I just borrowed a book about guitars from the library. It is very interesting! For my advice, if you want to learn about the history or types of guitars or just the guitar, then go to the library! My book is called Maran illustrated and it is the book that I got my information from for my other blog post just before this one. It has three hundred and two pages loaded with history, types of guitars, and of course, how to play one and read music. The first chapter is about the history of guitars. The second is about getting ready to play. The third is the most complicated and it is the chapter that I am stuck on. It is about reading music. The fourth one is about playing a basic chord. The fifth chapter talks about chords and power chords. (Power chords are my favorite!) Chapter six is about playing single notes. Chapter seven is Articulation Techniques. The eight chapter is on playing the rock guitar! And ninth is all about playing the blues… (I hate the blues…) I also hate chapter ten. It is on playing folk music. Eleven is on playing classical guitar. The twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth, are all on buying a guitar, cleaning, and stuff to do with it like recording and making songs on your own.
As you can see, this book is LOADED with stuff to keep me busy with this school year. I know I can’t read it in three weeks so I will just keep borrowing it from the library.
I have been playing quite a bit lately. I use my middle finger mostly when playing tabs because it is the longest and strongest. It is getting pretty strong now and I am getting calluses! I even came up with my own little practicing routine to do every day. It works out pretty well and I use every finger so I can develop calluses and get my finger strength built up so I can play louder. It sounds pretty cool too. And since you need to have a very fast strumming hand to play it I think it will do me some good. I am trying my best to learn how to read music but it is just not making any sense to me. The book that I borrowed is good but it is really complicated! I am going to have to return it on Friday but I will just check it right back out again until I can play a little.
P.S. if you guys have any tips on playing guitars I am all ears! That would help me a lot!
Thanks!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The Steps.....
Hey people! On this blog post I have chosen to talk about the steps that I think are most helpful in getting ready to play the guitar.
1. Step number one I think is getting the guitar tuned. My friend found this web site that is pretty awesome. I hope it can help you a lot. http://www.facebook.com/share_redirect.php?h=1abe0de8a7dc1511db6cdcbb2e05bd6a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gieson.com%2FLibrary%2Fprojects%2Futilities%2Ftuner%2F&sid=30160998509 this site has an awesome tuner! (You need speakers for this to actually work.) All you do is click on the “E high” string for instance, then turn up your speakers and try to match it with the sound of your guitars “E high” string. I don’t use this site, I prefer electric tuners. They are so easy! The best part is that if you have an electric guitar you just plug in your amp cord into the tuner and use it just like a regular tuner! How I use it is I just take out my guitar, strum any string, (Oh, by the way, in order to use this you have to know what each string is called) and then look at the little screen on the tuner.
2. The second step to me would be making sure that your guitar is in tip-top shape. To do this you need to make sure that there are no finger prints on your guitar. To get rid of the finger prints all you have to do is go down to any music shop and ask the store manager to show you where the guitar cleaning stuff is. Get the guitar wood finish polish and it will shine your guitar better than a fire-hydrant after it has been washed. Another thing that you should do is clean your strings every month or two. You can get some guitar sting cleaner at that same music store. Then get a nice smooth cloth and put a little bit of the string cleaner on it and rub the strings with the cloth. While you are down at the shop you might as well get some finger board cleaner for when you are replacing your strings.
3. The last step is all about posture. It is a good idea to not have on a long sleeve shirt because sometimes the sleeve will get on the strings and will block a lot of the sound. Another thing that you should make sure not to wear are shorts/pants with pockets that have zippers or other things that could scratch up the guitar while playing. It is important to have good posture while you are playing the guitar, so make sure that you are playing with your back straight up, head tilted a little, fretting hand with a tight grip but loose enough for moving around, and last but not least, feet flat on the floor.
Those are my steps for preparation in playing the guitar. I hope the web-link I posted helps you tune your guitar with no trouble at all.
1. Step number one I think is getting the guitar tuned. My friend found this web site that is pretty awesome. I hope it can help you a lot. http://www.facebook.com/share_redirect.php?h=1abe0de8a7dc1511db6cdcbb2e05bd6a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gieson.com%2FLibrary%2Fprojects%2Futilities%2Ftuner%2F&sid=30160998509 this site has an awesome tuner! (You need speakers for this to actually work.) All you do is click on the “E high” string for instance, then turn up your speakers and try to match it with the sound of your guitars “E high” string. I don’t use this site, I prefer electric tuners. They are so easy! The best part is that if you have an electric guitar you just plug in your amp cord into the tuner and use it just like a regular tuner! How I use it is I just take out my guitar, strum any string, (Oh, by the way, in order to use this you have to know what each string is called) and then look at the little screen on the tuner.
