By Mike Jones

Mike here from KillerGuitarTips.com

Here's a great tip for beginners learning to play the electric guitar. Most guitar playing is done using a pick or plectrum to strum the strings. If you don't hold the pick or guitar plectrum correctly you will find it a lot harder to progress so here's how you do it.

A very effective way to hold the pick is to hold it between your thumb and index finger and to hold it with only a very small amount of the pick protruding. When you strum the strings you will need to angle the pick allowing ir to glide across the strings rather than dig in. Try to use your wrist rather than you elbow to strum as you'll find it much easier and have more control.

Practice this by strumming one easy chord at a time until is sounds melodic and each string rings out evenly.

As I mention in most of these tips and tricks a picture is worth a thousand words and in my Audio/Video program being released shortly you will get full audio/video tuition so you will be able to see and hear exactly what is being shown to you and you will be able to play it back to yourself over and over again.

I always tend to try to give you more than one great tip each week in this series of articles... This is no exception so here's goes with your second tip.

This next tip is a great alternative to strumming your guitar and will make you sound really cool.

So, as an alternative to strumming we will now try to pick out each note of the chord in a regular order.

First we need a chord progression to work with. So for this exercise let's use G, D, C, D.

Holding down a G major chord follow tis picking order: Play the bass note of the chord (which will be on the 6th string) then pick the 3rd followed by the 2nd string and then pick the 3rd again.

Now to cover one bar play the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 2nd strings. Follow the chord sequence for one bar of each chord remembering the bass note for D os the 4th string and for C it is on the 5th string.

Play this chord progression with this picking style over and over againfor a really cool sounding guitar piece. Tip: Check out "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton (especially the verses!).

For all you guys that are relative beginners it may sound a little confusing. Don't worry! My full home study DVD course will cover everything you need to know in a step by step chronological order bringing your guitar playing on as fast as possible. There you go for now, take care

Until next week. Mike

About the Author:

Learn Guitar Chords Fast and Easy

By Hallen J. Miller

The act of learning to play guitar is without a doubt quite fun, and believe it or not most people at one point have wanted to learn to give it a try. There are many times that you've seen the lead singer in a band begin to play, and you wonder how awesome it would be if you could do the same thing. But there are many people that have no idea what a guitar chord is, and there is no shame if you happen to be among them.

Instead of buying a guitar and hoping that it will just come to you, it's best to seek out a method that allows you to learn guitar through chords and chord progression. All music is based on chords; once you learn how they are played you can start to understand how music is made. Even if you have never taken a lesson you can still learn finger placement and how to strum so you can get the basics under your belt.

Everybody starts with the fundamentals when it comes to learning guitar chords. Even your favorite guitar player, although some are self-taught you can still trace their musical start to guitar chords. When you learn the major chords that most of music uses for songs you can begin to build a base of knowledge.

The majority of people will mistakenly believe that learning the guitar is very hard. Yes, it is quite a challenge, but hard? Absolutely not! Get rid of this preconceived notion and you'll be well on your way! Find a book that contains basic guitar chords and you'll be well on your way to wherever it is you want to be.

There is a fair amount of practice involved and devoting just a half hour each day to playing will improve your overall thirst for learning more. Remember to start with basic chords so you can understand how music is played. Since learning new chords helps build upon your hand flexing you will find that you can play chords you thought were reserved for professionals.

Once you learn the proper finger placement and which strings to strum you will be amazed at how fun and easy learning can be. Even if you have been challenged in musical talent department you can still learn how to play guitar chords. The root of every song comes from a guitar chord.

There is such a thing as a common chord, and such are the chords that everyone will learn. If you learn the common chords, then you can learn the major chords which will help you to learn many other types of music. You can combine simple and major chords to make some beautiful music!

It's also fun to learn with a friend because you can help encourage each other as you learn to play. There are several ways to learn, you can hire a teacher, you can teach yourself or you can take a music class with other students. Its best to have a teacher that shows you what a chord looks like and which strings to play. Often times we get frustrated because we feel we are not learning as fast as we would like. You cannot rush musical development, take your time and enjoy the process.

I:1:T

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By Thomas Anderson

Natural Harmonic

The easiest harmonics to produce are probably "Natural Harmonics. The technique used is to play with an open string. You would pluck the string with the right hand with your pick as usual, and at the same time mildly touch your left finger to the string at the proper point and then remove it immediately. Your left finger forces the string to stay still in that point, hence creating a node, while the rest of it vibrates. The clarity the harmonic relies upon how quickly you remove your finger. The most important thing about "Natural harmonics" is that where you place your left finger .This is so because it has to match the right placement of the node of the harmonic series you desire to produce.

In most cases you need to place your finger above the fret, not the gap in between them. You can acquire all the "harmonic" effortlessly with a little practice except the 9th fret that is somewhat difficult to get. The 12th fret is simplest and best lace to begin.

Artificial Harmonic

"Natural harmonics" being produced on open strings have limited notes which we can easily create. While "Artificial harmonics" include one more step and give a lot more openings, although they are much difficult to play. However, the principle is simple - we have just to shorten the string by fretting it somewhere. For instance a 2nd harmonic although still consisting of 2 equal notes split in the middle would sound higher because we have shortened the string by fretting it.

It also signifies that we have to move the point that we produce the node up by half the distance we have moved up the fret board (so that we are still hitting the exact center of the part of the string that is free to move). Since we work out the positioning of the nodes as a division of the part of the string that is able to resonate, all of the nodes will be closer at hand, and will act on the string slightly. To actually play the "harmonic", since your left hand is busy in fretting the string, you must place a finger from your right hand on the appropriate point, and use some other finger on the same hand to really pull the string - this is not easy - pretty hard to perform but with practice you can meet the task.

To create "artificial harmonics", implement the exact same rules , simply remember that you have to adjust for the amount you have moved up the neck.Entire complex melodies can be played by practicing artificial harmonics , but if you are moving your fret hand up the string even to play successive notes, you also require to change the place to match the "harmonic "you are producing.

Both the techniques mentioned above are equally at home on a classical or electric guitar.

About the Author:

By Mike Jones

It's Mike again from KillerGuitarTips.com

As promised here's another mini guitar lesson to give you a help in hand in your guitar playing.

This week's tip is a nice little chord change that crops up in many songs and is really effective but it does assume you have some understanding of playing the guitar. If not don't worry as my full course (due to be released shortly) covers every aspect from an absolute beginner through to monster guitar players.

A great piece of advice is to keep all these tips for future reference. As you will be building an archive up over time and can be referred back to and pull out from your bag of tricks.

Ok, let's have a go:

We'll start by playing an 'A Major' chord in the open position, using your 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger play one bar all downstrokes and on the beat.

Next lift off your 3rd finger to reveal the open B string (this chord is called Asus2) and play one bar.

Next using your 4th finger hold down the B string at the 3rd fret (1st and 2nd finger remain unchanged at the second fret throughout this piece), play one bar (Chord is called Asus4) and finish off by playing one bar of A Major to complete this four bar sequence.

Here's another cool little trick i would like to give you before i sign off for this week. It's a great trick creating cool sounding chords easily by using all the open strings within the chords.

Ok follow me... We are going to play an A major (A) chord with a difference... The fingerings are: 4th string 7th fret with your 3rd finger....3rd string 6th fret 2nd finger and 2nd string 5th fret 1st finger and 1st string is played open this chord is an A major (A). OK now strum one bar....

