Tag Archive | "blues"

Find Out Basic Facts in Buying a Guitar


There are a great number of guitars out there, that’s for sure. Electric, Acoustic, bass, steel, classical and acoustic-electric just to mention a few. Then besides that there are a huge number of brand names for guitars. You have Fender, Yamaha, Gibson, BC Rich just to name a few. How does one go about deciding with all these guitars to choose from.

The style of music you’re going to want to play as well as the places you’ll be playing in will definitely have an impact on the choices you make. Let’s face it, if you’re going to be playing dances, or other such gatherings with lots of people, you will most likely need a guitar that can be amplified. That pretty much eliminates acoustic.

A common thought seems to be that acoustic guitars are best suited to country, jazz and that style of music. Electric guitars it is said are deemed to be best for rock, pop, the blues and so on. So if you want to go with this train of thought, the type of music you will be playing the most will also narrow down the field for you.

If you’re interested in playing steel guitar or a bass, then you have already narrowed the field down a lot. Now you simply need to choose between brand name and model. It has been said that learning to play a bass guitar or a steel guitar will take considerably more time and effort than learning to play either acoustic or electric.

The acoustic-electric is a unique guitar. It is unique in the sense that it allows you to play both electric or acoustic on the same guitar. The switch is as simple as plugging in or unplugging the patch chord. An acoustic-electric, just as the name sounds, is an acoustic guitar with a built-in electric pick-up. There are also a wide range of manufacturers, models and price range in acoustic-electric guitars.

If you have a preferred artist, and you want to simulate their sound, then that answers a lot of the questions for you on what type of guitar you should buy. It is pretty hard to simulate the sound of an electric on an acoustic. If this is the style of music and sound you are going to be looking for the majority of the time, then that is the type of guitar you should be looking for.

Most music shops though are pretty good about showing you the different guitars, and letting you see how they feel, and hear what they sound like. For beginners, unless you’re certain you want an electric guitar, the acoustic-electric makes an excellent beginner guitar.

Wendy Racklave writes for Playhouse MM which has details of inexpensive Ibanez bass guitars and affordable vintage bass guitar.

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Guitar Types – Understanding the Different Types of Guitars


by Drew Peterson

At the moment, an instrument which a lot of people like to play is the guitar. You don’t have a limit of choices when it comes to the different types. There are many different ones and they can all look and sound very different, and some which don’t play quite the same as others. So what are all the different types of guitars available? Well let’s look at a few!

If you’re seeking out a starting point, then your starting point should be acoustic. It might sound boring, but these are great beginner instruments. They don’t rely on electricity, and are in fact able to produce a sound using only their bodies. These are made of a lot of different types of wood, and each wood may make a different sound.

There are many different acoustic guitar types. One type of an acoustic guitar is a classical guitar. Usually these are great guitars for beginners to start playing on. They produce beautiful sounds and come with nylon strings in most cases. Flamenco guitars are very close to classical guitars, but they sound a bit thinner and have a crisp sound.[youtube:qH4AMThBcgg;[link:Easy blues guitar lessons];http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH4AMThBcgg&feature=related]

Another guitar that you will find out there is the 12 string. It is called this for obvious reasons and belongs in the acoustic family of guitars. Each string has a sister string which makes the same note, but is tuned to a slightly higher octave. This is done so that more sounds can be produced when playing the guitar.

One additional sort of acoustic guitar which you can look into is what is known as the steel top guitar. These are a lot like the classical guitars, though are built with reinforced bodies and are a tad bigger than classical guitars. You will find that they have a warmer tone which generates a mellow sound.

Acoustic base isn’t a bad choice. It’s a bass guitar that doesn’t feature any sort of electric pick ups. It has a great body which gives off a sound agreeable to anyone, and has four strings. You can pick up models which have more strings, five or six if you so desire.

Of course you also have electric guitars as well. These guitars have electronic pick ups that take the vibrations made by the strings, and they amplify these vibrations. Usually they must be connected up to a good amplifier. They come with solid bodies or sometimes semi-solid bodies and without an amplifier they don’t make much sound at all.

Most electric guitars come with special control knobs. These knobs can raise or lower the volume and may change the guitar’s tone as well. There are whammy bars on some of these guitars which help to shift the notes you play without you having to change the position of your fingers. They are often used to produce a special guitar sound often referred to as “crying.”

Those are only a few guitars which are available on the market. Though you might wish to try out some of the other types of guitars later on, it would be best to begin at square one, and in square one is the classical acoustic. Once you learn the basic principals you can try the many other types, and decide which one you like best.

