Beginner Guitar Open Chord Bass Runs

This article shows beginner guitarists an easy way to play bass runs with simple open chords. A bass runs is a series of notes played on the bass strings of the guitar as you move from chord to chord. They are a simple way to liven up basic guitar chord accompaniments and make them sound more dynamic.

In this article you'll learn about chromatic bass runs and then see how to use them on a simple A and D chord progression.

Chromatic Bass Runs

Chromatic bass runs are the easiest to learn. They use adjacent frets so you don't have to worry about finding scale notes. The chromatic bass run moves one fret at a time to end on the root note of the new chord.

In the examples that follow you'll learn some three note bass runs that lead up to the new chord's root. The bass run notes are played on beats two, three, and four of the bar leading up to the chord change.

Example Bass Run, Step by Step

This example shows you bass runs between A and D chords. You play each chord for two bars, the first bar is played normally and on the second bar you play the bass run to the next chord.

Work through the steps below slowly as you read them. Once you've memorized the movements try to play through the example in time.

Right, let's get on with the example, you can see the tab for the whole example at the end of the description.

1. Start the first measure with a strum of the open A major chord as you count "one". Now finger the 2nd fret of the A (or 5th) string with your index finger (you can let go of the A chord) and pick it as you count "two".

2. Now place your second finger on the 3rd fret of the 5th string and pick it as you count "three". For the last note of your bass run place the third finger of your fretting hand on the 4th fret of the 5th string and pick it as you count "four".

Notice that we're now one fret below the D note - 5th fret of the 5th string - that we're aiming for.

3. Now move your fingers to the open D chord shape, and strum it as you count "one" of the next bar.

4. You then play to the end of the bar using whatever strumming pattern you like. On the next bar we'll do another bass run to move back to the A chord again.

5. The bass run to the A chord will be identical to the previous one, except this time you play it on the 6th string. Strum your D chord once on beat "one" of the bar, then release the D chord, put your index finger on fret two of the 6th string and pick as you count "two".

6. Move up the frets one at a time with the second and third fingers on beats three and four. You should be at the fourth fret.

7. The final note of the run is the A root note played on the open 5th string. Finger an A chord and strum it as you count "one".

Conclusion

This article has shown you chromatic bass runs that use a series of notes on adjacent frets to lead into a new chord. The simple example shows you how to play a chromatic bass run on the open A and D chords.

Chromatic movement is only one way to create bass runs, but it's one of the easiest to begin with as you don't have to worry about scales to find the right notes. Simply move one fret after the another to the root note of any chord and you can't go wrong.

If you want to improve your guitar playing, learn this example and then try applying the same idea to other chord changes you know.

Got a question or comment on this lesson? I'd love to hear from you, use the comment form or click the "Post a comment" link below.

More bass run lessons you might enjoy:

• Open G and C Chord Chromatic Bass Run
• Open Chord Major Scale Bass Runs
• G and C Chord Major Scale Bass Runs

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Build Guitar Practice Habits with the Power of Less Challenge

Learning to play guitar the way you want really boils down to one critical factor. Practice. The better your guitar practice habit the better you will play guitar.

So, if this is so then how do you become good at guitar practice? Well here is one very good way that has been proven by many thousands of people as well as scientific research too.

This effective method you can use to develop any habit is well explained by Leo Babauta. Leo doesn't play guitar as far as I know but he does know a thing or two about developing habits.

He has developed what he calls the Power of Less Challenge. The challenge helps you to develop any habit you want. I could explain the Power of Less Challenge to you, but luckily for me Tim Ferris has already done a great job of this on his blog.

You can read his article to learn more or simply get yourself a copy of Leo's Power of Less book. It could help you with more than just your guitar practice.

The method described might look deceptively simple. But that is exactly where its power lies, you will find it much easier to develop habits that stick by following the advice in the book. If you're struggling to develop or maintain a regular guitar practice habit, why not give it a try?

How do you ensure your daily dose of guitar practice? I'd love to hear how you developed or keep up a daily guitar practice habit. I'm especially interested in hearing how you apply the Power of Less Challenge and how it helps you.

