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One of the most important projects for guitar players is to be able to come up with their own music. A lot of those who would like to learn how to play the guitar would definitely be interested in getting their message across, as expression of one’s self. This is done through the music that they play and the lyrics that they write. It is very important to remember that music is a medium for you to be able to express yourself.
As you would know by now, it is not enough to simply pick up your guitar and spend some time playing some music. It would be good to begin improvising some riffs, chords and melodies. You can come up with chord progressions as well. It is important that you “stumble upon” something that sounds really good. You can then assemble these parts in such a way that it would form a song. But expression doesn’t stop there. You can’t just say that you wrote music and made music just because you were able to come up with something original. Even if you try to put some words into the music that you just made, it’s still not tantamount to “expressing yourself”. The best thing to do here is to make sure that the music complements the lyrics of the song in order to truly convey the message to the audience. If you would like to impart feelings of sorrow, then make the song sound sorrowful. If you would like to impart the message of joy, then make the audience feel joyful. It doesn’t matter how deep your lyrics are. What matters is to be able to move the audience mentally, emotionally or spiritually. Think about the feelings, events or thoughts that you would like to express. This will help give you an idea of how the piece should sound like and how the lyrics would be written out.
One of the most noticeable traits about music nowadays is that they may have good lyrics but poor accompaniment or vice versa. There are a lot of vocal songs that would fit this category. Some even are from very popular icons in the music industry. It is important to incorporate the lyrics with the music. If you take the lyrics out of the song, the music must be interesting enough and able to send the message that you would like to impart. The instrumental version of your music must also be able to convey the feelings that you would like to impart. If it is not able to do so, then tweak your music in such a way that it will. Remember that the music is the medium. And medium becomes your message as well. The music you play will enhance and invoke the mood and mindset needed for the complete conveyance of the message.
One of the best things about art is being able to express yourself. True enough, it is the pinnacle of art. And it is important that you do not only become really good at guitar playing but it also becomes an instrument to expressing yourself and what you feel.
An artist is someone who can effectively express himself through his medium. In this case, you will be expressing yourself through your guitar playing. In older times, people would associate the word, artist, to someone who is well-versed is known to produce really awesome art. The term is reserved for those who have achieved high levels of excellence. But then again, when you think about it, you become an artist once you are able to share yourself through your music.
The first step to becoming one is to stop seeing yourself as just some guitar player. It would be a lot better if you see yourself as a musician. You are at least learning to become one. And this is the right road to becoming a true artist. Music is your medium and the guitar your instrument. The artist is none other than yourself. Beginning this day, you will say that you are an artist when someone asks you what you are. If they press you for more details, tell them that you use music as your medium and the guitar as your instrument. This will guarantee that people will see you differently. You put a different impression into people’s minds. You don’t stop at the fact that you play the guitar. You make music with a guitar. The positive way of viewing yourself affects the way you think when you are trying to do something musically.
So now you have established that you are an artist. The next thing to do is to visualize what you want to come up with. Like a sculptor, visualize what you want to create. And then start carving away at the raw material. This is a form of destructive creation. You remove all the material needed in order to come up with something really interesting.
This method is similar to how guitar players come up with songs. They start with the improvisation of chords, riffs and melodies. And this can go on for hours at end until they “stumble upon” something that sounds really good. If you have taken a shot at this, you will notice that on most days you will not like what you try out. There are less times that you like what you come up with during the day.
The difficult part is to be able to connect the verses with the refrains and the choruses. You need to come up with something to get them to connect beautifully. And musicians need a lot of help when it comes to details. This is where the creativity starts working full-time. This is where you incorporate the transitions through riffs and chord patterns. And when you’re done, you can fine tune by adding some more or taking out what you think is necessary. When you are satisfied (and are happy) with what you have come up with, then this is truly something that you can call a composition of your own; something borne from your brain and poured from your heart.
Exercising to Warm up
Steve Vai, Marty Friedman and Steve Morse are known to have used special warm-up tools in their playing. If you are the type of guitar player who is patient and detail-minded, you will probably go for this approach. This method of warming up can be very systematic and is also pretty effective. However, there are some people who just can’t seem to get the hang of exercising. Try to see if it works for you. Marty Friedman gives advice to those who would like to go for this approach. He says that you don’t really have to go for really fast warm up exercises.
