Starting a Band and How to Create a Band

When you’re looking to start a band for the first time, it may be hard to know exactly what the initial steps are. The good news is that all you really need to know in the beginning is what style of music you want to play and have already written a tune or two. After that, it’s all about creating and maintaining relationships.

To begin, you will need to have already written some songs that you want to play with other people. Sometimes you may just have a riff or two on which you would like to collaborate with another musician so it can develop to its fullest potential.This, too, is a great starting point. When you have done those things, call or email your other musical friends. They may play guitar, bass, drums, or piano. It doesn’t really matter. What is important is that you begin collaborating. Read the rest of this entry »

Learn Rhythm Guitar Today

Rhythm guitar
is as specialized as playing guitar solos. If you want to learn rhythm guitar you will need to become expert in a few key areas of guitar playing. Your basic job as a rhythm guitar player is to keep the song moving even if the bass player, lead guitarist and drummer have simultaneous heart attacks.

You will need to be able to play to a beat coming from outside yourself. Most people think that they can play okay without a metronome, but this is almost never true. You won’t have a drummer or bass player to jam with every moment of the day so your metronome will be there to keep you in time. You can buy a metronome but the free ones you can download from the internet will be quite enough to help you to learn rhythm guitar.

The next most available way to keep in time is to play along with some music. You can buy or download free backing tracks or play along with a group with simple rhythmic songs like AC/DC. AC/DC’s Malcolm Young is also a great guitarist to listen to and get pointers from. Another great guitar player with a strong rhythm sense is Read the rest of this entry »

Getting to Know Guitar Tabs

In the simplest terms, a guitar tab is a word that is used to describe a musical notation, which may contain either numbers or letters and explains to the musician where to place his/her fingers on the instrument. Guitar tabs consist of multiple lines and is often called a ‘staff notation.’ These lines, which are present in guitar tabs, each represent one of the guitar strings.staff notation,

New musicians often find guitar tabs to be especially baffling in that the strings are written backwards. The highest string is found at the top of the guitar tabs, which is often difficult to learn since most people would expect that guitar tabs would be written from top to bottom instead of the other way around.

In actuality, guitar tabs are written from the highest to lowest and the numbers on each line represent the guitar fret. In order to understand guitar tabs, all new guitarists need to learn string placement and how to correctly read frets.

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Guitar Lessons And You

Guitar lessons are a great way to learn all of the techniques that you need to become an accomplished musician. Whether you like to perform for your friends, play for yourself, or aspire to be a well-known musician who travels the world to play in front of audiences, you can get the knowledge that you need from a good class.

Of course, the real challenge is in finding a class that will actually provide you with the information that you need for your skill level and musical interests. There is quality information out there, but you need to be really careful while trying to find it. Many programs mean well, but they can actually cause frustration and technical setbacks. Simply put, you need lessons that are high quality and from a respectable source. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Buy A Pawn Shop Guitar The Safe Way

There is something about pawn shops. In fact, some people recorded whole albums about them. As a man, I think it’s the smell. Seriously. Next time you walk past a pawn shop, walk in and take a big huge sniff. It’s the smell of a potential bargain, a possible rip off. Pawn shop hunting is the modern day civilized hunting expedition.

On a recent hunting trip I managed to trap a PRS SE Single Cut Soap bar Model. It’s an SE, so it’s a Korean model. I had a look online and it lists for about 700 pounds, so it’s still a bargain.

Basically, I was looking for a cheap guitar case at the pawn brokers because I’m one case short these days, and as I was leaving I saw it in the window. I came home, asked the better half if I can get guitar number seven and she said ok, because she knows how much I want a PRS, and [suck up mode] because she is the most lovely person in the world [/suck up mode].

I went back up to the pawn broker, and asked for a play. It was awful. Absolutely unplayable. He said he had it in there for a while and that it had been reduced because for some reason he can’t sell it. All the problem was is that the bass side of the bridge was WAAAYYY too low. I pulled out a ten cent coin, four turns of the bridge bolt, BINGO, perfect playability.

Yeah, the tone control will likely need replacing, but big whoop. It sounds beautiful, even with the dead strings on it. I even got him to throw in a case for $0. Bargain and a half.

How much I hear you all ask?
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Practical Guide to Practice Changing Chords

How quickly can your fretting hand switch from one chord to another?  The speed and confidence you have in making chord changes will be key to further mastering the guitar and successfully playing and creating music for the instrument.

The key to learning any instrument, like most intricate human activity, is to develop brain and muscle coordination, more commonly called, muscle memory needed to play the instrument.  If you picture a basketball player, for instance, the key to a good shooting performance is the proper hand-to-eye coordination in order to bring the ball up, prepare, aim, and throw it towards the hoop.  The different muscles of the arms, wrist and hands will learn the right movements and strength needed to score.  Constant practice will condition the brain, eyes, and entire body to know the routine of shooting the ball.

This is similar to guitar playing.  The muscles involved would be the arms, wrists and the fingers, with the eyes, ears and brain working in unison to relate the movements to the music being read and the notes produced by the guitar.  This is the mechanism that works when a guitar player starts to change chords.
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