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Guitar Chord Practice Tables

Guitar chord practice tables are an easy and effective way to track your guitar chord playing skills. This article shows you how to use them to develop fluency playing all guitar chord changes.

How do you learn to change chords easily, cleanly and quickly? Easy, you simply have to practice all the changes. The problem is there are a lot of them to remember and if you don't have a system to help you it's easy to neglect some.

The problem is made worse by our natural tendency to avoid things that make us feel bad. Nobody likes to be reminded of their weaknesses. Our minds can be very effective at "forgetting" those tricky chord changes that we find hardest.

For me the open D minor chord was a hard one for a long time. Sometimes there are chords like this that your fingers just don't seem to get. Without really planning it, you start to avoid them and practice instead the chords you can play more easily.

Chord practice tables are a simple and effective system that will ensure you avoid this problem. Let me first show you what a practice table looks like, and then tell you how you use it to improve your chord changes.

Here's an example of the kind of chord practice table I use. This one is for the chords in the key of C major.


I've created a PDF version of this C major chord table you can download free for your own use.

Here's how you use the table to practice your chord changes.

1. Start on the top row and play all the chord changes from C to each of the indicated chords. For the example chart you play C - Dm - C - Em - C - F... and so on, through to the B diminished chord. You can simply strum each chord four times, or use more sophisticated rhythms if you prefer.

2. Move down to the second row and repeat the process for all the changes from Dm. Dm – C – Dm – Em – Dm - F...

3. Continue until you have practiced all the rows of the table.

When you get to the end of the table you'll have practiced all the possible diatonic chord changes in one key.

It's a good idea to print or draw the charts and tick off the squares with a pencil as you go. Not only does this ensure you don't forget any changes, it also gives a satisfying sensation.

You can create tables for any key, or for any kind of chords you are working on. For example, you can play through the table above with open chords, with bar chords, or work on extensions like seventh chords and so on.

Chord tables are an easy system to make more effective use of your practice time. They ensure you practice all of the chord changes you need to master. Mastery of chord changes will enable to learn and play any song more easily.

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Beginner Guide to Guitar Jam Tracks

If you are a beginner guitar player you might not know what jam tracks are, nor why they are so useful. This post aims to correct that by giving you the lowdown on what they are, how to use them, and gives you a few personal recommendations.

Now, let's get jamming...

What Are Jam Tracks?

A jam track is a song that has been recorded with only a rhythm section. The simplest can consist of only drums and bass, but many include other guitars or piano.

You play a jam track on your CD, portable music player or PC and add your guitar parts over the backing. It's much more fun and creates a better sound than just you and your guitar - assuming you don't play too many false notes, of course :-)

Playing with a jam track has four major benefits:

1. You can hear what the music should sound like.

2. You learn to play in time with the backing band.

3. It's fun and helps your motivation.

4. You learn to listen to the rest of the band as you play.

You can find excellent quality jam track recordings in numerous styles. Not only will they cost you a lot less than hiring a real backing band, they will also play for as long as you like without demanding beer.

How To Use Jam Tracks

Jam tracks are often used to practice solos, after all everyone dreams of being a guitar hero. But there is no reason to limit yourself to solo practice.

You will get most benefit when you use jam tracks as a backing for all kinds of practice. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking.

1. Listen to them to learn and study your chosen style.

2. Practice chord changes. Get used to the chord sounds in context.

3. Play scales to hear how they sound over the backing chords.

4. Play rhythm guitar along with the band. Try out different chord positions to see how they sound.

Jam Track Recommendations

There are many high quality jam tracks available. Here are a few recommendations based on my experience.

Play Guitar With... from Wise Publications. This series of jam tracks covers many popular rock and pop bands from the 60s through to present day.

Jamorama guitar learning system includes 26 high quality jam tracks.

Play blues? Then 50 Blues is just what you need. You get 50 realistic blues backing tracks recorded by professional musicians. In mp3 download format complete with chord grids, scale suggestions and some free blues video lessons.

Rhythm Licks is a useful collection of rock, pop and blues rhythm licks in tab notation. Each lick is accompanied by a jam track you can practice with.

