Paul asked
What type of pick do you use and thickness ??
Good question.
I use a Jim Dunlop 0.60mm  Grey nylon pick.
I’ve used those for about 15 years and I find them
very easy to play with because they have a good flex
for strumming. I like to feel the pick bend a bit when I’m playing rhythm parts.
Then when I pick solos for instance I will hold the pick a little closer to the end
which then keeps the pick more rigid and easier to pick fast runs or riffs.
There is no rules when It come to picks. What pick you use is really a
personal choice. A choice of what you like.
If you don’t yet have a favorite pick then go to you local
music shop and grab a handful ranging in thicknesses from thin to
thick.
Play everything you know with each pick and play just one type for a few days
and then try another.
When I first started play guitar I used really heavy picks and I was heavy handed also
so i would often break strings. Then one of my teachers suggested I try a lighter pick (.60mm)
I did and it felt very strange until I stuck with that pick for a week and I never went back
to the heavy ones.
Happy Pickin
mmmm I think I finally figured this out
Follow Me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/GuitarTweet
any help appreciated =)
Music Fundamentals – Timing
This week I’ve been working with my private
students on the real fundamentals of timing.
Here’ a quick link to a great free online
metronome you can use to practice with
http://www.metronomeonline.com/
Try starting with chord exercises and progressions
say between 60bpm – 80bpm
then moving to scales and maybe riffs and licks.
No matter if you play drums, piano, guitar, or any
other musical instrument, timing has an enormous
affect on how good you will sound.
Impeccable timing will make even the dullest melody
shine, while poor timing will make a fantastic
melody loose its appeal.
Remember timing is a
skill that can be learned and improved.
If you want to get something that you can play along
to that sounds better than that incessant “TICK TICK TICK”
I recommend you look at the quickbeat Drummer.
This one has tons of real sampled drumbeats to jam
along with.
This one is not free but worth a look anyway
http://guitarminute.com/QuickBeatDrummer
Keep Rocking
Heath
GuitarMinute.com
GuitarMinute.com/blog
RiffmasterPro.com
Are you still here?
Go grab your instrument!
Hey Guitar folks , got this question from a Guitar Minute subscriber
the other day and I gave my thoughts on the subject of the pro’s
con’s of having a whammy bar on your guitar.
Comment below and give Hytham a few points of view
===============================
Dear Heath- Hytham here I am a first buy guitarist and I would like to play mainly
Rock genre and a little metal.
There has been a guitar that has interested me
(Gibson Rogue HH Ash Electric guitar )but the thing is, it has no whammy bar.
I hear that the whammy bar is important for my type of music and
I also just really enjoy the sound of a whammy bar.
I am a smaller fingered person and I love the look of all gibson,
fender and Kramer styles. I dislike the look of dean and other weird shaped
electric guitars. my budget is $200-250.
-Do I really need a whammy bar?
-Are there better guitars in the market, preferably with a whammy bar?
-Is there anything else you would like to tell me?
Thank you for your time and advice.
Regards Hytham
ANSWER
Hey Hytham
Well for starters the guitar you are looking at is a great begining
instrument and would suit the music you want to play.
Do you need a Whammy bar?
Simple answer is no
I would also say that if you want to have a guitar with a whammy
make sure you have a guitar with out one as well.
Having a whammy bar can be a pain in the butt if you are just
staring out playing because they go out of tune a lot if you use them
and they require a bit of experience to use and keep the guitar in tune.
There are looking whammy systems but they do come with the added
pain that they can be a real pain to re-string especially if you are a beginner.
I have a guitar with one and a guitar with out.
My suggestion is that you start with a guitar with out a whammy
and then when you can buy one with a whammy.
At your level of guitar playing avoid putting anything in the way of
you learning to play well.
Great question
Keep Rocking
p.s. got some great videos coming up in the next few days
from a guitar coach buddy of mine. Keep an eye out for them
To play guitar well at the best of times you need to be relaxed and practiced.
Many times we can have difficulty playing a particular part in a song because
we are not “loose†or “warmed upâ€.
I suggest to all my students, every practice session they do, to be preceded with
warm up exercises (about 10 mins)
Avoid injury
Our hands have a very complex set of muscles that need to be trained and
strengthened to comply with what’s required to play well.
Like athletes we need to warm up those muscle, tendons and joints so they
can perform at their peak when needed.
If you start out just going hard you can develop injuries that can stay for months.
I did this once and ended up playing gigs and rehearsals with pain in my left hand
which would not end until i began to look after my hands
Muscle memory
By taking simple exercises and playing them repeatedly we develop
a muscle or finger memory. After a number of repeats your fingers will
start automatically going where they are suppose to without much effort.
