10 Most Important Things When You Learn Guitar
April 24, 2009 by Cyn
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- Get a good guitar that will not impede your learning ability. Make sure the action (distance of the string to the neck) of the guitar is good and that it is correctly intonated (the bridge adjusted so the strings are the correct length) or you will have tuning and playing problems. Also learning on light gauge strings is advised to stop finger strain. It is worth paying a few extra dollars to have the guitar ‘set up’ before your start to play. Here is a more comprehensive guide to selecting a good acoustic guitar.
- Get a good teacher or a good Guitar Lesson DVD or software or a great Learn Guitar Online Course that explains the methods of learning in a simple and easy manner and will ensure you are playing songs or at least riffs within the first couple lessons. Avoid learning boring scales and exercises that will just de-motivate you! You will have to learn these too, but it can be done later.
- Practice every day for at least 15 minutes, and always practice what you cannot play yet rather than playing what you already know or you will not progress. Try to learn simple versions of songs you know so you can sing along even if it’s just in your mind with the song.
- Learn a mixture of chords, single notes, scales and riffs even at the first stages of learning. This is important to develop your technique and strength in the finger and wrist.
- Have the guitar, if possible, in a place where it is easily accessible, so you will want to pick it up often. If it’s in a case in your closet you will forget about it.
- Know how to tune your guitar. Always have a tuner to ensure you are in tune otherwise you will sound horrible. If you don’t have a tuner you can use our free online tuner.
- Use a metronome (click to download free metronome software!) so you can stay in time and develop a sense of rhythm. This is one of the most neglected areas of learning and often the biggest cause of bad habits later on in a student’s progress.
- Try to learn to play songs you enjoy and play a style you like. Don’t play Bob Dylan if you like AC/DC. However its not a bad idea to learn new styles but stick to what you know and like at least when you are still Learn To Play Guitar Fast.
- Take a recording device (your MP-3 player e.g.), record yourself and listen back to it. No matter how awful it may sound it will improve both your desire to learn guitar, and your ability to play better. Also if you want to play lead guitar, play over a recorded rhythm part so you have a musical backing to play to. This will improve your solo ability dramatically.
- Set a stopwatch or timer for 3 minutes and continue to play without stopping. Sounds too easy? Try it! It is a lot more difficult than you think. Most students play on average for about 30 seconds before stopping and starting again!
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Buying An Acoustic Guitar And The Importance Of The Neck Angle.
March 30, 2009 by Cyn
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When looking for a guitar to easy learn on it doesn’t really matter the price range that you have in mind. Years back a low cost guitar would be a nightmare to play, and for a beginner it was worse, I had one for my first guitar. These days with advanced machining and mass production techniques there are a large number of guitar manufacturers turning out quite good guitars at low cost.
Regardless of the price if you take any two guitars of the same make and model, even with consecutive production numbers it’s quite likely that one will be easier to play than the other.
How well a guitar plays is determined by the action. The action on a guitar is the distance between the underside of the strings and the frets. The frets are the thin metal strips that lie across the neck. The maximum distance is found in the area where the neck and body join. If the distance is greater than say 3mm then it will be harder to play the guitar up the neck than it should be and for a beginner it can totally discouraging. Keep in mind that that a small difference can mean a lot. A 4mm gap is a big step up from 3mm.
There are four things that influence the action.
1. The Saddle Height
2. The Nut Height
3. The Truss Rod Adjustment
4. The Neck Angle
The first three can be adjusted. If the neck angle is bad then adjusting the other three will bring about little change to the action. Picture a guitar lying level on its back and you place a straight edge along neck and extending down to touch the bridge. The bridge is the piece of timber attached to the body of the guitar that has the strings attached to it, and the saddle is the (usually) white plastic strip that sits in the bridge and has the strings running across it. When the neck angle is good then the neck and the top of the bridge will be on the same line. When the angle is bad then the straight edge will point to a spot closer to where the bridge joins the body and is a really bad case it would touch the body of the guitar first.
Now we cannot carry out this test in a music store, however what we can do is sight down the neck and it’s fairly easy to see where the line of the neck points to, it should be in line with the top of the bridge.
This is all probably a lot to absorb in one go, the important thing is to be aware of the action and any good guitar salesperson should know all this and be able to point them out to you so you can make the best choice so you have a guitar that is easy to play.
Lastly do not buy a guitar because you like the color of it, buy the guitar that sounds good and plays well.
