Guitar Chords: Key of C

Hey everyone! I hope y’all are having a great day so far. Today I’m going to be talking about another key on the guitar and what chords are played when a song is in this specific key. Let’s get started!

First and foremost, the key of C is a very popular key played by musicians. You can find it in country music, pop, christian, etc. However, although it is a popular key to play, the chords that are found inside this key are a little bit harder to play than those of the key of G.

What are the chords found inside the key of C? Glad you asked!

Inside the key of C, you can often find the C chord, G chord, F chord, and Am chord being played. Quick tip, if you are ever trying to find the chords that are being played in a specific key, remember that there are usually 4 chords total, and one of them will be a minor chord. Anyways, like the key of G, in the key of C you can find the C chord and G chord. However, instead of having an Em chord and D chord, you have the Am chord and G chord.

These are the chords that are NORMALLY played in the key of C. However, there is an exception. You can also find a Dm chord being played in the key of C, just like you can find an Am also in the key of G.

Hope this clears some things up and helps you guys out! Remember, playing the guitar takes patience, practice, and persistence! You can do it! Do not give up! See y’all later and have a good one!

Why You Should Learn To Play The Guitar Online!

Hey y’all it’s Devyn here with another blog post! In this post I will be talking to you guys about why you should learn the guitar from an online video course rather than learning it from books, physical lessons, or DVDs. Let’s get started!

1.) Versus books…

A lot of people want to learn the guitar through books. My opinion…. that is your WORST mistake. Books have information in them that you need to know, but who is going to teach you that information? Who can relate to your struggles and teach you how you need to be taught? Well, the answer is no one. No one is going to teach you, maybe the book, but no actual person will teach you the information or how to do something. That is why an online guitar course is better. In an online video course you have an actual person trying to relate to your struggles and teach you how to play the guitar!

2.) Versus actual physical tutors…

This is probably your next best option besides an online course. While you have an actual person to teach you what you need to be taught, from my experience, most tutors will empty your savings in a matter of 5-6 lessons. Now, this isn’t every guitar tutor, but from what I have found is that if you are going to a well known guitar instructor, chances are they do not care about your learning as much as you would want them to. An online guitar course does not empty your pockets (unless you pick the wrong one), and its instructor cares about each individuals learning (unless you pick the wrong one). From what I have found, the majority of the good courses online direct their video to be as if it is teaching one person. In another word, they make it personal. Also, some good online courses give members access to contact their instructors about struggles or worries they might have.

3.) Versus DVD’s…

While DVD’s are one of the closest things to an online video course, it still has its own flaws. Yes there is an actual person teaching you, but how in the world could you contact them if necessary? In most cases, you can’t! That is one big downside to learning from DVD’s. Another downside is that most DVD’s, from what I have looked up, appear to be expensive, and if they are not, the quality of the teaching is low.

Overall, every way of teaching the guitar has its own cons. Some cons are bigger than others; however, some cons come with different pros as well. In my opinion, learning the guitar from an online video course is the best way to go. If it is the right course, it should not be overwhelmingly expensive, it will have an instructor teaching you one on one valuable information through video, and have an instructor that takes your learning personal. Hope this clears some confusion, have a great rest of the day!

Guitar For Beginners!

Are you a beginner when it comes to playing the guitar? Are you struggling to learn? Well have no fear because this blog post is here! Anyways, the guitar can be a difficult instrument to learn, especially if you are just starting! In this post I am going to be talking about 2 big struggles beginners have when it comes to learning the guitar.

The first big struggle I see my students having is impatience. If anybody has read some of my other blog posts, you have seen me repeatedly tell beginner guitar players to have patience, yet when it comes down to it, they become impatient. As I said, learning the guitar is hard, and it takes TIME. So calm down, and be patient. If you are persistent you will get it, I promise.

The second big struggle I see beginners having when it comes to learning the guitar is that they complain about their fingers hurting. Yes, the first month of learning the guitar hurts your fingertips, but here is the trick… the more you play, the sooner your fingers will develop calluses. If you play one day, skip two, then come back again and play 30 minutes the next day…. THIS WONT WORK. You have to be consistent with your playing so your fingertips get calluses. Then guess what… your fingertips won’t hurt!

So, in conclusion, learning the guitar when you are a beginner is HARD and DIFFICULT. But, if you stick with it, are patient, and persistent, you will learn it. It is just like a subject in school. Take Algebra for example… the more you do the work and learn the more you will get better at it. Same thing for a beginner when learning the guitar, the more you play, the more you will learn, the more you will get better at it. Keep pushing! Don’t give up!

Hope this helps! Y’all have a great day and take care!

