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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Drawbacks of Guitar Charts?

Something that I have been thinking about lately are possible drawbacks to using guitar charts both in your own studies and when teaching a student. The problem is that when they learn a scale by the visual pattern they don't really understand the notes they are playing and they are unable to really hear them one by one. Patterns can get you going quickly, but they do not work well in the long run when you need to do more and more complex things on the instrument.

The better way to learn things is by ear so that you can play them in any part of the fretboard. When you learn the guitar by ear you don't just develop the muscle memory to play certain patterns, but you develop an actual ear for music and you learn to connect you fingers with your ear. You also become better at improvising because it forces you to make more mistakes and tactfully recover back into the proper notes. This is great practice that will pay off in the long run.

Site About Customizing Guitars

This is just a heads up about a great site out there that deals with modifying a guitar and the different methods and materials you can use in the process. One of the nice things about this particular instrument is just how many after market parts are available to change its look and feel. No other instrument really has that going for it.

The site in question has a lot of posts about different modifications that you can easily perform yourself. Many of the best guitar modifications are also pretty cheap. Thanks to online sites like ebay and other specialized retailers, you can find just about any type of part that you may want for your instrument.

Take a minute and check out the site, and then maybe you will start thinking about some ways to improve your own guitar. A good point is made that it is more than just vanity; the better you like your instrument, the better connection you will have to it and the better music you will make.

Video About A Street Musician

This is a nice little documentary about a street drummer in DC that I saw posted at another site. Not exactly guitar related, but sometimes guitar players do play on the streets as well and it is interesting in any case. Here is the link: street drumming

This strikes me as a more feasible and noble model for homelessness; instead of preying on people's evolutionary emotions, this street drummer provides them with something for their money. Any guitar players out there should be glad they can play an instrument just in case they ever find themselves in this position. It also may be wise to have some kind of acoustic guitar so you dont have to haul around a small amp and all of that, thought I have certainly seen people playing electric guitar on the streets in various cities.

The documentary points out how much money can be made, and it actually seems like it could be a decent living. At the very least, a living.

What A Better Truss Rod Cover Can Do

Many people do not think much about the truss rod cover of their guitars, but it can be a great piece to upgrade or customize. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that it can easily be taken off, and a new one can easily be put on. This allows you to do the procedure all on your own, saving you time and money.

There are plenty of new truss rod covers out there to choose from as well. They come in all shapes and sizes and for all types of guitars. You can get a nice wooden one to give your guitar a more classy appeal, or you can go for something more modern and sleek. The main thing is, whatever you do, it will probably be better than the stock plastic one you have now.

If you are looking to add a little more flash to your guitar, or looking to make it a little more personalized, think about getting a new truss rod cover and improving your instrument a bit.

Theater Guitar Composing Article

Here is a nice section on a site for theater composers. This will help people find the theater music that they need, and it can also be helpful for giving guitar players some ideas for the types of music that they can write on their instrument. Guitar players should explore what can be offered in the way of music composing opportunities, as the guitar is an instrument that lends itself well to writing music and not just playing it.

Doing this will not only help you as a composer, but as a musician as well. There are things that you discover about music that you can only come across through composing and improvising as opposed to playing written music. The creative tendencies that you will develop can open up a lot of new musical territory for you as an instrumentalist.

Guitar Composition in Film

The guitar can be a great instrument for film composers looking to take advantage of a new way of looking at music compared to the piano. It helps a composer to be able to view music in as many ways as possible, so if you only know how to play the piano, you might want to try the guitar out and vice versa. It is a fact that if you play different instruments, you will see that they lend themselves to different types of musical elements, and you will compose different music on each one. The natural tendencies of an instrument have a big effect on the musical aspect, and the guitar can do many things that the piano cannot.

Knowing the guitar in addition to the piano will help you find as many musical ideas as possible, and it will help you change up your writing a little bit. Composers need to keep it fresh with their work or else they could really have a hard time, and playing multiple instruments is a good way of combatting this. So if you are a guitar player and film composer, find out what the guitar can do for you in composition.

