There are many Techniques to play the Guitar and in this post we are going to explore 10 best techniques to play the Guitar.
When we started learning playing the guitar so this is the
major challenge to have a correct and consolidated knowledge on different
techniques by which Guitar can be played.
And of course the answer of How to
play the Guitar is to have knowledge of what you are going to learn and what is
the available alternative of that technique along with its Proper and correct
Practice.
Here, I am trying to give you a brief on the different available
best Techniques to Play the Guitar which help you to get the answer on How to
play the Guitar with different techniques.
I am always suggesting starting with the basic and using
step by step approach. At the same time, have an idea at least in brief on the
procedure and the concept of what you are going to learn on Guitar.
Let’s have a look at the Techniques,
1.
Guitar Lead:
Spaces on the Guitar fretboard are called Frets and whenever
you play any string on any fret it gives you a sound which is called as Guitar Note.
When we are playing Guitar Notes one after the other then this technique of playing is
called as Guitar Lead. It could be a continuously flowing Lead.
2.
Chords:
Unlike the Lead where we have to play notes
individually, here in the case of Chord we are playing them together at the
same time. There are three basic types of Chording,
a.
Basic Chording
b.
Barre Chording
c.
Open String Chording
3.
Strumming:
Strumming is also known as Rhythm.
It’s a right hand based technique (For
Right handed guitarist) where you need to play multiple strings at the same
time in addition from the left hand you need still need to play chords. To play
any song with the chord progression generally there are multiple Strumming
patterns available. Time to time we should learn and practice different Strumming pattern
progressively.
4.
Guitar Plucking:
Here we need to use the Plectrum also known
as Guitar Pick. In this technique your right hand need to play or Pluck the strings
individually and your right hand fingers need to play chords.
5.
Finger Picking:
This is almost same as Plucking; the only
difference is that instead of using pick here you need to play with your right
hand finger or nails. In this technique your right hand will play single,
double or triple strings simultaneously however your left hand still either be
playing Notes or Chord.
This technique is very popular in Classical Guitar players. Also, as string picking is done by finger or nails so it produces a soft sound. There are multiple Finger Picking patterns and exercises which we discuss in some other post.
6.
Hammer-On and Pull-Off:
This is to produce a connected and smooth
sound of second note just after the first one. As name suggested at the time of
playing Hammer-on you need to hammer down the note string from your left hand
finger, which will play the sound of that particular note without using your
right hand to play any string. And Pull off is exact opposite of Hammer-ons.
Both Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs are notated
with a slur, the only sound difference between these two is Hammer-Ons slur to a
Higher pitch however Pull-Offs slur to a lower Pitch.
7.
Vibrato:
There are many guitarists who are using
this technique to pick the note. After picking any individual note you need to press
and it more and use your wrist muscles to pivot your hand while fretting a note
and looks like to be squeezing the Guitar neck.
To play Vibrato technique you need to place
your thumb near the back top of freatboard (Near thick string) in the way you
can easily grap the Guitar neck. Then pluck the string and without leaving that
note you need to squeeze the note back and forth.
Basically this motion pulsate the Pitch of
the Note which actually sounds very pleasant.
8.
Bending:
String Bending actually raise or drop the Pitch of
the note you are playing. For proper String Bending you can even use other
fingers as well on the same Note. The change required in the Pitch of the note
is directly proportional to the distance you bend the string.
To play this technique, when you are
plucking any Note then without removing your fretting finger from the Note you
need to drag it up and down vertically.
9.
Percussive Technique:
To play Percussive style along with the
strumming from your right hand you will be playing drum beat (Kick and Snear) on
the Guitar body. There are different areas in the Guitar body where you can
play to get a different sound. Transition to the Percussive method is easy for the one who can strum very well.
10. Finger Tapping:
Finger Tapping is the another Guitar technique
of playing Notes where you need to tap or press the string down to touch the
fretboard to generate the Note sound. This Guitar technique involves both hands to play.
Sometimes you need to tap or hammer-on
any note and slide and then pull-offs. This is one of very interesting technique
which is hard to play on Acoustic Guitar since without plucking the volume of generated Note is actually quite soft and hard to listen and that is the reason
this technique is quite popular in Electric Guitars.
Let’s Conclude:
So these are the 10 best Guitar Techniques
to play the Guitar. Hope you have gone through each one of them and find them
interesting.
Remember, all of these techniques are different from
each other and all of them are interesting and holding importance in a
different way.
Whatever you are learning on Guitar you
need to have patience and practicing the technique everyday to play that
correctly.
Wish you all the best!!!
There is lot more to share, Keep in
touch and stay happy.
Happy Guitar Learning!!!