Jazz guitar has basic picking techniques that must be mastered. Learning how scales and modes interact with chords and chord progressions is a definite must. Music Theory will play an important factor when you first start with learning jazz guitar. You need to understand the ii-V-I chord progression and how it is applied to jazz standards and tunes.

This can be a lengthy process if you don't know a lot about how chord progressions work, especially the ii-V-I progression. These three chords seem to be the fundamentals of what a solo is based on. Finding what modes and scales work best with these chords is one way to construct solos. Another way is to construct a solo with a basis in one key and then play it in all twelve keys. Corey Christiansen's Essential Jazz Lines series, is excellent for learning how to solo within the jazz genre.

Rhythm guitar can be easily dealt with when one has a decent knowledge of most barre form and first position chords. This is just one way to approach it, though. The list of following books and videos cover various techniques for playing rhythm guitar: Rhythm Accompaniments for Guitar (Video); Rhythm and Blues Electric Guitar (Video); Rhythm Changes Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (books); and Rhythm Guitar Chord System (book).

Depending on what style of guitar, here is an example of some of Mel Bay's books to help you out or get you started.

For the beginner or intermediate bluegrass player, the following books Mel Bay publishes can be very helpful in building your flatpicking bluegrass skills and other elements that make up the bluegrass genre such as crosspicking.

There are many techniques and many methods that can be learned when attempting classical guitar. A good way to attempt classical guitar would be to nail down basic techniques such as fingerpicking, alternate fingerpicking, rasgueado, tremolo, the rest and free stroke, reading standard notation, music theory, and the traditional way the guitar is held by using a footstool. From this point, one can move on to stylistic periods.

This style of guitar is usually chordal accompaniment with lyrics or a melody of some sort. Here is a list of Mel Bay books that cover this style in which some include folk tunes from various places around the world. Also check our Songbooks category for items with melody lines and guitar chords.

Blues guitar can be learned with basic theory and the basic blues forms. The common blues forms are the 8 and 12 bar blues form. Knowing what I, IV, and V are and how those chords relate to 8 and 12 bar blues form is a must. As far as style development goes, listen to some the "greats" such as B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Son House, and Lonnie Johnson. Suggested books are You Can Teach Yourself Blues Guitar, Mel Bay's Complete Blues Guitar Book, or First Lessons Blues Guitar

Mel Bay offers a book entitled First Lessons: Rock Guitar. This book covers the basics such as common chords, scales, and basic theory and how it is applied to rock guitar. With this book and the chords included, you should be able to listen to your favorite pop tunes on the radio and figure them out. That only works depending on how fast your ear develops. Knowing what key the song or piece is in also helps tremendously with knowledge on how to apply that.

The first thing you have to do is understand how your key signatures work. From there you can move on the modes. This is just one approach. Mel Bay offers many books on improving and understanding scales. William Bay has a book that is excellent for learning scales arpeggios (and will probably remain an excellent reference book to use later on) called the Complete Book of Guitar Chords, Scales and Arpeggios.

Pete Tindall's book Slide Guitar is a great book for any beginner needing to learn how to play slide but have a difficult time approaching standard guitar. The open tunings used in this book will give your slide guitar skills a boost towards various areas such as blues guitar, country, pop, and rock.

Having gone through a lot of trial and error in learning jazz, I recommend the following general approach: Get the Aebersold books (1-800-456-1388 for catalog), and use them roughly in the prescribed order : Volumes 24,1,21,2,54...it's printed on the back of each volume. Listen to Jazz. This is *key*...improvisationally, you'll tend to generate, verbatim or with inflection and interpretation, what you've heard before. When I was a rock listener, I produced rock phrases and rhythms..

You can play jazz on any kind of guitar. For example, most Brazillian guitar music is played on nylon-stringed guitars, but Gene Bertoncini uses them for straight-ahead jazz as well. Ed Bickert plays a Telecaster. Lenny Breau played a custom 7-string nylon string (with an extra high A string instead of the more common extra low A string). Larry Coryell uses a Steve Grimes flattop on "Private Concert".

That all depends on the difficulty level of the band itself. Here is a chart with some common fingerings that would probably be used in a high school jazz band. Recommended resources:

They both have strings and they both have frets; there the similarity ends. A guitar is generally thought of as an instrument for playing harmonies and chords, while a sitar must be thought of as a melodic instrument like a flute or an oboe. If you attempt to play chords like a guitar, you will be missing the entire concept of the instrument. How easily you make this fundamental shift in the way you conceptualize the instrument will determine how easily you can pick up then sitar.

Notation and tablature systems work equally well for any style of guitar, be it electric, acoustic, or classic. While tab is essential for learning music in altered or open tunings, we recommend that all guitarists learn to read standard notation on the guitar. A guitar teacher could help you achieve your musical goals faster, but don't settle for just any teacher.

Some people want to learn music just as a hobby and some want to be professional musicians. Some people learn faster than others. Some people are talented and practice hard, some are talented but don't practice enough, some are not as talented but practice hard. So, it all depends how you practice and how much you practice.

Cosmic Wimpout has been available for almost 30 years and there are a lot of players out there. The easiest way to learn how to play is to ask someone who knows. Or, go to How To Play, and learn the basic game with the Cosmic Wimpout Rules. Then feel free to add More Rules or make up your own! Well, no, yes, could be... Everyone starts with the Basic Game and then can add More Rules. On this website, we have the Basic Game with the Cosmic Wimpout Rules.

Alvarez, Yamaha, Seagull, and Takamine make good quality (less expensive) student model steel-string acoustic guitars. Look into used guitars as well; sometimes you can get a bargain. I would definitely try to find an instrument with a solid wood top rather than a plywood top. You might also consider getting a classic guitar with nylon strings. The necks are considerably wider than an acoustic guitar with steel strings.

See above. After a brief aberration in the late 60's and 70's, rock music has reverted to type, namely in that it is the preserve of the song writer, record producer, and record company, and is an area generally hostile to the ideas of a free thinking instrumentalist.