The love of Playing Guitar

Types of guitar tunings

2009-12-01T02:35:00.000-08:00

1 Standard tuning
2 Alternative tunings

* 2.1 Lower tunings
* 2.2 Higher tunings
* 2.3 Dropped tunings
* 2.4 Double-dropped tunings
* 2.5 Five-string tunings
* 2.6 Seven-string tunings
* 2.7 Seven-string dropped tunings
* 2.8 Eight-string tunings

3 Classical guitar tuningsOpen tunings

* 4.1 Examples
o 4.1.1 Major Open tunings
o 4.1.2 Cross-note tunings
o 4.1.3 Modal tunings
o 4.1.4 "Extended chord" tunings
o 4.1.5 Steel guitar

5 Miscellaneous tunings

* 5.1 E-E-E-E-E-E
* 5.2 D-A-D-G-A-D
* 5.3 All fourths: E-A-d-g-c'-f'
* 5.4 All fifths: C-G-d-a-e'-b'
* 5.5 Mi-composé: E-A-d'-g-b-e'
* 5.6 Gorac: B-G-D-G-A-E
* 5.7 Ostrich Tuning: D-D-D-D-d-d

We will try to explain and give details about each of the tunings through our daily update. So dont panic people new updates about diffrent types of tunigs are going to arrive soon

Restringing your guitar

2009-11-29T20:41:00.000-08:00

Whether nylon or steel, strings come in many gauges, or thicknesses. Nylon strings are scarcer than steel, and there are usually only a couple of different gauges to choose from. Heavier strings have greater volume, but are harder on the fingers. Even nylon strings appear to be metallic as the thicker strings use fine wire wrapping to beef them up. You'll find there are cheap sets, and expensive sets. Unless you're performing a concert tomorrow night, the cheaper are fine.

Steel strings come in a huge variety of gauges; they can be round wound or flat wound. The flat wound use a ribbon of metal to wrap the thicker strings rather than plain wire. All brands sell strings in sets of 6, and it's recommended that you change them all at the same time so that your guitar sounds even.

Strings wear out and break. Body chemistry has a lot to do wirth how often you need to change them, but rule of thumb is, when they sound dull and become hard to tune up, it's time.
Nylon strings

Nylon strings must be tied to the bridge in such a way as to not slip under tension . The illustrations below indicate the proper way to do this. The thicker bass strings often have one end which is floppier and more bendable than the other. This is the end to use at the bridge. Make sure the twisting continues over the back edge of the bridge. This ensures that as the string is tuned up and the tension increases, the friction becomes greater and the string is well and truly fixed.
Steel strings

Steel strings are much easier to put on. All have a "ball end" which stops the string at one end.

Most acoustic guitars have a bridge with pegs that are inserted into the holes that accept the ball end of the string. Push the ball end into the holes so that the ball drops inside the guitar, then push the peg back in the hole and gently pull the string until you feel the ball is being stopped by the peg. When you feel this contact, really push the peg hard into its hole. As you tune up, you may have to keep your finger on the peg and apply pressure to keep it popping back out.

Electric guitars can be strung in a variety of ways, all of them obvious: one way or another, the ball end keeps the string from slipping through whatever device is fitted at the bridge or tailpiece..

There are also a variety of tuning gears, where the other end goes. Again, most are obvious. If it's the simple "push it through a hole in the peg", try pushing it through twice if you can.

You should leave enough slack so that it winds itself around the peg a few times before it comes up to full tension. Once you've tuned up, use a pair of pliers to snip the excess length off, or you'll be hearing all kinds of buzzing and vibrating going on.

listing all strange sound tricks-part 4(last part)

2009-11-25T20:29:00.001-08:00

Harmonic Bend

From - KACYJC@cs.com
simple not that hard to do. first just pop a really go natrual harmonic, then slam it down to the fret board and bend it. compare it to a normal bend, you'll hear the difference.

Blackboard Scratch

From - Seth Goldart of the Spirit Hop Foundation

This sound effect serves as an opening for a solo, transfer to a heavy part of a song or for general mayhem periods. What you do is simply plug your axe in and distort it. then you put your pick on a high fret(usually below the 12th) and just scratch the third, fourth and fifth strings down the neck.

David Gilmour's Vibrato Ghost

From - Seth Goldart of the Spirit Hop Foundation

I read about this in guitar world. What you do is bend the b-string (or second string) back on the 7th fret or higher, hold it for a few seconds then wiggle it. If all goes well it should produce a faint, ghost-like sound. Enjoy!

Moggio's Bag of Tricks

from - lzrdking@zianet.com
Under String Bar Slide

Take your bar and dip and slack the strings. While the strings are flabbing there, shove the bar UNDER whatever string you like, say the G. Let the bar up and it will be under the string, as you pick you can slide the bar up and down on it's axis UNDER the string! You can mute all strings before you dip, or just let all the string noise come through ala Hendrix.

Pop

With the move above, and preferably a floating trem, you can pop strings on your guitar. Definately an end of song thing.

Flubber

Take a string that you cut with some wire cutters or one that breaks at the nut, and play it by picking it and putting tension and releasing tension with your left hand. It's a very nice effect.

Floating Trem Technique

Don't have a Floating trem? While your playing a run, reach behind the fretting hand with your pick and use the pick as a wedge to pull the note/notes in and out of pitch.

Danger move

One of my former moves involves shoving the peghead straightdown against the floor, lean your body weight on the guitar. Use your weight to bow the neck flat and use the whammy to stretch it sharp. Many variasions on this one. Use a wall, your amp...But beware, you can crack your headstock or break it off, I have an Ibanez with a crack on the back of the headstock. Beware!

Guitar Drag

Thats a name I got from an artist who had a segment on PBS' Egg. He took a guitar an amp with a generator, he tied a guitar to the back of his truck and dragged and recorded it through the surrounding landscape. I always did a similiar trick by gribbing the tip of the headstock and swinging it everywhere. You get so many noises from it. You bang it on the stage, the cable gets tangled around the strings, you can even let it go and watch it slide across the stage. Don't knock it until you try it!

Guitar Rumble

An old SRV trick. You take your guitar off and you lay it on the ground. You grab the whammy bar and you pick up and bounce the guitar on the floor by the whammy. You bounce it up and down and as SRV did you can reach down and flip the guitar in circles.

Breath Bow

If you can get to a good place volumewise where you can take your hands off the guitar without feedback, you can hold the guitar up in the famous Jimi play with your teeth mode and blow across the strings! It's a heavenly effect. Use the bar to manipulate the sounds or if you have a guitar without a locking nut, you can push and wiggle behing the nut as well.

Digital Hissing - BASS

From - Ferkungamabooboo@aol.com
The way to do this is to use a Bass Way (like the CryBaby) and turn up your amp (mine's a practice amp) and just rock it back and forth without using any notes.

It sounds like an ocean or gas hissing through a moving tube or something like that.

Plus, It's just goofy-sounding.

Mosquito-Like Sound

From - Emmad
Take a quarter and rub the edge on the 1st or 2nd strings (it works with any strings) back and forth right near the bridge.

Weird Diving Sound

From - Emmad
Take a quarter and slide it down the bridge with the quarter perpendicular to the strings. As you slide down, you can move it slightly to get a sudden change in pitch because the edge of the quarter isn't smooth.

Fluid Tremolo

From - Emmad
Tremelo pick on the neck (where the strings are) close to where you are fretting the string and it will prduce a very smooth sound that reminds me of water, for some reason.

Noisy Transition

From - GARFUNKILL
I dont know what to call this sound/noise whatever and its kinda dumb, but hey, whatcha gonna do. its an old trick that i started using years ago that involves only distortion and very very very fast picking. generally, its best used right before a change in a song like you would use a drum fill. all i do is speed pick (im talking really damned fast. make slayer look slow) on the b and/or high e string and hold your fingers at random places over the 5-6 fret and move back down to the first. try to avoid hitting the strings open since itll make it sound stupid and you really have to move your left hand like the rest of the neck has the plague and the only escape is to the first fret. both of these techniques (the speed pick+random fast left hand harmonics) pulled off well creates a nice little bridge for that little bit of time you have in a song when ya just feel like making your drummer make funny faces.

More from Moggio's Bag of Tricks

From - Moggio
Moving Pickup

Take any pickup you are not usingor get off a guitar you're not using and mount it in a holder of some sort (I made a little hand-grip with output jack) and you connect it to your amp. You can play legato with your left hand and then you can hold this new contraption over any part of the neck to get different tones! You can also get some nasty/funny sounding overtones that play sympathetically behind your fretting hand!

Whammy bar as noise maker

Pop or unscrew your whammy bar and you can use it to make all kind of great pings and bleep sounds and long extended slide noices.

Tapping chirp

On the high E string, play any familiar tapping run but instead of hitting a note cleanly with the right hand, slide the string off the fretboard to make the tapped note chirp. It's a cross between EVH and Vai!

Right hand Vibrato/Grabbing string to add vibrato

Not so much a trick but a great technique, especially with a floating trem. For example: Hit the e note on the 3rd string 9th fret. As you are holding this note, add wide or whatever vibrato you prefer by grabbinb the 4th string or lower and pull up and down or side to side. This will cause the floating trem to rock up and down at whatever speed you prefer. Great technique.

Extra long bar

On most trems especially Ibanez 'pop' trems, you can take the bar out and put it back in with the long part of the trem into the trem hole. This will make your bar poke straight out! Alot of possibilities here, you can really pull the strings SLACK or you can use it like a gear shift in playing position.

Ugly side neck fretless

On your high or low E String, pull it off the neck with your right hand and quickly place your left hand on the string and play until you get a spot that will get picked up by the pickup. It will sound like a fretless, you'll probably only get a few spots where you'll get some notes but it sound so weird and cool when you do!

Leg whammy

A funny thing you can do is place the guitar so it's between your legs and you can do some tapping, picking and use your leg on the bar! If you record using this technique and say 6 fingered tapping, you will confuse even the most seasoned pro!!!

Crazy Reverb Noise

From - Hayeshayesj
To do this you must have spring raverb, turn distortion on max and turn your master volume up and turn your level down. Sound should come from the reverb tank instead of the speakers. You can make some really cool noises. (Warning-if feedback is not monitored it may become extremely loud very fast)

Bizzare DD-20 Ring Mod

From - NCRA
If you have the new boss dd-20 giga delay pedal, you can make a cool ring modulator noise.
1. Set effect to "Reverse".
2. Turn delay time all the way down to 10 ms
3. play. Use "effect level" knob as blend, and delay time knob like internal oscillator

R2D2 on Fire

From - Erik Sorensen
Me and a friend were playing around with a mini-amp that was fitted into box of camels (somebody had already smoked the cigarettes). At one point my friend took the amp and moved it over the the body of his telecaster and it went: "bling-whooop-za-nannah!". It's just simple feedback of course, but if you have one of these little buggers, try the trick. Simply move the amp in circles above the pickups and it'll sound like R2D2 with his main transistor on fire.

Drop D Soundscape

From - Alex Smith
Tune your guitar into Drop-D. Play the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings open, muting the 1st-3rd strings. You can play around with a Wah, blowing accross the strings, playing a quirky melody on the 1st string using the open D5 as a pedal chord [one repeated as a basso continuo]. However, the trick I like the most is playing the D5 chord, letting the amp harmonize the strings into a higher chord, and gently tapping the whammy bar, increasing tapping strength as you go continue, until you vibrate the open strings back into the original D5 chord. The vibrated fade-in sounds awesome.

Jeremy's Bag of Tricks

From - Jeremy Hunter
Here's a bunch of random guitar effects. Quite a few from mike einziger(however you spell that name) of incubus.

For the'Pardon me effect'
Also used on knice to know you and are you in. delay set it about on second and 4 repeats , theres apart in the song where he just hits a note and lets the delay repeat. That should give you the settings. He also has a phase after the delay to give it the cool tone or whatever you wnat to call it. I dont know.

then play the chord just and voume swell starting from 0.