Now you need to move the whole chord shape down the neck two frets keeping the 1st string open. This is a G6 chord. Play one bar.

Now we need to play a Dsus2 chord. Here are the fingerings... 4th string open... 3rd string 2nd fret first finger... 2nd string 3rd fret 3rd finger and again 1st string open, now play one bar.

To finish off we now play an A Major chord in the open position... 5th string open... 4th,3rd and 2nd string are played at the second fret with fingers 1,2,3 and the 1st string is ...you guessed it open.

Play one or two bars of each chord over and over for a killer chord progression that sounds great on its own, it's great to solo over and fantastic for writing your own songs...

Until next time, keep practicing!

Warmest regards Mike

About the Author:

By Lee Allen

This short article contains some common guitar myths on the subject of natural talent. We will talk about that how natural talent is not a replacement for hardwork and for learning the specific proficiency. By practicing with guitar backing tracks you will achieve the benefits to polishing your skills.

Natural talent is a pretty talked about phrase in the guitar community. Some people remain unable to excel in mastering their instrument because they do not have natural talent.

There are quite a few guitar players who can be trained the musical instrument quickly because all the people aren't naturally gifted as a musician or guitarist. Lots of musicians may have a natural talent for their musical instrument or style, but that does not mean that only these individuals can be taugh and master the guitar. Yes, natural talent matters a lot but someone who picks up a guitar and has the drive, enthusiasm, determination, and dedication can learnand develop into an outstanding guitarist.

Mastering the guitar simply involves individuals to apply themselves to learning the necessary tools and skills in order to successfully produce music that shows who they are and what they are about. You have to take some time to learn all these tools, techniques, and skills if you truly want to master the guitar. It is essential to learn all these things because a guitar player requires them to play effectively.

According to this myth, skillful guitarists just magically knew how to play, and overlooks the fact that they sacrifices many hours of practice to acquire and perfect their skills. But there are no guitar geniuses who haven't spent hours and hours of practice and study to promote their talents and skills.

The reality is that even the most gifted guitar players had to work, learn, and practice. You can practice and develop your skills by various different modes. To practice along with guitar backing tracks is one of the most advantageous means to polish your talents and skills. You can perfect your skills and apply your freshly learned knowledge by playing with guitar backing tracks. Guitar backing tracks assist you to develop better tone as they focus on toning up your accuracy. These tracks are easily accessible from retailers such as Planet of Rock.

You can make your Practice sessions more pleasurable by using backing tracks. You can play along with a whole band rather than running never-ending drills. You also can perfect your improvisation proficiencies. Guitar Players can rock the stage while performing the live shows and other types of gigs by employing backing tracks.

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Look Into the New Moon Soundtrack

By Jason Barry

Anyone who follows the indie rock music scene may have already discovered the New Moon soundtrack. I heard it for the first time a few days ago and I'd like to give a quick review.

If you know anything about the New Moon series and these bands, you're probably confused by the fact that all of these bands have produced original music for this soundtrack.

To be honest, I had never even heard of the show or the movie until I found out about the soundtrack recently. It wasn't until after reading a review for the album that I even knew what it was.

I'm still confused by the fact that these bands are on the New Moon soundtrack. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half of these bands had never even heard of the show before they were asked to make music for it.

Whatever their motives were for agreeing to do this together, the end result is pretty fascinating. I've found myself listening to this soundtrack quite a bit since I got it last week, and while I'll never see the movie, I'll definitely be listening to this some more.

With big names like Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Thom Yorke, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and others, this is the best compilation CD I've heard since Dark Was the Night came out earlier this year.

The guitar based songs here are great, and some thrilling solos capture the vampire essence of the movie throughout. The electronic based tracks are pretty intriguing too, with a spooky feel to them that blends right into the theme of the soundtrack.

Forget about what this was made for. These could all be the songs for a Hannah Montana soundtrack for all I care. If the music is this good, I'll be buying it.

About the Author:

By Mike Jones

Here's another FREE guitar lesson from Mike at KillerGuitarTips.com

We are going to look at a series of three tips on harmonics.

Harmonics occur over the 5th, 7th and 12th fret and are a natural phenomenon of your instrument.

If you gently touch the string over the fret and pick the string you will play a harmonic. We'll use the 12th fret for this example. DO NOT fret the string, just touch it directly over the fret and pluck the string.

You will hear the harmonic note. If you just get a muted dull sound move your finger towards the fret whilst constantly plucking the string until it becomes clear.

Play the harmonic over the strings at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets.

You really do need this killer technique and is a 'must know' for any guitarist and should be part of their bag of tricks.

For a good example have a look at the middle section in Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.

Give it a whirl.

Now that you have had chance to practice harmonics I would like to show you how to tune your guitar using this technique.

This is a very easy and accurate way to tune your guitar. Following on from last weeks tip...

By using the 5th fret on the 6th string you will get exactly the same pitch harmonics as by using the 7th fret on the 5th string.

When playing the two harmonics together a wavering sound will be heard if the strings aren't in tune with each other. Now if you tune let's say the 5th string and the wavering speeds up the string is going further out of tune. Whilst doing this if you find the string wavering slowing down then it's coming into tune. You need to keep tuning until the wavering has stopped. Once the wavering has stopped the two strings are then in tune with each other. If you find you tune to far the wavering sound will speed up again.

Repeat this with strings 5 & 4 and 4 & 3.

To tune the 2nd string we be a little innovative. This is because this string is tuned 4 frets higher than the 3rd, the others are tuned 5 frets higher so this technique has to be altered here. Play the harmonic on the 3rd string at the 12th fret this is the G note, then FRET the 8th fret on the 2nd string again the note is G of course! Now use your strumming hand to turn the tuning peg and tune the string!

Back to normal now, tune the 1st string 7th fret harmonic to the 2nd string 5th fret harmonic.

Try this tuning technique with distortion on as this really makes the wavering sound stand out.

As stated earlier this is a great way to tune your guitar and much more accurate than the normal and tuning method.

Moving along to the last in ghis series of three on harmonics. We will have a look at what's known as pinched harmonics or also known as false or artificial harmonics.

To create this type of harmonic we need to touch the string very slightly with the side of the thumb immediately after you have plucked it. To get the best effect you need to have your distortion/overdrive turned on and sounds like a screech. Here is how we do it: Move your picking hand up and down the string whilst picking constantly to find where the different harmonic notes are found.

Billy Gibbons is an absolute master of this technique and if you want to hear what it should sound like there is no better man to listen too.

Remember practice equals progress!!

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By Danny Simmons

Come and join us as we examine in depth, the advantages of utilizing blues backing tracks to perfect and hone our knowledge and expertise for playing the blues.

Blues music is one of the most popular and beautiful forms of music that is played on the guitar. Blues guitarists bleed out their emotions through their fingertips, and weave a soul-bearing story just by employing six strings of Blues. Many people who love to play the guitar soon start loving blues music, if they werent already infatuated with it before.

One of the important elements to finding out how to play blues music is learning the scales and chords that prepare the foundation of blues music . Lot of different kinds of blues music and distinct techniques are there within that musical genre that you can learn, so it is essential to start with the elementary chords and scales and work your way up to the more intricate ones.

