Electric Guitar Freaks

4 Cool Guitars

2009-02-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

Beautiful guitar that I found. Wondered how do you actually play the 2rd one. 12 strings X 2. wow, bet it must be tapping in this case. The one on the right looks appealing too, shiny finish with a cool colour. If I was rich, these guitar or at least 2 of them, would be added to my collection.

Ebay Finds

2009-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, I must say I am rather surprised to find that people actually bother to sell guitar picks on ebay. I mean, why bother selling few picks for like a couple of dollars? Isn't this a waste of time?

Another interesting thing that I found out was that antique guitars were also found on ebay, except that the price was over-rated! Wow, now I certainly have a different view about ebay!

Something That Troubles Me The Most

2009-02-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

I wonder, why do I see so many people spelling squier wrongly? You see all sorts of werid spellings such as squire?

Searching through ebay, I was even more surprised to find people typing squier. So I wondered if ebay had link squire and squier together, for those people who can't spell?

Maybe some can't spell it because it isn't that famous afterall? No doubt, fender is confirm a more well-known guitar brand.

More frustrating, youtube videos include squire instead of squier! I really wonder if squier should even change it's name to squire!

For god's sake, spell it right!

Coolz Guitars!

2009-02-12T05:46:00.001-08:00

The emo guitar! Black and white! The white looks like a moon, doesn't it? Looks really cool! Playing this guitar with a white shirt would be perfect!
Great contrasting colours guitar. Looks like a les paul to me, except that the colours are beautiful!
Looks like a super printed guitar for me! wow, I sure would love to use this guitar LIVE! Just picture that, unbelievable!
What a nice colour guitar! My guitar looks like this, the front view. Except that it is by ibanez and its brownish-read! What a collectable piece of guitar!

Above is a list of rare, cool collectable guitars! I wished I could buy all of them!
Which is your favourite? Come on! There is sure one guitar here that catches your eye!

Herman Li And Guitar Hero!

2009-02-12T05:04:00.001-08:00

Check out this cool video about Herman Li views of Guitar Hero!

Review On GuitarMasterPro

2009-02-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

My friends had shared with me about their encounter on guitarmasterpro! Thankfully, it was good news! My friend have progress really fast using this. He said, ''This $29.90 that i have spend is much better than any regular guitar class that you attend, which cost a bomb!'' He also commented that it took self-discipline for him too. He has learned to strum basic chords and some scales within 2days! What a good course! Do check it out!

CRAZY SOLO!

2009-02-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

Check out this CRAZY SOLO by Herman Li, its so cool!

Good Guitar Books To Buy?

2009-02-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

I'm look for good guitar books to buy for my beginner friend. It's his birthday and he loves playing electric guitar. Is there any good beginner guitar books out there available for him? Apart from the most common book, dummies for guitarist?

Just probably teach him how to strum etc? Or probably some good documents I could get? Anyone knows? Please comment and let me know! Thanks!

Scales A Hundred Of Them?

2009-02-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

Scales, how tired I am after learning so many scales! You know, there are practically like thousands of scales out there! What I feel that is that scales should be learn. But practicing and learning a dozen of them, would not be too useful. For me, I feel that guitarist should learn : Chromatic scale, pentatonic scale, pure minor scale, major scale, harmonic scales.

Well, it is no doubt tough work. But ' No Pain No Gain!' so are you willing to put in the effort to learn them? Of course, scales isn't EVERYTHING, other techniques such as bending and vibrato requires practicing too! To be an excellent guitarist, what you would need to do is to strike a balance between each skill, this way, mastering the solo you had always dream of, would be much much easier.

Dean's Guitar

2009-02-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

Once again, Dean's guitar takes center stage for a balls-out, orchestra-supported, extinction level event midway through the tune.

Whether it is acoustic, electric or bass, Dean guitars offer the an excellent range of eye-catching guitars. Many guitarist regard Dean Guitars as the finest guitars that you could ever own. Of course, this is based on purely opinion.

Dean's Guitars are known for its superior sound quality. Many rock guitarist have been using Dean's guitars. While some may consider Gibson to be better, I feel that Dean guitars offer a better price in terms of their electric guitars.

Try a Dean's Guitar today! Who knows? You might be owning a Dean's guitar anytime!

Herman Li

2009-02-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Herman is the lead guitarist from dragonforce. Also known as the best guitarist in the world, he is an experienced guitarist. Lets take a look at some of his lessons that are posted on youtube.

A video of how to play cool stuff and licks

Another great video that talks about ibanez guitars. Thinking of buying an ibanez guitar? Then check this video out! Watch what the best guitarist has to say about ibanez guitars!

Gibson Dark Fire Review

2009-02-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

Items provided in your dark fire guitar case:

One of the greatest guitar that many have claim to be. It looks cool, too, don't you agree?

Take a look at this video to check this guitar out!

Of course, it wouldn't be cheap. However, for those guitarist who are real passionate about guitar, I really think that price would not be a problem! Check out your local store now for this wonder guitar - dark, fire!

Cannon Rock Cover

2009-02-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

This guy has promoted GuitarMasterPro and my friends were excited about this video. Thus, they have decided to sign it up. Watch this video to see how this person has benefited from the program.

Stay in tuned of updates about the course: Guitar Master Pro. A review of the online program will be written soon, after my friends have shared with me about their experience with guitar master pro.

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours Cover

2009-02-05T06:32:00.000-08:00

Check out this guy! Amazing singing and playing of the song! As you can see, I'm Yours isn't really that difficult to play! You could try to play it, like now!

Hands up for this guy, he is talented in singing!

Want To Know How To Play Dying In Your Arms By Trivium?

2009-02-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

Learn how to play Dying In Your Arms By Trivium for FREE! Watch this video now!

Due to the user disabling embed, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHI9u7oLoE to watch and learn! Feel free to comment here!

Some Think That Gibson SG Standard Is The Best Guitar?

2009-02-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

Many have argued that Gibson SG Standard is the best. While i might not have tried one before, i feel that it varies. No one is wrong or right to see that gibson sg standard is the best. Simply put it, its all about opinion right? Just use whatever guitar you like!

Wow, What a nice guitar

2009-02-05T06:10:00.001-08:00

Check this guitar out! Its so cool! It has a unique head. Some may find the colour too bright. But to me, it looks cool! Wished I could buy this guitar as part of my collection!

3 Things That You Must Do To Master Guitar

2009-02-05T06:02:00.000-08:00

1)Watch youtube videos!

I have featured some cool youtube videos here! Take a look!

How to Play Heavy Metal Guitar: Tips on Tapping, Soloing & Shredding : Sweep Picking Techniques in Metal Guitar : Free Online Lessons

How To Play Guitar for Beginners : Guitar Lessons for Beginners: Playing Exercise 1

Beginner acoustic guitar lesson on strumming chords rhythms

2)Learn from this videos.

3)Find out where you are facing difficulties and find good videos to solve your problem!

That's all! As simply as ABC!

4 Things You Need To Know About Power Chords

2009-02-03T20:37:00.001-08:00

Introduction

Power chords are common in heavy music, as well as many other musical styles. Power Chords seem to be very simple but really are great. Green Day and Blink 182 are very good artists to try if you want to mater power chords. Power chords can be fun and easy to play. Thus, they are the best form of chords to use on the electric.

Power

Power chords are easy to play just about anywhere on the neck, but lend very little harmonic texture to a song. Power chords are often performed within a single octave, as this results in the closest matching of overtones. Power chords sound great with lots of distortion. Power chords are not meant for the acoustic guitar because they wont sound good.

Root

You got to remember that all power chords with their roots on the sixth and fifth string requires you to place your index finger (your pointing finger) on the root string. The root is simply the lowest note in the chord. There are charts showing power chords that you can download for free on the net but it is best to just keep in mind “root, fifth, octave” and do your own discovery of how to play power chords.

Playing

Try playing a full power chord, then play the root. You are supposed to adapt what you've learnt here into playing other songs other than Green Day. But who cares what you think of them as — they can enhance your playing.

Guitar Lessons In Singapore

2009-02-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

A busy student? Or perhaps, just a busy person? Then why search the whole of Singapore for good guitar lessons? I have wasted much time searching for good guitar lessons. But what i actually discovered was that searching online for guitar lessons are better! This way, it will save you lots of time. Of course, with this, there must be discipline to practice. So instead of wasting time finding, going from clementi to punggol to town, why not check the net for online guitar lessons?

Power Chords 1

2009-01-30T18:07:00.002-08:00

Power Chords 1- The art of playing rock

Power chords are actually no different from chords, except that they are played fast. Power chords are usually the most important in rock, especially when it comes to rhythm guitar. Power chords can be rather simple to play. With a little bit of practice, you can come out with a decent rock and roll sound. So what are you waiting for? Attempt some power chords now! I would recommend dammit by blink182 and it can be found here http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/b/blink_182/dammit_tab.htm

E|---------------|---------------|---------------|
B|---------------|---------------|---------------|
G|-------5-------|-------5-------|---------------|
D|-------5-------|-------5-------|---------------|
A|-------3-------|-------3-------|-------3-------|
E|---------------|-------3-------|-------3-------|
An example of a power chord.

By the way, the top string is your thinnest, while your lowest string in a tab is the thickest. Guess I should talk about tabs later.
Other songs which are well-known include green day. You will notice that most of their songs are chords and power chords. Chords should be learnt first in my opinion. It is one of the basics. So, I would recommend starting off with chords before attempting power chords.

Class Assignment: Try finding some more chords. Then practice switching between chords. This will help you move fast when playing power chords. The basic chords which all guitarists should know are the F, G, Am, E. Chords can be easy to find, simply use a search engine, like the one in my blog or search ultimate-guitar.com for it.

Chords

2009-01-30T18:07:00.001-08:00

Chords – The simplest way to impress anyone!

Why do songs such as Jason Marz and simple plan have so many fans? They might be simple to play as compared to other songs but yet are popular? The reason lies in chords!

Chords sound great when the chords are in harmony. It can be easy to play. And right now, I would recommend that you look up www.ultimate-guitar.com and find I’m yours by Jason Marz. Probably one of his best songs, it is simple enough to play.

Chords should always be learn first. This is because chords are the basic foundations of playing guitar. Also, learning chords first will at least allow you to play some songs just within a couple of weeks. This will show that you are improving and will increase your confidence in yourself. However, attempting to play difficult songs with little or no chords first will take a while to learn. Would you want to play guitar for 1 year and yet be unable to play any song? And when someone asks you what you can play, you go ’erm…. Nothing’ Or perhaps, you would rather choose to learn 5-10 songs within a year? And when approach, you can comfortably choose between which songs you wish

Electric Guitars

2009-01-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

Electric Guitars

FAQ about electric guitars

What songs are they used for?
Generally, they are usually used for rock, pop, metal.

How much should a starter spend on a guitar?
As for electric guitars, the price of an electric guitar does not really matter. The price for bass guitars matters a lot, that is, you can feel the difference. However, this is not really true for electric guitars. Hence, i would strongly recommend to spend about $300-$400 on a guitar.

Is it possible to self-learn?
Yes, of course. Popular sites such as www.ultimate-guitar.com are very useful for learning. However, if one wants to learn it fast, it would be much better to attend lessons. Starters may also make use of useful youtube videos to aid their learning.

Is it better to learn acoustic first than electric?
Yes. The strings of acoustic are less painful to press. For me, i started straight into electric and it really took sometime to get my fingers well-seasoned. If one is very determined to play an electric guitar, i think it will be fine because the pain will be bearable. However, taking acoustic first will give you an advantage when playing electric. Although electric and acoustic are different, they are yet similar in some sense.

How can i find tabs online?
You can search www.ultimate-guitar.com for tabs. Guitar Pro, is a popular software that is used to open some tabs. I would strongly suggest getting this because it will allow you to hear the song without the lyrics. Furthermore, you can see which musician plays what. It is really useful!

For any questions about electric guitar, feel free to contact me at guitar.lover10@gmail.com

3 Reasons Why Learning Guitar Scales Are Important

2009-01-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

Why on earth do guitarist even remember these complicated series of octaves? There are so many scales, yet most guitarist actually bother to learn them? While it may seem difficult to learn, scales do have a purpose. Let's zoom into this purpose.