The chords are all on tab sites. Usually prety acurate.

Here in my Room effect
That random solo from here in my room is alos phaser and delay. Its a semi slow phaser with distortion after it. Also some delay or reverb. before the phaser. I cant get the delay sounding write yet but the general idea is the phaser with a high end distortion to get teh kinda of screaming efect. the dealy helps add to it. The actual notes are (i think)

21 19 15 13 19 21 x2 on the high e string. but more likely it is played an octave lower but using an octaver pedal.

Oh and of course its very heavily tremelo picked. If anyone perfects this please tell me the delay settings.

Clean
on clean the guitar sound like a drum its awesome and very impressive. Im pretty sure its just a phaser on high resolution and etheir a muted string being play or tapping on the pickup or something.

Some other random effects

whales? screams?
trun volume down. bend a note up a fair bit. then chuck on delay pick the note then voume swell up while slowly unbending the note. also do it starting undended as well. put the delay on a fairly short delay time with about 3 repeats maaybe.

Scratch effect thing

Put a short delay on with about 4 or 5 repeats. And a fairly quick phaser scratch slowly. it is an interesting effect. could be cool. i think incubus uses it.

Computer beep sound.
With a les paul style guitar turn one pickup down and the other one up so you have a kill switch. Put long delay on and feed back on as much as possible. play a note then quickly flick the pickup up selecter on then off. then start adding a lot more random notes and you get some computer machine beep type things.

i thought i had a lot more effects but i have forgotten them now. But delay is the main thing. im not very good at explaing things so email me if need clarification.

listing all strange sound tricks-part 3

2009-11-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Crazy Reverb Sounds

From: Angus MacLeod
This works with mine and one of my friends amps, however they are both laney valve state amps, so it may not work for everyones. Using maximum distortion sounds best. Turn reverb up all the way on the amp and hit the top of it with the palm of your hand. Dont break it, just give it a pretty hard tap. It should produce weird warbles and spacey type sounds. Could be a cool stage stunt if you use your guitar to hit the top of the amp instead of your palm.

Also, Evan Price sent in this little FYI to the site -
I just thought I'd explain the reverb trick. It does this because it's a spring reverb (using a spring to create reverb). So when hit your amp, it causes the spring to move and cause noise.

Behind-the-nut raking

from - Angus MacLeod
A simple one. With maximum distortion strike the strings behind the nut. should produce, cool noise is probably the only way to describe it. This is not an original way of noise making - nirvana,radiohead,smashing pumpkins are just a few that have done this.

Hope this helps

Hot Girl Whistle

from Tyler at www.liltylermac.com
This is one if you see a hot girl. On the high E start on the 3rd fret and quickly slide up to the 20th fret. And then on the b string start from the 3rd fret and then quickly slide up to the 16th fret and then slide back down. It sounds like a whistle .

Flying UFO

From - Raimundas
This effect is called "Flying UFO." You have to stab at random with your fingers above the 12th fret and you will hear the sound. (Simulate computers bleeping.)

CD Drum Set

From - Raimundas
This effect is called Drum set. I will describe it like I usually do. I place a CD between the strings (1st string over the CD, 2nd under it, 3rd over it, and so on...). Then, hit the CD like a drum. CD's placed in different places of the fretboard will produce different sounds. Write if it gave any use to you.

Psycho

From - Andrew Zeylemaker
I like to call this sound Psycho. Mute all strings and strum behind the nut hard and fast in a downward motion using a straight crotchet rhythm - this makes a dissonant sound which my friends and I consider to be close to the strings sound used in the shower scene from the movie Psycho . This sound comes in handy when you are at a jam and someone is fucking up so badly that you would like to kill them!

Electric Shaver trick

From - CsHaRp8869@aol.com
This one is probably the easiest trick ever....All u gotta do is get an electric shaver turn the shaver on and put it up to ur pickups....if u have that little beard trimmer thing on the back of ur shaver pull it in and out it makes a pretty cool sound also when put up to the pickups

Watch Metronome

from CsHaRp8869@aol.com
Here is Another easy trick...just take ur watch it has to be the one with the hands not digital...and put it up to ur pickups its like a metranome (or however u spell it)

Tape Recorder Trick

from CsHaRp8869@aol.com
ok Here is Another easy trick...if u have one of those tape recorders that u stick tapes in and record peoples voices onto the tape just turn it on and push either Play,Fast Forward or Rewind and hold it up to ur pickups it makes a pretty cool sound...also if u have a recorder like i do that lets u control how fast and slow the tape goes just keep turning it back and forth from Fast to Slow and it sounds pretty sweet....i have posted tricks about the Watch,Electric Shaver and this one..if u have any comments email me at CsHaRp8869@aol.com

P.S. I am not responsible if u mess ur guitar up while performing these Tricks/Noises

Pedal-less Wah

from Mike917974@cs.com
step 1) strum any chord

step2) turn the tone dial back and forth to create a wah

Creepy Spring Scraping

by Evan Price evn_111@hotmail.com
Hi there, here's a creepy kind of sound I didn't see on your site. Take the back off of your guitar and scrape or pluck the spring.

Drill Sound (Poundcake)

by Ben Woodrow - woodros3000@yahoo.com
i know you all probably know how to do this one but get and electric drill and hold it over your pick-ups ala EVH, if you use a decent amount of distortion you get a really wild sound reminiscent of "poundcake" its an obvious one but just try it i guarantee you wont be dissapointed

Brass Slide Tricks

From - RTAT1051@kingstec.nscc.ns.ca
try this with a brass slide. hold it in your picking hand, and tap the strings around the area where you would pick. i should also mention that this works best on the high e string. fret high on the fret board and tap as fast as you can. you may want to use some gain or anything else you have to boost the signal. but you can get a sound similar to the old NES video game console. next try scraping the d string with the end of the slide with delay. you want to play bulls on parade? go ahead. just practice, without the delay of course.

Vibrator Relaxxx!

from 5177ns

Ok, I got this way of making noises out of the guitar that has to do with using a dildo (vibrator), turning it on and running it close to the pickups. It should then interfere with the magnetic fields or something and create lots of weird noises depending on what effects and what motion you run it in. Ahem... I havent actually tried it, and I guess courage is needed to actually go up to a sex shop and buy one, especially if you're male... hehe. Anyhow, I suppose that another thing that might work is a vibrating or rotating toothbrush, or anything else that has an electric motor in it.

"Freebird" Bird Noises

from Adam Hart - Hammet1@aol.com
When Lynard Skynard plays live, they make these high pitched bird chirping noises before going into Freebird. Since they sound better with highs, but your guitar to your treble pick up and grab your glass slide. (Rounded edges help a lot but aren't necessary.) Jack up your volume and knock your tone back a little. Remember, you're about to play something very high pitched. You want all your trebles up so the noise gets picked up very clearly, but you don't want to shatter your fans' ear drums with rediculous highs. Softening up the tone just a little takes the edge away.

Take the slide in your right hand and position it over the pickups, strike the edge of the slide on the high e string , and slide a short way with it. You should get a little chirp. Make sure to be muting the strings with your left hand on the neck, or else the string will sound when you remove the slide.

Repeat this as necessary, and you can use any of the unwound strings. High e just sounds better than the rest. It sounds even better with 3 guitarists doing it, a la Lynard Skynard. Enjoy.

last part of strange guitar tricks will come very soon

listing all strange sound tricks-part 2

2009-11-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

Remote Control Sounds

from pedman@bellsouth.net
To do this take a remote control for your T.V. or something and with the volume on your guitar turned up, press one of the buttons on your remote. You should here a weird kind of beep. Also, different remotes will give you different sounds.

Blips III

by Vince Malave - vmalave@ptdprolog.net
I've been experimenting with controlling microphonic feedback. First, you need to get your guitar's pickups to squeal. I use a cheap strat for this. Then adjust volume and gain until it squeals uncontrollably (try several distortion devices if one won't do it, and put the pickups as close to the speaker as possible). Now to control it you'll need a pedal. With a wah, you can play a note, and raise the pedal to make it sustain into a squeal. I discovered this this with a Boss flanger, set all the knobs about half-up, then make it squeal. You should hear all these blips that rise and fall in sequence. You can also try using the tone knobs to control the "blips".

Plane Diving

from jimi@henge.com
I just got my first amp today and came across this site... This is the sound of a plane pulling up and then quickly losing altitude (in my opinion:) You set the pickups to the neck and slide a bottle neck from the bridge to the neck with lots of distortion.. You could probably simulate engine problems with the tremolo.. Enjoy!

Here's a very COOL .WAV File plane.wav - .WAV File 148K

Moggio's Bag of Tricks

from - lzrdking@zianet.com
Church Bells

You grab the g-string with your left hand ring finger and pull it over the b-string. Make sure their touching each other and then pluck them. It sounds just like a church bell. Try overdubbing a few tracks and you'd be surprised how great it sounds.

Helicopter

Turn guitar volume down, and also push your whammy bar down to an almost slack position with your left hand wrist. Slowly start tremolo picking with your right hand and then slowly turn up the volume with your left. As your doing all this slowly start to release and reapply pressure with the left wrist on the whammy. You get(especially very loud distorted guitar)a giant WWIII Helicopter sound! Experiment!

Hot Rod Car Sound

You need some pretty good gain on this but it's pretty easy to do. Turn your volume knob off, almost slack your whammy bar with your left hand wrist, hit say a low E, and with your right hand start to turn your volume knob up and simaltaneuously bring your bar up.Quickly shut off the volume But leave the bar in the position you shut it off at, then start to turn your volume on again and simaltaneuously raising your bar up. Find the right rythmn and time the volume knob and bar to the gear changes of a hot rod.

Poor man's Echo

Play a lick and say you end your phrase on the 2nd string/12th fret (B Note), with your left hand slide the note down the neck, quickly hit the same note with your right hand middle finger, slide the same note down the neck, repeat the same note with the left hand and slide again. Repeat as much or little, as slow or as fast as you desire. Just make the movement as smooth as possible.

Another Eddie Sound

Grab and depress the whammy with your left hand and with your right hand middle finger push the low E against the bridge pickups pole pieces and simultaniously bring the bar up and down. It will change the pitch of the bleep and it works on all the other strings too!

The Laugh

Grab the bar with your left hand and slack the strings about halfway. Now with the edge of your pick, scape and bounce it on the strings (start in between your humbuckers) Angle the pick so that it's it at a slight angle (like this __/_), so it catches the string alittle, and bounce it towards the neck pickup as you time the release and depresion of the bar. Get a feel for the big sounding HA HA HA HA.

Chug

If your trem has a bar that screws in, don't tighten it up all the way. Cranked up and muting the strings with your left hand, rock the bar back and worth in it's loose slot. Try not to get any string noise, just the sound of the bar rocking, the tailpiece shouldn't even move. Just another cool NoIsE.

Hog snort

Once again, depress the whammy bar with your left hand and time the raising and lowering of the low E with the picking of your right hand.

Alley Cat

Mute the strings, depress the whammy bar, keep the strings QUIET. Once you hit a note, let the bar SWOOP up and while it's ringing depress it slowly and let it back up again. Once again mimic the kittie's meow. Using a Wah Wah pedal does wonders but it's not really needed.

Thunder

from tnemf96@student.hv.se
I don't know if this works on a regular guitar,but it works great on a bass. While holding the bass in your lap,take a small rubber ball(like a superball or something) and roll it slowly down the strings.You get a low, rumbly sound that reminds you of thunder. I find it works best if you lower your treble as much as possible, and turn the iunstrument and amp way up.

Car Sound

from edman@bellsouth.net
1) First take your wammy bar and drop it all the way down so that it is toching the body of your guitar. (You might want to use your left hand to do this so that your right hand is free to hit the stings) It should make your guitar lower if you have Tremolo system and it sounds higher you went the wrong way. It might be fun to try that too. I don't have one so I don't know what it would sound like.

