I’d like to share with you this youtube channel, 2SICH. If you are into acoustic metal covers, you might like this. There are covers of bands such as Gojira, Lamb of God and In Flames, and some black metal too. There are also some covers with electric guitar – lots of Lamb of God.
Author: LGFF Admin 2
Beginners Ukulele Chord Exercises 1-2 of 50
Here we have 2 ukulele chord exercises for beginners. The first exercise has single strums, lasting for 4 beats, and the second exercise has 2 strums per chord, each lasting for 2 beats.
These exercises are designed to be very easy for ukulele beginners. The chords are Cmaj7, Am7 and Am. Watch the video below for help with counting and playing the chords.
Exercises 1 and 2 – 50 Acoustic Guitar Chord Exercises – Beginners & Grade 1-2
Here we have 2 guitar chords exercises for beginners. The chords are Cmaj7, Am7 and Am. The first exercise has single strums, lasting for 4 beats, and the second exercise has 2 strums per chord, each lasting for 2 beats.
Here is a video demonstration:
Beginners Rock Guitar Skills Book
Free 6 page pdf preview
(click the buy now link then the preview button at the top right)
- Guitar tab & sheet music
- Learn the basics of rock guitar
- 40 rock guitar skills exerecises
- Learn with an acoustic or electric guitar
This rock guitar skills book is aimed at ages 7-12, who have learned a little bit about how to read and play guitar already, although teenagers and adults could use this book too as a way into learning rock guitar. Their knowledge needs to be very basic, enough to be able to read basic guitar tabs and to be able to push down on the strings to play notes cleanly. Towards the end of the book, the difficulty level rises and the guitarist will need to be able to play chords and to count and play rhythms with rests.
Other books (before/after/similar)
For complete beginners, I would recommend starting with one or more of these books first: First Guitar Book – Easy Reading
Beginners Guitar Chords Book (Easy Reading)
These books are at a similar level, and could be learned before, after, or instead of this book:
Beginners Classical and Fingerstyle Guitar
50 Acoustic Guitar Chord Exercises Ebook – Basic Beginners & Grade 1-2
For the next level up after this book, you could try:
27 Guitar Chord Exercises Grade 1-2 – Book 2
10 Acoustic Guitar & Ukulele Songs – Volume 1 (Audio & Sheet Music)
6 Rock and Blues Play Along Backing Tracks
People that might find this book useful
- Beginner Guitar students of any age group, particularly from ages 7-12 if the student has already started at a young age.
- Guitar teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students.
- Guitar students that want to learn the basics of rock and metal guitar.
- Parents may be able to teach their children with this book.
- Some guitarists may be able to teach themselves with this book, especially if they have some reading knowledge.
Topics covered in this book:
- How to read the notation
- Warm Up Sheet with scales
- Single String Riffs
- Basic Riffs with Power Chords
- Power Chord Riffs with rhythms and counting
- Riffs with palm muting
- Basic Rock Chords with rhythms
- Riffs and patterns using scales such as the minor pentatonic scale
- Chords with Picking
Final Thoughts
This is my 10th guitar book covering beginner levels and I have used my knowledge and experience of this along with my 12 years experience of teaching, to create a niche book that I think will suit so many young guitarists learning how to play rock guitar, at a basic level. Many of which will be learning on a ¾ size acoustic guitar, and that is perfectly ok. They are very easy to transport into school for youngsters and there is no messing around with amps and leads. Perhaps this book could be used by a teenager or adult too as an open door into the world of rock guitar at a very basic level.
\m/ Enjoy! \m/
Guitar Chords for The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole
I learned this song and recorded the guitar backing for this video recently and I would like to share the guitar chords with you, and also promote the youtube videos that I used to learn the song.
So for this version, I transposed the guitar chords up 4 semitones (up 4 frets) so that it fitted the vocalist’s range.
Below are the untransposed chords for the original version. As they are all barre chords, they were easy to move up 4 frets without a capo. There are no chords shown for the instrumental part, as this is skipped.
