Guitar Lovers

Some amplifiers are specifically made for the acoustic guitar. They are called acoustic guitar amplifiers. An amplifier is a device that increases the amplitude of a signal. They drive the loudspeakers in a PA system to make human voice louder. They are applicable to electric guitars, headphones and of course the acoustic guitar.

Acoustic guitar amplifiers take into consideration characteristics of the acoustic guitar. Characteristics such as the sound, harmony and melody are incorporated into the technology covering acoustic guitar amplifiers. The result will be a device that will work best for an acoustic guitar only. When you need an acoustic guitar amplifier, don’t just buy any amplifier. Specify that it is for an acoustic guitar.

When I was young I always wanted to play guitar but my parents said it cost too much money, so I just let it go and went in the back yard to play a neighborhood baseball game. Back then we did not have the resources such as the Internet, video, DVD, etc. Now with these resources, free guitar lessons can be found and you can use them on a regular basis and practice on your own. Free guitar lessons are usually  taught by professionals, and they’ll cost you hundreds of dollars less than live lessons and you don’ have to leave the house to get them.
With our busy lives; jobs, school, kids, friends, sports and hobbies, if you were to schedule a live guitar lesson and then canceled it because something came up, the teacher would be annoyed and would probably charge you the full amount. If you take free guitar lessons instead, you don’t have to worry about the instructors and charges because you didn’t show up. You can take a lesson when it works for your schedule, and it won’t cost a thing. You could actually take a lesson while on vacation or out of town for other reasons.
Another problem with taking a guitar lessons is that you don’t have time to practice for the lesson and the teacher won’t be happy and you will cost you again for the same lesson because you didn’t practice what you were taught. But you take guitar lessons online, there is no one to say anything to you and you can go at your own pace. You can also take any lesson you want for no cost.
A lesson without a live teacher allows you to move as slowly or as quickly as you want. With these guitar lessons, there is not a teacher to dictate what you will learn that day. If you’re catching on quickly, you can skip lesson, and if you’re having a hard time you can go at your own pace, take a break between lessons or even take a week or month off until your want to get back into it again.
One of bad things of taking free guitar lessons is that if you have a question you may feel like you don’t know who to ask. However, you could go to a local establishment to hear a band, most the time for free, and talk to the guitar players after the show. Once they know your questions, most of the time they would be happy to help you out, because they will there at one point also. You can also go to a guitar player’s forum for similar questions or post a question of your own. Guitar players are generally a close group of people and they will treat you as part of there family.

If this is your last summer before you venture off for college, you might be concerned about what college life is going to bring. Whether you’re in the dorms or you’re going to rent an apartment, life is about to change quite a bit, and it’s natural to worry about that change. The biggest concern among incoming college freshmen is that they won’t find any new friends or that they won’t be popular. But being a popular college freshman isn’t rocket science. It just takes some of the following pointers.

The biggest mistake new freshmen make is not being outgoing or confident. Nobody knows you at college, so you have to make the effort. Introduce yourself to a lot of people, and get them involved in fun activities. Whether you take the initiative to organize a dorm Frisbee game or you teach somebody on your floor the acoustic guitar, just remember to be friendly and involved. The more people you meet, the more likely you are to find people that share your interests. Your high school reputation doesn’t follow you to college, so you’re free to become the person you want to be.

The Perfect Player Part IV

The Importance of Sound-Check
by Andre Tonelli

What we will discuss today is the importance of doing sound check, and some ideas to make the most out the little time you usually get. Though this does not mean to be a comprehensive discussion on sound-check, it includes some ideas that I think you might find useful when preparing for a live performance.First off, make sure that you do sound-check. This is the very first step (and a crucial one) to any show you will do. It is of extreme importance to all bands, but especially to all of you out there who don’t have a sound man (more on this later). When talking to promoters, club owners, or whoever is hiring you, make clear that you will need to do sound-check in order to perform at your best. More often than not, people won’t like this (it means having people at the venue early, having to pay them, etc.), and try to talk you out of it.

I make sound-check a top priority for my shows, and I feel you should do the same. Hold your ground; explain that a good sound-check makes for a better show and happier customers. This probably won’t work, but will at least show you are professional and you act like one. If you just chicken out for fear of losing the gig and accommodate everything this guy demands, don’t be surprised if you will be abused in the future. This holds true in most cases, but use your own judgment to evaluate different situations. If this is a very important gig for you and the owner of the venue gives you some logical reasons for why a sound-check is not possible (festivals do sometimes present problems), be professional and see what works best for you AND the guy.

