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Posts Tagged ‘Guitar’

The nylon string acoustic guitar has a softer, mellower sound than the steel string guitar. Strangely, modern audiences can still be spellbound by the depth of feeling of a nylon string guitar. It’s entirely up to you which one you choose to play. I could cite a list of artists who used either nylon or steel string for this or that record, and make a wild guess or two at why the artists made the choices they did, but the bottom line is that if you want a deep, quiet sound that doesn’t compete with your singing, the nylon string guitar is the way to go.

When you go out to buy a guitar, go past the general music store and on to your local guitar dealer if you have one. That way you will have a guitar expert guiding you and not some dufus who only plays two-and-a-half chords. Don’t let the guy in the store automatically steer you to the top-of-the-range guitars, and equally don’t succumb to your inner cheapskate. Pick a guitar that you like the look, sound and feel of, then come down in price range if you really need to.

To get some idea of the range you could be looking at, the Alvarez Masterworks Series MC90 Classical Guitar, a more pricey instrument, has solid rosewood back and sides, western cedar top with precision scalloped bracing, mosaic rosette and gold tuning pegs with tortoise buttons and sells for over $600. The Alvarez Regent, a beginner’s model, is about $150. Of course there are many grades of price and quality in between.

The kinds of music that the nylon string guitar was designed for are classical and flamenco music. Classical guitar music is classical music composed for other instruments but arranged for the guitar, and classical style pieces composed especially for the guitar or other stringed instruments. There is a wide repertoire of music composed in the medieval or renaissance eras for the vihuela or mandolin and arranged for the guitar which can be extremely enjoyable and satisfying to play. Flamenco music is a folk music of Spain, and is usually comparatively technically advanced simply due to flamenco being a “flashy” kind of music. If you are interested in exploring either of these kinds of music I suggest you go to YouTube and check out the classical or flamenco guitar videos. John Williams (the British guitarist, not the Starwars guy) and Julian Bream are two obvious starting points for classical guitar. Paco De Lucia, Paco Pena and Sabicas will open your heart to flamenco.

We can’t finish without mentioning the nylon string guitar-driven folk music boom of the 1960’s which has given us a lot of great music which can be easily picked up by beginner guitarists. The music of Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Joan Baez or The Kingston Trio still holds some interest for modern guitarists.

So that is an overview of the world of the nylon string guitar. I hope you have found something to spark your interest.

Whether you are using a book, video, a real live human, or online lessons, keep these pointers in mind in order to get the most out our your studies.

1. Complete and master each section before moving on to the next: As you work through your studies make sure you have each new technique or idea conquered before moving on to the next. Lessons are planned to build upon each other and trying to rush through without fully understanding one will just lead to frustration and wasted efforts.

2. Study as if you were in school. Do some homework every night. If all you have is 15 minutes then use those 15 minutes. If you don’t have time to read/watch and apply then do the application of your last lesson or drills such as scales and chords. Reading/watching and not having the opportunity to apply immediately will usually mean you have to relearn your lesson. Take notes. Especially if you’re watching a video or working with a human. Also don’t be afraid to write all over your workbooks and sheet music.

3. Apply what you’ve learned: Play for others. Your church, your family, that spare piano sitting in your favorite department store (ask first). Nothing drives a music lesson home better than a recital. It will also magnify what you need to work on.

These tips work whether your a child or an adult. Learning to play an instrument is a wonderful activity.

Guitar tab is a method of diagramming the fretboard of a guitar for the purpose of showing how songs, riffs, scales, and other musical portions are played.

Guitar tab, also known as tablature, is really a method guitar players have invented for sharing music without having to learn to read music in the traditional sense. Knowing how to read guitar tablature is an important part of learning how to play the guitar, especially if you wish to emulate the style of your favorite performer.

Learning how to read guitar tablature will help the most if you have already heard the song or riff. It is not a very good way to learn a new song, because there are no indicators about timing. Basically it is just a diagram of fingering. It looks similar to a traditional staff, but the similarity ends there. Instead of 5 lines, guitar tab has 6 lines, which correspond to the six strings of a guitar.

When you are learning how to read guitar tab, you will notice numbers on the lines. Those numbers do not refer to your fingers, but to the fret your finger needs to be on. However, you should read all the information given with any guitar tablature, because sometimes the notations refer to different things. Guitar tab is not a standardized method of writing music and varies with styles and guitarists.

One of the biggest drawbacks with guitar tab is that it doesn’t give you much input about the timing of the notes, and for this reason, you really should know the song. In fact, if you are learning how to read guitar tab, you should read the tablature while listening to the song or riff.