Abm7b5 – Gm7b5 (slide) (xx5666 slide to xx4555)
Dbmaj7 Ebm7
Dbmaj7 Ebm7 Fm7
Gbmaj7-Fm7-Ebm7
Dbmaj7 Abm7-Db9
Bbm7 B9
Dbmaj7 B9
Dbmaj7 Gm7-Gb7
Fmaj7 Gbm7-B9sus4
Emaj7
Ebm7-D9
Dbmaj7 Ebm7 Fm7
Gbmaj7-Fm7-Ebm7
Dbmaj7 Abm7-Db9
Bbm7 B9
Dbmaj7 B9
Dbmaj7 Gm7-Gb7
Fm7-E9-Ebm7-Ab13
Dbmaj7
Abm7 Db9 Gbadd9 Gb
Abm7 Db9 Gbadd9 Gb
Gbm7 B9
Emaj7
Bbm7 A7 Ab7
Dbmaj7 Ebm7 Fm7
Gbmaj7-Fm7-Ebm7
Dbmaj7 Abm7-Db9
Bbm7 B9
Dbmaj7 B9
Dbmaj7 Gm7-Gb7
Fm7-E9-Ebm7-Ab13
Dbmaj7 (and/or jingle bells tune…)
E+B Strings:
13 / / 13 / / 13 16
9 11 13
And here are the briliant videos I used to learn the song:
In The Bleak Midwinter – Classical Guitar Tab and Video
Watch a video of me playing the piece In The Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst and download the free PDF of the sheet music.
I actually wasn’t aware this is a Christmas song until a student mentioned their friend was learning it for a school piece. I think I did recognise it when I started to play it, but now I definitely will remember the tune (even if I did play a couple of the melody rhythms wrong, looking back at the music!).
I haven’t been playing classical guitar for very long at all. I picked up this guitar second hand from my local music shop and I really enjoyed playing it in the shop without it really registering with me that it’s a proper classical guitar… it just felt nice and I connected with it so I bought it. So this performance is not going to be a lesson in how to play classical guitar, but I hope it will encourage you to go and learn the tab or sheet music for yourself, because it’s not too hard, even for someone that hasn’t learned much classical guitar.
Easy Reading Silent Night in C for Ukulele
December really crept up on us this year, but I will take comfort that this page will go on to be viewed for years to come when hopefully it’s a lot jollier than here in 2020!
This sheet has been created so that beginner ukulele players can learn to play jingle bells using these easy to read chords. With it being digital, you might want to zoom in on the chords to learn them. If you are printing them off onto A4, the size of the chords won’t quite be as ‘easy reading’ but they still will be easier than some tiny chord boxes you might find on other sheets.
There are lyrics to go along with the chords, which should hopefully help with the first verse. Master that first and then you should find singing with verse 2 and 3 a bit easier.
Free PDF Download
PDF – Silent Night in C – ukulele chords easy reading
If you liked this free sheet, you can find easy reading ebooks like this in my ebook store, such as Beginners Ukulele Chords Book (Easy Reading) and First Ukulele Book – Easy Reading.
A Full Motion PC Monitor Arm can help you to read sheet music on your computer
Today I installed a Full Motion PC Monitor Arm to my desk so that I can rotate my PC screen to read sheet music easily.
As I have been doing more teaching from home, and also have had more time to practice my instruments, I have been getting increasingly frustrated when reading music, because in Landscape mode it involves a lot of scrolling. You have to scroll much more frequenly than if the screen was in portrait mode.
I asked my techy gamer friend which one she has in her setup that I have seen, and she said to get this one, so I did.
Moving the monitor and benefits
I can now move the screen into portrait and load up a guitar book pdf and play away. You can go into full screen mode (Ctrl+L) and then press the down arrow key to move to the next page. Or you can use one of the other viewing methods without full screen mode and that way you can see a bit of the next sheet, and then press the down arrow to scroll or PgDn button to jump lower, or use the mouse.
