Click here to learn more about the Orange Tiny Terror

My Experience With the Tiny Terror

I bought my Tiny Terror used on eBay about 2 years ago, admittedly behind the “boom” of low wattage amps, but I haven’t looked back since. This 15 watt amp (switchable to 7 watts) was the exact fit for the sound I have been searching for. I play rock, blues and some pop and the Tiny Terror delivers in every one of these arenas. I mostly play a Stratocaster with Kinman pickups and a ’74 Les Paul Goldtop. The Tiny Terror plays well with both guitars, as well as nearly any pedal I put in front of it. I won’t get into the specs of the amp; you can check the Orange site for that. I will tell you that the gorgeous tone is delivered through (2) 12ax7’s in the pre-gain stage, and (2) el84’s in the post, and the size of the Tiny Terror makes it easily transportable with the added gigbag.

Live Performance

Whether I’m playing a mid-sized club, practicing in my bedroom or leading at church, the Tiny Terror has plenty of voice to be heard but retains a decent volume level without the use of sound curtains. Anything larger than a mid-sized club and you’ll need to mic it, but nearly any sound guy would do that to any amp in a larger venue. I leave the volume and gain controls both at about 12 o’clock. To my ear, this is the perfect amount of volume and adds just enough break-up to the tone to get you excited. With PLENTY of gain on top, you could very easily pump the gain up and simply back off on your guitar’s volume to clean up the tone when necessary, or throw a nice overdrive pedal in front of it. Orange describes the tone as a “clean crunch” and I couldn’t agree more. It’s that perfect tube saturation that countless guitarists search for, but rarely find in an amp priced under $1400 (around $550 from most Orange dealers).

In the Studio

In the studio, the Tiny Terror simply performs. The single flaw I find with the TT is that it is hard to get a squeaky clean tone out of it. If you’re looking for clean tones turned up to 11 you’re barking up the wrong tree. This amp was specifically designed to breakup early so guitarists could get that wonderful tube crunch at lower volumes. I ran the TT in parallel with a Fender Twin on my last recording in order to pull up clean tones when needed. For rock, blues, pop and even some jazz, the Tiny Terror will stick with and even outperform many of the boutique amps on the market today.

Tiny Terror Variations

A few variations of the Tiny Terror have been added to the lineup including the Tiny Terror Handwired edition, the 2 channel 30 watt Dual Terror and the Dark Terror due for release at the end of May. Whatever your flavor, when you’re looking for a great sounding, affordable, low-wattage amplifier check out the Terror lineup.

Here are the chords for Taylor Swift’s “Mine.” You’ll want to pay attention especially to the chord changes in the intro and pre-choruses because some of the chords switch on some off beats. Be sure to check out our other easy guitar songs and chords.

Learn to play “Mine” with online video lessons

Intro: C2 G Dsus

C2          G            Dsus           Em7
You were in college, working part-time, waiting tables
C2      G       Dsus
Left a small town and never looked back
C2      G        Dsus  Em7
I was a flight risk, afraid of fallin'
C2               G           Dsus
Wondering why we bother with love, if it never lasts

C2  G  Dsus
-        I say, "Can you believe it?"
C2  G  Dsus
-        As we're lyin' on the couch
C2  G  Dsus
-        The moment, I can see it
C2  G  Dsus
-        Yes, yes, I can see it now

C2                       G
Do you remember, we were sittin' there, by the water?
Dsus                    Em7        Dsus
You put your arm around me for the first time
C2                     G
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
Dsus                   Em7         Dsus   C2
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

C2    G               Dsus              Em7
Flash forward, and we're takin' on the world together
C2            G       Dsus
And there's a drawer of my things at your place
C2           G         Dsus         Em7
You learn my secrets and figure out why I'm guarded
C2            G             Dsus
You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes

C2  G  Dsus
-        But we got bills to pay
C2  G  Dsus
-        We got nothin' figured out
C2  G  Dsus
-        When it was hard to take
C2  G  Dsus
-        Yes, yes