The list is by no means exhaustive, just some stuff I'm familiar with, so don't be afraid to try out some others too.

Now you know that jam tracks are an excellent tool to learn guitar. Don't try to learn without them. Good jam tracks are inexpensive and you can use them for years. So what are you waiting for? Get jamming today...

Recommended: Learn to play guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. Try it today with Jamorama complete guitar learning system.

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Do You Support Live Music?

A recent post on Jemsite offers Two Tenets for guitarists to live by. One of these suggests you never turn down an opportunity hear live music:

"Not only does this get you out of the house (always a good thing), but seeing people who have managed to put together an act, whether as a solo singer/songwriter or as a band, can you inspire you to play.

You also get the chance to talk with other musicians and to network so that when you are ready to go out and perform yourself, you’ll hopefully have made some contacts already. And if you make some good friends, then they will come and support you since you’ve taken the step to support them."

That is one idea I thoroughly agree with. Enjoying live music is one of the best ways to spend time not playing guitar.

A lot of people nowadays consume music only from the radio or CDs. They are used to hearing only professionals of an extremely high standard. But this disembodied digital signal that comes out of your hi-fi can easily lead us to forget that music is something done by real human beings.

In the days of our grandparents music was a popular entertainment shared by real live people. People livened up their evenings by singing together around an instrument or two or three or dancing together for the sheer joy of it.

This kind of music is all about communicating, sharing and having fun. It can stand a few technical imperfections and its messages are fundamental ones that anybody, from the peasant to the millionaire, can understand.

Most of your great grandparents would never in their lives have heard the high standard of music you are used to listening to every day. But talk to any old timer about their dancing days or bands they saw and you can see they might have had far more pleasure from it.

Making music doesn't have to be the reserve of a highly trained professional elite. Music isn't only a processed, computerised product you hear on the radio or from your CD or mp3 player, 192 kbps perfection with any extraneous noises, glitches or errors cleaned out by computers.

So, get out of the house and away from the TV screen. Support your local music scene, from small cafe gigs to your local concert hall. Look for opportunities to see and hear live music in schools, cultural centres or clubs and associations that are often active in keeping local music alive.

Small gigs like these are great because you are close to the musicians, you see what they play, and you can ask them questions during the pause. You will learn a lot and you can meet people with similar interests to yours.

Take the time to visit small local concerts regularly and you'll get new levels of inspiration. You'll always pick up an idea or two to try and incorporate in your playing too.

But don't limit yourself to only watching. Get out there and play too.

Ask to play with the musicians you meet at the small gigs you visit. Set up a small group with friends to play at parties or gatherings.

You don't have to be a band of stadium rockers to enjoy concerts and give your audience pleasure. Simply get up and do your best, and be a part of the thousands of years old tradition of sharing music with your fellow human beings.

Who knows, maybe one day you will be the inspiration for some small kid who decides to pick up the guitar and play...

With thanks to David Hodge and Jemsite for publishing an inspiring post.






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National Guitar Workshop 2009 Program

Those good guitar folks over at the National Guitar Workshop have published their 2009 course programme. If you're into guitar and live in the US or Canada check out the great workshops on offer.

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Two Chord Guitar Practice Routine

Two chords are all you need for a simple and effective guitar practice routine to improve chord changes, build skills and develop musical knowledge.

Two chords help you create a focused practice session while at the same time giving you the opportunity to work on a variety of skills. You can create a practice workout instantly with almost no thought once you get in the habit of using this simple method.

Let's take a look at all the things you can do with only two chords.

Two Chord Exercises

Simply play the chord changes back and forth to perfect them and develop speed. You can use strums or arpeggio patterns to play the chords using either a pick or your fingers.

Make things more interesting by adding bass runs between the two chords. You can try out chromatic or scale wise bass runs and experiment with different approaches and fingerings.

You can play melodic runs between the chords. These are similar to bass runs but you play notes on the top strings to create the melodic movement. Again you can experiment with different note choices and fingerings.

