How To Play Guitar Bass Runs

This lesson on how to play guitar bass runs gives you all the ingredients you need to cook up some delicious sounding bass lines for your rhythm guitar playing.

Bass runs are short sequences of notes picked on the bass strings of your guitar as you move from chord to chord. You can use them to liven up your chord strumming by creating a sense of movement. Bass runs can also replace chords altogether as an alternative accompaniment to create some variety or give more space when playing in a band.

Bass Run 101

To play a guitar bass run you replace part of the bar preceding the chord change with a run of notes played on the bass strings. The bass run can last as many or as few beats as you wish. Short bass runs can be played on only the last beat, or you can replace the whole bar or more with a longer run.

You can play your bass run using any combination of quarter notes, eighth notes or triplets. Experiment and make up different rhythm patterns for the runs you learn, it is an essential ingredient of a good bass run.

Support The Chord Changes

The primary aim of your bass run is to announce the coming chord change and lead smoothly into the new chord. There are several techniques to keep in mind that support this effectively.

1. Aim for the root note of the new chord.
2. The new chord's third announces the new chord clearly.
3. Use ascending or descending movement to the root.

The strongest way to finish your guitar bass runs is on the root note of the new chord. The third of the chord also works well and gives you a good alternative so that your lines don't become predictable and boring.

Ascending or descending runs that lead to one of these two notes naturally and effectively guide the listener's ear to the new chord.

Note Choices

You have plenty of note choices available to create your bass runs. Here are a few options to explore, keep in mind the objective of clearly outlining the chord change.

• Use notes from the major scale of the song's key.
• Use notes from the target chord/scale.
• Use notes from the current chord/scale.
• Use chromatic movement.

Note that often notes from these three scales will be the same, but thinking in terms of a different scale or chord gives you different ways of looking at those notes. You also have a couple of more advanced options you can try.

• Play a part of the song's melody on the bass strings.
• Think of the new chord as a I chord and use notes from the roots of common chord progressions that lead to it, e.g. IV V I, ii V I

Conclusion

Experiment with all these approaches and learn to create the sounds you like. Your ears are the final judge of the sounds you create.

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You might also enjoy...

• 3 Beginner Guitar Bass Runs
• Bass Run Tricks on I-vi-IV-ii Chord Progression
• Beginner Guitar Open Chord Bass Runs

The Dreaded Bar Chord Cramp, Me Too!

Earlier this year Curt of the Rock House Blog talked about Bar Chord Cramp.

"Ahh yes......The dreaded bar chord cramp!!! After all the time I've played guitar I still get the occasional "bar chord cramp" when doing a rhythm that uses all bar chords. I remember in the beginning it seemed like my hand was going to fall off!!!

The good news, the cramp should become less painful and less frequent as your experience progresses and your hands become stronger. Doing consistent exercise routines will help to develop hand strength and coordination and help to ease the pain."

I've been playing guitar for 20 years now and I too still get pain in my hands when I play lots of bar chords. Maybe it's because I play acoustic guitar, bar chords require more effort to play than on an electric guitar.

Hand strength does improve with time as we practice and play more guitar, but after 20 years I have little hope that simply playing for longer will get rid of this problem for me. So, is there a solution to this problem?

I recently purchased Jamie Andreas' book The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar. I'm hoping that the information about how my guitar muscles work and learn will help me to train and develop them better and improve my technique.

My copy of the book arrived from Amazon 10 days ago. I've read through it and picked one of the foundation exercises to get started. I'll be reporting back on my progress from time to time here (if you want to follow along be sure to sign up for free RSS updates).

Anybody else out there have solutions for bar chord cramp? Please let us know by sharing your experience in a comment using the link below.

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Photo by pacomexico

Music Notes Review - Instant Sheet Music Download

When looking for tab for Steve McQueen by Sheryl Crow to play with my band I found three or four different tabs, but none of them agreed and none covered all the guitar parts of the song. I continued searching and happened across a digital download and print version on Music Notes.

Music Notes is a web site that offers sheet music for over 100,000 titles to download and print. They also propose a large number of titles for their free Guitar Guru software that allows you to learn and play the music on an animated fretboard shown on your computer screen.

Site Interface and Software

The site interface is clear and easy to use with a good search feature that makes it easy to find songs. One nice feature is that you get to see the first page of scores so you can see if the arrangement is suited to what you're after (easy chords, detailed tab, standard notation...).

