Ashley Sulser asked:

a href=”http://pure-guitar.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse&pageid=44&id=164″ title=”Picking the perfect Guitar”>Picking the perfect Guitar for you!

 

When going and picking the guitar you want can be really really fun! There are so many different kinds of guitars like the list I talked about in the last post. There are a few things to consider when looking like price, accessories you’ll need to go with it, storage, brand, and of course the type of guitar you want.

 

When it comes to price- You get what you paid for! This is the golden rule when shopping for guitars on a budget. If you have a limit of under $300.00 you’ll get a guitar that has the sound and built with the materials made for a $300 guitar and won’t match up to a guitar you migh pay over $1,000.00 for. For beginners though I would caution to go either beginner packages or a cheeper guitar to see if you like it before spending so much money on something you may never really get into. You can always upgrade later

 

When it comes to Accessories - Be aware that you will need acessories for you guitar! Unless you prefer playing with your hands, you’ll need picks with whatever guitar you choose to get. There are a list of things you may want and need for comfort, playing techniques, and to keep good care of your guitar. If you’re looking at an Electric or Electric Bass, you will NEED an amp and a cable to play at all! Other things you may want to be aware of include straps, stands, cases, polish, capo’s, spare strings, capo, etc…

 

When it comes to Storage- If you want to take any kind of care for your guitar, you will need either a stand or case for it, and the space needed to keep you guitar from damage like being bumbed into by sharp or heavy objects…you can dent guitars and it does ruen your sound qualities.

 

When it comes to Brand- There are a few very trusted names in guitars for either beginning or expert players. Fender, Taylor, Takamine, Dean, Gibson are a few. Being aware of trusted guitar brands will help you in picking a guitar that will last you longer than unknown ones.

Peter Clark asked:

So you’ve wanted to be a rock star since you were a kid, (maybe you’re still a kid), and you’ve decided that to be a rock star you need to learn to play the electric guitar.

Problem is you really don’t know a lot about electric guitars, and if you’re going to buy one you need to learn a little more about them. A lot actually.

The best piece of advice is to buy yourself a cheap electric guitar. When you’re first learning it’s not essential that you own a hugely expensive model of electric guitar. It’s usually harder just to make it produce the sound you want it to produce, so you don’t need the best guitar.

Secondly, it’s important to start learning about the different types of electric guitar available. As you progress through the process of learning to play the guitar you will eventually need to trade up to a more expensive guitar, and if you know what sound it is you want to produce and which guitar is more likely to do that you’ll probably be happier with your choice. But remember, first all you need is a basic cheap electric guitar till you’ve learned how to play the basics.

The start to your journey learning about electric guitars is to learn what all the part of the guitar are. And what different options there are with each of the parts. This is a pretty complex subject to tackle and you can spend years learning all about what produces which type of sound from an electric guitar, but here’s a few basic terms,

The body of the guitar isn’t always the same. You can get solid bodied guitars, and hollow bodied, or even semi hollow. Each produces a different sound. There is usually a sound hole where the sound comes from and these can be in different places, depending on the style of guitar. Pickups catch the resonance of the strings and transmit them to the amplifier to enable it to produce the amplified sound.

The soundboard is timber and is mounted on the front of the guitar and helps amplify the sound.

The neck of the guitar is the long piece that holds the strings and has a series of frets along the neck, this can also be known as the fingerboard. At the top of the neck is the head of the guitar and this holds the tuning pegs which help in the tuning of the guitar by tightening or loosening the strings.

The strings can vary in number according to what type of guitar you play. A bass guitar can have as few as 4 strings whilst some guitars have up to 12 strings. Guitar strings can be made from a number of different materials.

That’s the very basics of electric guitars, and that’s only the first step in the process of learning about guitars and how to play them. The sound that you want to produce will require you to learn a lot about the way the sounds are produced, and you’ve got many years of learning in front of you if you’re serious about becoming a rock star, or even just an accomplished guitar player.

But remember the first bit of advice. It takes a long time to learn to play, and if you’re just starting out take your time, learn as you go, about how guitars work as well as how to play one, and start with a basic cheap electric guitar until you’ve attained a basic proficiency.

Then you can splash out on the electric guitar that only can make sing. Good luck.

Claude Johnson asked:

One of the most difficult days for a beginning guitar player can be trying to find the high-quality guitar lessons sites while avoiding the ones that are simply a waste of time.

We all start learning things at one point or the other. And so we also know what it takes to get over the learning curve and have crafted courses and lessons for the true beginner.