Unlike beginning books for teaching yourself to play guitar, guitar tab will not tell you which finger to use on a string. If you are a very new beginner, you may want to know the basics of chords and such before venturing into learning how to read guitar tablature.

The website “Guitar Tab Universe” (.guitartabs.cc) gives tabs for many familiar songs. In fact, it advertises itself as the Internet’s largest collection of guitar and bass tabs. One warning - you’ll have to scroll through a lot of band names to get to the artist you want, and some of those names are obscene. If obscenities bug you, try a different site.

Christian.totaltabs.com gives you access to tabs or chords for 631 songs by 111 contemporary Christian bands and artists. Cowboylyrics.com provides you with tabs, lyrics, and/or guitar chords for many country songs.

In general, if you are searching for online guitar tabs, you need to specify the type of music you desire or you will probably get a lot of listings for rock tabs. Fortunately, you are sure to find just the songs to use to teach yourself how to read guitar tab.

Bending strings is used to give the guitar a more personalized and harmonic quality. The technique is used mostly by lead guitar players but is also applied in all styles of playing. String bending and vibrato techniques are two large components in making up a guitar player’s style. The combination of these skills more or less defines a considerable part of what makes your playing different than the next guy.

Bending the strings far enough to reach a desired pitch is the goal. One of the keys is to use three fingers to bend the string, instead of just one finger. Use your third finger on the fret you’re bending and place your first and second fingers on the frets behind it, and use the strength of all three fingers when you do a bend.

Fret the note on the 7th fret of the third string with your third finger. Your other finger should follow on the 6th and 5th fret. Our goal is to bend this note up one step (the equivalent of two frets) and then release the note to its original pitch. Before you do your first bend hit the note on the 9th fret, this will be your reference note. When you do your bend the goal is to make the tone of your bend “reach” the tone of the reference note. Repeat: hit your reference note, then immediately jump to the correct position and play a bend until to can consistently match the reference note.

The length you hold the bend, how quickly you release it and any vibrato you add to the bend will define a large part of playing your style. It’s good to just have fun and try doing a number of bends and releases to hear all the different sounds you can generate. Try bending the note before you strike it so you just hear the release, or try using a wide or narrow vibrato so act character and color to your bends.

Be patient you haven’t used these muscles before, and is will take time to strengthen. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it eventually.

You’ve probably noticed that there is an almost infinite number of guitar tuition books that you can buy. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably bought dozens of them. You’ve also probably noticed that some of the books would take SEVERAL lifetimes to master! And would it be fair to say that sometimes you don’t know where to start? So much information, so little time! Don’t worry, you’re not alone…

I used to get totally overwhelmed by my guitar book collection. I used to pick up a book and not really know where to start. I usually would play around with a book for a week or two, and then move onto another book…even when I hadn’t mastered what I had learnt from the book. End result? A feeling of frustration! The good thing about this though was that this frustration inspired me to create a system to get the most out of my books. Let’s take a look at it now…

***Step One: Quick Overview***

Find a guitar book that you would like to work on. Read the front and back covers only. What are some things that you think the book might help you with? Please write these down now.

***Step Two: Define Your Purpose***

Have a quick think about your musical goals. With your goals in mind, write down your purpose for studying the book. What EXACTLY would you like to get from the book? Make it specific. If you feel that the book is not totally relevant to your goals right now, then DON’T study it. It will be a waste of your valuable time. Instead, find another book that is more relevant.

***Step Three: Preview The Book***

Read the table of contents. As you read it, ask yourself…”What ONE section of this book will help me the most with my current musical goals?”. Once you’ve finished reading the table of contents, choose the ONE section that you feel will help you the most.

***Step Four: Detailed Reading***

Read the section that you chose in Step Three. Do you still feel that it will really help you achieve your musical goals? If you do…great! If not…just repeat Step Three and choose another section.

Once you’ve read through the whole section, choose the ONE thing in it that you think will help you the most. It could be a specific lick, theoretical concept, chord progression etc. The idea is to choose the one thing that will benefit your guitar playing the most. Life is too short to practice things that aren’t INCREDIBLY important to your musical development!

***Step Five: Get To Work***

Practice the thing that you chose in Step Four. Practice it like a maniac! Really work hard to integrate it into your playing or knowledge. Keep working on it daily until you feel that you have mastered it.Depending on what you chose, this could take hours, days, weeks, months of even years!

I hope you find this method works for you. Dust off those books now, and get to work!