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Guitar Terminology

Guitar anatomy and understanding the different parts of the Guitar.

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Correct Posture

How to hold the guitar properly to play more efficiently and to avoid injuries.

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Holding the Plectrum (Pick)

Using a guitar pick may be challenging at first. In this lesson, we’ll learn how to hold a guitar pick properly and which one is the best option for beginners. With time handling the pick becomes easy and playing without it will make you uncomfortable, till you learn to play fingerstyle but we shall come to it later.

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guitar

Learn to Play Your First Notes

Guitar is such an instrument that requires right and left hand coordination to play music, which can be very challenging for an absolute beginner. However, we can keep it simple by beginning with some open string exercises so that you focus on the right hand only for now and gradually move towards fretted notes.

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Play Along with Metronome

Without proper rhythm music can sound horrible thus from the beginning we need to work on our rhythm sense. Metronome is a tool that will help you to develop a good rhythm sense. We shall learn to use the metronome.

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Right Hand Picking Exercises

Now to strengthen our right hand before we start using our left hand (fretted notes) we shall learn more open string exercises. These picking or right hand exercises are very useful for developing right hand independence and will teach you to navigate between strings easily so that later you can focus on the left hand while playing a tune or scale etc.

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First Left and Right Hand Exercise

While playing the guitar, your right and your left hand should be in sync thus to achieve it there are a number of exercises that we shall learn along with the basic concept of alternate picking to increase our picking hand efficiency.

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Basic to Advanced Chromatic Exercises

Now the real deal starts here we are going learn how to use left hand fingers separately as well as together to play more freely and efficiently. We are going learn geometrical and symmetrical shapes on the fretboard which we commonly call chromatic exercises to increase stamina endurance and agility.

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guitar

Basic Introduction to Tablature Notation

In order to learn music you need to know its own language. TABs are a type of notation meant to represent notes on the fretboard. It’s very easy to understand for beginners. In this section you’ll be taught to read the TAB (Tablature in short) and how to read the time in the TABs in order to maintain the rhythm.

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Basic Concepts of Musical Rhythms

Rhythm is one of the most important aspect of music. Developing a good rhythm sense is mandatory in order to be able to play music. Although most of us are not born with a good rhythm sense yet there are practices to solve this problem. We shall get started with this here.

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Open Position Notes

Now you are going to learn about the magical letters (ABCDEFG) which are the core of music. We shall learn to find and play them on open strings as well as on the first few frets. This will help you to learn the basic scales, chords and most importantly it will pave the way towards learning different tunes and songs etc. so that you can enjoy this journey.

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You First Song with Guitar

Yea! Now we are talking. Good Job! We are on the way to learn our First few basic songs. Your previous efforts will pay off now. Now with the help of tabs you will able to learn a few songs. It will also help you to read the notes more efficiently.

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Pre Chord Exercises

Most of us get interested in guitar because at some point of time we have seen someone singing and strumming along the guitar. Now we know that in order to accompany we need to play chords and use strumming. But at the beginning playing chords is not easy. To play the chords more easily and effortlessly we are going learn some pre chord exercises in order to build the muscle memory and finger strength to play the chords effortlessly. Thus, as the name suggests these exercises will do the ground work before we dive into learning standard open chords.

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Basic One Octave Scales

A scale is a sequence of notes, made up of intervals. It is the backbone of music. Anything you hear in the human world originates from one scale or the other. Here you are going to learn some basic to intermediate scale shapes and fingerings. Also we are going to cover some basic scales theories as well as Chromatic and Diatonic scales. Anatomy of Scales etc.

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Learning More and More Tunes

Learning more tunes at ascending order of difficulty level will make you improve gradually. Please note music takes time to learn so there is no magic formula to improve at a great speed. At this juncture we also start working towards Grades like Initial to Grade 2 Pieces from Trinity College London.

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Introduction to the Chords

A chord is a collection of notes played together at the same time. Learning chords will help you to understand basic of Western Harmony.

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Open Chords

We are going cover all the standard chords available in the open position guitar.