Scales are excellent exercises to aid in your improvisation and solos. Did you know that improvisation and solos come from these scales? By know the pattern of scales, you could simply change it here and there using bends, pull-offs and so on. Get the idea? In this case, you can actually create something that sounds cool, a lick, easier.

Secondly, scales help you to understand which fingers to use. When learning scales, do follow the finger guide, that is very crucial. Guitarist learn which fingers to use via scales. Once mastered, that guitarist is able to play songs using the correct fingering instead of using all the wrong fingering, which may prove to be slower as compared to using the correct fingering.

For beginners, you probably should learn scales. Why? When i started off playing an electric guitar, I always strike the wrong strings. That was because I did not learn scales yet. When I was supposed to pick the 3th string, i pick the 4th string. However, after numerous handouts of scales from my teacher, I now can pick the correct guitar string. In order to curb this problem, this should be the answer to this problem. Not only is it effective, it also helps improve other aspects too.

Guitar Scales that you could possibly learn:
Chromatic scale
Pure minor scale
Harmonic scale
Pentatonic scale

Getting The Most Of Your Guitar String

2009-01-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

As I have noticed that the coated strings are becoming ever more popular, the price for these "everlasting" strings keeps rising and rising. However, for those of you whom do not want to pay $10 or more for a pair of strings that may only last you a month or two, I have a few tips to get that cheap $5 pair of strings to last almost just as long as those super-duper coated strings.

Here is how you can "coat" almost any of your favorite guitar strings:

1. When you purchase a new pair of strings, do not put the strings on the guitar yet. Instead if the strings come in a bag, then just tear a hole in the bag, or if they come in paper or other packaging, then put them in a small zip-lock bag or sandwhich bag.

2. Grab a can of WD40 or other similar product and spray a light coat on the strings while they are still in the bag. Let them sit up to 30 minutes. This will allow the WD40 to soak in to the wound wire and will create an overall even coating that is both water and tarnish resistant. Best of all, WD40 does not create a slick or otherwise noisy coat that will create finger sliding feedback while your guitar is plugged in.

3. Once you have soaked your strings with WD40, take a bottle of lemon oil and apply a small amount on a soft cotton rag. You can then use the rag to wipe any debri or grime off your fretboard and frets. This will give you a clean start so that any previous debri does not automatically start attacking your strings as soon as you install them. (please note that you should make sure to test the lemon oil in a small spot before using as in some instances it may remove small bits of finish or laquer on a fretboard & make sure that the fretboard is the only place you apply the lemon oil)

4.You may now install your new "coated" strings onto your guitar.

Now, here are some tips that will even further the life of your strings:

1. When your strings become dirty and start losing their "sound", you may apply a small amount of WD40 or lemon oil (both will remove grime) to a soft cotton cloth. Then loosen your strings and wipe the strings down with a light squeezing pressure from your hands so that the oil gets down and removes the grime and dirt. WD40 and lemon oil are both great products to use in removing dirt because the oil actually gets down in the coils of the wire and will break up the compressed dirt and then the cloth (along with pressure from your hand) will help remove it completely. When done wiping down, carefully tighten your strings and tune them back to however you like.

2. The number one cause for string decay is the grime and sweat that is transferred from your hand to your strings when playing. To greatly reduce the amount of dirt that is transferred, wash your hands before playing your guitar (especially when you have brand new strings). This is by far the best method of making your strings last longer and I swear by this method as every time I play my guitar I wash my hands before hand. This has allowed me to get my D'addario strings to last up to 3 months in which they still sound almost as great as when I first purchased them.

3. One thing that I do while changing strings is to completely condition and clean my guitar. As this sounds kind of stupid, you are removing your strings from the guitar, so you have a chance to get all the hard to reach spaces along your fretboard and pickups that are normally hard to clean when strings are installed. I normally just use some wood polish or other product that is safe on the wood and finish of your guitar. I wipe the entire guitar down and remove almost all finger prints. I also take a Q-tip and clean out the dust along my pickups. This method not only removes some dirt buildup that could possibly effect your strings, it also just gives you a clean, shiny, and in most cases better sounding guitar (since grime often dampens the sound of your guitar).

I hope this has at least given you some ideas and will help some people that do not wish to purchase coated strings such as Elixer strings. I am in no way saying that any string is better over the other, but I do prefer this method over purchasing "coated" strings as they cost much more than I am willing to spend for one set of electric guitar strings. I also must tell you that while these products have in no way harmed my guitar, I urge you to test products like WD40 or lemon oil in a small spot before using all over the entire guitar. This way, you will prevent any large damage that could result.

Lastly, this is my first lesson so I hope that this was a satisfactory tutorial. If you feel that I could improve upon this lesson, please feel free to leave CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. If you do not like my methods of "coating my strings", feel free to post any other products or cheap DIY methods in a calm and non-aggressive manner. Thanks and I hope everyone gets a long string life by using these methods/tips.

Tips on Playing Guitar Solo

2009-01-30T06:54:00.001-08:00

Tips on playing guitar solo

Guitar solos revolve around the improvisation of scales. Hence, knowing the scales very well will help you in learning guitar solo. I feel that the major, minor, harmonic and pentatonic scales are the most useful. Not only does it increase your overall movement, it also makes sure you use the correct fingering. Of course another important way to master guitar solos is to practice. The more you practice, the better you get, it is the law of nature.

Soloing is more than just a couple of scales, and patterns. It is used to express feelings. The pentatonic scales give a rather sad feeling. So, if one is looking to make a sad solo, he or she can improvise on one of the pentatonic scales.

I am going to give you an example, the Harmonic Minor Scale and the pentatonic minor; both are awesome and unique scales. Gary Moore used the Harmonic minor scale for blues sound, in the song 'I still got the Blues'. Hopefully, you can clearly see that solo are improvisation of scales.

If you don't improve your soloing with a bend, a pull-off, etc. Your solo may still sound like a scale. So what can you do in order to play a good solo?? First of all, you must know the key of the song. Mostly the key of a song is the first note you start playing on it. Always make use of techniques like bending, tapping and such to add colors to your solo. Take a look at dragon force ‘inside the winter storm’ or practically and dragon force songs, played by Herman Li, you will realize that his solo is filled with different techniques such as power chords, sliding, tapping and palm muting.

So, the bottom line is, master your scales before learning any guitar solo. Then, try to improve the solo using various types of guitar techniques.

Speed Training Guitar Exercises

2009-01-30T06:53:00.002-08:00

Speed Training

The key to playing fast is not about practicing fast. This can be hard to understand. But, speed comes from practice. My guitar teacher used to scold me whenever I played fast. Why? He told me that playing fast will not be beneficial. You will probably be thinking. But when you do running, you run as fast as you can so as to improve your stamina. However, this same principle does not apply to playing a guitar.

Constantly dedicated 15-30mins a day to do a speed exercise will help. The good thing about speed training is it helps train your fingers to be independent. Especially playing rock and roll etc, speed is what makes it nice. By practicing slowly, it allows you to be able to play fast and slow. Ever seen a guitarist who is able to play very fast, yet unable to play slowly?

That’s me last time! However, I have heeded the advice of my teacher. And now, I am able to play both fast and slow. Look up various websites for speed exercise. While speed exercise can be very tiring, it is very beneficial. In speed training, you need determination to do it. Doing the same exercise non-stop, not even a second, for 15-30mins is really no joke!

‘Speed comes naturally’ says my teacher. I did not believe it last time. But, either ways, I listened to him and did everything slowly. For god’s sake, I did not have much time to practice guitar daily. With the limited time, I wanted to maximize my practice by doing more scales and exercises. However, when I did slowly, it kind of made me feel unproductive. But now, thinking back, I feel that quality comes before quantity. So for all you guys looking to play fast, practice slowly, and consistently! Remember, slow and easy wins the race!

Effect pedals and devices

2009-01-30T06:53:00.001-08:00

Electric guitarist seldom just use the amp along and play, they make use of different types of effects to make good music. Some effects that i will talk about include distortion, chorus, phase shifter, pitch shifter, digital delay, wah-wah pedal, reverb and tremolo. A good multi effects pedal brand is ZOOM.

Distortion
This effect makes the sound driven too hard for the amp. Most guitarist will make use of this effect because it creates a musical pleasing way. Distortion can be anything from fuzzy to a screaming chain-saw fuzz used by bands who play metal.

Chorus
This effect makes the overall sound sound fatter, which sounds like the sound of many guitarist playing all at one time.

Phrase Shifter
This effect allows you to play in harmony alone through splitting the signal into two paths. It is really useful when practicing a song alone as it allows you to play in harmony.

Digital delay
This device produces a repetition of the sound, just like echoes. It also created rhythmically timed repeats of the notes you play. One famous band that uses this is Guns N' Roses.

Wah-wah pedal
This effect plays with the frequency. You can control the sound by raising and lowering the pedal. The world famous dragonforce makes use of this pedal to make all sorts of weird sounds.

Reverb
This effect reproduces the natural echo sound produced. It is sometimes included in amps. While the ones include in amps are not bad, having reverb as a separate will give you more variety and control.

Tremolo
Similar to reverb, it is included in many amps. Tremolo is the rapid wavering of the volume that makes your guitar sound as if you are playing it through a slowly moving electric fan.

Buying Guitar Straps

2009-01-30T04:51:00.000-08:00

There are couple of guitar equipments which you will need when playing guitar. For experts who go live on stage, a guitar strap is something that you definitely need to use. Without a strap, how are you even going to hold your guitar on stage?

Choosing a strap may be difficult to some extend. Here, let me share with you some tips on buying a guitar strap.

1) Top priority when buying a guitar strap is for it to feel comfortable. Nothing else matters when buying a guitar strap. Any other consideration should be off the list.

2) Make sure your guitar strap suits your music genre and personality. And finally, just note that until you become a rock god or some guitar idol, a guitar strap isn't one of those things you should take a mortgage for. Do not attempt to buy a guitar strap which doesnt suit your genre of music. Of course, do bear in mind priority number 1.

Ready to buy guitar strap now? Go check the different types of guitar straps available in the market! Be it fabric or leather guitar strap, you will need one if you intend to play live!

Spending Money On Electric Guitar

2009-01-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the difference between a $500 and a $700 electric guitar isn't that much. I would choose to buy the $500 in this case. Of course, the feel of the electric guitar and such also comes into place when choosing an electric guitar. What i feel that you should do is to spend less money on a guitar. Maybe, you could feel the difference? But I can't really feel the difference. Mostly, the 2 things that i would say when buying a guitar is, its good or its not for me. That's all. Instead, spend your money on other equipments for guitar such as a better amplifier?

Power Chords 3

2009-01-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

Power chords can be used as a stretching excercise for guitar players. Of course, that is if you know how to! But don't worry, I will now show you how to make use of power chords as a stretching exercise.

Guitarist, firstly form the power chord pattern 3-5-5 on the bass strings, starting with the thickest e.g E and ending with D string. Using this power chord, move up and down the frets 1 - 5. E.g 1-3-3, 5-3-3. Strum the 3 strings about times. For guitarist who are able to play 8th notes, then play it in a rhythmic way. Otherwise, simply the strum it 8 times.

Actually, it really does not matter which power chord pattern you use. The key is to play it along the top part of the fretboard. Example: within frets 1-7. Why? Because the top part of the fretboard is always harder to read as compared to the lower. Don't believe? Try it! As it is harder to reach, your fingers are going to have to stretch in order to reach them. Also by moving your power chords along the frets, you will be able to feel the stretch in your hand.

We have talked about maximising your practice time. I would say this guitar exercise would be killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Why do i say so? Because it enables you to stretch further and as well as to increase your strumming speed on your guitar! Why not take your guitar and work it out now?

You Can Learn to Play Classical Guitar

2009-01-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

Did you take guitar lessons in high school? Can you strum a few bars of a Bob Dylan song, or play along with the Rolling Stones? If you are considering learning classical guitar, you are in for a whole new experience! Classical guitar is considered to be an art; one that has been practiced for hundreds of years. It has a history all of its own. Before you begin learning to play classical guitar, you will want to study its history and learn a few other things that make the classical guitar different from a regular acoustic guitar.

