Music is made up of three basic elements, Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. All are interrelated and we should not try to isolate them because this will not take us where we want to be. We instead want to understand each of them in a unique way so when eventually combined they make a more poignant whole. Melody was first on my list so let’s start there.

Our melodies will make or break our playing – Period!

When we practice melodies we must remember that for each tune we work on there are probably lyrics for it. If you do not know the lyrics, stop and get a copy. Read them, speak them out loud, sing them and learn them until they become part of you.

Next, listen to the greatest vocalists sing these tunes. Listen to their phrasing, their articulation, how they use their mouths, tongues, teeth, lips, lungs, body posture or whatever they do to produce the sounds. Think about the ways we can incorporate all of those things into our guitar playing.

Unfortunately, the guitar is an instrument that has no air blowing through it so we have to improvise. Also the patterns of scales and chord fingerings we were taught when we started don’t help our creativity. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t learn them but many times practicing only these will leave us stale and stiff.

Case in point, did you ever transcribe a great jazz guitar solo only to realize that the fingerings needed to play it are no were near what we were taught about standard fingerings for guitar scales?

So what do we do?

Start off basic and I mean so basic that we’re probably way ahead of ourselves already. Be aware of the endless possibilities of making each note and then break it down to the point where we are left with only the rudimentary elements of producing a single tone on the guitar. The atomic tone so to speak.

For instance, if we play with only the thumb of our picking hand as opposed to a plectrum we get one type of sound. If we play only down strokes with our thumb we get a different sound again.

Let’s delve into this further as it is important.

If we play with our index finger, middle finger, a plectrum on the pointy end, on the fat corner, on the fat end, upstrokes, down strokes, whatever, we can make all kinds of sounds. In fact, there are so many possibilities we may never get to them all in our lifetime.

Hopefully you see where I am getting at and we haven’t even discussed the fingering hand yet nor have we discussed any particular notes, pitches, dynamics etc…

Don’t let that stop you. Start learning this now and you will be happy you did.

Ok what’s next?

Select 3 notes and work with only them while thinking about the spoken voice and how you would convey three words in a sentence. Think about how by changing the phrasing and articulation of our three words, or notes, we can change the meaning of them entirely. In fact pick an actual 3 word sentence and speak it with your guitar rather than using your voice. This is where we truly start learning melody.

If we were to find someone we don’t know and say to them; “What is your name?” We would get a response. Don’t forget that a non response is also a response. We must realize the actual response we get is dependent on how we phrase and/or articulate our words and realize that we can control this response only if we understand its relationship to our actual question.

I’ll explain. If we were to say those exact words in a teasing, tormenting and antagonistic manner we would get one response. If on the other hand we were to use an openly friendly demeanor we get an entirely different response all together.

By doing this simple thought exercise we realize that using the exact same words spoken in different ways produces vastly different responses.

By observing, understanding, and practicing this behavior we can learn to exploit and utilize this technique to our advantage to allow the full potential in our guitar playing that invokes the response were seeking, whatever that may happen to be.

The human voice is of particular concern to us because our ultimate goal is to emulate what it does with our instrument. We want to be able to communicate with our guitars the way people communicate when they speak to each other – which is not unlike melodies.

As babies, we were only able to make rudimentary noises to communicate. Years later, hopefully, we are able to form intelligent rational thoughts and convey them with our words using articulation and phrasing and word combinations to mean many things. We want to apply this to our guitar playing.

Remember, it took us years to be able speak in this manner and we should approach practicing melody with the same realization and not try to run before we can walk.

We should also remember that even babies can communicate in a very compelling manner without using words at all! So don’t be afraid if this practice routine seems too simple. It’s not the notes you use, it’s what they are actually communicating that is important.

What can we deduce from all of this?

When you start finding yourself practicing or playing those blazing fast cool scalar riffs, stop and think about how many times you hear actual people speak like that.

Now – ask yourself how long you would stay and listen to them if they did.

That’s it for now but look for new articles in the future and remember; have fun, practice hard and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is an avid web developer who plays and teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. He owns an [http://www.hostsstation.com/]Asp.Net Web Hosting Company where you can contact him about hosting your guitar website/blog or just to learn more.
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Practice

What can I say about practice? Just do it and do it often! Do it everyday. When you think you have done enough do it again.

