Guide to Buying Your Guitar Part 1

There must be something in the air, a guitar catastrophe seems to have struck certain readers. Yesterday, Kelly Hoss left a comment asking for some advice on purchasing a guitar to replace her cheap starter guitar whose neck was breaking. This morning, I received an email from another Kelly, in Montana, in a similar predicament.

My reply to Kelly's comment goes some way to answering guitar purchase questions. But after posting it, I remembered a couple of other points. Prompted by the extra questions from the Montana Kelly I decided to create a small guitar purchase guide to help.

The guide has been split into several parts as the first draft was rather too long for one post. The first part, below, deals with the process of preparing to go shopping for your new guitar. A little preparation ensures you get off to a good start and improves the chances that you choose a guitar that satisfies and keeps you happy for a long time.

Set your budget

Figure out how much you can spend on your guitar before you start choosing models. Remember to allow for any additional equipment you might need, such as an amplifier for an electric guitar.

As a novice you probably don't want to spend too much, and that's fine. But if you can afford it, don't be afraid to go above the entry level models. Spending a little more at the outset can work out cheaper in the long run as your guitar lasts you through years of learning and playing.

This is probably also a good time to mention that second hand guitars can be great value. The wonderful thing about used guitars is that they usually sell for about half the price of the new model. Even more wonderful, this price doesn't really change much with time, so you could very likely resell it for about the same price you paid.

As you can see a used guitar could be a nice low risk investment. Ask your local guitar shops if they have any; shops often take them from other players who trade in for a different model.

Do a little research

While you're figuring out your budget do a little research to prepare your shopping trip. Take this opportunity to learn a little more about guitars and you'll feel more confident about purchasing.

It's a good idea to learn a little about guitar woods and how they influence the guitar's sound. Here's a good article on guitar tone woods.

You can take a look at many different guitars at manufacturers sites and online stores. You can also read some user reviews, Harmony Central is a good place to find these, but don't get too carried away with them.

Of course, you can also just hang around here for a day or so more and pick up more tips arriving in the rest of this buying guide :-)

Shopping Time

"Try before you buy" is good advice for a guitar purchase. That's why I recommend you buy from a shop if you have one nearby.

You should plan to make more than one visit to the shop so you get time to consider your options and avoid a rush decision. It can be easy to fall for a good looking guitar in the shop but regret it later.

But how should you try guitars at the shop? That's the topic of the next part of this buying guide, sign up to get it delivered by email or to your RSS reader.

More on buying a guitar...

Guitar Buying Guide Part 2 - At the Guitar Shop
Guitar Buying Guide Part 3 - 5 Important Features
Guitar Buying

The Art of Staying Motivated

The Rock House blog recently posted some good advice on Rock House Blog: The Art of Staying Motivated! that I think you will enjoy.

Here are a few highlights...

"Learning to play any musical instrument, especially if it’s your first, is about as easy as learning a foreign language. Within the first day, you’ll probably be able to say, "Que pasa, amigo," (the musical equivalent of this would be playing an open E string) but to communicate fluently will most likely take years of study and practice."

As an eternal beginner myself, I can relate to that. Maybe I'm just slow, but I know it's taken me a lot of years to get to the modest level of playing I'm at now.

"Don’t let frustration be your enemy. Frustration might cause a few people to try even harder and practice longer, but for most people it’s just depressing and distracting. If you’ve been working hard on that exercise or new technique and you can’t quite get it perfected, you might be getting ahead of yourself."

I can relate to this experience. I've managed to learn to play some pieces in the past at the cost of many hours diligently practicing each chord change with a metronome. After a few songs I realized that what I was attempting was really just too hard for me. Sure, I could have kept learning more songs like that, but each one took so much time I'd just get no sense of progress.

"Another important thing that can help bring your confidence back up and motivate you to stay on track is to get positive feedback. Play for your friends and family and jam with other musicians who can give you some tips and new ideas. If you only practice on your own and never show anyone your progress, the personal enjoyment might not be enough for you. If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Getting up to play guitar in front of other people is hard for many people. And when you feel that you're only a beginner it's even harder. But don't compare yourself to the pros you see playing live or on TV. They've worked long and hard to build their skills.