2) Hit the low E-string and let the bar go up. The speed dosn't matter one if done quikly it sounds like you it the gas hard and left it there. Slowly makes it sound like your are taking off in a powerful car slowly.

3) If you move the bar up and down quikly it sounds like a car reving up. I will try to send a sound file as soon as I figure out how.

Bell Harmonics

From - Shiloh@nci2000.net

Lift up the high E string with a finger on your fretting hand, push it up and over the B string, and back down to the fretboard. The high E string will be laying across the B string. Now pick both strings at the same time. It creates a kind of ring modulation, like in a bell. It never fails to raise eyebrows in a group of musicians, and the inevitable question, "How'd you do that??"

Marshall sqeally

from aaron@melbay.com
The only amp I've been able to do this effect with is a Marshall Tube amp (JCM800) - using a wah pedal, turn the amp on about 5 with the gain all the way up in the high gain channel-stand with the pickups as close as you can get them to the output transformer( on the right side looking at the amp) The Wah and proximity to the transformer will give a sqealling/whammy-able type sound....Don't thank me, thank Billy Corgan!

Slap Guitar

from Alien3snow@aol.com
I've got a couple of noises here for you. One is really easy. You just strike the strings like a slap bass and it gives you some awesome possibilities. You can double bass lines with your bassist, it sounds awesome. Another is you just slide your whammy bar across your strings. You can touch them and then come of or go back and forth.

Feeling

by J Hanna & H Gill - jofta@bigpond.com
...However, no pedals, no amplifiers, no drummers, no bass players, no fender technicians are really required to add effect to a guitar.

Feeling, and self expression, produce some of the greatest effect I've ever experienced in music. Witness :

Joni Mitchell
Neil Young
Chet Atkins
Tommy Emmanuel
John Lee Hooker,

and every busker who ever earned a dollar honestly.

Kirk Hammet's Psycho Descent

from - Rohanjw@aol.com
Here is a very cool noise made by Kirk Hammet on Metallica's 'Garage Inc.' Mercyful fate track. The noise is hard to explain. You need at least a floyd rose for this. Do a very very fast trill between frets 14 and 17, then graduly divebomb, then, holding the arm at slack, play fret 17 and pull it up as high as it can go, then release fret 17 to fret 0 (duh!) and do a quick dive bomb. If played properly it sounds amazing!

Tea & Bacon

from - chrisa1@flash.net
This is a pretty hard and unreliable noise, but I love it when it works well. Most of the time, it's just tea (high pitched squeal, like a screaming tea pot), but sometimes you get bacon, too (sizzle). Okay, the effect: It's basically your standard harmonic squeal, but it's higher than usual because it's not done on the fretboard. Another plus is you can do it with just one hand. Also note: You have to have a fingernail to do this. With your right middle (or index or ring) fingernail, pop the string (usually for me the high E). Then immediately stop the string to almost mute with your thumb, but do not completely mute it. Leave it barely buzzing. You can do this two ways, one with the thumb already on or near the string, and the second is done by nearly slapping the thumb (result of this method is louder, but more difficult to stop the string just right). Distortion is a must! I discovered it with mucho distortion (simultaneous Big Muff and heavy metal pedals going). It works with smaller. Make sure the distortion does not kill the effect, because the string is barely vibrating, and a pervasively distorted signal or noise gate could kill the effect. But, the sizzle comes best with excessive distortion. It's a hard deal to describe, so try it, get frustrated with it, and improve it. Works best with bridge pickup. And if done right, there will be some high frequencies going on, so keep it down or wear ear plugs -- I wouldn't subject a hole-in-the-wall club full of people to this.

To the 25th fret and Beyond!

From - chrisa1@flash.net
Here's an effect that someone else has already described, but I don't know if they mentioned that it can create a whammy bar effect, too, not to mention the highest note you can get without artificial harmonics. Take any string (better with plain, best with high E). Push it down on one of the coils of the neck humbucker, or one edge if there's a cover (this happens to be my setup [Les Paul]; don't know if it works with Strats or similar guitars). Pick as you push the string into the pickup. The pickup should tilt, making the note go up, but then you should depress it, making the note come back down. The result sounds like a bend, only more fluid -- like a whammy bar. You can pick at different times to make it sound like you're going up or going down, too. It's kind of a trick, but it's also a noise because it's a damn high note. It's good when you reach the 22nd or 24th fret and you realize it's not high enough. Actually, doing this with the B string sounds more like a "25th fret and beyond" continuation than doing this with the E string does. On the E string it's just a damn high note.

WARNING: I don't know if it's just my cheap Korean (Epiphone) guitar, or the trick, but the right side my neck pickup sunk into the body. It wasn't like the minute or the day after I did this trick, but it was after I discovered it. So do this if you have faith in your neck pickup, and/or you can easily repair this kind of stuff yourself. I did, and it's not a problem anymore.

More Thunder

from BassDemon apache33@bellsouth.net
On bass, if you turn on some moderate distortion, (no dist. may work too...... i've never tried it tho), turn your volume way up, and tap the back of the neck about middle ways between the headstock and the body with the palm of your hand, it will produce a low, brooding thunder sound.

Morello DJ Scratching

from 'Wes Borland' wesborland415@icqmail.com

I know of another noise that concerns a Tom Morello technique, the DJ scratching sound.

To do this you need a les paul style geetar or a guitar with a volume for each pickup, then set the neck pickup to "0" and the bridge pickup to "10", so you create a kill switch when you toggle between positions 2 and 3.

Now with the switch set on 2 (the middle of the 3) smart moving your hands over the strings, but not fretting any notes, then push the toggle switch into the 3rd position then put it back into the 2nd. flick the toggle switch to get the desired speed of the cuts. flipping the toggle switch gives the same effect as a crossfader for turntables, and your hand is the scratching. so flip the toggle switch to the beat of the music and rub your hand up and down at any speed. voila!

i can't send an example cuz my computer doesn't have the ability to record sound (no mic) but if you want to hear this in action check out Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine on Evil Empire.

Also, Adam Hart sent in this FYI:
If you have a Les Paul or similar, and you want to do the Morello switching pick up trick, be warned! Rapidly switching between totally on and totally off pick ups builds up heat in the selector circuit board and can fry it! my guitar tech friend has affected this repair countless times and warned me not to try it for prolongued amounts of time on my own guitar.

Be warned!

Flowing Stream

from - MetalMoth2@aol.com
I call this something like a flowing stream. You need a Zoom 505 to do this though. Hit the edit key and set the following effects listed below;

Comp. C2
Dist. Dist.
Gain. 20
ZNR\Amp. A6
EQ\Phase. P5
Mod. P9
Dly\Rev. D7
Level. How ever loud you want

After you've done this, on the High E string speed pick while palm muting between the 14th and the 22nd fret.

Delay Pedal DJ Sounds

from - Michael Robson
I was messing about with the delay time and found a cool new effect.Have all the dials on the delay pedal on full, If you play a power chord with heavy distortion then spin the time dial on your delay pedal it sound like a dj spinning a record backwards (be careful near you amp while you do this as the sound get very loud). I'll try to send a sound file of this soon.

More Stream Sounds

from The Mighty KUDZU
I use a BOSS EQ pedal set with the mid boosted, bass slighly below 0, and the highs gradually approaching the bottom to form a sort of ^ shape. then i kick on distortion and sit in front of my cabinet while keeping all of the strings vibrating. i don't know if this is reproduceable by others, but on my amp it sounds exactly like flowing water

NBC Theme with natural harmonic

from - Cole W Kuzmish
Here's how you play the NBC theme with natural harmonics.

E-------------|

B------5------|

G---7-----5---|

D-------------|

A-------------|

E-------------|

It's sorta hard to pull off, but cool, too! It's works better with a lot of distortion.

A Plethora of Creepy Sounds

From Kurt - Smashpmkns@aol.com
For a creepy sound, play the strings above the nut, and if your guitar has a Les Paul-type bridge, you can also play behind the bridge.

For a turntable-esque screetchy sound, have lots of distortion, and turn the pick sideways, so the thin side is touching the strings, and slide it up and down.

For helicopter sounds, have a flanger with a slow, deep sweep, and put a square wave tremolo after it.

For a funky, bass-like sound, don't use a pick, and pull a coiled string away from the fretboard, then release.

For seagull sounds, plug a wah pedal in backwards (input to amp, output to guitar), and experiment with it.

Korn squeal

from - Kingofrock379@aol.com
I figured out the end part of the song Blind by Korn. When it slows down and there is that high pitched noise. What you do is get a wah pedal and switch the cables around so that the cable that should connect it to the amp is in the instrument's hole and the cable that should connect it to the instrument is in the amp's hole. You then just press the pedal and lift it up to hear the noise

Feedback Soundscapes

from Hilaro Garcia
Microphonic pickups are normally rather awful but they could be good sometimes. I've got a '91 Gibson Les Paul. Well one of the PUs has gone microphonic, making a loud noise if you go anywhere near a loud amp. Well that howling noise could be used in a musical context. Look for the right location and move your guitar about.

You want a proof?

O.K. then, listen to the very first part of "JesusChrist Pose" by the mighty Soundgarden.Can you hear that turbid yet great effect? Yes, you're right. An awful, cheap humbucking PU next to a loud Marshall was the most likely suspect.

Funny or what!! (still, you Gibson people, you have no excuse I'm afraid...)

Unorthodox Pitch Shifting

from Hilaro García
I bought a second hand Digital pitch shifter pedal (Boss) -that's it the one with the delay facility-. I didn't buy it for its hability to create harmonies. I believe that if you aren't a certain Mr Vai, harmonies played on the guitar can sound rarther clumsy, cliched and very, very '80s. Still, I use it for creating textures. Set the feedback to the maximum and control the pitch shifting knob to go a 5th or an octave ABOVE the current note. Together with a delay unit afterwards you'll get a never ending cascade of cosmic sounds.

Want to hear it? You don't have the pedal? Please E-mail me and find out how

Tom Morello's Buzz

from Paul Kilpinen
Take the cord out of the guitar and touch it on the metal parts of your guitar (or your hands/fingers) and use effects pedals (whammy/wah/flanger, etc) to make it sound different. This is done in the solo for 'Testify'. Tap the cord on and off quickly for a similar effect to the pickup switch technique

Oscillating Effect

from - Kevin
This one is a weird one. From guitar to amp: wah, distortion (I use a proco rat), phaser (I use EH small stone), and then another distortion unit (I use my amps distortion). After you get that hooked up, tune the low E on your guitar down to a much lower note like A. Set the phaser on a fast rate and start playing the low string with both distortions on. rock the wah back and forth. It's like a crazy oscillating type thing... very hard to put into words but very cool. For more variety, adjust the depth or rate on the phaser and use more or less distortion on both units.

Delay Tricks

From Kevin McCoy killxrockxstars@subdimension.com
This is cool. For this you will need a delay unit set to about 1 second with a decent amount of repeats. Turn your guitar volume all the way down. Strike a chord, then smoothly fade in and out with your volume knob. Sounds like a cool spacey volume swell, this is used extensively on the Incubus song "Pardon Me".

Another delay one. Set the delay on about 1 sec with as much repeat as you can get. Strike a fretted note on say, the B string. Tremelo pick the note and bend it slightly upward and then back down, varying the rate of picking and bending... sounds like 1000 out of tune guitars.

That's all for now, I will send more soon... peace man....

listing all strange sound tricks-part 1

2009-11-25T20:11:00.002-08:00

Tom Morello's Allen Wrench Scratching

From Guitar World (i believe)
In the song "People of the Sun", Tom Morello puts a new spin on an old trick. He plays heavy slide guitar in the tune to create droning single note riffs. However, instead of a usual brass or silver slide, he uses an allen wrench. This creates a dissonant, scratchy tone. Try it with heavy distortion to get the desired tone.