To move the monitor, you can grab the screen and twist it around to make it portrait or landscape, or anything in between. You can also tilt it forwards and backwards and also move it left to right so that it can face someone to your left or right. This I think will come in very handy, because when I have been doing skype lessons on drums, I have been dragging my monitor around to face the drums, so this will be much easier, as you ust move it and then it stays in that position, so no screwing etc to move it.
How to change from Portrait to Landscape
To change the screen orientation to portrait in windows 10, you can right click on the desktop and click ‘Display Settings’ and change it there. My graphics card doesn’t allow the hotkey to change it annoyingly, but most people can change the screen orientation by clicking Ctrl+Alt+arrow keys.
Other Uses
The arm will help in lots of other ways too, like moving the screen so I can see it from the floor for workouts. I have been using the office to do home workouts from centr.com (unleashed and the da rulk masterclass have been enjoyable) and some others like Shona Virtue’s Fitness Programme after purchasing a cheap 8kg kettle bell from Aldi (was a rare find as weights were scarce).
I’m sure it will come in handy for positioning the monitor for gaming too, with a particular interest in F1 games.
Guitar Drums and Bass performance of ‘Indecisive’ – Rockschool Grade 3 Piece
Many of my students have learned this piece and passed their exams. It’s an enjoyable piece to play with lots of energy and it’s deceptively hard to perform the whole song without mistakes.
The videos were recorded using a phone camera and a Zoom HD1 microphone.
I think these performances would get a fairly good mark out of 20 in an exam. Maybe 19 out of 20 each. I think the guitar performance was probably the strongest out of the 3, as there were small misakes in the others. But overall, I hope this is a good demo of the song and a good chance for students to see how the songs are played by each instrument, and give examples of the type of solos you could play in the song.
Video Lessons for 50 Chords Exercises Book – Guitar and Ukulele
After years of avoiding it, I have started making youtube videos for my lessons. I have focused on providing useful sheets, as I felt there was a gap in the market. Now the lesson sheets side of things is established, I have decided to add the extra layer of tuition with videos. You can either purchase the book or use the video lessons to play along for free.
50 Ukulele Chord Exercises Playlist:
50 Guitar Chord Exercises Playlist:
6 Rock & Blues Play Along Backing Tracks [Premium]
![6 Rock & Blues Play Along Backing Tracks [Premium]](https://learnguitarforfree.com/website/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/COVER.png)
Contents
6 Rock & Blues Play Along Backing Tracks (with full sheet music)
★ Over 30 PDF Files of Sheet Music ★ Over 60 MP3 Tracks ★ 6 Guitar Pro Files ★
Listen to the 6 tracks here:
- Blues in A (Sun Shines Through The Window) – Play Along Track 1
Grade 3 Lead Guitar & Barre Chords
Grade 1 Guitar
Grade 1-2 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-2 Drums
Lyrics for the Verses
- Blues in E with swing – Play Along Track 2
Grade 3 Lead Guitar & Barre Chords
Grade 1-2 Guitar
Grade 1-2 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-2 Drums
- Slow Rock in A Minor – Play Along Track 3
Grade 3-6 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar (Barre Chords)
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 4 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-3 Drums
- Alternative Rock in E Minor – Play Along Track 4
Grade 6 Lead Guitar
Grade 2-3 Guitar
Grade 2-3 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-4 Drums
- Indie Rock in C – Play Along Track 5
Grade 3-5 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar 1
Grade 2 Guitar 2
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 3-5 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-4 Drums
Grade 2 Easy Drums
- Funk Rock in A Minor – Play Along Track 6
Grade 5 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 5 Bass Guitar
Grade 6 Drums
Grade 2-3 Easy Drums
Written and self published in 2020 by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons.