Your friends, family and others won't expect you as a beginner to set the stage on fire with your blazing guitar solos. Just play what you know and they'll be happy, so get up and play. The first few times are the hardest but keep at it and you'll soon forget your difficulty. You might even start to enjoy it.

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The Mobile Blues

I've long been a fan of the Desktop Blues, a blues guitar player in your web browser. With this simple web page you can create your own blues song and get a good insight into how you can build blues out of rhythms and riffs on your guitar.

So I was happy to learn that you can now get the Desktop Blues experience on your mobile phone, too. You can create the blues wherever you may be, as long as you have some battery life, of course.

If you have a Flash Lite compatible phone then you will be able to enjoy creating blues music anywhere. For only US $3 you can download the Mobile Blues to have fun expressing your blues wherever you are.

Oh, and if rock music is more your thing you can get Mobile Rock instead.

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Blues in Chédigny

Today I want to share my recent experience in the blues improvisation workshop at the Blues in Chédigny festival. I learned of this festival by chance when I recently went on holiday near to the tiny French village of Chédigny where it is held.

Such a great festival in this tiny village 150 miles south-west of Paris is a tribute to its 445 inhabitants. Now in its 11th edition, the festival attracted 6000 spectators last year.

Blues Festival Origins

The festival started in 1998. A few years earlier group of people from the village created a historical show as part of the bicentenary celebrations of the French revolution of 1789. Their show won a competition that earned them a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, in the USA where they met blues legend Big Joe Turner.

Big Joe Turner later came to live in Chédigny for a while and the festival was born. The first edition in 1998 attracted 1200 spectators. The festival has a great friendly atmosphere and a large number of the village's inhabitants participate in its organization.

Artists and visitors stay in village houses and village grandmothers prepare the thousands of daily meals that are served to artists and visitors alike. Their home-made pancakes have earned an international reputation.

Artists

This year's 3 day festival in August featured US blues stars such as John Primer, Guitar Shorty, and Sunpie Barnes as well as European acts such as Be Soul and Slawek. The festival also includes a day dedicated to the music of Cuba.

Blues Improvisation Workshop

On the second day of the festival I participated in a blues improvisation workshop with local guitarist and teacher Yann Beaujouan. The workshop left me with some great tips to work on and happy memories of the warm and friendly atmosphere.

A big thanks to Yann, Mario, Patrick and the other workshop participants for making it an enjoyable and useful experience.

For more info and photos of this years festival visit the site at http://www.blues-in-chedigny.com. I'll be sharing a few of the lessons I learned during the workshop, so sign up for free updates by email or to your RSS reader so you don't miss them.

What Are Your Guitar Chord Questions?

Over the past months Not Playing Guitar has covered a bunch of topics on beginner guitar chord playing. Now it's your turn to choose what you'd like to see more about in this topic.

As a reminder, here are some of the things that have already appeared here on the blog.

Open position guitar chords. This series shows you how to play all the simple major and minor chords on the guitar.

Guitar strums. Several posts show you tips for learning to strum and create interesting rhythm patterns.

Chord progressions. When you play chords one after the other you get chord progressions. This series shows you how songs are built of standard chord progressions.

How to learn chord changes. Playing chords and changing from one to another is usually a big challenge. These tips will get you on the right track to learning how to do it effectively.

What guitar chord questions are puzzling you? Ask by email or leave a comment below. No question is too small, so don't be shy.

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Learn Guitar in 15 Minutes a Day

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

The Beatles, and other groups since them, inspire countless thousands to want to play guitar. But many are put off by the idea, false, that you need to spend hours every day to practice and learn the instrument.

In reality you can learn to play the guitar if you can spend only 15 minutes per day. I know, because this is how I learned. You might not become Jimmy Hendrix, but you can have a lot of fun and open yourself up a lot of creative possibilities.

