Essential Guitar Skills Level 2 CDROM

Lessons 11 to 20 take your skills to the next level. These skills equate to Music Grade 4.

By the end of level 2 you will be quite an accomplished player and have the skills to be a confident live performer.

Here in more detail are the 10 lessons covered in Level 2. To hear an example of the kind of things you'll be able to play at the end of each lesson click the "Hear how you'll sound!" button.

Lesson 11: Introducing Sixteenth Notes

Introducing rests and how they are used in music to create more varied rhythms on and around the modern drum kit.

Lesson 12: Building our Rock Guitar Library

Here we begin to combine different note values together to create more complex rhythmic patterns.

Lesson 13: Developing Barre Chords

This lesson begins to open up a world of chords for you by introducing the concept of barre chords. This lesson will focus on creating barre chords rooted from the 6th string. By the end of this lesson you will be able to play E, F, Fm, Fm7, F#, F#m, A, Am, Ab, Am7, A7, G, Gm, G7, G#m, Bb, Bm7, B and C.

Lesson 14: Continuing the Study of Barre Chords

Developing the concept of the creation of barre chords this lesson develops your ability to play barre chords rooted from the 5th string.

Lesson 15: Introducing Rests

This lesson starts the study of Sound and Silence, introducing rests, their symbols and the affect they have on the development, construction and playing of rhythm.

Lesson 16: Introducing Dotted Notes and Ties

This is the second lesson in this Level that is devoted to reading and the understanding of rhythm. By the end of this lesson you will be able to read, recognise and play both Dotted notes and Ties, giving you access to sophisticated rhythmic patterns.

Lesson 17: Introducing 1-4-5 Chord Progressions

We are laying the groundwork for guitar solo studies that follow in Level 3. Here you will develop your ability to hear, recognise and play a 1-4-5 chord progression.

Lesson 18: Introduction to Triplets and Triplet Feel (12/8 and Shuffle)

This is the third lesson in this section devoted predominantly to the understanding of rhythm. Triplet based rhythms are commonly used and need to be understood in order for the modern guitarist to be able to play in a variety of rhythmic and musical styles.

Lesson 19: Introducing Lead Guitar Playing

This lesson points the way to your Level 3 studies and introduces the concept of the minor pentatonic scale, so that you have a basis from which to begin playing guitar solos. To accompany scale knowledge, we also introduce a number of lead guitar techniques so that you will be able to play some guitar solo ‘Licks’ by the end of this lesson.

Lesson 20: Performing a Song

As we did in Level 1, you will continue to develop and improve your skills whilst learning how to play with a professional band, whilst reading a guitar chart. This lesson can go towards your Level Two in Essential Guitar Skills with Gigajam Guitar School.