So let’s say you are given a chance to do sound-check. Most likely, if you are serious about your music, you will try to get as much time as possible. Just as likely, the venue will try to convince you that 5 minutes is all you need. Again, it is up to you to make the call. I did a show in Italy this summer, and demanded a whole afternoon of sound-check for a 29 minute show. Mixing electric guitar with an orchestra is not easy, and that was what I felt was required for the situation. I was also lucky to find very accommodating people to work with, and to be in a position where I could make requests. If your band is a four piece and you practice 5 days a week, you might need less time, it is really up to you.

Whatever time you get, it is now your responsibility to make sure that you make the most out of it and set the base for a perfect show.

Rule number one is: be nice to everybody.
Rule number two is: be nice to everybody.
Rule number three is: you guessed it, be nice to everybody.

Don’t forget that these guys are getting paid whether they treat you well or not, and whether they make you sound good or not. Always keep in mind that what makes a good show good is not only you. It is all the people who are involved in it.

Remember, though, that sound check is YOUR responsibility. The people you will work with can be more or less cooperative, enthusiastic, and professional, but don’t ever assume that things will get done without your input. This holds true for anything in the music business, really, but especially here. Nobody will raise the high end on the cymbals unless you say so. Nobody will give you more bass in your monitor if you don’t specifically ask for it.

Second, worry about one thing at the time. A good place to start is the drums, then move on to the bass, then the guitar, then the vocals. We all have different ways of doing this, so whatever works for you, go for it. What is important is the sound you get on stage. Monitors placement, which is often overlooked, is key. Really spend some time experimenting and finding what works best for you.

Here is where most bands (I am talking on my own personal observations, of course) commit their biggest sin. Everything sounds good on stage, everybody looks happy, so they just wrap up and go to dinner. What they have forgotten is that the most important thing at a show is not what you hear onstage, but what the audience will hear.

So before you go eat (or whatever you do between sound-check and the show), make sure you walk around the venue, at different spots, make mental note of what sounds good and what needs a little adjustment. Maybe the mix could be better, or maybe that cool reverb you used in the studio for your guitar is just mudding the sound when added to the natural reverb of the hall. This is why you should always have sound-check: every venue is different, with different physical qualities.

It is also true that once the people are in the hall, they will mess up good part of your settings (eq, reverb, and so on), and that’s where a good sound man can make the difference. But at least you did your part of the work (especially if you don’t have, or can’t afford, a sound man).

You might even bring that long chord or wireless system and walk around the venue while playing with the rest of the band onstage to get a better idea.

Oh, by the way, only one person in the band should be in charge of the sound-check. Again, this is one of those universals in music; there should always be one member of the band who has the final say. Especially in this case, when you are trying to accomplish a lot in little time. Put all egos aside, whoever can do it best should do it. It is for the good of the band. Listen to your band members, accommodate their specific requests, but be in charge of the overall sound. This, of course, if you are the best for the job. Otherwise, step aside and let somebody else do it.

5 Tips for Selecting Guitars as Gifts

The main things in choosing guitar gifts are experience level, style of music preferred, and what gear and learning material they already own. Try to find as much out about these as possible. Or better yet, get the lucky gift recipient to drop a few subtle hints on what they want. If you
you really don’t have a good handle on any of this, no worries, here are some tips for different situations:

1. Preferences- Learn as much as you can about the guitar player’s stage of development, gear they own, and
musical styles they prefer, and tailor the gift accordingly. Consulting a Guitar Buff will help you with this, as will checking with a family member or friend close to the lucky recipient.

2. Gift Certificate- Don’t have a clue on what to get? No problem! When in doubt, give a gift certificate
for guitar gear, online lessons, or music. Price range: however generous you feel!

3. Guitar Package- For a beginner who does not have a guitar , packages are available starting at about $100
that include a guitar and all the accessories needed to get going “out of the box” (including an amp if it’s an electric guitar.)

4. Online lessons or instructional products- Every guitarist wants to learn new skills and move to the next
level. These include “Learn to Play” lessons, interactive lessons to learn songs, and in-depth lessons on particular
techniques. These are usually in the $20-40 range.

5. Books and videos – For a reasonably priced gift, books are a great choice and can easily be
tailored to the recipient. Some categories: history of a style of guitar music (rock , blues, jazz); biography of favorite
guitar players; instruction books; guitar song (tab) books for a favorite band or style of music. Price range $15-30.

