Tuesday, 30 August, 2011 15:08 Written by Joshua
Today I wanted to teach you a little about how to play harmonics on the guitar. Harmonics refers to a bell like sound that can be heard when lightly placing your finger over certain frets on the fret board. There are several interesting playing techniques that can incorporate these sounds. The great thing about harmonics is that even a beginner guitarist can try them out easily. However, I put this in the advanced category because some of the pinch or artificial harmonics techniques can become a bit difficult.
Wednesday, 20 October, 2010 17:32 Written by Joshua
A lot of people want to learn how to play lead guitar even before they begin learning how to play guitar or take their first guitar lesson. Because of the power so many solos have over our emotions, it’s natural to want to learn how to play guitar like that. Some find it easy and natural while others have to work at it. With enough practice and some lead guitar instruction you can learn how to play lead guitar, too!
The first thing you will probably be told by a good instructor at your first lead guitar lesson is that it’s not about blazingly fast runs and licks but about expression. Think back to the solos that made you want to do this. Were they merely guitar acrobatics or did they make you feel something? When a solo is emotional and conveys feeling, that’s one that you remember. You’ve probably heard hundreds that you can’t remember; those are the ones with nothing to say.
Sunday, 06 June, 2010 15:08 Written by Joshua
Many people absolutely love blues music, and many love Jimi Hendrix. Some would actually argue that he is the most influential guitarist to ever grace the planet. Blues/rock guitar tends to have a very distinct sound to it. There is of course a very distinct style of playing that goes along with that blues solo sound that is created. How to play blues guitar is covered in great detail in the new Learn and Master Spotlight Series: Blues Guitar. However, one question that is often asked is ‘Once I know how to play the STYLE, how do I get that ‘sound’ out of my amp?’. There are many factors that contribute to this ‘sound’. Let’s look at a few of them.
- Of course the ability of the player to play that style is going to be the most important factor.
- Choice of guitar (i.e. Electric or acoustic?? Solid body or semi-acoustic, single coil pickups or hum-bucking pickups??)
- Choice of what amplifier is used
- Settings on the actual guitar
- Settings on the amplifier
- Other items such as strings and effects pedals
So, we can see that there is not any single aspect that will directly change the sound to make it into the blues/rock sound we are looking for. It is using all of these things together that points to the final sound that we get. Of course one of the most important aspects is the ability of the guitar player. There would be no reason in having all of the other settings correct if the player couldn’t actually play blues guitar.
Let’s get started. First, lets look at the settings on the guitar itself. The best type of guitar would be a solid body electric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, or a Gibson lespaul. Any solid body electric guitar will probably work. Once you have the guitar then you should look at the settings. You will want to select the neck pickup. This will be the pick up that is closest to the neck of the guitar. It gives you a more rounded and natural sound. The volume and tone knobs on the guitar can also be used. To get the bluesy sound you should roll the tone knob back to about 7 or 8.
Once you have the guitar settings going it is time to look at the amplifier. The blues guitar sound is slightly over driven and distorted. In order to achieve this sound you should make sure that you are plugging the guitar into a hi-gain input of your amplifier. If there is only one input then use that one of course. Next is the fun part. Thats right, you get to crank up the amp! Turn up the gain to a point where the sound coming out is just slightly distorted. Usually this is just beyond halfway. If your amp doesn’t distort or overdrive then there are other alternatives. You could use a distortion effect pedal and that would work just as well.
Now we need to work on the EQ settings. Basically all you need to do is take a look at the EQ and make sure all the knobs are set in the middle. Most of the bluesy sound really comes from the neck pickup and the sightly distorted amp sound. Thats it! You are set to play your blues solo and I guarantee you it will actually sound like a blues solo when you are learning how to play blues guitar.
Sunday, 06 June, 2010 15:05 Written by Joshua
When buying a used guitar to learn how to play guitar on, you should also check the intonation which is the accuracy of each individual note that the guitar can produce on any string. If it is correct then every note on the guitar will be the correct pitch. If it is not correct then the entire guitar will be impossible to tune and will sound really really bad. A good way to check the intonation quickly is to play the E shaped barre chord on each fret of the guitar moving it toward the bridge and checking that it does not lose its pitch.
If you are looking at an electric guitar you need to plug it in and see how well it works through an amp. You should turn the amp up to a fair volume level and play with the volume and tone controls by turning them to full and then back to zero. Test the pickup selector by flipping the switch back and forth and carefully listen for any noises coming through the amp while doing these things. Scratchy sounds or clicks may indicate worn out electronics in the guitar. After testing the sound of the guitar you can go to a guitar shop and ask to play a new model of that guitar. Play it through a similar amp and see if you notice any differences in sound. If you don’t like the sound of the used guitar don’t buy it.
