November 27th, 2009 §
Guitars have been used with so much diversity in many musical forms. The instrument is known by many as a classical solo instrument and the basic musical instrument in rock music.
Get acquainted with this magnificent instrument; know its parts:
1. Headstock. This is found at the edge of the guitar’s neck. It is tailored with the instrument’s head for adjusting the pitch.
2. Tuners. The tuners keep the strings of the guitar stretched beginning at the base down to the knobs. Tuners likewise allow the guitar player to alter or modify the pitch either flat or sharp, depending on the player’s choice of music.
3. Nut. This is a tiny strip of hard medium or material which supports the strings at the intersection where the “headstock” meets up with the “fret board”. The strips can be made of plastic, bone, graphite, brass or any hard medium and indented to secure the stings in position. The nut acts as one of several endpoints assisting the tension of the string.
4. Fret board. Also known as the fingerboard, it is a lengthy wood plank inserted with frets of metal that composes the top of the guitar’s neck.
The fret board of a classical guitar is flat and is a little curved diagonally on an electric or acoustic guitar. The curve is calculated by the radius of the fret board that is the range of a “hypothetical circle” and which the surface of the fret board makes up a segment.
The smaller the radius of the fret board, the more that the curve is evident. When a string is pinched against the board, the string’s “vibrating length” is shortened thus creating a higher pitch sound or tone.
5. Frets. These are strips made of metal, particularly nickel alloy set in alongside the fret board that are positioned in conjunction with the string’s length that mathematically divides it.
When the strings are pushed down from the rear of the frets, this cuts the string’s length of vibration to emit different tones or pitches.
6. Neck. The neck is composed of the guitar’s fret board, frets, tuners, truss rod and headstock; all are fastened to a long extension made of wood. Usually, the wood that is used for the fret board will be of a different kind from that used on the remaining neck parts.
The firmness or stiffness of the guitar’s neck in accordance to its body is one determining factor of whether it is of good quality or not.
7. Body. The acoustic guitar’s body is an echoing cavity projecting the vibrations through the guitar’s sound hole which enables the audio of the instrument to be clearly heard even with no amplification.
In acoustic guitars, its body is a big determining factor in the overall sound it produces. The soundboard or guitar top is a delicately engineered and crafted component that is usually made out of red cedar, spruce or mahogany.
This very thin slice of wood, generally measuring only 2 – 3 mm thick, supported by different kinds of internal brackets, is the most pronounced and important element in influencing sound quality.
Most of the sound is brought about by the guitar’s top vibration as the momentum of the vibrating cords are transmitted to it.
8. Pickups. This is what really amplifies the cords sound. Most guitars have one to a maximum of three pickups. The kind of pickup is reasonably important, depending on a particular sound that you are aspiring for.
9. Pickguard. Commonly called the scratch plate, is a plastic guard or any laminated medium which protects the guitar’s top finish.
The pickups as well as almost all electronics in other electric guitars are framed and inserted atop the “pickguard”. On “acoustic guitars” and several “electric guitars”, the pickguard is directly inserted to the top of the guitar, and on guitars having carved tops; the “pickguard” is raised.
10. Bridge. On acoustic guitars, the key objective of the guitar’s bridge is to hand over or shift the string’s vibration to the “soundboard”, which then shudders the air within the guitar; thus increasing and strengthening the sound created by the cords or strings.
Go ahead, explore the parts of your guitar to better acquaint yourself with this wonderful instrument; test it too and see where it will take you. Enjoy!
November 25th, 2009 §
There are so many guitar models on the market today. So many types including electric, acoustic, acoustic electric, nylon string, and steel string guitars. How does one make a selection? Here are a few tips to help you choose one that meets your needs.
1. It depends on how much you can afford.
With such a wealth of guitars available, a working person shouldn’t have a problem finding one that fits their budget. But this doesn’t mean that you should settle for anything. As the old adage goes, you usually get what you pay for. Usually the more money you invest, the greater the returns. You’re going to be spending a lot of time practicing so choose an instrument that you can enjoy. An instrument that you can look forward to playing.
2. What style of music will you be playing?
The style of music to be played should influence your choice of guitar. For instance if you plan on playing rock you should buy an electric guitar, since Rock music is better suited to be played on that type of guitar. If Jazz and blues is your thing you may prefer a semi-acoustic guitar from the start. An acoustic nylon string guitar may be better suited to classical music and smooth Jazz.
3. Child or adult.
Are you a parent looking to buy a guitar for your child? Consider buying a 1/2 size or 3/4 size guitar. Your child doesn’t have the reach that an adult has, so these smaller guitars are better suited. Regular size guitars will be more difficult to play and can cause a lack of interest.
You may also want to look into buying an electric guitar for your child if you can afford it. They have a small neck and very light thin strings and are therefore easier to play. If money is an issue
a second hand electric guitar may be the answer.