This is what I thought about:

C2                       G
Do you remember, we were sittin' there, by the water?
Dsus                    Em7        Dsus
You put your arm around me for the first time
C2                     G
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
Dsus                   Em7         Dsus   C2
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

C2                      G
Do you remember all the city lights on the water?
Dsus                  Em            Dsus
You saw me start to believe for the first time
C2                    G
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
Dsus                   Em7         Dsus
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

C2  G  Dsus             C2  G  Dsus
-        Oh, oh, oh, oh

-       Em7                     C2
And I remember that fight, two-thirty AM
-      Dsus
You said everything was slipping right out of our hands
Em7                         C2                      Dsus
I ran out, crying, and you followed me out into the street

C2  G         Dsus
-     Braced myself for the goodbye
C2  G           Dsus
-     Cause that's all I've ever known
C2  G       Dsus
-     Then, you took me by surprise
C2  G           Dsus                   C2
-     You said, "I'll never leave you alone."

-        C2                      G
You said, "I remember how we felt, sitting by the water.
Dsus                          Em7           Dsus
And every time I look at you, it's like the first time.
C2                    G
I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter.
Dsus                  Em7         Dsus
She is the best thing that's ever been mine."

C2  G  Dsus  Em7  Dsus

C2                    G
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
Dsus                   Em7         Dsus
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

C2  G  Dsus
-           Do you believe it?
C2  G  Dsus
-           We're gonna make it now
C2  G  Dsus
-           And I can see it
C2  G  Dsus
-           I can see it now

Learn to play “Mine” with online video lessons

If you don’t know, Guitar International is an online guitar magazine that is a one stop spot for artist interviews, guitar news, reviews, contests, columns, and much more. For only being just one year old, Guitar International has already established itself as an authoritative voice for everything guitar.

So as you might imagine, I feel quite honored to be featured in their “10 Great Guitar Blogs” series.

Some highlights from the article:

To read the full article, check it out here!

It’s pretty amazing to me how many guitar apps have made their way to the iTunes App Store. Just by searching “guitar” under apps, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of apps related to guitar. These include tuners, tab software, chord charts, metronomes, chord libraries, and much more.

It makes sense then why Castiv decided to create the Guitar Sidekick. This mount attaches to your guitar and mounts your iPhone or any other mobile or portable device to your guitar.

Castiv was so kind to send me one to try out. Here’s what I think.

First Impressions

I really like the idea of this device. I have an iPhone and I use it a lot for my music stuff. This device would work great with my Griffin GuitarConnect cable. Sometimes I don’t always have the convenience of setting my iPhone somewhere safe, like on a table or stand in front of me, so to be able to securely attach it to my guitar is a cool idea.

Mounting the Guitar Sidekick to my Guitar

The Guitar Sidekick comes in three parts: (1) the “Harpo,” which is a metal and rubber piece that clamps onto your strings, (2) the cap, which is a plastic piece that secures the Harpo shut, and (3) the mount which attaches to the ball on the end of the cap piece.

When I first opened up the packaging and got all the parts on the table, the “Harpo,” which I’ll refer from now on to as the clamp, seemed like it was glued shut. I had the most difficult time getting it to unstick itself. I had to use quite a bit of strength to pry it apart. Needless to say, I eventually got it opened up.

The instructions that come with the product are very detailed so I went ahead and mounted it to my acoustic guitar. It took me awhile to figure out the best way to attach the clamp around the strings. In the following picture, you’ll see where I ended up putting it.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a clumsy process to trying to attach the Sidekick. You have to get it right underneath the strings on your headstock and then pinch the clamp together tight enough with your fingers to get the cap on the end of the device. After a few minutes of trial, I was able to get the cap on the clamp although I had to pinch the clamp together pretty hard around the strings. Maybe with practice I’ll be able to get it installed a little faster.

Having the clamp around the strings like that did not effect the tuning of the guitar or the sound of the instrument, which was great.