Strumming basic chord exercises can help you get those hard to get chord
changes moving fluently
E.g.: C / / / / |F / / / / | G7 / / / | C / / / | Rpt
or something a little more challenging
E7 / B7 / |A7 / Am7 /| B / F#7 F#b9 | E7 |
Below is a simple warm up using all four fingers on your left hand
(if your play right handed) on all strings and using alternate picking (down + up)
Using the fingers on your left hand consecutively 1, 2, 3, 4 one finger per fret whilst picking down up with your right hand. Then move on to the next string and repeat the process .
The most common mistake made here is to go too fast too soon.
Take it slow and even, the object is to get consistency, good tone and team work
between your hands NOT speed. That will come naturally if you get the exercise going correctly.
There are 23 other combinations of this exercise using your four
fingers try em all.
Have Fun
Keep Playing
Heath
Couple of cool blues licks I found, worth
a try regardless of your level
Playing the Blues is a fundamental skill you need as a
guitar player. Enjoy
Ok so you got a few blues licks down but no-one to play em’ with.
I just downloaded 80 free blues tracks,
all of them awesome . There is a free 12 bar Blues , shuffle blues
a blues ballads and more. These are incredible backing tracks, and really fun
to play with. I just spent the last forty minutes just jamming along to the
first free one. Very cool . And did I mention they are free? Yes nobody
gives stuff this quality away grab them while he is still giving them away.
Hey there, Yes finally I caught up with
technology and blogging ‘n’stuff
now this give me much more time to create
useful stuff for you guys and gals instead of scratching
my head trying to build webpages.
Have a look around the whole blog if you like
i’m going to be posting evrything here from now
on.
Also looking for anyone interested in contributing
with articles or reviews on fun guitar stuff.
drop me a line heath@guitarminute.com
if you wish to contribute.
Cheers
Heath 
Maybe you’ve heard that expression before when a musician “plays by earâ€
What does that mean exactly? It means that a musician will play a note or phrase
or riff, after only hearing the note, phrase or riff.
Have you ever seen or known someone who can do that? I saw my guitar teacher do that when I was just beginning guitar and I set about doing just that. I had often wished there was something to help me along. More on that in a moment…..
It’s a very important skill to have as a musician. Training your ear to “hear†the notes.
Many guitar players, famous and non famous spend their entire playing lives playing by ear. They may never read from a piece of written music ever!
While this is the path of many I also recommend learning some form of written music, even if you learn only the basics. What ever you learn as a player can be good for you and can help you move forward.
Now this article is about Playing by ear so I want to give you some tips to get started
1.TUNE YOUR GUITAR BY EAR
The very first thing you can do to train your ear is to tune your guitar by ear.
If you have an electric tuner then only tune the 6th string and then use the 5th fret method to continue on the other strings (if you don’t know this method then email me and I send you a lesson on it)
2.SING THE NOTES
When you tune your strings, sing the notes as you go and get into the habit of hearing the notes of the open strings.
3.LISTEN FOR THE NOTES Pick a favorite song. This song should have guitar as prominent as possible. and chose something simple to begin with.
Then pick up you guitar and see if you can pick out one or two notes from the song.
That’s it , don’t expect to instantly work out the whole tune if you haven’t done much ear training before. It takes time to “tune†your ears to hear the different notes and chords.
Set yourself a weekly task to work out a few more notes from those songs and work on it bit by bit.
4.LISTEN
Listen to Music a lot. All styles of music.
5.SING THE NOTES YOU HEAR
Sing the notes you hear and then match those notes on the guitar.
At first this may be a trial and error process, so don’t be discouraged you will get if you stick at it.
Many people say they can never get it or they are “tone deaf†…. That’s garbage. If you stick at it you will train you ear.
Anyway back to the story….. When I was younger and I was attempting to train my ear and work out songs on the radio I would get very frustrated and I would wish there was a way I could somehow take a song or guitar riff or lick and slow down music so I could play along and work out the notes.
Well …now there is such a thing. It’s called RiffMaster Pro. This wonderful software can take a music file on your computer play it at normal or varying slower speeds and still retain the pitch of the song. Its helped me to learn songs super quickly when I don’t know the tunes. I can play a blisteringly fast solo of any guitar player and slow it down to learn it and then I can speed it up as I get better.
Why am I promoting this? Because I built it. I believe, that this next version 3 to be released very soon is the best, Ive listened to hundreds of users and what they wanted and the best features for musicians are included, have a look and decide for yourself.
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- Different Perspective on your playing
- Helps you improve
- Prepares you for recording sessions
- Allows you to experiment and have fun.
Resources
Sony Acid Studio
(easy to use and comes with 3000+loops)
Acid Page Here
Audacity Free Multi channel recorder software
Get Audacity here
this Video on a cool Rhythm lick from the REd Hot Chilli Peppers
the Band that is check it out. Have fun!
here is the tab Can’t Stop
