Guitar advice

7 Tips For Learning The Guitar As An Adult

2022-06-28T09:17:04+01:00

Take Lessons! Adults need a bit of encouragement the same way that kids do, or even more when trying to find the motivation around work and family commitments! Taking regular lessons with a great tutor will keep you motivated and give you weekly tasks to work on to constantly encourage you to pick up the guitar at home. I always say to my students that the key to seeing progress is short but frequent bursts of practice. This can be incredibly hard to do on your own accord, so the thought of turning up to your weekly lessons and making an [...]

7 Tips For Learning The Guitar As An Adult2022-06-28T09:17:04+01:00

How To Memorise The Notes of The Guitar Neck

2022-05-05T22:10:42+01:00

Many guitarists will reach a point when they want to understand more of what they are playing, rather than relying on shapes or thinking about fret numbers! Memorising the notes on the fretboard is a great way to do this, and can be achieved a few different ways. Learning the guitar is quite a unique experience when it comes to learning the theory behind what you are playing, or even what notes you are playing. This is due to the guitars layout across the neck, being much less visually helpful when it comes to memorising the notes of the fretboard. This [...]

How To Memorise The Notes of The Guitar Neck2022-05-05T22:10:42+01:00

Buying Your First Guitar Effects Pedals!

2022-03-18T10:10:06+00:00

Starting your guitar effects pedal journey can be an overwhelming process for some, due to the excessive amounts of products available from companies all over the world. Over the past 50 years or so the popularity of guitar pedals has been rapidly increasing, first seen in regular use by the late great Jimi Hendrix with his use of fuzz boxes and wah wah pedals. With a million different flavours of effects in all different categories it can be hard for some to pick what their first guitar pedal will be, so where should you start? Where Do I Start? Looking back [...]

Buying Your First Guitar Effects Pedals!2022-03-18T10:10:06+00:00

5 Things You Can Do To Care For Your Guitar At Home

2022-01-19T20:27:16+00:00

Don’t place in direct sunlight It’s a simple tip, but you would be surprised at how bad direct sunlight can be for an instrument. This is not only the case cosmetically, causing the paint to fade and crack, but also the functionality of the instrument could be altered. Warm temperatures and direct sunlight will result in the strings of the guitar expanding causing them to sound flat or lower than usual, which is not ideal to keeping the instrument sounding consistent. Not only is direct sunlight bad, but also placing any instrument next to a heater of any sort (radiator, furnace, [...]

5 Things You Can Do To Care For Your Guitar At Home2022-01-19T20:27:16+00:00

The most wonderful Christmas present for a guitar lover

2021-12-08T20:18:47+00:00

Christmas is the most beautiful time of year. It is a season of joy and blessings. This is that time of year when we spend time with our friends and family. It's "indulgence season." Everyone feels wonderful, and it is the ideal time to bless your loved ones. It's wonderful to spend time brainstorming ways to delight our family members and provide them with the most remarkable gifts. Something they've always wanted or something that has the potential to improve their life. I like the latter because I adore the thought of gifts that last forever. I value experiences because they [...]

The most wonderful Christmas present for a guitar lover2021-12-08T20:18:47+00:00

What Sort of String Action Is Appropriate For You?

2021-11-24T15:58:08+00:00

What Is The ‘Action’? The action is a very important factor on a players guitar as it has a huge affect on how the instrument feels to play. The action is the height between the strings and the fretboard of the guitar, with a higher action requiring more strength to push the strings down to produce a clear note. Generally this means that the higher the action, the harder the guitar is to play. It is a fine balance though, meaning a lower action is not always better. Different musical styles will demand a different setup on the instrument to cater [...]

What Sort of String Action Is Appropriate For You?2021-11-24T15:58:08+00:00

Multi-Effects Pedals vs. Standalone Stomp-Boxes

2021-11-24T15:56:22+00:00

The decision to buy multiple stomp-boxes or to just stick with one multi-fx unit for all of your sounds is a decision that most guitarists will encounter at some point in their musical journey. Often there is some stigma surrounding multi-fx pedals in comparison to multiple more specialised single pedals, although as we will discuss there are many multi-fx units that have proved to be very popular amongst guitarists of all abilities and statuses. Advantages and Disadvantages of Both Let’s start with the obvious. Having a decent multi-fx unit on your pedalboard or as your entire pedalboard will have loads of [...]

Multi-Effects Pedals vs. Standalone Stomp-Boxes2021-11-24T15:56:22+00:00

What Does Reverb Do?

2021-10-07T15:14:15+01:00

So What is Reverb? There’s no doubt that every human has heard reverb before in their lifetime, whether they’ve realised it or not! Put simply, reverb is the persistence of sound after the sound is produced, meaning it is the decay of the sound after the actual sound source has occurred. The amount and size of the reverb will depend on the size of space the source is in, how many other objects are present in the space (such as furniture, carpets or other people) and how loud the original sound source is (for example how loud someone yells “hello”). Where [...]

What Does Reverb Do?2021-10-07T15:14:15+01:00

How the blues is relevant in popular music

2021-06-07T07:29:59+01:00

What is Blues? Blues music is an incredibly important genre to discuss not only for its timeless and instantly recognisable sound, but for its influence on the styles that would follow after its birth in the mid to late 1800s. This occurred around the time of theAmerican civil war, created by African-American slaves who worked in plantations and fields in the South of the USA. This music was sung in the form of call and response style chants, which would be a way to boost morale in the tough living and working conditions as a slave. Musically these chants were simple [...]

How the blues is relevant in popular music2021-06-07T07:29:59+01:00

Modes in popular music

2021-05-14T08:56:52+01:00

What are modes? The modes of the Major scale are a concept that many students struggle with on their theory journey due to the many different approaches one can take to view how each mode is formed. To put it simply, modes are really just scales, just like the Major scale, Pentatonic scale or the Natural Minor scale. This title of ‘modes’ is used as all of the modes are related to each other through their intervalic relationship and the notes that are used from one relative mode to the other. The seven modes of the Major scale are: IONIAN (Major [...]

Modes in popular music2021-05-14T08:56:52+01:00
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