While the product is advertised to work with acoustic, electric or classical guitars, it’s not guaranteed that this will work on all guitars. I tried used the Guitar Sidekick on my Gretsch Electromatic electric guitar, and the clamp would not fit in the gap between the strings and the headstock. If you have a telecaster or stratocaster electric guitar, it might work okay. Pappy posted a review of the Guitar Sidekick on his blog the Fifth Fret and it looked like he was able to get it attached to his telecaster with no problem.

Using the Guitar Sidekick

Once I was able to get it attached to my guitar, it ended up being a pretty neat device. I was able to pivot and adjust the position of my iPhone with no problem.

The Guitar Sidekick includes a free lite version of the program MP4TABS. I’m not really sure what this program does because there isn’t a very good description on the website about it, and the program download is for Windows only users. I’m a Mac OSX user, so I can’t install it. Bummer. It’s kind of weird to me that the product would be marketed towards Apple iPhone users and not have Mac OSX compatibility. Not a good move there.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s a cool idea, but not as well executed as I would have hoped. I think if the clamp were a bit thinner it might be able to work with nearly every guitar. I wish it was easier to install and didn’t require so much strength to get the cap over the clamp to get it to stay shut. I also wish they had Mac OSX compatibility for their tabs program.

If you have an extra $29.99, it might be a fun toy for you to play around with. Once and if you get it attached, it works as you would expect. If you have a lot of guitar apps on your iPhone, this might be a nice tool for you to have.

So far, we’ve covered:

• C major
• F major
• G major
• Bb major
• D major
• Eb major

This week we’re going to look at the A major scale.

The Anatomy of an Eb Major Scale

If you went through and constructed major scales for all twelve keys based on the half step, whole step pattern, then you’ll know that an A major scale has three sharps–-a C#, F#, and a G#.

A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A

In other words, from A to B, we have a whole step, from B to C#, we have a whole step, from C# to D, we have a half step, from D to E, we have a whole step, from E to F#, we have a whole step, from F# to G#, we have a whole step, and from G# to A, we have a half step.

If we know all five scale positions for D major (which has a F# and a C#), all we have to do is raise the “G” notes by a half step to “G#.” This gives us that third flat sharp in an A major scale.

Guitar Scale Positions #1: A Major Scale

The 1st position of an A major scale starts on the E note of the low open E string and roughly spans the 1st to 4th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #2: A Major Scale

The 2nd position starts on the F# note of the 2nd fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 2nd to 5th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #3: A Major Scale

The 3rd position starts on the G# note of the 4th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 4th to 7th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #4: A Major Scale

The 4th position starts on the B note of the 7th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 7th to 10th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #5: A Major Scale

The 5th position starts on the C# note of the 9th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 9th to 12th fret.

As you can see, all the positions have some overlap with one another.

Click to enlarge

Your Assignment

For next week, learn all your A major scale in all five scale positions. Again, if you learned your D major guitar scales a couple weeks ago, this should be pretty simple because all you are doing is changing one note–a G to a G#.

Further Application & Resources

Hopefully by now you’re really starting to plow through these lessons. You should be able to start seeing and being able to identify the different notes and their name across the fretboard. If you’re still having difficulty with only learning the patterns, then be sure you are practicing ascending and descending scale positions in different keys.

For example, you might choose to ascend the 3rd scale position in A major, and then descend in that same position on a G major scale. By descending in G major, you’re quickly forced to be able to identify which notes need to be changed within the scale position to make the scale G major. In the case of this example, you would have to switch your all your G# and C# notes in the A major scale to G and C notes to make it a G major scale. If you incorporate this exercise into your practice, you’ll quickly be forced outside of simply thinking in patterns.

If you’ve been enjoying this guitar scale series, you might want to take a deeper look into Craig Bassett’s guitar scale course. His method systematically takes you through the process of gaining a complete mastery over the guitar fretboard beyond just major guitar scales.

Lastly, in our last guitar scale lesson on Eb major guitar scales, Chris from Classical Guitar Blog so generously offered his print-out of the different scale positions. While the print-out is in C major, it can be helpful to be able to see the positions charted out on a sheet of music.