I am not just talking about picking up the guitar and playing a few songs I am talking about real practicing for the environment that you will eventually be playing in which is, of course, in an ensemble with other musicians who we hope will always be better than you.

Here are the basics…

When practicing always use a metronome!

If I didn’t make that part clear perhaps this may help: ALWAYS USE A METRONOME!

If you feel that you don’t need a metronome stop reading this article, stop practicing and go get some ice cream because you will get the same or even better results and you certainly will enjoy yourself a whole lot more in the process if you do. If you are committed read on.

Still with me?

When using your metronome try to feel your timing on different clicks. For instance for a swing feel have your metronome click on beats 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3. This will give you an instant swing feel and also take away that nasty crutch so you are forced to know where beat 1 really is.

We never, ever, want to rely on our drummer, who may be in the middle of a complex experimental improvisation just when you need him/her the most, to tell us where beat 1 is. How many times have you been in that situation?

Sound simple? It is!

Sound easy? Try it for a month and you let me know how it goes.

Let’s delve into this a little. When practicing using this technique of displacing metronome clicks for beats try these: practice a 3/4 tune using the metronome clicking once per measure and only on beat 2. Then switch to only on beats 3. See how the feeling changes. Practice it, learn it, feel it and then you can start to own it.

If you want to get fancy place the metronome to click every fifth beat while you play a tune in 3. This will shift the accents and feeling from bar to bar and will also allow your brain to break free from it’s learned behavior which is designed to make you not want to think.

What did you say?

That’s right! More times than not the human brain is your biggest enemy. It always seeks comfort and practicing in the fashion described above is not at all comfortable for your brain. In these cases I recommend telling your brain what my son often likes to say, “To bad…, so sad!”

We as musicians need to experience and comprehend the natural tendencies of the brain’s normal behavior so we can learn to truly challenge ourselves to open up our minds to the gargantuan creative possibilities that await us when we do. This doesn’t happen by accident nor does it happen by itself nor will it come easy. It takes an extreme effort on our parts.

Whether you have your instrument with you or not you can practice your timing. If you get a small battery operated metronome, which I recommend, you can bring it with you when you are driving back and forth to work. Practice the above examples in your car while singing. Don’t worry if you can’t sing you are trying to own these feelings and if you can’t articulate these feelings with your voice you will never truly own them.

I have outlined several examples for displacement of beats. The idea is simple enough so that you can come up with more deviations on your own and you should keep changing them when you practice.

The point here is that true understanding and your eventual ownership of various beats and feelings associated with them do not reside strictly inside those beats and feelings. By looking only inside the beats you are shutting off all creative thinking that is necessary to truly exploit their full potential.

Real understanding resides outside and you must find out what that means. To truly find it you must force yourself and be willing to look everywhere else but the beats themselves. This simple metronome technique will get you started and point you on your journey to achieving that goal. Don’t limit yourself to applying this technique only to timing but that statement is for another part of this series.

Have fun, practice and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is a Professional Audio Engineer and an Avid Web Developer who plays and also teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. His latest projects include the [http://www.iproductionguide.com/]Internet Production Guide and he owns a small [http://www.hostsstation.com]Asp Hosting Company. You can contact him at his personal web site [http://www.johnbelthoff.com]Studio JB.
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The electric guitar uses ‘pick-ups’ to convert vibration from its strings into electrical current that is amplified to produce sound. Today’s electric guitars can produce an electronic sound or a sound that is more acoustic in tone and timber.
The hollow body electric guitar can be an archtop with a full sound box or it can have a thin body.

While steel guitars are electric, they are not really considered ‘electric guitars’ by most musicians. Musicians use electric guitars to play everything from rock and roll to country, pop, blues, jazz, and rap. Today’s classical composers and orchestrators even include electric guitars among their instruments of choice.

The electric guitar was originally designed in the 1930s by the Electro String Instrument Corporation. That electric guitar was made out of solid wood. One of the most famous and well-renowned guitarists of the forties and today, built a solid body electric guitar for his own use, after working at the Gibson Guitar Factory. Les Paul’s famous invention was built with handmade pick-ups and hardware, and a four by four wooden post to which the neck was attached. He finished the body with hollow Swedish body halves and the rest is history!

