There are a lot of guitar players out there producing music, but in a lot of ways the hard part comes after you have actually made your music. With the number of musicians releasing work on the internet, there is a saturation factor that prevents most of them from really ever getting heard. Luckily there are a few strategies that may be of some assistance.
Look for websites that can help you promote your music. One of them is free use music, which will allow you to post some of your tracks so that filmmakers and other media professionals can come and find them for use in their projects. This will get you exposure as well as helping them out getting some music for free.
If you think about all the youtube videos that become famous and get millions of views, these are things that can help get your music out there, and you may have to think outside the box a bit. One of the key things to remember is that releasing your music for free in some regard is going to be the best thing to do early on. This will allow it to spread as much as possible.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Non Western Guitar Tunings
The guitar has the ability to change its tuning to whatever you want, and not enough players take advantage of this. One thing especially ignored is that you can experiment around with a lot of non western tunings.
One of the easiest ways to get out of 12 tone standard temperament is to tune every other string to intervals that are misaligned by a quarter tone. What this will do is give you a way to play a 24 tone scale that includes the 12 normal intervals and 12 new quarter tone intervals between strings. This can help you explore some new sounds that may inspire some new music and playing techniques.
But this is just the start. There are an infinite number of possibilities. You could tune the strings to random intervals and see what happens, though the result may or may not work. A more planned response could be to tune to perfect intervals between the strings instead of the compromised intervals in equal temperament. You could also try tuning the strings to very close intervals to get some really tense and dense chords.
The guitar has a lot of flexibility because of its retuning abilities. If you want to experience the instrument to its fullest, try some of these out and see what you can come up with.
One of the easiest ways to get out of 12 tone standard temperament is to tune every other string to intervals that are misaligned by a quarter tone. What this will do is give you a way to play a 24 tone scale that includes the 12 normal intervals and 12 new quarter tone intervals between strings. This can help you explore some new sounds that may inspire some new music and playing techniques.
But this is just the start. There are an infinite number of possibilities. You could tune the strings to random intervals and see what happens, though the result may or may not work. A more planned response could be to tune to perfect intervals between the strings instead of the compromised intervals in equal temperament. You could also try tuning the strings to very close intervals to get some really tense and dense chords.
The guitar has a lot of flexibility because of its retuning abilities. If you want to experience the instrument to its fullest, try some of these out and see what you can come up with.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Don't Rely Too Much On Guitar Scale Charts
Many people get into playing the guitar by looking at charts and playing the scale patterns that are written. This is a fast and easy way to get going on the instrument and most people have benefitted from it at some point in their playing time. However, the supposed benefit may not be as great as you imagine.
The problem with these guitar scales charts is that you will forgo actually learning the intervals you are playing by sound, and instead just memorize them based on sight. This might sound fine to some people, but keep in mind that sight really has nothing to do with music.
If you only know a scale by a memorized pattern, one problem you will run into is a complete lack of knowledge when playing in an alternate tuning. Not only will you be less likely to improvise and figure things out effectively on the instrument, you won't be able to recognize things by sound that may now have a different fingering.
The guitar is an extremely flexible instrument when you take into account the different places that are possible to find the same notes, and the fact that the guitar strings can be tuned to anything you want them to be, even frequencies in between the normal western musical notes. Learning an instrument like this in such a rigid manner is to learn it incorrectly, and it's as simple as that.
What you should do instead of focusing on chord and scale charts is to use them just as a starting point and concentrate more on hearing the scales you are playing. After this, work on being able to play the scales in different parts of the guitar simply by ear. One way you can do this is by only playing on one string, where you obviously won't have a pattern to guide you.
The guitar needs to be approached in a flexible manner to take advantage of it's flexible nature, there is no reason to stick to the standard tuning that has unfairly monopolized music for centuries, to the detriment of all composers.
The problem with these guitar scales charts is that you will forgo actually learning the intervals you are playing by sound, and instead just memorize them based on sight. This might sound fine to some people, but keep in mind that sight really has nothing to do with music.
If you only know a scale by a memorized pattern, one problem you will run into is a complete lack of knowledge when playing in an alternate tuning. Not only will you be less likely to improvise and figure things out effectively on the instrument, you won't be able to recognize things by sound that may now have a different fingering.
