HOW TO PLAY GUITAR SONGS

How to play guitar songs or more accurately how to write songs on a guitar. I've been playing guitar for at least 10 years and I can write songs on a guitar using simple open chords, Dylan style. I have a reasonable singing voice so for folky stuff I can get by just strumming. But when I hear someone like Hendrix or even Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, I feel that my strumming techniques are somewhat boring and inadequate. I learnt to play guitar songs with my father as he taught me many Beatles songs, but even he admitted Jimi Hendrix was another level. Because my family had a strong music tradition, I understood how to get an intro, a verse and chorus and write some lyrics. Pretty much becoming a poet or storyteller when it comes to words and lyrics. People relate to love and life songs. My mother spent many long years singing opera, so she explained the importance of the breath and singing from your stomach. I loved her concerts, started to love classical music and eventually fell in love with an extreme passion for guitar music.

My parents helped me realize my dream and paid for my private guitar lessons. After only one month I already felt like a professional. A perfect vibe and environment for a kid to soak up music. My ability to play guitar songs was eclipsed by my guitar heroes. I needed to learn how to treat the guitar like an orchestra and learn guitar fills in between my vocals. Rather than static and somewhat uninteresting chord harmony, I was hearing embellishments in my mind as I was singing. Studying with John Mizarolli made me realize that I needed a strong dose of music theory and arranging knowledge to create a more dynamic performance in my songwriting. All those twiddly guitar fills are based on chords and intervals I found out. Songwriting, composition and arranging on a guitar is like sculpting - the form and shape of a song is necassary as a sort of mould to immerse your emotions into. Harmony is the color pallette or canvas against which your melody shines from. Chord structures are like frozen church structures, mosaics and paintings. Chord theory and chord progressions are derived from different scales or modes.