To preview and print music you need plug-in software for your web browser. Music Notes site detected automatically the right software for my computer and browser.

I downloaded the full Music Notes Suite and the install was quick and trouble free. The suite includes the Guitar Guru software.

Purchase

Purchasing music is easy with the familiar shopping cart style and payment via Paypal was smooth, credit cards are also supported.

The purchased music is displayed for printing immediately, or if you wish you can print it later thanks to the download link displayed in the confirmation email. Music Notes allows you several goes to download and print the music, some sites I looked at offer only one chance to download and print your music.

I used a PDF printer driver installed on my PC to print to a PDF file instead of paper. This lets you view the music on-screen without printing if you wish, or you can easily reprint a copy if the original gets worn or lost.

Prices

All titles on Music Notes site seem to be priced at $5.25, with Guitar Guru versions at $2 more (on special offer at $1 more when I made my purchase). You can get volume discounts up to 20% if you buy 6 or more scores at once.

I found other sites - sheetmusicdirect.com and sheetmusicscore.com - offering similar sheet music for between $0.99 and $3.95 depending on the arrangement. But neither of these sites have as large an offer as Music Notes and I didn't find title I was after. For example, Sheet Music Direct has only ten Sheryl Crow titles for download.

Guitar Guru

I found the Guitar Guru version to be excellent value. It includes more than the printed transcription with parts for all three guitars in detail (the printed sheet music has only two guitar parts).

The animated fretboard and tempo control made it easy to learn and perfect any of the parts, and I found it much faster than working with the tab.

Conclusion

Overall my experience with Music Notes was a good one. The site was easy to use and the purchase, download and printing all went smoothly.

I was happy to purchase an official, legal version of the song and I'm sure I'll repeat the experience again for other songs.

I'll probably shop around to compare prices when titles are available elsewhere, popular titles can be found for up to five times less on other sites. But the wide choice and Guitar Guru will ensure that I'll happily return to Music Notes again.

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Guitar Recording Survey - 22 Days To Go

Time for a short interim report on the guitar recording poll. This survey asks readers what they use to record their guitar practice or playing. Below is a snapshot of the votes so far.

Of the 46 votes so far three clear leaders emerge.

• 17 voters (36%) use a computer for recording
• 15 voters (32%) don't record their guitar playing
• 10 voters (21%) record on a mobile phone or iPhone

For the second group can I suggest a review of 8 Reasons to Record Your Guitar Practice? You might be missing out on something that could help you to improve your guitar playing, and there's still time to change your vote...

The third largest group is a bit of a surprise to me, 10 voters use a mobile phone or iPhone to record their music. Maybe the recent plethora of guitar applications for iPhone has something to do with this?

Traditional dictaphones, tape recorders or digital recorders trail far behind with only a vote or two each.

What about you, have you cast your vote? There are still 22 days left to vote...

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5 Easy Acoustic Guitar Songs From The 60s

The 60s is known as the golden age of pop, a time when this music was fresh and new, a time too when some of the best guitar music was made by legendary groups like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This article presents 5 easy acoustic guitar songs from the swinging sixties.

Bob Dylan, Blowin' In The Wind

Another hugely influential artist of the sixties American folk scene, Bob Dylan's discography offers numerous opportunities to find easy acoustic guitar songs to play.

I've chosen Blowin' In The Wind, the first song I ever learned to play on guitar with the three open guitar chords A, D and E. Check out more Bob Dylan titles for easy to play acoustic guitar songs to increase your repertoire.

The Beatles, Love, Love Me Do

The emblematic pop group of the sixties The Beatles stormed the charts world wide with numerous hits. Love Me Do was their first single released on 5 October 1962 and is easy to play with four simple guitar chords. It's also easy to get everyone to sing along to, everybody knows this one.

On the verses the song alternates between G and C chords. For the bridge play D, C, F and G twice.

The Rolling Stones, Can't Get No Satisfaction

The Rolling Stones is another legendary group with its origins in the 1960's. Released in 1965, I Can't Get No Satisfaction became their fourth UK number one and is one of their most familiar hits. The song made the number two spot in Rolling Stone magazines 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

All you need to play this legendary title are the easy open guitar chords A, D and E.

Simon and Garfunkel, Sound Of Silence

Think of the sixties and acoustic guitar and the sounds of the duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel is never far away. These beatnik poets symbolize the spirit of 60s America.