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Introduction to the Guitar Strumming Patterns

To exploit the chords fully on guitar you must learn how to play basic rhythmic structures on the guitar. Here we shall cover all the basic strumming patterns for accompaniment. You will also be taught the basics arrangement of beats so that you can create your own strumming patterns and also decode one by listening to a song if the pattern is somewhat basic.

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guitar

Advanced Strumming Patterns

You are going learn eight beat strumming patterns and odd beat strumming patterns with beat skips or misses whatever you may call. This will open up the possibilities of a huge number of permutation and combination of creating innumerable strumming patterns.

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Learning to Play Songs with Chords and Strumming

Now this another milestone for a beginner. It’s worth the wait, your patience will pay off now as we start learning songs with chords and strumming patterns. Although it is a bit challenging at the beginning but its rewarding. Without Challenges life is so boring. Isn’t it?

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Learning How Sing Songs while Strumming

Initially Singing along with guitar accompaniment can be a little overwhelming to a beginner. But there are tips and tricks and practices to solve this problem. We are going to learn these step by step and in no time you’ll be able to sing and strum along. Don’t rush, be patient, we are almost there.

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Advanced Finger Exercises

In this topic you will be taught some of Guitar Hero’s finger exercises along with more complex geometrical patterns. Now you might have a question, why do we need to learn these? The answer to this question is pretty simple, We need to go the next level isn’t it? We have to play some fret burning guitar solos, I mean who wouldn’t want to do that? In fact, these exercises will improve your rhythm chops as well if you only want to stick to playing rhythm.

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Basic Concepts of Guitar Techniques

Music is all about different emotions, Musical notes are not enough to highlight a wide range of emotions. We need have different expressions and guitar is a very expressive instrument. So, how do we get these expressions out of the guitar? To address this, we must take help of different techniques. You will get to know some of the most talked about guitar techniques over here. I.e., Alternate Picking, Hammer On, Pull Offs, Economy Picking, Bends, Vibrato etc. At this level it’s beyond our scope to explore all the above-mentioned techniques.

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Introduction to the Barre Chords

The term “Barre Chord” is interpreted as something very cool and scary at the same time in the beginner guitar community. Maybe you are familiar with this term and have been waiting for this moment to learn Barre Chords. The truth is that it is not scary, all we need is the right tool to learn these chord shapes at ease. In Barre chords you may be already aware that you need to use one finger to fret multiple notes together. The finger may vary depending on chord/shape. There are exercises and techniques to help you build finger strength and stamina to solve this problem. Ample endurance exercise will be taught, so no worries.

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Barre Chord Exclusive Strumming Patterns

You heard in innumerable songs some very cool strumming patterns that are very percussive and funky sounding. This percussive effect comes from muting the strings with the fretting hand. These patterns are very unique to Barre Chords, although it is impossible to apply in open chords yet this is more relevant in terms of application on Barre Chords. So, more fun awaits the brave who is not afraid of the challenges.

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Finger Style Guitar for Beginners

Fingerstyle as the name suggests, the focus is on the picking hand fingers, what it means is that we need to say goodbye to the pick to learn this style which is very popular now in the music Industry, Bollywood, Rock, Pop, Blues, Jazz you name it and everywhere you’ll find a great deal of application of fingerstyle techniques. Meticulously planned right exercises will be taught in this section.

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This pretty much sums up the curriculum for beginners. This is just the tip of the iceberg and its beyond our scope to expand the topics mentioned in details as taught in the class. Please be informed that its an art form and there is no instant gratification involved in this journey. Every small goal you reach will come at a cost of dedicated practice and love for the instrument. It takes years of practice to be able to play this instrument properly. It is not that hard as well, its all about the journey and not the destination. So pick up the instrument and practice 30 mins everyday and enjoy every bit of it and you’ll see in no time you have progressed so far without even realizing. Good Luck and Cheers!

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Finger Gym

Innumerable finger exercises will be covered as we progress. These are the foundation for building good technique, accuracy and stamina.

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Overview of Scales

As you are already aware scales are the building blocks for music. Now we are going to take a deeper look into the scales with the help of the following topics.

