Hi there and welcome to Part One of the Beginners Mini-Course on Learning How to Play the Lead Guitar. This mini-course gives you a taste of what's covered in The Jamorama Lead Guitar Learning Kit! In this course you will learn powerful tips and skills to get you playing the lead guitar with the fluency and accuracy of a professional, and by the end of it you will be able to play a full song (House of the rising sun) by yourself.

Ben Edwards - Creator of Jamorama Lead

• Getting into Position. Information that every beginner should know before they start out!
• Using a pick . One of the most important things you must know if you want to progress with your playing.
• Introduction to TAB. The basis a lot of guitar music notation.

Part Two--Fingering and learning 'C Shape' pattern

• How to use your fingers correctly.
• The repeat sign.
• Warm up exercises. One of the most important things you will ever learn about playing the guitar!
• 'C Shape'. How to know which notes to play.

Part Three--The 'tools' of the trade

• Single note lines. This is the first tool to learn.
• 'Hammer ons'. This tool will blow you away.
• House of the Rising Sun. Looking at the first part of the song.

Part Four--Developing your skills

• Learning the 'pull off'. This next tool will have you sounding like the professionals in no time!
• Combining the tools. Things are starting to get tricky.
• House of the Rising Sun. Looking at the second part of the song using all the tools so far.

Part Five--Playing "House of the Rising Sun".

• A quick warm up.
• House of Rising Sun. The final section
• Song sections 1, 2, 3 all together. Let's break it down Jamorama style!
• Playing up the octave. This is something really very cool!

Part Six--Play along with the Full Jamorama Band!

• You can download a full version of the song that you are going to learn by clicking here!

This mini-course will give you some basic guitar skills and get you playing a song, but I can't possibly teach you everything in just six emails.  That's why I've put everything into my course, Jamorama Lead Guitar Learning Kit! It's got so, so much more.  It's packed with cutting edge material to help you fast track your guitar learning.  You'll learn how to play almost any song you hear by ear.  Click on the link below to see exactly how you can learn to play guitar like a professional!

www.jamoramalead.com

Todays lesson is covering the basics. Some of you might find this a bit easy but its all important stuff to know. Now, let's get into todays lesson.

Getting into Position

Sitting Positions

There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual. Even though it's an acoustic pictured below the same principles apply for electric.

1. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg.
2. Position yourself at the edge of your chair.
3. Ensure that your back is relaxed but straight.
4. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly.

Standing Position

1. Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned mid-body.
2. Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar.
3. Rest your right hand over the bridge of the guitar.

Hand Positions

It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury.

Front View	Rear View
Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this: Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts unneccessary strain on your wrist and thumb.

Fretting

When you play the guitar, you use your left hand fingers to press down the strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar.  Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is called fretting. Here are some tips you will need to know:

1. Short fingernails are essential.
2. Use only the tips of your fingers to press the strings.

3. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed within the frets.
We will cover chords in lesson one.
4. Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing.

As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play.  This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks.  With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips).

Holding the Pick

Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below:

Time to take a break.  Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next we're going to have a look at the guitar neck and what the parts are.

Don't forget, for the Jamorama Lead Guitar Learning Kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit Jamoramalead.com

Now you are ready to start your first lesson.   We are going to look at the guitar neck and then how to read guitar TAB.

Remember! It is more beneficial for you to practice several times during a week than to practice for one long session.  This is because your brain processes information in chunks at a time and it can only hold a certain amount in short term storage.

For example, with phone numbers, it is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time. Yet if you give yourself time between practicing, even if it is just 10 minutes, you’ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More information on effective learning is contained in Jamorama at Jamoramalead.com.

Ok. That aside, let’s get started on the lesson.  To start with, I want you to have a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information.

Frets The guitar neck is divided into what we call frets, making a fret board.  Most guitars have around 20 frets.  In these first lessons, we will focus on the first four, also known as the first position.  Notice that we number each fret starting at 1 at the head of the guitar.

Note: Each string on the guitar is numbered. When you hold your guitar as you would when using the casual playing position, the 1st string is at the bottom and the 6th string is at the top.