The classic blues scale is a pentatonic minor scale. It has one additional note than the regular pentatonic minor scale. This extra note hands the essential amount of tension to create the signature blues sound. The scale consists of six distinct note names, but when you actually play the blues scale you will play all the places for those note names within that unique position.

Once you learn that special scale, you will be set to master the timing, structure, and improvisational aspects of blues music. This is best accomplished by playing along with blues backing tracks. Practicing with blues backing tracks is like practicing along with an entire blues band playing along you. There are a lot of benefits using blues supporting tracks to better your practice time.

One of the benefits to utilizing blues backing tracks is it helps you to understand structure and how the scale fits in with the rhythm section. By performing along with blues backing tracks, youll be able to combine the knowledge you have of the scale and practice what youve learned about music theory.

Other special benefit of blues backing tracks is that it is a divine weapon in mastering one of the toughest parts of playing the blues, known as improvisation. You have complete freedom to improvise based on your knowledge of the scale and your own creativity with these guitar backing tracks. Improvisation is an important technique, one that is crucial for the blues guitarist to fly high in, particularly during a live concert.

About the Author:

By Charlie Talbot

Join us as we take a view what it takes to learn to play the guitar by ear and exceptional practical tips that you can use to better your skills and fine tune your ear.

There are countless methods of learning how to play guitar, and all of them are fundamental and crucial for the mastery of the instrument. Most people learn to play by using sheet music, or tablature. This is for sure a required skill to learn for growth and development. There is something that a plenty of guitarists may not take the time to learn, and that is how to play the guitar by ear.

Learning to play by ear will allow you a grander depth of understanding about guitar. This will also help you to recognize chords and scales you hear instrumentalists using without needing the sheet music for that particular piece.

Hence as to begin learning how to play the guitar by ear, you need to have a basic knowledge and understanding of music. You dont have to be a professional, but that you should understand some of the basics of music theory. Some fundamental knowledge about chords, chord progressions, and how chords and scales work together will be very facilitative.

patience is one more important skill you'll need to groom. Learning to play by ear can be very hard and time consuming; it requires a lot of practice. To perfect your sound, you'll have to perpetually play the same chords, riffs, and solos time after time.

One of the premium resources available to help you fine tune your ear is to play along with your favorite CDs. Dig out some of your preferred albums and start. One of the outstanding ways to learn is to mimic the guitar legends you love. By playing along and trying to copy their sound, you'll develop in your technique. Another fun way is to jam along to guitar backing tracks like Planet of Rock.

Learning to play guitar by ear has a lot of benefits that can help you grow as a composer. It enables you to develop a deeper understanding of how to play, as well as how music fits together. Playing by ear also helps you out tremendously if you should happen to join a band and play with other guitarists.

About the Author:

By Ross Coleman

Join us now as we examine a few practical tips to serve you acquire and master guitar scales, and the benefits of having a set practice time for studying scales. We will also be talking about the value of using guitar backing tracks to help master and perfect our scales and improvisation techniques.

If you desire to become an excellent guitar player you have to master guitar scales. Without entirely mastering guitar scales, it's unachievable to make lead guitar parts as well as improvising solo leads. Scales are one of the foundational units that are required to attaining a complete mastery of guitar playing.

There are several facilitative tips available to assist individuals master guitar scales. One tip is to not rush and attempt to memorize a lot of several scales all straightaway. It is much easier that pick out one scale, gather knowledge of it, and practice it unless you have perfected it. By practicing them one at a time you can keep what you have taken. Learning one scale at a time will also boost up your ability to be more creative when improvising, rather than sounding mechanical, as if you were playing drills.

Having a program for how you are going to utilize them is another outstanding tip. Building Up a set routine for guitar practice can serve you to make sure that you don't ignore determining and doing and just skip to playing around. You can receive a guitar chord book from your discount local store, and spend just a short time every single day familiarizing yourself with all the scale names and all the diagrams that are shown.

It may be useful to rise up with a program that sets aside a sure amount of time each practice to running through all of your scales. This will help you very much.

Start by learning the basic 5 most common keys for guitar C, G, D, A, E these are comfortable open scale positions. Thereafter, move on to minor a pentatonic scale which is the big daddy of all scales that is often used for improvisations on the guitar.

Once if you have commenced to perfect your scales, you will be resourceful to know how to practice them in constructing improvised solos and lead sections. One of the best modes of doing this is to practice improvising along to guitar backing tracks. If you wish to recognize what you've learned Guitar backing tracks will facilitate you.

About scales and how they fit in with chord progressions and key changes. These backing tracks can also facilitate you to improve your timing skills as well as how to play with other musicians.

Guitar backing tracks give you the freedom to write and produce your personal lead parts to already existing bits of music played by master musicians.

Guitar backing tracks are really helpful to better your practice time as well as aiding you perfecting your style and guitar playing abilities.

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By Adam Baker

Guitar tabs are an informative guitar- favorable mode of putting riffs down, but they generally are not as much informative as sheet music. Guitar tabs frequently rely on backing tracks with some descriptions and analysis to support them. This is because they do not have key information and timing??" but if you are fortunate, the description will give you the key.

A lot of tabs advertised in magazines include the key at the top of the tab. But if you have a tab without the key, you will not be able to say what key it is in? Well, dont worry at least you have the notes, which is a great start. One method is to write down all of the notes and compare them to scales that you have in your brain. A good chance of figuring the key out will be there, if you can recognise 8 various notes but if you only have two the case may be otherwise.

For instance, if you pick out 8 notes and they are A, B, C, D, E, F and G that grants you some good clues. The first 2 choices are the key of C and the key of a minor. I found this out by arranging the notes and comparing them to the tones in several scales.

Other possible actions include the several modes of the C Major scale. Such as: A Aeolian ( same as the A minor-scale above), F Lydian, G Mixolydian D Dorian, E Phrygian B Locrian

Experience is important to figure out the modes in use. Particularly, you can check the chord that is being played as it will likely give you a clue. For instance Em or Em7 would point towards a Phrygian scale instead of standardised major.

Of course you may play some very complicated scales that arent just very simple to spot by looking at the notes, or even somebody is merely "cheating in which the song is being played chromatically or without reference to a particular scale. In short terms, the all-important thing is to have knowledge about the backing chords that will serve you here.

About the Author:

By Bailey Murphy

In this article we are going to provide you guidance about our basic scale, the Minor Pentatonic scale. Pentatonic is a great scale to learn, particularly for guitar. It is commonly the first scale. It is pretty simple, and it works very well over simple chord progressions, and is a great place to start practicing improvisation for soloing.

The fundamental information about the Minor Pentatonic Scale

Pentatonic scale has 5 notes (hence the Penta- in its name). This is the 1st scale. It is very interesting because most scales you will memorize in the future have 7 notes in them. It has only 2 notes on every string and this makes the pentatonic scale easier to play. The Pentatonic scale includes both major and minor - we will concentrate on the Minor Pentatonic scale in this lesson.

In the scales introduction any scale can be described by a plain numeric formula, and the pentatonic scale can also be portrayed in the same way.

Its formula is: 3 2 2 3 2

Lets see how this acts in an exemplar, e.g. G Minor Pentatonic.

We start with G as our base note, and add every step of the pattern to get the next note:

G + 3 semitones is Bb Bb + 2 semitones is C C + 2 semitones is D D + 3 semitones is F F + 2 semitones is G

Thus there you get G minor pentatonic notes that are G, Bb, C, D, F, G. This formula can be implemented with any other root note for the exact scale entirely depending upon your choice.