4. Wood type and its relation to tone.
Although there are no rules for choosing guitar woods, there is a guide that you can follow. Generally, darker woods produce a brighter tone while darker woods produces a deeper, richer tone. Medium tone wood like mahogany produce a very even smooth sound spectrum. You should compare various wood colors. The best thing to do is to listen to the tones that a guitar produces before deciding.
5. Pay attention to the guitar’s features.
Your guitar must have certain important features. Don’t simply focus on looks.
For example, your guitar should have die-cast machine heads (or tuning gears). With this feature, you will be able to tune your instrument more accurately and your guitar will stay in tune longer.
A solid top is also very important. A solid top usually consists of 2 solid matched pieces glued together side by side. This is of better quality than a laminated top where various woods are glued together on top of each other. With a solid top the guitar’s tone will be more even and accurate and you can expect a sustaining vibration throughout the guitar’s body.
6. Buy a guitar that feels good to you.
You’re the one who will be playing that guitar. So you’d better buy one that feels comfortable to you, whether you’re sitting or standing. For instance, if the strings are too far from the fretboard, playing will be difficult. An expensive guitar that is not comfortable is a waste. Spend time with the guitar before deciding.
7. The bottom line is sound.
If it sounds good, buy it. No two guitars can ever be the same. It’s never about looks. It’s about the sound that is generated through the use of the right type of wood and through superior craftsmanship.
You should be able to find a guitar easily online. You can order one that suits your needs today. Some of the best guitar prices can be found on the Internet. You even get free shipping to your door.
Guitar Tuition is an informative Guitar site that looks into all aspects of Guitars from Learning to Play to Buying Tips.
To find out more visit
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November 19th, 2009 §
Sooner or later every guitar player will ask this same question. Should I get a teacher and take guitar lessons or just teach myself? It can happen for a variety of reasons. Usually the person just wants to get better or feels something is missing. When you find yourself in that position, it can be daunting.
Do you really have to worry about carefully selecting a guitar teacher? This is a questions that I am asked time after time. The answer is different for everyone. The best answer for you will depend on what you want to achieve? How good do you want to get? How hard do you want to work? What is it that you want to learn? And where do you live? Thanks to the Internet, this last consideration may become less and less of a factor.
Let’s start at the beginning and take some time to examine these questions. Did you notice all the questions above point in the same direction? Where are you going with your music? It really doesn’t matter how good you are now or how much you know. These are reasons you seek out a teacher in the first place. The more important questions have to do with what you expect from the experience.
These questions assume one thing. They assume you have a reason for getting an instructor in the first place. Everyone actually does have a reason, even if they don’t know it yet. In other words, often times a person is not sure why they are going to an instructor or what they expect from this experience. They just think they will get better if they do this. So they go!
But there are problems with this approach. First, it puts all the responsibilities on the teacher to make sure he (or she) figures out what you want and then supplies instruction that will instill it. Although it is the teacher’s responsibility to make sure you get what you pay for, it is not his or her responsibility alone. The correct answer is for both of you to share the responsibilities.
Another problem is you may get better but not in the way you intended. It probably would not be a satisfying experience if a 15 year old started lessons thinking he would learn to play heavy metal, only to go through classical training. He would be learning to play a guitar, but not the way he intended. Most of the time when something like this happens, you can count the days until the person quits. When it happens no one may notice. Often times the student doesn’t realizes it for awhile. He just quits!
Why? Because it’s not fun (in part). The reality of the situation never measured up with the vision he had when he decided to start. It wasn’t at all what he expected. Here is another reaction. A student wants to learn a few chords and nothing more. He is trying to learn just enough to play some very basic rock songs. He takes lessons from a teacher that uses a standard program for everyone. It turns out to be ten times the information the student wanted and it points him in the wrong direction. The result is often the same. The person stops playing.
It does not matter if we are talking about teenagers or 50 year old Dead Heads. The problems is, if you feed a person information in the wrong way, they don’t get it, they don’t like it and they stop playing. They never got close to the vision they had for themselves when they got motivated enough to start in the first place. How does this happen? Better yet, how can you avoid this?
Often times a student will pick the wrong avenue to achieve their goals. They know what they wanted when they dreamed up the idea. They just didn’t figure out how to get there. There was nothing wrong with the intention. They just didn’t get enough of the answers that wanted from the instructor to keep going back.
So what is the right answer? Choose your teacher carefully and figure out before hand what you want. Selecting a teacher is not an easy task. Teachers are all different. They are as diverse as students. They all know a different subset of information. They all have a different perspective. Each teacher holds a mental collection of experiences. This mental collection is made up from life experiences. It is a major component of how a teacher thinks of his or herself. Maybe she has extensive experience in performing, or maybe he has an accreditation from a teaching school. Maybe she taught all the other kids in the neighborhood. Whatever.
Each one learned a different way, had different teachers and different styles of learning. They all teach a little differently too. They all have different ideas of what should be taught and what is the proper way to proceed. They all have individual biases too. Everyone does! Because of their diverse backgrounds, they all have different things to teach. A classical teacher probably won’t be able to teach heavy rock lead line construction. He probably doesn’t know it because he doesn’t play it and doesn’t study it.