Follow the guitar lessons at guitarists.net/ and you will be amazed to see yourself making wonderful music. The Guitar Tricks provided in this site offer deep, detailed resources for you all beginners to continue the growth as musicians. The guitar lessons in this site are developed with all stages of guitarists in mind.

If you have you always wanted to play guitar, but never got around to actually getting started? Here is reason to begin… a free online guitar lesson. Guitar lessons online can be a great alternative to learning the best guitar tricks, and it saves you the effort in finding a teacher around your community for days. What’s better is that you can take your lessons at your convenient time. These detailed in-depth lessons of guitar courses are great for beginners, as learning just a few of the basic guitar chords will allow you to play thousands of songs.

You will find it surprisingly good for the overall experience, because you can follow through these guitar lesson sets just how you would with a normal guitar teacher. There are a variety of difficulty levels and genres with lots of audio and video lessons. Simply browse the site you will find amazing amounts of guitar lessons on various aspects of guitar learning like the guitar scales, guitar chords, guitar licks, which are only the basic aspects of learning. Guitar lessons here also offer you advanced harmony, extended guitar chords, and chord building principles which make this series a valuable resource for guitarists at all levels of development.

Often, your hands are not used to moving, bending, or being in the positions that they get in when playing guitar. An easy exercise is here for all the novice guitarists to break your hands into playing, nothing big. The ability to utilize all four of the fret hand fingers to their utmost potential is key in becoming a better player as well as being able to play those “crazy licks” that you hear your favorite guitarists doing. In this site you will not only find guitar lessons, but also the techniques to play it efficiently without hurting your fingers.

Andrew Koblick asked:

Whether you are an amateur or a professional guitar player, you will agree that you can never say that there’s nothing more you can learn in playing the guitar. There’s always one more guitar lesson you have to learn in order to become even more proficient. One should never underestimate the power and the advantages of practice, and practice is the only way you can become an ace in playing the guitar. Let this be the first guitar lesson you take! Practice, practice, practice.

Now you can learn guitar with lessons delivered directly to you.

A recent survey has found several guitar newsletters which

include free guitar lessons. Probably one of the oldest and most popular

will be found at http://www.guitar5day.com Lesson, guitar biographies and other items of interest are published twice monthly. Random lessons will also find there way

into the mix.

If you want to learn guitar, the first things you want to do are become familiar with the guitar and learn its anatomy. When someone tells you to turn the second tuner on the head, you shouldn’t start pulling your ears. You should know where the tuners are, which the fretboard is and which the bridge is, and so on. Do not underestimate this first guitar lesson. It is very useful to know the main things about the guitar. You also want to learn how the frets, strings and fingers are numbered as this is vital in learning the right techniques when you’re a beginner. When your teacher (or the book you’re learning from) tells you to pick string 1, with finger 1, on the first fret, you should know exactly what he means.

The second guitar lesson for any beginner who wants to learn guitar should be the stringing and tuning of a guitar. Stringing is a fairly easy process. Tuning the guitar, however, can prove to be a little more difficult for beginners as you should know how string A, for example, should sound. That’s mainly the reason why the usage of a guitar tuner is recommended until you become familiar with the notes. This is a guitar lesson that you can find in any book or online guitar lessons site.

The third and longest guitar lesson (most probably a lifetime if you’re really passionate about it) is the actual playing of the guitar. As any player can tell you, it’s mainly about technique and passion. You can master the technique by continuous practice and feed your passion by playing extensively. And this is the most important guitar lesson you’ll ever learn as ou learn guitar, that it’s not always about the talent, but most importantly, it’s about how determined you are to play the guitar.

Guitar lessons can differ from one player to another, because you have: acoustic and electric guitar equipment. If you’re a classical music guitar player, you should know the correct position when playing, the right way to hold the guitar, and the right to pick the strings with your right hand fingers. If you’re playing electric guitar, you have to know the right way to hold the pick and the best techniques to achieve the speed you want. These are all guitar lessons that are available on the Internet and in every learn guitar book ever written. These are the essentials and if a book does not contain this information don’t buy it and go look for one that does.

And then there are the ‘fine tuning’ guitar lessons where you learn guitar in several styles, such as jazz, bossa nova, rock, rock and roll, country, and so on. But in the end you’ll end up having your own personal style and that’s when you’ll know you have learned guitar well

Peter Edvinsson asked:

If you have come to the conclusion that you want to play guitar the next step will be to choose a guitar to buy. There is a variety of instruments out there at different prices. Let’s look at your choices.

