Ever since its launch, the game has received critical acclaim for its guitar peripheral and remarkable soundtrack, and also sold a whopping 1.5 million copies. The game works by letting players feel like they’re really playing the guitar only they’re not strumming on guitar strings. The guitar controller uses fret buttons which are in five diffferent colors and a strum bar that replaces the actual strumming. If you’re thinking that the concept of the game is an American original, it’s not. It was actually inspired by Konami’s GuitarFreaks game that wasn’t really able to penetrate the American market. Konami’s game also already used guitar-shaped controllers only they were not at par with the guitar controllers available in a Guitar Hero game.

In the game, players can literally rock on to 47 different rock songs that also have accompaning music videos. Players don’t need to worry about changing their guitars when the song requires a rhythm guitar, for example, as the peripheral is an all-around guitar that can play anything. In a nutshell, the notes will appear on-screen and players have to match it with the corresponding colored fret buttons while pressing on the strum bar in time with the music to be able to win poitns. What’s amazing about this game is that it doesn’t just use basic guitar strumming but also tries to imitate mad guitar skills such a fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and even utilizing a whammy bar to change the pitch.

With a concept like this, people’s interest reached an all-time high and paved the way for expansions and succeeding series. The companies that brought the game to popularity was acquired by big-time corporations and moved further into developing games that are in the same arena as their hit, Guitar Hero. At the moment, the game has seven major releases, four expansions on gaming consoles, and even spinoffs for mobile phones, Nintendo DS, and even Windows and Macintosh systems.

The cultural phenomenon that this game has created is truly undeniable. The first game of the series even went on to be considered as one of the most influential games in the early 21st century. In addition to that, Activions claims that this game is only two places behind Mario and Madden NFL in a roundup of the largest game franchises. The game’s second installment was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 while the third installment called Legends of Rock came out in 2007 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows, and Macintosh platforms, the franchise only grew bigger and more popular than it already was.

The release of the first Guitar Hero series in 2005 introduced gamers to a whole new way of gaming. With the game doing away with the standard controllers at the time and emerging with a guitar peripheral, it provided a truly unique gaming experience. As the first of its kind to attain massive worldwide success, one could say that Guitar Hero indeed started the guitar gaming frenzy. However, it’s important to note that Guitar Hero is not the first game of this kind. It was Konami’s GuitarFreaks arcade game that inspired RedOctane to create Guitar Hero. RedOctane took charge of creating the game’s hardware thus there’s no surprise as to how the group came up with such idea.

With the release of Guitar Hero a smashing success, other guitar games soon came out. The Guitar Hero franchise released more game titles under its belt including Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, and a yet-to-be-released sixth game. More games were also released as series expansions including Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s which featured songs mostly from the 1980s. The first guitar game to wholly focus on a legendary band is Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. The band worked closely with the developers and was released in 2007. The game was available in Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. Then another band-centric guitar game was made available, Guitar Hero: Metallica. The game is reminiscent to the concept of World Tour. Guitar Hero Smash Hits, on the other hand, consists of master-recorded songs that are available in full-band unlike its preceding versions. As this Guitar Hero franchise expanded to a full band experience complete with a drumset and more,  the audience grew from mere teenagers to families, owing to the group experience available in other series including Band Hero.

If you’re thinking that most games in this genre have all sprouted from the Guitar Hero franchise, better think again. Other guitar games include Guitar Rising, an educational music video game that uses a real, full-fledged guitar; and Guitar Praise, a Christian rhythm video game that has its own USB guitar controllers. Although these games are not as famous as Guitar Hero, this only proves the demand for a gaming experience that leaves the tired and the usual.

The popularity of Guitar Hero as well as the lesser known games similar to the former could be attested to the possibility that everyone is a frustrated guitar player who’s always wanted to experience what its like to rock out on the guitar to some of the music industry’s most successful rock bands.

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave is a wildman when it comes to guitar playing. He is known for his mad skills, driving fans to complete frenzy when he starts performing unbelievable riffs, disc scratching, and helicopter rudders. Considered as an innovator, Morello is a name that easily commands respect out of sheer talent.