All teachers have something to teach. They all have something that they know well enough to be able to teach someone. The trick is to find the one that teaches what you want to learn. In order for that to happen, you must have an idea of what you would like to learn. It all comes back to what you want? And for that to be known, you have to have some direction.
You can start with the vision of what you want to do. What drives the whole thing? What do you want? Do you want to play lead guitar? Do you want to play rhythm? Are you just trying to meet someone to date? Maybe you are looking for a combination of skills. Your direction may be to play rhythm but concentrate on Latin music. Or acoustic folk or jazz/rock fusion. Maybe you want to learn how to pick up songs from the radio, no matter what they are playing. Or maybe you want to learn to sight read traditional classical pieces. All of these are good answers. They are all great ways to experience a guitar. But in order to choose a teacher you will benefit if you can at least describe what you want. If you do that, you can zero in on a guitar teacher that can teach it, and raise your expectations.
Remember we go to teachers to get better. You can use a teacher for an extended period or just to pick up some specific skills. Usually if you find a good teacher, you can speed up the process of learning. Teachers can make the subject easier to grasp and quickly turn that information into new musical ability. When you find the right teacher you can jump to a higher degree of confidence and extract more fun from the instrument. It’s very cool. They can help a lot!
But it is helpful if students takes their rightful place in this process and takes ownership. They are the managers of the idea. They are also the ones that have to live with the results.
Be a partner in the process. Don’t just show up and ask when you start. Interview the guitar teacher. Find out about what he or she likes. Chances are, that is what they teach well. Find out how long he has been playing and how long he has been teaching. Are there any students you could talk with? Present a set of goals you would like to achieve and see what he or she can offer to help you get there. Talk about specific guitar players you would like to emulate. There is a lot to learn in this process. You will get a variety of answers too. This also gives you an excuse to go in music shops and talk to different teachers without hiring one or buying anything. You are just gathering information and checking things out.
You may find that some of the people you talked with communicate more easily than others. Some of them make more sense to you than others. Some of them are easier to understand. Some of them can play things similar to what you are trying to learn. You will probably like some more than others. Some of them would be difficult to work with. Some of them are hard to understand. That is not intended as a slam on anyone. It’s just that there will always be a difference in the way you feel about different people. This will affect the amount that you can learn from them. Everyone is different.
By managing the process, you will be able to evaluate several different sets of teachers and shops. You can see the teaching rooms and how often disruptions occur. Do outsiders just walk in teaching rooms. Do teachers get up and leave in the middle of a lesson? Are there materials and hand outs that are used in a class? Maybe you can see these materials before you start.
The music dealers in an average town will offer different types of lessons. Each store will have a different teacher (or teachers) on staff. Some stores hire and fire teachers faster than other stores. Some stores teach only beginners while some cater to intermediates. Some of the bigger stores will have a classical teacher and a rock teacher or even a whole line of teachers. Some will concentrate on only one type of music while others will try to cover everything. Some stores invest big money in training equipment, while others provide straightforward lessons in a quiet room. All of them want you to take lessons from them.
This is still tempered by where you live. People in bigger cities will have a multitude of teachers available to them. Small towns by their size do not typically have the wealth of resources found in a bigger setting. The pool of available human resources is probably smaller. You may still find a great teacher there, but you will not have as many choices. It may be harder to find the exact right teacher. So now what?
Well the Internet offers some solutions. You can sign up and take lessons but the level of communication presently available limits supplying rich content over standard modems. You also cannot read a face to see if someone is confused. It’s not quite there yet for most of us. You can buy a video or a beginner book like Uncle Tim’s First Year, a book that I write. It can be general in approach or very specific. But there are literally hundreds of choices available. I visited a website where you could sign up and take lessons from a person that has played for a little over two months. In the end it all comes down to this. What is it that you want?
We can reverse engineer this too. Look at the amount to time you may spend playing a guitar. For me this is how it went. I would get up about 6:30 AM. I started with an hour of scales right off the bat. Somewhere around noon, I would put in another hour. Usually that time was spent memorizing chords and playing different progressions of chords. After the second hour, I would then play all the songs I knew. Usually I would spend about three hours playing every day. In one year I usually played about one thousand hours not counting jam sessions and extended days. It would vary from year to year because my lifestyle changed in those early years. But the point is you spend a lot of hours playing a guitar if you continue to play. Maybe for you it will only be three hundred hours a year, maybe more. If you are going to spend so much time at something, the direction and instruction you get up front becomes a critical issue. It shapes your direction and provides the structure you employ when you play. It forms the backbone of experiences you have with the instrument and it determines the level of fun you get out of all this. And it magnifies over time. The effect accumulates as you continue.
November 2nd, 2009 §
The sound of a guitar can make you feel better simply by the soothing tones you hear. For many people the guitar is not just an instrument to be listened to, it is an instrument that is calling out to be played and played with heart and soul. To enable these people to play the guitar with heart and soul there are various guitar tips they can look into.