All you need to do is to use something that moves the fingers very, very slowly. Remember that warm-up exercises were not made to hone your speed. So you don’t need to push yourself. You need to focus on the quality and the control that you have over the movement that you make on each finger. Maybe after 10 or 20 minutes, you will start feeling it.
Steve Vai uses a pretty exhaustive array of mechanical sequences using two notes per string. Steve, here, suggests that you start slow to prevent making even a little mistake. You can also opt to use a metronome in this method.
Steve Morse uses three notes per string instead of just two.
Marty Friedman uses a few mixes that go up to three notes per sequence. He does it by moving up and down, back and forth on the neck. Then he starts to stretch out with the addition of some string skipping. And of course, he does this slowly.
Warren DiMartini throws a curve on the picking side. He starts with playing all the down strokes. Then he continues with the up strokes. Then after, of course, he proceeds to alternate picking.
Neal Schon uses a totally different approach when it comes to warming up. He uses some string bending and as well as vibrato. He uses both fast and slow vibrato. Sometimes he can go really slowly. And he makes sure that when you come off the note, the note comes back to the top. You can practice holding the note while stretching up to it. This is a great warm up method for new guitar players. It’s like hitting a single note and making it sing.
True enough, almost every exercise is an effective warm up exercise. The idea here is to get your fingers to loosen up and become “reacquainted” with the fret board. Just keep in mind that the warm-up method for each person varies. Do what works for you best.
The Overdrive Distortion
You might probably have heard of a gadget that will make your music a lot thicker than it is right now. This is a gadget that is most popular with the rock guitar players. You will often see them guitar slashers stepping on some kind of pedal to change the quality of the sound their guitars make. And the most popular gadget is called the overdrive distortion.
It is important to talk about this gadget since it does not only change the quality of sound that you create but also leads to other effects on your sound. When you have the overdrive engaged, it will definitely change the chords in the melodies that you are going to play.
The overdrive distortion helps make the chords that you play a lot tenser than it is right now. The clean tone gives you a dissonant and dense sound compared to the sound when you have the overdrive distortion engaged. This will help highlight any tension between intervals in the chords thus, affecting what you are playing. It’s either you keep away from this style or dig the attention-grabbing playing style.
The melodies also change when you have the overdrive distortion engaged. There may be a better effect if you go for the wider intervals. You may also get to play in a more angular style. These are natural tendencies that the overdrive distortion brings about. The overall effect brings a lot more intense and hard hitting sound.
You will also have to watch how much distortion you put in your guitar songs, is it will affect your music as well. You can use a little bit of distortion to come up with a smooth blues or jazz sound. This will help give some complexity into your music. You can even put some overdrive when you play delicate things n the guitar. This will help enhance the sound instead of overpowering it
The guitar overdrive distortion is a good tool to change your sound and that style that you play in. This is a welcome change for those guitar players who have become a little tired of their normal playing style and for those who would like to go into a higher intensity of playing. This gadget works the same way as alternate tuning.
The Question about Guitar Brands
You might be thinking about what guitar to get yourself. It can be a really difficult decision. And each guitar brand has unique specialties, so to speak. So here is a little list of popular guitar brands that you can check out.
Yamaha is one of the most popular manufacturers of guitars. They are well-known for the good quality their guitars have. Most of their acoustic and electric guitars are copies of American models. And their classical guitars are based on the Spanish models.
If you are a budding rocker, you might already know what Ibanez is. This brand is well-known for their really reasonable prices for electric guitars. They have models inspired by Les Paul and the famous Stratocaster. They use cheaper materials and automation in their manufacturing to come up with really high quality guitars for really lower prices. And they got rid of the classic electric guitar look and incorporated more modern and unique design elements – slimmer necks, really radical body shapes, colorful finishes, higher-output electronics and flatter fingerboards.