The main difference between classical and regular acoustic guitar is the way that you play them. A classical guitar has to almost become a part of you. Your body needs to move with the guitar as you play. Let yourself feel the rhythms and the melody and be caught up in them. If you are willing to take this approach, the music you play will have much more passion and movement than if you sit straight up and strum stiffly on the guitar.

Playing classical guitar requires the musician to be relaxed, both in mind and in body, and to become part of the music. Any thoughts or ideas you have of playing acoustic guitar will probably not apply to classical guitar. Be open to changing any habits or ideas that you have; this will help you to learn more quickly and to become a classical guitar player that people love to listen to.

Why Learning Guitar Scales Is Important

2009-01-28T02:02:00.000-08:00

Learning guitar scales is important, even if you think it almost as boring as learning chords. The problem with many new guitarists who have just started learning is that they want to go too far too soon. That is the road to disaster, as many failed guitarists will tell you.

Have you ever seen these piano players learning how to play, when they are going up and down the octaves playing their scales? Well, they are putting money in the bank because it will help them later when they have to play certain note combinations without thinking. If you are going to be a good lead guitarist, or a solo guitarist of any description in any genre, you too will have to spend time learning your guitar scales.

So, the question that many non-musicians ask. What are scales, and why are they so important? Scales are combinations of notes, ascending or descending, normally within an octave. The major scales are the basis of all other scales, and start and end on the same not. They go in the order whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half-whole, the wholes and halves representing steps. Thus, for the scale of D: D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# - D.

Scales are chosen because they are melodic and harmonic, and once learned, they can be used to produce tunes that are pleasing to the ear. When learning guitar, you will come across the pentatonic scale, which is derived from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of the corresponding major scale. Thus, the pentatonic D will be D - E - F# - A - B

There are a number of reasons for learning scales, one being that they are fundamental to learning the theory of music, and if your ambition is to become a classical guitarist, then you will also be required to learn about the theory of music. They allow you to learn about harmonics and pitch, and the effects of sharps and flats. Some note combinations are discordant to the ear, and scales will make it a great deal easier for you to compose a series of notes that will sound good.

Another reason, more important to guitarists, is that they enable you to play a series of notes without thought that will sound good, especially when played fast. Most fast guitar riffs and solos would sound meaningless if played slowly, but sound great when played fast. That is because they are based upon the pentatonic scales. You could conceivably use a major or minor scale, but with a pentatonic, you only have to learn combinations of 5 notes.

By learning a few pentatonic scales, you will be able to play fast guitar licks up and down the frets, using the same 5 notes in the same order. If you listen to the main solo in 'Bohemian Rhapsody', written by Brian May, that is played using a pentatonic scale, as is 'Eruption' by Eddie Van Halen. You can play the same notes over a number of octaves and it will sound great, because the notes are a scale that is pleasing the ear. Hence, the importance to a lead guitar player of learning guitar scales.

Once you get up on stage and start playing, you are not going to remember a complex series of notes to make up a rapid guitar solo. You have to play the notes by rote. If you have learned a guitar scale, the pentatonic in particular, you will be able to play anywhere on the neck of your guitar, as long as the notes are true.

Sure, you will have to change it for each string, and according to where on the neck you play it, but the notes will be the same and they will always be played in the same order. In practise, it doesn't matter to you if they are sharps or flats or neither: you are just playing the notes, and don't have to understand the theory. If you have learned your guitar scales properly, then you won't have to remember because of the muscle memory involved.

It's the same with chords. If you have learned your chords properly, you don't have to figure where to put your fingers, you just play the chord and you fingers automatically get them right due to the muscle memory of repetition and revision. You don't start a new song in your gig, and then wonder what the chords are: they come automatically, and so do the scales when you need them.

That's why learning guitar scales is important, and why you shouldn't screw up your face when asked to play them. It's money in the bank, that you will withdraw when you are finally standing alone in front of 10,000 screaming people and striking up the first note of your fabulous guitar solo. It's only dozens of repetitions of a pentatonic scale, but they don't know that - they think you are fabulous - a star- and all because you took the time to learn your guitar scales.

Online Guitar Lesson

2009-01-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

Looking for online guitar lesson? Well, some are of course useful, like jamorama. But of course, if you do wish to look for free online guitar lessons. Then what I suggest is to check out youtube for great lessons. I have found countless of free online guitar lessons. Most of the time, they prove to be better than text lessons. Why not search youtube for online guitar lesson? But of course, do keep in mind that jamorama offers good online guitar lesson, although its payable.

Fender Electric Guitar

2009-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

I recently fell in love in fender telecaster. Its sound is excellent and wow, the feel is good! Was at my musical school and used the fender telecaster during my lesson. The guitar has a good feel. I think that it is perfect for metal! Of course, it maybe because the distortion of the amplifier was good. Either ways, i love it! It looks very attractive, better than a les paul guitar in my opinion. Well, i feel its quite expensive to a certain extend. But if you are really into music, fender telecaster should be a guitar that is in your considering list!

Alternate Picking For Guitar

2009-01-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

The best way to begin alternate picking is to simply play steady down-updown-
up patterns on an open string. If you can maintain a steady rhythm and experience no glitches or hesitations in either direction, you’re doing well.

However, many people initially have trouble making their upstrokes as smooth and loud as their downstrokes. This is natural, because you play many more downstrokes in guitar than upstrokes. Also, upstrokes go against gravity and require a little more effort to maintain smoothness all through the stroke. Just keep practicing, making sure that your upstrokes come up with the same swift confidence that your downstrokes have.

Don’t think too much about your pick strokes, though — simply play as much as you can with a pick, and your picking will be smooth as butter in time. Smoothness in picking is the same as achieving gracefulness in dancing or skiing. You get there by doing it — over and over.

Bass Guitar Tablatures

2009-01-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

A guitar tab is a system of notations, letters, symbols and other visual representations - instead of the traditional musical notation. Guitar tabs give directions to the player as to how to play a musical piece through a diagram of strings of the guitar.

Tablature consists of a diagram of strings of the guitar with finger positions indicated by numbers corresponding to the appropriate frets and sometimes with the numerical representations of the fingers. Guitar tabs are very important for those who are enthusiasts and are keen on learning new tunes and technicalities of guitar and especially those songs which have extensive guitar uses, both plucking and other types of fingering as well as lead parts.

A bass guitar is slightly different in shape from other guitars (rhythm guitar, classical guitar, Hawaiian guitar, etc.) A bass guitar is used for complementing and filling up the sound in an orchestration or a band and it goes in tune and rhythm with the drums and percussion. A bass guitar’s neck or fret board is much longer than the fret boards of any other guitars and it has four strings called the bass strings.

Nowadays tablatures, guitar tabs in particular, have vertical lines which represent the strings of the guitar (no matter what kind of guitar it is) horizontal lines for the frets, and dots signifying the position of the figures. In the case of a bass guitar there will only be four horizontal lines signifying the four strings of the bass guitar. A bass guitar can never be played with a spectrum (an object used to strum the strings of the guitar). Instead, it is played with figures just by plucking. Therefore, a bass guitar tablature is different from those of the rhythm or the classical guitars.

Tips On Buying DrumSticks!

2009-01-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

What brand of drumsticks do you guys use? How does it feels to you? Comfortable? Rough? Getting blisters easily? While for this post, I’m going to talk more about drumsticks for you drummers and those who are really interested in drumming.

As you know, the pair of sticks are the most important component for a drummer, the most basic pair of thing that is needed for you to start drumming. There are so many brands of sticks in the world. E.g. Vic Firth, Zildjian, Promark, Vater etc. From my own personal experience, I have actually tried all these different brands of sticks, including some other brands which I have forgotten. They have differences in durability and a little of grip I must say. After all, it still comes down to the size and measurements you are looking for. I have adopted the hobby of buying drumsticks when I just started playing drums, while now I know which would be the right one for me.

You see, the first drumsticks I had was a Zildjian one, the Tim Alexander if I’m not wrong. It was a good pair but I’m keen on experimenting other kinds. Then I went on to get the Travis Barker signature sticks and Tre Cool ones which are also manufactured by Zildjian. But I found out, they actually are too big for an asian hand like mine, it restricts my speed on the drums. So I experimented and found out that the Vic Firth 85A sticks are the most durable and suitable for me. I like them very much and have been using them ever since. And remember, get something which fits you properly and not buy those sticks cause you idolise the drummers. They are probably more suitable for collection and stuffs like that. Cheers!

Maximising Guitar Practice Time

2009-01-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

Ever realise that you are progressing slowly although spending a lot of time? Then, I will share with you 3ways on how to maximize your guitar practice time.

1) Firstly, always plan ahead. Make sure you are aware of what you want to do. For example, if you wish to improve your speed, then setting aside time on speed exercises will be good for you. Of course, you do need to set aside practice time to practice your guitar. Follow a plan, and you would maximize your guitar practice time.

2) Do not fool around during guitar practice time. Well, you probably say that it is ridiculous. For me, I find myself playing random things while practicing. This is the reason why guitar practice time anint productive! By focusing on the work at hand, be it guitar scales or so, you will definitely get better and maximize your guitar practice time!

3) Look for good exercises that have double benefits. What exactly do I mean? What I am talking about are exercises that not only improve an aspect of guitar. Take scales for example. They are good exercises because they not only improve your moving speed across the frets, they also help you strengthen your fingers. Instead of looking for exercises that only target one area, look for exercises that improve more, this way, you will be maximizing your guitar practice time!

Drum Recording

2009-01-25T19:54:00.000-08:00

We will talk about drum recordings in this post. Based on my personal experience and not professional recording stuff, its all DIY-ed if you have realised I have mentioned in my other posts.

Basically you will need:
- 2 overhead mics
- 1 kick drum mic
- 1 condenser mic for the snare

To set this up, firstly you will need to judge how high the overheads would be placed from the toms. Approximately around 1/2 to 3/4 of a metre from the snare would do. Next, a microphone pointing towards the centre of the snare, for more precise and accurate sound tone. The mic would be placed probably around 3-5 inches away from the snare. Next the kick drum mic. While if there’s no hole in the outer skin of your bass drum, then place the mic as close to the skin but not touching it. If there is, place the mic directly towards the placement of the beater, which is most likely in the centre of the skin. This would ensure a full and sharp sound and not a very blurry and blunt one.

After that, just plug your laptop into a mixer, adjust the volumes and start recording!

Professional Recording?

2009-01-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to record your own song composition pieces but unwilling to pay the huge prices for professional recording? Then you could do it now with your own DIY method! I’ll show you how.

So I would be talking about the tone port for this post. Well basically, its a device that links your electric guitar to your laptop computer, so that whatever sound or notes played on the guitar could be recorded into the laptop, into a software called mixcraft which is mentioned earlier on. This tone port could also be used to link the microphone to the laptop computer. In which it would mean that you could record all your songs by having just the tone port and the necessary instruments!

I would recommend you to use the Line 6 brand for tone ports based on my experience of using it. Well, it gives a clear sound to the guitar notes and its at affordable price, probably around SGD$30-40.

And that’s not all, you could get an even better one with special effects sounds for a higher amount. However, drum recordings would not be applicable for this tone port. We will talk more about the set-up for drum recordings in the next post! So stay in tune!

Check Out My Band!!

2009-01-25T04:35:00.000-08:00

For fans of melodic hardcore punk, you could check out my band called Reckless Landing @ www.myspace.com/recklesslanding

Guitar Writing Tips

2009-01-25T04:34:00.000-08:00

The techniques covered in this lesson are as follows:

Legato
Vibrato
Bends
Slides

Legato

Legato is a technique which uses hammer-ons and pull-offs to create the sound of all the notes rolling fluidly together. It can be useful when playing fast because you do not have to pick a hammer-on or a pull-off. It is a fairly versatile technique, allowing you to use from one to four fingers anywhere across the fretboard. A legato lick tends to be fast and smooth. It is good for builds or quick runs from point A to point B. All of the examples that follow are in F Major.

Example - Legato
e|---------------------------------|
B|-------------1h3p1-----3p1-------|
G|-------0h2h3-------3p2-----3p2---|
D|-0h2h3-------------------------3-|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Open strings can be useful for fast legato runs because it gives you that brief moment when your hand is released from the fretboard. This gives you the chance to move your hand into a new position.

