Online Guitar Lessons For Beginners On Acoustic Guitar

Today, we will tell you something about how to play like your idol guitar player. Hmmm, let’s pick one. Okay, how about B.B. King? Is that good for you? Alright. Here’s how to play like B.B. King.

First, the equipment:

B.B. King uses a Gibson, matter of fact, he had been using it for 40 years before Gibson and King officially came up with a signature guitar model in 1982. The signature model was an ES – 335 with a fine – tuner tailpiece, thin semi – hollow body with no sound holes and of course the most popular guitar name, “Lucille”.

He uses signature guitar strings as well, with gauges: .010 .013 .017p .032w .045w .054w

To imitate the tone, do not use any distortion. Juts a clean and warm overdriven tone from your amp will do. B.B. King uses a lot of variation of pentatonic / blues scale or mixolydian scale on his songs. He doesn’t use any fast – switching licks, he’s no SRV but he is very popular with his phrasing and vibratos. The feel of his guitar solos are intense, like he’s feeling every note of it and you can’t just copy that. The way he does the vibrato is also unique as well.

Well, at first, changing the guitar strings is a bit uncomfortable when you haven’t tried it yet but actually it is not that difficult if you know what to do and you know what to use. You should consider this as part of your daily routine as a guitarist, something as natural as cleaning your guitar. So today, if you want to learn how to change the strings of your guitar, I have just the right thing right here that would keep you going and help you start learning this skill. It is a much needed skill if you really want to learn guitar, I mean, who would change the strings for you? Guitar tech? You are still not on that level… so if you want to learn read this. This would save you from trouble.

First, you need to have the following:

-          Pliers

-          String winder

-          Strings (obviously)

-          Cloth

Unwind the string until it is loose. Do it one at a time. This is important so that you wouldn’t break the neck of your guitar.

Next, cut off the string. And then clean the guitar, fretboard and everything using the cloth.

Replace string, use the string winder to wind it up and tune.

The tendency is we put too much emphasis on our fingering hand, practicing it most of the time. Yes, we could do some amazing speed riffs with our finger hand by hammer ons and pull offs but when it’s picking time, we suck.

If you couldn’t pick each note you play with your fingering hand as fast as how you do it with hammer – ons and pull offs, then that is not good indeed. Knowing how to pick the precise strings and picking it note for note is also essential.

We could apply alternate picking or economic picking with that. At first, if you are not used to it then it would be a bit difficult at first. But the idea is to pick each and envy note that you are going to play without hammering and pulling off. That’s what’s up. Now, if you could perfect doing that then you would actually double your fingering speed while using hammer – ons and pull offs as well as alternate picking and economic picking techniques. It might take some time to whip out a perfect one but with constant practice and the sufficient amount of dedication and determination, you would come out clean.

In performing, the number one negative force that is preventing you from performing well on stage is stage fright.  Conquering it and completely removing it from your system is the number one thing that we should first take care of.  It prevents you from becoming your best on the stage, leading to poor performance and tons of mistakes.  We don’t want that especially on our first gig; because we want to leave a good impression to the people would show up on our shows.  That is why we should learn how to conquer stage fright.

First, the number one contributor on stage fright is stress and anxieties.  If you are so stressed before a performance, your brain is so worked out and you could not think properly.  And then negative thoughts would enter your head resulting to poor stage performance.  The best method to conquer this is to be mentally and physically prepared before a scheduled performance.  Do a run through on all of your routines, and your guitar parts on your songs before your set.  This would give you confidence that you know you what you are doing and you know what you will do on stage.  As simple as this you would conquer stage fright.

Why should you practice?  Why should you spend the rest of your time just to practice guitar?  Well the answer to this is very simple if you really want to be good in playing the guitar there is no other way but to practice and practice religiously and practice hard and practice as much as you can.  Most beginner guitar players questioned me a lot about how often should they practice.  I said, should practice as often as possible.  Even the greatest guitar players are still dedicating hours of their time just to practice.  They always thing there is always room for improvement even if they are already there on that level of guitar playing which we call legendary.  If you can see their attitude towards practice, you would see that they treat practice, like something very important, something like a religious ritual.  Something that is a very important part of their lives.  And not suggesting they should practice the whole day, because as ordinary people, we have things that we should do in our everyday lives that doesn’t include playing the guitar.  On that case, you can spend two hours of your time for practice, or you could set any vacant time that you have for practice.  But if you doing this as a profession, you should definitely spend more time practicing.

Picture this situation: you surpassed the beginner stage and now you could be able to perform songs without difficulties.  You join a band and you made songs together.  Now you’re all set to perform on a certain evening.  Now, the evening came.  You are about to perform in front of several people.  Now I know this is common with all guitar players were about to play their first gig, and they want to tell you that it is very much normal to feel very nervous.  It’s very much OK.  Some people actually piss in their pants out of nerves.  But you don’t have to piss in your pants.  Here’s something that would help you call her that stage fright.  This is also what I did.  But for your information, and did not pissed in my pants.

First, make sure that you have rehearsed everything thoroughly because making a mistake on stage could screw up your nerves very bad and you might lose it.  Do not drink coffee.  If you’re 18 and above, you could down a bottle of beer just to heat you up.  And speaking of heating you up, don’t forget to warm up.  The best thing that you could do and don’t think about it.  Pretend that this is all part of the show and it is a normal thing.  And you will be alright.