The guitar is an extremely flexible instrument when you take into account the different places that are possible to find the same notes, and the fact that the guitar strings can be tuned to anything you want them to be, even frequencies in between the normal western musical notes. Learning an instrument like this in such a rigid manner is to learn it incorrectly, and it's as simple as that.
What you should do instead of focusing on chord and scale charts is to use them just as a starting point and concentrate more on hearing the scales you are playing. After this, work on being able to play the scales in different parts of the guitar simply by ear. One way you can do this is by only playing on one string, where you obviously won't have a pattern to guide you.
The guitar needs to be approached in a flexible manner to take advantage of it's flexible nature, there is no reason to stick to the standard tuning that has unfairly monopolized music for centuries, to the detriment of all composers.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
A New Way To Use Guitar Charts in Lessons
Music teachers have a habit of over relying on the use of guitar charts in their lessons, and although this can lead to some quick short term results, in the long run it is depriving the student of crucial ear training and feel for the instrument.
Just showing people charts is too visual, it does not help them develop a good ear for the music and feel for where their fingers need to go to play certain notes. Instead a good way to plan guitar chart lessons is to use the charts to show people intervals and then have them play the intervals in combinations which make chords.
In this fashion, you are forcing a student to develop their ear, and also giving them a more creative and flexible view of the instrument. This may not be the best strategy for people who want to just quickly learn a few songs, but it is a good thing to do for people who really want to get into improvising and composing on guitar.
When people can put intervals together to make chords and scales, they will have a much better understanding of music theory as well as how things should and can sound. All of this will make them better players, though it may just take a little more time than the people looking at charts and memorizing patterns. However, the results in the end will be worth it.
Just showing people charts is too visual, it does not help them develop a good ear for the music and feel for where their fingers need to go to play certain notes. Instead a good way to plan guitar chart lessons is to use the charts to show people intervals and then have them play the intervals in combinations which make chords.
In this fashion, you are forcing a student to develop their ear, and also giving them a more creative and flexible view of the instrument. This may not be the best strategy for people who want to just quickly learn a few songs, but it is a good thing to do for people who really want to get into improvising and composing on guitar.
When people can put intervals together to make chords and scales, they will have a much better understanding of music theory as well as how things should and can sound. All of this will make them better players, though it may just take a little more time than the people looking at charts and memorizing patterns. However, the results in the end will be worth it.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Fretless Guitars and Alternate Tuning Systems
The idea of a fretless guitar has been interesting me lately because of its capabilities to play outside of the conventional western equal temperament tuning system. Regular fretted guitars of course can only play the note that the fret allow. This divides the audible hearing spectrum into twelve repeating notes, but I see no reason why we shouldn't want to use the sound possibilities in between.
I think most people would agree with this, but the problem is that the equal temperament system has been so ingrained into our culture that it is hard to escape its draw. Even with the advent of computers, notation and music production programs are built around the standard tuning system.
Many composers have dealt with this by composing in just intonation, and that is fine, but it is still limiting in its own ways. Now is the time, i believe, to start looking for ways to create music without tuning system constraints, and instruments like the fretless guitar can help in that pursuit.
What can benefit this cause is to focus on more ear based and non-tuning-system subjective musical learning methods. Meaning the focus on learning a fretless instrument should be one based on learning the relationships between notes by ear, and when I say notes, I mean playing any frequency in the spectrum.
The great thing about learning music like this with instruments like the fretless guitar is that they can still play all of the music that has already been written for fretted instruments. They may be a little more difficult to play, but the benefits they offer are great. It is time to start examining the possibilities that are out there with fretless guitars and getting into some different tuning systems in order to keep music moving forward.
I think most people would agree with this, but the problem is that the equal temperament system has been so ingrained into our culture that it is hard to escape its draw. Even with the advent of computers, notation and music production programs are built around the standard tuning system.
Many composers have dealt with this by composing in just intonation, and that is fine, but it is still limiting in its own ways. Now is the time, i believe, to start looking for ways to create music without tuning system constraints, and instruments like the fretless guitar can help in that pursuit.