Furthermore, you can move these patterns up and down the neck. For example, if you want a minor Pentatonic, then you work it out as follows:

The base note A is 2 semitones up from G, so just move every of these rules up 2 frets and voila, you will find formulas for A minor pentatonic.

Also, the patterns repeat up the neck after the 1st five - therefore if you want to climb up higher, start once again with the 1st rule played with the G root note played on the 15th fret instead of the 3rd fret.

The Blues Scale

Another scale, very closely linked to the minor pentatonic scale is the blues scale which is used in blues. An attitional passing note to the pentatonic musical scale is normally added up by the blues players which is technically known as a flattened 5th - that means an additional note in between notes 3 and 4 of the pentatonic scale. When this note is added to the minor pentatonic scale you get the blues scale. The rule changes when you add that extra note to it and it becomes like this: 3 2 1 1 3 2, and our example G minor Pentatonic becomes G, Bb, C, Db, D, F, G when rewritten as the blues scale.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale in Action

Now we are going to discuss that how to play the Minor Pentatonic and the Blues scale. Both the Pentatonic and the Blues scales are fit for playing Rock and 12 bar blues with. Lets concentrate on 12 bar blues - a very pretty easy concept that is considered as a source of some amazing music over the years.

The chords you apply are a type of I, IV, V progression - what that means isn't really critical at this stage, but the chords you would use with a G minor or Pentatonic scale would be as follows:

G - G - G - G - C - C - G - G - D - C - G - D This chord sequence enables you to play sequences of notes from any of the pentatonic boxes and you will acquire a bluesy kind of improvisation going.

About the Author:

By Zack Roberts

In his youth he played on street corners for dimes and pennies! He was born on 16 September, 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. He spent his youth playing on street corners for dimes. Today B.B. King (Riley B. King) averages 250 'packed to the rafters' concerts around the world each and every year.

In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue his music career. His first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program.Over the years King has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles.

He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, incorporating his distinct and complex voice-like string blends and his left-handed vibrato, both of which have become vital components of a blues guitarist's vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck.

Soon after his number one hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," B.B. began touring nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one-night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls to rock palaces, symphony concert halls, universities, resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.

In the mid-1950s, two men got into a big fight during one of King's concert performances. The men, while fighting, knocked over a kerosene stove and set a huge fire to the entire venue. King raced outdoors to safety and then realised he'd left his beloved acoustic guitar behind. He rushed back in to retrieve it and almost lost his life. He found out later that the fight had been over a woman.

He named his guitar Lucille to remind him to never do a crazy thing like fight for a woman. Ever since, each one of King's guitars has been called Lucille. Does your guitar have a name?

About the Author:

By Martin Harris

Some of the primary concepts of guitar playing have been introduced in this piece of writing. It describes lot of words and concepts that the beginner guitarist requires to find out, and this is an perfect place to start if you are a beginner. Furthermore, it will give you an insight into some of the languages and concepts needed to move onto some of the more complex lessons.

Octaves and Note Naming

Lets start the process of giving names to notes. Total number of whole notes in the scales is 7. Most of them are rip into half notes. We name the whole notes after letters of the alphabet, starting at A and moving through to G. At G we circle back around to A again. The notes sound the same but more high-pitched as we have moved through 8 whole notes and got back to where we started from. The notes having the same name are an Octave apart. Notes that are an octave apart are equal in musical function. As A Matter Of Fact, if two notes are an octave apart, the higher note will have twice the frequency of the lower note. There are 8 notes in total, including the equivalent notes called as an octave. The doubling in frequency between Octave apart notes hits something in our nervous system and we find this relationship sensible and enjoyable to hear. Therefore, we usually devise our musical scales around this concept.

Tones and Semi-tones, Flats and Sharps

It is said that there are 8 whole notes - it turns out that we also require half notes to play any possible tune. The convention of playing western music includes to put half notes between all of the whole notes except for 2 specific pairs - E,F and B,C. The question is that why do we do this? It all comes from the way that Major scales are constructed, which you can understand about in later in this lessons. Scales are constructed from a mixture of half and whole notes depending on the musical scale and practice of 8 whole notes along with some half notes hand us the flexibility to do this. The remarkable thing is that music notational system has developed over many thousands of years, so to create pure sense is not essential, but it soon becomes second nature when you start working with it.

The whole notes are called tones while the half notes are called semi-tones. We can relate to the semitones through 2 ways. We can figure them by producing a semi-tone from a particular note, which we call a sharp, and we use the '#' sign to denote this. Or, we can figure the note by stepping down a semitone from a more high-pitched note - we call this a flat, and employ the 'b' to denote this. Thus, we can talk about the notes A and B, and the note in between them which we could name A# or Bb.

Notice that particular pairs of notes do not have a semitone between them! Another way to depict all this is that there is no such note as E#, or B#, or using the flat notation, Fb and Cb do not exist.

(Side note: In Reality there are some special circumstances in which we talk of E#, B#, Fb and Cb, but these are actually notational devices, and don't refer to additional notes. We will learn about this later).

Hence you should now see that an octave consists of actually 12 certain semi-tones (normally known as 13 because we count the octave note as well). These are: A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab and back to A again making 13. No other notes than these exist in Western music, and every song written uses a combination of these in several octaves, and so a tune or melody is just a sequence of semi-tones A-G# spaced apart. They are not equal to maintain some feeling of rhythm. Why the number of semitones remains 12? The simple answer is convention. A long time ago, Western music established on the 8 note scale, and uses half notes as the fundamental basis for all musics. Some cultures employ quarter notes in their scales, but they sound to western ears. Occasionally, on guitar we employ quarter note bends to impart emphasis and phrasing, particularly in blues, but scales can not be built out of them.

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Pinch & Tap Harmonics for Lead Guitar

By Jackson White

Pinch Harmonic

"Pinch harmonic is a typical guitar scream. It is often played by the guitar players to rip into the solo and to play one or more notes that simply scream and sound stunning. The rules remain the same but this time all the action depends on how you pick the string.

While playing the pinch harmonic guitar player not only picks note as normal, but also lets his thumb brush up against the note just after he picks it. The thumb is setting up the node of the "harmonic" and pulling the strings to resonate with the desired harmonic series. If you crank the gain and treble up, after using the method in right way, you will always find a screaming harmonic of some kind.

As with other harmonics you require to fine tune the exact position you are utilizing to hit the melodic point, and you can even switch between different harmonic types in between tones. Since Pinch Harmonics are executed near the bridge, we are choosing from the higher harmonics, so we acquire high notes. Some higher harmonics also include disharmonious components, adding to the scream. A lot of the possibilities are here within a small space - we get more because the guitar is artificially sensitive to the higher order harmonics as be having upped the gain a lot.

Tap Harmonic

A "Tap Harmonic" is simply like an "Artificial Harmonic"; the difference between them is that the "tap harmonic" practices a single action- to do a tap, instead of separately touching and plucking the string. For this you require to tap the string softly so that it very briefly hits the fret underneath it and remove your finger very speedily. The tap sets the string in vibration and at the same time creates the node in the correct place - so naturally you need to tap the string at the right point essential to set up the "harmonic" you wish.