Example - Legato 2
e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|-3p2p0---------------------------|
D|---------3p2p0-----------3p2p0---|
A|-----------------3p1p0-----------|
E|---------------------------------|

Legato doesn't have to come on so strong though. If, for example, you wanted a quick burst of speed to delay a resolution:

Example - Legato 3
e|---------------------------------|
B|-------------------------3-------|
G|-------------------0h2p0---------|
D|---2-----------0h2---------------|
A|-------3---1h3-------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

A hammer-on or pull-off does not have to follow a played string. You can simply hammer on to a string at a certain fret and, if done hard enough, that string will play. This also works with pull-offs, though obviously the note plays when you remove your finger rather than hit the fret with it. Legato can be used anywhere and it isn't just limited to two fingers so give it a try and see what you can come up with.

Vibrato

Everybody's vibrato technique is different. This means it can be used to create some truly unique licks. Vibrato is also a vocal technique. It is the act of altering the pitch of a note upwards and downwards. This can be done very slightly or quite a lot. It can be done by moving your finger up and down the fret after picking the note or by dragging the string back and forth across the fret. It can be done either fast or slow and can be sustained as long as the vibration of the string. In the following examples how wide the vibrato and how long you sustain it is up to you.

Example - Vibrato
e|-------3v---------1v------3p1p0-|
B|---3----------1-----------------|
G|--------------------------------|
D|--------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|

Or perhaps we could try something even more simple:

Example - Vibrato 2
e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|-----------3v--------------------|
D|---2v--------------3v------------|
A|---------------------------3v----|
E|---------------------------------|

Keeping it simple we're going to do a simple vibrato run through the chord tones of Fmaj7 (F,A,C,E).

Example - Vibrato 3
e|---------------------------0v----|
B|-------------------1v------------|
G|-----------2v--------------------|
D|---3v----------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

If you're not sure how to vibrate an open string simple pick the note and push down on the string above the nut. The more extreme the action when performing the vibrato the more the note will fluxuate, so be sure to experiment yourself.

Bends

Bends and Vibrato are closely related, but bends tend to be more extravagant and often they are only used to raise the pitch. To bend you play a note and pull the string across the fretboard, staying within the confines of the fret played. The further you pull the string, the higher the pitch is raised. Bends are a particular favourite amongst soloists across the world. They can be very versatile. The bend itself can go wherever you want it. You can bend and then return should you wish, you can also pre-bend or bend multiple strings at once. There are many options. Unfortunately I only have a few examples, so be sure to try out a few things yourself and see what fun noises come out.

Example - Bends
e|---------------------------------|
B|-----------3p1p0h3b--------------|
G|---3b---------------------2b-----|
D|---------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Another example, only this time instead of legato I've put some vibrato in.

Example - Bends 2
e|---------------------------1v----|
B|-------------------1---3---------|
G|-----------2b--------------------|
D|---3b--2b------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Finally I'll have a look at bending multiple strings at once in this last example.

Example - Bends 3
e|-----------3p1p0-----------------|
B|---3b--------------1---3b--------|
G|-----------------------2b--------|
D|---------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

When bending multiple strings at once be advised to choose your notes carefully. The ones I've chosen make up an inverted D5. Obviously there are still a ton of possibilities to examine so go for it and see what you can come up with.

Slides

Slides are another technique useful in getting from point A to point B. They are done by playing a note on one fret, then sliding your finger up the frets to another one, all the while holding down the string to maintain it's vibrations. They can be large or small, subtle or blatantly obvious. You can slide out of a lick and you can even slide into a lick. Lets have a play with slides shall we?

Example - Slides
e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------1/5v--------------|
G|-----------2/3-----------3\2v----|
D|---3v----------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

A simple little lick that doesn't go very far, but introduces the sound of slides. Let's try something a little bigger now.

Example - Slides 2
e|---------------------------------|
B|-------------------------1///8---|
G|-------------------3p2p0---------|
D|-----------8\\\3v----------------|
A|---1/7h8p7-----------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

This lick has much bigger slides and I've also added legato in alongside the previous vibrato. Quick, short slides can sound very similar to legato, but when practising technique it is important to practise the correct one.

Example - Slides 3
e|----------------------------------|
B|----------------------------------|
G|------------------5h7p5-----------|
D|--------------7\5---------7\------|
A|--/8p7v---------------------------|
E|----------------------------------|

This example introduces sliding in and sliding out. To slide in fret a note without picking it and then slide up from it. To slide out pick the note and slide down as normal, but instead of having a destination note to slide to slide all the way down instead and gradually withdraw your finger as you go.

Acoustical Mixcraft

2009-01-25T00:43:00.000-08:00

Acoustical Mixcraft

This topic would be about the other software from Acoustica. It is called the “Acoustica Mixcraft”. Of course, for this software, it is applicable to use it to mix tracks that are recorded and combine them to construct a nicely toned song. While many professionals use this software to do their song mixing, normal people like you and me could even use it too, for our own DIY mixing. The good thing about this software is that it is affordable and has good functionality.

Here’s one of my own personal experience of using it. I have my band songs recorded using our own DIY methods, that is, without professional recording studio or mixing system. We bought our own drum microphones and overheads to record the tracks, using mixcraft, while connecting the laptop into a volume mixer in a jamming studio. The drummer will have his take, and once successful, we record other parts like the guitars, bass and vocals using a toneport – this instrument here would be talked about in the next post, so do follow up!

By using a layered track format, we manage to combine these recorded tracks together and mix it using mixcraft. Once satisfied, the song will then be exported out in any song format you want and there you go, a recorded song using DIY materials and Acoustica Mixcraft!

Acoustica Beatcraft

2009-01-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to introduce this drum machine software called Acoustica Beatcraft. While it is best used to experiment different styles of drum beats for songs ranging from the wide variety of tempos, it can also be used for inputting the drum tracks for songs. So this way, even if you’re only a guitarist, you can compose and make your own composition into a full song by adding the drum track to your recorded melody. This can be done by also using the software “Acoustica Mixcraft” for mixing the tracks together. While I will explain the functionality of “Acoustica Mixcraft” more in the next post.

Back to the software “Acoustica Beatcraft”. This is a pretty good software from my experience of using it. Definitely better than Guitar Pro software which focuses more on guitar tabs obviously. I use beatcraft when I want to experiment new playing styles for some songs and I could test out whether it sounds nice on it. The different parts of the drums are available, in different beat-timings, like counts of 4 and 8, and different kinds of percussion sets are also available to choose from. E.g. Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz etc. This would be the exact program you would be looking for!

Improvement to Blog

2009-01-25T00:21:00.000-08:00

This blog will now not talk only about guitars. It will compromise of other instruments such as drums and so! So, be excited about news about guitars, drums and more!

Soloing On Bass Guitar!

2009-01-24T23:39:00.001-08:00

In this lesson I will show you the techniques I use for playing bass solo’s to hopefully help you write your own. So here goes.

Starting from the start you need some knowledge of scales. The most simple types of scale are major and minor and are played as follows: major à c to c with no sharps or flats (c, d, e, f, g, a, b, c or tone, tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semi-tone). Minor à a to a with no sharps or flats (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, a or tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone). Here are some examples of major and minor scales:

C Major:
G|--------0-2-3-5-|
D|--0-2-3---------|
A|3---------------|
E|----------------|

E Major:
G|-----------------|
D|-------------1-2-|
A|-------0-2-4-----|
E|-0-2-4-----------|

F Major:
G|----------------|
D|----------0-2-3-|
A|----0-1-3-------|
E|1-3-------------|

C Minor:
G|--------0-1-3-5-|
D|--0-1-3---------|
A|3---------------|
E|----------------|

E Minor:
G|----------------|
D|------------0-2-|
A|------0-2-3-----|
E|0-2-3-----------|

F Minor:
G|----------------|
D|------------1-3-|
A|------1-3-4-----|
E|1-3-4-----------|

The usual technique for playing solos is to find out what key your song is in and then improvise or write notes from that scale over the backing music. When you play over chords you will need to know what chords are being played, and then play the notes in that chord. So if you are playing over a chord of c major then the notes in that chord are the ones, which will sound the best (c, e and g). You can still use other notes in the scale, but they will not sound as appealing as the chord notes.

Slap solos.
Nearly all of the bass solo's I've heard have included some slap in them. In case you're new to bass, slap is where you make a fist and hit the string with your thumb. There are a few ways to incorporate scales into a slap solo. One, which is the most obvious, is to play a normal solo but slap it. A few others include left hand taps (not actually plucking the note but bringing your finger down and making a sound) and index finger/thumb pops (pulling the string up and letting go creating a twanging sound). These techniques will make the solo sound faster, but will require more skill to make them sound good. Below is an example of a slap, pop, tap solo in e minor:

G|----------------------------|
D|-------------2-----2-2------|
A|---------3P2---3P2----------|
E|-0-0-2-2---------------X-3-0|
S S S S P P T P P S P P

Another way to play a slap solo is to play the notes in a scale but slap another note in between them. This "offbeat" note can be in the scale or not. An example is shown below

(this is in a minor)
G|-----------------------------------------------|
D|----------------------------2------------------|
A|--0---2---3---2---0---2---3-----0---2---3p2p0--|
E|0---0---0---0---0---0---0-----0---0---0-------0|
S P S P S P S P S P S P S P P S P S P S P S

With the last technique you can change the Es or whatever note you’re using for a dead note and it will sound just as good.

Tremolo slap.
This next technique I don't know the name for, when I thought it up I didn’t know of anyone else who did it so I named it myself as tremolo slap. It is a slap technique but it gives the impression of a tremolo pick on guitar. What you do is play the normal slap note, and then on the way back slap again with your fourth finger. If you can get this fast it will sound amazing with a minimal amount of effort. I suggest practising scales, but doing them with this technique to build up your speed.

Moving scales around.
The scales I gave as examples don't have to be played like I've shown them. These are just the basic majors and minors of notes. You can play around with these scales, try flattening the seventh of a minor scale for a bluesy sound, or flatten the seventh of a major scale for an even brighter sound. The possibility’s are only as limited as your imagination! Also, the scales don’t need to stay within these boundaries, you can move them up and down the fretboard as long as you stay within the notes of the scale. You can add accidentals to the solo but don't add too many as this will make it sound sloppy and in some cases may even put it in a different key!

Well that's all, I hope this inspires you to create better solo's and helps you in the process as well. Thanks for giving it a read!

Finger Picking

2009-01-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

First off, fingerpicking is when your not using a pick to play your guitar, and instead you use your fingers, mostly your thumb, index, and middle fingers(all at the same time). Now here's and example:

|-----|
|-2---|
|-2---|
|-----|
|-----|
|-2---|

Here you would use your thumb to play low E, your index finger for G, and you middle finger for B. Once you feel comfortable playing this chord, try playing this simple rhythm:

|-------------------|
|-2---2---2---2-----|
|-2---2---2---2-----|
|-------------------|
|-------------------|
|---2---2---2---2---|

You can also try a simple scale with fingerpicking:

Use your thumb and index finger
|-3--5--7--8--10--12--14--15--|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|
|-3--5--7--8--10--12--14--15--|

With enough practice, you can then try to play Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and I'll just give you the intro from the tab on the site and a video of me playing the first bit of the song, here it is:

|--------------------|-----------------------------|
|--------------------|--------2h3p2----5-----5--2--|
|--------------------|-----2--------2--4-----4--2--|
|--------------------|-----------------------------|
|--------------------|--0--------------------------|
|----------------0h2-|-----------------4--4-----2--|

 F#m        A(onE)         D(onF#)     E7sus4E7   
-------------------------|-------------------------|
-------2-----2-----2-----|--3-----3-----3-----3----|
-------2-----2-----2-----|--2-----2-----2-----1----|
-------------------------|-------------------------|
-------------------------|-------------------------|
----2-----2--0--0-----0--|--2--2-----2--0--0--0----|

 A                          
------------------------|
--2-----2-----2-----2---|
--2-----2-----2-----2---|
------------------------|
--0--0-----0--0--0--0---|
------------------------|

Finger picking is good! Try finger picking NOW!

