Your guitar will certainly give you more consistent quality sound along with a much longer life span if the correct care and attention is provided. Purchasing some accessories that are essential for the care of your guitar is vital if you are serious about playing the guitar. There is a well known saying that is certainly true, and that is "a guitar player is only as good as the sound and quality of the guitar he is playing".

A hard shell case is the first item which should be purchased, in order to ensure the safety of your guitar during transportation to and from different locations, where you will be playing your guitar. A soft or cloth "gig bag" is something which many people use for their guitar, these bags zip up and offer protection to the exterior surface of the guitar. The only problem with this type of bag, is that during transportation, the tuning nuts on the end of the guitar neck can move which results in the guitar becoming out of tune, as there is nothing to protect them from being bumped.

Cracks and actual punctures can also happen to the guitar when using a gig bag, if there is any kind of impact when loading and unloading the guitar. Whereas a hard shell case will in actual fact prevent this from occurring as there is sufficient space between the neck and body of the guitar and the case. The case is designed to take impact whilst keeping the guitar secure on the inside and keeping it in tune. A hard shell case is a more expensive than a gig bag, however that little extra investment will provide your guitar with better protection.

A guitar stand is another item which should be purchased for the care of your guitar. The guitar should always be rested on a stand when not being played. Many people choose to lean a guitar against a wall or a couch when not in use, however, this is not suitable. If the guitar is not stored in the correct manner, or not placed on a guitar stand, then the neck of the guitar can become warped, which will make it more difficult to play.

It is necessary to apply more force to the strings when playing the guitar if it is warped, as the neck increases the distance between the strings and the neck. This can result in very sore and blistered fingers, which is absolutely unnecessary. By possessing a guitar stand, the guitar can be kept in the same location when it is not in use and also prevent accidents.

A tuning device is the final item which should be purchased. You will become better at tuning your guitar the longer that you play simply by using your ear. However to begin with, you will need something that informs you of the exact sound and accurate tuning. Many of the tuners are very simple to use. It can be very embarrassing when your guitar is not tuned correctly, especially if you are playing to an audience and singing at the same time.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of MusicianHome.com, a site that provides information and articles for musicians at all stages of their development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Sinclair

Finding guitar tabs of your favorite songs and bands can be quite difficult sometimes as I am sure many of you know. The internet is full of free resources you can use, but it can be very time consuming to hunt them all down.

Recently I discovered a much faster and easier way for finding guitar tabs that I just had to pass on to you guys...

http://www.tabrobot.com/

Tabrobot is a search engine dedicated to finding guitar tabs with the click of a button. Just type in the name of the band or song you are looking for and their database will pull up all the tabs posts related to your search term across the net so you don't have to spend an hour looking for your favorite tabs. And that means more time for jamming out.

Enjoy!

Here's the link again...

http://www.tabrobot.com/

Learning jazz chords online can be confusing and frustrating to say the least. Just when the budding jazz guitarist thinks they've stumbled onto something along comes another version of the same song with a completely different set of chords.

For our present discussion, we'll limit our observations and suggestions to learning jazz chords online, however a quick browse through any well stocked sheet music store will reveal the same issues that any aspiring jazz guitarist must learn to overcome.

The choice of chords the guitarists selects has a significant effect on the soloist's choice of notes in their solos and presentation of the melody.

There's an endless list of possible chords, chord inversions, chord substitutions etc. that can totally blind side the newbie jazz player. In fact, the task is often so overwhelming that the avalanche of information swamps the guitarist with an enormous amount of stuff they do not have to learn.

So,before trotting off to another jazz guitar website in search of the lost chord, here's a few things to think about to pin your ear on straight!

Focus your jazz studies on specific objectives: a great idea is to learn the chord changes to "jazz standards".

Jazz standards are tunes that working musicians are likely to encounter at any time. Too often, guitarists with a rock or country background wishing to move into jazz don't know the tunes that are the common currency of players in all styles of jazz.

