Archive for: January 2008

Here’s a link to some easy guitar songs for you to practice on:

“The 2000s have thus far been somewhat of a desolate decade for guitar music, at least within the “mainstream”. Pop bands like Britney Spears, and ‘N Sync, whose music is generally devoid of particularly interesting guitar parts, continue to dominate radio and television airplay.
Beginners who love pop music, and are seeking guitar tablature shouldn’t be disappointed, however. Some of this music is still possible to play on guitar, and much of it isn’t that difficult to play. Here are some of the easy guitar tabs from the early 2000s for you to play.
NOTE: A few of the following song transcriptions use tablature. If you are unfamiliar with this term, take a moment to learn how to read guitar tablature.”
The whole article is at http://guitar.about.com/library/bleasysongs00s.htm

Technorati Tags: easy guitar

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One way of learning to play a guitar is to read the questions other novice guitarists put to their guitar teachers. Here’s a couple of questions from Cyberfret’s Q and A section.

I am in major pain after about 20 minutes of practice. Someone suggested switching to flat wound strings?

Answer
Are you talking about pain in the tips of your fingers or in your hand and arms? If you are talking about the tips of your fingers, the best thing is to develop calluses on the entire surface of your fingers( all 4 ). After you are finished playing for the day, irritate the entire surface of your fingers by pressing down on the strings with different parts of your finger. Sometime when your are just playing normally you will develop a callus on only one part of the tip of your finger. There for when you are playing and do not hit the callused part of your finger it is painful. Not to say that irritating the entire surface of the tips of your fingers will not be painful at first …. but it will help your playing since pressing down on a hard surface ( the callus ) takes less pressure that a soft surface. Not pressing as hard my help prevent other pain and or injury.
I would not suggest flat wound strings unless you have a hollow body electric, and are playing traditional jazz. The sound and feel is not appropriate for other styles of music.

Can you recommend any good PC guitar programs. Some of the ones I have seen like interactive guitar, seem pretty good but it’s hard to tell. Any suggestions?

Answer
That is a tough question. The only one I have actually played with is Guitropolis. It’s very cool visually but…. Under it all it really is just Alfred’s Basic Guitar Method from 40 years ago.
You might try to find some demos. A good starting point would be
harmony-central.com and look in the software section.

Technorati Tags: learning to play a guitar, PC guitar programs

Here’s an entry on song structure at totallyexplained.com:
“The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically sectional forms, such as strophic form. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely through-composed. The verse and chorus are considered primary, while the introduction and coda or ending may or may not be used in different performances and are not considered essential to the identity of most songs. A bridge is slightly more important. The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song though the bridge, intro, and outro are usually only used once.”
http://song_structure__popular_music.totallyexplained.com/

Why are we talking about song structure? Because one of the nastiest problems - or interesting challenges - of playing songs is how to end them. So I thought I’d start with an overview of the whole way a song is put together. Now that’s over with, here are some thoughts from various sources on how to end songs:
“Seems like a lot of our songs end like Johnny B Good. We tag the last line
on several, like Maybelline or Mustang Sally….”one of these early
mornin’s….you’re gonna be wipin’ yer weepin’ eyes” and hit it again.
Same with Maybelline, ” You done started back doin’ the thangs you used to
do”. THEN the JBGood end!!
We just have a good time figuring out how to end ‘em, sometimes in a way
that people wouldn’t expect….”Six days on the road and I’m agonna make it
home tonight” all done a capella with no sustain on “night”, just bite it
off.”
http://ebassist.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16609

“The start and finish are the two most important parts of the song. If the band doesn’t start on the same page then the song will already be over as far as the audience is concerned. If the ending of the song is a train wreck, or you always do the ‘trash-can’ ending (holding the last note while lead guitar players and drummers slam a scale or two….. ) then the night becomes unbearably long and the audience will grow tired of listening to you.
Very very important to rehearse starts and finishes, and to make sure that not every song starts or ends the same.”
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/archive/index.php/t-1654872.html

“Intros and endings are very important when playing jazz standards because it will show the listener that you have thought about some kind of arrangement, rather than counting off a tune and blowing through it, only to stagger at the end and almost cause a train wreck.
Endings are especially important when accompanying singers as you can design the “big finish”. One popular and very successful way to approach the end of a song is by landing on the tonic note and harmonizing a group of chords with the tonic note at the top of each, but without stating the tonic chord until the very end. This way, you present an interrupted phrase ending, some good tension and you can build up the final resolution.”
http://www.guitarmadesimple.com/lessons/song_endings.html

. . . and finally . . . 10 Jazz Guitar Endings

Technorati Tags: song structure, twelve bar blues, how to end songs