Introduction
When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19, I quickly moved many of my lessons onto Skype/Zoom online lessons. I decided to make some of my own songs for my students to play so that they had backing tracks to play along with when they had learned and practiced the songs. I wanted to make sure they were possible for them to play, whilst also being a challenge to learn them. By the end of June, I had written these 6 songs and they felt like they worked together as a set of pieces to share with the world.
My students are all at different levels. Many of my beginners pupils of primary school age have been having lessons for at least a year or several years, so I wrote the lowest ability parts at Grade 1-2, and sometimes elements of Grade 3. I also have some grade 4-6 pupils on Guitar, Drums and Bass, so I wanted to make parts for them too. With all those parts together, there is something for almost everyone in here – just not for complete beginners because they need to work on the basics before learning these pieces.
People that might find this book useful
- Guitar, Ukulele, Bass and Drum teachers can use these resources in their teaching or for their student’s performances.
- Guitar, Ukulele, Bass and Drum students can teach themselves to play the music if they are able to read the sheet music. The backing tracks can then be used to practice with.
- The Backing Tracks could potentially be used for school performances, such as for GCSE (check with the music teacher at school for song choice suitability.
About the PDF Sheet Music
These are the overall ranges of grades that the instruments cover in this selection of 6 songs. There are separate PDF files for each instrument part.
Grade 3-6 Lead Guitar
Grade 1-2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar Barre Chords
Grade 1-3 Ukulele
Grade 3-5 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-6 Drums
Grade 1-3 Easy Drums
About the MP3 Audio Files and the Guitar Pro Files
There are at least 3 different speeds of backing tracks available for each song. With performances in mind (such as for school GCSE submissions, school performances, or Eisteddfod entries), I have also included mp3s for each song without Lead Guitar, without Drums and without Bass Guitar. There are also one or two extras in there, such as ‘Just the Ukulele Part’ for some songs where I felt they would be especially helpful. If you need backing tracks that aren’t in the download pack, I strongly suggest investing in a copy of Guitar Pro, because you can do so much with these files. You can make the pieces be any speed you want, you can edit the parts, you can change the sounds of the instruments, and you can make your own mp3s and pdf files with it. You can also turn on the metronome and loop sections.
Summary
During the last few months, I have noticed that my students that carried on with online lessons have seemed to progress more than usual. I’m not sure if it’s the extra time at home with less going on, or if it’s these songs with backing tracks. I’d like to think it’s a mixture of all of those things, and probably more. I can say for sure that these pieces have gone down well with all of my students and that the range of techniques and rhythms included in the songs have been beneficial for them. It’s also been a nice outlet for me – it’s been like songwriting again (I’ve had a substantial break from it), and even though I was purposely trying not to write things that were out of reach for my students to learn, I was also enjoying the creative flow, and at times really went for it. I got really into the lead parts and was quite creatively free with those mostly, and on the drum parts I added my own style and flair into them, especially on the last piece with adding in fast double strokes on the hi hats and fills.
I hope you enjoy learning / teaching with these pieces.
Theo Lawrence
www.payhip.com/tlmusiclessonsdrums
Free Video Lessons Coming Soon
Hi Everyone – I’m preparing to post some online drum lesson videos in July. The videos will be pre recorded and posted on Youtube and Facebook.
Please subscribe to my youtube channel and follow me on Facebook and you’ll see the videos when they are available:
D Major Ukulele Warm Up Exercise
Here is a quick 1-2 mins warm up for you to try at the start of your ukulele practice.
You will play a D major scale, then 2 D major arpeggios, then 2 different D chords. Then you will repeat this until you have played it 4 times around.
File Downloads
5 Fast Power Chord Riffs in E minor
Push the speed of your power chords with these 5 riff exercises in E minor. You will be playing in rock, metal, punk and thrash styles.
Starting off slow and building up the speed, you will be using all down picks to play these riffs, reaching speeds of 200bpm. The sheet says to practice from 140bpm, but you can slow it down more if needed. Whilst 200bpm sounds fast, we are only playing 8th notes (quavers), so it’s only really playing 16th notes at 100bpm. The hard part though is that they are all down picks, which make the riffs sound heavier. Keep trying to do this even if it feels too hard. Just start slow and build up to going faster.