Whammy Bar Harmonics

Ultimately, the "Whammy Bar Harmonic" is akin to the "tap harmonic", the only difference is that while playing "tap harmonic" you select very high order harmonics, and there is no fret beneath the exact spot you need to strike, so, you require to utilize a whipping action to set the string oscillating and deaden it in the accurate point to set up the preferable node. That is why; "whammy harmonics" are about the most tricky "harmonic" technique. A great point to do this is on the G string between the 2nd and 3rd frets - depending on the exact position you whip. In this way, you can get 3 or 4 various harmonic series. Simply remember that before you whip, push your whammy bar down, and after the tap release it and add some vibrato - with this technique you can find some crazy screams.

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By Garcia Thompson

This short article presents a woolly description as well as a more technical one to make you familiar with Relative Minors.

A relative minor is a scale that is "related" to a major scale. As they work together harmonically, so they can be considered as being in the same family. Relative minors provide a great mode to move from a major to a minor key without too much of a jump or practice of complex chord successions and so they are considered as a well-set tool in songwriting.

Here is a more technical description:

The relative minor of a certain major scale is a scale that starts 6 intervals up and after that shares all of the same notes. Firstly, what is an interval? It is not easy to answer it exactly but you can say that an interval is a note in a scale. You can understand all this with the help of an example. Let's look at the scale of C ??" it is liked by most of the people because it has no sharps or flats. It comprises of followingnotes

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

We find that A is the relative minor of C by going up 6 notes, (C-D-E-F-G-A). Therefore the possible notes we will use for A minor are A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.

Although we start on the note of A, all of the notes also exist in the C major scale.

Taking it a step further, looking at the scale in terms of half and whole notes, as in the Major Scale 101 lesson, for a relative minor we would use the formula:

W H W W H W W, or

2 1 2 2 1 2 2

You can practice this formula to figure out the relative minor scale for any major scale by starting at the 6th note and practicing it.

Now, to conclude, a brief note of a couple of fascinating facts about Relative Minors is given. Firstly, three various minor scales are there in western music ??" with a slight divergence in their formula. The scale above is actually a "Natural Minor" or "Pure Minor" scale - two names for the same thing while the other two are called "Harmonic" and "Melodic". As their formulas differ from each other, so they do not share the identical notes as the associated relative major scale and are harmonically speaking not such a right match as the Natural Minor.

And eventually, the Natural Minor (or Relative Minor) scale of a certain major scale is also known as the "Aeolian Mode". Modes are a concept that we will discuss later on, but for now, you can say confidently that you have proper understanding of Relative Minors, Pure Minors, Natural Minors, and the Aeolian mode.

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By Eugene Walker

Guitar backing tracks are essential armory that every lead guitarist should have. Without it, it would be difficult to play solos or lead guitar.If you have moved from the basic stage into the advanced stage then it doesn't mean that you are ready to play the solo or lead live on stage. There are many more aspects to playing a guitar solo and one of them is learning to play with guitar backing tracks.

The good thing is that you can purchase some of best professionally recorded guitar backing tracks from companies such as Planet of Rock. It will come for a cost depending on the track and the band. These guitar backing tracks are a must for all those who are dreaming of playing their own solo someday in the near future.

What it actually does is that it substitutes the need for a band playing the background. For example: if you want to practice your solo with a Eddie Van Halen or a Jimi Hendrix number, you do not really require a bassist, drummer and rhythm guitarist. All you need is the guitar backing track for that specific number and you will be good to go. These tracks are perfect for a nice jam session when you are practicing without a band.

The reason why every guitarist should use guitar backing tracks is because they are options you can have for practicing advanced lead guitar techniques. This is a type of tool that will help you especially when you want to work on new licks or practice different type of scales like the blues scale, the pentatonic scales etc. You can even use guitar backing tracks for rhythm guitar.

One of the important aspects of guitar backing tracks is that it will help you to improve your timing immensely. You will never go out of tune or end up playing the wrong scale. The reason why most guitarists in their advanced learning stage use guitar backing tracks is because it helps them to prepare for live gigs.

Playing at a live gig is very different from playing in a studio. You will not have any room for mistakes as you will be playing right in front of an live and responsive audience. So you will need to hone your skills and the most effective way of doing that is by playing with guitar backing tracks. Guitar backing tracks are available for some of the top numbers in rock, metal, blues and alternative.

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By Zack Roberts

Most blues guitarists start out as rock or country guitarists, only developing their interests in blues at a later date. Thus, there are many blues guitarists who don't have all of the necessary education and background necessary to play traditional blues who rely on modified rock licks and scales to sort of "fake" a blues sound.

For the guitarist who's serious about developing his or her skill as a blues musician, there are several things that can be done to enhance and speed this process.

1. Learn some processes and methods of playing that are specific to blues music. This can mean learning specifically blues-oriented scales, and licks. Particularly valuable techniques that are a bit trickier to master, but well worth it are playing with a slide and playing in modified tunings. Many terrific blues soloists like Buddy Guy or Eric Clapton will play in an open chord tuning to facilitate slide playing.

Don't think of just major chords either, minor chord tunings are extremely versatile when it comes to blues.

It is important to remember that there will be times when these improvements come very quickly, and others when it may seem like you have accomplished nothing. Do not get discouraged. The guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to master, so you can't expect instant results. Some people keep notes on their progress. When they feel that they have reached a plateau, they refer to their notes to see if any unperceived improvements have been made. Often, you will find that you are your harshest critic, so your notes may keep your emotions in check.

2. Learn from the masters. If you're more into modern blues, than start your quest with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Keb' Mo' and Buddy Guy. Once you've absorbed these giants, than start working your way backward with such artists like Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf.

3. Develop your skill with the acoustic guitar. Remember, blues started as an acoustic art form, so to discover pure blues, pick up an acoustic guitar, a glass slide, put on some recordings of the old masters, and take yourself back to the Delta!

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By Mike Brown

Scales are an important part of your creativity, regardless of whichever scales you want! The more scales you know, the more ways you have of expressing yourself. If you wish to take a proved and tested path that will allow you to play the music of many great musicians, I would advise you learn scales in the following order.

1. Minor Pentatonic. This is the first scale and a lot of people learn it. It is simple because it only has 5 notes, and it opens up huge openings for improvisation. Some guitarists never need more than this scale.

2. Major pentatonic. This is pretty similar and is a variation of the minor pentatonic.

3. Major Scale. This scale is the base of western music.

4. Natural Minor scale. The major scale and natural minor scale both form the backbone of western music. You can use the pentatonic scale wherever you apply the minor scale because the pentatonic is in reality the minor scale with just a a couple of notes. With the above collection of scales you can play 95% of music that you are familiar with. If you stop here you can still be a very efficient instrumentalist. The next scales are more particular in their application, but more wonderful and cooler and will start to impart your music with a more special and distinctive feel.

5. Harmonic Minor/Melodic Minor. Two variations of the lower-ranking scales that give a distinct feel, especially the harmonic minor.

6. The major modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian. These Modes are built up according to particular rules. Depending on your own choice, they will give your music of a peculiar feel. The taking of modes helps you greatly when you are thoroughly experienced with the scales I stated previous.

A lot of people don't make it past the major modes - by the time you master the major modes and the some other scales, you are skilled musician, with a large range of scales and stylings to feed into your composition and soloing.

7. Exotic Scales. I call any scale that I haven't listed above an "exotic scale" - that's just my tag for it. There are hundreds of exotic scales, numerous of them used in peculiar types of folk music or Jazz. You could spend many years learning them all, and you can find reference books on them such as the Guitar Grimoire.

