through the same agony I did! That's why I decided to start this blog. There are a lot of great people out there providing great information for the beginner. I'm just hear to point you in the right direction, and instead of looking all over the place for what you need you can start here and be connected with all these great tools.

In this article I'll look at four basic things you need to consider to get your journey started.



Choosing the right Guitar

First things first. You need to get yourself a guitar! There are so many choices it can be a little overwhelming. Personally, I went with a Fender(R) CD-60CE acoustic guitar. It really is a nice looking guitar at a very reasonable price ( under $300 ). It features a cutaway, a built in Fishman(R) pickup, and a built in tuner.

You get the best of both worlds with this model. It's acoustic, but you can plug in as well if you want. More importantly, I didn't have to break the bank to get myself a guitar I'm happy with. If it sounds like what you're looking for you can check it out here.

Whatever you choose is up to you, but make sure it's something that will last. Even if you out grow it, it's always good to have that back up guitar to take on camping trips. There's nothing more satisfying than being able to entertain your friends and family around the campfire. See below for some more links to help you make that purchase decision.


Fender

Gibson

Martin

Yamaha

Schecter Guitars

Epiphone


Taylor Guitars




Choosing the right Pick for you

The pick may seem like a simple little piece of equipment, but choosing the right one for you can have a lot to do with how successful you'll be. They're made of many different materials, and come in different shapes and sized. So how do you know what's right for you? 

In my opinion it really has a lot to do with your comfort factor. I prefer a thick pick rather than a thin one. I like the sound it produces, and it just feels right in my fingers. Some picks have a dimpled, rubberized grip, which is a great idea to help you hold on to it. When I first started playing I found I was always losing the grip on my pick. These picks helped me a lot with this. Check out these links to help you choose the pick for you:


10 Reasons to be Picky About Guitar Picks

How to Choose Guitar Picks

Tone Factors - Picks and Stones

How to Pick your Pick



Naming the Strings

One of the most basic things you need to learn on your guitar journey is the names of the different strings. There are six strings on the guitar. The thickest string, the first one you see when you look down at the guitar, is an E string, followed be A, D, G, B, E. Sounds simple enough, but you'd be amazed how often people have trouble with this.

Fortunately there are tricks you can use to help you remember the names of the strings. You can come up with your own little memory trick, but why reinvent the wheel? The one I like to use is "Eddy Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddy". Simple, but memorable.  

It's important to simplify things as much as possible. Guitar shouldn't be a chore. It should be fun. By using little tips and tricks of the trade like this you can make sure your journey will be a fun one.



Basic Chords


Before you can hope to play a song you need to wrap your head around the basic chords. These are the major and minor chords. There are many more chords, such as 7th chords, minor 7th chords, Barre chords etc, but don't worry too much about all these yet. First you need to concentrate on the basics.

You should become familiar with the A chord, C chord, D chord, G chord, E chord, A minor chord, D minor chord, and E minor chord. If you can master these chords you will have a great foundation to move forward with. A couple of great resources that helped me with this were ChordBook.com , and AllGuitarChords.com . There are countless other resources out there. If these don't appeal to you do a search, I'm sure you'll find something that works for you. 

Well hopefully you've found a few things here to get you started on your guitar journey. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. I'm happy to help whenever I can! Cheers for now.

Play Guitar

                                      Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The first time I picked up a guitar I was 15 years old, and, like so many other kids my age, I was convinced I was going to be a rock star! And like so many others before me, I was sadly disappointed!

I took lessons for a while, I played in a band, and I even travelled to competitions. For a short time it was the centre of my world, but I soon lost focus. Life got in the way. Other things became more important.

Fast forward more than twenty years. At this point I hadn't really picked up a guitar in that entire time. I'd always meant to get back into it, but it never seemed to happen. Then, about two years ago, I found myself wanting to get back on the horse so to speak. I was surrounded by friends and family who played, and it made me realize how much I missed it.

I've been strumming along to my favourite tunes ever since. Along the way I've found some good resources to help me. In today's connected world anyone can teach themselves to play guitar with a little help from their online friends.

It wasn't always easy though, and I wish there was one place I could go that could point me to all the great resources out there. Yes you can do the good old online search, but this is very time consuming.

That's why I decided to start this blog. Each week I will post new resources that will help you on your journey. My hope is that this blog will be a great tool for you. What you'll find here is links and reviews to some of the best resources available on the web.

So check back every week, I will be updating every weekend. And please, let me know if you have any ideas for the blog. I'd love to include your ideas in a featured blog post. I hope you enjoy your journey as much as I've enjoyed mine so far!