Here's a sample list of 20 jazz standards:

1. Autumn Leaves
2. All The Things You are
3. All Of Me
4. Ain't Misbehavin'
5. C Jam Blues
6. I Got Rhythm
7. Have You Met Miss Jones
8. Out Of Nowhere
9. I Cover The Waterfront
10.Satin Doll
11.Misty
12.Summertime
13.St.Louis Blues
14.Watch What Happens
15.Lullaby Of Birdland
16.Sweet Georgia Brown
17.Georgis
18.Take The 'A' Train
19.Stormy Weather
20.There Will Never Be Another You

There are many books that show how to use chord substitutions, but if the basic chord changes are not known, substitutions and embellishments often confuse the improviser and the listener.

When the musician is learning jazz guitar chords online, it's essential to learn the basic set of chords for the jazz standards.

Chord substitutions to basic chords are usually determined by the melody notes and the style of music being played.

The point is that guitar players can become totally absorbed in jazz chord manuals that teach chord substitution etc., without firstly learning the basic set of chords.

Keep in mind that while the melody of a jazz tune is usually presented in an accurate manner in standard sheet music, the harmonic changes are rarely suitable for a jazz performance.

Once the guitarist learns the skills of being able to uncover the basic chord changes to jazz standards, they can then re harmonize the harmonic background many different ways to reflect the way they wish to present a particular piece of music.

Understanding how to strip back the chords also helps the guitarist see many similarities in the small number of chord templates that thousands of jazz tunes are composed over, which helps us remember tunes.

I repeat, The essential skill to learn is to be able to 'see' (de-code), and 'hear' the basic set of chords.

The purpose of learning the basic set of chords when you are learning jazz chords online is to help the jazz player learn the basic changes and allow the player to add embellishments and substitutions on a solid framework.

Mike Hayes is a teacher, author, speaker and consultant. Get his tips and tested strategies proven to boost your guitar playing his membership site at

http://www.guitarcoaching.com today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_P_Hayes

I stumbled across a cool site for guitar players called Guitar.com

You can create your own profile and share anything about guitar you want really. There are a lot of free video lessons on there by fellow members. So have you can have fun and maybe learn a thing or two... or three.

Here's the Link:

HTTP://WWW.GUITAR.COM

Learning how to hold the guitar neck can have a huge impact on how well you will be able to fret notes, chords and play scales on your guitar. The most important factor that will determine how easily and far you can reach with your fret hand is where you place your thumb.

The correct way to hold the guitar neck is with the thumb close to the center on the back side of the neck. See picture...

You might feel the temptation to grasp the neck with your thumb up high like so...

However this will make it harder to reach around the neck so try and refrain from developing this habit early on.

Placing your thumb to the middle allows your hand to act as a sort of clamp on the guitar neck and will prevent your hand from cramping up as quickly.

And from the front...

You will notice that the fingers lay on the fretboard much easier with your thumb towards the middle of the neck and they have plenty of freedom to move around. See picture...

Placing the thumb too high will cause you to choke the neck and there is less freedom for your fingers below the fretboard.

Hopefully you have found this information on how to hold the guitar neck helpful and are ready to move on to some actual playing. Just remember to apply the basic principles of playing guitar and in no time they will become second nature, without you even thinking about it.

Ready to Play?

Sign up to Ben's Free 6 part e-course and learn all the basics of playing guitar right now!

Just like holding the guitar, holding your pick might seem like it is obvious. However not so obvious is the effect holding your pick the wrong way can have on your wrist and joints.

Their are two common ways to hold a guitar pick that you should familiarize yourself with. Then you can decide for yourself which is more comfortable to you.

Position #1

- The best way to describe holding a pick for this position is to first make a fist...









Then...

Relax your fingers so that your thumb rests on the side of your index finger.

Next...

Place the pick flat on the side of your index finger and clamp down with your thumb. Leave only about 1/4 inch of the pick exposed.

Position #2

- The second way to hold a guitar pick is to pinch it between the index finger and thumb like so...

Both picking positions have their advantages and disadvantages, but is important to do what is comfortable to you. Here they are again...