8. Modes of Exotic scales. Every scale has associated modes; it is not true that modes merely exist for major scales. They provide you an even better palette of notes to pick out from.

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By Walsh Davis

You should know the few fundamentals about the guitar, and the first step in is the understanding of notes that is the basis of music. The next step is to have knowledge about scales. The problem is that when some people are presented with musical scales for the first time, and they are being asked to play variations of these musical scales, it can become a disheartening undertaking. In this article we are going to search some of the causes for the existence of scales, and why we focus on them so greatly.

what are Musical Scales? A Technical View

We can construct music out of 12 viable tones because we have only 12 possible notes. Western music has produced such rules which describe how and when you can use these tones together. Although this is just convention, but by applying these rules you will instantly notice that something is wrong or unique instead of hearing the several common scales you hear commonly when you do not apply these rules. No special information is written in stone about the way these things are devised, but we are all so used to hearing music from an early age that contains these rules that we don't even consider about the options until we start to study musical theory in depth.

If you want to play western style music and be a great guitarist, you are in need to understand these principles. A noteworthy part of these rules and conventions is the musical scales we use.

What is a scale? It is fundamentally a sequence of notes, picked out from the 12 available, that work out together to give an effect to the music. You can describe individual scales in a better way as a list of gaps between the notes. Half notes or Whole notes are denoted by the term Tone or Semitone which give the rule of using their basic letters, T and S.

Some people use Half and Whole (W, H) to denote the gaps, and another way is to list the number of semitones (1 or 2). Either mode is taken, these three are identical or all hand the gaps for the major musical scale:

1. T T S T T T S 2. W W H W W W H 3. 2 2 1 2 2 2 1

Let us see, how this acts. Pick up a scale at random - G# major. This step states 2 things. First, our root note is G#. Second, we will be utilizing the Major scale formula to work out the notes.

Therefore, we start with our G# note, and add the basic step of the rule which is a T, meaning a Tone. Thus, starting with G # and moving up a tone or two half notes puts us onto A#:

G# + T = A#

Next, we start with A#, and look at the next letter in the rule - its a Tone once again, thus we add 2 half notes to A#, to give us a C:

A# + T = C

Next, we start with a C and find out the formula - now it is a semitone, which takes us to C#:

C + S = C#

If we continue with this we get the following:

C# + T = D# D# + T = F (remember nothing is like an E#) F + T = G G + S = G#

Thus, we have built our scale of G# major according to our major scale formula to get the notes:

G# A# C C# D# F G

Mostly, the scales we use have 7 notes in them but that is not an essential pattern. For example, the minor pentatonic scale only has 5 notes in it (its formula is 3 2 2 3 2 - I used numbers here instead of T and S because it has a few Tone and a half leaps, which is 3 half notes, and that is more easily written down as a 3 instead of something like "T + 1/2", but it all signifies the same thing). Some scales have more notes, for instance the chromatic musical scale has all 12 notes in it.

Thus in this way the scales act! The formula depicts them and we pick whichever root note we desire to construct. The next step is to convert these notes into a formula so that we can play it.

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Easy Guitar Theory - Notes & Octaves

By Martin Harris

Some of the fundamental concepts of guitar playing have been presented in this piece of writing. It describes lot of words and concepts that the beginner guitar player needs to find out, and this is an ideal place to start if you are a beginner. Moreover, it will give you an insight into some of the languages and concepts essential to move onto some of the more complex lessons.

Octaves and Note Naming

Lets start the process of giving names to notes. Total number of whole notes in the scales is 7. Most of them are rip into half notes. We name the whole notes after letters of the alphabet, starting at A and moving through to G. At G we circle back around to A again. The notes sound the same but more high-pitched as we have moved through 8 whole notes and got back to where we started from. The notes having the same name are an Octave apart. Notes that are an octave apart are equal in musical function. As A Matter Of Fact, if two notes are an octave apart, the higher note will have twice the frequency of the lower note. There are 8 notes in total, including the equivalent notes called as an octave. The doubling in frequency between Octave apart notes hits something in our nervous system and we find this relationship sensible and enjoyable to hear. Therefore, we usually devise our musical scales around this concept.

Tones and Semi-tones, Flats and Sharps

It is said that there are 8 whole notes - it turns out that we also require half notes to play any possible tune. The convention of playing western music includes to put half notes between all of the whole notes except for 2 specific pairs - E,F and B,C. The question is that why do we do this? It all comes from the way that Major scales are constructed, which you can understand about in later in this lessons. Scales are constructed from a mixture of half and whole notes depending on the musical scale and practice of 8 whole notes along with some half notes hand us the flexibility to do this. The remarkable thing is that music notational system has developed over many thousands of years, so to create pure sense is not essential, but it soon becomes second nature when you start working with it.

The whole notes are called tones while the half notes are called semi-tones. We can name to the semitones through 2 ways. We can figure them by producing a semi-tone from a particular note, which we call a sharp, and we use the '#' sign to denote this. Or, we can figure the note by stepping down a semitone from a higher note - we name this a flat, and use the 'b' to denote this. Thus, we can discuss the notes A and B, and the note in between them which we could call A# or Bb.

Observe that certain pairs of notes do not have a semitone between them! Another means to describe all this is that there is no such note as E#, or B#, or employing the flat notation, Fb and Cb do not exist.

(Side note: Actually there are some particular circumstances in which we talk of E#, B#, Fb and Cb, but these are truly notational devices, and don't refer to additional notes. We will learn about this later).

Hence you should now see that an octave consists of actually 12 certain semi-tones (normally known as 13 because we count the octave note as well). These are: A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab and back to A again making 13. No other notes than these exist in Western music, and every song written uses a combination of these in several octaves, and so a tune or melody is just a sequence of semi-tones A-G# spaced apart. They are not equal to maintain some feeling of rhythm. Why the number of semitones remains 12? The simple answer is convention. A long time ago, Western music established on the 8 note scale, and uses half notes as the fundamental basis for all musics. Some cultures employ quarter notes in their scales, but they sound to western ears. Occasionally, on guitar we employ quarter note bends to impart emphasis and phrasing, particularly in blues, but scales can not be built out of them.

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By Mike Brown

Scales are an important portion of your creativity, regardless of whichever scales you desire! The more scales you know, the more ways you have of expressing yourself. If you want to take a proved and tested path that will allow you to play the music of many master musicians, I would suggest you learn scales in the following order.

1. Minor Pentatonic. This is the first scale and a lot of people learn it. It is simple because it only has 5 notes, and it opens up huge openings for improvisation. Some guitarists never need more than this scale.

2. Major pentatonic. This is pretty alike and is a variation of the minor pentatonic.

3. Major Scale. This scale is the base of western music.

4. Natural Minor scale. The major scale and natural minor scale both form the backbone of western music. You can use the pentatonic scale wherever you apply the minor scale because the pentatonic is in reality the minor scale with just a a couple of notes. With the above collection of scales you can play 95% of music that you are familiar with. If you stop here you can still be a very efficient instrumentalist. The next scales are more particular in their application, but more wonderful and cooler and will start to impart your music with a more special and distinctive feel.

5. Harmonic Minor/Melodic Minor. Two variations of the lower-ranking scales that give a different feel, particularly the harmonic minor.