Questions & Comments

As always, post any questions or comments. If you are stuck, chances are a reader on the blog or myself will be able to help you out. Let’s hear how it’s going for you.

I got my iPhone 4 a couple months ago, and now that I’ve had it, I can’t imagine life without it. With the app store, I’m almost convinced my iPhone can do anything. However, I was a bit surprised when I found it could also act as a portable guitar effects unit as well.

A couple months ago Griffin Technology released their GuitarConnect cable for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. This cable plugs your guitar right into your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. The headphone output allows you to connect auxiliary speakers or headphones.

I was able to get ahold of the GuitarConnect cable to try out in person, and here’s what I think.

First Impressions

Griffin ships the GuitarConnect cable in a small plastic bag. The cable feels very durable in my hands. It’s not flimsy, but it’s still very flexible. The cable is 6′ long so it’s plenty long enough to reach from my iPhone to my electric guitar.

Griffin offers their guitar effects iShred LIVE for free, so I downloaded that, plugged my guitar in, and then plugged my headphones in and I was ready to go.

Exploring iShred LIVE

Upon opening up iShred LIVE on my iPhone, I see a channel strip at the top of app with settings to switch between a clean and overdrive channel with gain settings. Below that, there is collection of eight pedals. The ones that are transparent are ones that are available for purchase for as much as $1.99. These include a compressor, treble booster, tremolo, chorus, and distortion/fuzz pedal. The pedals that come with the app are a noise gate, delay, and phaser/modulation pedal.

If I click to the “Presets” tab, I have a collection of presets I can select from. I can also save presets that I create into the user bank presets.

iShred LIVE Tonal Quality

For a free app that runs an effects unit right from your iPhone, I wasn’t expecting it to match the quality of a real-life pedal board. This was a fair expectation. You’ll quickly notice that while each of the effects pedals does exactly what it’s suppose to, the sound of the guitar tends to sound very digital and thin. This is to be expected though from an iPhone app.

One problem I was having was that even on a clean setting my guitar signal was distorting. Thankfully, the iShred LIVE app includes a sound meter towards the bottom of the app. I simply turned the volume knob on my guitar to fix the clipping issue. This did make me have to compensate for the loss of volume by increasing the volume on my iPhone though.

A Very Handy Practice Tool

You’re not going to be getting any really sick guitar tones from this device, but I can see how handy this app can be for practice. The app also includes a tuner, metronome, and an audio player that allows you to play your guitar along to audio files in your iTunes library.

The metronome worked as exactly as I expected. It’s nice that you can even specify how many beats per measure you want the metronome to register. The tuner was very simple but accurate enough to get a good tuning.

I was a bit disappointed with the built in audio player. It ended up not being very practical because the volume of the audio file was significantly louder than the output of the guitar. Unfortunately, the volume control controls the volume of the audio player AND the guitar signal. It would be nice if there were two separate volume controls for the audio file and the guitar. However, one really cool part of the built in audio player was that you can select a certain part of the song to loop. This comes in handy if you’re trying to transcribe or hear a guitar part.

Final Thoughts

You’re not getting a word class sounding guitar tone from this application, however, it does make a very good practice tool considering it’s so portable and easy to use. If you could take advantage of this portability, at $29.99 this would be a good buy. Plus, it’s just cool to be able to play your guitar through your iPhone.

Learn more about the Griffin GuitarConnect cable at Griffin’s website here.

Again, we’re not running a sprint here, but rather, a marathon. If you dedicate yourself each week and practice hard, you can tackle one lesson per week. So far we’ve covered:

• C major
• F major
• G major
• Bb major
• D major

This week we’re going to look at the Eb major scale. Let’s do this.

The Anatomy of an Eb Major Scale

If you went through and constructed major scales for all twelve keys based on the half step, whole step pattern, then you’ll know that an Eb major scale has three flats–-an Eb, Ab, and Bb.

Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D, Eb

In other words, from Eb to F, we have a whole step, from F to G, we have a whole step, from G to Ab, we have a half step, from Ab to Bb, we have a whole step, from Bb to C, we have a whole step, from C to D, we have a whole step, and from D to Eb, we have a half step.

If we know all five scale positions for Bb major (which has a Bb and an Eb), all we have to do is lower the “A” notes by a half step to “Ab.” This gives us that third flat found in an Eb major scale.

Guitar Scale Positions #1: Eb Major Scale

The 1st position of an Eb major scale starts on the F note of the 1st fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 1st to 4th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #2: Eb Major Scale

The 2nd position starts on the G note of the 3rd fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 3rd to 6th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #3: Eb Major Scale

The 3rd position starts on the Bb note of the 6th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 5th to 9th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #4: Eb Major Scale

The 4th position starts on the C note of the 8th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 7th to 11th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #5: Eb Major Scale

The 5th position starts on the D note of the 10th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 10th to 13th fret.

As you can see, all the positions have some overlap with one another.

Click to enlarge

Your Assignment

Your goal in the next week is to learn all five scale positions of Eb major. Again, if you’ve been following along with and have learned your Bb major guitar scales, then this shouldn’t be too terrible since you’re only changing one note.

Remember not to just learn the patterns, but rather, learn the individual note names. By now, you should be able to start really seeing different notes across the fretboard and being able to identify them.

Further Application & Resources

Continue to practice ascending and descending in different keys. For example, you might choose to ascend a Eb major scale and then descend in D major in the 4th scale position. Then, you might ascend again in G major and descend in Bb major. This really forces you to learn the individual notes if you are finding you are getting stuck in the patterns.

At the end of the day, we don’t learn guitar scales because it’s fun, but rather, because it unlocks some opportunities for soloing and improvising your own melodies. Consider using some backing tracks for guitar to start experimenting with writing your own solos and lead lines.

If you’ve been enjoying this course, you might want to take a deeper look into Craig Bassett’s guitar scale course. His method systematically takes you through the process of gaining a complete mastery over the guitar fretboard.

Questions & Comments

How’s this whole process of learning the fretboard going for you? Are you starting to feel more comfortable with it? Are you confused? Post your thoughts, questions, and comments below.

Sanyo just recently dropped a pretty interesting product called the Pedal Juice. I’ve never seen anything like it before. The Pedal Juice is a rechargeable 9V power supply for effects pedals, multi-effects units, and even portable recording devices. I just recently received a Pedal Juice to review, and here’s what I think.

First Impressions

Upon opening up the box, everything is crammed in there leaving no room for space. The actual Pedal Juice power supply only takes up about a third of the box, with the rest of the box containing cables, power adapter, and a carrying case.

For a 9V rechargeable power supply, you might expect it to be pretty sizable and hefty. Surprisingly, it’s no bigger than my Boss TU-2 sizing in at 4.7″ x 2.56″ x 1.65″, and in my hand, it feels like it weighs less than all my other pedals. It’s nice to know that this won’t weigh down your pedal board anymore than it already is.

Charging the Pedal Juice Up

The Pedal Juice has a front-lit LED that indicates the power level of the battery. A red light means battery power is less than 30%, an orange light means battery power is between 30% – 60%, and a green light means battery power is above 60%. When I turned it on right out of the box, the battery was below 30%.

Sanyo claims the Pedal Juice only takes 3.5 hours of charging time. Based on how much the pedal was charged out of the box, I was able to charge it the rest of the way in less than 2 hours. As it charged, the LED light would blink once every two seconds and cycle through red and orange indicators. When it was all charged, the LED light went completely out.

Plugging the Pedal Juice In

The Pedal Juice only has two DC 9V outputs with a maximum output of 2,000mA and a negative polarity. You can hook up more than two pedals, but you will need to daisy chain them with some extra cables like these not included with the Pedal Juice. The user guide stresses very clearly how important it is to make sure you are not plugging in pedals with an opposite polarity to the Pedal Juice device. If you do have a pedal or device with an opposite polarity, the Pedal Juice does come with one small polarization conversion cable.