The Sound Of Silence is their best known hit and propelled them to stardom, reaching number one on new year's day 1966. Play it on acoustic guitar with Em, D, C and G chords.

Donovan, Colours

Another acoustic guitar song I learned early on from British folk singer Donovan. This beautiful song sounds really great with a simple finger picking arrangement, but you can simply strum along and it will sound just fine. Uses the open guitar chords D and G for the verse and an additional A7 on the chorus.


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Two-Chord Song Lesson - Hush Little Baby

This easy beginner lesson shows you how to play Hush Little Baby with only two guitar chords. Hush Little Baby is a traditional lullaby in question and answer format. It is thought to have its origins in America because Mockingbirds are found on the American continent but its author and date are not known.

The song has a simple two-chord structure and is easy to learn and play. In this lesson you'll learn the chords and a simple strum pattern to play the song in the key of C major. The lesson ends with tips on making your performance a little more polished once you've mastered the basics.

Chords Used In The Song

This two-chord song in C major uses the I and V chords shown in the diagrams below.

If you find these chords too hard to play you can use simpler versions. For the C chord use your first finger to press only the 1st fret 2nd string. For the G chord use your third finger to press only the 3rd fret 1st string. Strum only the bottom three strings for both chords.

Strum Pattern

This two-chord song sounds nice with a simple down and up strumming pattern. You strum down and up on each beat of the bar counting 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & as you go.

Each chord shown with the words below lasts one bar - four down and up strums. Strum one bar of C at the beginning and then two bars of each chord through to the end of the song where you again play the C for only one bar.

The Song

Here are the words and chords to the song for you to sing and play along with.

C               G
Hush little baby don't you say a word
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a mockingbird
    C             G
And if that mockingbird don't sing
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a diamond ring
    C              G
And if that diamond ring is brass
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a looking glass
    C              G
And if that looking glass is broke
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a billy goat
    C                 G
And if that billy goat won't pull
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a cart and bull
    C                G
And if that cart and bull fall over
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover
    C               G
And if that dog named Rover won't bark
G                     C
Poppa's gonna buy you a horse and cart
    C               G
And if that horse and cart fall down
G                                 C
You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town

Performance Tips

To embellish the song with a little extra polish here are a couple of tips. When you've mastered the basic version why not give them a try.

Arpeggio ending. You can create a nice ending effect by using an arpeggio pattern for the last two chords. When you reach the G chord on "cart fall down" at the line before the last strum it only once and let it ring as you sing.

On the next line pick the strings of the G chord one by one from the top to the bottom as you sing "You'll still be the sweetest". Do the same on the C chord that follows picking down from the fifth to the first string slowly.

G7 chord. You can test your chord skills by replacing the G major chord with a G seventh chord. Seventh chords are often used as V chords in songs and give a jazzy sound. Here's the fingering to use for the G7 chord.

Conclusion

Hush Little Baby is an easy two chord song that makes an ideal challenge for beginner guitar players. Practice the chord changes and the strum pattern and then put the two together to play this popular song.

A Two-Chord Songbook showing how to play this song and other easy two-chord songs is coming soon. Sign-up to the Not Playing Guitar feed by email or your RSS reader to learn more.

Guitar Practice Techniques: Chaining

This post from The Classical Guitar Blog offers a very clear guide on how to break down a musical passage into small pieces so you can work your way through it.

If you've been learning guitar for any amount of time you've surely come across advice to break things down into simple parts to practice difficult passages. If someone hasn't shown you how to do this it's not always easy to understand what it really means in practical terms. That's where this useful practice technique lesson from The Classical Guitar Blog comes in.

Although the exercises examined in this post are classical pieces, it's easy to see how the approach can be applied to any style of music.

If you've been puzzled about just how to go about breaking down pieces of music to practice them then the post Practice Techniques: Chaining is a must read.

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How To Play Beginner Blues Guitar Solos

Here's a new lesson for beginner's looking to start playing blues guitar solos from my Blues Guitar Fun site.

"How do you start to play blues guitar solos? You could spend ages learning and memorising scales, positions, patterns, bends, slides, hammers and so on. But to get you off to a quick and simple start, here's a lesson that shows you a minimal set of notes you can use to start your journey to becoming a blues guitar player."

Read How to Play Beginner Blues Guitar Solos to find out how you can easily learn to create solos of your own.