6. The major modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian. These Modes are built up according to particular patterns. Depending on your own choice, they will give your music of a different feel. The taking of modes helps you greatly when you are thoroughly experienced with the scales I stated above.

A lot of people don't make it past the major modes - by the time you master the major modes and the some other scales, you are skilled musician, with a large range of musical scales and stylings to feed into your musical composition and soloing.

7. Exotic Scales. I call any scale that I haven't listed above an "exotic scale" - that's simply my label for it. There are hundreds of exotic scales, numerous of them applied in peculiar types of folk music or Jazz. You could spend many years studying them all, and you can find reference books on them such as the Guitar Grimoire.

8. Modes of Exotic scales. Every scale has associated modes; it is not true that modes merely exist for major scales. They provide you an even better palette of tones to choose from.

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By Eugene Walker

Believe it or not, your sound is only as good as your wood. Each wood has a very distinct sound that is individual to every acoustic guitar. Like a finger print, it cannot be recreated, even if another piece of wood is taken from the same source.

This is due to the wood's unique characteristics. Perhaps there are knots in the wood, or a slightly different grain pattern. Maybe there are some other subtle differences but in the end, it all affects how the wood resonates. Resonate is a fancy word for vibration, which is what wood does when you attach strings to it.

How freely the wood resonates will affect your volume (how loud you are) and your tone as a result of that. This explains why that plywood (laminate) guitar sitting in the pawnshop or music store doesn't sound that great: The wood is too stiff to vibrate freely.

That's why you may frequently hear the saying "Solid top". While that may sound great in a sales pitch, the reason it's actually important is that it's real wood, not plywood. This transforms your tone to give you a much nicer sounding guitar.

Before the wood actually gets to your guitar, it undergoes quite a few steps. First off, most tone woods are either industrially logged. This is common for many production model guitars. Still sounds great in most cases, but there are some imperfections.

Higher end guitars have their wood hand selected. It is usually cut by hand and the select chunks are chosen for quality and then shipped back to home base for further processing.

Most manufactures of decent acoustic guitars season their woods for a period of time. This removes excess moisture and hardens the fats, oils, murr (gum), and other sticky things that are naturally found in wood. This seasoning protects the wood from warping and prepares it structurally for the building stage.

From that point, a piece of wood is then book matched. This is the process where one single cut of wood is sliced into two pieces. This forms two identical pieces of wood, which can then be used for the front or back of the guitar. That explains why you have that line running down the back of your guitar (it's usually white). That line just covers up the seam.

Now, onto the woods. Here are some of the neatest and powerful woods out there:

Spruce - Spruce is an extremely strong wood, which is important for building a guitar. It offers some very nice crisp highs and a much more powerful volume. Great wood choice. Used on the majority of guitars.

Cedar - Slightly more mellow than Spruce and has a very warm feel to it. It has a beautiful glow and is aesthetically pleasing.

Maple - A great all round wood that offers a good balance of highs, mids and lows. This is something that many guitarists desire for an all round good projection and clean sound. However, because of this equal balance, it can also sound quite flat for the acoustic world so it's often used on electrics. It is highly desired for it's beautiful grain and lusture.

Koa - Known for it's high range, Koa is known for it's solid tone. It doesn't have a good bass response but makes up for it in the high end of the dynamic sound spectrum.

Mahogany - Great projection and nice treble. The flatpickers dream when combined with the dreadnaught body type because it offers such a great response and tone.

Brazilian Rosewood - This wood is probably the most wanted piece of wood for guitars in the world. It's becoming increasingly rare as it's becoming extinct, therefore jacking up the price tremendously. It offers a huge bass response with nice treble and mids. Unfortunately, most only come on limited edition guitars that are at the top end of the price spectrum.

Indian Rosewood - The more popular alternative to Brazilian Rosewood and is far more accessible. Has virtually the same tonal characteristics, just not as powerful. It's used on most professional guitars.

Cocobolo - My personal favorite! In my humble opinion, it takes many characteristics from the above woods and combines them to form a truly unique sound. It produces a great bass, awesome volume and phenomenal overtones. This wood will most likely be on my next acoustic. I suggest you do the same.

...Keep in mind that there are many, many more species of tone woods available to you. There are also some great subtypes of the above woods. For example, Taylor guitars use Sitka Spruce on many of their models and limited edition guitars. It's in the family of spruce, but offers something different.

In the end, the above comments are extremely subjective. While I have played many of the woods mentioned above, my ear likes things that your ear may not. The only way to find out is to hunt them down and try them for yourself. Many companies use the above woods listed, so it shouldn't be extremely difficult.

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By David Miller

To bring out the different feel of the various modes is one of the challenges of building a modal chord progression. Without taking care in selection , this part can become confused. Now, lets look at Dorian and Phrygian. They are both minor modes. Both will use a Minor 7th as the tonic chord. For example If we added lII chord into the mix, but played it as a plain triad, we would use the chord of C Major in both cases. Thus, we have an identical chord progression, although both the modes are different.

We can arrange this by adding another note on top of our III chord, giving us a major 7 for Dorian and a Dominant 7 for Phrygian (B vs. Bb) - a fairly subtle modification that corrects the balance.

A better way to deal with all this is to cautiously choose chords that are characteristic to the mode in question. For example, lets look at a Lydian progression, we will start with A major 7 as our tonic. We should stress on what is unique in that mode as compared with others to cement the Lydian. Lydian has the risk of being mixed up with Ionian and Mixolydian. By looking at the table above, we can find that of these three modes, only Lydian has a major chord in the second degree - Mixolydian and Ionian are both minor in the 2nd degree, so this would be a wonderful chord to utilize. This makes sense as we know that Lydian has a sharpened 4th.

This same sharpened 4th forms the 3rd of the chord. Since this chord would usually be minor in a regular major scale, sharpening its 3rd would make it major. So another means to look at picking distinctive chords is to base them on notes within the scale that are distinctive - it generally comes to the same thing.

To keep the bass note voicing on the tonic is another trick that we can utilize to concentrate on the mode of the progression. It genuinely draws attention to where in the scale the chord is rooted, despite the fact that it complicates the chords a bit. Furthermore, it also allows you to concentrate on the tonality of the manner you are working with. Though this trick is less important. But this is a remarkable mode to start out and help you to become more advanced. Building a Modal Chord Progression For Lead Guitar Players

To produce the unique feel of the various musical modes is one of the challenges of building a modal chord progression. Without taking care in chord selection, this part can become obscured. As an instance, lets look at Dorian and Phrygian. They are both minor modes because they have flattened 3rds. Both will use a Minor 7th as the tonic chord. If we added for example a III chord into the mix, but played it as a simplified triad, we would use the chord of C Major in both cases. Thus, we get an identical chord progression, although both the musical modes are different.

We can fix this up a little by imparting another note on top of our III chord, giving us a major 7 for Dorian and a Dominant 7 for Phrygian (B vs. Bb) - a fairly subtle change that pretty much redresses the balance.

A better mode to deal with all this is to carefully pick out chords that are characteristic to the mode in question. For instance, lets look at a Lydian progression, we will start with A major 7 as our tonic. We should emphasize on what is unique in that mode as compared with others to cement the Lydian. Lydian, as being a major musical mode has the risk of being mixed up with Ionian and Mixolydian. By looking at the table above, we can see that of these three modes, only Lydian has a major chord in the second degree - Mixolydian and Ionian are both minor in the 2nd degree, so this would be a great chord to use. This makes sense, because we know that Lydian has a pointed 4th.