2. The second step to me would be making sure that your guitar is in tip-top shape. To do this you need to make sure that there are no finger prints on your guitar. To get rid of the finger prints all you have to do is go down to any music shop and ask the store manager to show you where the guitar cleaning stuff is. Get the guitar wood finish polish and it will shine your guitar better than a fire-hydrant after it has been washed. Another thing that you should do is clean your strings every month or two. You can get some guitar sting cleaner at that same music store. Then get a nice smooth cloth and put a little bit of the string cleaner on it and rub the strings with the cloth. While you are down at the shop you might as well get some finger board cleaner for when you are replacing your strings.
3. The last step is all about posture. It is a good idea to not have on a long sleeve shirt because sometimes the sleeve will get on the strings and will block a lot of the sound. Another thing that you should make sure not to wear are shorts/pants with pockets that have zippers or other things that could scratch up the guitar while playing. It is important to have good posture while you are playing the guitar, so make sure that you are playing with your back straight up, head tilted a little, fretting hand with a tight grip but loose enough for moving around, and last but not least, feet flat on the floor.
Those are my steps for preparation in playing the guitar. I hope the web-link I posted helps you tune your guitar with no trouble at all.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
How I Got Started With My Music
When I was five my parents brought me into the art of music. The first instrument that they had me play was piano. I did that for four years. They got me a piano teacher for two of those years but she quit doing them because her husband was a business traveler and so it was just too inconvenient. My next piano teacher lived pretty far away. We had her for about 2 years.
My family went through a hard time with money being tight. This made it so we had to quit piano lessons for about two years. When things got good for us again, we hired the same teacher that we had for the second half of the two years. I had lost a lot of my musical talent but it was still there inside me just waiting to burst out. After playing for a little bit I finally started to remember the notes again and how to play stuff like staccatos and what the treble clef is.
As I was doing piano I really started to feel the urge to play guitar. My inspiration for wanting to play guitar comes from one person. This person’s name is Jimmy. Jimmy is a friend of my 19 year old brother. He came over one time and saw one of our guitars sitting on the table. So he picked it up and played a few songs. When I watched him I was so amazed. I tried to learn a few songs myself. It was hard and it seemed like I couldn’t do anything. But it was about the time of my birthday. So I said to my mom, “All I want for my birthday are guitar lessons and guitar supplies.” My mom talked to my dad about it and they decided that I was ready for some lessons. For my birthday I got the gift of lessons and guitar supplies. They found me a very experienced guitar player and decided he would be my teacher.
For six weeks they supplied me with a capo, a chord sheet, and an electric tuner. Also in those six weeks I went to the expert guitar teacher Mr. Webb. As those six weeks passed I learned new chords and new songs and how to clean a guitar and keep it maintained. But I realized that six weeks was not even close to what I needed. But my parents were just going to stick with piano lessons for a while. But that didn’t stop me. I just kept trying to learn new chords and play new songs. And I even found a website that is incredible. This is the link to the website: http://ultimate-guitar.com/
My blog will be informing you about my quest to learn to play the guitar. I hope this blog will help me strive harder to learn guitar so I can write it down for you. I hope that I can become an encouragement for all those who are just learning or have already started and are struggling like me to play the guitar. I am still a beginner but that won’t stop me.
P.S. Since school has started I don’t think I will be able to write much on my blog. But I will try my best to keep you posted. ~Isaac Feinn
My family went through a hard time with money being tight. This made it so we had to quit piano lessons for about two years. When things got good for us again, we hired the same teacher that we had for the second half of the two years. I had lost a lot of my musical talent but it was still there inside me just waiting to burst out. After playing for a little bit I finally started to remember the notes again and how to play stuff like staccatos and what the treble clef is.
As I was doing piano I really started to feel the urge to play guitar. My inspiration for wanting to play guitar comes from one person. This person’s name is Jimmy. Jimmy is a friend of my 19 year old brother. He came over one time and saw one of our guitars sitting on the table. So he picked it up and played a few songs. When I watched him I was so amazed. I tried to learn a few songs myself. It was hard and it seemed like I couldn’t do anything. But it was about the time of my birthday. So I said to my mom, “All I want for my birthday are guitar lessons and guitar supplies.” My mom talked to my dad about it and they decided that I was ready for some lessons. For my birthday I got the gift of lessons and guitar supplies. They found me a very experienced guitar player and decided he would be my teacher.
For six weeks they supplied me with a capo, a chord sheet, and an electric tuner. Also in those six weeks I went to the expert guitar teacher Mr. Webb. As those six weeks passed I learned new chords and new songs and how to clean a guitar and keep it maintained. But I realized that six weeks was not even close to what I needed. But my parents were just going to stick with piano lessons for a while. But that didn’t stop me. I just kept trying to learn new chords and play new songs. And I even found a website that is incredible. This is the link to the website: http://ultimate-guitar.com/
My blog will be informing you about my quest to learn to play the guitar. I hope this blog will help me strive harder to learn guitar so I can write it down for you. I hope that I can become an encouragement for all those who are just learning or have already started and are struggling like me to play the guitar. I am still a beginner but that won’t stop me.
P.S. Since school has started I don’t think I will be able to write much on my blog. But I will try my best to keep you posted. ~Isaac Feinn
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