Cheap Guitars

Posts Tagged ‘cheap guitars’

Quality / Cheap Guitars – You Can Have Both in a Guitar

Author: Tom Borgstrom

In Today’s Market It Is Possible To Own Quality Cheap Guitars Read the rest of this entry »

Guitar lesson: The E F G of Learning To Play Guitar Sheet Music

Author: Peter Edvinsson

Is it really possible to conquer the guitar fretboard? Do you find the notes you want to find? Is tabulature cheating? Let me invite you to the guitar fretboard!

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you’ll find B on open string, C on fret 1 and D on fret 3. With these notes you can play the song Mary Had A Little Lamb.

Using the previous notes the melody can be played as follows:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I hope you recognized the melody. This kind of music notation doesn’t give any hints as to how the rhythm is to be played but you already know the melody, right!

Is using tablature cheating? My father taught me some interesting things about learning to read guitar sheet music.

My dad was the only guitar tutor in the town where I lived and he taught mostly classical guitar pieces. His young students, I was one of them, learned those first guitar pieces very rapidly because he used a system similar to tablature showing the frets and strings to play, along with the sheet music. Tablature wasn’t common back then. I remember somebody remarking that his system prevented the children from learning to sight read sheet music.

His reply was that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway!

I agree with that and I have found that if a pupil is not motivated learning guitar sheet music they will not advance in this area whether they play with or without tablature.

Do you think your fingers has anything to do with guitar playing? I guess you’ll answer yes!

A more important question is if the fingers you choose to use can have a bearing upon your guitar playing. Left hand fingering means which finger you use when playing a specific note.

Usually when playing the first pieces on the guitar on the first frets one plays the notes on the first fret with the index finger, notes on the second fret with the middle finger, notes on the third fret with the ring finger and notes on the fourth fret with your little finger.

Why mess up everything with this fingering stuff? Isn’t it possible to play every melody with your left index finger and forget about fingerings?

Well, of course you can play melodies with your index finger but your progress will be very limited beyond just playing easy melodies.

Besides you’ll have to move your hand all the time as you change frets and, most importantly when reading sheet music, you’ll have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time instead of looking at the sheet music.

The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on too many notes at the same time.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-lesson-the-e-f-g-of-learning-to-play-guitar-sheet-music-10470.html

About the Author
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

How To Play Twelve String Guitar – The Joy And The Peril

Author: Gyorgy Huba

The first step towards learning to play the twelve string guitar is the same as for learning the six string – play some chords and scales to toughen up your fingertips and get the muscles of your hands into guitar playing mode. A technical difficulty with the twelve string is that you need to press down on two strings instead of one to play a note. This needs some practice to keep fret buzz down.

Once you have some practice with the twelve string you will possibly notice, as have many other guitarists, that this instrument is best for playing chords rather than single note solos. The twelve string has a distinctive sound which is interesting when used for solos but is really at its best with open chords ringing out.

The first four pairs of strings are an octave apart. Tuning is quite critical with the twelve strings so it would be best to use an electronic tuner.

One of the most famous twelve string guitar players was Leadbelly, one of the pioneer blues players of the first half of the twentieth century. So let’s take a look at playing the blues on the twelve string guitar. As the blues usually features guitar solos of single notes so you will need to work on your single note playing technique. Many blues players recommend tuning the twelve string guitar to an open G or E chord. Also to bring out the full vibrant beauty of the twelve string sound, use a slide to get the real bluesy effect.

Here are some tunings you can use for slide playing on a twelve string guitar:

Open A: eE aA eE aAC# C# EE

Open C: cC gG cC eE gG cC

Open D: dD aA dD f#F# AA DD

Open F: cC fF cC fF AA CC

Open G: dD gG dD gG bB dD

Hawaiian: cC gG cC gG AA EE

Slack C: cC gG cC gG CCCC

George Harrison of The Beatles played a Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve string guitar in the movie A Hard Days Night and this inspired Roger McGuinn of The Byrds to go out and buy one and feature it on records. Harrison played twelve string on You Can’t Do That, one of The Beatles’ early hits so find that track and have a listen to the sound. And go to YouTube to find some examples of The Byrds music. Leo Kottke is another artist who has used the twelve string guitar to good effect as a solo instrument.

And finally have a listen to Led Zeppelin and The Eagles using double neck guitars to switch between six and twelve strings on Stairway To Heaven and Hotel California.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/how-to-play-twelve-string-guitar-the-joy-and-the-peril-1131157.html

About the Author

Newbie guitar players are flocking to Guitar How-To for the free articles, tutorials and videos on every aspect of guitar playing you can think of. Fast track your guitar expertise now at http://guitar-how-to.com/

Acoustic Electric Guitars

Author: Peter Suhm

Acoustic electric guitars: is this not a contradiction in terms? After all, “acoustic” describes music, or a musical instrument that is not electronically amplified; “electric” however, implies that the music or musical instrument is electronically amplified. Well actually, the wonderful thing about acoustic electric guitars is that they combine both the qualities of the acoustic, which is to control, absorb, and carry sound, as well as the qualities of the electric which is to amplify the sound. Acoustic electric guitars give the player and the listener alike the full benefit of both acoustic and electric qualities.