These guitar tips can be given by friends who have been playing their guitar for some time and have proven to be successful. Other tips for guitar playing can be found with various guitar instructors. You will also find many guitar experts who are willing to share their various styles and techniques and who will have valuable guitar tips to impart.
These different guitar tips are great ways for you to find the best way of not just playing your guitar but also for keeping your guitar in great shape. You will find lots of guitar tips for just about every subject that is used in guitar playing.
For instance if you are left handed and you are feel that you can’t learn to play the guitar, there are tips that will let you see how to make the most of right handed guitars and left hand guitars too. There will also be great tips that you can find about the best type of guitar for a beginner to choose.
The internet has many resources that will help you out with guitar tips and you can use these to gain some more knowledge about the guitar tips that you are getting from your friends. Some of the guitar tip sites will also tell you what to do if you get calluses while you are learning to play.
The care for your guitar and what to do if you develop calluses or if your fingers hurt while you are playing the guitar are just of the few tips that you can find. There are however lots of other tips that you will find to be of use. These guitar tips will include how to play and write great sounding guitar riffs.
You will also find various tips for increasing your abilities in the different techniques that are used in guitar playing. Likewise there are many guitar tips that you can use for playing the different types of guitars like that of a bass guitar, an air guitar, the Spanish guitar or even that of the electrical guitar.
The many guitar tips that you can find and are told about are great ways to help you improve your playing. As you come across these different tips you might want to note them down for the times when you will need them later on. The addition of all of these guitar tips can help your playing to sound even smoother and better than you ever dreamt of being possible.
Muna wa Wanjiru is a web administrator and has been researching and reporting on internet marketing for years. For more information on guitar tips, visit his site at
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October 29th, 2009 §
The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments today. Most of the music that you hear on the radio uses guitars in many different ways: pop, rock, reggae, blues, ballads and everything else is influenced by the guitar.
The guitar, together with the drums and the piano compose the modern music scene equipment set. The playability of the guitar has made it one popular instrument. A guitar can be played by a learning child or an experienced guitar player. It’s not “picky” about its players.
Today, the electric type of guitar is most often used in musical production. The guitar has been enhanced with a very good accompaniment in the form of the effects box. Today, guitars can emulate the sounds of a piano, a violin, even the sounds of the human voice and is continuously widening its horizons.
With the functions and features of the modern electric guitar, one can’t help thinking about the beginnings of the instrument. Where did the guitar come from? This article tries to give a brief history of the wonderful musical instrument, which is the guitar.
The creation of the guitar cannot be traced to a single person. The guitar came about through the evolution of its predecessors. Its image has also undergone change throughout the centuries. Today, playing the guitar is a symbol of talent and musical prowess, but during the early times, the guitar was actually a symbol of being poor and it was refuted by most classical musicians.
Predecessors
There have been many guitar-like musical instruments in the ancient times, up to as many as 5,000 years ago. Instruments which look like the guitar were seen in statues which were recovered in archeological expeditions in the Iranian region of Susa. However, the very first documented mention of the instrument dates back to the fourteenth century. At that time the guitar-ancestor had three pairs of strings (usually referred to as double courses) and a single string with the highest tone.
Some say that the word “guitar” came from the word “qitara”. Qitara is an Arabic name for the different kinds of lutes during the early times.
Evolution
The guitar, as we know it, is said to originate in Spain. It is believed that the people of Malaga invented the instrument. The guitar evolved from having three pairs of strings to four pairs of strings and eventually six single strings.
The guitar began to become popular in the 16th century. It was played by the lower and middle classes as a counterpart for the vihuela which was played by the aristocrats. The vihuela was tuned like a lute but had a body similar to that of the guitar.
The guitar made a serious evolution during the 18th century: the double strings where replaced by single strings and a sixth string was added. In the 1800s, Antonio Torres de Jurado gave birth to the classical guitar. Basically, he increased the size of the body of the guitar. The guitar still struggled because it was considered as an instrument for the taverns – an instrument which could not be used for classical music. In Spain, where people hated the piano, the guitar found refuge. However, it was also tainted by the views that guitars were for gypsies and for no-good bums who asked for loose change in bars.
Electric guitar
The modern electric guitar was invented in 1931. The electric guitar uses electronic “pick-ups” to enable it to produce sound. The pick-ups convert the vibrations from the strings into electric signals. The body of the electric guitar is semi-solid or solid, depending on the design. The structure of the guitar took a great leap when the electric guitar was born, no longer did its sound depend on the structure and construction of the body, but on the quality of the pick-ups and soundboard.
The sounds of the electric guitar can also be altered to be able to achieve a desired tone. The use of the guitar effects box has given the guitar a wide array of sounds. I is continuing to garner popularity in all fields of music, even in classical music.
The guitar is a very dynamic musical instrument. Through evolution, the guitar has made its mark on the modern music scene. From crude instruments with many variations, the guitar has become a real and much-sought after instrument.