Guitar Chords: Key of G

Hey ya’ll Devyn here. A lot of times I receive questions asking about the key of a song. Oftentimes I have to explain to my students what these keys are and what chords are found in which keys. Therefore, today I am going to elaborate on one of the most common keys, which is the key of G, and explain what guitar chords you can often find that are played in this specific key.

To beginners learning the guitar I would explain it like this… For every song you try to play, it has a certain key that it is played in. Every song has a key, and the key is the specific tone the song is written in. In other words, the key of the song can be low for a man to sing or high for a woman to sing. Think of pitch when you think of key.

One of the most common keys used in music in my opinion is the key of G. In the key of G, you can find both male and female singers singing the song. It is just plain common. Now, the guitar chords you can find in the key of G are also some of the most common chords used in playing the guitar. These include the G, C, D, Em chords. You can also throw in some exceptions but for the most part that is it. Therefore, the next time you see a song written in the key of G, you can expect to find the majority of the chords I named in the song. Hope this helps some, ya’ll have a great day!

How To Change Guitar Strings!

Hey guys, Devyn here. I get this question a lot from beginners, “What should I do when my strings start to sound bad or don’t tune properly?” or “One of my strings broke, now what?” Well, it is quite simple. Change your strings! Here is how I change my guitar strings.

Items you will need: guitar strings, needle nose pliers, tuner, and a tuning spinner.

First, you will need to release the old strings from the tuning pegs. You do this by loosening the strings and taking them off the bridge of the guitar. Once you have released the strings from the tuning pegs, take needle nose pliers to remove the bridge pegs and pull the strings out.

Second, you will need to place the new strings in the correct order in the bridge holes (top to bottom: E, A, D, G, b, e). Once you have placed the strings in the correct hole, place the bridge pegs back into the hole on top of the end of each string.

Third, you will need to place one string at a time through each tuning pegs. Once you have placed a string through the hole on the tuning peg, tighten the string to where in wraps around the excess string that is coming through the hole. Continue this process for each string. This is where the tuning spinner comes in handy!

Last, you will need the tuner to tune your strings correctly. You tune the strings in the same order that you placed them (top to bottom: E, A, D, G, b, e). Hope this helps and thanks for tuning in!

Must Need Guitar Accessories!

Hey y’all it’s Devyn here! I hope everyone has had an amazing Christmas and are playing your new guitars to their fullest potential… Anyways, a common question I receive as a guitar teacher is about what accessories that you NEED. All people are different so my response to that question may be different than other guitar teachers. The three things I believe are must need accessories for the guitar are the capo, a tuner, and a strap!

As a person who plays in a church service every Sunday, I play a lot of different songs! One way to make playing these songs on the guitar easier is to use a capo. A capo ultimately lets you play the chords that are easiest for you by changing what “key” you are playing the song in. If your new at learning what a capo does, I will explain later. Overall, it makes playing easier and changes the pitch of the strings.

Another need for the guitar is a tuner. All guitarists should have a tuner on standby unless there is one built in to their guitar. Tuning your guitar is the most important part of playing… you want your playing to sound good? Well, tune your guitar as often as you can and then you will get the positive feedback you have been looking for!

The last thing you may need is a strap. A strap for the guitar is a necessity for all people who stand and play! If you do not have a strap, you will have to sit down and play, which is not fun in my opinion. Straps can also have accessories built into them such as a pick holder. This provides guitarists with an easy accessible place to store picks while they are playing.

Overall, the capo, a tuner, and a strap are three things you will most likely need when playing the guitar! Thanks for reading and you guys have a great rest of the day!

Easy Christmas Songs To Play On Guitar!

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas from us at Conquering Guitar! I hope everyone is having a great day and is getting to spend time with friends and family… and maybe even getting to play a new guitar! In honor of it being Christmas, I am going to give you a few songs that are pretty easy to play on the guitar.

The first songs is “Jingle Bells”. This is a super easy song to learn because it only consists of 4-5 chords depending on which version you play! Also, get out your singing voices because once you play you can’t help but sing too. The next song is “Santa Clause Is Coming To Town”. Now, this song consists of 5 chords also, but you might find these chords to be a little more troubling. The chord progression to this song can trip you up a bit but there is nothing that practice and persistency can’t fix! The last song I have for you is “Joy To The World”. This songs is SUPER simple to play on the guitar. It only consists of 3 chords and those are the C, G , and D chord. This one shouldn’t give the average joe a problem!

Thanks again for visiting the website! Remember, if you want to learn how to play the guitar FOR FREE, there will be a tab to click on the home page!

What Guitar Strings Are The BEST?