This same sharpened 4th forms the 3rd of the chord deduced from the second degree of the musical scale. Since this chord would normally be minor in a standard major scale, sharpening its 3rd would make it major. So another manner to look at picking distinctive chords is to base them on notes within the scale that are distinctive - it pretty much comes to the same thing.

To carry on the bass note sounding on the tonic is another trick that we can use to focus on the modality the progression. It really draws attention to where in the scale the chord is rooted. But it complicates the chords a bit. Furthermore, it also allows you to concentrate on the tonality of the mode you are working with. Though this trick is less important but is a great means to start out and assist you to become more advanced.

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By Zack Roberts

Practicing consistently and well is a much harder thing to do then it seems and there are many reasons why this is the case. Before I go on, I just want to say that bad practice habits affects even the most experienced blues players but it can be overcome with some help. Here are some of the issues that you may face when practicing and here are some usable solutions:

1) Problem: Getting stuck in a rut. This is a very common problem that affects nearly all guitarists at some point in time. You end up playing the same riff and lick over and over every time you play and you can't seem to move on to anything new.

Solution: I am a firm believer that you should aspire to play everything perfectly. But, if you are stuck on this one thing and you feel like practice is getting a little stale, you should really advance to something else that inspires you. It is so important to be inspired in your practice and you can always come back to something later when you are in the right mood. Jamming over to blues backing tracks will also help in your creativity and inspiration.

2) Problem: Progressing to new skills too rapidly. Also a very common problem, moving on too quickly will without doubt, eventually turn you into a "jack of all trades and a master of none".

Solution: This problem is the opposite of the last problem we looked at. You can now see that there is a balance between too much and not enough emphasis on perfecting a song. My suggestion is that you should master each thing before you go on to the next, but if you are finding a particular skill impossible to master and you are dying of boredom trying, maybe that skill is a little out of your reach. In this case, it is best to go back and learn something less difficult.

3) Problem: Becoming narrow minded in relation to the different areas of learning within musicianship. Some people get into the situation where they are practicing only one style and neglecting everything else.

Solution: Try splitting your playing into parts. For example, I might spend 5 minutes practicing new blues scales or chords, 10 minutes working on writing new music for myself and maybe 15 minutes learning a new song or part of a song. This way, your practice never gets boring and you can achieve a lot more.

4) Problem: Playing things too fast when learning them. This can cause you to become disillusioned with your playing when you are trying to learn a new song.

Solution: A fairly obvious solution here - Slow down. Most blues guitarists, including myself try playing a song or new skill at a slow speed before trying it at a fast pace.

Practicing properly and regularly is the best way to become good at anything including playing the guitar. This requires discipline; not only discipline to practice regularly, but also discipline to stay focused and on track when you are practicing. If you stay disciplined with your playing you will develop into an excellent player.

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By Jon Smith

When the time comes to choosing the proper guitar for you, the most significant point to keep d in mind is what kind of music are you looking at playing?

Rock or Blues Guitar Music

If you are searching at performing rock or blues music, the best guitar would be an Electric guitar. The important here is to start small and develop big. I have seen so many people go out and buy the most costly equipment before they can play anything. You may have your heart prepared on getting big names like a new Gibson Les Paul or a Fender Stratocaster, but the costs are pretty sharp.

When selecting your original electric guitar, the best thing is a copy of an original i.e. Plywood. The voice between an original Real Wood compare to Plywood is a lot better, yet plywood is much cheaper. My suggestion is to go for small trademarks like Legend, Onyx or Orion for now. Once you have consummate the fundamental principle, then it is the time to raise.

Another option is to buy Second hand guitars from the markete. There are some great deals becoming in the local papers. When attending for a guitar, make sure you plug it in and try it out. Catch the lather if need be and put the guitar around your neck. Get every possible bit of information you can before making a conclusion.

Tips:Bear in mind that when you purchase an electric guitar, you will also require an amplifier. There are some great deals going whereby you can choose guitar, amplifier and lead in one package. One eventual tip is when selecting your guitar; REMEMBER to plug it into an amplifier synonymous to what you are buying. There is no use examining your guitar through the most pricey amplifier in the store. It will not secure the same when you play through your own amplifier at home. Choosing the right amplifier is important; this topic will be explained in the next lesson.

Classical Acoustic Music.

If you are looking at playing Classic Acoustic music then Spanish Classic Acoustic Guitar and Steel String Acoustic guitar are the most appropriate to choose.

Spanish Classic Acoustic Guitars are extremely easy and suffering nylon strings which are very soft on your fingers. They come in a range of various sizes even very small size for young kids. Spanish Classic Acoustic guitars are also a lot more commercial and softer to maintain than Steel String Acoustic Guitar.

Steel String Acoustic Guitars are a little more expensive compare to Spanish guitars. Again, with acoustic guitars, there is no need to go for big brands when you are first starting out. The most main thing is that you feel soothing playing it. Also, make sure your fingers fit around the guitar neck and it is not too big for you to play. It reckons on you as to whether you want to pickups or not. But remember to test it first before you buy.

There are many possible actions when comes to taking a guitar. Whether you determine to choose an electric or an acoustic, the fundamentals are the same.

Inquire yourself. What style of music are you looking at performing? Classical Acoustic music or Rock music? How keen are you when comes to

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By Eugene Walker

Join us as we take a look into a popular guitar myth on the subject of natural talent for guitarist. We will be discussing this misconception and how natural talent is not a replacement for hard work and for learning the proper skills. You will also learn the benefits to mastering your skills by practicing along with backing tracks for guitarists.

A pretty common phrase that's thrown around a lot in the guitar community and just about every other style of music is the term natural talent. Some people never excel in mastering their particular instrument because of the myth that in order to be good you have to have natural talent.

That is not to say that some people are not naturally gifted as a musician or guitarist, because there are quite a few who guitar players who take to the instrument very quickly. Many musicians do have a natural talent for their style if play, but that do not mean that only these individuals can learn and master the guitar. In fact, any individual who picks up a guitar and has the drive, determination, passion, and dedication can learn and become an excellent guitarist, just like the legends.

Mastering the guitar simply requires an individual to apply themselves to learning the necessary tools and skills to effectively create music that expresses who they are and what they are about. If you want to master the guitar you have to put in the time to learn all the tools, techniques, and skills that a guitar player needs to play effectively.

This myth makes accomplished professional guitarists seem as if they just magically knew how to play, and neglects the fact that they sacrificed many hours of practice to learn and perfect their skills. There are no guitar virtuosos who haven't put in hours of practice and study to cultivate their talents and skills.

The truth is that even the most talented guitarists had to study, learn, and practice. There are a lot of different ways to practice and cultivate your skills. One of the most beneficial ways to practice your talents and skills is to practice along with guitar backing tracks. Playing with guitar backing tracks can help you perfect your skills and apply your newly learned knowledge. Guitar backing tracks can also help you develop better tone by strengthening your accuracy. Such tracks are available from retailers such as Planet of Rock

Using backing tracks are also beneficial for making practice sessions more enjoyable. Instead of running endless drills, you can play along with a whole band and perfect your improvisation techniques as well. Backing tracks for guitarists can also be used to play live shows and other types of gigs as well.

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