October 28th, 2009 §
Guitars are the most common instruments played by many music lovers of all ages. Even kids can easily learn to play the guitar. Choosing the right guitar is very easy. There are many types of guitars that can go along with any kind of music. All a guitar player needs to do is identify the kind of music he prefers to know which type of guitar is best for him.
The following are the most common types of guitars.
Classical Guitars
Classical guitars are the father of all guitars. They have been used for many genres and all kinds of music. Classical guitars come with nylon strings which give the guitar a unique and colorful sound. The sizes of classical guitars have been standard for many years. Classical guitars that are of the finest quality are made with spruce or cedar tops. The guitar is able to produce various sounds even with the use of fingernails.
Electric Guitars
Electric guitars are the next most common guitar especially in the 20th century. Electric guitars are known as the main attraction of rock music. These guitars have been famous since rock music was introduced and blend very well with jazz, pop and even blues music. The main difference between other guitars and electric guitars is that they are played with amplifiers because they are unable to produce sound without amplification.
Steel Guitars
Steel guitars acquired their name because they are literally made of steel. These types of guitars are played horizontally. A guitar player may place the guitar across his knees or legs or on a stand. The pedal steels of these guitars are the ones responsible for their unique sounds.
Bass Guitars
Bass guitars are similar to electric guitars. However, there are also variations in these guitars such as the acoustic bass guitars. Although bass guitars fall under the family of guitars, the sounds they produce are very distinctive and separate from any other guitar. The reason is that bass guitars usually have four strings unlike standard guitars that have six to twelve strings.
Many other guitars may be found on the market. There are also the archtop guitars, twelve strings guitars, solid body guitars and the resonator guitars. All these types of guitars produce different kinds of music that can satisfy the taste of many music lovers. All a person has to do is identify his taste for music to be able to decide which guitar is perfect for him and his music.
October 28th, 2009 §
The guitar is one of the most sought-after musical instruments today. Its popularity is manifested through-out the radio stations and the music videos on MTV. Almost all types of music in modern pop culture have been influenced by the guitar in one way or another.
For people who would like to get their hands on a guitar, they must first learn the guitar lingo. The guitar lingo is made up of weird-sounding words that are unique to the guitar world.
The guitar lingo also applies to the guitar parts. You must be able to know the parts of a guitar to be able to know how to play it. Here are some of the guitar parts:
-Body
This is also referred to as the sound box. This is the largest guitar part and it comes in different shapes and sizes. The acoustic guitars usually have a hollow body, while electric guitars have solid or semi-solid bodies. Acoustic guitars have hollow bodies because they rely on the body structure for sound resonation and electric guitars use electronic pick-ups to amplify the sound.
-Headstock
The headstock is the part at the end of the guitar which holds the tuning keys. It is connected to the neck of the guitar.
-Nut
The nut is the piece between the guitar neck and the head. It is a small rod with indentations to hold the guitar strings in place.
-Neck
The neck is the long section which holds the fret board.
-Fret board
The fret board is divided into different notes by small metal rods. The number of frets in a fret board varies depending on the type of guitar and the brand. Modern electric guitars usually have 20-22 frets in the fret board.
-Bridge
It is a part of the guitar’s body and it is important for sound resonance. It gives elevation to the guitar strings so they can produce vibrations.
-Pick-up
The pick-up is an electronic device which acts like a microphone: it picks up the vibrations from the strings and converts the vibrations into electrical impulses. They are usually found in electric guitars
-Amp
The amplifier a speaker box from which the sounds of the electric guitar are magnified.
-Capo
This is a device which is attached to the fret board which allows a player to play the same chord structures but in a different key.
Listed below are some of the different words that you might encounter in learning how to play the guitar.
-Riff
Guitar riffs pertain to musical pieces which are parts of a song.
-Reverb
It is added to the sound of the guitar through an effects box or through amplifiers to make the sounds more natural.
-Tablature
Guitar tablatures or more commonly known as guitar tabs are written music for guitars. It is similar to musical pieces (with notes and other musical symbols) but the notes are translated into guitar frets. It’s a useful tool in learning how to play the guitar.
-Vibrato
It refers to a guitar technique where the string is slightly bent at a fast rate to Produce a longer resonating sound.
-Arpeggio
This refers to a technique where you remove notes from a specific chord. You can then use these to create an adlib lead technique or add to the rhythm of the song.
-Pick
This is the small device which guitar players use to strike the guitar strings and is usually made of plastic.
-Whammy bar
This is an attachment to the bridge of electric guitars that can be used to bend the pitch of the notes. You can pull the whammy bar to be able to make your guitar “cry.”
-Plucking
It’s a picking technique where a player does not strum the strings all at once but hits the strings one by one to attain a softer and more defined tone.
-Palm mute
This is a technique where a player uses his picking hand (usually the right hand) to mute the strings while strumming to be able to attain a distinct tone. It is very popular in the punk rock world.
The world of guitars is composed of many other new words and you must be able to master these or at least have an idea of what they are to be able do to appreciate the wonderful instrument that is the guitar..