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Learning Guitar – Simple Tips to Help You Play Even Better


by Scott Forrester

To learn the guitar is a great endeavor, and it requires quite a bit of work. You will also find that it is a lot of fun. You might feel however, that with all the practice you are doing, you are amounting to absolutely nothing as far as your guitar playing abilities goes. There are a few tips that you can follow in order to hone your skills, and regardless of your current skill level, you will still find them to be extremely helpful.

If you want your skills with the guitar to get even better, then it is important to remember to keep good posture. If you do not keep good posture then you may find that you cannot play incredibly well. Make sure that you have a chair which has no arms. If it has no arms then you will find that it is easier for you to support your instrument. You will find that your sound is better too, when you have good posture.

Ever thought about the way you hold your pick? You should if you want to play guitar even better. You see, you want to hold the pick firmly, but you don’t want to grip it too hard. You need to have a good enough grip on the pick that you won’t accidentally drop it.

The reason you don’t want to grip your pick too hard when you are playing is fatigue. When you hold the guitar pick too firmly your entire arm is going to start getting tired pretty quickly. Go with a grip that is firm, but not too firm, and you’ll get a great sound and won’t tire out your arm as much.[youtube:aROLg5l-9Yk;[link:Beginner guitar lessons];http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aROLg5l-9Yk&feature=related]

Naturally you need to figure out whether or not you’ve chosen the right pick. There are a few different types of picks which are flat picks and finger picks. The majority of people use flat picks, but that doesn’t mean you have to. There are different levels of flexibility, and if you are just starting out, you should start with a soft pick, and if you want to go to a firmer one later you absolutely can.

One other thing that you should do is learn to play arpeggios. Though you probably haven’t hear of or learned to play them, they are nonetheless very important and will greatly improve your playing. They’re pretty easy, good sounding, and are even fun if you can get into them.

You can’t use a guitar pick to play arpeggios. You will need to use your fingers to do this. You use your thumb on the bas note to pick it, then take the index finger on the third string and pluck it. Then you use the middle finger on the second string, and the ring finger on the top string. You have not picked four different notes. Now you have to learn to do this faster. Practice this over and over until you get it. Once you master arpeggios, your playing will really sound nice.

Those are only a few tips. There are many more, though these will definitely help you out so long as you stay in practice. It doesn’t matter if you’re only learning to play, or if you have been learning for a while, these tips will help you a lot no matter what.

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Learn How to Play Guitar Online: Determine What and Where To Practice


by Samari Pryce

Through this article you are provided an overview of the opportunities that are available to you when it comes t learning the guitar online, including learning finger picking. The fact is that finger picking is one of the more basic techniques that a person interested in guitar can learn. Therefore, lessons online are rather easily accessible.

And where did the first bluegrass guitar album come from? Dan Crary. Dan, if not the father of bluegrass guitar, is at least one of its uncles. Many bluegrass standards were recorded with the guitar for the first time by Dan Crary.

To get some insight into the evolution of flatpicking guitar playing, it might help to look at how Doc Watson, whose guitar playing career began in the nineteen fifties, contributed to the use of flatpicking guitar in bluegrass music. It was simply that the band he was working with did not have a fiddle player and Doc was not able to become a good fiddle player himself. So because he enjoyed fiddle tunes, he simply learnt how to play them on the guitar.

Sit down and play new things on the guitar that you do not know how to do yet. Whether you are trying out new chords, scales, reading an article or guitar magazine, taking lessons; you have to at some point sit down and apply what your head has read, seen, and heard, and actually do it for yourself. This can be a lot more challenging than it seems, because once you sit down and start practicing you will begin to realize just how much there is to learn on the guitar.

In the brick and mortar world, you might want to turn to one on one lessons if you really are intent at improving your ability to play guitar. While these types of guitar lessons can cost you more than other types of guitar lesson options, for many people one on one lessons are ideal ways to learn guitar initially and then to master the instrument to a greater degree on down the road.

Don’t turn your guitar practice time into extended guitar solos. If you have a track of say, six minutes at your disposal, use it to practice licks and short solo breaks, the age of the twenty minute solo is long gone. Also, make use of your backing tracks to improve the basic aspects of your guitar playing like your timing.

Add your heartbreak to that guitar, you’re on your way to sing the blues. Blues Guitar Lessons THIRD rule: Learn the blues scales.Surprised this isn’t the first rule? This is the technical side of things.

Classical Gas by Mason Williams might be a little challenging if you don’t think of yourself as a “real” guitar player but it is surprisingly easy to play. Of course if you are not likely to be playing for strangers, you will have some idea of the kind of music your friends like, so just let their tastes be you guide with a little of your own style thrown in.

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