If you haven’t heard of John Mayer, you must have been shipped out to an alien world and brought back to Earth only today. John Mayer earned a reputation not for his ear-bending guitar solos, but rather for his soulful acoustic guitar playing ability. Third on the list of the industry’s great guitar players is Jack White, who is popularly associated with the band the White Stripes. Dubbed by many critics as an underrate guitarist, White is known for his simple blues rhythm style.

Then there is Jimmy Page, the founder of the legendary English rock band, Led Zeppelin. His talents still echo today through his successful merger of acoustic guitars, mandolins, and even banjos to create a sound that is uniquely his and not just the infamous song, Stairway To Heaven. The Blues genre also prides itself with a great guitarist in the name of BB King. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd is also a renowned guitarist that was able to translate his passion and heart into his guitar playing. It’s not easy watching Gilmour play simply because one will inevitably feel every single hair strand on their skin standing at sound of his music.

Jimi Hendrix. His name alone leaves everybody breathless and sad at the same time. His career was cut short by his demise but his incredible guitar playing innovations stood against death and remained to be an inspiration among many guitarists. Whether it’s Voodoo Child or Catles made of Sand you’re listening to, you will be in awe.

Rounding up the industry’s great guitar players is Robert Johnson who not only changed the walls of guitar playing history but also that of society. His amazing talent and passion for his craft was an inspiration during the civil movememnts back in the 1960s. A musician that transcended the boundaries of an industry and society, Johnson can indeed be considered as the world’s greatest guitar player.

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So when did this variation of everybody’s favorite instrument appear? It was around the 1930s that this type of guitar came out, an era where the music was all about big bands. Since big bands are composed of brass sections and are usually very loud, there was a need for guitars that could compete and be heard under all that brass sections and thus became the primary reason as to why the electric guitar was created in the first place.

Now, how does this guitar exactly work? Electromagnetic induction is used to convert the vibrations of the strings into electric signals that is then amplified and again sent to a speaker. Unlike ordinary guitars which do not feature this kind of principle, this guitar shoots of electric signals that can also be altered and distorted that is commonly practiced by many of today’s rock musicians. With the sundry of guitars available today, you might ask who started it all. Paul Barth, George Beauchamp, and Adolph Rickenbacker of the Electro String Company created the first-ever electric guitar which was called Frying Pans. The second guitar of this type during the 1930s also earned a spot in music history and was built by the infamous Gibson guitar company, which they named the ES-150. That guitar is a legend among many guitar players and musicians today.

If you’re thinking that a guitar like this can’t possibly birth more versions, you’re wrong. there are even more types of this guitar. One of which is the solid body type which has no hollow internal cavity, the string-through body type where the strings are laced through the holes found at the bottom of the body, the semi-acoustic type which has better resonance, and others which vary in string numbers and more. It’s also interesting to know musicians such as Jack Miller, Les Paul, George Barnes, Floyd Smith, Arthur Cruddup, and Tampa Red who were some of the first people to use this kind of guitar on record.

This guitar is indeed one of the most exciting instruments out there. With a distortion pedal, one can explore the number of musical possibilities this guitar holds. Looking at the music industry today, it’s so difficult to imagine what it would be like without these long-necked wonders. The electric guitar truly changed the rock and roll genre as you know it today. With this guitar’s ability to deliver a variety of sounds and styles at the liking and choosing of whoever is playing, it’s no surprise that bands almost always have this in their lineup.

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For one, most blues songs use 12 bar Blues, a form of blues that traces back to Africa. The songs really used just one chord but with the influence of western music came inevitable changes in the musical form and thus, the 12 bar Blues was born—the most popular of all blues forms. In this 12 bar Blues, a song is divided into 12 bars or also often called measures. In a nutshell, this form is repeated in every verse until the song finishes. But there are also 8 bar Blues, 16 bar Blues, and 24 bar blues.

