Author Archive for Eugene W

Lead Guitar Transposition Tips and Techniques

Published
by
Eugene W
on June 28, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Every so often, we decide to dive into a new aspect of playing guitar that many are either afraid of, or just simply have no idea what it’s all about. We’re going to tackle one of the more feared issues evolving around guitar… Transposition.

Join us as we teach you the most simplistic and easy ways to transpose your music.

Getting That Riff In Your Favorite Key!

How many times have we composed a riff that we absolutely love, or perhaps found a song that we really enjoy playing and wanted to put it into a new, original song and truly make it ours? Chances are that we’ve all wanted to at least try it out once or twice but always came across one roadblock… Keys.

As mentioned in our last article, the probability that two riffs will be in the same key is very low if you are writing a lot of songs or wish to link two well known songs together. This is where you need to transpose one of those riffs so you can connect them together and put them in that song.

Another scenario is that you just wrote an awesome riff that you envision going into one of your band’s songs… The only problem is that it’s in the wrong key! With transposing, you can still use that riff and play along with the rest of the band.

If you’re a true band nerd, like myself, you have probably been around transposition since the days of Jr. High or Middle School. Now, if you’re still like me, you didn’t have two clicks on how to do it either. I was always amazed to see how my teacher would take a trumpet part and transpose it so I could play it on my sax and still be in the right key!

With guitar, this is invaluable. You can take a sax part and transpose it to your guitar. If you happen to have a sax player around, you can now play along with that sax and still be in the proper key.

One of the most unique things about playing guitar is that we have a number of tools available to us to use for easy transposition. Many other musicians envy us for this and call us cheaters in the game of music theory, however, if you can use it… Why not?

The tools that you can use.

One of the most common tools used to transpose music on the guitar is the capo. The capo is essentially a piece of rubber that is glued onto two pieces of metal with a spring placed in between. When clasped onto the neck of your guitar and placed behind a fret, it acts as a new nut (AKA the “zero” nut.) This new nut raises the pitch of your guitar, therefore changing the key.

Most guitarists use them so they can make really complicated chords into easy open chord shapes. This is where the whole joke about cheating comes in. Instead of actually practicing those really hard chords and getting your technique down, you can transpose that chord using the capo and turn it into an open chord shape such as an E Major or an A and still have the same chord.

While I don’t recommend that you always do that because it’s always good to know how to play a song if your capo breaks, it’s great for live performances where you want to minimize the risk of messing up a complicated chord. If you’re a lead guitarist, you can still use a capo but in all honesty, it’s far easier to find the key that everyone else is playing in relative to the capo and just use the scale that suites the song best.

In most cases, it’s actually quicker for a lead guitarist not to use a capo and just find a scale. Switching a capo around the neck of your guitar can cost valuable seconds between songs.

About the Author:
E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock Music Studios and contributes regularly to many guitar publications. Find out how Guitar Backing Tracks will improve your guitar playing. Planet of Rock also provides CustomBacking Tracks Recordings.

Master Lead Guitar Improvisations Quickly For Guitarists

Published
by
Eugene W
on June 5, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Guitar improvisation is among the most important aspect of lead guitar playing and without improvisation you will never be able to make the type of impact you would like to make while doing a live gig.The better way to master lead guitar improvisations is by understanding the various scales and the different techniques that are used. But guitar improvisation is definitely not easy especially when you are learning on your own. If you are a self taught guitarist then you can use books, e-books and video guitar lessons from cyberspace, download guitar tools from the internet, and practice using guitar tabs and guitar backing tracks.

All of these techniques will help you to learn about the guitar, the fretboard, the minor and major scales, the blues scale, and the chromatic scales. But when you progress from the basic to the advanced stage then the only way you can learn guitar improvisation is through practice. For a guitarist, practice is a never ending routine. The more you practice, the better you are with guitar improvisation. Whether you are rehearsing with the help of a book or with tabs and lessons available over the internet, you need to know that if you have complete control over the minor and major pentatonic scales then guitar improvisation will be like a walk in the park for you.

