Why Are Guitar Amps So Ugly?

Would you put the average guitar amplifier in your living room? Maybe more importantly, would your family let you put it there?

 

I recently got an electric guitar and spent some time looking around for an amp for playing at home. Most of the time I’ll be playing in my living room, so it would be kind of nice to have an amp that looks a little decent with the rest of the decoration.

 

Surprisingly, my living room is not painted black and doesn’t resemble a grimy stage. So why are all guitar amps designed to fit into that setting?

 

Guitar Amp Aesthetics

It seems guitar amp manufacturers have a serious lack of imagination when it comes to the design of their amps. The typical guitar amp boasts a surprisingly standard set of stylistic characteristics…

 

• It’s black.
• It’s a no-frills square or rectangular box.
• It has big chunky corners made of black plastic.
• It has an unstylish handle that sticks up out of the top and stops you putting things on it.
• It has a control panel full of industrial looking buttons that would be more at home in a power station than the average home.
• It has an ugly speaker cover ideal for gathering dust.

 

Apart from the odd model fitted with quaint brown vinyl or tweed (think Fender Blues Deluxe) and some variations in the colour of the speaker cover – not always very tasteful – the average amp has little to help it fit into your household decoration.

 

Most Amps Spend Their Time At Home

Now, this typical look might be fine for rock concerts on a dimly lit stage. But most guitar amps don’t live their lives on a dimly lit stage.

 

Most guitar amps spend 99% of their working lives in the homes of us guitar players. So, why are there no guitar amps designed to fit into such a setting? Why don’t they build amps that you might find in a Habitat or Ikea store, something that you’d like to invite into your home?

 

It might be fine to build a 100W tube stack with the rugged black looks suited to stage and touring use. But those little 15W practice amps, people they are just not going touring anywhere beyond the guitarists front porch. So why not spruce them up with a few decorative touches to make them more amenable to household life? How about some nice wooden finishes, soft painted colours, or pastel fabrics to go with the other items in your home?

 

A Better Looking Guitar Amp Helps You Play Guitar More

You might be wondering what all my ranting about guitar amp design has got to do with your guitar playing. Well, a better looking guitar amp is not just a decorative matter, it can actually help you practice and play guitar more.

 

Your current amp is probably hidden away in the cupboard at the back of your spare room because it’s too ugly to be left out in the lounge. So, every time you think about practicing guitar you have to go and search for the amp, install it and set it up before you can play.

 

That’s not only a little lost practice time, it’s also a barrier that makes it harder to start. From time to time I bet you’ll even give up the idea of guitar practice because setting up that amp just seems like too much effort. It’s so much easier to just switch on the TV…

 

But if you have a nice looking amp sitting ready to go beside your sofa you have one less obstacle to starting guitar practice. Ensuring it is easy to start practice is a good way to help you practice more.

 

A Call to Guitar Amp Manufacturers

So come on you guitar amp manufacturers, help us out. A lot of guitar amps spend more than 99% of their lives in the homes of guitar players, so why not make them look a little like something you’d like to invite into your home?

 

What do you think of guitar amp looks? Share your thoughts by clicking the comments link below…

 

Photo by Cody McComas.

A Really Simple Way To Arrange Songs For Two Guitars

One question I often hear from readers is “How can I arrange a song to play along with two guitars?” It seems that many of us want to enjoy playing with a fellow guitarist or in a two-guitar band without playing the exact same thing on both guitars.

 

A few months ago I shared one technique that you can use to do this by playing little three-note chord inversions along the guitar neck. Today I’m going to show you an even simpler way to arrange for two guitars; this technique is so easy it can work for any level of guitar player. So, without further ado, let me reveal the amazing secret to two-guitar song arrangements.

 

The Easy Way to Make Up a Second Guitar Part

The incredibly easy yet highly effective way to make up a second guitar part for your song is to play exactly the same chords as the first guitar but change the rhythm.

 

If you’re feeling extremely underwhelmed by this incredible revelation then maybe you have already put this technique to work. Or maybe you’ve simply overlooked how effective it is. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples to illustrate how it works and give you a starting point to make up your own arrangements.