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Photo by dcaseyphoto

Free Guitar Fretboard Trainer Software

Here's a free software application you can use to improve your guitar fretboard knowledge.
GuitarCourses.ws, a website directory of guitar courses, offers Fretboard Trainer to teach the basics of fretboard navigation and allow you to practice your skills with and without your guitar.

"Fretboard Trainer incorporates lessons and practice drills to teach crucial skills in navigating the fretboard. Lessons include:

* Open strings
* Root-note shapes
* Naming the notes and two techniques for finding notes
* Major scale patterns
* Natural Minor scale patterns

Each lesson is backed-up with a set of practice exercises so guitarists can keep practicing the skills and patterns learned in the lessons. Answers are entered on a virtual fretboard, allowing guitarists to learn and visualize the patterns properly before reinforcing the knowledge on their guitar."

See Fretboard Trainer in action in the video below.



The GuitarCourses.ws Fretboard Trainer works on Windows PCs from Windows XP SP2 upwards, and is available for free download from: http://www.guitarcourses.ws/fretboardtrainer.html.

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6 Ways To Better Guitar Chords

The more you know about guitar chords the better you will be able to play guitar. Chords are the foundation of rhythm guitar playing and must be understood well to play guitar solos too. So time invested developing skills and knowledge with guitar chords is time well spent for any guitar player. But how do you maximize your chord knowledge and skills? Here are six things you can use to make the most of your practice time.

1. Practice chords often

Break up your daily practice time into several short sessions, five or ten minutes is enough. Short sessions make it easy to focus on perfecting correct movements and help to avoid fatigue. The frequent repetition gives your unconscious mind time to absorb and adjust between sessions.

2. Always have a new chord to work on

The more chords you can play the more songs and styles you will master easily. Make growing your chord vocabulary a long term goal and ensure you build your knowledge by working on at least one new chord at all times. Set yourself a guitar chord of the week and over time you will learn a large number of chords.

3. Choose chords relevant to your style of music

There are many different kinds of chords and different ways to play them. To get the most benefit from your practice time focus on mastering chords and fingerings relevant to your musical style. Find out about the kind of chords and fingerings used by your favourite players and make those your priority.

4. Deepen your chord knowledge

Whenever you learn a new chord don't stop at the first fingering you come across. Learn how to play it in other places on the neck and with other voicings or inversions. This will help you create different sounds for the same chord and add more interest to your rhythm playing.

5. Get the most out of chord shapes

Whenever you learn a new chord shape learn how that shape can be used to play other chords. Often times you can modify fingerings slightly to alter the chord, from major to minor for example. Many chord fingerings can have more than one name, it all depends upon point of view. For example, a C major 6 chord contains all the same notes as Am. Look out for relations like this to improve your chord vocabulary and playing options.

6. Develop good chord practice habits

When you learn new chords remember to work slowly and focus on developing accurate technique before trying to speed up. Use a metronome to help you evaluate a comfortable playing speed and gradually increase it to the tempo you need.

Let's review those points to see what we've learned.

1. Practice chords often, frequent repetition reinforces muscle memory
2. Always have a new chord to work on, you'll soon build an impressive chord vocabulary
3. Choose chords relevant to your style of music, to get most gain from your efforts
4. Deepen your chord knowledge, get the most out of each chord
5. Get the most out of chord shapes, you'll find many ways to reuse and recycle them
6. Develop good chord practice habits, remember, accuracy is your best friend

If you're serious about improving your guitar chord skills, put these ideas to work right away. Pick a chord you know already and find at least four different ways to play it around the fretboard.

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Guitar Song - Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

Learn to play the classic song Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone from Bill Withers on acoustic guitar.



You might also like:

• Acoustic Guitar Song Lesson - Brown Eyed Girl
• Acoustic Guitar Song - Wake Me Up When September Ends

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Easy One-Chord Blues Guitar

The Easy One-Chord Blues Guitar lesson shows you how to play cool sounding 12 bar blues guitar with only one easy beginner chord position.

In this lesson for beginner blues guitar players from my Blues Guitar Fun site you really can learn how to make playing the blues easy. Can you really play the 12 bar blues with one simple chord position? Yes, you can, and this lesson shows you how to do it. If you're looking for an easy way to play blues accompaniment in many keys read easy one-chord blues guitar to learn how.

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National Guitar Workshop Prizes and Promotions

Here's a guitar prize draw that you won't want to miss this month...