October 24th, 2009 §
20 easy tips that will put you on the path to being a guitar hero
By Justin Sours
http://www.guitarmadeez.com
Practice how you play
When you practice guitar chords, scales, songs, etc., make sure that you focus on quality and not quantity. The guitar sounds a lot better if all the notes in a chord ring or you hit every note in that scale with perfect timing instead of rushing through a scale or playing a chord and having some notes be muffled. Just remember to focus on playing things slow and with good technique (This is Key!). Learn whatever you are trying to learn slow and then increase the speed little by little until you get where you want to be. That’s how you guitarists learn to shred or solo extremely fast. They start playing a scale or riff slow and then gradually speed it up with a metronome.
Keep your guitar out of the closet or storage
This is probably one of the biggest mistakes that a person learning guitar could make. KEEP YOUR GUITAR OUT IN THE OPEN!!! Keep it next to your bed or in your family room on a stand or anywhere where it is out of the closet or out from under the bed. If it’s out in the open, this will force you to play it and force you to mess around and practice.
Memorize the fret board of the guitar
Memorizing the fret board of the guitar can turn out to be an interesting task. There are little tips and tricks that allow you to find notes really fast. The reason why all guitarist who would like to get good should memorize the fret board is because it allows you to play create chords in different shapes, find notes in different areas of the neck and allows the guitarist to familiarize and open up to playing in different parts of the neck. Memorization of the fret board is also very beneficial in soloing and improvising.
Jam with other people with different styles and techniques
You will not believe how much your guitar playing will improve when you jam with other people. If you ever feel like you are reaching a “plateau” (you feel like you’re not getting any better) in your playing, jamming with other people will definitely open you up to new tips and tricks. There’s always something to learn from someone else that plays guitar no matter how good or bad they are. Also, everyone’s individual style is different and the more open minded you are to other styles, the better player you will become.
Listen to new types music and try to play it
I know it’s hard, just force yourself to do it. When all else fails go back to the basics of music. A great way to do this is to listen to some classical music for inspiration. Elton John is an amazing musician and he says whenever he reaches a dull moment or block in his playing, he refers back to church hymns that he learned when he was younger.
Read guitar magazines
Guitar magazines have allot of cool stuff, but they also have allot of filler. The one thing I hate about guitar mags is that they are extremely complex (not for beginners). The articles, stories and advice are cool but some of the lessons are intense! The advanced guitar lingo having to do with intervals of certain modes and technical guitar talk gets to me sometimes. It’s nice to know that stuff but ehhhhhhh….. It can be boring.
Go to concerts
Nothings more inspiring then going to a concert and seeing someone rock out on stage and totally impress the crowd. I remember a couple of years ago; I went to Vans Warped Tour. Immediately after the show, as soon as I got home, I ran to my room and tried learning allot of the songs I had heard. When I saw The Eagles back in October of 06′, I couldn’t stop learning all their songs. It’s amazing to be extremely inspired and motivated once again about playing guitar and going to concerts definitely rejuvenates my interest in playing guitar.
Buy concert DVDs
If you’ve never seen any ACDC music video or concert DVD…. then we definitely need to talk. Angus Young is an amazing guitarist and It’s just amazing to see that this scrawny little Australian guy can play like he does and with such attitude and soul. Seeing that guy rip up the fret board definitely shows us that anyone can play guitar… all it takes is practice, discipline, motivation and commitment. Concert DVDs are great because they show you up close and in really good quality what exactly a guitarist is playing, unlike music videos where bands just dance around and they add in the music later. Concert DVDs are filled with raw footage of guitar playing at its best.
Always use your guitar strap
This is another biggie. When first learning how to play guitar, I never wore my guitar strap. I ended up paying for it later and basically having to relearn guitar standing up instead of sitting down. If you always play with your guitar strap on, there will be no difference to you while playing either sitting or standing. Playing with your guitar strap will also allow you to get to the “show-off” level so you can impress all your friends earlier.
A lot of people who use guitar straps find that they fall off very easy or tend to drop the guitar. There are many different types of locking mechanisms out there (I currently have two guitars that use the DiMarzio locking mechanism and it works very well)). Go to your local guitar shop and check all of them out and see which one fits you best.
Play with passion (slash)
Have you ever heard a guitar player who is a great player, but you feel that there is something missing…… THERE’S NO SOUL!!! Soul is the emotion, the love, the purpose behind guitar playing. Listen to that same talented yet boring guitar player and then compare him to Gun’s and Roses guitarist or Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash. Every solo that Slash plays has so much soul, so much emotion, and so much purpose. What I want you to do is Google “Slash – Godfather theme video” or get on Napster, iTunes, kazaa, etc. and download it. This video is nuts!! Slash plays with such a great amount of solo that it’s amazing. I really don’t know how to explain exactly how to add soul into your playing, however I will tell you that you will understand if you choose to stick with guitar and stay committed to the instrument. It’s basically playing to express yourself and not to just play because you have to or don’t want to but feel you should.