"People of the Sun" Intro/Verse:

w/ Allen Wrench

E|------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------|
A|---2/3\2/3\2\0-------2/3\2/3\2\0----|
E|------------------------------------|

/ - slide up
\ - slide down

Tom Morello's Dead Pickup Switching

from Guitar World (I believe)
Another trick used by Tom Morello, used in several songs, is pickup switching. This isn't switching between two pickups to get a different tone, though. He turns one pickup on full, and another completely off ( you can do this on guitars that have a volume knob for each pickup, such as a les paul ) and plays notes while switching in between. This results in a stuttering effect that sounds like a really fast tremolo unit.

"Bullet in Your Head" Lead Break Intro

----x---x-x--x---x-x--x---x-x--x--x-x--x-x-x-x---x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

all notes sounded from hammer-ons

E|-12---0-0--10--0-0--8---0-0--7--0-0--5-0-3-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------|
B|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-12---0-0--10--0-0--8---0-0--7--0-0--5-0-3-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------|

x - pickup flick (turn pickup on long enough to sound the note, then turn it off)

John Petrucci's Warble

from Mark Henderson - danewmh@yahoo.com
Hey, alright! Its the VERY FIRST .wav file on this site. It was sent to me by someone on IRC (You know who you are.). And you all should follow his example! Send as many .wavs as you can!!

Well anyway, enough babbling on, here it is. This one comes from John Petrucci of the band Dream Theater. In one of his songs, during the solo (I cant say I'm a Dream Theater fan so I dont know which one.) He kind of hits the wammy bar hard enough for it to go down, and spring back up, vibrating the note all the way back up. As far as I know, this only works on a Floyd Rose style locking system.
Here it is! petru.wav - 151K WAV file

This guy Dave Ostrer sent me this little FYI too - I enjoyed looking through your site. Just figured you would want to know, what you call a "wiggle guitar" sound actually is call a "worble effect" or "warble" in most effects books and guitar magazines.

Thanks Dave! Come back soon!

Boingy Slide

by Mark Henderson - danewmh@yahoo.com
I was messing around with my acoustic when I came up with this one. If you have a slide (glass with rounded edges works best) you can use this effect. Bow the string with the slide on a fret. Press down so that the fret and the slide are touching, then lightly vibrate the note. The result is a boingy wah-type of sound. It also works with an electric guitar, but the effect isn't as prominent.

Steve Vai's Funky Sitar

From jschrepfer@fimatinjapan.com
The end of Boy from Seattle has a cool effect in it. He makes a Sitar-type sound by bending ta note on the B string many steps up, enough to pull it off the fretboard on on the side of the neck. Then vibrato-bend the string so it repeatedly goes on and off the edge of the neck. The rapid rise and fall of the pitch gives it a sitar-like quality.

This is hard to explain via tab, so one is not included.

Floppy Strings

from Art Cohen - artcohen@pgg.peco.com
A double-locking vibrato is necessary for this. It also works best with extreme distortion settings (I use a Deluxe Big Muff into a RAT). Dive down until the low E string is almost completely slack. Then pick the string. If your rig has enough low end you get sime great rumbles and floppy speaker noises. While doing this you can also fret the string and bend it up, creating a sudden bump in pitch. You can also whammy down just a little more so that the string is pulled against the magnets of the pickups. This causes a crashing noise which is abruptly damped. Jiggling the vibrato arm will cause the string to bang into the pickups repeatedly. If your distortion and bass response is heavy enough, you can grab the floppy string with your fingers and move it back and forth across the pickup, making a scraping sort of noise with each pass.

I play electronic space music on the guitar and have used the above techniques on my albums "Real Time" and "Available Space"

Glissando

from Art Cohen - artcohen@pgg.peco.com
Bow the open unmuted B and high E strings with a slide (brass works for me) near the 12th fret while muting the other strings. There's a certain sweet spot where both halves of the strings start to vibrate and an otherworldly high harmonic comes in. This even works on acoustic guitars!

Use the slide to bow the string or strings near the bridge while fretting. This works best using the neck pickup. On the low strings excellent growls can be created, while haunting out of tune melodies can be played on any strings. The strings can also be bowed lengthwise instead of transversely. A circular motion creates and interesting slow vibrato.

I play electronic space music on the guitar and have used the above techniques on my albums "Real Time" and "Available Space"

Duane Allman's Steel Drum Effect

from - RPMTN@aol.com
Duane Allman would place a large plastic pick under the strings near the bridge, thereby keeping them from vibrating. However, when picked, these strings will produce a steel-drum type of sound. I've done this live for years,and it never fails to have some guitar player coming up to me later to ask how it's done. Try it out.

Other Slide Tricks

From - ?
Another suggestion for interesting slide work - try using a Bic lighter or an M&M Mini's candy container as a slide. You get a real short sounding note with practically no decay, almost like a slide banjo.

Microtone Scale Guitar

from soundman@tiac.net
I've got a technique that will turn a regular scale length guitar into a Microtonal scale. First, you need a pick with rough texture on its edge. This can be the pick design such as a stone pick or you can create your own texture with a nail file. Second, select the rhythm pickup. Thrid, using the rough edge of your pick scrape the string behind the pickup but before the bridge. This shorten the scale length. My suggestion is to find the fifth interval of whatever tuning your using (on the high E in standard look for the B) Fourth, use the pick as a bow and fret away as needed. All fretting will be reduced to a scale length shorter than the Western half step/Whole step system thereby creating a more Far Eastern tone. It rocks with distortion and either a phaser (preferably a Mutron BiPhase or the underrated Boss Auto-Wah. Next time I'll attach a wav. file.

My personal e-mail address is soundman@tiac.net. Drop me line

Steve Genovese Boston, MA

PS: Pick up a copy of Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist. He totally encourages this type of unorthodox playing along with theoretical improvising techniques.

Seagulls

from george4908@aol.com
I do this on Les Pauls with humbuckers. Whether or not it works with other guitars will depend on the setup. Just press one of the unwound strings down hard between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickup. The string initially contacts the back edge of the pickup, then tilts the pickup until the string hits the forward edge. Voila -- you've got a seagull squawking. The E, B and G strings each do it at a different pitch. With a delay/repeat it sounds like (sorry) a flock of seagulls. Also, try with a wah for variation. Note: it will scratch your pickup covers, so if you're a dead mint freak, don't bother.

Bass Sounding Guitar

From - jgoula@scnc.blissfield.k12.mi.us
Ok, I take NO responsibility for any damage This causes. But, all you need is a guitar with a tremolo. Put it the whammy bar, bend the whole thing foward, and while there is space behind the trem, jam a pencil in it. This creates really low low almost bass level sounds. Oh, and you'll almost surely need to retune after this little stunt. And to appreciate it you need a good size amp (30 or more watts).

"squealsound"

from ??
Use a quarter in the place of your pick, and rub the edge of it against the sting rapidly. When used on the high e string near the bridge, this creates a spooky, high pitched "squealing" sound.

Alcohol-Wiping

from edman@bellsouth.net
This is similiar to the "sqealsound" effect. i was cleaning some shit off the fret board of my guitar with a small alcohol wipe( like doctors use). if you rub it on the high E, B , and G strings lightly it produces a high pitched squeal. You don`t even need your amp to hear it.

Computer Sound

from Mike Konshak - (?)
I have a Noise for you that I remember sounding like a cheap computer sound like on an old cartoon - basically a series of beeps. Basically, get a bunch of distortion, mute the strings with your left hand on the neck (about 5th fret, not important) and use a golf ball or some other ball about that size and hardness in your right hand- golf ball works fine. The idea is to use the ball as a slide, but it only touches one string at a time. Therefore, abrupt changes in pitch occur when moving from string to string (sounds good only on unwound strings) producing "beeping" noises. cool effects are also made by sliding up and down a string. A cool advantage to this technique is the super high notes available near the bridge. Thanks for reading all of this.

Bleeping Computers

by Christian Moffitt - (?)
To make your guitar sound like one of those computers from old time science fiction movies, all you need is a pitch shifter and a distortion petal(I use an Ibanez Power Lead for this particular effect). Turn all the knobs all the way up on both pedals and get far enought away from your amp that you aren't being deafened by high pitched shrieking feedback. Now just randomly hit high notes, especially above the twelth fret, hammering on and pulling off randomly with out picking. It'll never sound the same twice, but it sounds damn cool.

Whales Crying

from Isaac Taylor - Isaac.Taylor@nashville.com
Ok, this sounds sort of like whales crying, but very extremely (doesn't really involve the guitar either) all you do is plug the amp into the instrument jack and the instrument into the amp jack on a wah-wah, if the pedal is in the back position, it doesn't do anything, but as you move it forward it makes an eerie (and loud) high pitched screaming noise I've only done this on my 1970 vox wah-wah, so i don't know how it'll work with other newer pedals

Custom Flanger

From ???
This trick involves a guitar, an amp, and a digital delay pedal like a DOD FX-9. Turn the delay all the way up, and manipulate the feedback knob to get a cool custom flanging sound. Simple!

Alien Noises

from Moffittw2@tiger.uofs.edu
I stumbled across this trick screwing around making feedback with my band. First, you need heavy distortion, a phaser set at a very high rate, and a digital delay pedal, or sampler(some kind of pedal that has a repeat on it.) Nexr, turn all your gear all the way up, and stand as close to your amp as possible. By moving your guitar around, over, against your amp, constantly changing it's position. This combination makes your guitar sound like the second coming of those litte green guys from "Mars Attacks!" Enjoy!!

UFO Crash

by sysop (?)
Select the BRIDGE pickup only. Mute all strings at the neck with the palm of your LEFT hand (assumes you play non-hendrix style) and take your right index finger and instead of picking, PUSH a string (high "E" is great) all the way toward the guitar body until it contacts the edge of your pickup. This will almost sound like a clicky beep. Raise and lower the string against the pickup while slowly slackening the string with the whammy bar (using your palm on the bar). This gives a really cool effect, which can be enhances (?) by distortion or any variety of other effects. I will send in a WAV file soon.

Eddie's Elephant Noise

2009-11-25T20:11:00.001-08:00

This one is a little tricky, but with fast hands, it can be done.

1: Turn the volume all the way down on your guitar or with a volume pedal.
2: Hit these harmonics, in this order (Im doing this from memory, so it might be wrong.)

E|-----------------------------------<12>------------------------|
B|-------------------------<7>-----------------------------------|
G|---------------<5>---------------------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------|

(Correction made by moggio@bigfoot.net)

3: Now dive with your whammy bar/pedal and fade in with your volume knob/pedal. Viola! Elephants!

Eddie Van Halen's Horse

2009-11-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

This one is easy. You've heard Eddie go off in a concert, making all sorts of animals noises, elephants, birds, etc. Here's how he does the "neighing horse" sound.

1. Start off with string rake, usually with three or four strings.
2. Hit a relatively high pitched note with a pick harmonic.
3. Hold it for as long as you need to, then dive with the whammy bar, but vibrato it as you fall with it. Example:
"Source of Infection" Intro:

*PH full -----------------|^^^^^^^^^^
E|---------------------------------------------------------|
B|----------------)-----------------------(----------------|
G|--------------9-------------------------\----------------|
D|----------X------------------------------\---------------|
A|------X-----------------------------------\--------------|
E|---X---------------------------------------\-------------|

* X - Fret Hand Muted Notes
* ) - Bend up
* ( - Bend down
* \ - Fall with bar
* ^ - Vibrato
* *PH- Pinch Harmonic

playing guitar with a violin bow

2009-11-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

It’s not as easy as it may look…but if you love what bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Creation and Sigur Ros have done in the past, the violin (or cello) bow can be a great trick to add to your repertoire!
Led Zeppelin, The Creation, Sigur Ros

Playing with the bow: Led Zeppelin, The Creation and Sigur Ros

Sure…an eBow is a really cool effect that we recommend to any guitarist interested in further sonic explorations of his instrument…but using a violin bow can produce different sounds, and be much more challenging…besides, playing an actual violin bow looks really cool onstage, too!