Good Luck
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My Gibson’s Learn And Master Guitar Review
March 28, 2009 by Cyn
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Disclosure: The opinions offered here are my own based on my experience. All information is verified as accurate at the time of review. If you choose to visit one of the courses I reviewed on this website and make a purchase I may receive a commission, how ever I do not allow this to interfere with my rating and review process. I never accept paid reviews and each product is thoroughly tested by me. All opinions offered here are my own. I am open to reviewing any guitar-training course – please feel free to email me with your suggestions.
What you get with the Gibson’s Learn And Master Guitar courseI learned guitar with the DVD course from Learn & Master and here is my review:
When you order Learn & Master Guitar, you get 20 DVDs. Each of the two sessions per DVD is between 30 and 60 minutes long. All DVDs have an on-screen menu, so you can go right to a lesson with your remote. In addition to the DVDs you get 5 audio CDs (each has appr. 12-18 jam-along tracks of about a minute length), plus a 100 page Lesson Book (and a bonus book, if you order the expanded version). These bonus lessons cover the same material as the regular lessons, but in more depth and give you additional information. For example, when lesson #1 teaches you the basics of a guitar and finger exercises, you will in bonus lesson #1 find some neat tips and tricks beyond the basics, like whether you should consider purchasing an electronic tuner, string winder, or metronome. I got a lot of great information from the bonus material. All lessons are both on DVD and in the lesson book so you can watch the videos, and follow the written lessons at the same time, or just flip through the book as a quick reference to refresh your memory later, which is also very handy. The Learn & Master Guitar course has received some educational awards. The guitar teacher guiding you through the course is Steve Krenz. You can read more about the rewards and Steve on the Learn & Master website. I like most that when you watch the videos, you feel you have a real guitar teacher sitting next to you and talking to you.
First Steve explains something to you, then he gives you a training assignment as your ‘home work’, and at the end of each session you have to answer a couple questions to test whether you are ready to go to the next lesson. If that sounds too much like ‘school’ to you, let me tell you that it’s not – after all, you set your own schedule and pick what you want to learn. With the course you also get access to the online member section of the website which is kind of neat as you can upload videos (e.g. you playing a song) and ask other members for their input, and you find a handful additional resources there. However, Learn and Master is not meant to be an online course, so don’t expect there to find constantly updated new learning material or thousands of members online. |
Learn And Master Guitar Is For Beginners And Advanced PlayersLearn And Master Guitar Lessons For BeginnersLessons 1 Through 8
On the Learn And Master DVD videos and in the printed lessons book Steve will show you hands-on all you need to know to learn guitar. And as nothing beats the joy of jamming with other musicians, five Jam Along CDs provide you that very experience. Learn And Master Guitar For Advanced PlayersChances are you have already learned how to play guitar by picking things up here and there, taking a few lessons, reading a book or watching some videos. You are able to play the basics, and now you’re ready to move beyond that. The Advanced Lessons 9 Through 20
I think many people become frustrated because they are trying to learn the chords, changing chords, and keeping time, all at once. As long as your brain and chording hand are working in terms of “finger 1 goes on the ‘e’ string at the third fret, finger 3 goes on the ‘A’ string at the second fret, and finger four goes on the ‘E’ string”, you’re going to take way too long. Once your muscles have learned the correct positioning, all of a sudden you will find yourself being able to put your fingers in the correct positions automatically. In the advanced lessons Steve will give you an insider scoop on how to improve your chord transitions, a lot of great tips for ear training, how to best develop your rhythm sense and much more, so things should start clicking for you at some point. I also didn’t know that it makes such a difference to have your guitar set up correctly. Plus you can always contact Steve in the Learn And Master Guitar discussion board if you have a particular question. |
How the Learn And Master DVD course works:
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What I liked most about the Learn & Master Guitar DVD Course
I like most that Steve Krenz, the instructor, is making the lessons very personal, you feel like you are sitting with a real guitar teacher, and he explains very well. I like the assignments you get after learning each lesson, you know exactly what you should practice and how. It was also very helpful to me that at the end of each lesson, when I was already eager to go to the next one, that there are 2 or 3 ‘are you ready to move on questions’ which sometimes showed me that I was in fact not ready to move on but needed to practice the current lesson some more. The course covers almost every style of music and guitar you can think of, acoustic, electric, classic, blues, etc. Also I liked that the JamAlong audios at the beginning of the course play slow, but get up to ‘real’ playing speed gradually in advanced lessons. I thought I could play along a ‘real’ song right from the beginning, but was I wrong… |
What Are The Downsides Of Learn And Master Guitar?
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How Much Is It? |
Click here to see the current price on the official Learn & Master website
I hope this review was helpful to you.
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What Is Guitar Action?