Notice also the term, ‘Tuning’ at the bottom of the above diagram.  Tuning refers to the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to.  In the above diagram, I have given a very common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E.  The open 6th string is called low E.  The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E.  I will explain notes and octaves to you in a later newsletter, but for now, you only need to know the names of the notes in standard open E tuning.

In the full version of Jamoramalead, both standard musical notation and tablature are used.  But for this six day course we will only use TAB.  The reason for this is that tablature is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading.

TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can't be easily indicated.  This shouldn't pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one.

OK.  To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinniest.  On a TAB diagram, the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top - The thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom.  This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below.

The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:

Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play.  This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written.  Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below.

So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar.  The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar.  Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar called frets.  TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets to press down and play.

For example, look at the tab diagram to the right and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played.  The number refers to the fret that you should press down.  In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn’t press down anything.

So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand.

Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, you can download a video example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself.  The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

Now let's see if we can start pushing down some strings.  Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays.

If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly.  If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below.

Tip: The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

Let's try another one.  Play the following piece of TAB:

This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret.

Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Video Available:

Congratulations on getting through your first lesson. Before you go, I want to mention one last thing.  You have the power to transform your guitar playing, even if you don't think it.  That's because learning guitar is easy when you are in the right frame of mind and have the right materials.  If you transform your attitude towards learning and motivation, you can achieve an amazing level of skill.  Guitar fluency begins with you!

In Part Two we will review the 'C Shape' patterns. The lesson will be no problems because TAB is easy to read and easy to use.

Each lesson will follow on from the last so you’ll need to practice.

Before we finish for today let me ask you a question, where do you see your guitar skills a year from now? Are you going to be the guitarists you really want to be?

I enjoy working with guitar students and seeing them progress from beginners through to intermediate and eventually seasoned, advanced guitarists. That’s why I created the Mini Course and the Jamorama Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit – I LOVE TO SEE PEOPLE LEARN TO PLAY THE GUITAR. Unfortunately not all students accomplish their goals. Many, if not most, give up their dream of becoming a great guitarist. Are YOU going to be one of them?

Are YOU going to become a polished guitarist? Your experience with the Mini Course has shown you that while playing the guitar isn’t easy, YOU CAN MASTER GUITAR SKILLS WITH PRACTICE and good lessons.

I want to see you reach your goal of becoming a great guitarist. The question is how you can become a great guitarist in the shortest time possible. There are a LOT of learn guitar courses on the net. They all make claims about learning guitar in three days or a weekend, and promise to teach you to be a great guitarist, but YOU KNOW that these claims aren’t true. You already spent some time today on my Mini Course and you made great progress, but ask yourself, “Am I the ALL THE GUITARIST I want to be?”

The key to success is GOOD GUITAR LESSONS and commitment. You have seen and experienced the Jamorama guitar learning method first hand, and YOU KNOW THAT IT WORKS. Think of Jamorama as an insurance policy to MAKE SURE YOU BECOME A GREAT GUITARIST.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from students about how disappointed they were with other guitar courses. Some start Jamorama and become good guitar players, but many more just plain give up, and I am sad to see these people give up their dream of being a great guitarist.

GO GET YOUR COPY OF JAMORAMA – THE ULTIMATE GUITAR LEARNING KIT. Get Jamorama here: http://www.jamoramalead.com

Until next time!

Ben Edwards

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben Edwards is 25 years old and he has been playing the guitar for over 12 years. He has a passion for all things related to the guitar; playing, performing and teaching.

Ben has been involved in the music industry for 6 years. He has recorded in some of the worlds best recording studios as a session musician, writing and co-producing two full length studio albums. Ben has also toured internationally and shared the stage with many international acts.

Ben’s teaching career began doing private tutoring. In 2002 he completed a teaching degree from the University of Canterbury. After graduating Ben began work on what would become the well known and popular Jamorama online guitar course.

Ben continues to play the guitar and recently recorded another music video. However his main focus is teaching; this includes private tutoring and continuing to develop Jamorama. You can learn more about Jamorama lead guitar – the ultimate lead guitar learning kit! by CLICKING HERE.