Archive for: June 2008

June 30, 2008

How To Play Guitar

Filed under: How To Practice - 30 Jun 2008

If you are one of those people who has been playing guitar for ten years but still quakes in fear when somebody asks them to play, then you need to pay close attention. Unless you are really dedicated to learning how to play guitar, you will probably practice faithfully until you reach a point where you stop processing new information. You see, it is not because you are no good, or dumb at guitar; you just need to get familiar with the secret to helping your body learn new movements.

The first step is to set aside for yourself the time necessary to do a profitable amount of guitar practice. If you were able to learn touch typing you might remember that when you first started you made many mistakes. You were probably despairing that you would ever learn, but eventually you started making less and less mistakes. Your persistence yielded rewards.

There is no magic involved here. The first principal in teaching yourself new skills is repetition. You sit down and practice your chord changes for an hour today and do it all again tomorrow and again the day after that until you find that your guitar playing has suddenly become easier just like your typing, just like when you learnt to drive a car and, for that matter, when you learnt to walk. A baby tries to walk and fails day after day. Then what happens? Suddenly he takes his first steps and walks from that time on. No gradual process, no backsliding, just suddenly the skill has been learnt and it stays forever. The degree of excellence is dependent on how much you practice.

What chords do I learn? What scales do I practice to build this skill inside me? It does not matter, any will do. Just do it. But that is not quite the whole deal. There is the matter of HOW we do it. Practice must be done in a certain way. You take care with how you move when you are learning to drive or practice your golf swing. Some martial arts teachers will tell you that speed and force will come only after practicing for a long time with precision and a light touch.

Do not think that you are going into this ordeal alone. Your metronome and guitar tuner will be with you. In order to practice in the right way you need to check often to see if your guitar is in tune. You need to play using the metronome at a slow speed. Try 60 to start. If it is too easy you need to speed the metronome up. Of course it is always easier if you have someone you trust to help you with the discipline. They do not have to be a musician, just somebody who can tell you when you are being too demanding on yourself or when you are letting yourself off.

A word of warning. Do not think that because putting yourself in a room and practicing your guitar is a simple concept that it is an easy thing to do. You will find that you spend too much time looking for your guitar tuner, not stopping to tune when you think of it - there are lots of ways to lose focus, and it is not only you who falls victim to these devils. We are all only human. But we want to be guitar players too!

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June 29, 2008

Make Your Own Guitar Tabs

Filed under: Guitar tabs - 29 Jun 2008

Finding guitar tabs for songs you want to learn is one thing but writing out tab for songs you already know is a very tedious chore. Well, say goodbye to those guitar tab writing blues with TabMaker! That’s right, you can make your own guitar tabs! This is so much fun to use you will be making tabs of random notes just for the heck of it. But if you really need to make tabs of your songs it is a very handy tool!
TabMaker

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June 27, 2008

The Facts About Jimi Hendrix The Guitar Destroyer

Filed under: Guitar Heroes - 27 Jun 2008

When trying to assemble a list of facts about Jimi Hendrix it becomes a chore to decide what can be left out. His short career was so packed with outrageous behavior, musical innovation and hot girlfriends, every moment was a milestone. So let us begin at the beginning. On November 7, 1942 Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle. In 1957 Jimi bought a cheap acoustic guitar from a family friend and from then on spent all his time learning to play it. His favorite records were by B.B. King and Muddy Waters.

After a brief and undistinguished time in the army where he made friends with another musician named Billy Cox, Jimi moved to Clarksville, Tennessee where he formed a band. Right from the beginning the colorful Jimi Hendrix personality was seen by audiences with Hendrix learning to play the guitar with his teeth in imitation of other guitar players of that era. After having quite a hard time trying to make a living in New York, Jimi became part of the Isley Brothers band and began touring where he was eventually hired as a member of Little Richard’s backing group.

Meanwhile Chas Chandler, the bassist with The Animals was looking to stop performing and become an entrepreneur. He had heard a song called “Hey Joe” and was determined to find an artist to record it. He listened to Jimi Hendrix play it and decided he had found his artist. Chandler helped Jimi move to London and found two English musicians, bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was around this time that Jimi started to get noticed by famous British musicians like Cream, The Who, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

“Hey Joe” became The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first single in 1966. They followed this with Hendrix compositions “Stone Free”, “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary”. The irrepressible showman in Jimi Hendrix came out and set fire to his guitar during a stint as part of the farewell tour by The Walker Brothers in March 1967. In May the same year the Jimi Hendrix Experience released their first LP “Are You Experienced” which zoomed to the top of the charts but had to be content with number two spot behind The Beatles’ “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

In June 1967 Jimi appeared at The Monterey Pop Festival to let loose for the first time on the music lovers of America. His over the top stage persona and flamboyant guitar style burned his image into the annals of hippiedom. The guitar-destroying hero had finally arrived. The next month Jimi met and fell in love with the wah-wah pedal when he saw Frank Zappa putting it through its paces.

Jimi Hendrix’s second LP, “Axis Bold As Love” appeared in December 1967 and featured Jimi showing his dexterity with electronic musical effects including the wah-wah pedal. The next Jimi Hendrix LP, “Electric Ladyland” was released in 1968 and included “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and a total revamp of a Bob Dylan song called “All Along The Watchtower”. Due to the fact that Noel Redding was getting tired of playing bass Jimi handled much of the bass parts on the album himself.

Jimi headlined at the festival at Woodstock in 1969. His rendition of “Star Spangled Banner” finished two hours of technically uneven but inspired playing. In September, 1970 at the Isle Of Fehman Festival in Germany, Jimi Hendrix gave his final concert. Not long after, he appeared in a jam session at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club with Eric Burdon and his band, War.

On September 18, 1970, after drinking a copious amount of red wine and reportedly some sleeping pills, Jimi vomited during his sleep and choked. A true rock and roll death.

Today’s YouTube video is Jimi Hendrix playing All Along The Watchtower -

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