What types of guitars will you find in a guitar shop?

1. The classical guitar. The classical guitar or Spanish guitar has nylon strings which produce a soft and mellow sound suitable for classical guitar music and for accompanying soft songs with finger playing.

Personally I have grown up with the Spanish guitar in my home as my father was a guitar teacher and we had a lot of guitars in our home all of them with nylon strings.

I have played a lot of styles with Spanish guitars like blues and rock music. Yes, it is possible to bend the nylon strings on a classical guitar when you play blues if you get used to it!

2. Steel-strung flat-top guitars. The steel-strung guitar is very good for strumming with a plectrum and for playing solos.

Nowadays I play steel-strung guitars a lot both with right hand fingers and with a pick. I like the crisp sound from the steel-strings. The drawbacks with this types of guitars are that they can be hard to play if the strings have too high action.

3. Electic guitars. An electric guitar has electromagnetic pickups transforming the vibrations from the strings into currents that in an guitar amplifier becomes sounds.

In this type of guitar the direct sound from the guitar is not important which makes it possible to have light gauge strings that are easy to bend. This makes it easier to play blues licks for example.

I usually play on an American Stratocaster because I like the crisp, clean sound and I can play different types of music on it. There are a lot of different types of electric guitars to choose from.

Nowadays you can find inexpensive electric guitars of good quality for example Ibanez or Yamaha guitars that are easy to play. I have a rather inexpensive Ibanez guitar that is very easy to play.

If you are a beginner wanting to start to play guitar my advice would be that you ask an accomplished guitar player to help you choose the right guitar for you. Even two guitars of the same model can differ in playability and tone.

I would also suggest that you buy your guitar in a music shop with experienced musicians and guitarists that can help you find out the best guitar for you.

I would also suggest that you buy an electronic guitar tuner to help you to always have your guitar well tuned. There is no guitar that is nice to play if it is out of tune.

Ian Williamson asked:

Despite the similarity of the words, the capo is not your regular trigger-happy Mafia leader although it does come from the Italian word “capo tasto” which means head of finger board. Instead, the capo is a harmless gadget or device attached to a stringed instrument like a guitar, to raise its pitch.

Capos come in different brands but the common kinds are the elastic capos – which are the least expensive and most commonly used by guitar players, the nylon capos, and the steel string capos.

While it may look a bit strange and highly technical for non-guitar players, the capo can be easily attached to a guitar. It is placed on any of the frets of a guitar neck. A fret is a small ridge on the finger board of a stringed instrument. Or in layman’s terms, it looks like equal divisions located in a guitar’s neck or handle – the one attached to the guitar’s semi-elliptical body.

To use the capo, just attach the device to any of the frets and make sure the clamp can hold all the strings down. Inspect for any kind of pulling of the guitar strings as it may cause the guitar to sound out of tune.

A special kind of capo, the third hand capo, is a gadget that can easily clamp all the strings of the guitar in place. Like the ordinary capos, it allows the guitar player to play tunes that may be difficult to play using the bare guitar strings.

If you have tried singing accompanied by a guitar, or just playing the guitar, you may be familiar with songs that are either too low or too high in pitch and you just can’t reach the right pitch. This is where the capo comes to the rescue, by making the pitch right.

The capo is not only used by guitar experts but it also allows beginners to enjoy different kinds of tunes without difficulty. Using the capo can sometimes be frustrating for guitar players as they can hinder the proper playing or proper hand reaching.

While capos are used with stringed instruments, they are also commonly used with guitars. Guitars can either be acoustic or electric, but the basic method of playing the instrument remains the same.

Most guitars have a total of six strings but there are 12-stringed guitars so no matter how many guitar strings there are, they are most generally played by strumming or plucking the strings with a person’s right hand. Sometimes, though, a pick is used to do the plucking or strumming. The left hand is used to hold the guitar in order to play a note or chord.

A guitarist must possess the following essentials: 1. Extra Strings – guitar strings usually break when you least expect them to so do yourself a favor by keeping extra strings for emergency purposes. Guitar strings should be changed every two months even if they do not break. But if you use your guitar more often than the regular guitar player you should try changing strings more than once every two months to keep your guitar in shape.

2. Picks – stock up on these little things because they are easy to lose. Guitar players who only have one pick and lose it use alternatives like carving a pick from a hard plastic but the professional pick is always better.

3. Capo – the capo is a very important device for guitar players because it can help them strum a higher pitch if a song proves to be too high or too low. You do not want to be frustrated if you cannot get the right pitch so invest in a good capo.

