Archive for April, 2008

A Revolution In Making Music More Fun! It’s Called The Chapman Stick.

April 22nd, 2008 | Category: Electric Guitar Tips

Playing music can be more fun than you might imagine.

And what if I told you that you could learn to make music in a new way, and it would be like playing bass and guitar at the same time … but it would be simpler than learning to play a guitar or a piano?

I’m about to tell you how.

But first, let’s look at how a guitar works. The guitar as we know it will play.

You strum/pick the string to make it vibrate. The lower end of the string attaches to a hollow box, which then vibrates to make the sound loud enough to hear. Back in those days, there were no metal strings, and so the guitar wasn’t really very loud. So the Spanish musicians tuned one of the strings in a different manner from the others to make strumming all the strings easier to do with the common chords they used.

And they also thumped and banged on the body of the guitar. We all recognize this typical Spanish music. But the point is, all this open-string strumming and banging on the box were simply done to overcome the fact that … these early guitars weren’t very loud.

But in our time we have electric amplifiers. We don’t need a hollow body on the instrument. We don’t need to strum all the strings at once. We don’t need to bang on the body of the instrument.

Because with an electric amplifier, simply by tapping the string to the fret, the tiny sound can be made as loud as needed.

This also means that you don’t need to use your second hand to pick the strings.

You can now play an electric guitar or bass by tapping alone. That means that you can play with both hands simultaneously.

This is the revolution of the Touch-Style method. And with two hands playing, you’re on the road to making twice as much music!

This can be done on a normal electric guitar or bass, assuming you set the strings low to the fretboard. But what if you had <a href=”http://www.megatar.com/english/models/TrueTapper/Dragon/dragon.html” title=”two sets of strings on one wide neck”>an instrument with *two* sets of strings</a>? For example, one set of bass strings, and another set of guitar strings?

With both bass and guitar strings on one wide fretboard, you could tap bass notes with one hand, and you could tap guitar notes with the other hand. Does such a thing exist?

You bet. Both the Chapman Stick or the Mobius Megatar instruments allow this two-handed tapping approach. It’s like playing a piano, but you’re playing bass and guitar at the same time.

The Chapman Stick folks developed their instrument first, but be aware that they have an unusual bass-strings tuning, and not everybody learns it very quickly. The Mobius Megatar instrument is of a later design, and they recommend a tuning that will be familiar to any bass player or guitar player. And with this familiar tuning and the <a href=”http://www.megatar.com/english/accessories/Learning/learning.html” title=”faster learning and more fun!”>surprisingly easier method</a> they developed, learning speed doubles!

But realize that a tuning can be changed. So if you got a Stick with their unusual tuning, you could simply change it to the easier-to-learn tuning.

In another article, I’ll discuss how to use the more-familiar tuning to get more than double the learning speed. That will have you making music twice as fast! And … it’s twice the fun!

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Easy To Follow Advice On Playing The Guitar

April 20th, 2008 | Category: Play Guitar Any Style

Playing the guitar is considered by many to be the most popular musical instrument that the majority seek to learn how to play. This can be for many reasons, popular bands and so forth have an effect on this. The key is that no matter what your choice of music is, be it jazz or rock then learning to play the guitar will help you to understand that music more. In order to learn how to play guitar with some degree of skill will take time but by getting access to the best tutors and guitar courses like learn how to play guitar then the chances of you becoming good at playing guitar are greatly enhanced.

Several often have a natural ability to play guitars and several people have to practice much harder in order to improve their guitar playing skill. But the best advice I can give is to learn to play the guitar at your own pace and find your own guitar playing style. There are those who prefer to self teach themselves by buying courses and those who prefer to be taught.

Before you start learning to play guitar, you will need to buy a six-string guitar. There are various books that can help you choose the right one. As a beginner you should always try to pick light guitars. While learning to play guitar the first thing that you need to learn is about the chords. You don’t need to panic as it’s very simple and they merely are the combinations of strings and frets. The easiest way to learn the chords is by finding a poster that has the chords printed on it. These are mostly available in the departmental stores. Hang it up and then practice looking at it as often as you can. Once you get the hang of the chords you should try switching over from one chord to another.

When you do finally learn how to play the guitar by learning how to play guitar then it can be a very self rewarding experience but in order to reach a high level of skill then much practice will be needed. So don’t be in a hurry and give up if you struggle to pick up playing instantly, with practice and time you will improve. There are a large number of ways in which you can learn to play the guitar, from hiring a tutor to buying a course online. Discover which way helps you to learn best and stick with it. When learning how to play guitar always do it in surroundings with little distractions.