The blues guitar is for a seemingly structured type of music that’s all about the standards. So when you are aware of the schemes and standards in rhythm and blues, one can easily get into the music. With this guitar, it is not just about strumming and switching chords when you need to, it is also about finding the right shuffle feeling of the song. They say it sounds a little like your heartbeat. There are also two types of shuffle rhythms that guitarists in this genre should know: the Chicago shuffle and the Texas shuffle. The Chicago shuffle emphasizes the second and fourth beats while Texas shuffle stresses the first and third beats. If you are trying to learn these shuffles, your best bet is to listen to the songs, Key to the Highway or Reconsider Baby.

There are also different styles of Blues that more often than not, are named after the places where they originated. Some examples of these styles are Delta Blues, Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, West Coast Blues, and even British Blues. These blues styles also often have other sub-genres and all these styles have incorporated the place’s local music styles with the blues standards.

Now if you are thinking of taking your guitar playing up a notch by inserting guitar solos, you’ll be needing blues-specific guitar skills and techniques such as string bending, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and vibrato.  Just like other guitars, the blues guitar require specific techniques that are tailored only for this genre. When playing this guitar, the number one thing that guitarists are usually told is to forget the classical way of playing the guitar. With technique and dedication up your sleeve, you are bound to be playing the blues like an expert.

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What’s nice about this instrument is in the range it offers musicians, artists, and ordinary individuals. You can see this type of guitar in rock bands, country artists, soloists, and more. This instrument offers everybody a clean slate where it’s pretty much up to whoever is strumming to determine the kind of music that they want.

The acoustic guitar basically has three parts, which are the body, the neck, and the head. The body features a narrow curve or more commonly known as “waist” which serves the purpose of making it more comfortable and easy for the player to rest the guitar on his/her knee. Other important parts of the guitar’s body are the soundboard which is the thin wooden piece found on the front of the guitar, and the sound hole which is the large hole right beside the soundboard. Then there are the bridge and the saddle which are the means for the vibrations coming from the strings to travel from the bridge to the soundboard thus producing a sound that is loud enough to be heard.

This guitar’s neck is connected with the body via the upper bout. The neck is made up of the fingerboard and frets. The fingerboard is basically the face of the neck where one’s fingers land whenever they change chords. The frets,on the other hand, are the metal pieces placed on the fingerboard. If you’re wondering how the tone produced by a guitar changes, it’s because of the strings and the frets. Meanwhile, connecting the neck and the head is the nut. The strings go through the nut where it is then attached to tuning heads—knobs that gets tightened or otherwise to tune the guitar.

Obviously, the acoustic guitar is way simpler than its more modern counterpart, the electric guitar. But this type of guitar can still be amplified, similar to the concept of the electric guitar. But of course, it’s way simpler and basic for it only uses pickups or microphones for amplification. One of the most common pickups used are the piezo and magnetic ones. The former is placed below the bridge saddle and then plugged into an amplifier while the latter is attached in the sound hole of the guitar.

Guitars are indeed one of the most versatile instruments there is today. There are still different types of guitars that are all built and designed differently despite having one common function in essence.

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People usually get intimidated when they see others who can easily play the guitar. They think that learning how to play is so tough that they don’t even have the motivation to hold the instrument. Once and for all, it is important to know that everybody can learn how to play. Just like everything else in the world, it is all in the mind. If you want to truly learn how to play, you have to have the right mindset—that there’s still time to learn no matter how old you think you already are.

Learning how to play the guitar can be done on your own. With the numerous resources available online, you could easily teach yourself basics of playing and progress from there by constant practice. Although it is especially important that you train yourself to play the chords without checking if your fingers land on the right string or position. This will be a little difficult at first, but it’s imperative that you learn this as early as you can.

One of the tricks that you also have to remember so one could easily learn how to play is by finding a friend or a relative who already knows how to play and ask them to teach you how to play. Of course, that does not imply that you won’t strive to learn on your own. When you’ve gotten the basic chords on your own, you can seek a mentor’s advice to teach you more advance playing secrets and tips.