Guitar teachers advise their students, especially beginners, to use an electronic guitar tuner so they can focus on learning how to play the guitar. Like the basic tuner, the capo is one of the essential accessories a guitar player should have because it can easily change keys that sound awkward, with ordinary strumming.

If possible purchase the most durable and reliable capo, even if they are more expensive than the ordinary ones. But before buying a capo, you must first have a guitar on which it can be attached.

Phil Wheatley asked:

Aspirants who wish to learn metal guitar are large in number. Roadblocks they face in fulfilling such aspirations are the complicacies of metal guitar chords and affordability of learning the metal guitar lessons.

Metal guitar popularity – Popularity of metal guitar as musical instrument can never be undermined. Almost a craze in the younger generations, it is also one of the most useful musical instruments. Many star performers have appeared live on stage or have been represented in the movies, the idiot box, in posters and banners and in the public shows with a guitar in their hands. Younger people love to copy their idols and this has brought upon a rare rise in the popularity of the instrument. At the same time guitar is also popular among those who wants to enjoy the excellence of music sitting at their own home in cool comforts.

Expensive traditional courses for learning metal guitar – More often than not the traditional courses for learning metal guitar come expensive. Despite the fact that the training course might complete multiple subjects like guitar tuning, guitar tablature, as well as all the basic ingredients of music that could really make you play the metal guitar, expenses involved even for the cheapest courses at around $160 may well be out of reach for the target group. These groups are mostly from the colleges and schools and comprise students. At the same time it could be an unwelcome experience not learning even the guitar chords for songs despite paying the fees somehow.

Online free metal guitar training myth – When you try learning metal guitar you will come across multiple ads online that would offer you some training for free. It may not be prudent to either believe or depend on them. Most of them are only the door opener to some other expensive programs. And what you get in free may not be even sufficient to make you a metal guitar player of average capabilities. You may not even learn the easy guitar chords. Even when one does not pay money, he or she spends time that is always precious.

Best methods of learning metal guitar – With a little way leading many people can learn metal guitar quite well. Those who lack the patience and will power to join the regular session or those who cannot afford the expenses could find appropriate place online. Finding a good and reputed provider who would impart qualitative training could sort your problems of searching for the best metal guitar learning methods. With the metal guitar tips given by such providers you would find it comparatively easier to learn metal guitar with perfection.

Best methods of learning metal guitar therefore would be to search for the quality provider where you get quality at an affordable price and that supports interactive communication.

Muna wa Wanjiru asked:


The sound of a guitar can make you feel better simply by the soothing tones you hear. For many people the guitar is not just an instrument to be listened to, it is an instrument that is calling out to be played and played with heart and soul. To enable these people to play the guitar with heart and soul there are various guitar tips they can look into.

These guitar tips can be given by friends who have been playing their guitar for some time and have proven to be successful. Other tips for guitar playing can be found with various guitar instructors. You will also find many guitar experts who are willing to share their various styles and techniques and who will have valuable guitar tips to impart.

These different guitar tips are great ways for you to find the best way of not just playing your guitar but also for keeping your guitar in great shape. You will find lots of guitar tips for just about every subject that is used in guitar playing.

For instance if you are left handed and you are feel that you can’t learn to play the guitar, there are tips that will let you see how to make the most of right handed guitars and left hand guitars too. There will also be great tips that you can find about the best type of guitar for a beginner to choose.

The internet has many resources that will help you out with guitar tips and you can use these to gain some more knowledge about the guitar tips that you are getting from your friends. Some of the guitar tip sites will also tell you what to do if you get calluses while you are learning to play.

The care for your guitar and what to do if you develop calluses or if your fingers hurt while you are playing the guitar are just of the few tips that you can find. There are however lots of other tips that you will find to be of use. These guitar tips will include how to play and write great sounding guitar riffs.

You will also find various tips for increasing your abilities in the different techniques that are used in guitar playing. Likewise there are many guitar tips that you can use for playing the different types of guitars like that of a bass guitar, an air guitar, the Spanish guitar or even that of the electrical guitar.

The many guitar tips that you can find and are told about are great ways to help you improve your playing. As you come across these different tips you might want to note them down for the times when you will need them later on. The addition of all of these guitar tips can help your playing to sound even smoother and better than you ever dreamt of being possible.

Liz asked:

Maybe you are a Guitar Hero game player, but now you think you want to learn to play a real guitar? The guitar hero game is fun, but it doesn’t teach you to play the guitar. Maybe you’ve been thinking that to be able to play the guitar and perform for others would be something you’d like to do.