I quickly noticed how short the cables are for the Pedal Juice. I didn’t have any severe problems with the length, but you will want to make sure the device is centrally located between your pedals, or at least very close by. Once, everything was plugged in, I fired up the Pedal Juice and all my pedals (Boss DD-20, Full Drive 2, Boss TU-2) turned on with no problem.

Testing It Out

The awesome thing about the Pedal Juice is that since it’s not connected to a power source in the wall, you don’t have to worry about nasty noises or hums. When I played through it, my pedals were powered exactly as I expected and my tone was nice and clear. I wouldn’t say my tone was clearer necessarily. The Pedal Juice isn’t suppose to enhance your tone, but by default, it eliminates the power issues that come from powering from the wall.

How much power is consumed will depend on the device you have connected to the Pedal Juice. Here is a list of Sanyo’s estimated usage times:

• Analog effects unit (Distortion / Overdrive, etc.: Current used about 10mA): 50 hours
• Digital effects unit (Digital Delay / Digital Reverb, etc.: Current used about 50mA): 27 hours
• Digital multi effects unit, mini amp, or graphic equalizer (Currend used about 100mA): 17 hours
• Multi-track recorder or synthesizer (Current used about 300mA): 7 hours
• Electronic drums or percussion (Current used about 1,000mA): 2 hours
• Example: 3 effects units (Overdrive + Chorus + Digital Delay: Current used about 80mA): 20 hours

Like I mentioned above, in order to connect more than two pedals, I had to daisy chain the additional pedals with an extra daisy-chained DC cable I had (pictured below). The Pedal Juice can handle the additional pedals, but obviously, you’ll just consume more power.

When I was done, I simply held the power button on the Pedal Juice to turn it off and the pedals connected to it. When it is turned off, the battery is not used even if there are other pedals plugged in.

My Opinion

At first, I felt a bit deceived when I found out that the Pedal Juice only had two DC outs. When I saw the promotional picture from Sanyo of the Pedal Juice sitting on a board with a few pedals, I made the assumption it was equipped to connect to more than two pedals. However, like I mentioned above, you can buy some extra 9V DC cables for about $30 to expand the amount of pedals powered. For those who have larger setups and higher demands, you might find the Pedal Juice a bit limited.

However, I could see this working really well for my acoustic setups where I simply need to power my tuner and my delay pedal. It’s not uncommon for me to find myself in situations where I don’t have a power strip or an outlet within 10 feet.

The Pedal Juice not only powers effects pedals but other multi-effects processors and other portable recording devices. You could probably plug anything into this that took a DC in and had the right voltage and polarity. You can get creative with it.

Overall, this is a very innovative, but reliable product. If you’re in situations where you could use the extreme portability of the pedal juice to power a few pedals or other units, this would be great for you. The fact you can power more than two pedals is a good plus despite having to buy the extra cables. At $150, it might be a little bit pricey, but if you think about it, other power supplies like the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus cost as much as $170.

With all this being said, I’m quite impressed! I would not hesitate to recommend the Sanyo Pedal Juice.

Reader Response

What do you think about the Pedal Juice? Would you buy it? Those who own it, what do you think?

I wanted to take time and recognize some of the really excellent guitar blogs out there, and in doing so, ultimately thank the people who’ve done an absolutely outstanding job in providing the best quality content about guitar on the web. Plus, it’s just downright fun giving away and receiving awards.

Criteria

These blogs were selected based on four main criteria: (1) content quality, (2) content consistency, (3) design, and (4) voice. By content quality, we’re referring to the quality and level of comprehensiveness of the information on the blog. By content consistency, we’re referring to how often the blog is updated with new, fresh, and unique content. By design, we’re referring to the overall look, feel, and usability of the blog. And by voice, we’re referring to that unique element and tone that sets a blogger out from the rest.

