If you are one of the many amateur guitar players who wonders how to connect your guitar to your pc and record your playing, there are several answers, most of them simple. I have posted on Connecting Your Guitar To Your Computer before but a different point of view never hurt anybody.

For checking the quality of your guitar set-up your computer has its own sound recorder which you can access by going to the Start Menu, then All Programs, Accessories, then click on Entertainment. The sound recorder will save your recordings as .wav files. Of course, you will find that the built-in recorder will not give you nearly enough recording time so the best solution is to download a free audio program called Audacity. You will find it right away in a web search.

The most obvious way to record your guitar on your pc is to simply use a microphone. Yep, just plug in your mic and record what comes out of your acoustic guitar or your amp. Many computers’ jacks are color coded so if you have a pink jack on your computer, that is the microphone.

You could also try connecting your guitar into the microphone jack on your pc. This will result in a higher quality sound than recordings you will make acoustically but the sound card on your computer is not likely to have a high enough impedance to match your guitar, so there is still going to be some quality problems.

You will be able to plug a microphone into your computer via a jack. Or you can use the one that is already built into your laptop. The trouble is the quality of the sound that is produced in this way. If you just want to check on your timing or phrasing, then using the microphone to record acoustically is okay, but nobody is really going to want to listen to music made in this way. If you have problems with the quality of your sound, the answer may also lie in buying a better sound card.

If you are an electric guitar player you then you can connect your amp to your pc directly using a cable. You can buy a cable made specially for this purpose. It has a larger plug at one end to plug into the line out jack on your amp and a smaller plug to go into the line in jack on your computer. This jack will be colored blue.

If you find that your computer does not come with a line in jack then you will need to buy an external sound card with a socket for microphone or line in. You plug this into your pc’s USB port and not only do you have a line in socket but the sound card is bound to be of higher quality that the one installed on your computer.

If you connect your guitar to your computer and you can record your guitar playing but you cannot hear it as you play, you will need to take a look at your computer’s sound card settings.

If you are willing to spend some money do a web search for audio guitar mixer software. Some of the mixers are free and some are quite cheap.

Technorati Tags: how to connect your guitar to your pc, guitar set-up

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If you are attracted to the sound of the resonator guitar you will be learning some Dobro tunings. The resonator guitar, or Dobro, like the electric guitar, is the result of early pioneers of the guitar looking for some way to make their instrument heard above the other instruments in a band. Using metal resonators did not catch on as amplification but the resonator guitar was embraced by slide guitar players for its expressive sound.

The basic advantages of using alternate tunings for Dobro playing are the availability of open string bass notes to accompany your melodies and the variety of combinations of chords you can make use of. Standard tuning is fine for the Dobro - you can still do alot with single note tunes - but why not look at it as a new instrument with new possibilities? You can decide which tuning to use based on the key of the song you are playing.

Bluegrass Dobro players quite often use G B D G B D - Open G tuning. There is a certain advantage for guitarists new to the Dobro in using this tuning in that the second, third and fourth strings are tuned the same as in standard tuning. This makes it a little easier to become comfortable with the new layout of the fretboard.

You cannot get minor chords using the Open G but you can find two notes of the minor triad. The second and third strings played open are two-thirds of your E minor chord - G and B. If you play the open second and third strings with the fourth string barred at the second fret, you will get the sound of the complete E minor chord.

You can also tune the Dobro to D G D G B D. This opens up the range of notes available to you in the lower range and is favored by Bluegrass guitar players. Do not forget that you can use other open tunings like Open E and Open D. If you would like to play blues music tune your Dobro to D B G G B D - gypsy tuning.

Hawaiian slack key is a little appreciated guitar style which also uses alternate and open tunings. Among the slack key tunings are D A D F# A C#, C G E G A E, Open C - C G C E G C, and Open F - C F C F A C. The key to Dobro playing is the sound and how you can bring it out in your own way by using these unusual tunings.

I should mention that you can use the capo on the Dobro, just the same as on the regular guitar. You should have no problem adjusting to the touch of the Dobro. If you are thinking of buying a resonator guitar with a pickup, just bear in mind that you may have some problems with feedback.

Here is a video on using the Open G tuning in Dobro playing:

Technorati Tags: Dobro tunings, resonator guitar, slide guitar

Guitar picking is one of the big achievements in life. If you can sit down with your guitar and pick out some licks or show off your sweep picking your audience is going to know that you are one cool dude.

Let us take a look at some guitar picking techniques. Alternate picking is when you play a downstroke, then an upstroke, then down again. It is often mis-named alternative picking. This is a commonly used technique which just requires solid practice to develop some speed. If you can learn to play fast using alternate picking you might find that you are less impressed by guitar tapping and sweep picking as ways of impressing your audience with your guitar technique.

The way to begin practicing your alternate picking is very slowly. Do not even think about speed. The use of a metronome is also very important, and this is where your first difficulty will lie. You need to set the metronome to a very slow speed and keep to it as you practice. Most people have a belief that they can play the guitar in time without a metronome. This is just a little trick that our mind plays on us. Very few people have the ability to play in time naturally. The best thing is to assume you are one of them.

Some new guitar players have an issue with whether to begin guitar picking with an upstroke or a downstroke. When you start off learning guitar picking you generally have a natural tendency to use downstrokes. That is, your body wants to pick down all the time. It is more comfortable. Working on alternate picking gets you out of the downstroke rut and into the knack of using up and downstrokes as and when you think they sound best.

Another question that comes up for guitar picking students is where to place your right hand when you are picking. If you are playing an electric guitar, your picking sounds different when you play in different positions in relation to your pickups. The sound you get also depends on which pickups you have switched on. When you are picking on an acoustic guitar playing near the bridge sounds very different from playing over the sound hole, and you will notice variations in between. This is where your own musical creativity comes in. The guitar picker decides which sound suits which song and whether to have a thin sound coming from near the bridge or a more “booming” tone coming from near the neck.

Another guitar picking technique is known as “sweep picking” and is a fairly tricky technique to get sounding right. You are not only working on your actual guitar picking but on the cleanness of your sound and economy of motion. Basically sweep picking is a way of playing fast using arpeggios. In a way it gets you doing fast guitar picking in a short length of time but getting the knack of sweeping the pick across the arpeggios and at the same time doing the left hand fingering can be quite a challenge. If you are not sure what sweep picking is, the best way to find out is to do a search on one of the video sites and watch a guitar player actually demonstrating the technique.

But, today our video is on alternate picking:

Technorati Tags: Guitar picking