Position #1













Position #2

Ready to Play?

Sign up to Ben's Free 6 part e-course and learn all the basics of playing guitar right now!

You might think that holding a guitar would be second nature to most of use by now since we have been seeing the iconic rock guitar player plastered on everything from television to magazines for the last half century. However it always seems to amaze me that I still find many young players who could benefit from a lesson on holding a guitar.

The most important thing to remember is that it should feel comfortable, but their are some definite things to take into consideration that could help your joints and muscles from becoming over-worked.

First we will discuss the two sitting positions and the pros and cons associated with each.

Sitting Position #1

- The most popular way to hold a guitar while sitting is to place the guitar on your right leg (left if you play left-handed) so that the dip of the guitar's body is resting on your leg. This is true for acoustic and electric guitars. See picture below...

As I said earlier this is the most popular way to hold a guitar while sitting however I prefer...

Sitting Position#2

- In this position we will rest the guitar on our left leg (right if you are left-handed) so that the area where we will be strumming or picking is between our legs and center of our body. See picture below...

Notice that when holding a guitar like this your strumming arm is much more relaxed. This makes it much easier to do a lot of fast strumming or picking without making your shoulder hurt.

Try it both ways and see the difference for yourself.

Another reason to hold your guitar like this is if you own an odd shaped guitar like a flying V. See picture below...

Standing Positions

Their is really only one way to stand while holding your guitar and that is on your feet. :-)

Bad joke I know, but I couldn't resist.

Really though their are no definite rules but to make it easier on your wrist and arms you need to find a good spot let the guitar rest.

Too high...


And your shoulders will cramp up from being raised all the time.

Too low...


And your wrist won't be able to wrap around the neck and your back will hurt from hunching over in order to play.






The best thing you can do is find a comfortable spot where you can easily reach every part of the fret board and strum the guitar with out over-working your shoulder.

That's Better

Hopefully now you should understand that holding a guitar properly is more important than many people think.

Remember to practice standing and sitting in equal regularity as you will find playing standing up quite different and perhaps a bit more difficult at first.

Ready to Play?

Sign up to Ben's Free 6 part e-course and learn all the basics of playing guitar right now!

The palm mute is a playing technique for the electric guitar that is especially popular in rock and heavy metal styles. To execute , lightly rest the palm of your hand just above your wrist on the strings. The best place to do this is right where the strings meet the bridge.

The sound of a palm mute can range widely depending on several different factors. The amount of pressure you put on the strings is an important one. The harder you press down on the strings the thicker and more percussive the mute will sound. Another important thing is the position of your hand. The further away from the bridge you place your hand the duller it will be. It will not sustain as long and the sound will die quickly. The last factor that manipulates the sound of a palm mute is the amount of gain or distortion on your electric guitar. More distortion will result in a highly compressed chug like sound where as less distortion will make your mutes more dynamic in nature. Heavy distortion also seems to have greater sustain.

One popular song that employs this technique is "Basket Case" by Green Day, where power chords are accented then muted to create a sense of energy and urgency

It can also be heard in The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun", and is employed on both acoustic and electric guitars by Al Di Meola. One example of the technique's use on acoustic guitar may be found in Di Meola's "Mediterranean Sundance". Probably the most famous example is The Police's Grammy-award winning Every Breath You Take

More aggressive styles of palm muting grew out of thrash metal in the mid-late 1980s with bands such as Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax. The technique was fused with fast alternate picking, under high gain, to create a driving, percussive effect.

If you are serious about mastering the guitar you owe it to yourself to check out Jam-o-rama.info


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Palm Mute".

When looking to buy an electric guitar as a new player there are many things to ask yourself. Questions about how you will know which one is best, where to get that best guitar and how will you afford it. In addition to the guitar, you will need to buy other things that go along with it, one of those things being an amplifier. It is not as easy as walking into a shop and walking out with a guitar. There are many things to consider. Hopefully this list of hints will help you decide on the best electric guitar.