For example: if you are using G-major pentatonic then it will be: 2-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-3, 2-4, 2-4 at the 3rd or 15th fret for G major pentatonic. In G, A, B, D, E, G, you will notice that the G major pentatonic as well as the E minor pentatonic share exactly same notes. If you play the G major pentatonic scale in the open position then it will be like this:

—————————0-3– ———————-0-3——- —————–0-2———— ————0-2—————– ——0-2———————– -0-3—————————-

The fastest way to guitar improvisation is through learning how to play the pentatonic scales to perfection. The minor pentatonic scale consists of 5 notes, which are the same as in major pentatonic. The only difference is that the tonic of the scale in major pentatonic is different from that of minor pentatonic.

Let’s take an example:The C-major pentatonic scale is C - D - E - G - A - C and it will become an A-minor pentatonic scale which will be A - C - D - E - G - A. All you had to do was select the note ‘A’ as the tonic note. Let’s take a look some of the minor pentatonic scales as mentioned in the Circle of fifths.

# C minor pentatonic scale C - Eb - F - G - Bb - C

# G minor pentatonic scale G - Bb - C - D - F - G

# D minor pentatonic scale (Down - Up - Top) D - F - G - A - C - D

About the Author:
E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock. For more tips on Guitar Lessons and to learn to play lead guitar , visit Planet Of Rock today. Your #1 Lead Guitarist Resource

Achieving The Perfect Guitar Tone - Tonal Nirvana

Published
by
Eugene W
on May 17, 2008
in Music
. 2 Comments
by Eugene W

Come with us as we take a look at one of the most common guitar playing myths, that buying expensive equipment will give you great sound. Join us as we discover what the true secret is to capturing professional sounding tones

There is one aspect of playing the guitar that can be quite elusive, even for the best of guitarists, and can even become an obsession for those who can never seem to find it. This crucial and pivotal aspect of playing the guitar is the tone. Every person who is serious about the guitar and strives to master the instrument understands that playing guitar isn’t simply about skill, but about skill that sounds good.

Trying to discover the perfect tone is like searching for the Holy Grail. You’re not sure if it exists, but there are a lot of myths and stories that seem to offer clues about where it can be found. There are a lot of myths about how one can achieve the perfect tone and sound from their guitar, and just about all of them are false.

One popular myth about achieving great guitar tones is that you have to have a certain type of pickup. While certain brands and types of pickups can improve the quality of your overdrive tones and give you some nice bottom end and some sweet highs, these pickups still won’t give you great tone. There are a lot of individuals who think that getting a new set of humbuckler pickups will solve their tone issues and that immediately they’ll begin playing like Eric Clapton! These individuals drop a lot of money to get these pickups put into their guitar, only to plug in and find that the sound they’re looking for still isn’t there.

Another popular myth about guitar tone is that you have to have a Marshall half stack in order to get professional, warm sounding tones. A lot of individuals get duped into thinking that if they buy the most expensive amplifiers from the biggest brand names it will automatically give them professional quality tones. While it is true that top notch equipment can really help you to fine tune your sound and help you expand your creativity, it’s still not going to make you sound like a professional, and it’s still not going to give you the sound quality you’re going for.

The only way to truly achieve professional sounding guitar tones is to focus on your playing abilities. As they say, the tone is in your fingers! You can have all the best selling, top of the line equipment there is and still sound like an amateur. In order to develop a great sound and a nice tone, you have to perfect your skills. The reason some of rock music’s greatest guitarists sound so good is because they are good. If you want great sound, focus on how you play and on mastering your instrument and that will take you down the path to achieving great sound.

About the Author:
E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock Music Studios. Find out how GuitarBacking Tracks will improve your guitar playing skills. Jam anytime anywhere with professional free backing tracks

How to Choose the Right Guitar Lessons for You

Published
by
Eugene W
on May 10, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

The guitar is one of the most flexible instruments in the world. You can play the blues, jazz, rock, and almost any other kind of music. It’s no wonder therefore that almost all people want to learn how to strum the strings.

There are some who are truly gifted. After a while of self-studying, they can already play a variety of songs together with their guitar. Others, meanwhile, aren’t as lucky. You can actually see them struggling for hours or even months. If you belong to the latter group, you have one more effective option: choose a guitar lesson.

