Monday, 10 December 2007
Monday, 3 December 2007
Buying Your First Guitar (2)
You're in the guitar shop. What are you looking at?
The average guitar store will have rows of guitars hanging on the walls. Usually they will be grouped in all acoustic, all electrics and possibly, basses.
Let's say you have decided that a steel strung acoustic is going to suit the type of music that you most want to play. OK! that narrows your choice. You can ignore all the electrics and all the nylon strung "classical" guitars.
What you will now be confronted with is a range of guitars that all look superficially the same. However, they are NOT all the same!
The shape of the body, the type of wood and the construction of both the parts you can see - body, neck/fingerboard, bridge and headstock/tuners etc - as well as the parts you CAN'T see - internal bracing, neck to body joint etc - will all have a bearing on both the playability and sound of the instrument, as well as the price!!
Price will probably be the next thing that narrows your choice! So, you have now got a range of guitars from your maximum possible price, down to the cheapest in the shop!
Physical size (both YOU and the instrument!) is also going to come into play in your decision making process.
(I am assuming, for the purposes of this exercise, that you are an adult. For small children, who are not yet fully developed, you are likely to be looking at an instrument that is both 3/4 size and nylon strung.)
Most of the steel strung acoustic guitars manufactured today are based on the size and shape range established by the Martin guitar company over it's long history. Therefore the guitars you are looking at will, in all likelihood be based on the following styles:- 00, 000, J = Jumbo, and D = Dreadnought. Go to http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/choosing/sizes to see diagrams and descriptions of these styles and sizes.
At this point you will be wanting to actually get your hands on a guitar!
TIP! Ask the store assistant to get the guitar(s) you are interested in off the wall! Don't just take them down without asking! You will want the staff in the store to be interested and helpful, so don't take the risk of damaging their stock!
If the guitar store doesn't have a soundproof demo room, get your friendly assistant to take your possible choices to a quiet corner and sit down and see how they each feel physically, ie:-
Does it feel comfortable to get your arm round, or does it feel too big and cumbersome for you? Does it balance well when resting on your leg, or does the headstock end tend to want to sink towards the floor? Can you press the strings down to the frets up and down the fingerboard without having to use undue pressure?
At this point you might want to put one or more of your preliminary choices to one side if they don't pass these "comfort " tests.
Now, assuming you haven't got a guitar playing friend with you, ask the assistant to tune up the guitars that remain as possibles and play some simple chords and single string runs. You do want to avoid, if possible, having him/her tearing into their favourite "flash" licks! What you want to hear is what each instrument will sound like once YOU have started to play it!
Ask the assistant to describe each guitar as you listen to it. What woods are used in it's construction, are they solid or laminated? How is the the neck joined to the body? Dovetail joint? Mortise & Tenon? Or, horror of horrors, Bolt On?
You will gradually, and this will take a bit of time, begin to hear the difference in tone - is it brash and treble dominated or more mellow etc. - and sustain - ie. how long the note "rings" for - between solid and laminated woods, rosewood & mahogany (this is much more subtle) and all the other variants that have been developed by the individual luthier or manufacturer.
It is worth bearing in mind that a higher price, name on the headstock, or country of manufacture, isn't ALWAYS going to give you the best instrument for YOUR particular needs. It is a useful exercise to turn your back whilst each guitar is played - chosen at random from your selection - and choose with your ears only!
Finally - for this post anyway -, do not allow the staff or other, more experienced guitarists, to intimidate you. Ask all the questions, get all the answers and make up your OWN mind! If the staff are not friendly, helpful and enthusiastic, go elsewhere! It's your money and your guitar playing pleasure for many years to come that's important.
Lots more info and tips soon.
The average guitar store will have rows of guitars hanging on the walls. Usually they will be grouped in all acoustic, all electrics and possibly, basses.
Let's say you have decided that a steel strung acoustic is going to suit the type of music that you most want to play. OK! that narrows your choice. You can ignore all the electrics and all the nylon strung "classical" guitars.
What you will now be confronted with is a range of guitars that all look superficially the same. However, they are NOT all the same!
The shape of the body, the type of wood and the construction of both the parts you can see - body, neck/fingerboard, bridge and headstock/tuners etc - as well as the parts you CAN'T see - internal bracing, neck to body joint etc - will all have a bearing on both the playability and sound of the instrument, as well as the price!!
Price will probably be the next thing that narrows your choice! So, you have now got a range of guitars from your maximum possible price, down to the cheapest in the shop!
Physical size (both YOU and the instrument!) is also going to come into play in your decision making process.