March 23, 2009 by Cyn
Filed under Guitar Learning & Playing Tips, Learn Guitar Glossary
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The term ‘action’ refers to the height of the strings above the fretboard. It is the way a guitar is adjusted and how well it plays, relative to the style of music that is being played. The action on an instrument played by an aggressive strummer or flatpicker will vary greatly from that for a jazz player or fingerpicker.
Acoustic guitar have generally a higher action than electric guitars. An action that is too high is hard on your hands and will cause the guitar to play sharp. When it is set to low, it’s easier too easy to play, but causing the strings to rattle and buzz against the frets.
Action adjustments are made to improve the feel of the instrument, decrease pressure on your fingertips which can be severe when the action is too high, avoid buzzing and generally just get the best sound out of an instrument. Most instruments are set-up at the factory with higher action then necessary. This is because it is easier to drop the action than it is to raise it. Adjusting the action can be a costly undertaking. Raising action can require replacement of the nut, saddle and neck rod (since nylon string guitars rarely have adjustable neck rods, this step would be eliminated), while cutting them both lower can be done by resetting the neck. Often an inexperienced repairperson will plane down a bridge in order to lower action which not recommended as it can result in the loss of both volume and tone.
Depending on the abilities of the instrument and the needs of the player adjustments can be made to improve the instruments action and increase the comfort of playing. If you feel that you would like to adjust your action, take your guitar to a repair shop and play in front of the repair guy so he can observe your playing style so he can set it right for you.
Learn To Play Guitar Fast And Easy
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Acoustic Or Electric – Which Guitar Is Easier To Learn And Master?
March 23, 2009 by Cyn
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You decided you want to learn guitar and now you wonder: is it better to learn on an acoustic or electric guitar? Despite what many would lead you to believe, it is a little more complicated than “acoustic is best”, or “electric is best”.
To find an answer for this question yourself, let’s begin by learning a little bit about both electric and acoustic guitars, and what makes them different.
Let’s start with acoustic guitars, because most professional musicians agree that starting to learn on a decent acoustic guitar is the way to go:
- An acoustic guitar is a lesser investment
- Acoustic lets you hear the ‘true’ notes. It helps you learn the music faster and you will be able to play be ear quicker
- You can’t ‘cheat’ with sloppy technique masked by distortion, as an acoustic guitar requires that you learn the techniques properly for it to sound right
- You may learn some acoustic-style fingerpicking that you won’t learn on an electric guitar
- While you are learning you wont drive you your family and neighbors mad as it’s not so loud
- You don’t depend on amplifier, cables, adjusts, controls and picks, so you can grab your guitar anytime and take it everywhere, which means you probably will practice more and get better sooner
Learn And Master An Acoustic Guitar Is Harder But You’ll Train Your Ear Better
It is in fact harder to learn an acoustic guitar as it provides more of a challenge to a beginner. An acoustic has generally a much thicker neck, and a higher action (meaning the actual distance between acoustic guitar strings to the acoustic guitar fingerboard is greater than the distance between electric guitar strings and the electric guitar fingerboard). The strings are generally thicker. This means you have to press your fingers down further with an acoustic as opposed to an electric, but that at the same time helps you building strength and dexterity in both hands and you will build your calluses on your fingers faster.
Learning Electric Guitar May Sound Cooler When You Want To Play In A Band
You may think that some music played on an acoustic guitar doesn’t sound as cool as when played with an electric guitar. Electric guitars are fun to play after you’ve learned, but the notes sound different with the electric and it will take you a while to transfer strumming and fingerstyle techniques from the acoustic to the ‘feel’ of an electric guitar . On the acoustic you hear bare bones notes so when you go to play an electric, the notes make more sense and are more recognizable.
If you start out with learning electric guitar, you will be much slower getting used to play an acoustic guitar, because after playing electric you still need more strength for an acoustic, and you don’t develop a number of techniques for obtaining certain sounds that you discover right on the acoustic.
As Long As It Has Six Strings…
Bottom line is – whether you start with an acoustic or electric doesn’t really matter, as long as it has 6 strings – there is no difference between acoustic and electric outside the obvious of the mechanics, and the above mentioned characteristics – they are played in the exact same way.
Remember, the most important is that you keep practicing in order to learn and master your guitar!
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How to Buy A Second Hand Guitar
March 15, 2009 by Cyn
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Often cheaper than a new guitar and just as ready to rock out, a second hand guitar could be the perfect addition to your collection or the perfect thing to learn on, but how do you know that your potential purchase isn’t a potential dud?
The truth is that some fantastic guitars, while expensive when new, are relatively cheap second hand. Sometimes you can find a custom or a limited edition guitar that someone is selling quickly for the cash and you can often get a real bargain if you know what you are looking for. It really pays to do the research before thinking about buying a second hand guitar as some sellers will push their price up to cash in, especially if they know they are selling to a beginner who is just starting to learn guitar and may not know much about them.