"National Guitar Workshop and Sweetwater have joined forces to offer a sweepstakes that any guitarist would want to win!  Now you have a chance - actually, SIX chances - to win a seat at one of this summer's workshops!"

First prize is one week's guitar tuition, room and board at the Montana Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival from August 29th to September 5, 2010. Five other prize winners will receive one week's tuition, room and board at a National Guitar Workshop campus.

All you have to do is fill in a form with your name and address and answer the question, "What guitars and styles do you play?" Couldn't be simpler could it? You have until the end of May to enter.

And if you're not planning on taking a guitar holiday this summer, you might still be interested in National Guitar Workshop's spring promotion. Use the coupon code NGWSPRING to get 20% off all publications between now and 1 June 2010.
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What Are The Most Popular Guitar Recording Devices?

Do you record your guitar or band when you practice or play? Recording is an excellent idea that brings you plenty of benefits, and it's never been easier thanks to modern digital recorders.

Here are a few good reasons to record yourself when you practice guitar:

• You can hear what you do right, and get encouragement
• You can hear what you do wrong, to set your practice priorities
• You can keep a record of your progress, to help your long-term motivation

But what is the best way to record yourself as you practice or play? This depends a lot on how and where you practice of course, as well as the type of instrument you use. Nowadays there are a lot of high-quality recorders that are portable and easy to use. I was curious to find out what kind of recording devices are most popular among readers of Not Playing Guitar, so I've created a poll to find out.

You can find the poll widget in the sidebar on the left of the site (you'll have to visit Not Playing Guitar if you're reading this in a feed reader). Please answer the poll to vote for your preferred recording device. You can select multiple answers if you use more than one, or add a comment to this post if you don't see your favorite in the list.

If you feel like it you can leave a comment on this post to give more details of your experience. Why did you choose your recording device? Are you happy with it? Do you experience problems with it? I'd love to hear from you.

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3 Beginner Guitar Bass Runs

Here's a lesson for beginners that will show you how to play three easy guitar bass runs. They are an ideal step up for the beginner guitarist who's already mastered basic strumming patterns. They will give you a new challenge and allow you to create fun and cool sounding accompaniments.

A bass run is created when you use a melodic line played on the lower strings of the guitar to pass from one chord to another. Sometimes, the bass run can even completely replace a chord for a bar or so of music.

The examples in this lesson all use easy open chord progressions that should be familiar to most beginners. Examples are presented in guitar tab so you'll need to be familiar with this notation to follow along. Ready? Then here we go...

Guitar Bass Run Example 1

Here's a bass run with a bluesy feel over an E major to A major chord progression.

The bluesy sound is given by the 3rd to 4th fret run at the end of the E chord. These notes are the minor and major third of the chord, this kind of hopping between a major and a minor sound is characteristic of the blues.

Those two notes also lead by half steps into the root note of the A chord at the start of the next bar. The note is played on the open fifth string, but if you notice that it's the same note as the fifth fret of the sixth string you'll understand why the preceding notes work well.

      E                 A
    
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
 e ||-----0-----0-----|-----------------||
 B ||-----0-----0-----|---2---2---------||
 G ||-----1-----1-----|---2---2---------||
 D ||-----2-----2-----|---2---2---------||
 A ||-------0h2-------|-0---------0-2-3-||
 E ||-0-----------3-4-|-----------------||

Guitar Bass Run Example 2

Here's a bass run using notes from the G major pentatonic scale. We've also added some hammer-ons to add flavour to the sound, pick only the first note of these.

This kind of sound works great with the open G, C and D chords found in songs in the key of G. It is a technique widely used in country influenced rock songs. You can use runs with the notes below over all three chords.

      G                 C
    
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
 e ||-3---3-----------|---------0-0-0---||
 B ||-3---3-----------|---------1-1-1---||
 G ||-0---0-----------|---------0-0-0---||
 D ||-0---0-----0h2---|-----0h2-2-2-2---||
 A ||-2---2-0h2-----2-|-3-------3-3-3---||
 E ||-3---3-----------|-----------------||

Guitar Bass Run Example 3

Another example on E and A chords, this time using a more rock sound inspired by Jimi Hendrix.

Hammer-ons are used again in these bass runs. The open notes should be played quickly, pick the open string just before the beat and hammer immediately onto the second fret on the beat.