(I am assuming, for the purposes of this exercise, that you are an adult. For small children, who are not yet fully developed, you are likely to be looking at an instrument that is both 3/4 size and nylon strung.)
Most of the steel strung acoustic guitars manufactured today are based on the size and shape range established by the Martin guitar company over it's long history. Therefore the guitars you are looking at will, in all likelihood be based on the following styles:- 00, 000, J = Jumbo, and D = Dreadnought. Go to http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/choosing/sizes to see diagrams and descriptions of these styles and sizes.
At this point you will be wanting to actually get your hands on a guitar!
TIP! Ask the store assistant to get the guitar(s) you are interested in off the wall! Don't just take them down without asking! You will want the staff in the store to be interested and helpful, so don't take the risk of damaging their stock!
If the guitar store doesn't have a soundproof demo room, get your friendly assistant to take your possible choices to a quiet corner and sit down and see how they each feel physically, ie:-
Does it feel comfortable to get your arm round, or does it feel too big and cumbersome for you? Does it balance well when resting on your leg, or does the headstock end tend to want to sink towards the floor? Can you press the strings down to the frets up and down the fingerboard without having to use undue pressure?
At this point you might want to put one or more of your preliminary choices to one side if they don't pass these "comfort " tests.
Now, assuming you haven't got a guitar playing friend with you, ask the assistant to tune up the guitars that remain as possibles and play some simple chords and single string runs. You do want to avoid, if possible, having him/her tearing into their favourite "flash" licks! What you want to hear is what each instrument will sound like once YOU have started to play it!
Ask the assistant to describe each guitar as you listen to it. What woods are used in it's construction, are they solid or laminated? How is the the neck joined to the body? Dovetail joint? Mortise & Tenon? Or, horror of horrors, Bolt On?
You will gradually, and this will take a bit of time, begin to hear the difference in tone - is it brash and treble dominated or more mellow etc. - and sustain - ie. how long the note "rings" for - between solid and laminated woods, rosewood & mahogany (this is much more subtle) and all the other variants that have been developed by the individual luthier or manufacturer.
It is worth bearing in mind that a higher price, name on the headstock, or country of manufacture, isn't ALWAYS going to give you the best instrument for YOUR particular needs. It is a useful exercise to turn your back whilst each guitar is played - chosen at random from your selection - and choose with your ears only!
Finally - for this post anyway -, do not allow the staff or other, more experienced guitarists, to intimidate you. Ask all the questions, get all the answers and make up your OWN mind! If the staff are not friendly, helpful and enthusiastic, go elsewhere! It's your money and your guitar playing pleasure for many years to come that's important.
Lots more info and tips soon.
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Buying your first guitar (1)
Buying your first guitar can be very exciting! It can also mean making decisions about which type of guitar you buy.
When I bought my first guitar (see my profile in the side panel) I purchased totally the wrong guitar for what I wanted! I, unfortunately, had nobody to advise me. So read the following. I hope it will put you on course for a long and happy guitar playing career.
Guitars fall into two main groups, as follows:-
When I bought my first guitar (see my profile in the side panel) I purchased totally the wrong guitar for what I wanted! I, unfortunately, had nobody to advise me. So read the following. I hope it will put you on course for a long and happy guitar playing career.
Guitars fall into two main groups, as follows:-
Acoustic and Electric
The acoustic guitar, once again, splits in to two main categories:
NYLON STRUNG AND STEEL STRUNG.
Electric guitars also split into two main categories:
SOLID AND SEMI-ACOUSTIC
But note! either acoustic or electric can cover numerous sub-divisions, which I will go into later.
So, which type will suit you best .......................? Well it depends basically on the type of music which you will, in the main, be playing. To give you an example. Let's say you are fanatical about Country Music. The immediate and obvious answer, which a shop assistant might suggest, would be a Fender Telecaster (Solid & Electric), but wait! One of the great session musicians in the Country genre is Jerry Reed and he did some of his best stuff on a nylon strung acoustic! (Go to You Tube and search under Jerry Reed and you will see what I mean)
By the same token, of course, you can play classical music on a Telecaster! And why not, say I! Although you will find that some snooty and narrow minded musicians in ALL genres will look down their noses if you play what they consider to be the "wrong" type of instrument! But hey! Be different! Do your own thing and create a whole new style of music!
So, where does this leave us? Well, my suggestion would be to first of all make a list of all the different types of music that interests you and then grade it, 1 - 10, moderately interested to "you're an absolute anorak about it"!
If your top choice comes out as......................
