Perhaps you already have a particular type of wood in mind for your new guitar. Whether that wood is solid or laminated will make a tremendous difference in the sound that you will hear. Solid wood is exactly what the words imply. Pieces of solid wood are carved into the necessary shape for a guitar. A laminate is created by shaving thin strips of wood … Continue reading Pros and Cons of Laminated Woods for Guitarists
Here’s a fun gadget every flatpicking guitarist will love! The Pick Punch lets you make your very own guitar picks out of any suitable plastic. Put those old credit cards and gift cards to use to make one-of-a-kind picks! Using the sturdy Pick Punch is super easy: Feed your plastic into the punch. Punch out a pick. Smooth the edges of the pick with the … Continue reading Pick Punch
The singing cowboy is by no means a Hollywood invention. History records the fact that cowboys always sang, starting back when cattle trails began. At first, there were no true “cowboy songs.” Most cowboys just sang the good old folk songs that they had grown up with, ranging from mountain fiddle tunes like “Old Dan Tucker” to hymns and spirituals that are still familiar today. … Continue reading Why Cowboys Sang
The Dobro or resonator guitar has a unique feature that can be a great help or hindrance, depending on how you look at it: It is tuned to an open G chord. This means that if you strum all of the strings you will produce a G major chord instead of some kind of discordant noise. The good thing about open G tuning is that … Continue reading How to Play Minor Chords on a Dobro
Memorize those scales. How many times have beginning musicians heard this advice, no matter what instrument or genre they are playing? Drilling scales may seem boring when you are anxious to learn new songs, but this discipline has its worth. Here are a few reasons to consider memorizing some scales: Improve your coordination. As a beginner, you may find coordinating your left and right hands … Continue reading 8 Reasons to Memorize Scales
Looking for an effective way to improve your musical ability in a relatively short period of time? There is a simple tool that can work these wonders for you. This tool is a microphone. There is nothing quite like recording and playback to evaluate your progress. As we run through our songs, we get used to how they sound as we play them. If we … Continue reading Sharpen Your Skills—Record Your Music
Lessons from a pro! Tony Trischka’s Essential Practice Techniques for Bluegrass Banjo is a great way for a beginning banjo player to pick up important tips on best practices, but it can also be useful for the intermediate player seeking to brush up on key skills. Either way, foundational technique is the focus. Topics covered include: Rhythm. Slurs. Standard rolls. Right-hand finger independence. Playing by … Continue reading Tony Trischka’s Essential Practice Techniques for Bluegrass Banjo
Identifying Keys There are two ways to identify a key: Look at the key signature. Analyze the chords of the song. If you happen to be playing from music written in standard notation, such as a songbook or hymnal, the easiest way to identify the key is to look at the key signature—the number of sharps or flats written at the beginning of the staff … Continue reading Understanding Musical Keys: Identifying and Using
Early on in your musical practice, you will be introduced to the concept of musical keys. Keys are important to understand because every key has a distinct sound created by a hallmark set of notes. Every key is based on a scale. If you play a C major scale on any instrument, you have just played the seven notes that define the key of C. … Continue reading Understanding Musical Keys: Characteristics
Don’t be fooled by the price. Music Practice: The Musician’s Guide to Practicing and Mastering Your Instrument Like a Professional by David Dumais is not a cheesy little booklet full of half-baked ideas with no meat on their bones. It’s a concise but thorough look at how to make the most of your practice time, no matter what instrument you play. The book starts at … Continue reading Music Practice