Fretboard Skills

Work on different chord fingerings up and down the fretboard. Even if you use only two chords you don't have to use the same positions. Build your fretboard knowledge and learn to create more interesting sounds.

Play licks or riffs on and around the two chords while you follow the changes from chord to chord.

Rhythm Training

Use your two chords to work on your rhythm skills. Play a variety of different rhythm patterns using strums, arpeggios or a mixture of the two. By keeping the same chords you can focus on your picking hand and timing.

Two chord grooves are the basis of many songs in styles ranging from soul and R&B through funk to rock. They are also a great way to keep things simple while you practice guitar.

The two-chord practice routine is an effective and easy way to organize your daily guitar sessions. Choose two chords to work on for a whole session, or choose several pairs to practice for five or ten minutes at a time.

The two chord practice routine takes almost no planning and no thinking, leaving you free to focus on practice instead of wondering what to do.

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Elixir String Breaks

Three weeks ago I wrote about changing guitar strings. At that time I changed my acoustic strings for a set of Elixir "long life" strings to test how well these strings lasted compared to the Martin strings I usually use.

Well, the strings had been holding up quite well until yesterday. Yesterday when the G string broke about 3 cm from the bridge as I strummed an Em7 chord in Wonderwall by Oasis.

It was rather a disappointment. I've never had an acoustic guitar string break on me before.

Now it might just be that I got a duff string, but this incident does nothing to inspire my confidence in these strings, certainly not at more than twice the price of normal strings.

Other than the broken string I was fairly happy with the Elixir strings. They had kept more shine and played more smoothly than my usual Martin strings after the same amount of wear.

They retained a new string sound too, after three weeks of use. On some songs they sound a little strange to my ears, a bit too bright and sparkly for my taste. But overall they had performed very well.

I did a bit of investigating to see if breakage is a common problem with these strings. I came across this thread in the Chordie forum.

"Anyways, I've been playing with Elixirs for years. They are the best...and most expensive. But you'll recoup the extra cost by not going through as many strings as they do last a lot longer. I prefer the polywebs as they last longer than the nanowebs and I've heard of and experienced breakage issues with the nanowebs (g strings seem to always break)."

Hmm, sounds uncanny. I don't know if the strings I had were Nanoweb or Polyweb; the box is long gone. I took a look at the Elixir web site to see if the box colour would identify my strings, but both have the same colour box.

The web site explains the difference between the two types of strings, though.

"What's the difference between NANOWEB and POLYWEB coatings?

The difference between our coating 'flavors' is found in the tone and feel of the strings. NANOWEB coated strings sound and feel like uncoated strings – they are bright and lively, and the coating is so micro thin that you can barely tell it’s there.

POLYWEB coated strings have a balanced tone and smooth response – they sound like strings that have been 'played in'. In addition, POLYWEB coated strings feel comfortably smooth and help reduce finger squeak."

I'll be checking the type of the string that broke on my next visit to the music shop. In the meantime I'd love to hear about your experiences with Elixir strings.

Is this kind of breakage a common problem or was I just unlucky? Which string type's sound and feel do you prefer? Share your view in a comment, simply click the "Post a Comment" link below.

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Beginner Guitar Practice Plan

What should you practice as a guitar beginner? Well, in my opinion the easiest way to get started is to learn three chords and then play lots of songs with them. This article shows you how.

Three Chords

To start with you should learn to play three chords. These are all you will need to play literally thousands of pop, rock and folk songs.

The best chords to start with are in the key of D - D, G, A - or the key of G - G, C, D. You will notice that these keys differ by only one chord, so once you've learned one of them it's quite easy to learn the other. You simply have to learn one more chord.

Favourite Songs

Once you are comfortable with the three chords of your chosen key you can start to use them to play songs. You can find songs in a song book or by searching for tab or chord files on the Internet.

As a beginner an excellent place to look for chord and tab files is e-chords.com. This site includes a tool that will change the chords of any song to one of the keys you know already (this is called transposing).

Look up favourite songs you would like to play on e-chords. You might be lucky and find they already use the three or four chords you know.

If this is not the case simply select the key you want in the list of chord letters near the top of the screen. The chords in this new key will then be displayed, and lo and behold you will see that they are the chords you know how to play.

