Guitar Ergonomics

Guitar Ergonomics

Guitar ergonomics is another aspect that you might want to take into account, especially when buying a guitar perhaps for the very first time.  Who is the guitar for?  Is the guitar for yourself or is it for a child of yours?

If the guitar is for a child of course, you want to make sure that the guitar bought is a manageable size for the child in question, who is about to learn guitar.

It is no point overloading a child or someone very small in stature with a guitar that is much too large for them to handle.  Not only will they find playing the guitar much more difficult but it could become extremely unwieldy in their hands and can seriously affect their guitar playing ability, so it is important to take this consideration into effect when you are buying a guitar for the first time.

The more comfortable that the guitar player, guitar musician can be with the instrument in their hands, of course this will bring about a reflection on their personal playing ability, either good or adversely, as the case may be.

Obviously it stands to reason that the guitars essential functions are all within easy reach of the fingers to extract from the guitar the best possible sound.  It therefore pays perhaps, to visit personally a guitar store in person just to try out the various guitar sizes just to check out what fits for you or your child, best.

The more relaxed an individual is with the guitar in their hands, it stands to reason that this will bring a bearing on how well they end up playing guitar.  To play learn guitar very well, it is important for the person playing, to feel happy with the guitar instrument in their hands and this cannot be over emphasized and/or stressed enough!

In the next article we will be looking at a couple more guitar considerations that you might want to think about, so please don’t stop here, carry on reading to find out more!

Guitar History

Guitar History

The guitar also known as the violao is a stringed instrument which when said strings are plucked or strummed, produce sound.  Guitars can come with varying numbers of strings for example 6 strings, 12 strings, 4, 7, 8, 10 also are not that scarce.

The guitar or violao has been played in many different and very varied styles of music including but not limited to rock, pop, flamenco, blues, country and folk music. To create an acoustic sound involves production of the tone via the vibration of the string when either strummed or plucked, the sound itself being produced in the guitar body, this obviously doesn’t wholly apply to the electric guitar where the sound is produced quite differently. In this case an guitar amplifier will produce the actual guitar sound.

A luthier is a man or woman that makes and repairs guitar strings.  Guitar strings can be made from either nylon or steel.  Everybody has their personal preference.  Various sounds can be produced on a guitar depending on the materials used in the guitar construction.

The history of the guitar can be traced back in various forms about 5,000 years.

There are two major types of guitars or violao’s

The acoustic violao guitar is made from a soundboard, which is used to actually produce the sound, this is present in the front of the guitar body in the form of a piece of wood.  No outside device or arrangement is required to produce the sound.  This enables the acoustic violao quieter than other orchestra instruments and sometimes you’ll find that an external amplifier is used  to enable the sound to be more audible to help it to match the sound created of other band instruments being used in conjunction with the acoustic guitar. Some of the latest violao guitars are provided with a range of pick-ups for amplification and modification of the raw acoustic guitar sound.

Various acoustic, violao guitars type sub categories include Classical guitars; Flamenco guitars, Steel string guitars (including the flat top or `folk` guitar), Twelve string guitars; Arch-top guitars; Renaissance guitars or Baroque guitars; Resonator, Resophonic or Dobro guitars, Russian guitars, Acoustic bass guitars, Tenor guitars, Harp guitars, Guitar Battente and Extended range guitars.

Now, let’s talk briefly about Electric Guitars

Electric guitar bodies are typically solid, although they can be also semi hollow or indeed, hollow.  The electric guitar sound without any form of amplification is somewhat dulled to say the least, but when a  guitar amp is added the difference in sound quality is as different as chalk and cheese!  Obviously therefore it goes without saying that a guitar amplifier is an integral component of the electric guitar and the electric guitar with an amp is like a car without tires.

The steel strings when plucked or strummed are converted into electric signals by electro-magnetic pick-up’s which are relayed to the electric guitars amplifier using either a cable or a radio transmitter.

The sound produced by the electric guitar is very often modified, this is achieved either with electronic devices or through the natural valve distortion..  There are two types of pick-ups.  Double line or single line pick-ups. Each of these pick-ups can either be passive or active.  The electric guitar sound can quite literally be an electrifying experience as no doubt you know only too well for yourself from listening to your own guitar anthems.

Most typically, guitar players will pluck the strings of the electric violao with their dominant, strong hand.  The other hand is used on the guitar neck frets pressing and depressing the guitar strings as appropriate for the sound that is to be produced as part of the guitar music.

Here is a brief list of the main violao guitar components

They include of course the guitar headstock, nut, guitar fretboard, the frets themselves, truss rod, inlay’s, guitar neck heel or neck point, the guitar strings, we don’t want to be forgetting them of course, the guitar body and last but not least the guitar pickups.