Here are the different techniques in choosing the right guitar lesson for you:

1. Stick with the level you’re in. If you haven’t played guitar before, then you have to choose the beginner level. If you want to advance with your techniques, you also have to select the advanced level. Choosing one inappropriately will definitely spell disaster for you-unless you’re a born guitar genius.

2. Choose self-taught audio and video guitar lessons. If you want to obtain greater flexibility of your time and in a shoe-string budget, then you can simply opt for guitar lessons in video and audio format. Keep in mind that this is not a formal training, which means you really don’t have anybody telling you if you’re doing things or not. You just have to depend on your gut feel and perhaps the reaction of your audience once you start playing the guitar. The good thing about this is you can bring your lessons everywhere you go, and they are absolutely free.

3. Look for an online guitar lesson program. There are already numerous websites that are offering guitar playing modules to their students. They also have experts with them, who can guide you during difficult periods in your lessons. They may cost few dollars, but if you’re truly serious about learning, then you wouldn’t definitely mind spending some of your money for it.

4. Download a software. Besides modules, you can also download a number of software that will help you how to play the guitar. They have both audio and video presentations, audio samples, and tabs that you can utilize while you’re practicing playing. You can make use of this even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

5. Attend a class. If you’re still in school, you can ask around if there are special classes for guitar playing. It will save you time, money, and effort as you can participate every time your classes end. It’s going to be fun too as you have several people who can offer their opinion about your guitar playing skills.

About the Author:
E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock. Listen to country guitar backing tracks and jam with a real country band. Planet of Rock is one of the best country guitar sitesoffering professional country backing tracks.

Play Like A Guitar Shred God - Increase Playing Speed

Published
by
Eugene W
on March 8, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Come join us now as we take a closer look into tips and tricks for improving your guitar playing speed and for some practical knowledge on effectively using metronomes and other advice to improve your practice sessions.

Most aspiring guitar players today fill their heads with fantasies about moving their fingers effortlessly across their fretboards with lightning quick speed and accuracy that leaves minds rocked and speakers blown. Old school shredders worship Eddie Van Halen and emulate his playing style and his speed. There have been a few guitarists throughout the ages of rock that have been born with an almostsupernatural understanding and talent for the guitar, but that certainly is not the case for most musicians. Learning to be a master of speed guitar playing requires a lot of hard work, dedication, sweat, bloody fingertips, and patience.

There is a lot more to mastering speed than having a good sense of rhythm and a well-trained ear. You have to be willing to put in the time to practice, and to practice hard. If you want to learn how to blaze solos and belt out face melting guitar solos, you have to be dedicated to learning and putting into practice all you learn.

One method of improving your guitar playing speed is to use guitar backing tracks. Guitar backing tracks can help you improve your speed by playing along with other instruments in a set tempo. This can help you to take what you already know and work on perfecting those particular skills.

It is of the utmost importance to remember that one picks up speed picking by using your wrist rather than wriggling your fingers back and forth. Eddie Van Halen calls this Fan picking. Another excellent tip for improving guitar speed involves practicing with a metronome. It is important to remember that before you can practice with a metronome to help you develop speed, you must first learn the technique and scale at your own speed. After you have mastered it at a comfortable level, you can now move on to practicing to a metronome, set at whatever tempo you’d like. Slowly increase the tempo, a little at a time and practice till you are comfortable before moving up the speed. Never, ever push beyond what you can achieve as that will demoralize yourself. Take it one step at a time.

For speed, it is necessary for guitarists to develop new skills with the right hand - quickly alternating the pick stroke upwards and downwards (variable stroke). The quicker the right hand can make these alternating strokes, the quicker the playing will be.

It is necessary to begin from the most standard tremolo (fast recurrence of one note). Triplets are the most effective way of learning to play a tremolo. Try to begin each of your lessons with a tremolo. It develops (and warms up well) the right hand. The tremolo notes must sound dynamically equal (all notes sounding of equal loudness) and with equal tempo.