Jamorama

2009-01-24T23:35:00.000-08:00

Jamorama is a fantastic website to learn how to guitar. Well, of course, this is purely my opinion about learning guitars. You can check out the testimonies, and who knows? You might end up signing up and rocking with your guitar!

FREE Guitar Software

2009-01-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

Looking for Guitar Pro Torrent or Software? Don't worry!

TuxGuitar

Tux guitar is a FREE software that opens and play Guitar Pro file!. The playback doesn’t sound as good as the Guitar Pro software, and it doesn’t have nearly as many features, but this is certainly more convenient than opening up .pdf files one at a time for people who don’t have Guitar Pro. Visit http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/download.html now to download it for free!

Cleaning Your Guitar

2009-01-24T01:39:00.000-08:00

It is very important to care for your guitar. You would not just clean your guitar using a piece of cloth. Why? Because your guitar needs to be polished and cleaned using fretboard conditioners and such. Do not merely clean your guitar with water, that is not caring for your guitar! So would you treat your guitar by cleaning it properly? Head down to the nearest guitar shop to get the right solutions for your guitar!

Learning Jazz Chords

2009-01-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

This lesson will be about common jazz chords, how they are written, and common ways to play them. And common practices to sightread them. I highly recommend reading my other lesson, "Identifying Intervals", I use a lot of that information in this lesson.

The Dominant Seventh.
The dominant 7th chord is the most used chord in jazz. A dominant seven is a flatted 7th. A dominant 7th chord consists of the Root note, the Major 3rd, an optional 5th, and the dominant 7th. A Dominant (or minor 7th). 7th can be identified when you have a note on the same fret, two strings above. It is sometimes called a "Major Minor" chord.

   C7
|--8---------|
|--8-----5---|
|--9--3--3---|
|--8--2--5---|
|--10-3--3---|
|--8---------|

The Major Seventh Chord.
This can be a really nice sounding chord if played and used correctly. The Major 7 chord consists of the root note, the major 3rd, an optional 5th (makes the chord sound fuller in this case), and the Major Seventh. The major seventh is a step below the octave. The major 7th chord is usually notated in jazz as a maj7, because if it just said 7, it would imply Dominant. This chord is sometimes referred to as a "Major Major" chord, or a Delta chord.

  Cmaj7
|--8-----3---|
|--8-----5---|
|--9--4--4---|
|--9--2--5---|
|--10-3--3---|
|--8---------|

The Minor Seventh Chord.
This chord is also extremely common in a lot of forms in music. The -7 Chord consists of the root, the minor 3rd, optional 5th, and the minor/flat seven. A common way to notate this in jazz sheet music is either like -7, m7, or min7.

   Cm7
|------------8--|
|--8---4-----8--|
|--8---3--3--8--|
|--8---5--1--8--|
|------3--3-----|
|--8------------|

9th Chords.
A 9th chord comes in a few different ways. The 9th is a compound Second interval. It can be an added voice to either a minor or dominant 7th chord. The 9 ALWAYS implies the 7th in the chord unless it is written ass an add9 chord. When simply stated as a C9, it consists of the 1, M3, P5, m7, M9. The -9, m9, or min9 chords are the same thing, but with a minor 3rd.

   C9
|------------|
|-----3------|
|--7--3------|
|--8--2------|
|--7--3------|
|--8---------|

  Cm9
|--10--------|
|--8---3-----|
|--7---3-----|
|--8---1-----|
|--10--3-----|
|--8---------|

b5 or Half Diminished Chords.
Flat 5 chords are all too common in jazz. Almost in every jazz song in a minor key. The ii chord in a ii v i progression is half diminished. The b5 chord is played like a Minor 7 chord, but the 5th is flat. When playing in a combo or ensemble, it almost 100% necessary to add the b5 in this chord. It can also be notated as a circle with a slash through it, meaning half diminished.

   Cm7(b5)
|------------|
|------4-----|
|--8---3-----|
|--8---4-----|
|--9---3-----|
|--8---------|

Diminished Chords.
Fully Diminished chords are used a lot in fast paced jazz. It's the same thing as the Half Diminished chord, only the 7th is boubly flat. bb7, if you will. It's very complicated to play, I'll admit. In the third example, the root is in the high voice. This chord is not the most beautiful thing ever. Sometimes notated as just a small circle.

   Cdim
|---------8--|
|------4--7--|
|--8---2--8--|
|--7---4--7--|
|--9---3-----|
|--8---------|

13th Chords.
13th chords have a little debate going on with guitarists. In classical music and technical theory, a true 13 chord consists of the 1, 3, 5, m7, 9, 11, and 13. But in classical writing, You only need the 1, 3, 5, m7, and 13, because there aren't enough parts, or fingers to have the 9 and 11. So, for what were learning here, you should only voice the 1, 3, 5, m7, and 13. And maybe omit the 5, it's sorta redundant at this point. The 13 is a compound 6th.

C13   
|------5------|
|--10--5------|
|--9---3------|
|--8---5------|
|------3------|
|--8----------|

6th Chords.
Simply put, the 1, 3, 5, and 6. A happy little chord.

C6
|-----5------|
|--8--5------|
|--9--5------|
|--7--5------|
|--7--3------|
|--8---------|

Minor Delta Chords.
Okay, in the key of Harmonic minor, which is natural minor with a raised 7th, means your tonic chord would be this awkward, relatively bad sounding chord. So, basically its a minor chord, but with a Major 7th, it's a relatively uncommon chord, but hey, it's out there. Sometimes called a Minor Delta, or a Minor Major chord. It can be notated like I have it, or a minor chord, with a triangle, which stands for Delta.

  Cm(maj7)
|-8---3-------|
|-8---4-------|
|-8---4-------|
|-9---5-------|
|-10--3-------|
|-8-----------|

Altered Chords.
Altered chords are pretty much self explanatory. They pretty much alter the chord slightly to give different feels, or to create chromatic voicings from other chords. Like if a chord says Cm7(b9), You'd play the 1, m3, 5, m7, and b9. Not too much to cover on this, you just have to figure out the voicings for yourself on the spot, there are way to many to Cover.

Altered Bass Chords.
Altered bass chords are also self explanatory. Most of the time, guitarists do not have to worry about them because it usually means the bass is hitting the note. Basically, in an altered bass chord, it is signified with a slash, with another note next to it which should be in the bass. Same thing with these go with altered chords, you have to figure out the voicings yourself because there are just to many to cover in a lesson.

How To Use These Shapes

Okay, so you got all this down, but you still can't keep up in your jazz band with the chords because you don't have them all "memorized". Well, all you really need to know is how to form most of these shapes, and move them around on the neck. All of these chords are movable. They are all different forms of C chords, of you move them all up a whole step, they will become different forms of D chords. That should be simple. So, all you really need to do is find your fifth and sixth string roots of the chords, and place the root note on the correct note.

My words of advice: you don't need to memorize the entire fretboard for this, I'd just get extremely familiar with the 6th and 5th strings, where most of these chords should be played. It's bad to play a 6th string root F chord, because it's so close to the nut and not all the notes are clear as you'd like them to be. It's also not the best idea to play a 5th string root G, because that’s really high up there and the guitar will stick out a lot more than you'd like it too in a combo. A comfortable spot to play these chords is from a 6th string G and the 5th string G. (in standard tuning, of course).

When looking at a piece of sheet music with chords on it. The most common strumming pattern would be to follow a "2 and 4" type pattern, accent the second, and fourth beats, and hit the bass note on 1 and 3. Hitting the bass note on 1 will give you an extra beat to get your fingers ready for the rest of the chord.

It takes a long time to get used to sightreading chords like this, I still have trouble myself. When I first started in a high school jazz band, I was completely lost, nobody to help me. I learned that the easiest way I could sightread was to play powerchords on the root of the chord being played. This got me familiar with the 5th and 6th string notes and how jazz patterns usually move. Although this sounded really really really bad in the music, it was start and helped me down the line with fluency. Then I played the basic bar chords after I could comprehend dominant, major, and minor 7 chords. This is fine if you can play it like this. It is a really good thing to leave out the 5 of the chords, because it only makes chords more filled out, which isn't really jazzy in my opinion, which is the only part of bar chords I don't like. Once you get used to the voicings that do not require the fifth, you will notice the difference.

It takes a lot of time, practice, experience, and the will to learn in order to become a fluent chord reader. Do not expect to get these as you read them. Print them out, look over a page in "The Real Book" or any other sheet of music, look through it, practice sightreading over it, and go to the next one, and repeat.

Harmonics!

2009-01-24T01:31:00.000-08:00

A. Problem:

Like in my last lesson (Economy picking), I will start by pointing out a problem that has occurred to me on UG.com, and then I will come up with a solution. The problem is again the lack of useful and clear explanations on a certain guitar technique: harmonics. The available lessons all handle one single aspect of harmonics, but nobody seems to get the bigger picture. How can you fully understand harmonics, if you only learn one aspect of it? For example, what’s the use of knowing how to produce an “artificial harmonic” if you don’t understand the whole concept of “harmonics” first?

B. Solution:

In this lesson, I will try and explain the concept of harmonics in all its varieties. To do this, I will make use of the information available in the lessons that are currently up on UG.com, and organise it in a logical order, so that everybody can understand easily what harmonics really are, and how you can use them in your playing. (I will not copy any information used in these previous lessons! I respect the work of the authors, so I will only use and adapt parts of information that I need, and explain them to you in my OWN way...)

What Are Harmonics?

To fully understand the concept of harmonics, I should begin with an explanation about what a “harmonic” in fact is. It’s a little music theory, you can skip this if you really hate this but I advise that you read it anyway, it’s easier to understand the rest of the lesson if you do.

A. Harmonics = Sound Waves:

As you probably know already, sound consists of sound waves. (Logic, isn’t it?) The guitar produces sound because the strings vibrate and produce waves, which means sound.
But a guitar string (or any other string) doesn’t just produce any wave. A sound wave consists of different waves, which vibrate at different frequencies; the mathematical sum of all those frequencies results in the actual sound that we hear. This means, when you pluck a guitar string, you hear one tone, but there are in fact more tones sounding at the same time.

I will try to explain it more clearly with an image (I just got it off the first URL on Google, so sorry to the owner, I hope I’m free to use it...). On the image, you see an open E string (the thick, low string) which is now vibrating. You can see several vibrations on the image; I will now explain to you what they mean.

The uppermost image is the string, vibrating between the bridge and the nut. You can see that the amplitude of the vibration is the greatest in the middle (this means, the motion up and down that the string makes is the greatest in the middle). You can also see that the string doesn’t vibrate at all right above the bridge and the nut. Logic, because the bridge and the nut keep the string in place!

The middle image shows the same string vibrating, but not in the same way. This time, the amplitude of the vibration is not the greatest in the middle, but at ¼ and ¾ of the string. You can see that in the middle of the string, there is a point where there is no vibration at all! From now on, we will call these points “nodes”. They will be very important in the rest of this lesson, so remember! “Nodes” are points where the string does not vibrate. On either side of the node, the string DOES vibrate, so there’s still a sound!

The bottom image shows the same string, vibrating in yet another fashion. This time, there are two nodes, and the string is vibrating around them at yet another frequency. So now we have one string, vibrating at three different frequencies! And there are a lot more frequencies that the image doesn’t show! “What does this all mean”, a lot of you might ask by now…? I will explain it to you now!

As I said before, a tone produced by a guitar actually consists of more tones sounding at the same time. This is because a guitar string doesn’t vibrate at one frequency, but at more frequencies at the same time! The mathematical sum of these frequencies results in the tone that you hear. All of these frequencies are called “harmonics”.

The top image on the picture above shows the “first harmonic” of the string. It has two nodes, one on every end of the string. The string just vibrates in between the nodes. The first harmonic is the most important harmonic, because it produces the exact note that we hear when we play the string (in this case, E). You only hear the first harmonic and not the other ones because the vibration of the first harmonic is much stronger than those of the second, third, … harmonics. The first harmonic is in fact the fundament of the note we hear: it defines the actual pitch of the note. We call it the “fundamental”.