Alvarez is more known for their acoustic guitars. This is also one of the leading brands that are preferred by some guitar legends. The quality of their guitars is something that luthier, Kazuo Yairi is responsible for. Their family has had 60 years of hand crafting experience for classical instruments. And current workers are still following that tradition.
Another one of the more popular brands is Washburn. They are more known for their acoustic and folk guitars. They also manufacture some electric guitars.
Takamine is another Japanese company that sells copies of Martin guitars. These are reasonably prices and very good alternatives for the Martins. They also manufacture classical guitars.
Gibson has a really rich history of manufacturing instruments. They are the original makers of the Les Paul and the Flying V. They have also imported less expensive Japanese-made instruments under the Epiphone brand.
Fender is one of the most popular names in guitar. Their Telecaster and Stratocaster are their most famous models when it comes to electric guitars. They have the Jazzmaster for the bass guitar. The original Stratocasters for the 1950s can cost a really pretty penny.
Jackson guitars are identifiable with their angled pointy headstocks and their unique body designs. And these attributes really made the brand stand out. Their guitars are based on the Stratocaster models. You will find more rock guitarists using these aggressive looking guitars.
Guild may be a new name for you. But this manufacturer has been around since the 1940s. They are more into the jazz-style guitar manufacturing. They are best known for their acoustic and folk instruments in the 1960s. They are not as popular as Martin or Gibson but make really dependable instruments.
Martin manufactures acoustic-electric and classical instruments. But there are primarily known for the large-bodied Dreadnought guitars. And this has become the standard for acoustic guitar players.
Ovation is the most radical of the guitar manufacturers. They made fiberglass bodies with bowl-shaped backs for guitars and kept the soundboard and the face made of wood. They are identifiable with their eccentric sound holes.
These are just some of the brands that you may want to take a look at. But you can always just visit your local music shop to get a real feel of the guitar that you are interested in.
One of the best things to study when it comes to playing the guitar is to learn the different guitar scales. This is one of the most important lessons that you can take when learning how to play the guitar. This is one of the fundamentals when you learn the theories in playing the instrument. If you actually try to take up classical guitar in a formal school, you will be required to learn this theory. The lesson will teach you how to do harmonics and pitch and help train your ear decipher the difference between sharps and flats. Notice how some notes can sound quite off, so to speak. Familiarizing yourself with the scales at the least will make it a lot easier for you to come up with a series of notes that will definitely sound good together.
Scales bring a lot of benefits to you as a guitar player. One of these is it makes you come up with a series of notes that sound good when put together even if you never put a thought to it. Most of the time, guitar riffs and solos would sound really awful and nonsensical when you play them slowly. The scales, when played fast, sound really great. Most rock guitar solos are based on pentatonic scales. And these are just based a combination of 5 notes.
Pentatonic scales are the easiest to learn when it comes to learning the scales. It allows you to be able to play really hyper licks that go up and down the frets by just using the same 5 notes in the exact same order. Are you familiar with the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Eruption by Eddie Van Halen? The main solos on these songs make use of a simple pentatonic scale. The same notes are played on different octaves and are put together to create a beautiful sound.
Another advantage of using a pentatonic scale when it comes to guitar solos is you don’t have to memorize a whole complex succession of notes before you perform a song. The scale will simply let you do something freehand anywhere on the neck of the guitar. And as long as the notes are within the scale, then you can be sure that your guitar playing won’t sound like a dying cat.
As explained earlier, the pentatonic scales are simply composed of 5 notes. The idea is to play these 5 notes in succession in different octaves. That means moving up the neck as you raise the pitch of the note. It won’t matter if they’re sharps or flats, as long as you are playing the notes correctly. You don’t even have to get a full grasp of the theory. Of course, the muscle memory makes learning the technique a lot easier.
Learning guitar scales is really important. And the reasons stated above should be enough for you to like the lesson and jump into learning it. It will definitely prove to be beneficial for you especially when you get to the point where you will be on stage, trying to please a crowd, playing a great guitar solo. To put it quite simply, a guitar solo is most often just a series of scale repetitions put together. But of course, the crowd doesn’t know anything about that. All they know is you are one hell of a guitar player. And yes, your secret is safe.
How Far Have You Gone?