So what do you need to turn those 15 minutes per day into playing guitar? This article will show you.

All I got, is a red guitar

"All I got is a red guitar, three chords, and the truth." U2, All Along The Watchtower

A pretty good recipe that can be used to play hundreds, no thousands, of popular songs. In addition to the guitar and the truth, I recommend you get yourself an electronic guitar tuner, too. No matter how you play, if your guitar is out of tune it sounds bad.

Once you've got those you can work on the chords with...

Organization

You obviously need to know what to practice. Get yourself organized with a guitar teacher, or video lessons.

15 minutes per day

Now you've got your guitar and got it in tune you need to practice regularly to learn the chords. You are training your finger's muscle memory and a few minutes a day done regularly is the most effective method; don't save it all up for the weekend.

More time won't necessarily help you progress faster at first. More time means more knowledge absorbed, but not better technique.

Patience

Three chords doesn't sound like a very tall order, but believe me - or check out some guitar forums if you don't, those first three chords can be a real struggle. Don't expect to be playing them smoothly and quickly in too much of a hurry. But persevere and you will get over your frustrations.

Time and regular practice will fix your problems. Just get started and keep going, when you can play your favorite songs you'll be so pleased that your frustrations will be almost forgotten.

Conclusion

If you really want to learn guitar then find yourself 15 minutes per day and make it into a reality. Get a guitar, get organized and get practicing. It really is all up to you.

You can stop when you have just a few chords and have fun playing hundreds of songs with them. Or maybe you will enjoy it enough to put in the effort to become a new Jimmy Hendrix.

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I Believe Guitar by Joe Satriani

Ever since Tony Hogan at Acoustic Guitar Player highlighted this great Joe Satriani video almost two months ago I've been haunted by the beautiful performance. It's a great example of a superb musician performing a song on acoustic guitar.

I'm not into high-velocity virtuoso guitarists, and Joe Satriani and his stable of high-speed guitar students (Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett) has never been my cup of tea. Still, I'm always game for a nice piece of acoustic guitar, so I took a look at the video.

And boy, am I glad that I did. Despite the somewhat dated leather and long hair look this video captures a really magical moment of live guitar. I was captivated by the simple beauty of the song right from the first notes. The miked up Gibson acoustic guitar sounds really wonderful.

Joe Satriani makes the whole thing look incredibly easy, like he was just walking his dog in the park or something similarly simple and relaxing. To make things even more sickening, he sings the song with a great natural voice, too.

I was intrigued by the little fills and variations played on what is basically little more than a three chord song. Happily, I found some Power Tab available for this performance. I'm sure I can't play the whole thing anywhere near Joe's performance, but I'm going to give it a try to see what I can pick up from it to add to my accompaniment playing.

If it's not too horrible I might make an update on my progress later...

If you enjoyed this post please leave a comment saying what you like about it.

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Beginner Guitar Chords: Liven Up Your Rhythm Playing

Guitar chord playing usually starts out with some open position guitar chords and a few strum patterns. But once you've mastered these you'll be keen to learn some new tricks to liven up your three chord songs.

Not Playing Guitar will be showing you techniques you can use to spice up your chord playing over the next couple of months. Here's a short preview of some of the topics that will be appearing.

Picking up

Strums are a fine place to start and you can build a great variety of accompaniments with them. But after a while you will want to find ways of creating more interesting rhythms.

You can build more varied rhythm patterns with techniques such as alternating bass, arpeggio picking, muting and more.

Hammer time

Hammer-ons and pull-offs are two staple devices for adding some interesting sounds to your basic chords. Learn what they are and how to use them.

Running around

You can make your playing sound really lively by creating some harmonic movement around you chord changes. Bass runs and melody licks are ways to you create this movement. They give your playing a more musical feel and will teach you some musical theory in action.

No substitute

You can take harmonic movement a step further using chord inversions and substitutions. These will add some new and exciting sounds to your playing.