It is possible to select the right guitar gift. The key is to spend a little effort to find out about the recipient’s skill
level, gear they have, and musical preferences. If you don’t know much about guitar playing, or otherwise aren’t able to
pick a specific gift, a gift certificate for guitar gear, lessons, or other products should do the trick.

When you learn to play the guitar your first stock in trade is the number of chords you can play. To get any decent sort of repertoire you need to learn as many guitar chords as possible. For the beginner it can be very confusing and overwhelming because there are literally thousands of chords. Using a printable guitar chords chart for reference is very useful for the first year or so.

Learn the main forms of the chords

There are obscure versions of chords that you can ignore at first. So for the chord of A you only need to learn 3 versions. A major, A minor (Am) and A seven (A7). So when you come across a piece of music that asks for A two or A nine just ignore this and play one of the 3 main chords. This will usually be the major version of the chord.

Second Stage Of Learning Guitar Chords

Once you have mastered and remembered the 3 main chords in each key you can then start treating yourself to some of the more unusual guitar chords. If you forget your standard chords you can just refer to your guitar chords chart to jog your memory. The second stage of learning chords will have you sounding much more interesting. There is a music phase or fashion at the moment of replacing the Major version of a chord with the 2 chord. What this means is that you replace A Major with A two (A2). The other very popular chords are the bossa nova guitar chords such as the major sevenths. For example C major seven (CMaj7). As soon as you add these bossa nova chords and other variations your playing will change and become much more interesting.

Changing The Bass Notes

All the chords discussed here will be on any guitar chords chart. What you will not have is the alterantive bass notes. The Group U2 are the greatest exponents of this technique. What you do is keep the same bass note playing all the way through while you change all the other parts of the chord. So in the key of A you can play the chords of A, D & E but leave the 5th string open with the Bass note of A playing for all the chords. This would be written A. D/A, E/A. A good learning technique is to play around with these alternative bass notes when playing guitar chords.

 There are a very different types of bookings to play solo guitar for weddings. For one thing, they pay pretty good money and it’s very rare that you have a problem getting paid. Another aspect that makes them different is that almost no one acknowledges your presence as you sit in the corner playing song after song. This is something that you have to be prepared to accept. You have been hired to provide live background music, and most of the people attending the average wedding don’t really care if you are there or not. The best you can hope for is while you are packing up afterward one or two kind souls might come forward to tell you they enjoyed your music. It’s kind of nice to be able to zone out and just play most of your repertoire without everybody staring at you in silence.

To play for weddings, here are some of the things you need; 

1. A good list of at least fifty songs, mainly classical.
2. A good suit and tie.
3. A quality classical guitar with amplification
4. A reliable car.

My list consists of classical standards.  Along with these I play Classical Gas, Blackbird and a variety of songs from several genres. All in all, you’ll find that almost anything you play on a nylon string guitar can be made to fit at a booking like this. Yoy also need a binder with about forty-five minutes worth of music that you can sight-read on demand as a back up for the pieces you have memorized. Every now and then you’ll get a booking that has you playing one more set than you’re used to, and this comes in handy then. Keep the pages in heavy plastic holders to minimize the effects of high winds for the outdoor bookings.

There are two types of wedding bookings: Cocktail hour and Processional.

Cocktail hour is usually the time spent after the ceremony and before the dinner and the musician is there to provide a nice backdrop while the guests have a few drinks and chat. These are almost always a two hour gig. You play two lengthy sets with a break, and occasionally you get booked to play during the dinner instead of Cocktail hour, again for two hours. Charge $250.00 for these dates, and more if there is a long drive involved.

The Processional is usually a one hour date and goes something like this: You start playing about thirty minutes before the actual wedding ceremony is scheduled to take place. Then you play until either you’re given a preset cue, or until you notice that the processional is about to begin. At this point, you play Romance until everyone in the processional is at the front facing the Priest/Justice or whoever is performing the service, then you gracefully fade out. After the couple has been married and “announced”, play until everyone has left the area. This being a one hour booking, charge $150.00 and up, considering driving distance. These monetary amounts may vary depending on where you live.

How to Get the Jobs.

Ads in local newspapers have had mixed results mostly. Sometimes they make the phone ring and sometimes they don’t. The main source of bookings comes from people calling the local Musicians Union office, where you can be a member. Because to belong to the union and  file contracts with them on all the jobs, they know you’re  reliable and will gladly give you’re name and phone number out, along with several other union members who are known to do a lot of wedding work. Another avenue is to leave demo tapes and business cards with stores in your area that supply party needs such as printed napkins, folding chairs, flowers, etc… you can get some results that way as well.