  • Formation of a Major Scale: There is a formula for building each scale that is present or used in Music. Similarly, we have a formula for constructing a Major scale. You can use this formula to find the notes of a Major Scale in any of the 12 keys.
  • Scale Shape in different positions: Although there are only seven notes in a major scale, yet there are a huge number of possibilities when it comes to playing a particular scale on a guitar. We are going to take a look at the most logical shapes that are used by the musicians for centuries now. This will help you to get initiated on the path of unlocking the fretboard.
  • Connecting the shapes: Once you have practiced the scales in different positions, then comes the task of connecting these shapes in a logical manner. There a number of ways of doing it and gradually we are going to explore the options. It takes time so be patient. It will help you to have the freedom to move freely on the fretboard.
  • Major Scale Sequence Patterns: This is another very interesting and effective method to develop scale vocabulary which will immensely help in ear training and improvisation. There are infinite sequences that can be created using only one major scale, but no need to worry. We are going to learn a bunch of usable patterns to begin with.
  • Three notes per String Patterns: Three notes per string patterns are very useful when it comes to speed picking and legato playing. Let’s focus on these patterns first.
  • Practicing scales with backing tracks: This another great way to practice your scales is using backing tracks. It will test your ability to play along with focus and efficiency but it’s hours of fun.
  • Formation of a Minor scale: Like Major scale, a minor scale also has a formula. Let’s learn it.
  • Relationship between Major and Minor scales: Learning the relationship between a Major and Minor scale will help you connect the dots better. Every Major scale has a relative minor. Let’s find out.
  • Pentatonic Scale: We are going to learn both Major and Minor pentatonic scales. To begin with we start with Minor Pentatonic scale.
  • Minor Pentatonic Scale shapes: Unlike Major and Minor scales, Pentatonic scales are pretty easy to visualize. There are 5 two note per string shapes to begin with.
  • Connecting the Pentatonic scale shapes: In this section we are going to learn quite a few numbers of patterns for connecting the pentatonic scale shapes.
  • Pentatonic Sequences: There are a bunch of popular pentatonic sequences you should know. These are very musical and great fun to practice. Not to forget these are very usable while improvising.
  • Basic overview of Modes: In this section we are going to cover the basic overview of the modes of a Major scale. Later we shall delve into deeper study of modes in the Advanced curriculum.
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Chop building exercises

Chop building exercises are very effective in order to have more command over your scale playing, improvisation and soloing. There are a huge number of exercises to facilitate in this process. Don’t forget it’s a journey so gradually we shall connect the dots. There are many aspects that are as follows.

  • Alternate Picking
  • Economy Picking
  • Basic Sweep Picking
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Scale Chord Relationship and Fretboard visualization

Under this topic another world will open up for an intermediate player. Here not only there is physical work, but a lot of mental work and logical reasoning to be explored in order to understand and apply the following concepts in your playing. The topics are as follows.

  • Harmonized Major Scale: Harmonized major scale formula will teach you the number, order and type of chords hidden inside a major scale. Gradually we get to the usefulness of this and how you can decode most of the popular songs in a simple key.
  • Chord formation Theory: Chords are not a random occurrence. We are going to learn how chords are formed.
  • CAGED system: The CAGED system is an amazing tool to unlock the fret board. It is equally useful for both chord vocab and soloing.
  • Extended Chord formation: As we learnt before, the formula of major and minor chords, extended chords formula is a little addition to the same formula.
  • Some basic extended chord shapes: Now it’s time to learn some extended chords. At this moment some basic shapes will suffice the need.
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Arpeggios

Arpeggios are a great tool when it comes to both accompanying and soloing. Let’s explore some possibilities.

  • Arpeggio shapes using CAGED system
  • Basic Arpeggios with sweep picking
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Introduction to Riffs

Playing riffs is always a great way to play electric or acoustic guitar moving beyond traditional chords. In order to start playing riffs we need to get started with the following topics.

  • Power Chords
  • Power Chord rhythm study with down strokes and accents
  • Palm muting
  • Popular riffs
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Techniques

In order to be more expressive with the notes we need to learn and use some intermediate techniques that are as follows

  • Slide
  • Hammer-on
  • Pull-off
  • Vibrato
  • Legato
  • String Bending
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Introduction to Improvisation

Now it’s time to put together everything we learn about scales and put it all together. We shall learn the topics below to get started in our improvisation journey.