Further accessories which can vastly increase one’s playing pleasure and versatility are the guitar plectrum, which you may also know as the vialao pick or guitar pick, which of course is used for ‘picking’ the strings.  This is made up from a hard plastic or wood, then there are slides which can be used for the creation of a glissando effect heard in blues and rock musical genres, finally the copatasto used for changing the pitch of open strings.

Hopefully you found these guidance notes to be of some use to you aiding and adding to your knowledge of the violao or guitar.  Please do carry on looking around our guitar website, it’s awesome to have you here!

Guitar Learning Basics

Guitar Learning Basics

If you are wondering where to start on the subject of learning to play guitar, the following five steps may provide for you some basic guitar instruction and advice to get you started off.

First you must understand that often we are our own worst enemy, we procrastinate, put things off, try to think of shortcuts (human nature) whilst forgetting that the key to doing anything well, is practice and persistence.

If you want to learn the guitar well, these two personal attributes will be your friend for life as you strive to master the guitar.

You simply cannot buy skill, it takes time.  The best guitar in the world, an awesome guitarist it will not make you.  You must be prepared to practice, practice and then practice some more if you want to become a good guitarist.  Mastering playing the guitar remember, will give you years of pleasure!

Second, check your action. Always make sure that the distance between the fingerboard and the underside of the string is appropriate for your fingers. If in doubt about this, ask any experienced guitar friend of yours to advise you on this issue or pop into your local guitar dealership and ask them for their advice directly.

Third, remember the K.I.S.S. principle which usually stands for Keep It Stupidly Simple.  Don’t make learning the guitar more difficult than it has to be.  Don’t jump straight into the deep end.  Start simple and as your confidence increases and your guitar playing ability improves, then you can move onto the more complicated sounds that you are striving for.

If you start off with the more complicated chords and/or riffs, you will likely get frustrated which will not serve you well at all.

Remember that in all things regarding a new skill, there is a learning curve to go through.  Enjoy that learning.  Have fun learning the guitar and don’t make it any more difficult for yourself than it has to be.

Fourth, try to bear and keep in mind that rhythm is key - to have a good strong, consistent flow to your guitar playing ability you need to keep the beat in the beginning, at the start, if you use a metronome or even your foot to keep pace, this will assist you a great deal.

Fifth, sure you love that guitar classic song, it reaches deep within your soul but it’s no good for you, choosing the most complicated of songs to start you off learning.  Again, keep to simple songs highly suitable for the guitar beginner, limit yourself at first to just two chord guitar songs, then as you gain in confidence, guitar playing ability, then you can step the pace of learning up a bit more to more complicated guitar pieces.

If you put these five simple steps into practice and have a lot of fun doing so, it really will not take you long at all to become highly proficient, learning to play the guitar.

Guitar Style

Guitar Style

An important aspect not to overlook is that guitar looks alone is not a prerequisite to a guitar which will be perfect for you and that you will be absolutely, perfectly happy with.  Sure, guitar looks are important, as each guitar beginner will naturally build up from the very start an emotional attachment to the guitars that they are interested in.  One thing to remember though is that it is no good rushing into to buy a guitar based on looks alone.  It serves no purpose to buy a guitar purely for the reason that you wish to wow your friends, if upon coming to play guitar, you find that this particular guitar afterall, it’s sounds quality, is not for you personally.

All is not lost however.  Sure you can find a great looking guitar from the marketplace out there, upon seeing a guitar that you like the look of first though - go to a guitar shop or guitar store and share with the owner of the guitar store the guitar make and model that you are ultimately interested in purchasing.  Heed their advice, take their guitar experience onboard, listen to what they have to say, as they really will only have your best interests at heart.

It may just be that the guitar that you think looks wickedly cool, the one that you thought would really impress your family and friends actually does not produce the right kind of guitar sound that you are after.  What you want to do obviously is to seek to find a balance between the two, good looks and a great guitar sound.

By all means, ask any dealer for their advice.  As a guitar beginner, no question is too dumb to ask.  The guitar dealer has heard all of these same questions before many times over and he or she will not mind at all you asking the same questions too.  He / she knows from their own guitar playing experience most likely within just a few sentences, the kind of guitar look and sound that you want, let them advise you, take full advantage of their guitar knowledge and be guided by their words of guitar wisdom.

You only have to ask too, and the guitar dealer in your guitar store will with a very high likelihood allow you to hold and play the guitar of your choice.  Try out various guitar models, see how they feel in your hands, don’t just stand there, if there is room, feel free to move around with the guitar, just as you would naturally, as if you were playing it, of course being careful not to inadvertently break anything!