The middle image shows the “second harmonic”: this time, there’s a node in the middle of the string, dividing the string in 2 equally long parts, vibrating at a higher frequency than the first harmonic. Therefore, it produces a higher sound (one octave), which you can’t hear because it is dominated by the fundamental. The bottom image is the “third harmonic”: again, the parts of string in between the nodes vibrate at a higher frequency, resulting in a higher tone. There are even more harmonics: fourth, fifth, … All of them vibrate at a higher frequency and add a certain percentage of tone to the fundamental tone. All of these harmonics are called “overtones”: they add a certain amount of a different pitch to the fundamental tone. That is why a guitar string doesn’t sound the same as a piano string, or a harp string. In every string, the percentage of sound that every harmonic adds to the fundamental differs; so you can play the same note on a guitar and a piano string, they will sound different. (This is called the “timbre” of an instrument.)

B. Producing Harmonics:

I will now explain how you can make the subtle sound of the harmonics (which you normally don’t hear) instead of playing the fundamental note of the string.
The trick is to “cancel out” the vibrations that you don’t want to hear, to make the sound that you want stand out. This means, you can hear the harmonics if you somehow succeed in muting the fundamental note. The problem with this is that you only need to mute the fundamental vibration of the string, but not the entire string, because then you will have no sound at all! I will now try and explain how this is done.

Remember the “nodes”? In every harmonic vibration, there are certain points where the string doesn’t vibrate at all. We can use these if we want to cancel out certain vibration frequencies; in fact, they are the key to producing harmonics!
An example: on the E string, we will now try and produce the second harmonic, so we are going to mute the fundamental vibration. How do we do this? Notice that the amplitude of the fundamental vibration is the greatest in the middle (right above the 12th fret), while in the second harmonic vibration, the middle is a node, so it doesn’t vibrate at all. If you touch the string lightly with your finger right above the 12th fret (don’t press it down, just touch the string very lightly), and pluck the string, the fundamental note will no longer be heard. That’s logic, because your finger mutes the string in a place where it would normally vibrate the hardest! On the other hand, you will notice that there’s still a bell-like, subtle sound produced by the string. This is the second harmonic you hear: it was not affected by your finger, because at the point where your finger is “muting” the string, the harmonic didn’t vibrate anyway. The vibration on either side of the node can therefore still continue, so the harmonic sound can still be heard!

(NOTE: do remove your finger from the node immediately after you have produced the harmonic, because otherwise you WILL mute the harmonic note in the end!)

What we have done now is quite simple: we muted the fundamental note, but allowed the second harmonic to continue vibrating, so that we can now hear the harmonic note. You can do the same with the third harmonic: touch the string above the nodes of the vibration (see image: fret 7 or 19), pluck it, and you will hear only the third harmonic, because you cancelled out the fundamental and the second harmonic. This goes for any other harmonic!

That’s it for the theory, I will now continue with the practical side of harmonics.
So now we know that we can produce harmonic sounds by touching the string in the correct place with your finger; that is where the node of a certain vibration is. Now you all want to know how to use this knowledge in your playing, of course!
I will now explain how you can produce harmonics in practice, both “natural” and “artificial” harmonics.

Natural Harmonics

What “natural harmonics” are, you already know. Natural harmonics are harmonics produced on an open string, just like the example I just gave. We produce natural harmonics by touching the string lightly in the correct place, cancelling out certain vibrations, leaving the harmonic note to stand out. Where can you find these nodes on the string? Below is a diagram of the most common natural harmonics (also just found on Google):

Fig. 1 shows the fundamental, which we don’t need now. Fig. 2 shows the second harmonic, with a node right above the 12th fret. This means, to produce the second harmonic, you just touch the string lightly right above the 12th fret. You will hear a note one octave higher than the fundamental.

For the 3rd harmonic, you can either touch the string over the 7th or the 19th fret: the note you hear will be one octave higher, plus the fifth note. (It’s not important if you don’t know what this means, just remember that the note you hear will be higher for each number of harmonic.) For the 4th harmonic, there are 2 possible locations: the 5th fret and the 24th fret. The 4th harmonic also has a node on the 12th fret, but if you touch the string there, you will not cancel out the second harmonic, so the 4th harmonic will not stand out.

There are more harmonics then the image shows, but they are less common because they are less strong. It’s difficult to make them stand out because they produce so little sound. With an electric guitar however, you can amplify the sound of these harmonics using gain/distortion. This way, it’s possible to produce harmonic notes over the 4th fret, right below the 3rd fret, in the middle of the 2nd and 3rd fret, … And a lot more! Experiment a little, try to produce more harmonics using distortion to amplify them.

Artificial harmonics

“Artificial harmonics” is actually a bad name, because they are just as “real” as natural harmonics. The only difference is: artificial harmonics aren’t played on open strings, but on strings that are fretted (pressed down with your left hand). Pressing a string down behind a certain fret actually alters the length of the string (which is why it produces a different note than the open string!); this also means that the nodes of the harmonics will be in a different location now!

This results in two problems:

1. We don’t know the exact location of the nodes anymore, so we don’t know where to touch the string to produce a harmonic note.
2. Even if we would know, how do we touch the string in that location? Because your left hand is busy, pressing down strings, you can’t use your left hand for both actions…

For each of these problems is a solution. II will first explain the two techniques that are used to touch the string to produce the harmonic note, using your pick hand. This solves problem number 2. I will then give a very simple answer to problem number 1.

A. Right Hand Technique: Pinch

Say, you are fretting the 3d string on the 5th fret. I just choose randomly, because artificial harmonics can be produced on any position! Let’s say you know exactly where the node for the second harmonic is (in fact, it should be right in the middle of the 5th fret and the bridge). What we do to produce this harmonic, in several steps:

Place your pick right above the location of the desired node. Only a few millimetres of the tip of your pick should protrude from between your thumb and index finger.

Pluck the string with your pick (with a downstroke).

All in the same downstroke motion, touch the string lightly (in the correct location!) with the side of your thumb. This is the tricky part of the technique: you are supposed to pluck the string with your pick, and then your thumb, which follows up right after the pick, has to touch the string right on the node, so that the fundamental is cancelled out.

(NOTE: again, be sure not to rest your thumb on the string, just touch it and pull back, otherwise you will mute the string completely!)

This technique is called “pinch”, because the string is in some way “pinched” between the pick and the side of the thumb. It takes a while to master this technique, so keep practicing and don’t give up! It’s easier to pull off if only a small part of the pick protrudes from between the fingers; this way, your thumb is closer to the string if you pluck it with your pick. This will make it easier to pluck the string and touch it in one fluent motion.

You should first practice this movement slowly: pluck the string so you hear the fundamental, then mute the fundamental by placing your thumb on the string in the appropriate place. If you can pull this off properly, try to do it faster, so that the thumb touches the string immediately after it is plucked. If you do this correctly, you will not even hear the fundamental anymore! Only the high-pitched, squealing sound of the harmonic remains. This is why artificial harmonics are also called “pinch harmonics” or “squealies”.

B. Another Right Hand Technique: Tapped Harmonics

Another less commonly (but equally cool!) right hand technique used to produce artificial harmonics is the tap technique. I will use the same example as above: we fretted the 3rd string at the 5th fret and we want to produce an artificial harmonic. We will now use the tap technique instead of the pinch technique, to produce the 2nd harmonic for this note:

Pluck the string. (easy, isn’t it?). You will now hear the fundamental note, which we will cancel out using the tap technique in a second.

Move your right hand to a position 12 frets higher than where the note is fretted by your left hand. In this case, we fretted the note at the 5th fret, so we move our right hand to right above the 17th fret. This is the node for the 2nd harmonic.

Very quickly tap the vibrating string at the node, not pressing it down to the fretboard but just quickly touching it so that the fundamental vibration is cancelled out. This will make the 2nd harmonic stand out. Voila, you just produced a nice tap harmonic!

Some pointers for pulling of the tap in a correct way:

The tapping motion should be very quick, only touching the string for a split second at the node. The touch can be a quite forceful “slap”, as long as it’s a swift, short touch, not pressing down on the fretboard. Practice, practice, practice!

If you play with a pick (which most of you probably do) your thumb and index are busy holding the pick. You can use your middle finger for the tapping. Do this as follows: stretch out your middle finger so that it points parallel to the direction of the frets, perpendicular to the axis of the neck. Like this, you can (for example) strum an open A chord and tap the 2nd harmonics of the second, third and fourth string at the 14th fret, all at the same time! (see below for video example)

Tapping harmonics is a less common technique than pinch harmonics. The tapping technique is used almost exclusively to produce 2nd harmonics, as shown in my video example.

If you want a video example of this, I have just recently recorded myself playing Steve Vai’s “Die To Live” which includes tap harmonics, you can check it out here:
Steve Vai - Die To Live (YouTube).

Another great example is acoustic guitarist Andy McKee, he used some weird ass techniques as well as a couple of tapped harmonics in this amazing song “Drifting”:
Andy McKee – Drifting (YouTube).

B. How To Find The Exact Location Of The Nodes?

This question has a VERY simple answer: Practice! Experiment! Try pressing a string down behind a certain fret, and then run up and down the string with your pick hand, using the pinch technique to try and find nodes to produce harmonics. (There is more than one node per string, so for every position of the left hand you can produce a number of different harmonics!) If you succeed in finding a node, try and remember the location of it. You will be able to remember a lot of different locations for
A little hint for those who don’t like to memorise a lot: try to remember certain node locations using “orientation points” on the body of your guitar. For example, if I fret a string behind the 5th fret on my guitar, the node for the 4th harmonic is located just above the lower edge of my neck pickup. This is of course not the case for every guitar out there, but as I said, experiment! Try to find orientation points of your own, and adjust a little if you are playing a couple of frets lower/higher!

C. Artificial Harmonics In Playing:

While soloing, you can use pinch harmonics to produce the high-pitched squeals that guitarists like Steve Vai often make. These harmonics can sound really cool if you bend them, use heavy vibrato, or your whammy bar to vary the pitch of the note. You can make your guitar scream with pinch harmonics!

Conclusion

Harmonics are truly underestimated by most guitarists, and the reason for this is that most guitarists don’t understand what they are. If you listen more closely to Steve Vai records, you will notice that he succeeds in making really cool sounds using only harmonics! Use the potential of your guitar to the maximum and start learning harmonics…

How To Write A Song

2009-01-24T01:28:00.000-08:00

There are may ways in which a song can be written, this is one of them. Here are some basic steps:

Lyrics

Mostly any song need lyrics. These can be either in a poem form, free form (no rhyme) or other. You can start by simply taking a phrase, a feeling, a situation, a general idea or belief and writing a poem about it. If you do write a poem I suggest keeping the same measure(number of syllables in a verse) troughout the poem. Now if you want a chorus (refrain), choose the most relevant part of the poem and make that your chorus. You can write the chorus separately, or you don’t have to have a chorus. But if you do have one, remember that the chorus must reflect the idea behind the song( that and, it has to be catchy).

Tune (or melodic backbone)

This can be done in two ways:

You first have the lyrics; you take a guitar (or a piano) and start playing a tune (a succession of note, arpeggios, or chords), then try to sing the lyrics along with the tune.

You have a good tune in your head; start playing it and then try singing different lyrics that come to mind.

No matter which one you pick, keep in mind that the lyrics and the tune have to represent each other, you must get the same feeling both from the lyrics and the tune. If the tune is soft, choose according lyrics (something regarding love, relaxation, world peace etc.)

Basic song structure

You now have a tune, and some lyrics. You have to decide a basic song structure for your song. This means you have to decide how you’re going to split the lyrics, chorus, intro, outro, solo. Here is a good song structure: small guitar intro, first verses, chorus, more verses, chorus, small chorus add-on, guitar solo, chorus, small outro.
The intro and outro can be the same as the basic tune, or just the first part of the tune, but without lyrics. If your playing it on a guitar, it easier to change the chord after each verse.

Adding to the song

If you intend to play the song with a band you have to add to the song. Lets say you made your song tune on a acoustic guitar. You can include the following instrument to the sons:

Bass: the most important thing about the bass is that it keeps a good rhythm and it also completes the frequency spectrum of the song (by the low pitched notes it plays). A good tip for the bass musical line is to mark the crossing between chords(arpeggios) by playing the fundamental note in that chord.