 

First, let’s start with a simple rhythm guitar part for guitar one, shown below. It’s an eight bar progression that you might find for the verse of a rock or pop song. Then we’ll make up a couple of examples using the same chords with different rhythms to show just how easy it is.

 

Example1 – Strum on First Beat and Hold

Our first incredibly easy alternative rhythm part is shown below. We simply take each chord and strum it on the “one” of each bar. Let the notes ring until the next strum on the “one” of the following bar.

 

In the example I’ve chosen to strum the full chord, but you could choose to strum (or pluck) just two or three notes to get different sounds. This technique works well with an electric guitar that has more sustain to let the notes ring.

 

Example 2 – Play an Arpeggio Over the Chords

Here’s a slightly more sophisticated rhythm for the second guitar. While guitar one strums away on the chord progression the second guitar plays an arpeggio pattern, like the one below.

 

I hope these two easy examples have made this approach to two-guitar arrangements clear. This approach might seem simple, but as is often the case the simplest approach is most effective. These exact same techniques are used in many songs to layer the guitar sounds and they’ll work for you too.

 

Have fun making up your own rhythm patterns for the songs you play with your friends or in a band.

Easy Beginner Guitar Song: Last Train To Clarkesville

The recent Monkees 45th anniversary tour (and it’s unfortunate demise) got me thinking back to my childhood days. The Monkees TV show was an early favourite of mine and got me several of their hits firmly stuck inside my head.

 

Last Train to Clarkesville is one of their memorable hits with its lively rhythm, jangly guitar lines and bright vocal harmonies. It makes for a fun guitar song that’s easy for beginner’s to learn and play.

 

You can play most of the song with only two easy chords. You’ll need a third chord to make it through the chorus (but if this is too hard for you I’m going to share a sneaky cheat to avoid it later in the post).

 

If you don’t know the song you can hear it by clicking here.

 

The song reached number 1 in the US Billboard chart in 1966. In 1967 it peaked at number 23 in the UK charts.

 

The Two Main Chords

Here are the two main chords of the song used throughout the verses.

 

 

The Verse Pattern

The verses start on a G chord and stay on it all the way up to the end of the phrase just before the “oh no, no, no” bits. There you change to a C until the end of the verse, then it’s back to G again.

 

A Third Chord

Every second verse or so on “And I don’t know if I’m ever coming home” a D major chord is played. On the word “home” at the end of this phrase you return to G and then it’s back into the verse pattern.

 

A Sneaky Trick To Skip That Third Chord And Play The Song With Only Two Chords

You might have noticed that that third chord makes only a short appearance in the song. This means that you can get away without playing it and play the song with only two chords if you want to. There are two ways to skip this D chord:

 

1. Leave it out altogether, stop strumming while you sing through the phrase. You could clap your hands or tap on your guitar to mark the beat while you do this.

 

2. Instead of play the chord you can simply bang on its root note on the open fourth string. You could hit it once and let it ring or tap it once on each beat, whatever you feel like.

 

Conclusion

Last Train To Clarkesville is a pretty cool pop tune and a lot of fun to play. I hope you’ll enjoy it and get encouragement to play more guitar, as this easy song shows, it doesn’t always have to be that hard.

Should You Give Up Guitar Practice?

In the past week I’ve read two recent articles where two star guitarists – no less than Jimmy Page and Leo Kottke – both suggest that practice is a waste of time. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as it might to many of us who’ve been practicing hard for ages to learn to play guitar. Have we been doing it all wrong?

 

Here’s what Leo had to say about guitar practice:

 

"Practice is what ruins people, it’s dangerous. If you want to develop as a musician, play what you like, and stick to it.” – Leo Kottke quoted in the Taunton Gazette

 

And here’s Jimmy’s answer to the question, “Do you practice the guitar?”:

 

“No, I couldn’t do that. It’s usually the acoustic guitar for a start and it’s usually in a tuning. I sort of change tunings around a bit and I’m searching for new chords and shapes and things. I don’t just sit down and play scales and things. I should have done but I never did. I can’t play a scale. You think I’m kidding but I’m not. I can’t.” – Guitar International

 

Practice or Play?

What do you think of these ideas? Can you play without practice? Are they really the same thing? Is guitar practice the root of all evil? Or are these guys just nuts?

 

Click the comments link below to share your thoughts on guitar practice… or play…