Acoustic guitars have a hollow body (or at least a portion of the body is hollow) like acoustic instruments, but they also have electric pickups mounted directly onto the body. The purpose of an acoustic electric guitar is to get the tones of an acoustic, but with an increased volume. The most basic and original kind of acoustic electric guitar is an acoustic that has been fitted to include pickups. When these were first introduced, the major problem was with feedback. The electronic pickups couldn’t handle all the vibrations of the instrument and the electrical currents, so a screaming feedback often resulted. In addition, the acoustic sound was often compromised as well because the electric pickups simply could not manage the high frequency sounds.

Today, most acoustic electric guitars have piezoelectric pickups which require a preamplifier made directly into the body of the guitar. The more advanced acoustic electric guitars of today have eliminated these problems and enhanced the quality of sound as they are designed to be truly acoustic-electric as opposed to being acoustic guitars with an electric add-on.

There are two kinds of acoustic electric guitars: the acoustic-electric classical guitar, and the basic acoustic electric guitar. The acoustic-electric classical guitar was designed to amplify the sound. This guitar is first an acoustic instrument, and the electric component is added. This idea was then improved upon, thus the invention of the acoustic electric guitar. Generally speaking, you can remember that acoustic electric guitars are primarily regarded as acoustic instruments because the pickups produce a signal from the vibration of the guitar’s body rather than from the vibration of the strings.

The most valued benefits of an acoustic electric guitar are 1) the ability to plug your instrument into a console without the need for expensive microphone equipment, and 2) the ability to play at very loud volumes while still maintaining the clear, sharp, beautiful tones of the acoustic guitar. These guitars produce both clarity of tone as well as volume and are an excellent choice for many musicians.

The term acoustic electric guitars is not at all a contradiction of terms, rather it refers to the type of guitar that produces an incredible sound at concert levels by its innovative design.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/acoustic-electric-guitars-590478.html

About the Author

My name is Peter Suhm and i have played music since i was 9 years old.
Visit my website about electric guitars here:

http://www.find-electric-guitars.info

How To Play An Insane Guitar Solo

Author: Jason Parker

What’s the most insane guitar solo you’ve ever heard? One by Paul Gilbert? Yngwie? Eddie Van Halen?

If you’re going to play an insane solo like the guitar heroes, here’s what you need to start getting good at. These guys didn’t learn this stuff over night! Let’s get that straight up front. Shredding, especially shredding not just up and down scales, takes years to master. Not just that, but these guitar gurus are always pushing their own playing to the limit in their recordings. You can imagine the difficult road you have ahead of you.

32nd Note Legato Runs

At some point during the insane solo, most of our favorite guitarists will play abnormally fast, 32nd note legato runs. This will be the fastest, most impressive point to the “lay person.” We guitarists know shredding is much harder, although slower.

It’s important to develop legato techniques (all hammer-ons and pull-offs) along your 3-note-per-string scales and Pentatonic Scales. You’ll want to skip strings, do amazing finger stretches, and of course, full neck legato runs. Listen to Joe Satriani in particular and you’ll hear all kinds of crazy legato sequences.

Finger Tapping

For the most insane solo, add finger tapping, as pioneered by Eddie Van Halen, though brought to a whole new level today. There’s 2, 4, 6, and even 8-finger finger tapping. For the most dramatic effect, learn 8-finger finger tapping and not just on the upper register, more like the middle register and upper register combined. Be sure to tap arpeggios as well as be inventive in your note choice. The greatest taps are created with “worldly sound” in mind in my opinion.

Shredding

Get your metronome and start increasing your speed until you can play 16th notes at roughly 200 beats per second. The insane guitarists don’t only shred up and down scales at this speed, but also sweep arpeggios and Pentatonics at this speed. Get a book that teaches you all of the arpeggios, not just diad.

Tetrachords

Throw in tetrachord runs. Tetrachords require intense finger stretching. These are essentially 4-note-per-string diatonic scales. Type “tetrachords” into a Google search and there you’ll find what you’re looking for. Charles Gacsi at WholeNote has a great lesson on the theory behind tetrachords.

Guitar Face

As if it weren’t enough just to play an insane solo technically… You need to develop a guitar face worthy of the masters. No simple facial expression will do. You must practice this in the mirror, coming up with an original guitar face.

Tension and Release

Don’t be afraid to go outside your comfort zone and experiment. Even by hitting “the wrong notes” you’re doing something right. You’re creating tension. Use Chromatics to create tension or rip some notes off a bizarre scale for tension. Because it will be released to create a great feeling of contrast in your listener once you begin playing in key again. For the best release, only a simple melody will do. A simple melody repeated on and off within your insane solo will make it a memorable one.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/how-to-play-an-insane-guitar-solo-302374.html

About the Author
Jason Parker is a guitarist and teacher at Atomic Guitarist where free guitar lesson videos abound.