Archive for: August 2007

In keeping with the spirit of introducing you to kinds of music you might not have come across before, and trying to think of a clean joke about how to pronounce Celtic, here’s . . .
About Celtic Guitar
By Glenn Weiser
“Celtic guitar probably began in America when Irish immigrants of the late 1840’s picked it up the instrument, learned some chords, and strummed along with the old songs of home. In Ireland, it was not used until a century later, according to Dublin fiddler James Kelly, and then only for accompaniment.
But research done by scholar Anne Macaulay and published in the the journal The Lindisfarne Letter suggests that the cruit, a lute-like instrument which Roman historians observed Celtic bards playing, may have had its four strings tuned like the top four string of the modern guitar. Celtic guitar could in fact go back a long way.” Read the complete article.

Glenn Weiser is the author of four Celtic fingerstyle guitar books and three harmonica books, and has recorded a new fingerstyle Celtic guitar CD. He is also a Rounder Records guest artist, a Sing Out! magazine columnist, and a writer for Metroland, a newsweekly in Albany, NY. He performs Celtic music, blues, old-timey, and other folk styles.
Glenn also teaches private lessons on guitar, 5-string and tenor banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and harmonica in Albany, Delmar, Clifton Park, and Latham, NY. Acoustic Guitar magazine, for which he has also written, has described him as a “master teacher.” Welcome.
Here you’ll find sound clips, reviews of his books, information on ordering them, press articles about the man himself, some of his writings, a Celtic music radio performance, and his gig schedule. Plus there are free Celtic guitar and harmonica arrangements, an online Celtic tune book, and transcriptions of classic blues harp solos. There are also blues and Celtic discographies, cool links, and the totally groovy Woodstock 69 pages.
Celtic Guitar Music

And harking all the way back to yesterday’s post, anybody who can read music might find the free music on Glenn’s site a good opportunity to play some simple but unfamiliar music to take you outside your comfort zone.

Technorati Tags: fingerstyle guitar

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Next time you sit down to do some guitar practice are you going to launch into a continuation of what you were doing yesterday or are you going to make today’s guitar practice fresh?
One of the difficulties with daily guitar practice is that we tend to want to continue yesterday’s playing from where we left off. Trouble is, we aren’t warmed up like we were yesterday so our muscles can’t do what they were doing last time we held the guitar. Have you read anything about muscle memory yet? Basically, we need to leave the work of playing the guitar to the intelligence of our muscles. If we practice in a relaxed manner, we encourage our muscles to assume good habits. If we are in a hurry to learn a riff or get the tedious scale practice out of the way, our muscles will habitually think we are in a hurry every time we pick up the guitar.
So reading a little on the theory of muscle memory will help us learn the guitar faster than rushing our practice, but how does all this keep our guitar practice from getting stale? Well, the best way to remind ourselves to practice intelligently is to have some new piece or song up our sleeves which will MAKE us slow down and make the intelligence of our bodies open up to get something new. We need to plan ahead - have a printed tab or sheet music book handy or have some new song in your bookmarks on your computer.
Generally speaking, a song is probably better than a scale or instrumental piece. You can fool around with a song; see how the chords sound when you play them in different combinations, make a solo out of the melody line. Have fun with it but at the same time remember that your doing this to challenge yourself.
About ten minutes minimum is good, bearing in mind you’ve got other ongoing practice to do.
Browse this Guitar tab page to get some ideas, or find out how you can get your online guitar teacher to teach you your favorite song!

Technorati Tags: guitar practice, muscle memory

Guitar Chord Generator
Almost 8,444,496 chords in Standard and alternative tunings. Design your own printable chord charts.

Chord Charts
Chord charts featuring barre chords. Also, an easy to play guitar chord chart for beginners (or anyone taking lessons)

Chord Name Finder
Just click in the notes of any guitar chord and find out what the possible names of the chord are. Works for any instrument, any number of strings, any tuning.

Guitar Tablature Generator
Easy to use programs, make your own tabs of guitar chords, guitar scales, songs notes etc.

Chords from Scales
Make a list of guitar chords from any scale

Get it all for free at Gootar.com. You can also buy advanced versions of the programs.

Technorati Tags: alternative tunings, Chord Charts, Guitar Tablature