Guitar FAQs
Guitar Q and AÂ Â by Ben Edwards - Author of the Jamorama Guitar Learning System
Â
Q:Â Ben, do you have any suggestions for warming up?
A:Â When you are getting ready to play a gig, practice by yourself
or with a group you should warm up. In the previous lesson we
talked about warming up your hands to prevent injury or pain to day
I am going to talk about warming up your ear before you play.
I think that many players don’t take the time to tune their ears
before they play. Ear training is a crucial skill for any musician
to have and it can greatly improve your musicianship if you have a
skilled ear.
When you are first learning the guitar the best easiest way to
train your ear is to tune your guitar. That’s right, by listening
to the notes your guitar is playing when you tune up you can
improve your ear. So even if you have an electric tuner, take some
time to try and tune your guitar by ear before you tune it with the
tuner.
After you have tuned your guitar start with some scales and note
identification. The best way to do this is to sing out the notes.
Even if you are not a singer and you have no intention in becoming
one, singing out notes will quickly train your ear into identifying
scales and intervals.
If you have a good ear for music you will find playing a lot easier
and more rewarding.
Q: How do I find musical ideas?
A: One of the challenges all musicians have is finding ideas for
music. When you are creating original music it is important to have
steady stream of inspiration. It is important to note that people
can find inspiration from many differing things depending on their
personality.
Living your life is the best source of material for songs. Try and
be aware of everything around you. Take notes about people and
situations you experience, documenting your reactions to them. Your
own reactions are important because personal songs are often the
best and easiest to write for many musicians.
Another tool that can be very useful when writing a song is to put
yourself in someone else’s shoes or situation. If you find yourself
stuck in a rut then this can also be a good way to change your
style of writing.
When it comes to writing music it is important to try and develop
you musicianship. New skills are like doorways to new songs. Many
times you will learn a new technique and a whole song can be built
around that. For this reason I believe it is important to always be
on the lookout for new skills and ideas.
One of the best ways to pick up the new skills is to learn other
musician’s techniques. What I mean by that is when you see one of
your musician friends playing something interesting try and learn
it. This does not mean you should rip off another person’s song,
however use those music and ideas to inspire you.
Becoming proficient at your instrument will make it a lot simpler
to think of good ideas for your songs.
Melodies are all inside you and they don’t have to be complex. When
you are singing to yourself in the shower remember that even the
simplest three note melodies have the potential to become songs.
You can find ideas for music and lyrics all around you. Don’t be
afraid to open your mind and come up with new and interesting
concepts. Experiment with your song and music writing until you
create something that you believe in and that is fun to play. And
be sure to let me know how your writing is going!
Â
Q. I am a left handed guitarist. Is there anything special I
need to do when it comes to playing the guitar? Do I need a left
handed guitar? Does your Jamorama course cater to left handed players?
A. Many people feel that left-handers are at an advantage when
it comes to learning guitar. First if you are learning the guitar
around the left handed way then you will have your guitar the
same way as anyone you’re playing with and also your guitar will be
the same way round as traditional chord diagrams (this of course
makes it easier to understand what the diagram shows). Also if you
are left handed and play your guitar right handed then you will
have your strongest hand (your left) fretting the strings which is
one of the hardest things for beginners to master.
Please note that I don’t recommend learning to play the guitar
around the “wrong way” as it can impede developing a good solid
sense of rhythm. However playing round the wrong way can be
beneficial for SOME players.
In terms of the actual guitar when it comes to classical guitars
it is not problem just to reverse the strings. With electrics and
other acoustics it can be better to invest in a left handed
guitar. Some players have no problem stringing electrics upside down
(Jimi Hendrix for one) so if you think that will suit you try it.
In terms of my Jamorama course being good for left-handers, as
I pointed out there is no specialist left handed material. It is
not necessary. One of my friends is left handed and he has gone
through the course with no problems. In fact you may find it
easier than a left hander because of the way that our chord charts are
written.
By the way, I did a quick search for left-handed musicians and
found quite a few including:
David Byrne (Talking Heads)
Glen Campbell
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)
Dick Dale (guitarist)
Don and Phil Everly
Bela Fleck, jazz musician
Glenn Frey (the Eagles)
Eric Gale, guitarist
Noel Gallagher (Oasis) (?)
Kevin Griffin, guitarist & lead singer (Better than Ezra)
Jimi Hendrix
Isaac Hayes
Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
Albert King, guitarist
Paul McCartney (the Beatles; Wings)
George Michael (Wham!)
Joe Perry (Aerosmith)
Robert Plant (Led Zepplin)
John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols / Public Image
Ltd.)
Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
Lenny White, drummer
Â
Q:Â I’m having trouble ‘alternate picking’. What can I do?
A:Â The main problem with alternate picking comes when you are
picking a note in the opposite direction of the next string that
you’re going to play. For instance, if your last note was a
downstroke on the G string, and your next note is an upstroke on
the D string, then your pick has to travel a more complicated path
than if you are picking up on G and down on D. What to do?
Some people just refuse to let their picking hand do the more
difficult move, by trying to put a hammer on or a pull off to time
the direction of the pick to a more favorable direction. Others
might just be using the pick to start the string in motion, but are
doing all hammer or pull offs other than the first note on a string.
But let’s concentrate on what to do if you are using the versatile
alternate picking method. Since we don’t want to limit the note
choices, or string choices, in any way, we have to just get good at
dealing with the problem.
Practice going back and forth between two strings picking in the
opposite direction. For example, play a C on the 3rd string (5th fret)
with a downstroke followed by an E on the 4th string (2nd fret)with an upstroke. Repeat the C and E one more time.
Next, bring the C down to a B (1 fret) on the 3rd string with a downstroke,
followed by the same E on the 4th with an upstroke. Repeat the B
and E. Just to make a slightly musical pattern, do the same thing,
but change the B down to an A, doing the same pattern. To make the
pattern symmetrical, return the A back up to a B and play B,E,B,E,
just like the second pattern.
It will take a lot less time to play this than to read about it, so
try to muddle through this explanation to get to the actual notes,
it’s not hard to play this as long as you don’t try to play it too
fast.
As with all exercises, do it slowly and as accurately as possible
at first. Doing this exercise addresses one of the most important
points about practicing and improvements.
I hope this helps, and didn’t confuse you too much!
Q. I am having problems tuning my 12-string guitar. How do I do it?
A. Even though it may look like a big challenge, ’standard’ tuning
a 12-string guitar is actually quite easy. For the bottom four
strings (four thickest) you will tune each pair of strings to the
same note but the thinner one will be tuned an octave higher.
An octave is the interval between a note and a note with the same name either higher or lower, example: E4 - E5. The top two strings (two thinnest) have both strings tuned to the same note at the same pitch so they sound exactly the same.
Sounds simple? In theory it is, however when strings are tuned in
octaves it is easy to hear slight mistunings. For this reason it is
important to tune your strings perfectly when you are tuning a
12-string. Also sometimes you may have a problem keeping some of
the strings in tune as the some of the smaller strings are tuned
quite tightly. For this reason I think it can be a good idea to get
the best quality strings you can when stringing up a 12-string. Ask
your local dealer about strings, hopefully they can help you out.
Â
Q. How do I get a metal sound?
A. Many people start playing guitar, because they hear a super
heavy hardcore riff on the radio and it inspires them to become a
musician. That’s cool because heavy metal is a fun genre of music
that is also a rewarding genre for guitarists. The sound of a
hardcore metal guitar is awesome; however getting ‘that’ sound can
be difficult.
First let me note that there are many variations in metal sounds
depending on the bands style and how heavy they are. Just like any
genre of music there are many variations depending on the band or
song. Also lead players need a different tone when they are
playing.
However there is a basic ‘metal tone’. This is essentially loud
and as distorted as you can be. Often it is common in metal to
’scoop’ the tone. This means that you should put your bass and
treble near full and pull your mids back to around 3 or so. The
results this can have may vary wildly depending on the kind of amp
you have, so experiment with your equipment.
When it comes to your guitar, generally metal guitarists use
humbucker pickups. This is because they reduce feedback and give
off a warmer fatter sound. For this reason if you find you are
having trouble getting a good sound out of your guitar maybe you
need to think about whether you have the right kind of pick ups.
Â
So try these ideas if you are having trouble getting the right
metal sound. Remember these are only guidelines for you to
experiment with. Remember turn your amps up to eleven and rock
out.
Another way to get a good metal sound is the use of distortion or
effects pedals. This gets into an area that really can’t be
covered in the Tech Tips section of this newsletter, but it’s an
important topic to talk about. It can’t be covered because guitar
sound is very personal, and the ideal sound for one guitarist won’t
sound good to others.