Guitar Modifications Article

Guitar modifications can be a great thing to do for anyone who may not feel their instrument is performing up to their standards. This site contains lots of information about custom guitar mods that you can do to your instrument to improve its sound and performance without spending a lot of extra money. It even shows how a good strategy may be to buy a cheaper guitar and then put some money into modding it. In the end, you will have spent less money and you will have a guitar that is somewhat of a custom guitar.

This process of personalization with guitars can create a better connection with your instrument and that will help you make better music. The guitar is one of the only instruments that can really be customized, so these guitar mods are a great thing to look into for players that have a limited budget.

Inside and Outside Picking Video

Inside and outside picking is a necessary technique for guitar players who use a pick and want to get the most out of their technique. Outside picking is the one that you are going to use most often, and it should become a big part of your playing. Any time that you want to extend alternate picking to playing between gaps of strings it is most likely going to be outside picking that you use.

The video linked in this post gives good examples of both inside and outside picking and all guitar players should make sure that they are executing these techniques correctly.

Guitar Chord Charts

Here is a nice guitar chart showing the basic guitar chords. This will be useful information for anyone who is a beginner and still learning their first concepts on the instrument. These chords are used in just about all of popular music, and knowing them will allow you to play a lot of things already. Add to this a few basic scales and you will be well on your way to the more advanced guitar knowledge. To learn these chords just start with a few of them at a time and make up a chord progression to play. Once you have a few of them down well you can move on to new ones and repeat.

Hybrid Picking Article

This is another great article about hybrid picking technique. This articles does a good job showing how you can get the best range of sounds from hybrid picking and how this will let you expand your playing further than any other one source. Many people ignore hybrid picking or are not taught it at all, and this is a mistake. Nothing else can give you such a flexibility in your playing, so it is something that every player should think about adding to their skill set.

The article goes over both the benefits of this technique and how to actually perform it, though you should keep looking online to get even more information about how to master the technique.

Article on Teaching Group Guitar Lessons

This is a great article on teaching group guitar lessons, which can be an important topic for a new guitar teacher who may need some advice. Group lessons are a little different than normal one on one private lessons and they offer some new types of challenges. In general, the teacher will have to have more of a plan going into the lessons, where as in private lessons the material is structured around the individual student, in group lessons you need to take all of the members of the group into account. This article shows some strategies for keeping the lessons interesting for the whole group and making sure that the different levels of players are all involved. Check it out if you are thinking about teaching a group guitar lessons in the future.

Sites of Interest for Guitar Composers

For all the guitar players out there who are also composers, there are some great sites that should help you find composing work on the internet. For people interested in becoming a game music composer, this site will have the perfect place for you to get listed so that people looking for someone to make some video game music will be able to find you. If you want to make it as a music composer, you need to be able to find work in this way with as many listing sites as possible, and this is one of the best ones out there.

There is also a section for a song music composer wanting to get listed. This means anyone who wants to be a music producer or songwriter for other artists or things like films and TV shows. Songs are needed by many media producers these days, but the key to finding work is to get your name out there, and this site is one of the best ways to do that for free. Guitar players should look for as many ways to make money from music as possible, and this site should help.

Another Guitar Articles Site

There is another great guitar articles site that everyone should check out. This site is a pretty big article and lessons site that will let anyone submit their articles to be published. This is a nice thing as it will promote the sharing of guitar information and help people improve on the instrument.

One recent article they published talking about how you can submit guitar lessons or articles may be of interest to anyone looking to publish their guitar content online. Not many sites will provide such a good platform for guitar related article so this should be checked out by everyone.

With sites like these it should become easier and easier for people to reliably teach themselves how to play guitar or learn something on their own in between lessons.

Guitar Overdrive Pedals Site

Here is a great site if you need information on guitar overdrive effects pedals. These are some of the most basic and most common guitar effects pedals, and at some point, everyone needs this type of sound in their arsenal. What guitar overdrive can do is provide you with a boost in your tone that can cut through any band, which is why everyone from rock players to jazz players makes frequent use of this type of effect. One interesting fact is that jazz guitar players often use overdrive to imitate the sound that a horn player makes.

As an advancing guitar player, you will need to be able to make more sounds with you instrument and this means getting some effects pedals like the overdrive pedal. Not only will it provide you with more types of sounds, it will enable you to explore more styles of guitar playing, which should be one of your goals.