Campfire Guitar Lessons: Strumming, Chords, Capos, Songs

In this video you will learn the basic fretting technique that will be the cornerstone for all fretting.

1. Play directly on your fingertips (make sure nails on “fret” hand are always
trimmed.
2. Play right behind the fret (this is for leverage). Remember the see-saw example.
3. Play with ALL your fingers (each finger plays a specific fret)
4. It is best to leave some space between the palm of you hand and the guitar neck,
This will give you much needed leverage to play on your fingertips. Sometimes
dropping the shoulder can be helpful as well.

In this video you will learn dexterity exercise number 1 and its 23 variations. I use these exercises still and they make a great workout for strengthening the hand and commanding your third and fourth finger to join in on the fun!

In this video, you will learn the basic chord technique that will be the cornerstone for all chords that you play. Please do not skip this video even if you are an intermediate or advanced player. Learning this technique will make your chords sound smooth and professional.

This is a special ninja trick that will help with all your chords.

Don't give up! Guitar chords especially, can seem especially daunting. Every great guitar player had issues with playing at first. It's all about practice!

In this video, you will learn the nine essential guitar chords that you cannot live without. Learning these guitar chords will allow you to play in millions of songs!

How to play guitar chords and the nine chords you CAN’T live without

Playing guitar chords can seem like a daunting task for new players, but remember EVERY player goes through this…SO HANG IN THERE! First of all, remember the importance of playing on your fingertips. If you play on the pads of your fingers, you will NOT be able to play chords well! Observe your hand when you are playing. If something does not sound right, it’s PROBABLY NOT! Play with the specified fingers to start off. If you want to change fingerings after you have mastered these chords, then great! But for now, stick to the specified fingering and you will quickly see your discipline pay off. Arpeggiate (pick slowly) through the chord so that you can hear each note as it is being played. You will only cheat yourself by being sloppy, so pay close attention to your fingerings and technique. When transitioning from one chord to the next, be aware of your fingers; which ones need to move where and what fingers stay in place, (i.e. The 3rd finger never moves when going from a D to a G chord, or from a G to a D. For E to A-, all the fingers move together.)

Here are some key things to remember when playing chords on the guitar:

1. Play directly on your fingertips - make sure nails on “fret” hand are always trimmed.
2. Play right behind the fret (this is for leverage).
3. It is best to leave some space between the palm of your hand and the guitar neck. This will give you much-needed leverage to play on your fingertips. Curling the last knuckle on your fingers is also helpful.

This video is one of the most important videos for beginning guitar players or any guitarist that is having an issue switching from one chord to another. This is a technique I call transitions or transitioning. It's a simple technique and method. However, if you don't follow it, it will make playing from one chord to another seem frustrating.

In this lesson, I will show you how to establish great habits when transitioning chords. Here we will learn what fingers should move and which ones should not when moving from one chord to another.

In this video, you will learn the names and durations of the basic note rhythms that we will be using throughout the course.

In this video, you will learn the basics strumming technique. I've also provided several exercises in the attachment. Follow this method and master any strum pattern.

Learn some "tricks of the trade" in regards to guitar picks or plectrums. The gauge or thickness of the pick that you are using might be hindering you. Does your pick want to pull out of your hand? Watch this video and learn why and how to remedy it.

This is a ninja strum technique that I developed for my students that were having an issue with strumming.

Now that you know what you want to do with the guitar and you have your goals defined, how and what should you practice to get you closer to your goals?

In this video, I will introduce you to the "big strum". Basically, this is an exaggerated strum that keeps you true to the downbeats/downstrums and upbeats/upstrums. Use the method whenever you are having strumming issues. These big strums will keep you from strumming incorrectly. Remember to slow the strum down too if you are having issues.

In this lesson, I show you how to use your thumb to clean up your chords by muting the low E and sometimes even the A string. ALSO, we will learn how we might use this similar technique to actually assist in playing chords.

***PLEASE DON'T ATTEMPT ANY OF THIS IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE NINE ESSENTIAL CHORDS FEELING VERY COMFORTABLE UNDER YOUR FINGERS***

This technique is great once you can understand this concept apart from playing chords using our beginner chord technique demonstrated earlier.

Watch this video and learn some things that you may not have known that will increase the life of your guitar.

In this video you will learn about inversions, also known as "slash" chords. The attachment for the video is the "open chords" PDF that you most likely downloaded from before. You will find 6 inversions on the last page.

In this video, I show you the most commonly used guitar chord inversions. The third page of the attached document has the illustrations for these commonly used inversions.

This video is an introduction to understanding shuffle rhythms.

The chord chart is a powerful method of musical notation which takes the basic blueprint of the song and condenses it to one page, illustrating the chords, sections of the song, and other specifics.

Capos are very useful tools for changing keys easily. They can also help to lower the action when practicing chords, specifically bar chords. Even if you have never considered using one, having an understanding of them will help you a LOT should you need to use one.

Not all capos are created equally. Let's take a look at the different types, their pros/cons and see if there is a best one for YOU!

In this video, I show you a couple of the most important techniques for dominating any goal on the guitar. It takes some practice, but once you get it, the sky is the limit!

n this video I show you the two methods that I use for EVERY and ANY new and/or difficult task on the guitar. This is an EXTREMELY important philosophy that you MUST practice in order to NOT be stopped and to continue to get better at guitar. Embrace this one!

Fingerpicking or fingerstyle is the art of playing the guitar strings with your fingers instead of using a guitar pick. This video is an introduction to that technique.