It’s important to remember that a crucial aspect of developing speed is to first develop accuracy. Learning to play fast means nothing if you aren’t playing the right notes, and if you aren’t playing the right notes cleanly. If you can train yourself through much practice to be as flawless as possible in your accuracy, you will be able to easily improve your playing speed.

When you’ve got your picking speed up, then you can look into worrying about the left hand notes, although this pattern fits quite well into the major scale at higher speeds. It is important to have fun every step of the way.

Many lead guitarists desire to be able to dominate the guitar and to shred like some of the legends of rock music history. Think EVH, Satriani or Eddie Johnson. If you have the determination, the drive, and the willingness to dedicate yourself to consistent practicing and learning, you will go pretty far, and may even accomplish your dreams.

About the Author:
Over 1000 Live Bands Ready To Jam With You. Imagine That. Jam With Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Guns n Roses & More with Professional Guitar Backing Tracks ! E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock Music Studios. Hear Backing Tracks for Guitar

Key Tips to Mastering the Guitar And Playing Great Solos

Published
by
Eugene W
on March 8, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Join us as we take a look at a few key tips for learning how to master the guitar. You’ll learn how playing with no effects improves accuracy, how to get the most out of practice sessions with guitar backing tracks, as well as a few principles to apply to guitar practice.

Every aspiring guitarist who picks up a guitar has the ultimate goal in mind of being able to just pick up their guitar and blaze a solo, leaving impressed friends and family in a state of awed shock. The problem is that most people do not put in the effort that is necessary in order to master their instrument because they desire instant gratification. Although guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to master, anyone can do it if they put in enough dedication, effort and time and have a true passion for creative musical expression.

There are a few tips that are the key to unlocking success when it comes to mastering the guitar. One of the most basic tips to guitar success is to put in the time that is necessary to practice. As elementary as it may seem, a lot of people fail and give up the guitar because they expected instant results without putting in any work. Practice takes time, effort, passion, and work. There isn’t a single great guitar player in the history of music that didn’t sacrifice a lot of time to practice their guitar. Some would practice for five to eight hours a day. This doesn’t mean that you have to practice that long every day, but you have to give more than five minutes of your time if you want to see any real results.

Another great tip for mastering the guitar is to take it slow at first. This means that playing fast is put to the side for awhile. Take your time perfecting your chords and learning them. Learn all your scales, commit them to your mind, master these fundamentals first, and then you can begin to build on your speed. It’s important to remember that playing fast is not as important as playing with accuracy.

One tip for mastering accuracy and clarity in your playing is to play your guitar clean. Playing your guitar clean means no distortion and no effects. By practicing your scales and chords without distortion, you will have to play the notes clean and accurately in order for them to sound good. This will push your style and accuracy to the next level as you’re learning new techniques and scales.

An excellent tool to allow you put into practice all that you have learned is guitar backing tracks. These tracks are great for helping you take what you have learned and use it alongside other musicians. It makes guitar practice so much more entertaining and keeps your motivated! These guitar backing tracks are like practicing with an entire band, and will help you develop timing and rhythm during lead sections. They are excellent for helping you tap into your creativity and apply what you have learned to creating excellent lead parts.

About the Author:
E Walker is contributes regular to guitar publications worldwide. He is the founder of Planet of Rock. See how Guitar Backing Tracks makes guitar practice more enjoyable! Jam to over 1000 professional tracks including 100s of Blues Guitar Backing Tracks

Master Lead Guitar solos with Ease using Guitar Backing Tracks

Published
by
Eugene W
on March 7, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Join us as we examine the ways you can master guitar solos by using backing tracks for guitarists. We will look into how using guitar backing tracks can be a huge asset in honing your skills as a guitarist as well as helping you to master lead guitar playing.

A lot of guitar players spend their time trying to find the secret, the easy solution or the single trick to mastering their skills and being able to play really awesome guitar solos. Serious guitarists will spend hours practicing, honing their skills, and searching and scouring the Internet for any lessons that might help them achieve the perfection in their technique. Others may research endless on the type of pickups, the different tones or guitar effects review to take their sound to the next level. Practice is the key to mastery and enjoying your practice sessions is the answer to keeping the focus and commitment for guitar practicing. There is hope for these individuals, in the form of guitar backing tracks.

