Archive for September, 2009
How much are guitar lessons? What is the general schedule?
September 26th, 2009 | 
Author:
If I wanted to take guitar lessons, as a beginner who’s never touched a guitar, how often would I have to go and how much is it per lesson? How long is each lesson?
Thanks!
The price of lessons varies from teacher to teacher. When I give lessons, I charge $25 an hour. No books are required, however they don’t hurt. The only thing your required to have is a guitar of your own so you can practice at home. I have chord charts written out on index cards, which I provide at no extra charge. I give the chords that I want the student to learn and practice between lessons. Lessons are typically once a week. This gives the student time to really learn the previous lesson and memorize the chords. My current student is a very fast learner and has picked up on playing very quickly. He was also a beginner, and after his 4th week, he’s already working on chord progressions and songs. How quickly you learn depends totally on how dedicated you are.
What is it that makes a guitar easier to play than other guitars? And what is it that makes it sound good?
What are the factors that make one guitar easier to play than another? I play guitar and I’ve noticed that some guitars are just easier to play. The pick seems to glide through the strings more fluidly and it seems to make a nice sound without much effort on some guitars, but on others it is hard to strum and it just sounds bad. My guitar is like this. I have a Gibson Epiphone and it sounds bad and I have trouble strumming on it. When I play someone else’s guitar or another guitar at a music store, I can play effortlessy. There are other guitars that sound bad and are hard to play, but it always seems like the one that I have is hard to play. Does it have to do with the strings? Does it have to do with how the strings are mounted? I was recently playing my roommate’s Schecter guitar, and the strings felt so firm, yet it was easy to play and it sounded good. I took the strings off of mine and put them on his. So the same strings that were on my bad sounding guitar, sounded good on his.
His guitar was also easier to play. The same exact strings that were on mine were used, yet his guitar was easier for me to play. I must be cursed.
Alright, factors are:
Woods and materials- Some woods, (ussually the heavier, more expensive ones) make a guitar sound better than one with a cheaper, lighter wood. High-end guitars tend to use woods such as mahogany or rosewood, light fast guitars have basswood or maple, while cheaper poor quality guitars have plywood or agathis.
Pickups- The pickups on a guitar make up the tone by about 70 percent. There are two basic types of pickups: Humbuckers and Singlecoils. Singlecoils are thin single pickups that produce a twangy, thin tone. Guitars such as stratocasters have these. Humbuckers were invented later, and were initially made to cancel feedback and unwanted noise (hence humbucker-cancel the hum) these make a fatter, warmer sound, and are more common for metal and heavy riffs. I beleive your gibson explorer has these.
Some cheap guitars come with…cheap pickups. You can change the pickups of a guitar and change the way it sounds completely. Good pickup manufacturers are EMG, Seymour Duncan and D’Marzzio (spelling anyone?)
Action- This is the space between the strings and the frets. Although the action determines feel and speed rather than tone, it still has something to do with the way your guitar sounds. A guitar with lower action will feel easier to play than a guitar with higher action.
Neck Thickness- Guitars with thicker necks, such as Gibsons, may be harder to play than ones with thinner necks, e.g Ibanez RG’s or Fender Stratocasters. But neck thickness doesn’t have much to do with sound. People with bigger hands may get tired on thin necks quickly, but think necks mean more speed, in most cases. Nuff said.
Amp settings- Very, very "duh" A good guitar through a bad amp will most likely sound bad. It’s just the way it is.
Strings- You’ve already talked about strings, but I thought I’d give you more insight. Strings can change both the feel and the sound of a guitar. There is a huge gauge and brand range. I use Ernie Ball Super Slinkies because I’m able to play faster on thinner strings, and yet they retain a full sound. This is all down to prefference. Strings however, wear out quicker than you think. If you practice two hours every day for two weeks, your strings will already be too old.
Change your strings. It may be the most annoying job in the world (not to mention expensive) but I’ll guarantee you you’ll play a lot better on newer strings than worn out ones.