So what should you look for when inspecting a second hand guitar?
Let’s just say that you have found a second hand guitar in the musical instrument section of the weekly classifieds and you are quite keen to go and take a look at it. Below is a list of hints that will help you when inspecting the guitar and talking to the seller:
When talking to the seller, ask them the following:
- The make and model of the guitar – It is best if you can do some research on the guitar model to find out the asking price elsewhere, both new and used, and whether or not other people are experiencing problems with it. You can find reviews for almost any guitar submitted at Amazon, or you can go and ask at your local music store.
- About the condition of the guitar – If they are honest, the seller may tell you about any damage that is undetectable upon rough inspection.
- How long they have had the guitar – If they have had it for a long time, they should have a good knowledge of its history of use, repairs and maintenance etc. If they are not forthcoming with that sort of information, they may be trying to pull one over you.
When inspecting the guitar, check the following:
- The overall condition – Look the guitar over and make note of any obvious damage – guitars often take a bit of wear and tear and if its just small scrapes and scratches then the guitar will probably be fine. Look for rust also , not on the strings, but on the hardware that is holding the strings and the pickups. If there is any rust in these places… run! It’s not worth it. What good is a guitar that may fall apart on you in the near future? Trust me – leave it alone.
- The neck of the guitar – the neck is really important. Here are some areas to look at:
- Make sure that the neck is not warped or out of shape in any way.
- Check the area where the neck joins to the body of the guitar – look for cracks where it may have been broken in the past.
- In the same fashion, check the area where the neck joins the head of the guitar.
- Check the action – Action is a word that describes how close the strings are to the fret board starting at the head of the guitar all the way down to the bridge.
It is preferable to have the strings very close to the fret board as to make it easier to press them down (not so close that they are touching of course). If the strings are nice and close to the fret board all the way along, you would say that the guitar has a good action. Pictured right is a guitar with poor action. Notice that the strings sit quite far off the fret board. Guitars with poor action are harder to play and don’t sound very good. You can fix the action on your guitar by taking it to a guitar technician, but it will cost you between $20 and $50. - The Intonation of the strings. Intonation is a word that describes the accuracy of each individual note that the guitar can produce on any string. If the intonation is correct, every note on the guitar will be the correct pitch – If it is out, the guitar will be impossible to tune and it will sound horrible. To roughly check the intonation, play the E shape barre chord on each fret of the guitar. As you move towards the bridge of the guitar, you should hear the chord keeping its pitch – if not, the intonation is out and you will need to get a guitar technician to work on the problem.
- If the guitar you are looking at is an electric, you must plug it in and see how it sounds through an amp. Ask the seller if you can play it through your amp and if you don’t have one, ask someone if you can borrow theirs. Try the following when testing an electric guitar through an amp:
- Turn the amp up to a fair volume level and then play with the volume and tone controls by turning them to full and then back to zero. Test the pickup selector by flicking its switch back and forth. Carefully listen to any sounds that are being made while doing these things. You are looking for scratchy sounds or clicks that might indicate old or worn electrics.
- Strum a single chord and while the chord is ringing start playing with the controls like before, still listening for scratches or clicks or any other nasty sounds. Guitar technicians can fix these problems and most guitars need to be done about once every 5 – 10 years. Just be aware of this fact or you could find yourself spending more money than you first intended to get a good guitar to learn on.
- Check the sound of the guitar – Before you buy, you want to know that the guitar sounds like it should? Once you have tested the guitar sound, go to a music store and ask to play on a new model of that guitar. If at all possible, use a similar amplifier to the one that you tested the second hand guitar on, and see if you notice any BIG differences. There is a simple rule that I like to follow: If you’re not happy with the guitar sound… Don’t buy it!
The most important thing to remember when shopping for a guitar to learn on is… Don’t shop impulsively. A guitar is a major purchase and you want to get the right one. Leave yourself time to go away and think about the purchase. If you have doubts when checking out a guitar, you are probably better to leave it and hold out for something that better suits you.
If you are a guitar beginner and a little worried about testing guitar in public – don’t worry. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not so just go for it.
If you are still worried, take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a guitar to learn on. See if you can persuade a teacher or a friend – most musicians love to help beginners who are interested in learning to play the guitar. Not only will they be able to offer helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public.
This FREE course was brought to you by Jamorama – The Ultimate Guitar Learning Course
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Jamorama Guitar Lesson 3 – How to Read Guitar Tablature (1)
March 3, 2009 by Cyn
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