Basically, there’s no “correct” way to do it as a violin bow is not meant for guitar anyway, but here’s a few tips we collected, that may help you to achieve some good results:

You’ll need three things: One- An electric guitar (they sound better bowed compared to acoustic.) Two- A bow (Note: You will need rosin.) Three: an amp with more than one distortion setting (recommended reverb/delay more than any other.)

Once you have all you need to adjust your shoulder strap so that the guitar comes down below your stomach. (Adjust the strap all the way lose.) You want to hold the bow the same way you hold it as if you were playing violin. One exception- you may want to extend your finger across the bow. It makes it easier when you’re playing. Don’t let any pedantic killjoy tell you you’re holding the bow wrong- you’re not. This is completely different from playing a violin.

Set your amp to a regular tone (no freaky metal stuff yet) and set just a little bit of distortion, with added reverb/delay for best results.) Slide the bow across the strings (You’re sliding where you’d normally pick.) It may take several times for you to get a vibration. Okay around with the amount of pressure you place on the bow. It may also take you a while to find a comfortable position. You want to avoid hurting your wrist at all costs (though playing with a flat neck will hurt your wrist anyway.) There are some special guitars that have a curved neck. This allows you to play the strings more accurately.

It’s hard to play chords with a bow- but you can still try. You could make an entire 4-minute song based off of G and A with a bow. It’s also hard to hit higher notes (above fret 12.) without it sounding scratchy. I recommend watching this for technique inspiration:

You can notice the player’s body position. (Note how the back is slightly arched and one knee is up.) It may take you a while to figure out how you want to play.

Vibrato: Yes, you can do it. It’s difficult, but it can be done. You can even bend the strings; as well as hammer-on’s pull-off’s. (Play around with other guitar techniques as well. You may end up with a cool new sound!Refer to the link above for vibrato and string bending inspiration!)

Usually, it’s easier to do power chords. But there’s no list of what works with a bow and what does not. You’re gonna have to figure that out by yourself. Also refer to this other video for inspiration:

Important points

Cleaning: A rag! Get a cloth rag (preferably cotton) and wipe your strings. You need to do this after every time you play with the bow. Guitar strings weren’t made to have rosin on them- and I’m sure if you want to play Metallica later on, you don’t want sticky strings. So wipe them down with a dry cotton rag.

Rosin: All you need to do is apply it to the bow. You don’t need to place it in water or chip pieces of it off. Just slide it across the hair of the bow. (About 14 slides will do for guitar.) You’ll need a lot of rosin to make the strings vibrate. (Amount of rosin may need to increase depending on the type of your strings.)

Bow: Try tightening it to the highest it can go without ripping the hair. You don’t want it too lose, and you don’t want it too tight- so somewhere in the middle there- have it firm, that’s all.

Effects: All effects need to be tweaked from scratch based on the bow squeaky sounds. in other words your normal distortion settings won’t be good when you replace the guitar pick for a violin bow. Best results as a matter of fact may be by using the bow and only one pedal (a BOSS DD3 digital delay or a RE-20 Space Echo for instance).

Strings: Because the Bow basically rubs on the strings to produce a noise, older the strings the better, as older strings loose their smooth texture by the pickups due to the constant picking and strumming. Also using a cleaning solution for the strings before playing with the bow will help you A LOT.

Palm Muting: it will be hard to do while playing with a bow, but you could (only to try) use a little masking tape by the bridge to simulate the muting technique, it’s worth a try!

Playing: Yes- you may want to play like Jimmy Page. That’s cool. But he wasn’t the first nor the last to use a violin bow, so besides Jimmy Page, you may want to check 60’s freakbeat combo The Creation (Eddie Phillips was the first guitarist to use a violin bow) and Sigur Ros.

Violin Bow

Dolphin Music offers some affordable violin and cello bows, so if you’re a guitarist looking to expand your horizons, why don’t you try one?

Guitar parts

2009-11-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Action
How far the strings are from the fretboard. "Low action" means the strings are very close to the frets. "High action" means they're farther away. Low action makes a guitar easier to play, but if the strings are too close to the frets, they'll touch the frets when they vibrate, causing fret buzz.

Binding
A strip of plastic or hardwood running around the edges of a guitar's body. Binding protects the guitar from nicks and dings.

Chord Chart
A diagram that shows where to place your fingers to fret a given chord. Chord charts usually show the first few frets. Sometimes the chord shown is played further up the neck. In that case, text next to the chart will show which fret the chart starts with.

Dreadnought The most popular style of acoustic guitar body. Martin Guitars introduced the first Dreadnought in 1931.

Flight Case
An airtight, reinforced instrument case. Flight cases are often made of metal.

Gauge
A string's diameter (thickness) in fractions of an inch.

Gig Bag
A padded fabric guitar case (usually nylon). Gig bags are less bulky than hardshell cases, but offer less protection.

Hardshell Case
A hard plastic or plywood guitar case.

Lap Steel Guitar
A specialised guitar, designed to be held flat in the player's lap (or on a stand) and played with a slide. For more information about lap steel guitars, see Brad's Page Of Steel.

Pick
Anything that is used to pluck the strings of an instrument. Most commercially produced picks are flat pieces of plastic or nylon. Some picks (called "finger picks") are designed to fit over the tips of the fingers. Picks come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and thicknesses.

Pickup
A magnet wrapped with wire. The motion of the guitar's strings interferes with the pickup's magnetic field. This creates an electrical impulse, which is transmitted to the amplifier. The amplitude and quality of the impulse can be modified by the volume and tone controls.

Strap Lock
A device that attaches to a guitar where the strap peg ordinarily goes. It prevents the strap from coming loose unexpectedly.

String Winder
A small crank that fits over a tuning knob. String winders save a lot of time when you're installing new strings. They usually also have a notch on them designed for pulling bridge pegs.

Tablature
A way of writing music for stringed instruments. Guitar tablature uses a six-line staff. Each line represents a different string. The top line represents the 1st (top E) string, the second line is the 2nd string, and so on. Notes are represented by a number on a line, indicating which fret on which string to play. "0" represents an open (unfretted) string.

Tremolo Bar
A metal bar attached to the bridge assembly on an electric guitar. When pushed down or pulled up, it changes the position of the bridge, altering the pitch of the notes being played. It can be used to acheive either a tremolo effect or a more dramatic bending of pitch. (i.e. the "dive-bomber" effect Jimi Hendrix used in his rendition of the U.S. national anthem.)

Truss Rod
A metal rod that runs along the inside of a guitar's neck, underneath the fretboard. It allows the neck to be adjusted if it is not perfectly straight. Classical guitars, Martin guitars, and most handmade acoustic guitars do not have truss rods.

Things you should keep in mind when you buy a guitar

2009-11-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

Picking out a guitar is a lot of fun -- at least if you have enough money to buy the one you want. It's also difficult. It's even more difficult if you haven't bought a guitar before. When you buy your first guitar, you may not even know what kind of music you'll wind up playing, or whether you're going to play it enough to make it worth spending so much money.

Fortunately, guitars are relatively cheap compared to most other instruments, and there are a lot of good, inexpensive models out there. By comparison, try to buy a cheap bassoon sometime. You'll be grateful that you're a guitar player, I promise.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when you're buying a new guitar:
Electric or acoustic?

One of the first things to decide is whether you want an acoustic or an electric guitar. I recommend that beginning guitarists buy an acoustic first. The main reason for that is that it's harder than you think to get an electric guitar to sound good. The nicest guitar in the world won't sound good if you plug it into a cheap amplifier. It also won't sound the way you expect it to. Most of the electric guitars you hear in recorded music are being played through an effects box -- or, more likely, a whole rack of them. If you start with an electric guitar, you'll also need to buy effects and an amplifier, and that can get very expensive. If you're just starting out and you're not even sure you're going to keep playing, you shouldn't spend that kind of money.

When you buy an acoustic guitar, you don't have to worry about all those extras. You just have to worry about finding something that feels and sounds good. Keep in mind that you can always buy another guitar later. Once you've been playing for a while, you'll know a lot more about what you want, and you'll be able to choose more wisely. If you're really hung up on the idea of an electric guitar, though, Larry Lapierre has a lot of good advice on the subject.
Don't buy cheap guitars.

If the guitar you buy doesn't feel good and sound good to you, you won't play it. I know many more people who have a guitar they never play than I do actual guitarists. That happens because a lot of people think, "Well, I don't know if I'll stick with this, so I won't buy a really good guitar." They buy the cheapest guitar they can find and think they're being practical. In reality, that's not practical at all. A cheap, badly made guitar is no fun to play. If a guitar is no fun to play, chances are very good that it will end up living in the back of your closet, right next to your lawn darts and your hula-hoop.

This doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money. There are a lot of good, inexpensive guitars out there. The first guitar I picked out for myself was a no-name brand I've never seen before or since. It cost $99 new (1983 dollars), and I still play it more often than I play the $1200 guitar I bought for performing.

If you're worried that you won't get your money's worth, remember that if you buy a good guitar and you never play it, you can always sell it and get most of your money back.
Play everything.

The best way to find out what features and feel you like is to play as many guitars as you can get your hands on. Play your friends' guitars. Go to guitar shops and play everything there. Take notes. There are a lot of factors to consider.

Don't be swayed by popular brand names. Just because a guitar has a name you've heard of on it doesn't mean it's a good guitar. It also doesn't mean it's right for you. It's best not to go shopping with preconceived notions about which guitars are "the best." Every individual guitar is different. Martin is known for making some of the best acoustic guitars in the world, but I've played Martins that I wouldn't have paid $50 for. Every manufacturer turns out the occasional dud -- and the occasional gem. Don't be a snob and refuse to look at unknown brands. You might miss out on something special.

What is it made of? Some cheap guitars have tops made of plywood. You don't want that, because over the years the guitar will pull itself apart. (It also won't sound very good, since plywood isn't known for its fine resonant qualities.) For acoustic guitars, a spruce or cedar top is ideal. Most acoustics you see will use one of these two for the top. As long as it's real wood, though, if you like the sound, it's probably fine. The back, sides, and neck can be just about any solid wood; mahogany and curly maple are both popular and attractive.

Electric guitars can be made of almost anything, but again, avoid plywood. Very hard woods are better, both because they're more durable and because they'll improve the guitar's sustain. Good electric guitars are usually heavy as a result. Ash, maple, and walnut are all popular.

The fretboard is usually either rosewood or ebony. (Fender Guitars puts lacquered maple fretboards on many of its models, which seem to hold up well.) Ebony is preferable, because it's extremely hard and won't wear as easily, but rosewood is perfectly fine. If the fretboard has been painted or stained, it's probably bad news.

Is it well-made? Look carefully. The frets should be even, and none of them should stick out more than the others. Many acoustic guitars have binding around the edges of the body. That's a good sign, but it isn't strictly necessary. Run your hands all around the edges of the body. If it feels like the wood doesn't quite meet properly in some places, don't buy that guitar. Hold the guitar up and sight down the neck. The fretboard may be either flat or slightly curved side-to-side, but if it doesn't look even, the neck may be twisted or warped. (This is something you're more likely to find in used guitars than new ones.) From the side, the neck should look straight. The tuning machines should work smoothly. (That isn't a primary concern, since you can replace them easily, but it gives you a clue about how meticulous the manufacturer is.) On an electric guitar, all the switches and knobs should work smoothly.

Does it feel good? This is the most important consideration. It's even more important than the guitar's sound. A guitar sounds different from behind than it does to your audience anyway. The thing you'll be most aware of is how it feels.

Is the neck a comfortable width? Different guitars have necks of varying widths. Classical guitars have very wide necks. Electric guitars usually have narrow necks. Most steel-string guitars' necks are somewhere in between. If you have thick fingers, a wider neck will make it easier for you to play. If you have small hands, a narrow neck is more comfortable.

Are the strings at a comfortable height from the frets? This is called action. Most people prefer a guitar with "low action," meaning the strings are relatively close to the frets. Low action makes a guitar easier to play.