What can benefit this cause is to focus on more ear based and non-tuning-system subjective musical learning methods. Meaning the focus on learning a fretless instrument should be one based on learning the relationships between notes by ear, and when I say notes, I mean playing any frequency in the spectrum.
The great thing about learning music like this with instruments like the fretless guitar is that they can still play all of the music that has already been written for fretted instruments. They may be a little more difficult to play, but the benefits they offer are great. It is time to start examining the possibilities that are out there with fretless guitars and getting into some different tuning systems in order to keep music moving forward.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Is it Possible to Create Guitar Chords on the Fly?
This is a question that has long plagued me with the guitar: can you create novel guitar chords on the fly, or are you stuck with the same old chord shapes forever. Sure the common chord grips work well in sight reading situations and they can help you get by in a pinch, but shouldn't there be more out there to explore?
How would you be able to create new and exiting tonalities while playing through a piece? One of the only ways I can think of is to really learn intervals and slowly get better and better at them. With this method, you can start out just playing single intervals for a chord. For example, if you are supposed to be playing a Fmaj7, you could just play a perfect 5th with F as the root. Or you could play a major third from F.
Once you get really proficient at playing those single intervals, then you could move on to three note chords of any type. You could play an F major triad over Fmaj7, or you could play something like the root, third, and seventh. In this fashion you could keep getting more and more advanced until you are creating pretty full chords on the fly, and running into some interesting combinations of notes in the process.
Not only would this give you a more interesting approach to chords, it would also help you really understand music theory in general and probably increase the effectiveness of all of your playing.
If you are getting tired of the same old guitar chords, give the interval method a try and start building your own chord shapes from scratch.
How would you be able to create new and exiting tonalities while playing through a piece? One of the only ways I can think of is to really learn intervals and slowly get better and better at them. With this method, you can start out just playing single intervals for a chord. For example, if you are supposed to be playing a Fmaj7, you could just play a perfect 5th with F as the root. Or you could play a major third from F.
Once you get really proficient at playing those single intervals, then you could move on to three note chords of any type. You could play an F major triad over Fmaj7, or you could play something like the root, third, and seventh. In this fashion you could keep getting more and more advanced until you are creating pretty full chords on the fly, and running into some interesting combinations of notes in the process.
Not only would this give you a more interesting approach to chords, it would also help you really understand music theory in general and probably increase the effectiveness of all of your playing.
If you are getting tired of the same old guitar chords, give the interval method a try and start building your own chord shapes from scratch.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Working with Guitar Effects
Guitar effects can be a great way to expand the sound of your instrument and let you explore all of your creative impulses. With them, there are virtually no limits to what the guitar can emulate or produce in terms of tone and texture, this is why it is important to consider using them and which ones you need.
Guitar overdrive is one of the most common effects and although it is simple and basic, there are a lot of creative ways to use it that most people gloss over. For example, there is one jazz guitarist who uses a bit of overdrive to make a flute like sound with his instrument. Since the flute tone has the imperfections of breath involved, to emulate it on the guitar you need to add in a little bit of some kind of distortion. Overdrive works well for this and can give the guitar tone a nice additional aspect.
Of course, most people know about overdrive and distortion for the more extreme rock uses, but there is a lot more to it than that. The band My Bloody Valentine redefined how intense overdrive and distortion could be thought of, and used them to create dense but delicate walls of sound that characterized most of their songs. When you really start to experiment with things, you will find a lot of things to do with just guitar overdrive alone.
Guitar overdrive is one of the most common effects and although it is simple and basic, there are a lot of creative ways to use it that most people gloss over. For example, there is one jazz guitarist who uses a bit of overdrive to make a flute like sound with his instrument. Since the flute tone has the imperfections of breath involved, to emulate it on the guitar you need to add in a little bit of some kind of distortion. Overdrive works well for this and can give the guitar tone a nice additional aspect.
Of course, most people know about overdrive and distortion for the more extreme rock uses, but there is a lot more to it than that. The band My Bloody Valentine redefined how intense overdrive and distortion could be thought of, and used them to create dense but delicate walls of sound that characterized most of their songs. When you really start to experiment with things, you will find a lot of things to do with just guitar overdrive alone.
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