It is interesting to note that there was a lot of research and experimentation going on during this time period by guitar manufacturers and musicians alike.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that the electric guitar really came into its own! The first Fender electric guitar was called the ‘Broadcaster’. But that name was changed to the ‘Telecaster’ when the Gretsch drum manufacturer challenged Fender’s use of their ‘Broadkaster’ copyright.

In the mid-1950s, Fender introduced its ‘Stratocaster’, a deluxe model of the original electric guitar it had produced earlier. The ‘Stratocaster’ is still one of the most respected and copied electric guitars. In the early 1950s Fender also produced the Fender Precision Bass, which was to become the first commercially successfully electric bass guitar.

In addition to Les Paul’s time working at Gibson, he went on to influence the Gibson brand and its success by helping to design the Gibson Les Paul Guitar in the early 1950s.

With its burgeoning success in the electric guitar market, Gibson developed the ‘Tune-o-Matic’ bridge and by the late 1950s it put the finishing touches on the Les Paul Guitar it still produces today.
Today’s electric guitars are still designed much like the Gibson and Fender guitars of the 1950s.

In the 1960s, effects boxes or stomp boxes became popular, adding effects like reverberation, delay, fuzz and the famous ‘wah wah’ sound to the repetoire of the rock and roll musician. Using a foot pedal to turn the box off and on, the electric guitarist could create and use sounds audiences had never heard before!

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the computerized age of electric guitars arrived, and musicians began to use software and digital sound to create effects. Gibson introduced the first digital guitar in 2002. This guitar can deliver digital signals using an Ethernet cable and is capable of processing independent signals from each string. The guitar is equpped with its own integrated computer and it can modify sound to mimic many old and new electric and acoustic guitar models.

This new capability has opened up a new world of creativity and innovation for musicians and orchestrators to explore!

About the Author
Find out everything you need to know about electric guitars at our web site: Electric Guitar

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Electric Guitars Have Come a Long Way

The guitar certainly has been, and probably always will be, one of the most popular instruments. Why? I imagine it is because a classic guitar can be taken just about anywhere. You can always play a few strings and soon have a circle of people join you in singing. Even young people join in, especially when some of the classic rock songs are being played.

Ask yourself, or your child, the question what you/they ultimately want to achieve. Will guitar palying be for your own personal satisfaction, where you can play for yourself for hours, and don’t really care what it sounds like to other? Or do you want to be able to play for others, join a a band? Will you be fully committed to practicing?

Your choice of guitar and how you plan to learn to play guitar will depend on your ultimate goal. Getting started with playing the guitar can be expensive, and it does not have to be. If you are unsure, check in the classified ads about buying a used guitar. You can always upgrade later. Call a guitar teacher or talk to the folks at the local music store in your area and ask them a few questions.

Electric guitars require a higher upfront investment, becasue they need an amplifier. It also might require some soundproofing for the room you plan to play in, unless you live in a very remote location. Neighbors generally do not appreciate a group of teenagers jamming at full volume at 10 pm or on a Sunday afternoon. And it is amazing what sound effects can be created with guitar and amplifier. It opens up a whole new avenue of creativity.

Learning how to play the guitar requires a good teacher or good learning program (book, video, audio) and commitment on your part to hours of practice. You can find a good teacher in your local area and you can find good programs on the internet. Many of these programs offer a combination of books and videos. Some include free newsletters or free sample lessons. Check the different avenues out so you can determine what works best for you. It might be a combination of learning with a teacher in person, supplemented by a downloadable program.

So before you run out, buy a guitar and sign up for lessons, ask yourself if you will dedicate several hours each week to practicing and playing the guitar. If you do, you will be able to enjoy many hours of enjoyment playing this wonderful instrument.

About the Author
Christiane Perrin is the mother of 2 teenagers who play guitar and drums. She herself plays the recorder.Playing The Guitar

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Is Playing The Guitar For You

How can you learn to play guitar by not playing? Is it really possible to develop as a guitarist without touching the instrument?