First is the body style. This is all based on personal preference and the genre of music you want to play. If rock is what you want to play, then you should go with a solid body electric. On the other hand, a semi-hollow body is more suited for the sound of smooth jazz. It is all up to you and the type of music you are looking to play. Look at what legends in you intended area of music play and investigate that same style.

Then look at the neck of the guitar. Does the size fit your hand? If you cannot reach some strings or the neck is too thick, you will not be able to play well. You need to find one that is comfortable to play.

You need to make sure the frets are properly aligned. If they are spaced incorrectly, then the guitar will go out of tune as you go up and down the fret bar. This will make it completely useless and you won't be able to play anything. You may need a veteran player to help with this one.

Make sure to check the tuning machine. There are two types of such machines, one is enclosed and the other is open. The open ones will need to be oiled more than the enclosed style, as they are more likely to rust in the open air. Beyond this one is not necessarily better than the other.

A large part of the sound of the electric guitar is the pickups it has. Most guitars come with two pickups but you can get guitars with up to a five position switch, which gives you a variety of pickup combinations to work with. These should be tried out before any guitar is bought.

Lastly, the wood of the guitar is a factor in the sound it will have. First look to see what people in your genre play in order to get a feel for the sound they have. The wood will also change the weight, so both should be considered before you buy anything.

Dave Lang is a professional musician of 12 years and a guitar collector. For free guitar lessons, useful tips on buying guitars and recommended beginner electric guitars, visit http://www.guitarprotege.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Lang

So you've mastered the 12-bar blues or at least the concept of it and want to push your blues playing to the next level.

Well your in luck my friend!

The best way to liven up your playing is to learn the shuffle rhythm. I'm not sure where the name comes from, but the shuffle is a term used to describe the break up of a beat into two parts where the first is longer than the second.

The shuffle rhythm is based on an eighth note triplet rhythm. A triplet is when you use three notes in a given time space rather than two. In a standard 4/4 time signature where there is four quarter notes the eighth notes would be counted as...

1-&-2-&-3-&-4-& ... where the &'s are the eighth notes between each quarter. to fill the same time signature with eighth note triplets we would count as...

1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let ... where the trip's and let's are eighth notes totaling three per quarter note. So basically...

1-& = 1-trip-let

The blues shuffle is achieved by playing the first and third notes in a series of triplets. So if the count is...

1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let ... then you will be playing on all the down-beats or numbers and the let's. I have bolded the notes you should be striking to better illustrate.

1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let.

To hear what the shuffle rhythm really sounds like try listening to Led Zeppelin's - You Shook Me or Grateful Dead's - Truckin

I hope this has cleared up any confusion you may have been having with the blues guitar shuffle rhythm or maybe it made it worse. Remember you can always ask me a question by clicking the contact link at the bottom of the nav bar and sending an e-mail.

Ready to start playing the shuffle rhythm?

Check out this easy guitar lesson that rocks and download the tab on that page. Play it using the shuffle rhythm and you'll see how cool it really is.

If your serious about mastering the blues you owe it to yourself to check out PlayingThroughTheblues.info

I've been seeing orange RSS or XML buttons more and more, not knowing what they were. So I asked a buddy about them.

Wow!

It's "the next big thing" -- you can use it to get newsfeeds from CNN or BBC, as well as just about anything else, including news on upcoming movies, DVD releases, your favorite band's tour updates, etc.

Once you get started, it's like having your favorite parts of the Web come to you. No need to go out and check for updates all the time.

No more bookmarks for me!

"RSS" means "Really Simple Syndication." But that is just a fancy way of saying that you can keep up with all the updates to Ultimate-Guitar-Advice without having to check the site every week to see "what's new." Whenever I put up a new page or update an old one, I release it through RSS. And...

I also include popular tips and lessons from time to time.

The popular tips and lessons are the extra-special techniques that can really help you to create your own style of guitar playing.

There are so many terrific things to learn about the electric guitar and I can share them with you through RSS. This gives you the best of Ultimate-Guitar-Advice without you having to spend hours on the site.