A guitar which feels natural in your hands, fits your stature and build very well, produces a beautiful guitar melody and sound, you’ll just know when you’ve hit on the right guitar note for you.  Even if you don’t buy there and then, at least now you have it fixed in your mind the guitar that you want to buy.  Take your time with your guitar buying experience, and enjoy and learn as much as you can at the same time.

Guitar Brands - Which One For You?

Guitar Brands

There is a very large range of guitars on the market for you, the guitar beginner to choose from, so where do you start looking, which guitar brands are the generally accepted one’s to go for?

Some of the top guitar brands are in no particular order:

• Epiphone Guitars
• Ibanez Guitars
• Fender Guitars
• Dean Guitars
• Jackson Guitars
• Paul Reed Smith Guitars
• ESP Guitars
• Yamaha Guitars
• Gibson Guitars

For the new guitarist just starting out the advice of Play Learn Guitar would be to stick to one of these well known and respected guitar brands.

Sure, you may come across more, but the advice is to stick with a well known brand rather than plucking for a guitar brand that nobody has ever heard of.

Each of the above brands of guitar you should find for sale in your area unless you happen to live in the middle of the desert!

Each of these famous guitar brands will produce their very own unique and identifiable sounds, you may choose one over the other, not only based on guitar sound quality initially but rather simply because you just dig the cool looks and appearance of one guitar brand over another guitar brand.

Look for a guitar that of course has been looked after very well and preferably one that comes with it’s own custom guitar storage case as supplied by the guitar manufacturer.

The Gibson range of guitars are obviously absolutely superb with a price tag generally speaking to match.  If your guitar budget won’t allow you to stretch that far, why not go for the Epiphone guitar, a similar guitar sound to the Gibson guitar, without the expensive price tag attached.  And to be honest if you are a beginner guitarist, this make will almost certainly serve your needs very well indeed.

One of the most common guitar brands is the wide and varied selection manufactured by Yamaha guitars.  This particular guitar manufacturer is really very well suited to beginners and is a very popular choice among guitar beginners, intermediate players and even advanced players not wishing to go professional but just playing for pleasure among family and friends.

Each of these brand name guitars will have it’s own personal stamp of style and individuality, it’s completely up to you which one you think might appeal to you the most.

Play Learn Guitar suggests that before you go out blind, looking at guitar brands that perhaps you have never heard of or seen, that first you go to a website such as eBay and type in there, all of the guitar brand names one by one into the search box at that auction site.  Then you’ll easily be able to compare the different guitar models side by side and also you’ll be able to see by looking at the completed guitar listings, the end price realised for each guitar sold.  Simply pick a guitar manufacturer brand that you like the look of and go with your gut instinct, at the very least this should help you to hone down your guitar brand choice to just one or two makes.

Guitar Prices

Guitar Prices

Guitars of course cover a vast price range.  You can pick up a cheap bargain on places like eBay of course, but generally speaking the best place to go to pick up a real bargain is to check in your local press for people advertising yard sales or simply by attending a local swap meet.  There you can quite literally pick up a bargain guitar, second hand guitar from just a few dollars, twenty bucks or so to whatever limit you set on your guitar buying budget.

If you are unsure still whether playing guitar is right for you in the long run and you just want to test the waters first, buying a cheap guitar may just be the best solution for now.

If you know already though, that you are committed to playing guitar for the long term, obviously you’ll be wanting to spend a few extra dollars to get a guitar that is right for you.

A Yamaha guitar is one brand of guitar that may fit your purposes as they have a broad range of guitar instruments, if on the other hand you want something a little more classy and upmarket and you don’t mind splashing out the cash, look for guitar brands such as Gibson.  In today’s economic slowdown you just never know what guitar bargain may be around the next corner.

Talk to your seller, tell him or her why you want to buy the guitar, engage them in conversation about their guitar, if they perceive in you a keeness to learn playing guitar they may just look upon you more kindly and allow you to have the guitar of your choice at a much reduced price.  Certainly do not be afraid to haggle the guitar price down, everyone expects a bit of bargaining and you just never know, you too could walk away with a real bargain guitar on your hands.

Of course it will always pay to do some guitar prices research first.  If you keep a list of guitar prices on you, you can reference this on your travels as you seek to buy a guitar at the budget that you have allowed for.  By all means look at guitars above your price range with a view to bringing the guitar price down by at least a third, if not more.  This buying a guitar strategy obviously only works on the second hand market unless you just happen to live in an area where a guitar shop or guitar store is closing down business for good.