Electric guitar: there are a lot of things that an electric guitar can do in a song. It can help keep the rhythm, it can use special effect to add to the songs feel, it can play a good solo and so on. If you use a acoustic guitar as the base rhythm, don’t play the same chords on the electric guitar, it becomes too “full”. You can use fifth to sustain the tune. You can also play a nice simple tune that goes along with the main tune, but were the electric guitar excels is at solos.

Drums: these are very important to a song, they are the ones who keep the beat of the song. You can have a full drum set, or just a couple of bongos. If your drummer is good, he’ll have no problem at getting the beat of the song. You can vary the percussion of a song a lot, so don’t hold back.

Piano: this is a very good instrument to base your song on. As a secondary instrument, it can be used for background effects, and certain solo parts. But if you have based your song on an acoustic guitar there is so much a piano can do.

Other instruments: there are many instruments that you can use to “complete” the sound of your song. Don’t hesitate to try new and exotic sounds.

Final form

After you tried all the instruments available, and all the variations you wanted, it’s time to set the final form of the song. If you’re in a band, agree to a common version for the song. Don’t forget, you’ll have to make compromises some times (that’s a part of being in a band). If you want to play it life, rehearse it a few times, just to be sure you all know how the song goes. As a conclusion, you don’t have to have a license diploma as a musician to write a song. Just play what you like, be open minded and the songs will come to you. A song shouldn’t be written because you have to, a song should be written because you want to.

Here is an example of a song:

Lyrics:
I wrote a song on a Sunday morning, (C) (C) (C-G)
I did it till my pen started moaning, (Am) (A) (A-E)
I picked up a guitar and started to play, (F) (F) (F-C)
I wrote my song and I did it my way.(G) (G) (G-D)

Chorus:
Be free, (C) (C) (C-G)
Let yourself be free
Rise to the challenge(G) (G) (G-D)
Of your own destiny.
Chorus add-on: Break the boundaries of society.

Lyrics:
I played my song in a thousand places(C)
I brought smiles to a thousand faces(Am)
I faced my fears and I got this far, (F)
I am now a world famous rock star.(G)

The symbols in the brackets are chords (you can choose a chord pattern by using “The Circle of Fifths”). You change the chord when the verse ends.

a very simple bass line can be done by playing the fundamental of each chord when the verse begins. The bass can peed up the tempo where it is required.

the electric guitar can play fifths ( C-G, A-E, F-C and G-D), can also vary the rhythm, can have a distorts effect on the chorus. It can do a simple solo (because it’s the C major scale, you don’t have any accidentals(#)) after the chorus add-on (you can use a pattern from “Musical Mode Pattern for Picking” article).

the drums have a basic 4/4 beat which can be varied easily. Small drum breaks at the end of a verse and the begin of the chorus are a good idea, it tells the people listening that a chorus is coming.

Buying Second-Hand Guitar In Singapore

2009-01-24T01:24:00.000-08:00

Looking for second-hand guitars? Instead of wasting your time checking out second-hand guitars at stores, why not consider the internet? An excellent place which sells good second-hand guitar is soft.com. By checking out their forum, you can expect countless of second-hand guitars for sale. Of course, they do have brand new. You can also expect to find guitar amps and effects on sale too! What a good place for musicians!

Coloured Guitar Strings

2009-01-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

There are coloured guitar strings available out in the market. Wow, this coloured strings can help enhance the outlook of your guitar. Whether you are playing acoustic, electric or classical, coloured strings will look good! The best way to find coloured guitar strings, is probably finding it on the internet, sites like ebay and such.

Guitar Metronome

2009-01-24T01:20:00.000-08:00

A metronome is a useful device that generates a constant beat. It is very useful when learning to play songs, especially songs which involves good timing and rhythm. A metronome can come with a tuner, a chromatic tuner. A guitar metronome can also be used for other things, such as for drummers. Hence, band members are able to share a metronome. Looking for free metronome online? Check out onlinemetronome.com!

Love Les Paul?

2009-01-24T01:04:00.000-08:00

Les Paul is a nice looking guitar. But have you ever asked yourself which les paul is the best for you? You should always try out the different les paul guitars available first, before committing yourself to buying one. What i feel for les paul standard, epiphone is that it produces a really warm sound. Les paul such as this are suitable or perhaps, best for blues. While i did not try the rest, it is up to you to try them! Head down to the nearest guitar shop and start trying!

Strumming Basic Melody

2009-01-22T06:06:00.000-08:00

Wish to strum a basic melody, but have no idea how many strums per chord? I understand your pain. The music sheets or tabs do not state how many strums. So, one day i ask my guitar teacher about how many times to strum. Apparently, he said the answer was up to you. So i figured out that you could strum however way you want to. If you are playing in a band, strumming the chords, you could follow the lyrics and strum according to them. This way, things would be in perfect harmony. Doesnt this solve your problem about strumming a basic melody?

Finger Strengthening

2009-01-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

Finger strength comes almost naturally, once you practice enough. So what's the key to getting strong fingers. Trust me, doing 10hours of exercise for one day will not benefit. Instead, focus on a consistent finger strength exercise that you do daily. This way, you will increase your finger strength fast and effectively, without spending too much time on finger strength exercises.

Learning to Play Scales

2009-01-22T04:50:00.001-08:00

Playing scales could be very boring or it could be fun. However, the first time you learn them, scales may seem boring. But once you remember everything, pentatonic, chromatic etc, you can improvise and make something nice out of scales. Of course, scales are where guitarist improve themselves. Why dont you check out the different types of guitar scales right now?

Guitar Forum

2009-01-20T23:45:00.000-08:00

Guitar forum is a great place to learn! Regardless of learning songs, asking for tips or such, guitar forum should be a place to visit. I would like to recommend ultimate-guitar forum. Of course, you could always search the search engine to find guitar forum. At guitar forums, you will meet new people, people who are good. & how can you benefit from these guitar forums? Simple. At these guitar forums, simply ask whatever you wish, eg tabs for a song. This way, you will learn faster and more effectively!

Dean Guitars

2009-01-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

I like dean guitars. Why? Because dean guitars are one of the few finest in the world. The price is well worth. Why choose dean guitars? Choose dean guitars because it is not only stylish, it is also nice. Of course, my opinion is that dean guitars are cool. But your opinion maybe dean guitars are not good. Different people think differently. But i would like to encourage you to check out dean guitars' website and see if you like them.

Acoustic Guitars

2009-01-20T23:39:00.000-08:00

Acoustic guitars are what i feel the best option to start learning to play. Because you are using a pick, you do not need to season your right hand. Acoustic guitars normally involves basic strumming that you can learn easily. Apart from that, acoustic guitars do not require an amplifier. For those who anint sure if you want to play a guitar, acoustic is your best choice. You will just need an acoustic guitar, that's all. However, an electric guitar requires an amplifier. So, should you give up on acoustic guitar, at least you did not waste too much money.

Bass Amplifiers

2009-01-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

Electric bass guitars require external amplification in much the same way that standard electric guitars do - and for the same reasons. There are several electric bass guitars with a hollow body, similar to that found on acoustic guitars, and this helps to provide some extra tone to the voice. However, electric bass guitars still require external amplification to be heard, and to provide the voice which is required.

There are two basic types of amplifier that can be used by those who play electric bass guitar. The first of these is the combination or 'combo' amplifier, and this has the amplifier unit and the speaker built in to one unit. Typically this is a large, often black unit with a large speaker grill at the front, and the amplifier unit built in to the top layer, with the buttons, dials and switches at the front. The second kind of amplifier is one where the speakers are entirely separate, and the amplifier connects the guitar and the speakers through its own system.

For beginners and those on lower budgets the combination amplifier unit is an excellent choice, and has proven to be very popular amongst players for many years. It offers versatility with convenience, and often these units are built to be portable, with carry handles built in to the top of the box, and allows them to be carried without fear of being easily damaged. On the other hand, for the more experienced player the separate amplifier and speakers arrangement provides the choice of each - giving more versatility and greater freedom of choice when it comes to each individual piece of equipment. Some guitarists prefer certain types of amplifier, or amplifiers that provide specific features that may not be found on the more generic combination units.

When it comes to recording electric bass guitars, this is often achieved by completely by-passing the amplifier, and instead connecting the guitar directly in to the sound recording equipment, and then providing external amplification from this. By setting the guitar up in this way, a truer sound quality is produced, rather than recording acoustically a sound which has been created electronically. This is for much the same reason as electronic keyboards are recorded in the same way, as the external speakers may hinder or reduce the eventual quality. Recording the electric bass guitar by directly connecting it to the sound recording equipment also provides the artist and the studio to create and apply extra effects, possibly digitally, by directly manipulating the original electric signal. This helps to ensure that there is no degrading of the quality, as well as providing even greater flexibility.

In addition to amplifier units there are also such items as pre-amplifiers which can also be used to apply certain effects, or alter the voice of the guitar in some specific way. For example, pre-amplifiers can sometimes be used to affect the way a guitar sounds, helping to re-create the sound of a different brand of guitar, such as older models or those used within specific branches of music.

Guitar Notes

2009-01-20T23:34:00.000-08:00

Guitar notes can be difficult to find online. So why bother searching for guitar notes, when there is something called tabs? Tabs are easily learnt and can be found at many websites. Besides, guitar notes can be difficult to read and remember too. So why waste time on guitar notes? Try tabs right now!

Guitar Games

2009-01-20T23:32:00.000-08:00

So you are addicted to guitar? Wanna play guitar games wherever you go? I would recommend a game called tap-tap for ipods. Simply search it in the search engine, and you should be able to find it. Apart from that guitar game, you could also try guitarway to heaven, a psp homebrew game. Of course, the king of all guitar games, without a doubt, goes to guitar hero. But if you are looking for free guitar games, the others are your best choice.

Guitar Hero Competition

2009-01-20T23:30:00.000-08:00

Guitar Hero Competition

Guitar hero is really different from playing a guitar. Did you know that Herman Li, who plays through the fire and flames failed through the fire and flames in guitar hero? Well of course, guitar hero is indeed fun! Looking around for competition? But it is really important to note that guitar hero is totally different from playing guitar.

Guitar Torrent

2009-01-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

Looking for guitar torrent? Chances are, it anint that easy to find! While some guitar softwares maybe useful, i feel that lessons available at ultimate-guitar.com are far better. So, why search for guitar torrents? View the lessons now!

Guitar Pro

2009-01-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Guitar pro is a really useful product for learning songs. It allows you to mute certain guitar and hear the selected guitar. If you are interested in learning songs, yet have no time to jam, guitar pro is the tool for you! Guitar Pro is so useful that many people are searching for guitar pro torrents. Needless to say, guitar pro torrents are available all over the net.

GUITAR

2009-01-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

So you want to play the guitar? After hearing so much, talking so much about it? Playing guitar is really interesting, provided you have the passion! So go on! Grab a guitar today and start!

Playing blues guitar when standing up

2009-01-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

If you want to stand when you play your guitar, follow these few steps:

If you want to stand when you play your guitar, follow these few steps:
1. Attach a guitar strap to your guitar’s two strap pins. The strap pins are on the bottom edge of the guitar and on the bass-side edge (this placement differs depending on your particular model).

2. Put your head, right arm, and shoulder through the strap, letting the weight of the guitar fall on your left shoulder. Then straighten up to a normal, erect, standing position.

3. Adjust the strap to get the guitar at a comfortable playing height. Take the guitar off before adjusting the strap because trying to adjust it while holding the guitar is sometimes awkward.
The higher the guitar sits, the easier it is to play. But there’s a catch: If the guitar is too high, you can look uncool — more a like a do-goodin’ folksinger from the ’60s than the gritty, hard-scrabblin’ blueser that you are.

No amount of looking cool can make up for a position that’s not comfortable, and each player knows what comfortable is by the way the left hand feels when trying to finger notes and chords. If you have to curl your hand around too much to play, you may feel strain — typically on the back of the hand. Prolonged strain like this, may make your hand hate you later! So hike up that
axe and be friends with your guitar!