There are a lot of guitar players that seem to come to a hiatus after they have been in the loop for a year or two. It happens most of the time. And it could or could not happen to you. For some strange demented reason, you start to feel discouraged about learning the whole thing. The fire you used to have has suddenly been doused. One of the major reasons why you feel discourages is because you feel that you have stopped making progress in your playing. So how do you keep that fire for guitar playing burning?
The first thing that you need to do is to find out what the reason is for you to feel really lazy and discouraged.
The first few months or years of your guitar playing get you learning a whole deal of new things on the guitar. The thrill and the excitement of being in a whole new environment are there. Each day, you get to try out new and fantastic things. You learn what the names of the strings are. You find the definition of a major chord. You find out the difference between major and minor chords. There are scales, riffs and licks to learn. But after all that learning, what else? What do you do next?
During your first months or the first year of guitar playing, you will be able to easily track your progress. Last week, you were able to learn what a 7th chord is. This week, you are learning a major scale. Two weeks ago, you were trying to learn how to do a hammer-on. This week, you’re learning some trilling. After you learn all the basic guitar techniques, you come to feel that you have hit a wall and are stuck. It gets a lot difficult to take notice of the results that you make in your playing.
Of course, it can be pretty difficult to notice how much improvement you’re making on your own. And this means you really have to do something to show yourself that you really are improving. Here are three steps for you to be able to track the improvement on your guitar playing.
The first thing you need to do is to make an assessment of what you can already do on the guitar. This is to determine how far you have gone on your guitar playing. List down all of the skills that you can already do – theory, technique, listening skills, tone, ear training, scales – EVERYTHING! Take them down on a notebook.
After you have determined what you have learned or what you already know when it comes to guitar playing, determine what you want to achieve. It will be a lot easier for you to put a finger on what you still need to know now that you have listed all the things that you already have in your head. Take this down on your notebook. Make sure that you set aside time to do this on a regular basis.
And lastly, check off which goals you have completed in your list. This is a good way for you to be able to track your progress. If you were not able to finish all your goals for the week, then you can carry them over to the next week and replace the completed ones with new and fresh goals.
This can really help you be able to see how far you are going and how much you are learning when it comes to playing the guitar. And this will also help you see that your efforts are not being put to waste. Remember that any kind of progress is still progress.
Many are enticed by the idea of playing fast on a guitar. True enough; more and more people are taking interest in playing the guitar. It can be really interesting to play the guitar in faster tempos. This has become one of the most sought after goals when it comes to playing the guitar. Almost all people would like to learn how to play really fast tunes on a guitar. You are perhaps one of them. It would be really great to be able to play some wicked tunes on a guitar. One of the top achievements for most beginner guitar players is to be able to play really fast tunes on a guitar. So what people normally do is to play the song really slow and then increase their tempo as they go along. You just tear at those strings faster and faster as you master the song you are playing a lot better. And this gives you a more fulfilled feeling as you go along.
What most beginner guitar players do not realize is they are making the biggest mistake of their lives when it comes to just playing fast. Of course, the desire to play fast is understandable. And being able to play fast is one of the biggest achievements that a guitar player can get to. Even some advanced guitar players are having trouble playing fast. And being able to pick up speed is a sign of accomplishment for most guitar players.
When practicing how to play a guitar, you need to make sure that you are playing in the right tempo. You can begin with slow easy guitar songs to practice with. These songs will be able to help you train your fingers with the chord formation, shifting and transition. It’s like learning how to write. You start by practicing how to write the letters one by one. In guitar playing, you practice how to form the chords and shift to the next on time. The repetition will make your fingers respond all the same every time you play guitar. It allows some muscle memory to kick in.
When you play too fast, the tendency is you get too sloppy. As an effect, you commit more mistakes. This is because you focus too much on increasing your speed that you forego the proper formation of the chord. You have to take things slow and easy. If you still insist on playing too fast, the chances are you’re going to get stuck making the same mistakes over and over again.
Have you ever worked on a new piece but make the same mistake over and over again at one point in the song? Whenever you get to that point in the song, you make that same mistake over and over. This is because the muscle memory or your finger has been trained to make that mistake. The only way to make things right is to retrain your fingers into doing the right thing and performing the right chord.