Learning to play an instrument takes work – you don’t really get to “play” at it until you learn the basics and practice. Then, after you’ve learned to play some chords and you’ve learned a song or two, the fun starts. I know because I learned to play the guitar when I was ten years old! I learned to play some chords that you can use for many songs. That is a good way to start – you’ll feel that you accomplished something. For example, if you learn these chords: C, G. and D, there are many, many easy guitar songs that use them.

Online videos teach you various things such as tuning the guitar and changing strings (and look up the parts of the guitar – it’s good to learn that). There are beginner lessons on videos that can teach about guitar chords.

How hard is it to learn a song?

When I learned to play guitar, I had a guitar teacher and used some guitar chord books. Now that was quite a while ago and today there are so many other options to get guitar lessons for beginners. I know that the online lessons are good. But this has not changed: a quick way to learn is to learn one song. After that, learning the second and third song will be much easier!

What kind of guitar should you have?

Lots of beginning guitar players start with an acoustic guitar and many start with what is considered a classical guitar.(See this article about guitars).  A basic difference between those two types of guitars is the kind of strings – acoustic guitars have steel strings and classical (or folk) guitars have nylon strings. Believe me, the nylon strings are much easier to start out with because they don’t hurt your fingers as much!

Either kind of guitar is great to learn to play with. Some people start with electric guitar, especially if their goal is to play electric guitar in a rock band. For some kinds of music, an acoustic guitar is better, you’ll just have to decide what kind of music you want to play and get the guitar that is best for it.

So, go get a guitar, but don’t get a really cheap one. Make sure you hear the guitar played first. If you have to get someone in the guitar store to play it, then do that. Or take a friend with you that knows about guitars. Then, start learning your first song. You will become your own guitar hero!

Ricky Sharples asked:

An acoustic guitar does not have any electronic means of producing its sound. The music that comes out of it is a matter between the guitar and its player. Actually, once upon a time, all guitars were acoustic. Nowadays they need to be distinguished from electric guitars and acoustic guitars that have pickups in them to provide electronic means of amplification.

To the beginner guitar player it could be a surprise that there is an enormous range of sizes, shapes and materials in acoustic guitars. To most acoustic guitar players who only play popular music, the main distinction is between nylon string and steel string acoustic guitars. Within the classification of acoustic guitars there’s the Baroque guitar, the classical guitar, the Renaissance guitar, the archtop guitar, the flamenco guitar and the twelve string guitar.

The classical guitar is the basic model for the acoustic guitar. Even though steel string acoustic guitars have been developed with a cutaway body to help the guitarist reach the high notes, the classical guitar retains the standard shape which was more or less decided upon a couple of hundred years ago. Classical guitar players use their fingers to pluck and strum the strings, growing the nails on their right hands slightly longer than the nails on the left hand. Although it’s called a classical guitar, many guitarists from many genres have been seduced by the tone of the nylon string guitar. As a result you can find the nylon string sound in jazz, pop, folk or even blues music.

The flamenco guitar looks similar to a classical guitar but is lighter in color and weight. The flamenco guitar is traditionally much brighter in sound than the classical guitar even though in recent years many flamenco guitarists have been playing instruments with a more mellow sound similar to the classical guitar. A distinguishing characteristic of the flamenco guitar is the tapping plate which is a piece of white or transparent plastic attached to the body of the guitar just below the sound hole. You will sometimes find flamenco guitars that are fitted with wooden tuning pegs instead of machine heads. All guitars had these kind of tuning pegs once but now they are only retained because some flamenco guitarists prefers them because they keep the weight of the guitar to a minimum.

The twelve string guitar has six courses of strings, and it produces a much more complex sound than the six string. The twelve string guitar is made for strumming rather than picking or plucking because the individual courses do not easily lend themselves to single note playing. The twelve string has proved to be very attractive for guitarists who enjoyed experimenting with open tunings. Back in the 70s the image of Jimmy Page playing his double neck guitar was a rock ‘n roll icon. One neck was fitted with twelve strings which allowed him to move between six and twelve string guitar for different effects.

Efforts to make the guitar heard above other instruments in jazz bands of the early twentieth century resulted not only in the production of the electric guitar, but also the resonator guitar. In the resonator guitar the sound is produced by metal cones instead of by the wooden body of the guitar. The resonator did not help much with amplification but its distinctive sound has made it a favorite with bluegrass and blues players.