Watch the clips of legendary guitar scenes or solos
Here’s some instant inspiration…. Go to yahoo or Google and click on the “video” tab above the search bar and type in anything having to do with guitar solos. You will find some amazing solos along with amazing guitar tricks. One really cool guitar clip I remember is of this Asian guy playing the super Mario brothers theme for Nintendo. That guy can play that song like you wouldn’t believe. There’s so much inspiring guitar playing footage out there. It’s everywhere and anywhere you look, especially online. Also, checkout the movie with Ralph Maccio from the 1980′s called “Crossroads”… there’s some amazing guitar playing in it.
Try tabbing out songs by ear
This is extremely helpful. Tabbing songs by ear develops your musical ear very quickly. Choose one of your favorite songs and sit next to your cd player with a guitar and a piece of paper and try to figure out the chords in the song first, and then try to figure out the riffs within the chords. Once you find out the overall “key” of the song it’s easy to figure out all the riffs and chords.
Take a college music course (Beatles, history of rock and roll)
While I was at community college for two years studying to get my Associates Degree, I had taken a “History of Rock & Roll course”. This course was extremely interesting. There was so much music that this class opened my eyes up to. I gained so much more appreciation for the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and many more bands of that era. Those bands really did change music forever. I definitely recommend taking a class like this anywhere you can; it will definitely open up your eyes to some great music out there and help you grow as a musician.
Read biographies of guitarists you appreciate
Some musicians out there have led incredible lives. The majority of them come from nothing and in the end, become legendary guitar gods. Look at Johnny Cash; he was a rural country boy that grew up almost penniless and turned into an amazing musician through inspiration and practice. There are so many interesting stories behind bands and musicians. Here’s some that I find interesting (off the top of my head): The Beach Boys, Def Leppard, Metallica, Van Halen, The Beatles and Thin Lizzy. Do some research online and try to mirror yourself with these artists. It will give you a whole new thought process to playing their songs and guitar in general.
“Steal” riffs and ideas from other guitarists
I know it sounds bad but every great guitarist does it. Clapton stole the “crossroad blues” from Robert Johnson and the Beatles used some of Elvis’ ideas and expanded upon them. Every musical generation steals ideas, riffs, chord progressions from the generation before and when it comes to music… its ok. I find this to help guitar players progress a lot, especially if you reach a plateau. One of the biggest things that helped me expand as a guitarist is to learn all my favorite solos by my favorite artists. Once I had learned them, I would play the same solo over different progressions in the same key and then play the same solos in different keys all around the neck and in different scale positions. Once I did this, I had “unlocked” all of the licks in the solo and I’m now able to use them in whatever I play. Just like how in video games you unlock new characters, levels and secrets throughout the game… you do the same in music. From there you can constantly expand upon your lick directory.
Play in front of others
This is one of the hardest parts about performing music. Playing in front of others is something that just takes time. Remember to relax and don’t think about everyone watching you. Just focus on you and the instrument. The more you play in front of others, the better you will get. Everyone’s first time playing in front of others can be pretty gut wrenching. Just remember that it gets easier every time and that you’ll get through it just fine. What you can also do is videotape yourself playing and then put it on the internet. Lots of people including myself put videos on Youtube.com or other online video sites and its up to the viewers to judge. Some people will rip your playing apart but most will applaud you for trying and really like it. The way I look at it… “Led Zeppelin didn’t write songs that everyone liked… they left that to the Bee Gees” – Wayne Campbell (Wayne’s World)
“What if I screw up”? Who cares?! In music, everyone screws up while playing music. When big bands record in studios they spend days, sometimes even weeks recording tracks so that they turn out absolutely perfect. What really creative people do when they screw up is to elaborate on the screw up. If you hit a wrong note, maybe trying hitting the note again within the rhythm of the song and maybe it will sound good.
The Internet and Youtube are valuable tools…
Eric Clapton learned guitar by listening to old Robert Johnson, BB King and many other great blues records on a turntable and then trying to mimick the same sounds on guitar. Eddie Van Halen would be in his room with his door closed for days just messing around with different sounds that a guitar can make just by moving his fingers around in different shapes and seeing what they sound like. Alex Van Halen (Eddies brother and drummer for Van Halen) would go on dates and leave the house listening to Eddie whale away at 5:00pm and then come home to Eddie still whaling away at 2:00am. These artists didn’t have the internet! They had a cassette player or record player and plenty of time on their hands. We’re incredibly lucky today to have such great resources like youtube.com and the internet in general. Youtube.com is great for learning how to play guitar. You can find lessons, people covering songs, tips and tricks and just about anything that you need to get off on the right foot when it comes to playing guitar. The great thing about Youtube guitar lessons is that “they get to the point”. No BS. Each lesson is usually under 5 minutes and they give you great info very fast, because who wants to watch a 30 minute video. Guitarists attention spans aren’t that long, I know mine isn’t. And Finally, you have the internet. The internet has absolutely everything you could ever possibly need, including Youtube.com, lessons, information, ultimate-guitar.com (for tabs), guitars101.com (for any other type of help that you may need), etc. The possibilities are endless. The point is that learning guitar today is and should be way easier than learning guitar in the past due to the great resources we have.