Backing tracks for guitarists are a crucial tool that can be very beneficial in achieving mastery of the ever elusive lead guitar solo. It also serves as a great and fun way to practice your guitar. Guitar backing tracks can help you to become a well-rounded guitarist and help to put into practice your musical knowledge.

One of the biggest benefits of using guitar backing tracks to master guitar solos is how they help you learn scales. Doing endless practice drills to learn your scales can sometimes be excruciatingly boring and dull, but when you practice along to backing tracks for guitarists, it’s like playing live with a rocking band. This will help you to not only memorize the scales, but to understand how they actually work into the structure of a song as well.

Another factor that is extremely important in learning to master guitar solos is the fine art of improvisation. Backing tracks for guitarists provide the student with a live band to back them up while they piece together a blazing hot solo right there on the spot. This also allows you to place a solo anywhere in the song, or to improvise for the full length of the guitar backing tracks. These backing tracks make improvisation practice a whole lot more productive and fun. These backing tracks for guitarists are available from retailers such as Planet of Rock.

Another important part of mastering guitar solos is playing with clarity and great tone. There are a lot of different factors and gear that play into achieving a soulful, great-sounding tone during your solo, but one of the greatest factors is how well you actually play. The tone is in your fingers. Professional Guitar backing tracks can help you to achieve great tone by helping you to hone your own ability to play well and by greatly improving the technique with which you play. What better way to practice then to jam with a virtual live band. Hearing another guitar behind you, and how well it sounds and how clear it is can be very beneficial to helping you achieve a greater depth of clarity in your own playing.

About the Author:
Find out more about Guitar Backing Track? Visit Planet of Rock to improve your lead guitar playing and jam to professional live bands! These backing tracks for guitarists allow you to jam at your own time and speed.

Are Guitar Legends Born Or Made - Natural Talent For Guitarists

Published
by
Eugene W
on March 7, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments
by Eugene W

Join us as we take a look into a popular guitar myth on the subject of natural talent for guitarist. We will be discussing this misconception and how natural talent is not a replacement for hard work and for learning the proper skills. You will also learn the benefits to mastering your skills by practicing along with backing tracks for guitarists.

A pretty common phrase that’s thrown around a lot in the guitar community and just about every other style of music is the term natural talent. Some people never excel in mastering their particular instrument because of the myth that in order to be good you have to have natural talent.

That’s not to say that some people aren’t naturally gifted as a musician or guitarist, because there are quite a few who guitar players who take to the instrument quickly. Many musicians do have a natural talent for their instrument or style, but that do not mean that only these individuals can learn and master the guitar. Anyone who picks up a guitar and has the drive, determination, passion, and dedication can learn and become an excellent guitarist.

Mastering the guitar simply requires an individual to apply themselves to learning the necessary tools and skills to effectively create music that expresses who they are and what they are about. If you want to master the guitar you have to put in the time to learn all the tools, techniques, and skills that a guitar player needs to play effectively.

This myth makes accomplished professional guitarists seem as if they just magically knew how to play, and neglects the fact that they sacrificed many hours of practice to learn and perfect their skills. There are no guitar virtuosos who haven’t put in hours of practice and study to cultivate their talents and skills.

The truth is that even the most talented guitarists had to study, learn, and practice. There are a lot of different ways to practice and cultivate your skills. One of the most beneficial ways to practice your talents and skills is to practice along with guitar backing tracks. Playing with guitar backing tracks can help you perfect your skills and apply your newly learned knowledge. Guitar backing tracks can also help you develop better tone by strengthening your accuracy. Such tracks are available from retailers such as Planet of Rock

Using backing tracks for guitar are also beneficial for making practice sessions more enjoyable. Instead of running endless repetitive drills, you can play along with a virtual band and perfect your improvisation techniques as well. Backing tracks for guitarists can also be used at live performances and other types of gigs as well.

About the Author:
Find out more about Guitar Backing Track? Visit Planet of Rock to improve your lead guitar playing and jam to professional live bands! These backing tracks for guitarists allow you to jam at your own time and speed.