"Love to write & sing my own songs,
especially on a beach at night,
with a big campfire and some good friends"...................
............... I would suggest an acoustic (steel or nylon strung) would be the first tick in the box!
If on the other hand you want to form a band called: "Visigoths of Megadeath" * then a solid electric guitar with powerful humbuckers (will explain later) and a hugely powerful amp, would be my gut reaction recommendation for you!
* Apologies to all those bands who are called "Visigoths of Megadeath"...... and a jolly good name it is too.
I am going to finish this post for now, but I will return within the next couple of days and go into more detail about....... humbuckers versus single coils, laminated woods or solid, how much do you need to pay, what about an amp...... etc.
One final thought for today. If your Great Aunt Jemima is planning to buy you a guitar for Christmas, please point her in the direction of this blog..... or, ask for the cash and follow my hints and tips yourself!
The twang's the thang!
Friday, 23 November 2007
Christmas Carols and Guitars etc.
I enjoyed noisyoptomist's comment, especially as my own daughter has just received a cello as a birthday present. However, as she has her own home with husband and daughters, at least it's not me who has to get the earplugs!
Noisyoptomist's No.1 daughter might be interested in the following web site I came across when I was looking for guitar chords for carols http://www.guitar.about.com/
More musings soon.
Noisyoptomist's No.1 daughter might be interested in the following web site I came across when I was looking for guitar chords for carols http://www.guitar.about.com/
More musings soon.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
What is a guitar?
Hello again,
So you've decided the guitar is going to be your means of creative expression!
Excellent choice! But how did the guitar arrive on this planet and how did it get to look like all those you see hanging on the walls of your favourite musical instrument store?
The most widely held view is that the acoustic guitar is derived from the "viola" or "vihuela" described in the 15th century by Johannes Tinctoris, writing in Naples in about 1487 when he describe "a viola without a bow, flat and curving in on both sides and plucked with the fingers"
This same Johannes Tinctoris also describes an instrument called a "ghiterra" or "ghiterna" which he says was "invented by the Catalans and shaped like a tortoise" He is almost certainly describing the round-backed lute here.
From the beginning of the 17th century through to the end of the 18th century the guitar was gradually developed, principally in Spain, France and Germany, from the very small instrument with four pairs, or "courses" of strings, to the six string instrument that we recognise today.
Among hundreds of European luthiers who had an influence on the development of the guitar, two stand out as true innovators: Antonio de Torres in Spain and Christian Friedrich Martin in Germany.
These guitars were, of course, acoustic and mostly used to accompany the voice, but as they moved to America with the waves of immigration in the 19th and early 20th century, they began to be used for the rich diversity of music that was as varied as the people themselves and possibly the modern, steel strung "flat top" (and later arch-tops and electric) guitar had found it's true home!
Well that's enough of the history lesson! In my next posting I shall talk about how you can decide which type of guitar best suits the sort of music you are interested in.
'Bye for now.
So you've decided the guitar is going to be your means of creative expression!
Excellent choice! But how did the guitar arrive on this planet and how did it get to look like all those you see hanging on the walls of your favourite musical instrument store?
The most widely held view is that the acoustic guitar is derived from the "viola" or "vihuela" described in the 15th century by Johannes Tinctoris, writing in Naples in about 1487 when he describe "a viola without a bow, flat and curving in on both sides and plucked with the fingers"
This same Johannes Tinctoris also describes an instrument called a "ghiterra" or "ghiterna" which he says was "invented by the Catalans and shaped like a tortoise" He is almost certainly describing the round-backed lute here.
From the beginning of the 17th century through to the end of the 18th century the guitar was gradually developed, principally in Spain, France and Germany, from the very small instrument with four pairs, or "courses" of strings, to the six string instrument that we recognise today.
Among hundreds of European luthiers who had an influence on the development of the guitar, two stand out as true innovators: Antonio de Torres in Spain and Christian Friedrich Martin in Germany.
These guitars were, of course, acoustic and mostly used to accompany the voice, but as they moved to America with the waves of immigration in the 19th and early 20th century, they began to be used for the rich diversity of music that was as varied as the people themselves and possibly the modern, steel strung "flat top" (and later arch-tops and electric) guitar had found it's true home!
Well that's enough of the history lesson! In my next posting I shall talk about how you can decide which type of guitar best suits the sort of music you are interested in.
'Bye for now.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Free lessons on how to buy, play and care for your guitar
Hello all you beginner guitarists!
I've been playing guitar for more than 50 years now and, whilst strumming a few chords on my old Martin OM21 the other evening, I suddenly realised that I wanted to pass on my knowledge and experience to all you guys 'n' gals who are new to guitar playing!