Free PDF File
5 Fast Power Chord Riffs in E minor – PDF
Free Guitar Pro File
5 Fast Power Chord Riffs in E minor – Guitar Pro File
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Warm Up Tabs for Guitar, Bass & Ukulele – Scales & Arpeggios
We’re still in lockdown in Wales (UK), and we can only travel 5 miles. I’ve been busy teaching online lessons and also have done a lot of DIY projects around the house. I thought I would have had loads of time to update my blogs but I’ve been too busy! However, my students that have carried on have been burning through their grades and practicing more than ever. Here are a few scales warm ups I’ve been adding to their new practice plans, which I’ve been writing with google docs and sending the parents a link to so they can see updated practice notes whenever I add new things to it.
At the end of the post, there is also a bonus chord exercise challend for you to try.
These scales, arpeggios and chords exercises are good for any beginner or intermediate player that has been learning guitar for a while and has the ability to read tab. You might be used to reading proper sheet music, like on the rest of the website, but the tab is essentially the same. You have 6 lines (4 for ukulele), and the top line is the bottom string on the instrument. So the bottom line on the tab is the thickest string on the guitar. You’ll see tab elsewhere on the internet like on ultimate-guitar.com, so hopefully everyone will be able to read these.
Hopefully you can find these an enjoyable way to warm up whilst stuck at home. Run through all of these as a warm up so you’re not neglecting your scales, and then go and learn something else like you would in a guitar lesson. Perhaps learn a song or maybe some chord progression exercises or learn to play a guitar solo from a song you like.
Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Guitar
4X forwards and backwards for each one
E Blues scale
———————————————–0–3–
—————————————0–3———-
—————————-0–2–3——————
———————0–2—————————-
———-0–1–2————————————
–0–3———————————————–
A minor pentatonic scale
Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger
————————————–5–8——
——————————–5–8————
————————–5–7——————
——————5–7————————–
———-5–7———————————-
–5–8——————————————
G major scale
———————————————————5–7–8–
———————————————5–7–8————-
———————————-4–5–7————————
———————–4–5–7———————————–
————3–5–7———————————————-
-3–5–7———————————————————
A major arpeggio
Fret 4 = 1st finger, Fret 5 = 2nd Finger, Fret 6 = 3rd finger, Fret 7 = 4th finger
————————–5—-
———————-5——–
——————6————
————–7—————-
——4–7———————
–5—————————-
A minor arpeggio
Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger
————————–5—–
———————-5———
——————5————-
————–7—————–
———-7———————
–5–8————————–
Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Bass Guitar
4X forwards and backwards for each one
E Blues scale
——————————————————
———————0–2—————————-
———-0–1–2————————————
–0–3———————————————–
A minor pentatonic scale
Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger
————————————————
——————5–7————————–
———-5–7———————————-
–5–8——————————————
G major scale
———————————-4–5–7—9—11–12—-
———————–4–5–7——————————–
————3–5–7——————————————-
-3–5–7——————————————————
A major arpeggio
Fret 4 = 1st finger, Fret 5 = 2nd Finger, Fret 6 = 3rd finger, Fret 7 = 4th finger
——————————-
————–7—————-
——4–7———————
–5—————————-
A minor arpeggio
Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger
——————————–
————–7—————–
———-7———————
–5–8————————–
Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Ukulele
4X forwards and backwards for each one
C minor pentatonic scale
——————-1–3———-
———–1–3——————
—0–3————————–
———————————
C major scale
———————-0–2–3—-
———–0–1–3—————
—0–2————————–
———————————
D minor scale
——————-3–5———-
———–3–5——————
—2–5————————–
———————————
D major scale
———————-2–4–5—-
———–2–3–5—————
—2–4————————–
———————————
E natural minor scale
—————————5–7——-
—————5–7–8—————-
—4–6–7—————————-
————————————–
Bonus Chord Exericse
How many times can you play these chords in 1 minute?