By following these ever so simple buying guitar tips and buying guitar advice, you may just be pleased to punch on getting home and unwrapping that beautiful guitar that is just about to embark upon you, years of guitar playing pleasure.

Play Learn Guitar wish for you personally great success in finding that guitar bargain and that you really do get years of playing guitar pleasure from your acquisition.

Good luck!

Guitar Care Tips

Guitar Care Tips

You want to keep your guitar in the best possible condition?  As with anything else regular guitar maintenance will go a long way to ensuring that your guitar delivers you only the very best sounds that you desire.  Just as you take pride in anything else valuable that you own and you clean those possessions regularly, do exactly the same with your guitar.

Regular guitar cleaning will also help it to deliver for you a great sound, with no distortion at all, helping you to get exactly the right tones from said guitar.

At the most basic end of the guitar cleaning schedule should be the practice of simply using a soft duster to wipe down the guitar body and neck, but be careful not to use this on the strings themselves as depending on your guitar strings, this again could leave residues of the duster / cloth on your actual guitar strings, thus affecting the quality of sound that you are after.

Your hands too, it might sound a little pedantic, but wash your hands and dry them properly before using your guitar.  The reason for this is that your fingers over time may burnish the guitar strings causing them to lose their shine and if you really want to care for your guitar instrument fanatically, you’ll be paying attention to these small but nevertheless important small details, again to give you hopefully many years of guitar playing pleasure.

You can buy guitar maintenance kits cheaply and easily on eBay if they are not available locally. One manufacturer is the Dunlop guitar maintenance kit and has everything needed within the guitar kit to keep your guitar instrument in perfect condition.

Changing Guitar Strings

Over time you may pick up on the fact that your guitar strings are starting to sound just ever so slightly ‘dull’. Or of course, they may just be showing signs of general wear and tear from normal useage.  It always pays to keep a set of at least one set of spare guitar strings nearby, for you may need them at any time.

There really is nothing worse than jamming with friends, getting an awesome good guitar riff going and one of your guitar strings snaps.  If you havn’t anything to instantly replace it with, you may never find that awesome guitar sound again.

Don’t let that happen to you, always carry a spare set of guitar strings with you wherever you go.  Keep them in your guitar storage case and you won’t go far wrong.

As a rule of thumb and depending on how often you play the guitar, you may want to think about changing guitar strings about every one to to three months.  If you get into the regular habit of cleaning and looking after your guitar regularly, after every guitar jam session, you’ll need to do this less frequently.

Guitar care really does pay for itself, not only in terms of ongoing guitar maintenance costs but also especially concerning your own guitar playing pleasure.

Guitar Care

Guitar Care Tips

So, you’ve bought your first guitar and you are eager to start learning how to play the guitar, right?

First though you may want to spruce up your knowledge on how to care for your guitar, so that it gives you years of guitar playing pleasure.  Caring for your guitar properly will also help it to sound better, the two go hand in hand, proper care for your guitar increases your chances of getting exactly the guitar sounds that you want.

Generally speaking, guitars are very durable, so basic guitar maintenance is all that is needed for it to stay in that, tip top first rate condition.

Guitar Storage

One of your highest priorities is to think about how you will look after your guitar when you are not playing it or practicing new guitar chords.

Of course, your new guitar probably came with a case for it, but if not, consider buying a guitar case as soon as you possibly can.  You can buy cost effective guitar cases on eBay or simply look in your local paper, even simpler, ask around your family and friends if they have an old guitar case that you could use.

A guitar case will protect it from the usual knocks and bangs that can be expected from every day guitar use.  You must ensure that it fits your guitar properly, this is important, especially if you plan on traveling with it.

The guitar case is actually a sound investment, insuring you not only on the financial outlay of your guitar but also helps you to cherish your guitar playing skills as you build up an emotional attachment to your guitar instrument - Hey! Everyone loves their first guitar right?

You want to do your best then to keep it in the best first rate condition as possible!

If you plan on playing your guitar frequently, you may also want to consider buying a guitar stand, a guitar stand is a great guitar care idea especially if you don’t want to keep on taking it out of your guitar case and putting it back in all the time.

It goes without saying that it is best to keep your guitar out of strong sunlight or places where it can get very warm.  If possible keep your guitar in the shade at a reasonable room temperture, this will prevent the materials used in it’s construction from being warped, drying out, becoming brittle, cracking etc and is also good for your guitar strings.

Also try your best to avoid extreme temperture changes, for example do not keep your guitar in your car overnight in freezing tempertures or for protracted periods anywhere, only then to take it out of that environment into a well heated room.  If you do so, this will really affect the tonal quality of your guitar, something that you want to avoid.