When You Get a Call For a Job.

The first thing to do when you get a call is find out the time and date they want you for and check your calender to see if you’re available. If you’ream available, answer all of the callers questions, fill them in on what you usually do and ask them if they would like a demo of your music. If they do want a demo we now have a couple of options: the demo tape/CD that you mail them, or the Internet. Always ask if they have access to the Internet before you mail out a demo, because if they do, and if they have a sound card, I direct them to your website where they can see a picture of you and listen to a couple of your songs – in particular, the Romance mentioned earlier. If you don’t have a website, MP3.com will give you a free page where you can post a picture, write up some text about yourself, and put up as many songs as you like. These sites also allow anyone visiting to send you an e-mail. The only thing you have to be careful about is ownership of rights to the songs you are posting. If the songs are public domain and you are not using a copyrighted arrangement of someone else’s version, you are OK. If you are going to go this route, go to the classical music category at MP3.com and check out the guitar chart. You will see many time honored classics already posted by other artists.

Once they have heard your music and spoken with you on the phone many of these people are ready to book you. However, sometimes they want to meet  in a local coffee shop before they make a decision. Always agree, and show up on time well dressed and have a pleasant chat over a cup of coffee.

Once You Have the Gig.

When someone has agreed to hire you for a wedding, the first thing to do is type up a contract and get it to them so they can sign and return it. This not only protects you, but it protects them as well – now you can’t take that “better offer” that came in at the last minute and leave them in a lurch. Also, a properly filled out contract gives them your mailing address, thus enabling them to send you a nicely worded thank you note that can be used as a reference in future. At this point, you want to make sure you have good directions to the location in question and you may find that some of your clients like to phone once or twice in the weeks leading up to the wedding to ask questions about your repertoire and what you will be wearing.

The guitar is designed and tuned to give the player a ton of possibilities and to move closer to making music. This repetition of the same notes and chords in different positions is also the reason the guitar seems so complicated.
Fortunately, the guitar compensates for this by allowing for movable chords, something keyboard players can only dream about. The first movable chords we learn as beginners are bar chords. I can’t remember the last time I played a full bar chord. My style of playing has no use for them, but this move applies to any finger pattern on the fretboard. Every time you discover a new inversion of a chord, say a G major 9 over it’s III (B), you have also learned all the other major 9’s over III, simply by moving your shape up or down the neck. That’s the beauty of the guitar. Take good advantage of it and train yourself to analyze ever thing you play and to apply it to all keys. Move these discoveries around, and add them to your musical vocabulary. This analytical approach to playing/practicing sounds cold and boring, but it quickly becomes second nature.

The most difficult thing about learning anything is finding the lowest common denominator, some bottom line that everything else can be viewed against. As a beginner, I knew there was some underlying pattern to the guitar that could become just that. The bottom line, the least you could think about.

Once you know that, you can build back up as far as your fingers allow.

I’m going to explain some powerful things for the practicing guitarist who wants to see results from their practice. The guitarist who wants to do what I call correct practice.
Have you ever had trouble playing something on the guitar? Have you ever seen or heard someone play something, tried to do it yourself, maybe practiced it for a long time, and ended up with only frustration and bad feelings about yourself as a player? I’ve been playing for 20 years, and I have never met a player, including myself, who could honestly answer no to that question.

There are a few things that are always true when we are unable to play something we want to play on the guitar. One of the things that you will always find, if you look for it, is what is called  uncontrolled muscle tension. Many players have in fact commented on this fact, mainly because this fact becomes obvious to anyone who plays for a while, pays attention, and starts to discover the path to gaining increasing ability on the guitar. Many people mention it. The problem is they never tell you what to do about it!

You’ll hear people say “play S-L-O-W-LY,” or “RELAX”! I asked, ordered, screamed, and pleaded, before I realized that almost no one was listening to me, or maybe they didn’t believe me, or maybe they thought I was kidding!

No, it seems most people would rather try to play that barre chord or that scale with their shoulders tensed up to their ears, their pinky tensed up and pulled 2 inches from the neck as they dislocate their shoulder trying to get it to it’s note on time, practice and play that way day in and day out, and then wonder why they find that scale hard to play, that it breaks down at a certain speed. Or maybe they wonder why they have a pain here or there. Hell, they may be really persistent and keep at it till they qualify for this new disease I’m always reading about, Repetitive Strain Injury.