Don’t rush the speed. It will come eventually. Speed is not something that you could rush. It takes mastery of the chords and technique for you to be able to play with real speed.
One of the most common problems that beginner guitarists have to deal with is buzzing and muffled chords. Especially when one deals with a lot of barre chords, it can be pretty difficult to make all the strings ring at once. It can understandably drive you nuts to find out what’s wrong and why your strings would just not seem to cooperate with you. You’re just about ready to give up guitar playing all together while you weep and tear your hair out. Only little do beginner guitar players realize that you just have to make some changes with your fret-hand positioning.
Notice how the thumb would be positioned every time you will be playing barre chords. Your thumb must be situated at the back of the neck not on top of it. The thumb should be pushing the neck towards your finger. Now your fretting fingers should be pushing towards the neck. In a way, your thumb and your fretting fingers should sandwich the guitar’s neck.
One thing that you must also take a look at is how much pressure you are putting on the strings. Remember that you have to apply enough pressure as required in order to get the strings to sing properly. One thing that you could do here is to try and pluck the strings one by one when you do a barre chord. Do all strings make a clear sound? If not, it could be possible that you are just not applying enough pressure on the strings.
In line with this, you can try to position your fingers in such a way that it is nearer the fret marks. You might be wondering why this should be so. This is simply because the fret marks would narrow the distance between the string and the neck. This means that you would not have to apply too much pressure on the guitar’s strings as compare to pressing on the middle of the fret.
Also, make sure that your fingers are arched in such a way that they won’t graze other strings. Your fingers can sometimes be touching, even so slightly, the muffled string, making it give buzzing or, yes, muffled sound. Make sure that you are pressing on the strings with the tips of your fingers and not their pads. This makes you exert less effort in applying pressure and as well gives your fingers a good angle for it not to touch other strings.
Muffled strings are not a problem. All it takes is a little practice on your part. Start out really slowly. Observe how your hand is positioned. Practice, practice, practice. And soon enough, you will be playing clear chords in no time
Every once in a while, you will have to change your guitar strings. And it can be pretty frustrating when in the middle of the song; your guitar falls out of tune. This is because your brand new guitar strings are still stretching. Not a lot of people have the patience to keep tuning and tuning their strings until they are stretched enough. So here is how you can stretch your strings so you can enjoy hassle-free playing of easy guitar songs with your new set of guitar strings.
Of course, what you need to do first is to take out the old strings one by one. Then you attach the new strings. After attaching the strings of your guitar, tune it. Start with your 6th string or your Low E. Make sure that you tune the strings to the proper pitch. It will be a great help and an advantage if you use a guitar tuner for this task. This will be able to help tune the guitar strings to the proper standard pitch. Guitar tuners are recommended most especially for beginners who are still to learn how to recognize the proper pitches by ear. Not to mention that a guitar tuner will be able to get you an accurate tune.
Then you begin with the stretching of your guitar strings. Position your guitar as normal. With your fretting hand, the hand you use to form the chords, hold the 6th string down on the first fret of the guitar’s neck. Now, with your strumming hand, gently pull up the string on the fourth of fifth fret. Move to the fifth or sixth fret working your way towards that sound hole as you pull on the string. Your fretting hand should be about three of four frets away from your strumming hand. So if you are pulling on the string at the 12th fret, your hand should be somewhere in the 9th or 8th fret.
Once you’ve reached the end of the fret board, you will notice that there is a change in the pitch of the string. It will definitely be out of pitch in some octaves lower. This means that your strings are still stretching. What you need to do next is to bring the string back to its standard pitch and repeat the same process. You can only stop when the string has reached a pitch that is near the standard pitch it should be on.
Repeat this process with the rest of the strings, moving your way down to the 5th, 4th and so on. The number of times you will need to do this on your strings is determined by the gage your strings are on. You will also notice that after each repetition, the string will be able to hold the tune longer every time. This means that you are getting nearer the point where there strings are fully stretched. As mentioned earlier, you can only stop when the pitch is near the standard and remains constant and accurate.
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