Playing this instrument well has a lot to do with perseverance as well. Great players of this instrument endured hours, days, weeks, months, and years of constant practice. One has to remember that you can’t be great at playing overnight. Just like any other field there is, it takes practice to sharpen your newbie skills. During your practice sessions, you can listen to your favorite music and then imitate the music on your own. If you still can’t get the hang of it without a guide, tabs are readily available on the Internet for your reference.

There you have it, folks. If you follow the things written above and maybe even do more than these, you’re bound to fulfill your long-overdue dream to play the guitar and maybe even a strumming musician.

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In carrying out your electric guitar lessons, the first step you need to take is purchase a decent electric guitar to practice with.  It should not be a very expensive but a quality one to make sure that you will appreciate the correct notes, licks, etc.  Moreover, you should listen well to music and learn and memorize the songs you prefer to start learning with or practice with.  Learn as many as you can possibly get your hands on.  Doing this gives your guitar learning a bigger impact.  Since it is electric guitar that you want to play, it is best that you learn music played or can be played on electric guitar.

One of the best things to do to make sure you learn everything and learn them by heart is through constant practice.  This applies not only to guitar lessons but many other aspects in one’s life.  While it is quicker to learn online since it is you who will dictate your pace, there are nevertheless no shortcuts when it is expertise on the subject that you want to achieve.  You have to practice continuously all that you learned and start making your own modifications and style applied to the regular lessons you have.  Learning the electric guitar involves several stages and your constant practice will be your best means of advancing to the next stage faster.

To those who wanted to learn to play the electric guitar for purposes of looking good, then it is best that you know beforehand that the whole process involves the need to learn theory. This simply means that it is not all plucking of the strings and looking wild and cool.  You have to understand what notes, chords, scales, arpeggios, etc. are and apply them to your music.  If you are not willing to go through this, then guitar playing may not be for you.

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Another ideal thing about having a blues guitar lesson is that it has a variable influence on the modern music’s structure that you normally hear there days. Learning blues guitar is like learning the very foundation of great music and putting all the modes, scales and notes into your own guitar playing.

Today, there are many avenues to get a blues guitar lesson. You can have a personal teacher coming to your house to train you, you can attend guitar classes and the most convenient way to do it, or just about any other endeavor, is to get lessons from the internet.

One of the beauty modern technology and innovation have brought to people is that everything are now served in a silver platter just with a click of a mouse. You need not exert too much effort and time on many factors anymore since you can already get them online. This includes a blues guitar lesson.

It may surprise you to know that there are even free blues guitar tutorials and courses on the net. However, to make sure that you get a complete and quality blues guitar education, it would be wiser to find a guitar course that is cost effective and inexpensive but at the same time will be able to teach you all the things you need to be able to play blues guitar. To know that you are choosing the best offer in guitar lessons online, it would be best to first check out reviews and testimonials of other people who may have already taken the same course. It would also do you well to compare such reviews and choose the one that most independent reviews favor.

Soon enough, you will realize that learning blues guitar and listening to the music produced by it is like getting something putting something to your soul. Indeed, music has that soothing effect making it a true universal language.

Learning the blues, or even listening to them seems to add something to your soul that never seemed to be there before. Or at least something you have never noticed before. Music seems to do this to all people across the globe, and I guess that is why it is called the universal language.

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There is no doubt that doing things without the need to exert too much effort for it is quite ideal.  This is why the internet is taken to be one of the greatest inventions of all time.  This works well with your goal to learn to play the guitar since the internet is now host to DIY guitar lessons that you can download to your computer.  These DIY guitar lessons in the internet can come in many forms such as an e-book, in video, through a comprehensive manual complete with music patents and sheets, etc.  Some even have extras and bonuses that come with the package.

If it is to learn to pay the guitar that you really want, then there is no better way to do it than by downloading a course from the internet.  It is the most convenient and most cost-effective method available.  Just be sure to choose the best value for your money by first comparing the various offers for guitar lessons in the internet as well as their price.   You can do it by checking the reviews about them also online.  Check which courses offered is found to be easiest to understand at the most reasonable rates.

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