      E                        A
    
      1  &  2  &  3  &  4  &   1  &  2  &  3  &  4  &
 e ||-------0----------------|-------0----------------||
 B ||-------0----------------|-------2----------------||
 G ||-------0----------------|-------2----------------||
 D ||-2-----2---0h2---0h2----|-------2---0h2---0h2----||
 A ||-2-----2--------2-----2-|-0-----0--------------2-||
 E ||-0-----0----------------|------------------------||

Conclusion

Guitar bass runs are a great way to develop your rhythm guitar playing to improve on simple strumming. Learn the examples above and then try to make up some more variations of your own by changing notes or timing.

Resources
The Guitar Building Blocks Series - Bass Runs and How to Use Them


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8 Ways to Get Better At Guitar Chords

Playing guitar chords is an important skill for any guitar player. The more chords you know and the more easily and fluently you can play them the better you will be at playing rhythm guitar. This article for guitar players of all levels offers 8 ways to get better at playing guitar chords.

1. Learn to love chords

Chords are the foundation of rhythm guitar playing and the better you know them the more fun you'll have. Learn to love chords and all the interesting musical things you can do with them and you'll get more out of your guitar playing.

2. Become an expert

Your love of chords and what they can do for you should push you to learn as much as you can about them. For example, learn all about chord inversions and extensions, or how to alter chords by moving just one note.

3. Learn how chords are made

Your first step to becoming a chord expert should be to learn how chords are made. You can learn the notes of each chord and their relative scale positions. Your knowledge will help you learn how to find or create fingerings for any chord, play chord extensions and inversions and enrichen your playing.

4. Use practice systems

As you deepen your chord knowledge you'll need systems to help you regularly practice and revise all the chords you've learned. It's easy to forget to practice some things as your chord repertoire grows, develop and use systems so that you practice all the chords you've learned.

5. Record your knowledge

A useful way to track your chord knowlege is to keep your own chord dictionary. Use it to record the chords and shapes you learn to play. Over time you'll learn many and if you don't keep track of them you'll forget them.

6. Practice in all keys

Whenever you learn a new chord progression or a song practice it in as many keys as possible.

7. Integrate each chord you learn with those you know already

Make sure you understand how each new chord you learn relates to the others you already know. What is its place in progressions and songs? What other chords does it work well with?

Remember too to practice the new chord with the chords you know already, learn how to change to and from all of them with the new chord.

8. Integrate new chords into your repertoire

When you learn a new way to play a chord try out the new form in your existing songs and progressions. This will grow your playing options and also allow you to hear how different chord forms sound.

Develop your chord knowledge and playing skills using these eight tips. Keep building your chord skills to become a guitar player capable of playing interesting rhythms and accompaniments and you'll always be in demand.

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Acoustic Funk Guitar Lesson - E7#9 Chord

Here's a lesson showing how to create funky riffs based on an E7#9 chord and E minor pentatonic licks based on a 5th string root.



You might also enjoy...

• Funk R&B Partial Chords Lesson
• Funk Guitar Lessons
• Funk Guitar

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What is a Guitar Loop Pedal and How Do I Use One?

A guitar loop pedal is a fun and versatile tool that allows guitar players to explore new musical dimensions. In this article we'll learn what a loop pedal is and see how it can be used as a guitar practice and performance tool.

What is a Guitar Loop Pedal?

A guitar loop pedal records short passages played on an instrument and plays them back in a repeating loop. Loops can be mixed together to create complex rhythms and harmonies from layers of simpler parts. Usually a loop pedal is used to create a backing that you play along with.

You operate a loop pedal with your feet, leaving both your hands free to play your guitar. Some loop pedals also offer several different inputs so you can also record samples with a microphone or from a CD or mp3 player to mix with your guitar.

Guitar Practice With A Loop Pedal

A loop pedal is a great practice tool for guitarists, here are some of the things you can do with it.

1. Practice Solos - Record yourself short chord progressions and practice solo over them. You can record just a few bars of the backing you're working on and the pedal will repeat it for as long as you want. This makes creating long backing tracks to work with a snip.

2. Practice Rhythms - Backing loops can also be used to work on rhythm guitar playing. A simple chord backing will also help you keep in time and hear how your rhythm licks sound within the context of a chord progression.

Many guitar rhythms are an elaborate mix of parts that subtly play off one another. A loop pedal is a great way to experiment with different mixes of rhythm guitar parts.