This discussion also quickly gets into using effects pedals and
which ones “sound the best”. I’ll cover using pedals in general in
later newsletters but suffice to say that there are some secrets
and tricks to effects pedals.Â
I have used a ton of pedals in my years of playing and touring, and
this is what I’ve learned. Chances are pretty good that no one
pedal is going to give you your ideal sound. Part of developing
your sound will come from how you use your guitar, some will come
from the amp you use and some will come from the pedal.Â
In the search for the ideal sound a lot of guitarists get trapped
in the “one more pedal” syndrome. Or they research the pedal that
their favorite guitarist uses and expect that buying that pedal
will let them be able to sound like that guitarist. The fact is
that there is a lot going on “under the hood” of any pedal, and
that many if not MOST pedals used by high profile guitarists are
MODIFIED.
If you are at that stage in your guitar playing where you are
seriously looking to develop a sound, and you have some technical
skills YOU can learn how to modify your pedal to help you achieve
the sound you’re after. Now giving you all the information you
need is FAR more detailed than I have room for in a newsletter but
you can find out ALL ABOUT PEDAL MODS, and even get a few mods FREE
at GuitarTone. Follow the link to find out all about pedal mods:Â
http://www.jamorama.com/special-offers.php?type=guitartone
Â
Q:Â Can you tell me about the different kinds of guitar cables?
A:Â A guitar cable is basically the same as a standard 1/4 inch
line level cable. The connectors can be the same and the cable can
be the same. For all practical purposes they can be used
interchangeably. Some cables come with extra thick jackets or
jackets made out of special fabric and other exotic materials, and
those are marketed as guitar cables because they are likely to be
more durable than a standard cable (plus many of them look cool).
Can you use them to connect the crossover to an amp in your amp
rack? Sure. Conversely some cables may come with extra small
jackets and foil shields (which are not as durable as braided
shields, but often better at rejecting unwanted signals), which
makes them better suited for permanent connections like the inside
of a rack. Can they be used on a guitar? Sure, the first time you
roll a road case over it you’ll probably break it, but it will work
until then. So they are basically interchangeable, but you need to
apply a little common sense.
There is a lot of debate in the industry about the merits of
different types of cables, and some exotic cables cost 10 or 20
times more than a generic off-the-shelf cable. Some people say they
can easily hear the difference and others say it doesn’t matter as
long as the cable meets some minimum requirements. Further, some
companies (Monster Cable for one) claim there IS a difference in
performance between cables used for different tasks. Thus they
manufacture cables optimized for bass, guitar, keyboards and more
(they even make some distinctions for musical style).
Some people declare this is marketing BS and that there is no real
difference, while others say it absolutely makes an audible
difference. Monster does have a lot of pretty impressive names on
their client list so it’s hard to vehemently argue that there is no
difference at all. If someone says they hear it, then you have to
give them some benefit of the doubt. In general most people will
agree that you simply want to use the best cables you can afford.
Maybe your budget doesn’t quite allow you to stretch up to an
exotic brand like Monster or Mogami, but you would be well served
to get as close as you can. Our technical support department claims
that nearly 50% of all of their calls relate in some way to
cabling. We say to spend the money and do it right so you don’t
have to chase your tail later.
Â
Q. What is, and how do I use, a capo?
A. One of my favorite ‘toys’ to use on the guitar is the Capo. For
those of you whom aren’t familiar with what a capo is it is a tool
that is attached to the neck of a guitar to change where the ‘nut’
of the guitar is. For example, a capo can be attached to the second
fret of a guitar and that would shift the nut up two frets. So,
what does this all mean for us? Well, the reason that I love using
a capo so much is that it really gives a different and wonderful
tone to the guitar, it then also allows us as players to add
another feather to our hat. Capos are often used in country, folk
and acoustic playing, however don’t let that stop you using one on
your heavily distorted rock guitar track you are writing at the
moment, it may just be the secret ingredient you are after.
Ok, so what are the tips and tricks that I can share about capos.
First you need to get one. There are cheap capos and there are
expensive ones, honestly I would suggest spending a little more and
purchasing a better quality capo as the cheap ones have a tendency
to not hold the strings down hard enough, or can break easily. A
good capo, will cost more but will last you for years and years to
come. Jim Dunlop and Shubb make really good models.Â
Placement of the capo, there is no hard and fast rule about how far
up on the guitar neck you can place a capo, just bear in mind that
the higher up you place it the more it will sound like a mandolin
or ukulele. Once you have decided on a fret to place it on make
sure that you place it directly behind the fret in front. That is
the best placement to ensure that all strings are held done well.
If you have purchased a capo that has to be manually tightened then
make sure you have done it up tight enough to hold the strings down
without any string buzzing. You will soon find out whether it is
tight enough or not because as you start to play if it loosens and
starts to buzz then you will need to tighten it back up again.
I suggest that you go and give a capo a try, I love them and they
really open up a new tonal platter to us.
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
This FREE course in brought to you by Jamorama - The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit
