Before you start playing away on your guitar, it’s critical to be able to identify different parts of your instrument. You probably already know the obvious ones like the neck and body.
What about the rest?
Your Headstock
The headstock is located right at the end of your guitar neck. Their purpose is to hold the machine heads. You know the legendary picture for the Woodstock event? It has the bird standing on the headstock of a guitar.
Machine Heads (Not the old Bush song from way back in the Grunge era)
On your heastock are 6 devices that you need to turn to either loosen the strings or make them tighter. Normally an electric guitar has 6 all on one side. Normally an acoustic guitar has 3 on each side. You’ll use the machine heads to tune your guitar.
Your Frets
You know those thin metal bars that sit on the neck of your guitar? These are frets. When you press a string down in between the frets, the closer you are to the body of your guitar, the higher the pitch you’ll get.
Guitar Bridge
The bridge is located on the body of the guitar, furthest to the end. They allow you to fasten the strings to the body of your instrument. Sometimes your bridge is fixed. Sometimes floating. Made of wood or metal and it’s acoustic guitars that normally contain the wooden type bridges…and electric guitars made with metal ones.
Your Pickups
Pickups are magnetic and they’re attached to the body of your guitar right in front of your bridge. They are literally what “pick up” the sound your strings are making, which sends it directly through your amp. If you see a single pickup, it’s called “single coil” and if you see double pickups, this is called the “humbucker.”
Want to know how to take your guitar playing to the next level fast?
There are a couple ways. 1. By recording yourself and listening. 2. By starting a band or just gathering a group of musicians and jamming.
There’s nothing like the rush of being in a band! You get lost in the music and it’s a bonding experience like no other. But you can’t be scared that you’re not good enough to jam with others. In fact, if you just be up front and honest about where you’re at, a lot of guitarists will enjoy teaching you as you jam together.
Play with anyone you can find at any level at first. You shouldn’t worry whether they’re they’re too much older than you or whether they’re cool people… you’ll learn from every single musician you jam with. This will help you become a well-rounded guitarist.
Fact is… you can have as many musicians as you want in your band, but the reality is that there can just be you and your buddy. Try to find a drummer. Find another guitarist you like. It’ll be tough trying to find a bass player and singer after that, so you might want to learn how to sing while playing guitar as soon as possible.
At first your jam sessions may sound like racket. That’s ok because it’ll still be a blast and you’ll just get better and have more fun. Every now and again you’ll accidentally hit the sweet spot and you might have the makings of a catchy hit song on your hands. It happens all the time in a band setting when the energy is there.
BUT the truth is that you don’t have to just jam or write your own stuff. There are plenty of cover song you can play. So try to get a band together that likes the same type of music and groups you do. Remember, all it takes is 15 to 20 cover songs down and you can start playing gigs for fun, get chicks, and a little bit of cash!
After you get your first guitar and start playing, you’ll likely find it fun to go buy more guitars. There are several different styles and types to choose from.
They feel different while playing up and down the neck, they don’t sound the same, and they can either make for interesting good music or not.
Here’s a little tip from someone who’s bought a whole lot of guitars over the years. Buying a used guitar is one of the fastest ways to get a collection for a lot cheaper than buying new.
You just want to make sure you don’t buy ones that have hidden problems… just like you don’t want a used car that just got totaled in and flung a mile down the street in a hurricane.
Here are some places people buy used guitars online: eBay, Kijiji, Craigslist… But you’ll want to invest in used guitars at local music stores or anywhere you can get your hands on them to play at first.
Pawn shops are a good place. So are flea markets and classified ads. Again, you need to have a way to figure out what these instruments have been through in the past before you fork over your money.
You may have to get it repaired or even sell it if it’s in such bad condition. This is something that’s NOT FUN to find out later. Here’s a tip: check out the body for chops, scratches, and dings in the paintjob.
This is not the same as buying a vintage guitar!… unless you’re actually looking at a vintage guitar.
Be sure to take a hard look at the neck for damage and possible warping. It’s important to take the guitar and hold it with the end of the body placed against your chin and stare down the neck toward the headstock.
This is called Sighting the Neck. You may find high spots on the fretboard that appear shiny. Ones that stick out and give you an eye sore are probably high frets. Dark areas are low spots.
And if that sucker is warped, it’s a NO BUY. It can’t be fixed.
Over the years I’ve taught many 12, 13, 14 years old to 35 year olds and up to learn to play the guitar. I’d by lying if I told you that 80% of them never made any progress. And there’s a reason…
You’re probably expecting me to say… Yeah, because they didn’t practice. That’s part of it. But the real reason goes deeper.
If you want your guitar playing to take off faster than you ever dreamed then you need FUEL. You need an ongoing burning motivation. You need to feel accomplished and feel as if you’re getting somewhere.
Even if you just want to play the songs of your favorite guitarists, it’s most important to have a drive. And I can promise you that that first year of jamming on your instrument will be remembered as the most fun you ever had playing. Period.
There’s something about when you just get good at playing power chords or you can play a nice little 3 chord song that feels great. You crank up the distortion to 10 and just wail. Even if you sound not-so-sharp, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have.
Just think about the feeling you’ll get when you can play your favorite song. There’s nothing like it in the world. Over time you’ll get very good and the passion will start to fade. You’ll become more mechanical.
So the point is that you need to enjoy learning right when you first start out in order to start getting good… faster than a rabbit on Red Bull. This is the true secret. You have to want it enough to sit in front of your music stand, on your stool, and just let it rip.
You’ll annoy everyone in the house, but who cares right? You’ll feel like a star once you can play just 1 song you want to learn. Nothing can replace those memories. And that burning passion is the key to unlocking it all.
Hopefully this will help you learn to play the guitar like your favorite guitarists in no time.
Want to know how to become a powerful chick magnet?
Want to know how to impress your friends?
Learn to sing while playing guitar. I know… It seems virtually impossible at first. You want to sing every word along with every strum.
But it’s a MUST if you think about it. Because when you’re in a band, the hardest musician to find is the singer. Why not be the badass guitarist and singer at the same time? If you can do both, then you’re off to the races playing the big gigs.
Here’s a tip…
Begin learning to sing and play at the same time with a simple catchy song and it can even be Marry Had A Little Lamb. You have to figure out own your own what chords will go well with the melody. And then go ahead and play just the chords a couple times while hearing the singing part in your head.
The next part is memorizing the lyrics… so go ahead and memorize the lyrics as if you’re memorizing a poem in school. Think about exactly how the singer is singing it… the pauses, everything.
Next just sing the song without playing your guitar. Get the melody down as best as possible. Try to match the singer’s voice as much as possible but without actually listening to him at the same time.
It’s time to put all the puzzle pieces together. Go through your chord changes and shift them with your subconscious mind… this just means do it without concentration.
Begin singing the song as you get through it roughly. Try again and again, and it should get easier and easier. Just stay focused on singing that one song with playing until you master it. Even if it takes a few days.
Once you do that, you’re ready to move onto another tune. It’s really just a matter of training your mind to do 2 things at once… think of it like multitasking. It’ll become more comfortable and natural as you practice. interesting vocal lines while playing guitar.
What many don’t realize is that it doesn’t quite make sense if you’re going to spend time practicing your instrument… IF you’re just going through motions, scattered… because it won’t get you where you want to be on your guitar.
So what I’ve done is compiled the 7 methods of practicing launch you to a whole new level:
1) You must always have a blueprint or a plan to follow. When you went to gradeschool, they didn’t just tell you to randomly read chapters in 7 different books. They offered a proven plan that works to make you an intelligent person. It’s time for you to sit down and draw out a plan that you can follow… one that will challenge you enough to launch you to that whole new level.
2) This should really be LAW. And it’s that you should never, ever, skip your practice time. Learning to play guitar is like a muscle. It gets weak and it get gets stronger… depending on how you use it. Have certain times you always practice. You’ve got to make it a ritual.
3) Keep it fresh by always expanding on different genres and styles. Even a stone cold hard rocker can learn a whole lot when taking the styles of other genres and crossing them with your own. You might find that a variation of a country lick sounds nothing like country, but it rocks your head off when playing it with the distortion cranked up to 10.
4) Have a place to practice. Doesn’t have to be all fancy with guitars on your wall and signed photos of guitar legends. It just has to be cozy and comfortable so you can get away from it all and not get easily distracted. You should also have a stool, a TV or computer in your face if you’re learning from those mediums, a metronome, and music stand.
5) Don’t be afraid to spice it up. If you’re bored, then you’re doing something wrong. Let your curriculum evolve naturally and playfully. It’s not like you’re sitting there getting whacked in the hand by a piano teacher. In fact, it needs to be the complete opposite. You need that freshness and fun energy to motivate you to ROCK. Make sure you take breaks to just sit there and play, then get back to work getting better and better.