I had someoneabout a year ago. Now this person had been teaching himself for a few years, is very musical, very intelligent, and managed to learn fingerstyle guitar well enough to attempt some rather challenging pieces, including some classical repertoire. In fact, he would play for friends and often impress them. However, it was also true that he knew he never played anywhere near his best in these circumstances, and the piece would often break down somewhere. It was also true that he had a growing pain in his left shoulder when he practiced.

He has two very important qualities that a player must have in order to overcome problems, and make what I call Vertical Growth. Those two things are Desire, and Honesty.

He doesn’t have the pain in his shoulder anymore, and his playing is getting better and better. This is because he has learned a few things. He has learned about the incredible state of muscular relaxation that a player must have as they play. He has learned how difficult it is to actually make sure you have that relaxation as you play. He has learned about Sympathetic Tension, how every time you use one muscle, others become tense also, and how if you are not aware of it, and allow it to be there, it becomes locked in to the muscles through the power of Muscle Memory.

He is also learning, over time, that by always making the effort to focus his attention on this muscle tension, he can always eliminate some part of it, and by consistently doing this in practice, things begin to feel easier and easier, because he was really fighting his own muscle tension, which made it feel so hard.

He inspired me to invent a phrase, something for him to always keep in mind when he practices. In fact, I told him to do what I do. Write it out on a sign and keep it somewhere in front of him as he practices. On the music stand or taped to the wall like I do. The phrase is “DISCOVER YOUR DISCOMFORT.” Pay attention, notice what happens in the body as you play. How does it feel? Good players are not experiencing that discomfort when they do the thing you struggle to do. If they had to struggle they wouldn’t be good players!

Now as usually happens, I began to use the phrase myself, and began to discover new levels of my own discomfort. And I began to see my playing improve, I mean fundamentally improve. You see, there is no end to this process.

Why do so many of us allow such discomfort when we practice and play? There are many reasons, I’ll go in to them at another time. What I want to do now is give you some ways of discovering your own discomfort, and begin to minimize it.

Hold the guitar as comfortable as you can.

Allow your left arm to hand limp at your side.

Place your right hand fingers on the strings, keeping them very loose and relaxed. If you use a pick, float the pick in between two strings and keep it there.

Focus your attention on your shoulders, as you raise your left hand slowly. Raise it straight up without extending it, and place all your fingers on the sixth string, around the tenth fret. Keep them on the string so lightly, you don’t even press the string down. (Not easy at first!)

Do you feel anything in your right shoulder as you do this? Do you feel any tightness come in to the pick hand, perhaps you are gripping the pick tighter, or tensing your wrist? Be honest now.

Keeping your left hand fingers on the string lightly, begin to move your hand down toward the first fret. You must do this VERY SLOWLY. Notice what happens throughout your body. As I have had students do this, I have seen everything from tense ankles or belly, to practically falling off the chair!
I hope I have provided a starting point for further investigations and insights for you. Take anything you find hard to do, stop yourself in the middle of it, and check out what is happening in your body. You will be amazed. 

We’ve all started out somewhere as guitar players. I started learning guitar by playing old Beatle songs. I had never taken a lesson in my life so I had no one really to guide me. Now, years later, the style of music I have played has become very different. This is because I let myself go.
Letting yourself go requires an kind of detachment from what you are used to playing. Now you may say to me, what gives you the right to tell me how to find my style?” You’re right, I have no right. But I can tell you what my experience was like and you can take from it what you want.

Like all of you, I started out by playing my favorite songs. It’s very difficult to break out of the groove of writing bad ripoffs of your favorite bands just because you love them so much. This is not to say that you can’t write in their style, but writing a spinoff of the Beatles and calling it your new style is stretching it. This is because it’s not your own style. Trust me, I know.

Let me explain then what I mean by writing in their style. You can sound like them to some degree, as most artists sound like other artists. Even the really good ones stem their influences from somewhere. The thing that separates the real artists from other artists is that they sound new and fresh.

The next step is to listen to as many different types of music in the genre you in which you focus. Even better, listen to music that’s out of that genre. You will see and hear your music style change. The more you hear, the more you are influenced. And just keep writing as much as you can. This is the only way you will get better.

Finally, it’s time to let yourself go. Let yourself write what you wanna write, not what your favorite band wants to to write. All the influences you have may fuse into one, or you may find yourself writing completely differently. There is no quick road, but eventually you will find the path.