Is the body a comfortable size? This is something a lot of people overlook. Most steel-string acoustic guitars have what's called dreadnought style bodies. These are big guitars, and if you're a small person they can be quite uncomfortable to play. When you sit down with the guitar in a normal playing position, you should be able to reach the soundhole easily, without having to stretch. If it's even a little uncomfortable, it will affect your playing. People play best when they're relaxed and comfortable. If the dreadnought body is a problem for you, consider a smaller guitar.

If it's an electric or acoustic/electric guitar, are the controls in a convenient place? Some guitar makers put controls in places where you might accidentally hit them while you're playing.

Does it sound good? Have someone else (a salesperson or a friend) play the guitar for you. Just because it sounds good to you when you play it doesn't mean it will sound good to your audience. What "sounds good" means is subjective, of course. If you like the sound, it sounds good.
What else do you need?

* A case. A flight case or hardshell case is best. Cardboard cases and nylon gig bags don't provide nearly as much protection.
* A strap. Pretty much any strap will do, but it's a good idea to buy a strap lock at the same time.
* Something to tune with. Since you're just starting out, a pitch pipe or electronic tuner will make things easier for you.
* Strings. The strings that are on the guitar when you buy it have been on it too long already. You need to change them. To start out, (for electric or steel string guitars) buy "light gauge." They're reasonably easy to play, but aren't so thin you'll break them right away.
* Picks. Buy a lot. You're going to lose them. To start out, get an assortment of sizes, shapes, and thicknesses, and try them all. Decide what works best for you.
* Music. Unless you're already taking lessons, the best way to start out is to buy a book of songs with simple chord diagrams.

Learning to Fingerpick the Guitar

2009-11-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

I think first it helps to identify what sort of music you want to play, though if you don’t know yet that is fine. There are kind of two schools of thought when it comes to picking hand position. The first are those play alot of alternating bass, and perhaps wear a thumbpick at times. Alternating bass style sounds best if you slightly mute the bass strings with the heel of your hand, which means dropping your wrist, which in turn puts your fingers at a different angle to the strings. I personally can’t play this way, it feels awkward picking the strings with my fingers and that i have no power. But i don’t play much alternating bass music, so don’t take my word for it. People like Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and Tommy Emmanuel certainly don’t sound awkward.

The other position is a more classical position, with the wrist raised a bit, which to me gives the fingers power to pluck the strings. The finger plucks the string at an angle, not parallel, pivoting from the big knuckle, and drawing the tip of the finger back towards the palm. Be sure to keep enough tension in your finger joints so they don’t extend to much, which would cause you to brush the next adjacent string on your way back. I still have trouble with this. Try not to bounce off the string or bring the finger up after you pluck it, always follow through to the base of the palm. This may take some work.

So i just wanted to distinguish between those two schools of playing. Neither one is right or wrong, it just depends what kind of music you want to play. Some folks see musicians with a thumbpick and just think thats the only way to play, others think you have to study classical guitar. While i always feel some basic classical guitar training is good, both from a technique standpoint plus the advantage of learning to read music, it may not make sense if someone wants to learn to play alternating bass or country blues.

Moving onto simple songs. Besides the alternating bass lessons presented in the beginning of this post, i like House of the Rising Sun as a simple fingerpicking guitar song. It gets you in the mindset of assigning a certain finger to each string. We have a free lesson here which outlines the chords. For fingerpicking you are going to want to assign your index finger to the 3rd string, your middle finger to the 2nd string, and your ring finger to the 1st string. The main fingerpicking pattern for House of the Rising Sun involves what is called an appregio for the right hand. Lets take the first chord, A minor. You thumb is going to pluck the open 5th string, and then you will pluck the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings consecutively with the assigned fingers. The pattern is the same for all the other chords, except that the string the thumb plucks is going to change depending on the chord. The main rule of thumb, (pardon the pun), is that the string is the lowest note of the chord. So for the D chord its the open 4th string, for the F chord its the fretted 6th string, etc.

If folks are thinking about learning to take up fingerpicking guitar i hope that gives you some good basic information.

Acoustic Guitar, Picks and Tone

2009-11-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

I wrote about picks a while back, and how a thinner pick can be easier when starting out strumming the guitar. But i wanted to narrow the focus a bit more, and talk about a pick i have been enjoying lately. Its the Golden Gate. Below is a picture.

It comes in one thickness, heavy only, and as you can see, features pretty rounded edges. It may take a bit getting used to with folks who usually play with pointier picks. When i first started using them i found they would rotate in my grip alot.

The thing i like about this pick is it give a super warm, round, pleasing tone when playing single notes. Its not the loudest sound, so its not going to cut through with a bluegrass ensemble. But for solo playing, or one or two other instruments i think its great. Strumming chords is easy too, its not overly thick that its hard to push through the strings or you get alot of pick noise. That is problem I still have with the Wegen Trimus 350 pick i use, which is super thick pick. Strumming with it is still taking some getting used to. So the Golden Gate seems to offer a nice balance between being thick enough for a warm tone, and not to thick so strumming is difficult. I still do love my Wegen pick though, its just sometimes i like different flavors.

I think experimenting with different picks is important once you pass the beginning stage of guitar learning. They have such an impact on your sound, and often times you think you need a new guitar when you may just need a new pick.

Learn Chords Guitar - 6 Basic Steps To Learning Any Guitar Chord

2009-11-16T22:05:00.001-08:00

The moment that you start to learn chords on the guitar is the moment you start getting ahead in the game. Just about ever song every created for the guitar contains a basic set of chords, and fortunately for us, most radio hits use all of the same chords and progressions.

That means that once you start buckling down and learning a few of the most popular chords, you can start to dominate the most of the guitar tunes written. Here is a step by step process of what it takes to really learn to play a guitar chord well.

1. Know how to place all your fingers properly.

You learn the chord and then figure out how to properly place your fingers onto the strings on the fret board. Be precise and take your time figuring it out if you have to because you want the best finger formation that will allow you to transition to other chords smoothly.

2. Have good posture.

For every chord that you learn, when you understand where to place your fingers, you should work on having correct posture with your fingers and wrist on the fret board. Try not to accommodate for a weird chord by angling your hand or fingers, but always keep your thumb in the back of the guitar neck with your hand perpendicular.

3. Know the strings that you should and should not strum.

Not every string on the guitar neck is going to be strummed for every chord. On the contrary, only a few strings might be struck at a time.

If you're reading a guitar tab, notice that all of the strings to be hit are marked with a number while all the strings to avoid are marked with an 'x'.

4. Strike the appropriate strings evenly within the chord.

You want to get a rich and balanced sound when you strum through any chord, so it's important to strike all of the strings evenly. Picture your hand moving through a smooth arced path as your pick hits the strings while keeping your hand's distance from the guitar consistent as you move through.

5. Practice placing your fingers quickly into the formation.

Now, your hands are not going to automatically be in this chord formation from the start, so you need to practice getting to that point. See how quickly that you can form this new chord and then strum a sound cleanly.

Do this over and over again until you feel comfortable.

6. Transition between another chord.

You'll know that you're ready to use this chord in a real song when you can transition between this chord and at least one other smoothly. Pick a chord that you've already learned and practice going back and forth between them until the transition is very smooth and easy to accomplish.

There are a lot of chords out there to learn, but most of the songs created use the same ones. Remember these steps the next time you come across a chord that you want to learn and you should be tackling songs with that chord in no time.

Musical Politics

2009-11-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

The Republicans are having trouble getting traction in the music world. A veritable Top 40 list of performers has complained about John McCain's campaign using their songs without permission.

Jackson Browne even filed suit to make McCain stop using "Running on Empty" in television ads that mocked Barack Obama's energy plan. Self-professed left-wing Democrat John Mellencamp was most unhappy that the Arizona senator was using "Our Country" and "Pink Houses" on the campaign trail, even though he had allowed John Edwards to use them earlier. New York Rep. John Hall, a Democrat and co-founder of the '70s group Orleans, demanded McCain quit using the group's big hit, "Still the One."

Van Halen ("Right Now") and the Foo Fighters ("My Hero") also asked that their songs be pulled from the McCain playlist and Heart sent a cease-and-desist notice because Sarah "The Barracuda" Palin was using their "Barracuda" without permission.

On the other side of the aisle, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave wanted Barack Obama's campaign to quit using "Hold On" and Hank Williams Jr. played recently at a Palin appearance in Virginia.

While Obama has been endorsed by Slash, former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul will have Jimmie Vaughan by his side if a guitar duel breaks out. The formerly Fabulous Thunderbird was the host and entertainment at the Rally for the Republic gathering that the libertarian-leaning Republican congressman put together in Austin in September.

Maybe what we need is a president who performs his own songs. Or maybe not. Ted Nugent has a new book, "Ted, White and Blue," in which he outlines how thing would be in a Cat Scratch Administration:

Seize gas and oil from Mexico and the Middle East as payment for their debts
Ship able-bodied Americans who refuse to work to Cuba, Mexico, England and France.
Refuse to fund health-care for smokers, drug users and obese people who continue to eat fatty foods
The death penalty for first-time meth, crack, heroin and opium dealers

(Let the record show that Nugent, once known as the Motor City Madman, is now the second most famous resident of Crawford, Texas.)

Enough of this foolishness. I'm going to listen to Lowell George and Little Feat do "Apolitical Blues."

Jimi Hendrix Tribute - "Stone Free" (1993)

2009-11-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix is a 1993 album recorded by various artists in tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The artists were drawn from many genres of popular music. Contributors include his classic rock contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, legendary blues man Buddy Guy, classical violinist Nigel Kennedy, alternative pop/rock bands Belly and Spin Doctors, hip hop artists P. M. Dawn, among others. According to the liner notes, the "artists were encouraged to not only record one of their own personal favorites but to also place their stamp on Jimi's songs." Several artists recorded radically different interpretations, particularly, P. M. Dawn, The Cure, Nigel Kennedy and Pat Metheny. Some artists, on the other hand, recorded versions that were rather similar to the originals.

The band M.A.C.C. is made up of Mike McCready (guitarist from Pearl Jam), Jeff Ament (bassist from Pearl Jam), Matt Cameron (drummer for Soundgarden and later for Pearl Jam), and Chris Cornell (singer of Soundgarden and later Audioslave). The cover of "Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun)" is their only known recording. All four members of this group had previously worked together on the Temple of the Dog project.

"Surprises At Every Turn"
You don't have to be a fan of every contributor to this tribute album to enjoy the effort and end results that were achieved. You don't even have to be a tremendous Hendrix fan. What you get is an eclectic set of interpretations of the songs of a very talented individual. Of course, it helps if you can play guitar, which I suspect is why the strongest tracks involve Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Vernon Reid (Living Colour). Even so, this collection goes a long way to proving just how far ahead of his time Jimi Hendrix was. Maybe that's why his music doesn't sound as dated as some others from that era, and maybe that's why this compilation of talent works so well. By A Customer

"Clear a space in your CD case for this one!"
Move on over, let P.M. Dawn, Beck/Seal, the Cure, Body Count, Buddy Guy et al., take over. An eclectic tribute album of Hendrix's greatest tunes featuring rockers, rappers and R&B artists. The Cure's cover of "Purple Haze" or Body Count's "Hey Joe" or P.M. Dawn's "You Got me Floatin' is worth the purchase price alone. Even if you didn't grow up with Henrix as a staple diet for your rock n roll body, this offering is a fourteen course meal of his musical buffet. One is left with the feeling that this collaborative group of muscians, aside from their own creative interpretative presentations, have given great reverence to a man and his music that has enormous staying power. Two thumbs and eight fingers up! By silverstone@bearvalleylodge.com (Bear Valley, CA)

Stone Free is as good of a tribute recording as you will find. You can take any style of music and change it's genre to make a new sound but this CD was able to keep the vibe and make it fresh. All the performers were able to put their mark into the heart of each song. When I first heard The Cure doing Purple Haze, I thought "this won't work" but now I find it has all the colors and textures that Jimi was famous for. Jimi was always the first to explore new ways to get the "Love" into his music so it would be appropriate to let these artist do the same. Buddy Guy just belts out Red House, Clapton nails Stone Free just as the rest give their all to create a total package. I can listen to this entire CD and not want to stop. Jimi would play music with everyone he could so he could keep creating new ideas and in many ways that is what he has done here. I can imagine all these great musicians working with him and coming up with this experience. Jaco, Beck, Chrissie, Buddy and Jimi all jam'n up good times sure works for me. By El Basso (Lincoln, NE USA)

Track listing & Personnel:

01. Purple Haze - The Cure
02. Stone Free - Eric Clapton/Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards/Tony Thompson
03. Spanish Castle Magic - Spin Doctors
04. Red House - Buddy Guy/Billy Cox
05. Hey Joe - Body Count
06. Manic Depression - Seal/Jeff Beck
07. Fire - Nigel Kennedy
08. Bold as Love - The Pretenders
09. You Got Me Floatin' - P.M. Dawn
10. I Don't Live Today - Slash/Paul Rodgers/The Band Of Gypsys
11. Are You Experienced? - Belly
12. Crosstown Traffic - Living Colour
13. Third Stone From the Sun - Pat Metheny
14. Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun) - M.A.C.C.