Just these few tips alone will ensure you years of guitar playing pleasure and will help to keep your guitar in pristine condition.

Play Learn Guitar with Pinch Harmonics

Play Learn Guitar With Pinch Harmonics

Do you fancy yourself as the next guitar sensation?  Within this article we’ll explain the ethos behind Pinch Harmonics, how it works and how you can directly benefit from it as you strive to play, learn guitar.  Many potential guitarists have trouble learning this guitar technique, but it really is a lot more easy and simple than you may imagine.  Please read on to find out more.

First Play Learn Guitar is going to touch on all types of harmonics to try and get the point across how pinch harmonics work when you are learning to play the guitar.

If you are anything like me and you really want to add some expression to your guitar playing skills, pinch harmonics can really help you, first though we need to start by sharing with you a little bit about how guitar strings actually work.

In a nutshell, a guitar string vibrates between the nut and the bridge, if you look closely, you’ll see this yourself, that is the string vibrating similarly to a sine wave.

Although not technically, perfectly correct, this explanation and method works for me.

Naturally occurring harmonics start just above the fifth fret, the seventh and the twelth fret wires.  Take a few seconds out in a well lit area and you’ll be able to see the spots where the vibration along the string actually seems to be halted. With your hand, lightly touch a vibrating, ringing guitar string, one of the ones detailed above and you’ll notice that at these points you’ll get a harmonic natural chime.

Tap harmonics is nothing more than simply fretting a string and moving the natural harmonic spot up accordingly. By way of an example, let’s try this:  Start with a fret of the low E string at the third fret and then pluck the string, your ‘natural harmonics’  would be no longer at the fifth, seventh and twelth frets.  You would ‘tap’ the string above the eighth, tenth and fifthteenth fret wire to sound the harmonic.  Hence giving rise to the name - tap harmonics.

So let’s delve a little more deeply into the nitty,gritty of this and go into a little bit more detail, the all-powerful  pinch harmonic.

To carry out a pinch harmonic you essentialy pinch the string between your pick and the side of your thumb that is holding the pick.

This is the methodology I use to do them, with some awesome success I might add.

When you strike the guitar string, allow your thumb to ’sound’ the guitar harmonic that you are after. With practice, a wee bit of trial / error finding the right positions above the pickups, you’ll soon be able to pick up the gist of it for yourself.

Perhaps one of the most effective methods to learn the placement technique is by crankingup the distortion which will make it a whole lot easier to sound them, followed by putting your fret hand on the low E or for that matter, the A guitar string on the fifth or seventh fret similarly to as if you were playing the A or D notes.

You could make a start with your guitar pick in the center of the neck & bridge pickup’s and pinch the guitar string , so that when your pick sounds it, your thumb then immediately touches the string.  This should then with a little time and a bit of practice sound like the pinch harmonic.

It might help you if you move your hand slightly lower or higher on the guitar string to find those perfect sweet locations, just keep on trying varios areas until you feel that you are getting it just about right and correct for you, the perfect guitar sound that you are after.

Given that eventually you’ve found these sweet spots that return to you the perfect guitar sound that you are after, simply make a note of where they are so that you can take full advantage of these locations in the future with the utilisation of this guitar technique..  Moving your fret hand lower or higher on the neck as the case may be, the location points where you can hit the huitar sound harmonics will move slightly.  Given time you’ll see that this falls in line with the way in which a tap harmonic works, so this might be worth keeping in mind for future reference.

With further time and practice you’ll be finding more and more of these guitar sweet spots until the moment is reached when it will come perfectly natural to you and then you can experiment at will at your leisure.

Every guitar will sound a little different, apply this same tip on various guitars, perhaps your family members or friends will allow you to have a go on their’s and see what guitar tonal differences you can come up with.  With a group of friends learning to play the guitar together, it can be rather more encouraging a lot of fun too.

You will find together that different neck lengths, guitar shapes, bridge placements, guitar tolerances and even guitar materials will all produce a slightly different and in some cases very varied guitar sound effects.

The key thing to remember is that it does take time and practice, just keep at it until you get the sound that you want, before too long is out, in combination with other guitar learning skills that you are practicing, you’ll be able to create some awesome guitar tonal sounds and effects.  Sure, as with anything new, it can seem or appear to be daunting at first, just like driving a car for the first time or riding a bicycle, then sudddenly, something will just click inside you and you’ll know that you’ve got it, bingo!.

After this, you might want to try with a clean, new sound by adding bends etc which will increase your guitar sound reportoire exponentially and away you go!

Play Learn Guitar wish you the very best of luck trying out your new guitar playing skills.