It would have been so helpful to me if a highly experienced guitarist had come with me when I bought my first guitar in 1956!
So, over the medium of these blogs I shall pass on as many hints and tips that I can think of and I certainly hope you will come back to me with lots of questions!
FIRST TIP: I tried this one on my 7 year old grandaughter and although she's never played a guitar, she got it straight away!
How to play the chords of G6th, G7th, Gmaj7th and Gmaj
If you haven't yet got a guitar, go to your favourite guitar store, ask the friendly assistant to tune up a mid priced acoustic guitar, sit down in a quiet corner and try this:-
On the top 4 strings - and note, you always count the strings from the 1st, thinnest string, to the 6th, thickest string - run your right hand thumb (or pick, if you prefer) quickly from the 4th string to the 1st without touching the frets with your left hand (reverse right for left if you are left handed, you must use a guitar strung for left-handed playing).
Congratulations! you have just played the chord of G6th! Now do exactly the same, but this time press your first finger down on the first string just behind - ie. nearest the headstock - the 1st fret. (Support the neck of the guitar by placing your thumb on the back of the neck) Listen to the sound and make sure the note you are fretting rings cleanly. That's a G7th in your repertoire!
Now, moving on, leaving your 1st finger in place, use your middle finger to fret just behind the 2nd fret, but still on the 1st string. Run your thunb across the 4 strings as before. Does it ring clearly? OK! You've just played a Gmaj7th. Hey! jazz chords already!
Finally, press your ring finger down just behind the 3rd fret, strum the 4 strings as before. That's Gmaj One of the most useful chords in so many types of music.
You can, if you like remove each finger in turn, strumming the 4 strings as you do so, then replace them, remove them as many times as you like, playing these four chords to your hearts content!
This will have two benefits:-
1) Hardening up the pads of your fingers.
2) If the shop assistant remains helpful and friendly after a couple of hours of this, you'll know it's a good place to buy your first guitar!
(On the other hand, if he rushes over, throws the guitar on the floor and jumps up and down on it whilst pointing you towards the exit............ well, probably best go shopping elsewhere!
Until next time, amigos. Keep those questions coming in!
I've been playing guitar for more than 50 years now and, whilst strumming a few chords on my old Martin OM21 the other evening, I suddenly realised that I wanted to pass on my knowledge and experience to all you guys 'n' gals who are new to guitar playing!
It would have been so helpful to me if a highly experienced guitarist had come with me when I bought my first guitar in 1956!
So, over the medium of these blogs I shall pass on as many hints and tips that I can think of and I certainly hope you will come back to me with lots of questions!
FIRST TIP: I tried this one on my 7 year old grandaughter and although she's never played a guitar, she got it straight away!
How to play the chords of G6th, G7th, Gmaj7th and Gmaj
If you haven't yet got a guitar, go to your favourite guitar store, ask the friendly assistant to tune up a mid priced acoustic guitar, sit down in a quiet corner and try this:-
On the top 4 strings - and note, you always count the strings from the 1st, thinnest string, to the 6th, thickest string - run your right hand thumb (or pick, if you prefer) quickly from the 4th string to the 1st without touching the frets with your left hand (reverse right for left if you are left handed, you must use a guitar strung for left-handed playing).
Congratulations! you have just played the chord of G6th! Now do exactly the same, but this time press your first finger down on the first string just behind - ie. nearest the headstock - the 1st fret. (Support the neck of the guitar by placing your thumb on the back of the neck) Listen to the sound and make sure the note you are fretting rings cleanly. That's a G7th in your repertoire!
Now, moving on, leaving your 1st finger in place, use your middle finger to fret just behind the 2nd fret, but still on the 1st string. Run your thunb across the 4 strings as before. Does it ring clearly? OK! You've just played a Gmaj7th. Hey! jazz chords already!
Finally, press your ring finger down just behind the 3rd fret, strum the 4 strings as before. That's Gmaj One of the most useful chords in so many types of music.
You can, if you like remove each finger in turn, strumming the 4 strings as you do so, then replace them, remove them as many times as you like, playing these four chords to your hearts content!
This will have two benefits:-
1) Hardening up the pads of your fingers.
2) If the shop assistant remains helpful and friendly after a couple of hours of this, you'll know it's a good place to buy your first guitar!
(On the other hand, if he rushes over, throws the guitar on the floor and jumps up and down on it whilst pointing you towards the exit............ well, probably best go shopping elsewhere!
Until next time, amigos. Keep those questions coming in!
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