You can learn any riff from any song no matter how crazy or how fast…. just slow it down
Any riff is learnable, you just have to slow it down to a pace that you feel comfortable with, learn it, and then gradually speed it up. There are numerous programs out there that allow you to do this. One very popular one is called Transcribe. You can import any .mp3 file and then control the speed of the song. Practice the riff over and over and gradually raise the speed. If you can’t play the at a given speed, then slow it down 1%, if you can play it and feel comfortable with how you played it, raise it by 2%. Doing this will allow you to master any riff, any song, anything!
Try learning the difficult songs or riffs that you’ve always wanted to learn, no matter what level you are at and no matter how hard the song is…
This is what makes guitar fun, seeing your improvement (ie. Quick Results). I remember trying to play songs that were at my level when I first started playing guitar. Stuff like : The Animals – House of the Rising Son, and Don Mclean – American Pie. I could play them ok, but they weren’t really songs that I had started playing guitar for. I wanted to play Metallica’s fade to black and Eric Clapton’s Crossroads. I put the other two songs aside and started working on the new ones that had inspired me to play guitar. I had spent weeks and months on them even though they were outside my playing level. I was determined to learn them. I kind of wanted to be one of those guys that can’t play anything else, just cover songs note for note. If I couldn’t play any other song aside from the super hard ones note for note, I’d be happy. So I spent so much time learning these songs, and I could play them…. ok… not great…. However, when I went back to playing House of the rising son and American Pie, I could play them 100 times better. I played them like a pro. Its kind of like…. as long as you challenge yourself, you’ll get better. You play with musicians that are better than you… you’ll get better. You lift more and more weight than your used to… you get stronger.
A great musician once said…..
A great musician once said that as soon as guitar becomes a chore and isn’t fun, that’s the moment that you should put your guitar down. Come back to it later. Now this doensn’t mean that when your first learning guitar and you get frustrated, you should put it down and forget it. Sorry, this rule only applies to guitar players who are advanced or who have been playing for a while. It sucks and is frustrating for everyone at first so you have to stick with it. The overall point is, guitar playing should be fun. Don’t turn it into a chore or a task.
June 16th, 2005 §
is it good to loose feeling in finger tips when playing guitar?
So I haven’t been playing guitar for several years and I decided to get serious about learning it again…but recently my left hand (the hand that does the frets) is starting to be a little numb in he finger tips. It almost feels like the tips are just coming out from being asleep without the tingly sensation so it doesn’t feel like a calus to me. Is this normal or am I pressing on the strings way too hard?
Yeah it’s pretty normal for them to be a little numb. Unless they are numb all the time. I would say if they feel funny when you apply pressure to them or rub your fingers together then it is normal, but if they don’t have any feeling while you aren’t touching anything then you could be playing too much.
If you just play for up to 2-3 hours a day as a beginner then your fingers should start to get calluses in around a week and the effect should lessen.
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Joe Pass Jazz Lines
$16.40
Joe discusses the scales and arpeggios he uses when improvising. As notated in the accompanying booklet, Joe also demonstrates nonstop improvised lines for major 7th, minor 7th, and static and altered dominant 7th chord types, plus there’s a special section on turnarounds. Special features include a tuning segment, Joe’s guitar, a bonus lesson in soloing with chord shapes, a transcription for “Blu…
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Modern Electric Bass, Jaco Pastorius
$23.89
Jaco Pastorius , one of the greatest bass players of all time, forged a landmark bass style that still permeates music today. His melodic sense, delicate touch, and groundbreaking bass grooves have influenced generations of musicians, while his music has consistently topped readers’ and critics’ polls worldwide. On Modern Electric Bass, Jaco presents his unique approach to countless musical topic…
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HOSA STEREO 1/4 PHONE (M) – TWO RCA (F) (1-TIP AND 1-RING), 6 in.
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Backed by Hosa’s Limited Lifetime Warranty, this high qualityHosa Cable YPR102 Stereo 1/4 Inch Male to Dual RCA Female Y Cablefeatures precision-molded terminations, braided shields, and heavy-duty insulation.Limited Lifetime WarrantyHosa Technology cables and adaptors purchased in the U.S.A. are warranted by Hosa Technology, Inc., to be free of defects in material and workmanship for the lifetime…
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HOSA STEREO 3.5mm PHONE (M) – TWO RCA (F) (1-TIP AND 1-RING), 6 in.
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Backed by Hosa’s Limited Lifetime Warranty, this high qualityHosa Cable YRA154 Stereo 1/8 Male to Dual RCA Female Y Cablefeatures precision-molded terminations, braided shields, and heavy-duty insulation.Limited Lifetime WarrantyHosa Technology cables and adaptors purchased in the U.S.A. are warranted by Hosa Technology, Inc., to be free of defects in material and workmanship for the lifetime of t…
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