You may find that the guitar rides a little lower when you’re standing than when you’re sitting. This is natural. You can test whether your guitar sits lower when standing by wearing your adjusted strap when you sit. Chances are, the strap slacks a bit. If this happens, it’s just an indication that what feels natural standing is a little lower than what feels best for sitting.

Playing blues guitar when sitting down

2009-01-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

To play the blues properly while sitting down, stick to the following steps:

1. Sit in a comfortable desk chair (one without arms), stool, or straightback
chair. A couch is too relaxed for serious study (though you can certainly have
fun with your guitar as a sofa spud — after you’ve put in your serious practice time)!

2. With feet apart, sit up straight and forward in the seat of the chair so
that you place some weight on your feet. Because the exact position is largely a matter of personal comfort, you can experiment to find the best position for you.

3. Put the waist of the guitar on your right leg, pull the guitar up against your body, and place your right arm over the guitar’s top edge to hold the guitar in place. When you’re sitting, your right arm holds the guitar to keep it from falling forward or tipping to the side toward the headstock. You won’t have this problem if you wear a shoulder strap, which balances the
guitar in place. But take care when adjusting your sitting position so you don’t let the guitar fall.
Don’t support the neck with your left hand because you want this hand to be free to move up and down the neck without the burden of also holding up the guitar.

Guitar expressions

2009-01-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

The expression that invokes your senses

One of the best things about the blues — and a huge relief to beginning guitarists — is that the blues isn’t all that hard to play, technically speaking.

Playing lead or rhythm in most blues songs requires only intermediate technique. What is harder to do — in fact, you never stop figuring out how to do it better — is to play expressively. Expression in the blues is what turns craft into art. Check out these ways to make your music more bluesy:

Use bent notes. Bent notes are notes where the pitch is raised slowly upwards in a continuous fashion, and this element is closely identified with the blues.

Make your music shake. Vibrato is a technique that makes the notes of the music quiver by using left-hand finger wiggling, which gives blues a signature sound. B.B. King is well known for his expressive and soulful vibrato. Because much of the blues is set to medium tempos, players hold notes for long periods of time. Vibrato is a great way to bring notes to life, so they don’t just sit there.

Give it some slide. If you don’t hit notes straight on and rather slide into notes from above and below, you give music a bluesy feel and breathe some life into your notes. Guitarists often draw their inspiration from vocalists and horn players (saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and so on),
who exercise the slide technique on a regular basis.

Slur your notes. Connecting notes through slurs — where you don’t restrike the second note with the right hand — is a good way to loosen up your playing in the typical way a blues player does.

Allow the rhythm to flow. Blues also allows a certain rhythmic liberty to be taken with melodies and especially letting the melody notes deliberately fall after, or behind, the beat. Backphrasing is actually more of a rhythmic alteration, or rubato, but it’s generally thought of as a phrasing technique. It’s been described as lazy, devil may care, or cavalier, but it
sure makes the notes sound more bluesy.

Pickups And Amplification For Electric Guitars

2009-01-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Electric guitars :
Pickups and amplification

Getting your sound out of your electric guitar and to your adoring masses
requires you to have command over not only your touch and technique but
also the features and functions provided by your particular guitar.

Important features of electric guitars (or plugged-in acoustic guitars) are the
pickups and the amplification. Pickups are the little metal bars that “read” the sound coming off the vibrating string and are important because they transfer the sound down the line. The amplification part of the system is what makes the almost inaudible signal loud enough to be heard. An acoustic guitar (or unplugged guitar) is pretty much a what-you-see-is-whatyou-get kind of instrument. But when you bring the power of electricity into the picture, now that’s a whole other story.

Although you strike the strings on an acoustic and a sound occurs by coming out of the body of the guitar and through the sound hole (or F-holes on an archtop guitar), when you play an electric guitar your sound filters through an amp and takes your sound to the
screaming masses at Madison Square Garden.

What the multitudes hear is the pickups underneath the strings “sensing” (they don’t “hear” because they’re not using acoustics) the motion of the string through disturbances in their magnetic field. That disturbance generates electrical current that gets sent through a wire out of the guitar to your amp .

How to read tabs!

2009-01-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

Guitar Tablature

In the earliest days, music for the guitar was written in a form known as tablature. This
system indicates exactly where the fingers are to be placed by showing the strings as six lines,
with numbers (or letters) representing the frets. Here is an example:

e|---------------------------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------------------------------------|
D|----------2----------------------------------------------------|
A|------2--------------------------------------------------------|
E|--0------------------------------------------------------------|

The word TAB is conventionally placed at the beginning of the line to distinguish these
lines from those of the musical staff. Here, the lines represent the six strings, the first
string being the top line.
➤ “0” stands for open string. Play the first string with the right hand; do nothing with the
left.
➤ “1” stands for the first fret. Place a finger behind the first fret on the same string. Play
the note.
➤ “3” stands for the third fret. Finger the third fret, play the note.
➤ The vertical line marks off the measures, as in conventional notation.
Note that the numbers have nothing to do with the fingers. In this example they happen to
coincide, but they refer only to the frets.

Purchasing a guitar

2009-01-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

It is very important to note that some musical styles do share guitar models. Just like the fender stratocaster, you can use it for both rock and blues. A gibson les paul is just as good as a strat in playing a wailing lead. However, it is important to know that making your own kind of music on the guitar of your choice is part of the fun and you should not really let the guitar musical style constrain you.

I will list some popular music styles and classic guitars that most people associate with those styles. This list is by no means exhaistive but does include recognised standard bearers on the respective genres:

Rock: fender stratocaster, gibson les paul and SG, ibanez RG and signature series, Paul Reed Smith, Tom Anderson

Heavy metal: Gibson explorer, flying v and SG, fender stratocaster, Ibanez iceman

R&B: Fender stratocaster, Gibson ES-335

Jazz: Gibson ES-175, Super 400 L-5, Epiphone Emperor Regent

New age, new acoustic: Taylore Grand Concert, Ovation Balladeer

Acoustic blues: National steel, Gibson J-200

Folk: Dreadnoughts and Grand Concerts By martin, taylor, collings, gibson J-200

Classical: Ramirez, Hopf, Khono, Humphrey

Electric blues: Fender telecaster, strat, gibson les paul, gibson es-355

Country: fender telecaster,strat, gretsch 6120

Bluegrass: Martin dreadnought, taylor dreadnought, Gallagher dreadnought

Although the list contains guitars that people normally associate with given styles, you should never let that limit your creativity. Play the music you want to play on the guitar you want to play on it! In other words, never mind what some chart tells you. So long as you like a particular guitar, do get it!

Stringing a steel-string acoustic guitar

2009-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Changing guitar strings step-by-step

Step 1: Attach string to the bridge.
Acoustic guitars have a bridge with six holes that will lead to the inside of the guitar.

-Remove the current string and pop out the bridge pin.
-Insert the end of the new string that has a ball inside the hole that held the bridge pin.
-Wedge the bridge pin firmly back into the hole with the slot facing towards the nut.
-Pull out as gently as possible on the strings until the ball rests against the bottom of the pin. Leave your thumb on the pin to ensure that it does not pop out or disappear.
-Test the strings by gently tugging on it. If you do not feel the string shift, the ball is snug against the bridge pin which means you are ready too secure the string to the tuning post.

Step 2: Putting the strings to the tuning post.
You should now be focusing your attention on the headstock. To attach a treble string to the tuning post,

-Pass the string through the hole in the post. You must ensure that you leave enough string slack between the bridge pin and the post to allow yourself to wind the string around the post a couple of times.
-Crease the metal wire toward the inside of the guitar.
-While keeping the string tight against the post with one hand, wind the tuning peg clockwise with the other hand. While doing this, it is very important to keep your eyes on the post to ensure that as the strings wraps around the post, it winds down, towards the headstock surface. Also be sure that the strings do go into the correct slots of the nut.

To attach a bass string, follow the exact same steps except that you wind the strings counterclockwise so that the string goes up the middle and goes over the post to the left.

Tip: if you find that you have left too much slack, unwind the string and start again, kinking the string further down. If you do not leave enough slack, your winding does not go all the way down the post and may result in slipping if the string does not have enough length to grab firmly around the post.

Effect pedals and devices

2008-12-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

Useful links to online guitar lessons

2008-12-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

Useful links to online guitar lessons

There are countless of scams out there. Some states that you will become a professional within weeks. While some are really effective, others are useless and are scams. Learning guitar online have been becoming more famous. Instead of travelling to music schools, you can learn it at home.

Some websites have prove of satisfied customers. Always look out for this. Review others feedback about the course and how they felt about it. However, do remember that the webmaster only selected the best comments to display. I mean, who would actually put a testimony insulting the guitar lesson on their own website?

Before paying for any online lesson, always make sure there is a money back guarantee. This ensures that you have nothing to lose. Let’s face it, even if a teacher is good, but his or her teaching style does not suit you, it’s time to change the teacher. Make sure that any guitar lesson you are paying for is beneficial to you, or else do not waste your time.

I would recommend videos posted on YouTube. The link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxhxIV0I5T8 shown is the first lesson, simply browse around the different lessons to aid your learning. The website that I found very useful was www.vguitarlessons.com. The lessons are free and are worth watching. The website has certain lessons for playing a particular song. In my opinion, the price is rather reasonable. So for you guys out there looking to learn a song, check out www.vguitarlessons.com and see if the song you want to learn is there! Of course, this website has testimonies. It will be good to look at the testimonies before deciding if you want to purchase it.

Rhythm guitar

2008-12-04T08:11:00.001-08:00

Rhythm guitar

Looking around for rhythm guitar? I tell you, rhythm guitar is pretty easy. Compared to the lead guitarist, the rhythm guitarist’s life is kind of simple. But, a rhythm guitar is very important. It’s just like making a song without the lyrics. It forms the foundations of the song.

For beginners looking to jam as soon as possible with friends, rhythm guitar is your key! It is easier to master. And this will allow you to go jamming with your friends. Of course, you still do need a lead guitarist, which may be one of your friends.

Rhythm guitarist make use of power chords most of the time. But before you attempt power chords, it is advisable to practice simple chords first.

Rhythm guitar riffs are rather easy, most of the time it is just a few power chords throughout the entire song. But it makes the song nice. Rhythm guitar requires lots of strumming. Sometimes, alternate strumming is used. Looking to impress someone with some rock and roll sound, without having to practice very hard to master it? Then, rhythm guitar is for you!

Velvet Revolver - Slither.
This is a great riff. It's also very easy to play! It's made entirely out of power chords. Let’s look at the tab, shall we?

Main Riff:

E|------------------|------------------------------|

B|------------------|------------------------------|

G|------------------|------------------------------|

D|-0-3-4-0-6-7-0-10-|-0-6-7-0-5-0-3-4-|

A|-0-3-4-0-6-7-0-10-|-0-6-7-0-5-0-3-4-|

D|-0-3-4-0-6-7-0-10-|-0-6-7-0-5-0-3-4-|

Probably have to play it fast. But only by practicing enough, then can you play fast! This riff is made up of bar chords. It is also power chords. If your finger is not strong enough to bar all three strings, then go ahead and use your first 3 fingers and play them.

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Power Chords 1

Chords

Electric Guitars

3 Reasons Why Learning Guitar Scales Are Important

Getting The Most Of Your Guitar String

Tips on Playing Guitar Solo

Speed Training Guitar Exercises

Effect pedals and devices

Buying Guitar Straps

Spending Money On Electric Guitar

Power Chords 3

You Can Learn to Play Classical Guitar

Why Learning Guitar Scales Is Important

Online Guitar Lesson

Fender Electric Guitar

Alternate Picking For Guitar

Bass Guitar Tablatures

Tips On Buying DrumSticks!

Maximising Guitar Practice Time

Drum Recording

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Guitar Writing Tips

Acoustical Mixcraft

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Improvement to Blog

Soloing On Bass Guitar!

Finger Picking

Jamorama

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Cleaning Your Guitar

Learning Jazz Chords

How To Use These Shapes

Harmonics!

What Are Harmonics?

Natural Harmonics

Artificial harmonics

Conclusion

How To Write A Song

Lyrics

Tune (or melodic backbone)

Basic song structure

Adding to the song

Final form

Here is an example of a song:

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Learning to Play Scales

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Acoustic Guitars

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