Yes, RSS is amazing. If you can't tell, I'm completely addicted to it. No e-mail. No spam. It's so easy to subscribe and unsubscribe. If you get tired of me, you just have to delete the feed.

And once you start, you'll soon be tracking all your other favorite interests and news in the world.

How do you get started? Easy (now that I know, that is! ha! ha!).

Download a free RSS Reader first (skip to bottom if you do not want to download software). This is special software that reads the "RSS feeds" from the largest news organizations right down to little old me...

Windows -- RssReader
http://www.rssreader.com

Mac -- NetNewsWire
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire

Once you're set up, here's all you have to do...

Right-click (control-click for Mac users) on any orange RSS button on a site, blog or news source that interests you. Start by right-clicking on the orange button below. Then...

COPY-SHORTCUTSelect Copy Shortcut ("Copy Link to Clipboard" for Mac), and paste that URL into your RSS Reader.

And that's it! You're subscribed.

Right-click and get started

---

Don't want to download new software? Yahoo! and MSN and Google have fantastic, one-step solutions. Just click one of the links below...

Add Ultimate-Guitar-Advice.blogspot.com RSS to your "My Yahoo!"

Add Ultimate-Guitar-Advice.blogspot.com RSS to your "My MSN"

Add Ultimate-Guitar-Advice.blogspot.com RSS to your "My Google"

By now you've probably heard of the turnaround chord commonly associated with the blues. I am also quite sure that if you have been listening to the blues for any period of time you have heard many turnarounds played.

Basically a turnaround is just as the name describes. It takes you from the end of the verse to the beginning of the next. Almost all turnarounds end on a V7 chord. This is why we will refer to the V7 as the turnaround chord.

Remember back to the basic 12-bar blues progression and how we ended it with a turnaround. You may play the turnaround with basic major chords and it will sound just fine but by adding a seventh to the V chord it creates a lot more tension and begs to be resolved to the tonic ( I ) chord. The reason for this is the added tension between the seventh of the V7 chord and the third of the tonic chord. To better illustrate the relationship the turnaround chord has to the tonic chord lets look at the notes in a B7 chord (V7) and an E major ( I ) chord.

Notes in B7: B D# F# A

Notes in E: E G# B

Now we can see that the seventh of B7 is A and the third of E major is G#. These two notes are only a half step apart on the guitar and that it why they resolve together so nicely.

Now that you have a better understanding of turnaround chords and how they can be applied to the 12-bar blues go practice using them for all your turnarounds. You will find that most blues players much prefer the V7 chord to the plain old V chord anyway.

If you are serious about mastering the blues you owe it to yourself to check out PlayingThroughtheBlues.info

Hybrid picking is yet another advanced guitar technique you can use to develop your style. It involves the use of the pick and fingers at the same time allowing you to play passages that might normally be played using a finger-style approach.

The mechanics of hybrid picking are easy to grasp. You hold your pick as your accustomed to between the thumb and first finger while letting your remaining free fingers dangle over the strings. By using your fingers to pluck notes that are on the higher pitched strings your pick can remain above the lower pitched strings thus creating less movement for licks that have wide string leaps in them.

Some great players like Zakk Wylde have managed to use it in a rather unusual fashion. Instead of only using it for large string leaps he will sometimes employ the technique for striking a note that is on the adjacent string. The reasoning behind this is similar to that of economy picking; to reduce the overall motion of the wrist and pick hand allowing the player to achieve greater speed.

I have always struggled with this technique myself and have never enjoyed its applications in my own playing as much as I have sweep picking and economy picking. If however you feel that this could be the guitar technique that could unlock your guitar playing and your style I suggest you give it a try. It is particularly good for country and bluegrass styles but not limited too. For your listening pleasure here are a few of my favorites that are noted for using hybrid picking in their playing. Jason Becker, Eric Johnson, Jimmy Page, and Billy Gibbons.

Learn all of the most important guitar techniques and much more at MusicMasterPro.com

I was playing around on you tube today and watching some cool guitar videos and I came across this funny video. Enjoy!