Set a countdown timer for 1 minute. Strum each chord once and then repeat when you have done all 3 chords. Count how many times you go around them in 1 minute.
Challenge 1: A, D, E.
Challenge 2: E, A7, B7.
Challenge 3: A7, D7, E7.
Challenge 4: Am Dm7 G.
Challenge 5: C F G.
‘Sun Shines Through The Window’ – Blues Play Along Track – Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Drums and Vocals
Listen to the track at 90bpm:
70bpm:
60bpm:
Download the MP3 file – Sun Shines Through The Window (Full Speed)
Download the Guitar Pro 7 file – Sun Shines Through The Window
LEAD GTR – Sun Shines Through The Window – PDF Sheet Music
RHYTHM GUITAR – Sun Shines Through The Window – PDF Sheet Music
UKULELE – Sun Shines Through The Window – PDF Sheet Music
BASS GUITAR – Sun Shines Through The Window – PDF Sheet Music
LYRICS – The sun shines through the window – TXT File
This song has been written as an educational piece for Drums, Guitar, Bass and Ukulele. I made it for my students to learn and I am sharing it online for everyone else too. I created the piece in Guitar Pro 7, which is a great way to learn and practice this because you can mute insruments and change the speed and even change parts if you like.
This blues song is played straight, without swing. There are drum beats and fills in the piece in keeping with the blue style. You could solo the drums and bass on it’s own to practice locking in with the bass – making sure the bass drum syncs up with the bass guitar when ever they are played together.
12 Bar Blues
The pattern of the 12 bar blues usually follows a pattern of chord changes. The pattern of bars where the main chord changes are is this: 4,2,2,1,1,1,1.
The pattern below is clearer. It uses roman numerals to show which chord in the diatonic chord sequence that is being used.:
I / / /
IV / I /
V IV I V
Lyrics
I wrote this song originally for just the instruments, but I thought it would be good to write some lyrics in case there are any singers out there that would like to sing along too. I have a rough idea of how it would go in my head, but I’m no singer, so you’re on your own!
VERSE 1
The sun shines through the window
And I’m stuck inside the house
It’s half past 1 in the afternoon,
And the day is going fast
I’m tryin to make things work
I’m tryin to make things rhyme,
But there’s harder times ahead,
And I’m running out of time.
I can’t see when this will end
All my plans are on their head
But the sun keeps shining through
Takin’ away those blues
VERSE 2
The sun shines through the window
And I’m stuck inside the house
It’s half past 2 in the afternoon,
And the day is going fast
I’m tryin to make things work
I’m tryin to make things rhyme,
But there’s harder times ahead,
And I’m running out of time.
I can’t see when this will end
All my plans are on their head
But the sun keeps shining through
Takin’ away those blues
VERSE 3
The sun shines through the window
And I’m stuck inside the house
It’s half past 3 in the afternoon,
And the day is going fast
I’m going to make things work
I’m going to make things rhyme,
But there’s harder times ahead,
And I’m running out of time.
I can’t see when this will end
All my plans are on their head
But the sun keeps shining through
Takin’ away those blues
About the lyrics
This song and it’s lyrics were written during the Covid-19 corona virus and it’s about having your job taken away and having to rebuild and adapt before you get into financial trouble. Many people will be in this situation with governments being very slow to offer financial support. I hope learning and playing this song can give some enjoyment to people in this strange time of crisis.
Send in videos of you playing this song
I will add your videos to this page if you record yourself playing it. Please get in contact.
Drums
Head over to learndrumsrforfree.com to get the files for the drums.