In weight training it is an established fact that muscle growth takes place during rest, for example when you sleep. It doesn’t mean that you will become a famous muscle builder by sleeping. Sleeping is just a part of the overall picture called muscle growth.

Don’t ever think that you will become a good guitarist by not playing guitar at all!

But I define a good guitarist as a good musician. A good musician can convey his musical emotions to somebody else and this ability takes more than just practicing moving the fingers among all those guitar strings.

What can you do to become a better guitarist and a musician when you don’t play? Let me give you a few suggestions:

1. If you play classical guitar, get into the habit of often reading guitar sheet music without your guitar. This practice gives you training in the art of hearing the sheet music in your head and also gives you a better chance to really learn notational symbols in the music and rhythmic subtleties.

2. Take a week off from your guitar playing every now and then and use all your musical energy listening to good music or just being a good citizen. Learn to spot musical and artistic heights in the music. Listen to all types of instrumentalists. With concentration. My best listening position is laying flat on my bed with headphones on forgetting the rest of the world. Maybe you have another approach.

If you feel and enjoy musical and artistic expressions in the music these will probably be implemented in your own guitar playing sooner or later.

3. Be a good musical friend by helping somebody else to play. It will help you become more unselfish and like people more. Well, maybe you already like people sufficiently but to learn to like people is part of our development as musicians as we are supposed to give of ourselves to others when we play.

4. Prepare your body and mind for playing guitar by learning the art of relaxation and stretching your muscles. You can of course find articles on these subjects on the net. Performing in a relaxed manner will help you enjoy your own music more and will help your public to relax and enjoy your music too.

5. Take time to sit down, or stand up if you like, and ponder about what guitar playing means to you. Is there something that you would like to develop in your guitar playing that will give you more joy and happiness. Set a realistic goal and write down what you can do every week to accomplish that goal.

I believe in practicing on my guitar of course but I hope that these pieces of advice concerning not playing guitar will increase your love for your guitar and the art of playing and giving musical joy to others!

About the Author
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

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Guitar Learn Guitar By Not Playing Guitar

I will begin by briefly describing some of the pieces of wood most commonly used. The main body of the guitar is usually made of Agathis, alder, lime, mahogany, or, more recently, Paulownia. Mahogany is used for a wide range of guitar known for its dark and its light weight of these two combine to create a warm, tone, rounded extremely durable. Alder is used on high-quality guitars and produces a brighter than other wood (like mahogany) and provides a tone, resonance well rounded with excellent sustain. Agathis is a timber of good quality and is used for its qualities of resonance and low-cost production. In the past, Linden has been generally used for less expensive models, but because of its resonance frequency and better medium high, and better support alder is now more commonly used for guitars top. Paulownia wood is a flexible durable, lightweight chain that is commonly used as a material in high-end custom guitar body, is used for its light, looks pale, and its resonant properties, it is much appreciated.

The neck of the guitar are usually made of mahogany, sometimes maple or linden. A maple neck will sound harder and brighter than those made of mahogany and maple key would sound brighter than a rosewood.

The tips of the fingers are usually made in rosewood, maple and ebony, in some cases. Rosewood is a term that refers to a series of richly colored pieces of wood, often brownish with darker veins, and generally of good quality. Ebony wood is thick and black and is used on some of the more expensive guitars.

When you choose a line of electric guitar, you must pay attention to pick up, electric guitars often use two types of pickup, single coil and humbucker. One problem with single coil pick up is that not only pick up sounds that you play, but a few lines and Hum. The humbucker was developed for more than that, a humbucker is essentially two single coil pick up the magnetic polarity opposite to work together, the result has doubled production and a larger, less high tone. Humbucker pickups can be connected so that they work in parallel, which produces a much cleaner, but it is rare. When you shop online information for the electric guitar to pick up the configuration is generally stated as follows: SSH, S meaning a single coil pickup, and H referring to a humbucker, the order of the letters AL is the order in which the most important choices are the guitar from the neck to the bridge.

The last (and, in my opinion the most important) thing you have to consider when shopping for a guitar, the style – I like the look of it?

About the Author

black electric guitar