Which Guitar to learn on?

2009-11-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

There are three main types of guitar that you will encounter. They are:

Classical Acoustic - Acoustic - Electric
Chances are that if you have asked someone if you can use their guitar for a while, it would probably be an old classical acoustic guitar or maybe a steel string acoustic.
These guitars are excellent to learn on because electric guitars require things like leads, amps, speakers and power. With acoustic guitars you only need a pick.
The other great thing about acoustic guitars is that you can’t turn them up loud. When you are learning it is probably better to play on a guitar that isn’t going too be loud, only loud enough so your ears can hear your errors and your good performances.
If you don’t know which types of guitar you want to play on, ask yourself, ‘what kind of music do I want to play?’
Pick a song that you like for its guitar sound. Listen to the guitar sounds and only the guitar sounds. Are they clean, soft sounds? Or are they harsh, heavy or distorted? Generally, acoustic guitars are softer and cleaner. Distorted, heavy sounds come from electric guitars that are plugged into amplifiers and effects units. Can you hear individual notes being picked or are the strings being strummed hard? The harder you play, the thicker your strings need to be. You need to know what style you want to play.
OK you have found a style of music that you like. Try and find out what the band video for that song is and watch it. There will probably be a section in there where the band is playing. In this part, look at the guitarist. Is he/she playing on an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar? What brand is it? What style? If you know the exact guitar from the video, you can ask to play on it at your local guitar shop to see if it suits you.
People play guitar for many different reasons. You need to understand what it is that you want to get out of the guitar. To discover your tastes in guitar music, listening to different styles and genres. Ask musicians at music shops about what kind of guitars different bands use, or ask them what kind of amps/effects those artists use to get that sound.
The answers don’t have to be exact because they will get you thinking about what you need to buy to achieve the sound you are after.
For more information on achieving different guitar sounds, see our articles on basic guitar effects and guitar manufacturers and guitar models.

Play Electric Guitar-5 Tips For Instant Success

2009-11-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

here are a million different methods and styles of how to play electric guitar, and to teach them all in one article would be pretty pointless, so I’m going to give you some tips that anyone who wants to know how to play electric guitar well should find useful.

How To Play Electric Guitar Tip 1:

Make sure the strings are fitted properly. Playing electric guitar often includes string bends, and if your strings aren’t fitted properly this can cause some real tuning problems. Hearing that “PING” sound as your guitar drops out of tune mid solo can be pretty embarrassing, so make sure your strings are perfect!

How To Play Electric Guitar Tip 2:

Get to know the guitar. Electric guitars have a huge range of different sounds and textures, all accessed by simply using the volume and tone controls on the guitar, as well as using different pickup selections. Any great guitarist with great tone understands this and will work their guitar to get the very best sounds.

How To Play Electric Guitar Tip 3:

Learn to mute the strings. When played at high volume the sheer power of the sound from the amplifier will make the strings on the guitar vibrate and ring out. This will ruin ANYTHING you are trying to play unless you can control it by muting the strings you don’t want to sound. This is mainly done by laying the palm of your strumming hand across the strings at the bridge.

How To Play Electric Guitar Tip 4:

Learn some simple scales and licks. You can spice up anything by adding a few ad lib notes or licks, providing you have the scale knowledge to back it up. Some tasteful blues licks can really add depth to all kinds of songs, and will give your sound its own personality.

How To Play Electric Guitar Tip 5:

Learn to bend strings and apply vibrato. To a guitar fan one of the best sounds in the world is the sound of someone bending up to a high note and then applying some good vibrato. Both techniques are fairly easy to get to grips with but tough to master, and will add even more personality to your sound. Using these techniques you can make the most mundane melodies sound interesting.

These guitar tips don’t even scratch the tip of the iceberg of how to play electric guitar, but hopefully they have given you an idea of what kinds of directions you can go with the instrument. Happy playing!

How To Abandoned Over Chords With The Accessory Pentatonic Scale

2009-11-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Soloing over guitar chords is simple if you apperceive how to use the accessory pentatonic scale. Add aroma and ability to your solo's with these simple but awful able techniques.

The apprehensive accessory pentatonic calibration is what a lot of guitar players alpha with if acquirements to solo. Trouble is, they don't apprentice to use the calibration to it's best potential.

Here, I'll appearance you an simple way to use the pentatonic calibration to abandoned over the three a lot of accepted guitar ambit types: Major, accessory and ascendant 7th chords.

1. Above Chords

A Above ambit consistently has a about accessory chord. The simple way to acquisition the 'relative' accessory of any above ambit on a guitar is to yield the agenda three half-steps (3 frets) beneath the base agenda of the above chord.

For example: a C above ambit - the base agenda is C. On a guitar, the agenda 3 frets beneath a C agenda is A. Therefore, A accessory is the about accessory of C major.

So to abandoned over a C above chord, use the A accessory pentatonic calibration and you can't go wrong.

Another example: F above ambit - three frets beneath the base of F, you will acquisition D. So you use a D accessory pentatonic calibration over an F above chord.

Another example: G above ambit - three frets beneath the G base agenda you'll acquisition E. So... you use the E accessory pentatonic to abandoned over a G chord.

Now, you may accept noticed that I listed C, F and G above chords there. Coincidentally, They are the 1, 4 and 5 chords of the 'KEY' of C Major. This applies to all instruments, not just guitar.

More about this later...

2. Accessory Chords

These are easy... just use the accessory pentatonic of what anytime the accessory ambit is. E.g. Use D accessory pentatonic for a D accessory chord, an E accessory pentatonic for an E accessory chord, an A accessory pentatonic for an A accessory Chord.

Now, did you apprehension I acclimated D, E and A accessory chords as the example? Did you aswell apprehension that these chords are the 2, 3 and 6 chords of the 'KEY' of C Major?

More about that later, too...

3. Ascendant 7th Chords

You accept a brace of choices here. But basically, you would use the about accessory pentatonic, or the accessory pentatonic a accent beneath the base of the dom7 chord.

For example, over G7, you could use either E accessory pent (relative minor), or D min pentatonic.

The acumen you could use the D accessory pentatonic over a G7 ambit is because the Dmi ambit and G7 ambit generally go calm in ambit progressions. Forcing a Dmi complete over a G7 ambit gives a G7sus sound.

4. Thinking From a 'KEY" Perspective

OK, what we accept looked at is the KEY of C Major. And basically you can use just the A accessory pentatonic abandoned for ALL the chords in C, or you can aswell use the D and E accessory pentatonics to add some blush and added acquiescence to the chords getting acclimated at the time.

Remember, these attempt administer to whatever ambit you are arena at any time, but can aswell be activated on a KEY basis,which is a added encompassing picture.

The Key of C Above has these chords:

C, Dm, Em, F, G7, Am, Bmin7b5.

Ami pent can be acclimated over them all, or just the C and Am chords.

D min pentatonic can be acclimated over the F and Dm chords.

E accessory can be acclimated over the Em and G7 chords.

We didn't acknowledgment the 7 ambit (Bmi7b5) because it's not acclimated actual much. But a acceptable best is the Dm pentatonic. In fact, though, you can use either of the three pentatonics from the C Above calibration - Am, Dm or Em. Try them, see which you like best.

I achievement you enjoyed this article. You can acquisition added advice about guitar chords at my site: http://www.Free-Guitar-Chords.com

The abstraction of application pentatonics for adapted chords is a able one, don't discount the air-conditioned sounds you can actualize with such a simple device.

Also, in a approaching article, I'll be discussing 'Pentatonic Substitution' area I'll appearance you how to use acting and adapted pentatonics for even added complete choices.

Top Ten Guitar Solos of All Time

2009-11-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

1) Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven

2) Van Halen - Eruption

3) Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

4) The Eagles - Hotel California

5) Metallica - Enter Sandman?

6) Cream - Crossroads

7) Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child

8) Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train

9) Free - All Appropriate Now

10) Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Learn To Play Every Breath You Take By Ear

2009-11-15T08:39:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to play the hit songs you apprehend on the radio and be able to play them on your guitar even after tabs or area music!

In this guitar assignment we will use Every Animation You Yield as an example.

The hits songs you apprehend are usually absorb adequate and shouldn't be begin as chargeless area music on the internet and absolutely not as guitar tab either after permission from the absorb owner.

However I can acquaint you that I alone accept adored a lot of money by my adeptness to play songs I apprehend by ear. I don't accept to buy area music and I can aswell play them as they are heard on the radio or accomplish a guitar abandoned adaptation of them.

To be able to play songs on your guitar by ear you accept to advance your ear and your adeptness to acquisition yourself about on the guitar fretboard.

In this guitar assignment I will appearance you how to play "Every Animation You Take" in the key of G. This agency that you cannot play calm with the aboriginal adaptation by Police and Sting but I anticipate it will be easier to play the melody on your guitar in this key.

guitar assignment allotment 1

The ballad begins with the words "Every animation you take"

The chords on your guitar will be:

G Em C D G

The melody addendum you will charge in adjustment to play this song will be:

G A B C D

A actual bread-and-butter melody as far as melody addendum are concerned. But how do you play these addendum on your guitar?

I will appearance you these addendum with a anatomy of guitar tablature that will be displayed accurately on commodity sites like this one. Some examples:

23 agency that you columnist down the additional affront on the third string.

03 agency that you play the third accessible string. This agency that you play the third cord with you appropriate duke after acute down a fret.

In added words, the aboriginal amount announce which affront to columnist down and the additional amount which string.

guitar assignment allotment 2

Let's go aback to the melody addendum you'll charge for the aboriginal verse:

G A B C D

With the previosly explained guitar tablature the addendum will attending like this:

03 23 02 12 32

I will not appearance you the melody. You are declared to apprentice to acquisition this out by yourself. I will alone advice you by adage that the aboriginal agenda to play is B and is notated 02.

guitar assignment allotment 3

Let's yield a attending at the allotment of the song alpha with the words "Oh, can't you see"

The chords will be (a bit simplified):

C G A D

This allotment starts with the agenda G notated 03.

The addendum you will charge to use are:

G B D E F# G A

and they are notated like this:

03 02 32 01 21 31 51

This melody starts with the agenda G notated 03.

I will not advice you added that this in this guitar lesson. The best way to apprentice the melody is by balloon and error.

In the action of acquirements this melody you will aswell advance your ear and your adeptness to acquisition your way about on your guitar.

This agency that the next melody you will try to apprentice will apparently be easier to learn!

You can adapt yourself to aces up melodies on your guitar by accomplishing these two exercises:

1. Apprentice scales on your guitar. Apprentice to play the scales up and down.

2. When you apperceive a calibration able-bodied you can ad-lib simple melodies and play about with the calibration and at the aforementioned time you will apprentice to acquisition your way about the guitar.