Premium Download: 6 Rock and Blues Play Along Backing Tracks
This song is featured in the Play Along Backing Tracks series with Blues and Rock pieces. You can purchase the sheet music and backing tracks here:
How peripatetic music teachers can keep working if the schools close
Here in the UK the schools are still open and it’s business as usual but last night I sent out an email asking if parents would be up for skype lessons and the response has be overwhelmingly positive. I’ve made a rule that a parent or guardian must be there for the lessons.
I have been teaching skype lessons successfully for over 3 years, and I currently have a skype Drummer that has just taken her Grade 5 drum exam. All the parents need to do is download the Skype app on their smart phone for free and the calls are free.
If we don’t do the skype lessons, I have to refund the missed lessons on the next invoice, so it’s not worth relaxing at home when I could keep some of the work going for the ones that still want to keep the lessons going.
This gives me hope for when we have snow days, or flooded days, if this works.
It’s starting to be heart warming to see people respond in positive ways, like the italians singing in their balconies, and this morning seeing a singer who’s first european tour has been cancelled, doing a live social media tour, it is just inspiring.
Stay safe and stay positive 🙂
Tiberius Guitar Solo Unofficial Example – Grade 5 Rockschool
This grade 5 guitar solo is a transcript of a constructed solo used by a student for their grade 5 Rockschool exam. You are free to use this as a guide or for ideas for what to do at grade 5, but I recommend changing parts or making up your own too.
In the first 3 bars, we have a quick sextuplet legato pattern. You pick the first note and pull off the second and third notes, and then repeat this pattern throughout.
For the 2/4 bar there is a lead part that mimicks the backing guitar part.
For the next 3 bars, we bend the 3rd string using 2 fingers (second and third) to bend up, and keep the first finger in position on the second string without bending it. Play both strings together like a chord and bend up the 3rd string.
The final bar is a quick rundown using mostly alternate picking in 16th notes. There is a quick hamme on and pull off on the (12h13p12) using your first and second finger and for this you only pick the first note.
End on a slide down to knowhere, which means lift off and mute the slide before you get to fret 1.
Next there’s a pretty fast riff to get stuck into so be prepared to go straight into that.
PDF Download – Tiberius Guitar Solo Unofficial Example – Grade 5 Rockschool
Guitar Pro 7 Download – Tiberius Guitar Solo Unofficial Example – Grade 5 Rockschool
Diatonic Arpeggio Exercise in G Major
This arpeggios exercise has a sequence of 8 arpeggios and has sheets for Guitar, Bass and Ukulele.
The guitar and bass sheets are essentially the same, although the guitar part has picking instructions for downs and ups. For bass, you could probably use the guitar downs and ups. I use my fingers on the bass and I would play these with a walking right left right left of the first two fingers. I think most people start with their left finger (index finger) but I’ve always led with might right finger (middle finger), because following a RLRL pattern is more familiar as I play drums too.
The diatonic sequence is going up the G major scale and making each note into a chord that theoretically fits, and in this case turning them into an arpeggio.
With the repeat at the end, I have suggested to play through the sheet 2 times as a whole exercise. You may like to practice each arpeggio individually at first or if you are making mistakes.
Free File Downloads
2 Octave Major and Minor Scales in G
It’s another rainy day in the UK and for some reason I’ve woken up early and I have some time before work to post this. Blueberry porridge with honey, a cup of tea, rain, politics ruining another Christmas, yet we plod on with uncertainty debating on whether it’s too soon for Chirtmas songs. Neighbours are nailing up decs to their facia boards and wrecking them – it’s all very much go.
This half term I’ve been giving this sheet out to some of my beginners that have been doing easy scales and chords, and I’m aiming to get them into harder scales (some of these are from Grade 3) using one finger per fret (and therefore using all fingers for most scales) and eventually alternate picking (down, up, down, up) when they have got used to the scales. Along side any potential Chistmas songs and other things, I’m setting this as homework 1 or 2 times per week, and we’ll also go through some or all of them in the lessons.
Free Downloads
Here is a free printable PDF download of this scales sheet.
Here is a free Guitar Pro 7 download if you have that program – you can play the scales along at any speed.