  • How to choose a scale for improvising over a chord progression.
  • Basic ideas for improvisation using major scale Using backing tracks.
  • Using Arpeggios along with scales for improvisation.
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Introduction to the Blues

  • How 12 bar blues chord progressions are formed.
  • Types of Blues chord progressions.
  • Swing rhythm in 12 bar blues.
  • Basic Blues riffs
  • Pentatonic scale shapes.
  • Pentatonic scale sequencing Patterns.
  • How to use pentatonic scale in blues soloing.
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Blues Licks.

  • Basic blues licks in different pentatonic scale positions.
  • Blues scale and application in standard blues licks.
  • Revisiting Bending and vibrato for blues licks.
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Blues soloing

  • Using the licks in 12 bar Blues.
  • Playing over chord changes.
  • Jam sessions.
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Acoustic Fingerstyle.

  • Basic finger picking exercises.
  • Etudes and popular song riffs.
  • Fingerstyle rhythm.
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Finger Gym (Break Your Boundaries)

  • Finger Exercises : Intensive exercises to improve finger strength, dexterity, and independence.
  • Stretching and Coordination Drills : Techniques to increase finger stretch and hand coordination.
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Scales

  • In-Depth Major and Minor Scales : Advanced patterns and positions across the fretboard, including three-octave scales.
  • Pentatonic Scales and Blues Pentatonic:
    • Major and Minor Pentatonic : Detailed study and application.
    • Blues Scales : Incorporating the blues notes and understanding their usage.
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Chord Shapes and Theory

  • CAGED System : Detailed exploration of the CAGED system for major and minor chords.
  • Power Chords and Riffs : Techniques for creating powerful chord progressions and riffs in various genres.
  • Extended Chords (7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths):
    • Theory and Application : Understanding and applying extended chords in different musical contexts..
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Rhythm and Strumming

  • Complex Strumming Patterns : Mastering advanced strumming techniques and syncopated rhythms.
  • Rhythmic Variations : Incorporating different time signatures and polyrhythms.
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Scale and Chord Theory

  • Learning About Intervals : Understanding and applying intervals in scales and chords.
  • Major and Minor Triads and Arpeggios:
    • Construction and Application : Detailed study of triads and their inversions.
    • Arpeggio Patterns : Incorporating arpeggios into improvisation and compositions.
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Improvisation

  • Improvisational Ideas : Expanding creative approaches to soloing.
  • 12-Bar Blues and Minor Blues : Techniques for improvising over standard and minor blues progressions.
  • Using Arpeggios and Chord Tones : Creating solos that outline chord changes.
  • Improvisation Over Outside Chords : Techniques for playing over non-diatonic chords.
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Advanced Scales

  • Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor Scales:
    • Theory and Application : Understanding these scales and their unique sound.
    • Modes of Harmonic and Melodic Minor : Exploring modes derived from these scales.
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Advanced Music Theory

  • Introduction to Modes : Detailed study of the seven modes and their characteristics.
  • Harmonization of Modes : Creating chord progressions within different modes.
  • Modal Improvisation : Techniques for improvising using modes.
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Jazz Guitar

  • Introduction to Jazz ii-V-I Progressions : Understanding and playing the most common jazz progression.
  • Popular Jazz Standards : Learning and analyzing classic jazz tunes.
  • Improvisation Over ii-V-I : Developing solos over jazz progressions.
  • Chord Substitutions :
    • Secondary Dominants : Using dominant chords to create tension.
    • Tritone Substitution : Techniques for substituting dominant chords.
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Diminished and Whole Tone Scales

  • Diminished Scales :
    • Half-Whole and Whole-Half Diminished Scales : Understanding and applying these symmetrical scales.
    • Diminished Triads : Incorporating diminished triads into solos and compositions.
  • Whole Tone Scale :
    • Theory and Application : Using the whole tone scale to create unique sounds.
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By following this structured syllabus, advanced guitar students will develop a comprehensive understanding of complex musical concepts and techniques, enabling them to perform and improvise at a high level.