6) Something that can really help is by making sure to warm up your hands in a proper way. Otherwise you can even be injured. Do a simple hand strech and get the blood flowing in your fingers before you tackle anything too intense.
7) Be sure to teach others… even if just a friend. Because one of the best ways to learn is to actually teach. When you’re getting bombarded with questions, you’ll figure out what you don’t know. It can impede your playing if you don’t know what you don’t know. Know what I mean?
This is going to help you develop your own guitar playing style.
When you’re learning to play guitar, you have a lot of fun and it feels great when all the hard work finally comes to fruition… I’m talking about getting to the point where you can tare through songs like you were the one who wrote them.
But the question is… How do you get your OWN style? Does it just come naturally? It would be a shame if you sounded just like all the rest of them.
You can think about this 2 different ways when you’re looking to develop your own unique sound. 1… you can decide to sound like your favorite guitarists… but all meshed together.
Think of all the greatest guitarists you listen to and put them in one big pot. What would that sound like? Then you can add your own spin on them.
In order to do this, you have to be open minded. You’ll begin by playing just like the guitarist you love and go out and master their songs, their licks, their solos, their riffs, runs, and everything.
Subconsciously you’ll pick up on it and it’ll become your own… you may not even realize it’s happening but it is.
The next part is to put your own spin on it.
So while going through the process of mastering your favorite guitarists, you can decide to stroke your pick in a way that makes the tone a little different…know where I’m going?
Listen to guitarists in a vast number of styles and then decide if it can be included in your own style of playing. Guitarists “borrow” styles all the time… crossing country, blues, rock, jazz, even classical.
Be sure to start creating your own “bag of tricks” and mesh them together. You’ll start to see that bag of tricks consists of all the different guitarists and styles you’ve been learning throughout a number of years.
Here’s one secret of the guitar pros:
When you have a quality guitar amp, it’s often more important than having a quality guitar.
Yes, each are critical, however sometimes you can plug a low quality guitar into a top level amp and it’ll sound amazing.
But a crappy amplifier with a great guitar will sound like garbage.
You follow?
When you’re searching for the right amp, you can choose from four basic types and each has it’s own pros and cons.
Let’s talk about Tube Amps
The oldest type of amp is a tube amp.
It comes with glass vacuum tubes in the power section and preamplifier section, this is important to know.
These tubes make the amp have a warm tone that seems more natural than newer types of amps.
You’ll get a whole truckload of sustain and power. (Think Stevie Ray Vaughan).
The downfall of the tube amp is that the tubes will eventually wear out.
That sound of the amp will become damaged when this happens. But it’s also important to keep in mind that it’s more like a different tone than completely damaged. Some actually prefer a warn out tube amp. Funny huh? We call those guitarists idiots… that’s the scientific term anyway =)
A tube amp stores a lot of voltage. Only a well-versed tactician has the ability to change the tubes in 3 year cycles.
Moving On To Solid State Amplifiers
Unlike the Tube Amp, you have a great advantage of the amp never wearing out. It’ll sound exactly the same each time you flip the switch and crank up the volume. Because its parts don’t include tubes and will NOT ware out.
Unless you drop it off a cliff or something. This type of amp includes transistors in the preamp and this will allow the amp to sound a little more gritty tone-wise. Some would call it a sterile sound… you know, especially when you’re kicking it into overdrive.
One benefit is that these amps are much more inexpensive initially and in the longrun generally.
Now For Hybrid Guitar Amps
This is a much more new type of guitar amplifier that’s a mixture of a tube preamp along with a solid state power amp. What you get is that warm tube sound.
Who’s to blame for this innovation? Marshall. Because of the Valvestate line.
It was Line 6 who came together with the word renouned manufacturer Bogner to bring you this innovative hybrid. You can only guess that this hybrid will cost you much more compared to a solid state.
Still though, they are generally not quite as costly as a top notch tube amp.
Last We Have The Modeling Amp
Here we have built-in digital processor that will artificially replicate a variety of cabinets, amps, and rooms.
As flexible as they are, they normally consist of effects built-in along with a direct line out for recording purposes and a tuner.
These options usually can be switched from one to the next with your foot controller. You can get several different sounds… they’re not quite there, but you can almost get the same tube amp sound.