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7 Tips To Help You Make The Most Of Your Guitar Courses

April 17th, 2008 | Category: Play Guitar Any Style

Do you want to learn to play the guitar, and fast?

Here are 7 tips to get you started, these are effective ways to get you playing the guitar like a pro in no time. You can use all of these methods simultaneously, or try each of the methods to see what works best for you.

Take Group Lessons: Learning to play guitar with a group is both a lot of fun and very helpful for the aspiring guitarist. Some of the advantages include having a guitar instructor to help you along and monitor your progress; and easily having a bunch of like-minded people who are instantly your practice and jam buddies. One of the best ways to learning guitar is to get together with other people and play. This is the fastest way to learn. You will learn more by getting out and playing with other people than sitting at home playing by yourself. If there could be a disadvantage to taking guitar lessons with a group, it would be that the instructor’s time is divided among all the other students and you may not get as much attention.

Take Private Lessons: This is the best way to learn to play the guitar, nothing beats one on one coaching with the right guitar instructor. The instructor can evaluate your progress each week and tailor-fit your guitar lessons for you. You have your teacher’s undivided attention and you can ask your teacher anything that you are unclear with.

CD Lessons: There are many instruction CDs available in nearly any guitar style you can think of. The advantage of this style of learning is you can listen to the CD as many times as you want. Any part that is not clear can be replayed as many times as needed. Some of these come with a printed manual which shows you tab or chords, and hand positions. The disadvantages include; the songs may not be the ones you desire to learn, and the instruction is more general without any way of knowing where you are in your musical journey.

DVD Lessons: Instruction on DVD includes all the good and bad points of the CD instruction. The number one advantage to learning guitar by watching DVD video is you can see what the instructor is doing. Visual learning goes a long way toward answering the questions in your mind, however if you still have additional questions, you can’t ask the instructor on TV any questions. If you struggle with something, you are going to have to figure it out on your own, or ask someone who might know.

Music Books: Music books are a time-honored way to learn to play guitar. You can find several books on many different styles than most any other way to learn. You need to be good at reading music if you do not know the song you are learning. Most people have a hard time getting the song right if they do not know the song they are learning.

Internet: In these modern times the Internet is a wonderful resource in learning to play the guitar. There are numerous websites that will show you how to play the exact notes your favorite guitar player plays. There are also several membership sites that offer customized courses aside from guitar lessons that are on video. These sites come at a small monthly fee and usually offer any guitar playing style you choose.

Slowing Down Recordings: There is a lot of audio software in the market, that allows you to slow down music. This is especially important to guitar players who want to hear each phrase at a speed where they can break down the different notes like a guitar riff for rhythm guitar or notes in a lead guitar solo.

The method you eventually decide to use in learning to play guitar is up to you, as different people have different ways of learning. Just choose what you are most comfortable with. The important thing is to enjoy it. Try to start a habit of practicing four or five times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time, and you will be playing guitar like a seasoned pro before you know it.

Looking for guitar courses online? Visit www.learnguitar.net.

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Learn To Play Guitar Fast

April 17th, 2008 | Category: Play Guitar Any Style

There are many beginner guitarists out there eager to learn to play the guitar easily. However, just about as many have a rather vague idea about what this means. This article is aimed to clear out a few misconceptions about playing fast, state some basic rules about Learn to Play Guitar Fast and provide you with a general idea about the way this style of playing should be used.

Misconceptions about Playing the Guitar Fast

Despite this increasing trend about playing fast, speed is not relevant by itself. However, used in the context of a good music and with taste, speed really is a good thing.

Another misconception about speed is that in order to learn to play guitar fast you have to practice Fast. It is indeed true that at some point you will need to practice Fast. However, the first step is to develop some techniques before you can work on playing fast. There’s no way to learn these techniques other than slowly.

How to Learn to Play Guitar fast?

The key to playing fast is being able to think before you play. Aaron Shearer, a famous guitar teacher, promoted the “aim directed movement”, meaning that you have to know exactly where your fingers should go before you move them there. You can only achieve this by slow practice.

You should develop your finger strength as well, and practice not only flexing the finger, but extending it as well. Since we were born we have used our hands to grab things and hold them, developing our flexors. You need to develop your extensors as well in order to learn to play guitar fast. A good way to do this is by practicing Rasgueados.

You can build body energy to hold out during the fast playing periods by practicing speed bursts. On a speed burst you have to take a small piece of a scale and play it forwards and backwards using the eighth note as the rhythmic value for every note. Play the same part of the scale backwards and forwards without stopping, using the sixteenth note instead. Thus you can isolate the problems in playing a scale, such as string crossings or shifts. More resources on Play Guitar.

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