Contributors

Truth be told, there are many excellent guitar blogs out there, too many to feature all in this post (and probably some that I’ve overlooked). Many were nominated by the members of the Guitar Bloggers group at Guitar World. So, if you’re blog didn’t receive an award or get mentioned, don’t take it personally, just shoot me an email, so I can keep you in mind for the future.

Without further ado, I proudly present to you the 2010 Guitar Blog Awards in the following five categories: Guitar Instruction & Lessons, Guitar Gear & Reviews, Guitar News & Information, Other Guitar Related, and New & Upcoming.

Did your blog win an award? Tell the world by installing an awards badge on your website.

Guitar Instruction & Lessons

Classical Guitar Blog

As the name would imply, blogger Christopher Davis focuses primarily on classical guitar studies. His posts are concise, yet very informative, which means there is something to be learned even if you don’t study classical guitar. You’re not getting lost in a bunch of clutter, which makes his lessons very easy-to-follow and one of the best guitar resources on the internet.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Guitar Praise

Over the past decade, Christian worship music, from artists like Hillsong United, David Crowder Band, and Phil Wickham, has become increasingly popular. Kenny of Guitar Praise has done an excellent job of demonstrating through the use of video and tablature how to play about ever worship song imaginable. In the process, he’s developed a vibrant forum community where other guitar players come together to support and help each other.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Not Playing Guitar

If you’re reading Not Playing Guitar, then you’re probably not practicing guitar. The “gold” of the website lies in it’s excellent source for information on playing guitar. Over the past few years, Gary has built a strong base of content featuring tips on how to play guitar, riffs, lessons, and other guitar related information.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Honorable Mentions

Mark Wein Guitar Lessons, Rock House Method

Guitar Gear & Reviews

Guitar Gear

Brendan Delumpa, or “GoofyDawg,” of Guitar Gear blends a unique and personal tone into each of his posts, while remaining extremely informative and knowledgeable. You can tell he has a passion for playing guitar, and of course, gear. His reviews are honest and straightforward and written from a hands-on analysis with the product.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Lone Phantom

Peter Hodgson from iheartguitar turned me towards Lone Phantom. He said it best by saying, “Lone Phantom is doing some freaking awesome things at the moment.” Not only are the reviews written with excellent hands-on analysis, but there is some crazy information about modding different types of pedals. Sweet.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Gear Vault

For those of us with G.A.S. (gear acquirement syndrome), Gear Vault might be a bad idea, only because it is one of the most up to date resources on the latest gear for guitar, including pedals, amps, and microphones. The blog is extremely easy to navigate too, which makes it very easy to find what you’re looking for.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Honorable Mentions

Effects Bay, Guitarz, Stratoblogster

Guitar News & Information

I Heart Guitar

I Heart Guitar covers a little bit of everything, yet does so really well. From news, interviews, gear reviews, music reviews, and lessons, it’s all there done with a high level of quality, which makes it one of the most authoritative guitar blogs out there.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

300 Guitars

While covering the latest news in the world of guitar, regular updates are interspersed with reviews, videos, and helpful tips and information about owning and maintaining a guitar. Posts are written in a personal but informative tone. You’ll also want to be sure to check out the guitar gallery too.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Guitar International

Guitar International is a fairly new online guitar magazine just starting up in the past year in September 2009. For being so new, Guitar International has set itself apart with regular artist interviews (check out their interview with guitar sensation Orianthi) and the latest news in the guitar world.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Honorable Mentions

Guitar Lifestyle, Red Dawg Guitar News, The Guitar Channel, Truth in Shredding

Other Guitar Related

Muzico Sphere

If you just go to the MuzicoSphere.com home page, you might be a bit confused because everything is in french. Rest assured though, if you click the english icon, you can see the blog in english. You can expect fresh content about geeky music things, pictures of cool guitars, reviews, contests, and videos.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Guitar Kadia

Guitar Kadia is all about stories centered around guitar. The blog is primarily driven by video, including interviews, performances, stories, and more. You won’t really find long written articles. As a songwriter, I particularly enjoyed the GuitarKadia Sessions that feature artist interviews and performances.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Guitar Vibe