Pickup height- I forgot about this. Your pickups have two small screws on the sides, loosening or tightening them change the height of your pickup, higher and closer to the strings gives you more tone and more crunch, while lower and closer to the body mellows it out and makes it cleaner. If you’re willing to try this I suggest the following: Don’t. Unless you know what you’re doing, don’t mess with a guitar’s electronics. But if you really really really want to, then unplug your guitar from the amp. Always disconnect it before making any changes to the electronics. Try to use a screwdriver which doesn’t have a magnetised tip, for obvious reasons. Keep a phone with a luthier’s number handy. Make equal turns on both sides and remember, smaaaall turns, the slightest nudge can change the tone completely. Too far or too in can kill your sound. And try to measure with a modeller’s ruler before you make any changes so you know how to get back to what you were like before just incase.
Frets- Better quality guitars have better polished frets. They’re a lot easier to play on. Higher frets and jumbo frets also add to feel. These frets are taller than frets like, say an acoustic guitar. This means you don’t have to press so hard to get a sound out, but it also means you have to play light or you’ll go out of tune. A scallopped fingerboard has the wood scooped out inbetween the frets, and it maximises this effect by quite a lot. However, it can sound really bad if you don’t play light.
And at the end of the day, it’s not the guitar that makes the music, it’s you.
Quote: "Nobody can make a $10 guitar sound good, but lots of people can make pleasant music on a $1,000 guitar. This is one commodity where price does make a difference"
I dissagree, a good musician can make pleasant music on a 10 dollar guitar, it just requires more effort. The great thing about music is that it doesn’t have to be perfect.
What do these guitar chords translate as on the ukulele?
I found a song I like and tried searching for the chords but they only come up as guitar chords while I want to know how to play it on the ukulele.
Does anyone know the conversion from guitar to ukulele?
Here are the chords they give. I want them in ukulele form:
A#, F, Cm, Dm, D#, E#
The 4 strings of the Uke are the same as the top 4 on the guitar. You would play a Dm the same as a guitar. you would play an F the same way, etc. It is tuned the same – D-G-B-E, only the D is an octive higher.
What are some actual good guitar tab sites?
I know about ‘911 Tab Search engine’, and ‘Ultimate-Guitar’ but there isn’t always good tabs.
Does anyone know any tab sites that only allow good tabs?
Rock and acoustic tabs preferably.
You want perfect tabs? Get Guitar Pro 5 and go to Ultimate-guitar.com and search for song and look for the Guitar Pro version with the most stars and open it up in Guitar Pro. Then you will be a badass.
If you cant afford Guitar Pro, Torrent it at Piratebay.org.
How easy would it be to learn guitar from scratch?
I’d love to be able to play the guitar. I’ve never played any instrument and never tried to learn. How easy would it be to learn from books by myself? Also what kind of guitar is best to learn as a beginner?
Just to add, it’s not as some kind of career/goal, just as a hobby 
i dont play it but i bet its very hard. you could get lessons.
Minor Blues Chord Progressions – Guitar Lesson
Study guitar online with Berklee:
http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/courses/guitar/?pid=2036
Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, Michael Williams explains minor blues progressions for the rhythm guitar in the style of BB King’s “The Thrill is Gone” in this Berklee guitar lesson.
Berkleemusic.com is the continuing education division of Berklee College of Music, delivering online access to Berklee’s acclaimed curriculum from anywhere in the world and teaching online music production, music business, songwriting, guitar, bass, music theory, arranging and performance. http://www.berkleemusic.com/?pid=2036
Duration : 0:4:12
Posted in guitar lessons | 
Tags: bb, bbking, berklee, Blues, chords, guitar, king, lesson | 
25 Comments »
How to play guitar Blues Guitar Lesson
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How to play guitar Blues Guitar Lesson
How to play guitar Blues Guitar Lesson
Duration : 0:8:16
ViewDo: How To Play Beginner Guitar Chords
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Learn how to play the basic beginner guitar chords. This handy viewdo shows you the way a chord should be formed and how it should sound, perfect for those who are just starting out.
Duration : 0:4:2
How to Read Guitar Tabs
View more @ http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/Beginner/reading-guitar-tab.html
Beginner lesson on how to read guitar tabs by Peter Vogl.
Duration : 0:4:42
Posted in guitar tab |
Tags: acoustic, beginner, freeguitarvideos, guitar, how, lesson, peter, read, tablature, tabs, to, vogl |
25 Comments »
learning guitar beginners lesson #1
1st in a series of video lessons, designed to teach even the most inexperienced guitar player the basics and eventually more advanced techniques.
Duration : 0:6:53