Conclusion

You'll see these tips appearing among other posts during the next month or two. Be sure to register for updates by email or to your RSS reader so you don't miss them. If you have any questions on these topics in the meantime, please ask them. Leave your questions in the comments on the blog. I'll work your questions and their answers into the series when it appears here on the blog.

Improve Your Guitar Playing Now

Do you have a guitar practice routine? No? Then get on over to the Rock House Method blog to find out why you need one.

In the post 12 Things You Can Do Right Now to Become a Better Player #11 you'll learn that a practice routine:

"... may be the most important thing on this list, set a daily practice schedule with a well thought out practice routine."

Consistent, regular practice is the surest way to get better at playing guitar. There's no substitute for it. Not that you have to work for hours at a time, but be organized and regular. I think this is one of the biggest struggles for all of us amateur guitarists. It requires dedication to practice guitar regularly in a life of work, family, friends and chores.

How do you maintain a regular practice and playing schedule? Share your tips via the comments...

Get more advice on organizing your practice routine from Rock House.

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7 Things You Should Know Before You Learn Guitar

Do you want to play guitar? Many want to, but not all succeed. Follow the 7 tips below and you'll increase your chances of guitar learning success.

You Need Focus

You probably want to learn guitar because you like guitar music. There are many different styles, though, and if you set out to play all of them you are likely to be overwhelmed.

Think about some of your favorite guitarists. You will probably notice that they nearly all play predominantly in just one style. Sure, there is some overlap, but most players are specialized in just one.

One reason you need focus is that nothing is learnt forever on the guitar. You must spend some time to maintain the skills you've already acquired. And the more you learn, the more you have to maintain.

It's Easier to Learn From a Person than a Book

You can learn guitar from a book, but it is far easier to learn if you have a real person to show you how to play. So find yourself a teacher or a guitar playing friend so you can copy their moves. If you don't have a teacher or guitar player near your home then opt for video lessons, they are easier to copy from than a book.

Favor Practice Over Theory

Playing guitar is a practical activity; spend your guitar time on practice and only a little on theory. I'm not saying theory isn't valuable, but it doesn't help you if you can't play it. Learn just enough theory to support what you can play.

Make It Easy to Start Practice

Any expert will tell you, little and often is the way to practice guitar. Make it easy to start to ensure you practice often. Leave your guitar out in a prominent place and make sure the other things you need - exercises or songs, tuner, metronome - are close at hand, too.

Aim to make it easier to pick up your guitar and practice than it is to switch on the TV. So, hide that remote control away in the spare room, not your guitar.

Be Patient

New guitar skills can take a frustratingly long time to learn, and it will take you years to get to the level of the players who inspire you.

This story about Arthur Rubenstein, the famous concert pianist, illustrates this point. A woman comes up to Rubenstein after a particularly stirring performance, and exclaims, "That was wonderful! I’d give my life to be able to play like that." And he looks her in the eye and simply answers, "I did."

So keep playing, and remember that patience will make you better if you...

Practice, practice, practice

I've said it before, playing guitar is a practical activity. There are only three ways to get better at it, practice, practice, and practice. Make sure you find a way to enjoy your guitar practice, you're going to do a lot of it...

Conclusion

Above all, enjoy your guitar whatever stage of learning you're at. Don't wait until you're a great guitarist to enjoy yourself, the best guitarists know there is always someone out there with faster fingers than them. They know that playing guitar is not a competition sport, there is room for everyone to have fun.

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Is Your Guitar Attitude Taking You to Success or Frustration?

Are you enjoying your guitar learning and playing? Or do you feel frustrated by your progress? Maybe you just need to get honest with yourself about where you're "at"...

A Tale of Two Attitudes

Regardless of your playing level it's your attitude to playing the guitar determines how much success and enjoyment you get out of it. Consider the story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri related by IG Blog. Salieri was a successful and respected musician, but spent his time worrying about how he compared to Mozart. Mozart on the other hand,

"He just lived the moment. He was into whatever he was composing, and the stuff he came up with didn’t seem to have serious consequence to him. He just went straight ahead and dove headlong into the music. Because to Mozart, it was the music-making that mattered, not being self-critical or comparing himself to others."

Why Do You Play Guitar?

So, why do you play guitar? Do you just enjoy playing guitar, lose yourself in the instrument and the music you make with it? Or do you play to "be" a guitarist? Do you compare yourself to other players, or guitar legends that you want to emulate?

If you just play guitar for the fun you are sure to have success. You'll be happy right from the time you learn your first three chord song. But if you are constantly looking at guitarists and trying to emulate them you could well dig yourself into a hole.

I'll leave with some words from Wes Montgomery, the great jazz guitarist. Wes, who certainly knew a thing or two about playing, left us this wise insight,

"To me, all guitar players can play, because I know they're getting to where they're at. It's a very hard instrument to accept, because it takes years to start working with it, that's first, and it looks like everybody else is moving on the instrument but you. Then when you find a cat that's really playing, you always find that he's been playing a long time, you can't get around it." (from Quotes Daddy)

Do you know where you're "at"?

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How to Choose a Metronome For Guitar Practice

In this recent post you learned how a metronome can help you develop your guitar playing. But what kind of a metronome is most useful to you as a guitar player? Let's take a look at some essential features to look out for when choosing a metronome to use with your guitar.

Volume

Many metronomes designed for use with loud instruments like trumpets, drums, or pianos make an incredibly loud click. But the guitar is a relatively quiet instrument, unless amplified heavily. So you should look out for a metronome with adjustable volume.

You'll find this essential for those late night practice sessions with the wife or kids in the next room. Of course, for the practice room with your friends you can crank up the metronome for everybody to hear.

Earphone jack

Another good solution to avoid waking up the kids is to use an earphone. If you already play on electric guitar with headphones you can use the jack to mix the metronome with your guitar. Simply plug it into the secondary input of your amp, if it has one. If it doesn't you can use a small mixer, or simply two earphones, one ear for the guitar, the other for the metronome.

Of course, the volume control is even more important if you plan to use your metronome through an earphone.

Tuner

Do you use an electronic guitar tuner? You might like to have a combined metronome and tuner device. There are some good models available, notably from Korg and Boss. This is a nice way to have one less gadget and its batteries to carry around in your guitar case.

Rhythm Patterns

A couple of metronome models can play you more than just clicks. You can get a little rhythm patterns from such a metronome with cymbals, snare drums and other sound effects.

Besides being a little more funky, the rhythms help you feel a little more like you're playing with a band, rather than a machine. They can also help you keep track of where you are; it takes a bit of practice and counting to keep your place in the bar with just clicks to go by. Here are some models with rhythm pattern features of varying sophistication.

Korg MA-30

Korg KDM-2

Korg Beatlab

Boss DB-30 Dr Beat

Boss DB-60

Conclusion

You might like the look of one of those old fashioned pendulum metronomes, but you'll get a lot more satisfying guitar practice out of one with the features above. Choose wisely and you'll save yourself money in the long run. May the beat be with you.

Learn more about how a metronome can improve your playing.
How To Play Guitar In Time
Guitarists, Do You Make These Metronome Mistakes?

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Guitarists, Do You Make These Metronome Mistakes?

An Essential Practice Tool

Good timing is essential to your guitar playing. The three ingredients of music are rhythm, melody, and harmony. A lot of attention is often given by beginner guitarists to playing chords and notes (the harmony and melody). But the third ingredient, rhythm, is often neglected.

This is unfortuante as rhythm is arguably the most important of the three. Just think of a carnaval with its loud percussion groups, or tom-tom drums beating out in the African brush. These exciting rhythms create great music that really connects with people, but there is almost no melody or harmony.

To practice rhythm successfully on the guitar you need to use a metronome... the right way.

A Bad Experience

The first reaction of many players is to set the metronome to the speed of the piece they're learning and then play catch up. Usually they'll get hopelessly lost and make many mistakes.

Making repeated mistakes like this is a great way to train your fingers to make even more of them. But luckily, most of these players give up the metronome in disgust before they do that. They do lose a great chance to develop good, fast technique and timing, though.

Get the Most From Your Metronome

You can get the most out of your metronome by following a few simple rules that you'll find explained below.

Basics

First, the basics. Set your metronome to click once on each beat, that's once each quarter note in 4:4 time.

When you get a little more familiar with working with a metronome you should try setting the metronome to click on beats 2 and 4 only; set the tempo to half the speed to do this.

The click on beats 2 and 4 replaces the drummer's snare drum, and get's you used to using those drum beats to keep your place. It also makes the clicking noise a whole lot less annoying, which is no small advantage.

Tempo

Start out at a **very** slow tempo when you learn a new piece. You should aim to play the piece without any mistakes, using the metronome to keep you in time. It is very unlikely that the tempo you use at this point is anywhere near the normal tempo of the piece.

When you can play the piece with no errors increase the tempo a step or two. Now practice at the new, faster, tempo until you can play without error again.

One Step at a Time

Repeat this process, going up one or two steps at a time until you get to the tempo you want to play at. Don't worry if you can't get to the real tempo of the piece at first. It can take you a while, playing correctly and in rhythm is more important.

If you find yourself making many mistakes at any tempo, back down one step and work at a slower speed. Focus on playing accurately and with good timing, speed will come later.

At the end of your practice session note the final tempo you successfully played at. You should be able to start your next session with a tempo two to six steps below this.

Don't worry if you have to slow down more. Just find a comfortable speed and work your way slowly up again. With time your speed will improve and you'll develop better technique in the longer run by taking your time. Remember, learning guitar is not a race.

Follow these simple rules and your metronome will be a trusty ally who helps you to learn more quickly and develop good technique at the same time.

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Secret Rock Guitar Chord Progression

When you learn about chord progressions you'll find many books teach major key harmony. But when you start to look at the songs of your favourite rock bands you will be left puzzled by chords that don't fit into this theory. This article is going to shed light on some of the mystery by telling you about two chords commonly used in rock progressions.

I spent many years wondering about the strange chords in songs, confused about what key they were in. It wasn't until I worked through a copy of Fretboard Roadmaps, by Fred Sokolow, that I discovered this secret.

bIII and bVII

The bIII (flatted third) and bVII (flatted seventh) chords are used in many rock songs. Some examples are The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil", Radiohead's "Creep", The Kinks' "All Day And All of the Night", or Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama".

These chords were used years ago by blues musicians, but many theory books omit them. Listen to songs by John Lee Hooker and you'll often recognize the use of I - bIII - IV patterns.

The chords are both played as major chords. Major key harmony tells you that the chord on the third degree of the major scale is minor. Similarly the flatted seventh degree doesn't normally figure in the set of chords for a major key. But this was conveniently ignored by many of the old blues men and the sound has carried over into more modern rock songs.

Practice Time

Below are example progressions with the bIII and bVII chords for you to play. Listen carefully to get the sound into your mind. The examples are all presented in E major because all the chords can be played as basic open chords in this key. You should try them out in some other keys to give your fingers and ears a thorough workout.

Example 1 - I - bIII - IV - I

||: E | G | A | E :||

Example 2 - I - bVII - bIII - I

||: E | D | G | E :||

Example 3 - I - IV - bVII - I

||: E | A | D | E :||

So now you know the secret of many rock song chord progressions. Practice the example progressions and learn to recognize the sound of these chords. Make up some of your own progressions by slipping these two chords into progressions that you already know.

Knowledge of these chords will help you figure out progressions and songs that use them. Keep your ears open next time you listen to the radio to see if you can identify songs using the flatted third or seventh chords.

To explore this topic further and pick up some excellent tips you could check out Fred Sokolow's Fretboard Roadmaps series. These well organized books present a simple and powerful system that will get you playing chords and licks all over the fretboard. You will also learn more about progressions and song structure so you can work out your favourite songs by ear.

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