Guitar Vibe has a little bit of everything surrounding guitar, including book reviews, film reviews, gear information, news, lessons, videos, and more. Blogger Zack Urlocker’s personal tone met with quality information makes Guitar Vibe a great read.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Honorable Mentions

Fifth Fret, Share My Guitar, The Vain Glorious Atrocity

New & Upcoming

The Daily Guitar

The Daily Guitar has two main goals: inspiration to practice your guitar daily, and then, to grow a community of guitarists. The blog is filled with quirky, but inspiring news about guitars and guitar players, and then, gear reviews and tutorials.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Fretter Verse

Fretter Verse was created to look at all aspects of playing guitar, hence, the slogan: “For the Love of All Things Guitar.” The posts are creative and well-written, which shows from an active readership through the comments and interaction.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Guitar Tone Overload

As the name would imply, this blog is all about guitar tone and all that goes into dialing in the perfect tone. Blogger Romain Bigeard compares effects pedals and writes up some detailed how-to articles about using effects pedals, all with sound samples and video.

CONTENT QUALITY

CONSISTENCY

DESIGN

VOICE

Final Remarks

Congratulations to all the winners. I believe these are some of the best guitar blogs out there. So thank you to all of you who contribute and pour yourselves into creating the most excellent guitar content on the internet.

If you’re blog won an award or received an honorable mention, let your readers know by installing a badge on your website.

Thought another blog (or even yours) should have made this list? Maybe I don’t know about it. There are a lot of other very excellent blogs out there, so drop me an email and introduce yourself. I love meeting other bloggers.

For those of you just tuning in, we’re on a journey right now towards mastering the fretboard. Each part builds on the other, so if you want to get started, start here with learning your C major guitar scales.

This week we’re going to look at D major. You ready?

The Anatomy of a D Major Scale

If you went through and constructed major scales for all twelve keys based on the half step, whole step pattern, then you’ll know that a D major scale has two sharps–an F# and a C#.

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

In other words, from D to E, we have a whole step, from E to F#, we have a whole step, from F# to G, we have a half step, from G to A, we have a whole step, from A to B, we have a whole step, from B to C#, we have a whole step, and from C# to D, we have a half step.

Again, if we know all five scale positions for G major, all we have to do is raise all the “C” notes up a half step to “C#” notes.

Guitar Scale Positions #1: D Major Scale

The 1st position of a D major scale starts on the open low E string and roughly spans the 1st to 4th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #2: D Major Scale

The 2nd position starts on the F# note of the 2nd fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 2nd to 5th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #3: D Major Scale

The 3rd position starts on the A note of the 5th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 4th to 8th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #4: D Major Scale

The 4th position starts on the B note of the 7th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 6th to 10th fret.

Guitar Scale Positions #5: D Major Scale

The 5th position starts on the D note of the 10th fret of the low E string and roughly spans the 9th to 12th fret.

As you can see, all the positions have some overlap with one another.

Click to enlarge

Your Assignment

You’re getting used to the rhythm now after learning your C major, F major, G major, and Bb major scale positions. Your goal for the next week is to learn your D major scale positions.

Further Application & Resources

Is it getting easier at all? Are you starting to see the notes on the fretboard better? How’s it going? Share your comments below.

In all your effort, you want to avoid just learning these patterns. Don’t just copy the pictures above and learn those patterns. Learn the individual notes and say them aloud as you play them. If you’re having a hard time doing that, slow down, back up. Learn some theory on major scales as well.

Another good exercise that I’ve mentioned is to choose a scale position and practice ascending in one key and then descending in another. For example, you might ascend in D major but then descend the scale in F major.

All of this takes focus and a little bit of discipline, don’t just read this and do nothing about it. You can do it!

As always, if you’ve been enjoying this course, you might want to take a deeper look into Craig Bassett’s guitar scale course. His method systematically takes you through the process of gaining a complete mastery over the guitar fretboard.