3. Compose Music - A loop pedal makes it easy to capture ideas and build your own harmonies or even compose new songs.

4. Work On A Tricky Passage - A loop pedal makes it really easy to work on any passage in a song or a piece of music. You can record any short phrase or passage and practice with it as many times as you need. You can easily break down songs and work step by step on the parts and link them together with ease.

5. Practice Recorder - You can use a loop pedal as a convenient recorder for your practice and playing to see how you're progressing. It can also store music from favourite recordings, jam tracks or drum rhythm patterns for practice backings.

Create Interesting Performances

A guitar loop pedal is not only a practice tool, it can also transform you into a one man band where you play rich multi-instrument songs all by yourself.

Build up song performances with percussive rhythm sounds, bass line and chord backing, then solo or sing over the resulting mix. Search for "loop pedal" on You Tube to find some amazing performances to inspire you.

Conclusion

In summary a guitar loop pedal is a fun and versatile practice and performance tool that allows you to explore new musical dimensions.

Use your pedal to instantly create any backing you like to practice with, as a versatile recording device for practice and composing, or even to give impressive performances as a one man orchestra.

Loop pedal resources

• Guitar Effects Pedals the Practical Handbook
  
• Guitar loop pedals

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Learn to Play Guitar - 3 Easy Guitar Riffs

Guitar riffs have a distinctive sound that has been the signature of thousands of rock, pop, soul and funk songs since the 1950s. Learn how to play some cool guitar riffs in this easy guitar lesson.

We're going to take a look at three classic riffs used by artists such as Chuck Berry, The Beatles and countless others. You'll need to know how to read a little tab to follow and learn the examples.

1. Chuck Berry Style Guitar Riffs

Back in the 1950s Chuck Berry became one of the creators of rock 'n' roll when he coupled the classic blues guitar style with binary four beat rhythms and gave birth to rock and roll.

Berry's signature guitar sound is based upon a riff widely used in the blues. This blues riff is played on only two strings and uses a moving line on the top string to create its familiar sound. Here is an easy to play two bar example based on open chord positions.

    E                 A
    
    1   2   3   4     1   2   3   4  
 e -----------------|-----------------
 B -----------------|-----------------
 G -----------------|-----------------
 D -----------------|-2-2-4-4-2-2-4-4-
 A -2-2-4-4-2-2-4-4-|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
 E -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|-----------------

2. Sus Chord Riffs

Here's an effect based on sus chords that sounds great in rock and pop songs. This kind of sound is used by The Beatles and many other classic rock artists.

Sus is short for suspended, the 3rd of the chord has been replaced by the second or fourth degree causing it to lose its major or minor quality. The resulting chord seems to float undecided, suspended somewhere between major and minor.

Here's a short example using open D and A chord positions.

    D                 A
    
    1  2    3    4    1  2    3    4
 e -2--3-3--2-0--2--|-0--0-0--0-0--0-
 B -3--3-3--3-3--3--|-2--3-0--2-3--2-
 G -2--2-2--2-2--2--|-2--2-2--2-2--2-
 D -0--0-0--0-0--0--|-2--2-2--2-2--2-
 A -----------------|-0--0-0--0-0--0-
 E -----------------|----------------

3. G major pentatonic riffs

Get a neat country or country rock influenced sound with these easy to play riffs from the G major pentatonic scale. You can use these riffs over a progression with G, C and D major chords.

First, let's take a look at the G major pentatonic scale position used to create the riffs. If you're not familiar with this scale practice playing it up and down to get the hang of it.

 e --------------------------0--3-----
 B ---------------------0--3----------
 G ----------------0--2---------------
 D -----------0--2--------------------
 A ------0--2-------------------------
 E -0--3------------------------------

Now you can combine this scale with some easy open G and C chords like in this example.

    1  2   3   4      1  2   3   4 
 e -3---------------|-0---------------
 B -0---------------|-1----------0-3--
 G -0---------------|-0--0-2-0-2------
 D -0------2-0------|-2---------------
 A -2--0-2-----0-2--|-3---------------
 E -3---------------|-----------------

This kind of riff sounds great with some hammer-ons and pull-offs. Once you're comfortable with the chords and scale work some hammer-ons and pull-offs to and from the notes on the second and third frets into your riffs.

Conclusion

These 3 easy guitar riffs create the distinctive sound of numerous rock and pop hits. Learn to play them and you are well on your way to becoming a great rhythm guitar player.

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