Hey guys, hope everyone is having a great week so far! Today I am going to be talking about what brand guitar strings are the best. Now, when I go shopping or when I buy guitar strings I look for 3 main things. I look for price, durability, and sound! In order for a brand of strings to be the best in my opinion, they have to have all three of those characteristics I just mentioned! I am going to explain this a little more in this post…

PRICE.

In order for me to buy guitar strings, they need to be affordable. I am not going to spend over 25 dollars on just one pack of guitar strings, that is insane! However, there are cheap guitar strings that tend to con people into buying them, but the problem with these strings is that they are not good in quality and usually break within a week of playing.

DURABILITY.

In order for me to buy guitar strings, they also need to be durable. When you play the guitar as much as I do, you need strings that are high quality and will last you a long time. Some strings on the market will last you one week, others that are more durable will last you 1 month. Durability and quality all depends on which brand of guitar strings you buy.

SOUND.

The last thing that guitar strings have to have in order for me to buy them is a good lasting sound. All NEW guitar strings have a good sound, but the more you play them, the more dull that sound gets. Overtime, many brands of guitar strings sound fades. No one wants a guitar strings sound to fade! This is why it is important to find a brand that the strings sound does not fade.

Overall, the best brand of guitar strings I have bought that has all of these characteristics is Elixir guitar strings. I have bought this brand of strings my whole life and they have never let me down. You can order these online or buy them from a local music store. In my area, a new pack of these cost between 15 and 19 dollars. Even though they may be a little expensive, they have a sound that does not fade and they are very durable, lasting me normally between 1 and 2 months!

Here is a link to buy some Elixir strings: https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=elixir+guitar+strings+acoustic&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=229008920316&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1439157590902543131&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9014330&hvtargid=kwd-505684990312&ref=pd_sl_74bk5nsoz3_e_p37

 

 

Practicing Guitar Chords!

Many of my guitar lesson students have asked me the same question over and over on how they can practice on their own… my response was simple! Practice chords, chords, and more chords! I have said this many of times and I will preach it until the day I die… the most important thing about learning the guitar, in my opinion, is learning the chords! You cannot play the guitar without playing a chord (beside tabs)!  Guitar chords are EXTREMELY important when it comes to learning the guitar, and playing these chords over and over is a very beneficial way to practice!

One of the most efficient ways to practice using guitar chords is to pick 4 of them out and conquer them. Now, I would prefer using a chord progression when learning chords. This will make the practice more beneficial in the long run! For example, take the chords that are usually in the chord progression of the key of G. The guitar chords normally played in the key of G are the G chord, C chord, Em chord, and the D chord. I would take these 4 chords and practice them until you know for a fact you have mastered each of them.  Now, once you have mastered them, place them in a specific order (Ex. G, C, Em, D), strum each chord once, and switch chords each time you strum. For example, strum the G chord once, strum the C chord once… etc. Hopefully you get my point!

Overall, this is the best way I know how to practice the basics of the guitar using guitar chords! If you are fully committed and do this process for at least 30 minutes a day, I am very confident that your guitar skills will increase dramatically in one week! I hope this practice tip will help! If you have any more questions about practicing use the “contact” tab on the main page and I would love to answer your questions!

 

Which Guitar Is The Best?

Hey yall, Devyn here. When I first started playing the guitar, I soon became aware of a battle being taken place within the guitar realm… and that is which guitar is the best? Now, each person has his or her opinion on which brand of guitar is the best so that is what I am going to discuss in this post. The question is, in my opinion, which brand of guitar is the best? I believe the brand Taylor makes by far the best quality and best sounding guitar on the market. Now you may disagree, and that is okay, but I am going to share you some reasons why I believe this.

1.) It sounds AMAZING.

I bought my first Taylor guitar around 3 years ago and when I played it for the first time, I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. Now, why did I fall in love with it so fast? The sound. The sound of this guitar was so deep and mellow. The sound of this guitar rang beauty in my ears that couldn’t not buy it! Now some may say that this or that brand sounds better but I am just letting you hear my opinion.

2.) It is durable and is HIGH QUALITY.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I hit my guitar on something and it leaves a mark. When I got my Taylor, I made a huge effort not to hit it on objects, but… like all good things… that came to an end really quick. I slowly became careless with my precious guitar and started hitting it on things. But, when I did, I noticed that every time I hit it… nothing would appear. Now, these incidents weren’t me smashing my guitar on stage, but they were situations where I would bump the guitar pretty good… yet nothing showed. No scratches, No dents. I knew in these moments that it was made with HIGH QUALITY material.

Overall, when I look for a guitar, I’m mainly looking for a high quality dependable guitar that has a beautiful sound to it. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but I believe that the Taylor brand has some of the best guitars on the market today.