Edward Lodewijkz “Eddie” Van Halen born on January 26, 1955 is an American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Van Halen is widely known for his rapid guitar playing, tapping and high frequency feedback. The All Music Guide has called him “undoubtedly one of the most influential, original and talented rock guitarist of the 20th century”.

Eddie Van Halen underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999 after an existing degenerative condition became unbearable. Since the 2004 tour, Eddie Van Halen has largely disappeared from the public eye with the exception of occasional appearances such as the 14th annual Elton John Academy Awards party and a performance at a Kenney Chesney concert.

During the late 1990s Eddie Van Halen was treated twice for tongue and mouth cancer, holding a metal pick in his mouth 12-14 hours per day while immersed in the electromagnetic radiation of his music studio caused his tongue cancer.

Eddie Van Halen’s approached to the guitar involves several distinctive components. His innovative use of two-handed tapping, natural and artificial harmonics, vibrato and tremolo picking, combined with his rhythmic sensibility and melodic approach have influenced an entire generation of guitarist. The solo in “Eruption” was voted #2 on Guitar World magazine’s reader poll of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.

James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington is an American guitarist, singer and a songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest guitarist in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators in the industry and one of the most important and influential musicians of his era across a range of genres.

Awards:

US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994
Top guitarist on 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003
UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005
First person inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame

Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London under circumstances which have never been fully explained. He had spent the later part of the previous evening at a party and was picked up by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill. According to the estimated time of death, from autopsy data and statements by friends about the evening of September 17, he would have died within a few hours after midnight, though no precise estimate was made at the original inquest.

Hendrix’s body was returned to Seattle and he was interred in Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, Washington.

Exercise #1: How to play guitar for beginners.
Get a professional beginner’s guitar lesson from a professional guitarist in this free instructional video.

This book contains scale charts, some music theory, information about guitar effect setups, plenty of guitar and music related links and much more…

This book will show you how to play Major, Minor, and Seventh guitar chords. Each chord is shown at three different positions on the guitar neck, for a total of 108 chords. A chord explanation chart is provided…

Finaly! There is no more need to sweat over long, dull lessons. All you need is a simple guide to help you learn how to play the guitar like a pro. This guide will answer all your basic questions and get you started…

Playing the guitar is a very nice and easy skill; it requires determination and proper motivation to keep you going from beginning to mastery. The more you practice and the more time you put into it the better you will become. It is expected for the beginners to commit any mistakes in the course of their lessons, but don’t let those mistakes frustrate them; instead take those mistakes as a challenge to do their best in order for them to improve.

Owning A Guitar.

This is the very first thing one should have if you really want to learn how to play guitar. For beginners, the guitar should have soft strings to avoid hurting their fingers. It is not advisable for beginners to buy expensive guitar, check online auctions for second hand guitars.

Tuning Your Guitar.

After getting yourself a good guitar, it’s time to tune it up. It’s very important for a guitar to be properly tuned before playing it. Tuning your guitar is a little tricky for beginners like you. An electronic tuner is advisable to make sure that you get the correct sound every time you tune your guitar.

Guitar Chords.

Learning guitar chords is very important, practicing and learning how to use chords is a must before learning guitar tabs. There are many instructional videos for a beginner who wants to learn how to play guitar. They are readily available on the internet and all you have to do is search for them and then watch the instructors’ hand and finger movements carefully. Take note of how they hold the guitar and how they keep their body and arm postures. Most online tutorial and guitar lesson resources should be able to cover these very well.

After mastering the infamous chord chart by memorizing and learning most of the guitar chords, you are now ready to play songs for beginners on your guitar. So long as you have the proper instructions and resources, you will be able to move from zero to few songs.

In the process of learning how to play your guitar chords, you will want to get started and apply these chords to a musical situation like a favorite song. If you have learned even just one guitar chord, then you are ready to begin learning how to strum on your guitar.

Strumming and Plucking.

It is not advisable to use long finger nails to strum or pluck the guitar this may hurt your fingers. It may help you at all in practicing, and worse, this feeling might even give you an idea to give up.

Guitar strumming:

It’s great to learn how to play guitar chords, however, It’s even more fun once you figure out how to strum your guitar chords. Guitar chord strumming consists of learning rhythm strum patterns that will utilize your right hand while holding your guitar pick. With your guitar pick you strum your hand up and down the guitar strings with the chord that you are playing with.

Strum patterns:

Down strokes and upstrokes are the two basic guitar patters. Start to mix and match your up and down strokes with your guitar chords. This will allow you in the variation of the sound of your guitar chords. As you improve your strum pattern technique, you will discover a whole new world of strumming pattern variations that will add life and creativity to the guitar chords that you are learning.

Once you have begun to learn all of your beginner guitar chords, and basic guitar scales, make sure that you are utilizing the best right hand technique possible in order to play your guitar accurately.

Alternate Picking:

Alternate picking is also a great way to learn how to play your guitar chords correctly. The good news is that you can start applying these simple alternate picking techniques immediately to your guitar playing.

Let’s take a look at how to apply basic alternate picking to your guitar playing.

- Hold your guitar pick correctly. Make sure that to hold your guitar pick correctly, this will be a great opportunity for you to learn how to play with a guitar pick.

- Practice up and down strokes. With your guitar pick you will be picking each note and alternating between down and upstrokes.

- Alternating guitar strokes. Once you have the basic concept of alternating your guitar strokes for each string, you can now alternate your guitar strokes.

- Apply alternate picking to your scales. On the first note that you play your guitar scale with pick down. The next note you will pick up. When you have mastered going up and down on your guitar scales the next thing you want to do is to have your first note be plucked upwards first. The second note will now be a down stroke, and so forth.

- Apply alternate picking to your chords. Alternate picking your guitar chords will do three things. Ensure that you are playing correctly each of the guitar notes on the chord you are playing. Introduce you to guitar chord picking patterns. Introduce you to what is called arpeggio playing. Simple arpeggio playing is playing the guitar chord one note at a time. Arpeggio playing is also great for playing guitar chords with slow songs.