The added you apprentice scales and actualize your own melodies on your guitar the easier you will accept to amount out how a assertive melody can be played on your guitar.

Learn To Play Guitar: A Little Touch Of Guitar Improvisation

2009-11-15T08:38:00.001-08:00

I would like to present a few baby tips on how to ad-lib on your guitar with a pentatonic calibration in A-minor. We will use two chords and accomplish the accomplished affair absolutely impressive. Grab your guitar and appear on!

guitar architecture is not a absolutely abnormal art that cannot be learned. You can convenance the art of architecture by acquirements scales, acquirements patterns to use in improvisation, by basic melodies on your guitar and by artlessly improvising a lot.

When you apprentice to play guitar I anticipate it's a acceptable affair to use time to agreement with chords and scales. This will advice you advance your adroitness and your own appearance of playing.

The afterward contest will appearance you a way to convenance scales and chords together.

First I would like to accord you two chords you can use. The aboriginal ambit is A7 and you can play it in the accessible position like this:

1. --0---
2. --2---
3. --0---
4. --2---
5. --0---
6. ------

Now we will attending at a baby lick in the fift position on the guitar. This beggarly that you abode your larboard duke on the close with the aboriginal feel on the fifth fret. Here is the lick:

1. --5--8--5-----5--
2. -----------8-----

I advance that you aboriginal play the A7 ambit on your guitar by strumming already over the strings and afterwards that arena the lick.

Now we will add the D7 chord. It looks like this in the accessible position:

1. --2---
2. --1---
3. --2---
4. --0---
5. ------
6. ------

With two guitar chords at your auctioning you can play this:

A7 - lick - D7 - lick - A7

You will now apprentice addition lick to accomplish this section of guitar improvisational music added interesting:

1. --------5--8--5--
2. --5--8-----------

With this lick we accept alien one added agenda in the A-minor pentatonic scale. With two licks and two chords we can play the guitar section as follows:

A7 - lick 1 - D7 - lick 2 - A7

Of advance you can apprentice to amalgamate the addendum in abounding ways. I will accord you some added addendum in the A-minor pentatonic calibration if you wish to ad-lib added freely. Here are seven addendum in the A-minor pentatonic calibration in the fifth position:

1. -----------------5--8----
2. -----------5--8----------
3. -----5--7----------------
4. --7----------------------

Learn to play this guitar calibration by heart. Afterwards that you can try to amalgamate the addendum in altered ways. Actualize patterns or play the calibration backwards or try to actualize absorbing melodies. The endure blow of guitar architecture looks like this:

A7 - architecture - D7 - architecture - A7

You can of advance use this guitar architecture arrangement with added chords and scales. The assumption is to accept two chords that can be acclimated with the aforementioned calibration and ad-lib amid them.

What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know?

2009-11-15T08:36:00.000-08:00

As you apparently know, there are bags and bags of altered chords in music - aggregate from basal above chords to accessory 7ths to 13ths to suspensions to poly-chords. Someday, you ability wish to apprentice all those chords if you don't already apperceive them.

But meanwhile, there are 3 chords -- just 3 -- that you absolutely, absolutely accept to know. If you don't apperceive these three, there's hardly a song in the accomplished apple that you could play. But by alive just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not bags of songs!

Really?

Really.

Are you ready? Actuality they are:

I IV V

Huh? What's all that about?

Here's what:

In every key there are 3 chords -- just 3 chords -- which are accepted as "primary chords" -- chords that action way added than added chords. They are like ancestors associates of that accurate key. They are groups of addendum congenital on the 1st agenda of the scale, the 4th agenda of that scale, and the 5th agenda of that scale. (Those are 3-note chords alleged "triads" -- in addition commodity we will get into 4 and 5 agenda chords.)

For example, actuality is the C calibration on the keyboard. It runs from C up to C and octave higher. The I ambit is congenital on the aboriginal agenda of the C scale, and so on:

So if I body a ambit on the "I" -- every added calibration agenda up from C, the ambit is C, E, and G -- accepted as the "C above chord".

If I body a ambit on the "IV" -- every added calibration agenda up from F, the ambit is F, A, and C -- accepted as the "F above chord".

If I body a ambit on the "V" -- every added calibration agenda up from G, the ambit is G, B, and D -- accepted as the "G above chord".

Please notice, if you haven't already, that those 3 chords accommodate ALL the addendum in the C scale!

So what?

So any melody - tune - in the key of C (as continued as it just uses the 8 addendum of the scale) can be harmonized just by arena one of those 3 chords!

Think about that -- that's a HUGE acumen that a lot of humans never get.

So, in any accustomed key you can play in, there are PRIMARY chordS -- chords that action way added than added chords. They are like ancestors associates of that accurate key.

At your house, let's say you accept 3 humans in your ancestors -- your spouse, your child, and you. On the aforementioned block, but down the artery a few houses, lives your accessory and her family.

At any accustomed moment, who are the a lot of acceptable humans to be in your house?

The Terminator?

Hillary?

Dubba?

I don't anticipate so.

It's possible, of course, but not too likely. If I had to guess, I would say it would be either you, your spouse, or your child. It ability be your accessory down the artery -- there's a abundant bigger adventitious of that than, say, David Letterman or Prince Charles -- but my best allowance would be to assumption that the ancestors associates would be there.

It's the aforementioned way with chords. In any accustomed key, there are 3 "family members" that are association of that key -- the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are far and abroad the a lot of acceptable chords to action in any accustomed key.

For example, if I am arena in the Key of C, and the aboriginal ambit is the C ambit and I accept to assumption what the next ambit is, I would assumption that it would be either the F ambit or the G chord. Why? Because those are the added "family members". So we accept narrowed the allowance a abundant accord just by alive who the associates of the ancestors are.

Does that beggarly that there are consistently just 3 chords in a song? No, but there are actually hundreds of songs that are fabricated of just 3 chords.

The Primary Piano chords ("the fam") Of All the Above Keys

Here are the primary chords (the ancestors chords) of all the above keys (remember that the primary chords are the I chord, the IV chord, and the V ambit based on the calibration of that accurate key):

Key of C: C, F, G

Key of G: G, C, D

Key of D: D, G, A

Key of A: A, D, E

Key of E: E, A, B

Key of B: B, E, F#

Key of F: F, Bb, C

Key of Bb: Bb, Eb, F

Key of Eb: Eb, Ab, Bb

Key of Ab: Ab, Db, Eb

Key of Db: Db, Gb, Ab

Key of Gb: Gb, Cb, Db

Do you accept to apperceive all these chords in all these keys?

No.

You can accept to play in just one key, or just a few keys.

But what you MUST apperceive is the 3 chords in whatever key you wish to play in! That agency that the abrupt abecedarian can apprentice 3 chords in just a few minutes, and be able to play forth with bags of tunes, because a lot of folk songs, hymns, country songs, and abounding bedrock songs just use the 3 basal chords. That's why humans who apperceive blank about music can aces up a guitar, apprentice 3 chords, and bombinate forth while singing aggregate from "On Top Of Old Smoky" to "Amazing Grace" to "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" to "Auld Lang Syne" to "Silent Night" to -- well, you get the idea. And not alone a guitar, but a piano, keyboard, or whatever.

How Many Chords Are There, Anyway?

2009-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

Since chords (the capital basic of harmony) are one of the three a lot of basic elements of music - the others getting melody and accent - it would be advantageous to apperceive how abounding chords there are. And it doesn't amount whether you play piano or guitar or some added apparatus - chords are chords.

It's actually not all-important to apprentice all the chords in the accomplished advanced world, but it is all-important to apprentice some of them - at atomic abundant to acquiesce you to accord the songs you would like to play.

But meanwhile, there are 3 chords -- just 3 -- that you absolutely, absolutely accept to know. If you don't apperceive these three, there's hardly a song in the accomplished apple that you could play. But by alive just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not bags of songs! And those chords are artlessly the primary chords in any accustomed key:

?The I ambit (the ambit congenital on the 1st amount of the scale)

?The IV ambit (the ambit congenital on the 4th amount of the scale)

?The V ambit (the ambit congenital on the 5th amount of the scale)

For example, if you were arena in the Key of C, the I ambit would be C (c, e, g), the IV ambit would be F (f, a, c), and the V ambit would be G (g, b, d).

But as you apparently know, there are bags of added chords, so it would be accessible to at atomic apperceive of their actuality and maybe anytime apprentice them.

So actuality goes:

Since there are 12 above keys one can play in (not counting enharmonic keys - keys that complete the aforementioned but are accounting differently), there are:

*12 above triads (a accord is a 3 agenda chord)

*12 accessory triads

*12 beneath triads

*12 aggrandized triads

*12 beneath 7th chords (4 agenda chords)

*12 above 6th chords

*12 accessory 6th chords

*12 ascendant 7th chords

*12 above 7th chords

*12 accessory 7th chords

*12 half-diminished chords

*12 9th chords

*12 collapsed 9th chords

*12 9th/major 7th chords

*12 9th/minor 7th chords

*12 11th chords

*12 13th chords

*12 suspensions

*12 collapsed 5th chords

*12 collapsed 5th maj 7th chords

If that's not abundant chords for you, bethink that anniversary ambit can be astern - angry upside down. So accumulate all the accord chords by 3, and all the 4 agenda chords by 4, and all the 5 agenda chords by 5....

Then there are:

? poly-chords - chords that amalgamate two or added added chords, and

? voicings - the way chords are positioned on the piano keyboard

And that's just in one octave. A accepted piano has 7 octaves, so accumulate all that by 7 and you get the acknowledgment to how abounding chords there absolutely are:

More than you can count.

But again, you don't charge to apperceive them all. Just adept abundant so that you can play the songs you wish to play, again gradually over time apprentice added and added chords. Your agreeable apple will abide to abound and ability as a artist will become accessible to others.

Tips for Playing a Guitar

2009-11-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Do you want to learn how to play guitar? I praise your love for music and especially the love of playing guitar. Surely you are ready to undergo many hardships to learn guitar. Don't feel disappointed if you feel trouble in the early days as in the long term you will benefit yourself with endless benefits. These benefits include health related benefits as well as psychological and financial benefits. Let's learn how to play guitar to jam to roads.

Talent, Theory and Technique:

Remember the first of all entity needed to play guitar effectively is the natural talent than comes the theory and technique. A wrong misconception is that people sat that talent is transferred from one generation from other. I think that's wrong and believe that you can become a great guitarist even if your dad was not a guitarist. However assuming that you have enough talent and know some basics about the theory of music as well as guitars; let's start to learn some basic techniques. You must be able to distinguish between rock, classic or jazz. You must know the benefits of electrical guitar over the acoustic. Without a good video demonstration or a good learned teacher it is hard to master guitar. So hire the best ever teacher i-e 'learn and master guitar'.

Never to quit from practicing:

A noteworthy technique to become a good guitarist is never to quit from practicing and always have an urge to learn more and more skills. There are many guitarists who always remain in a process of learning by getting them involved with the lead guitarists and keenly listen to the music and chord progression of every guitarist. I have seen many lead guitarists getting themselves acquainted with the 'learn and master guitar' so at least are no body to say no to it being a beginner. They are keen to extract even the smallest tip from others to enhance their skills. Therefore it means to be modest and remain down to earth especially during the learning process.

Follow a good posture:

A good posture is very blissful in learning to play guitar. Try to make both of your feet flat and sit with a straightened back. However for some notorious knowledge of postures I insist you to buy 'learn and master guitar'.

Discipline helps a lot:

While learning to play guitar bring a discipline in your routine that will help you to learn guitar easily as well as to impress your parents. In the start you might be go for consistent 12 hour learning because of the initial enthusiasm but don't panic.

Therefore if you are keen to learn how to play guitar you have to show commitment. Try to practice regularly and bring a discipline in your daily routine.