You can also learn to transpose songs yourself. It's really very easy, if you know the first few letters of the alphabet, and can count up to five then you can do it. Read the Beginner Guitarists Guide to Transposing to find out how.

More Chords

Once you are under way learning songs with your three or four basic chords it's time to start learning some more. Spend the first five or ten minutes of your daily practice working on a new chord. You can learn chords online or learn from a guitar chord book.

Practice your new chord on its own first until you can play it reasonably well. Then practice changing to and from the chords you learned previously.

Use the rest of your practice time to practice new songs, and to review those you've learned already until you master them.

Finally, create yourself some opportunities to play the songs you've learned. Have a weekly get together with friends or family and play all the songs you know. It's a good idea to print out a few lyrics sheets so everybody can join in singing with you.

Follow this beginner guitar practice plan and you should be able to build a decent repertoire of guitar songs in a few months. It is hard at first, but stick with it and above all, have fun.





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John Lee Hooker Blues Guitar Lesson

I shared a John Lee Hooker blues guitar lesson with you a couple of weeks ago. Some of you enjoyed that lesson so here's another John Lee Hooker tune, Boom Boom, for you to learn.

This lesson differs from the previous one because you can play it with a pick. John Lee Hooker, like many delta blues players, didn't use a pick but played with his thumb and fingers instead. This song can be played with a pick, though.

Call And Response

Boom Boom is a good example of call and response style playing. The call is the one bar lick that starts the piece. This is answered by a bar of chord playing, the response.

This mix of licks and chords is a great way to play blues on your own. It's a lot of fun too.

Boom Boom uses three chords - E, G, A - in the response bar which creates extra movement. This chord progression is commonly used by John Lee Hooker and I'm sure you've heard it re-used in many well known rock songs.

In the video Siggi plays the chords up the neck a little in power chord formation. If you don't know how to play these kind of chords, you can play open E, G and A chords instead.

Here's the video.



Note: If you're reading this in the email feed you might not see the video. Click the following link to view the John Lee Hooker Blues guitar lesson video.

Boom Boom has a great riff and is one of my favourite John Lee Hooker tunes. It sounds equally good on either electric or, as in this video, acoustic guitar and is lots of fun to play. Thanks to Siggi Mertens for recording this lesson.

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Ready to enjoy another John Lee Hooker lesson?

iPerform3D Virtual Guitar Teacher

iPerform3D is an innovative new online guitar learning system that lets you interact with a 3D guitar instructor. You can slow down the video and audio and move and zoom the camera to view either hand from any distance.

Here's a short overview of this new guitar learning software that's sure to interest guitar players of all levels.

What Is It?

More than a video lesson, iPerform3D uses patented video game technology so you can:

• Rotate and zoom the “virtual” camera angle to view either hand from any distance


• Watch the instructor's technique — even from “behind” and "through" the neck


• Slow the action and the sound while maintaining pitch


• Loop a riff or song section to play along as many times as you want, without rewinding


• Call up video, tab, and backing tracks on demand

Virtual Teachers

The developers, MTW Studios, use the same technology employed in games and movies to capture guitar lessons. Their idea:

"If we could create highly accurate "virtual" teachers that we could move around, slow down, and view from any angle, it would be like walking up to our favorite players and telling them exactly what we wanted to see. Best of all, they would never get tired, and be available to us 24/7."

Lesson Topics

There are lessons for both beginners and intermediate guitarists. Topics covered include rock lead, rock rhythm, funk rock rhythm, blues lead, blues rhythm, blues turnarounds, contemporary acoustic and country finger style.

How Much Does It Cost?

A beginner course teaching 10 rock guitar classics costs $39.95. Subscriptions are available to access the other lessons at $29.95 for one month, $49.95 for 3 months, and $139.95 for one year.

Free Trial

Visit iPerform3D.com to try it free for 5 days.

I'll give iPerform3D a trial in the near future and post a review here on Not Playing Guitar. In the meantime, if you've tried iPerform3D why not share your experience by leaving a comment.

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