What You Need:

Computer: Most computers today are fairly up-to-date and would do the job. It should have at least 512 MB of RAM and a 2.0 GHz or more processor speed. RAM is the key here. The more RAM the better, or it will take forever to process your audio.

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): DAW is a computer software that allows you to produce and sample sounds and even sequence them. I recommend Luna for beginners, because it’s free. If you get more into it, I recommend getting more professional DAW .

What You Want:

Sounds: You will definitely want a to gather a  library of audio samples. VSTs are virtual synthesizers and they produce a wide range of different sounds. Google “free VSTs”, you will find many free ones. Be warned, the cooler ones are not free.

Hard Drive: Your collection of sounds, vst’s and even soundfonts, depending on your sound card will take up place. I have an external hard drive I can bring with me. My PC’s drive was 180 gb, way too small for every thing I own. I upgraded that also.

Midi Controller: What is this?! It only a keyboard. It is used to controll the note input in your DAW.

Audio Interface: Is the bridge between the keyboard and computer. A more professional but expensive solution is to purchase an mbox. You can also just buy a cheap midi-usb adapter, wich is what we do. What’s nice about the mbox is there’s a place to plug a microphone.

Microphone: You don’t really need a mic unless you want to add vocals. No need to get a really expensive mic. Choose a usb microphone so you can plug it in your computer.

Headphones: If you’re using a mic, then you need headphones to listen to your beat while you sing.You can’t play your music outloud while you sing.

Also try searching Youtube for tutorials tomake beats.You can search for “luna-DAW” you’ll learn great things.

Sequencers are used to organise more than one music instrument at once. Each has his own track. Every instrument is mapped out on a timeline. There are intuitive buttons like play, foward and looping. You can also adjust the volume of each track with the mixer. A precious tool for balancing out volumes of seperate instruments before combining them to be played through the speakers.

Daw are sold in a vide price ranage. Mac users usually enjoy, Apple’s GarageBand. Steinberg Sequel 2 and Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio are frequently used. You’ll find plenty of tutorials and help forums for using these DAW’s by googling a bit.

Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio

Apple’s GarageBand

Here are the basic things an asprering guitarist must practice in order to becaome a musician.

Reading Music : learn and practice standard music notation and guitar tablature to learns. Your music reading skills will improve. You’ll be able to learn your songs faster and improve your guitar techniques. In time you’ll aslo be able to “hear” sheet music just by glancing at it.

Chords : Practice strumming. Learn various chords progressions. Play songs in different keys.You should memorize the fundamental chords for all 12 keys. You should be able to change chords fast ans smooth.

Performing : Memorizing songs and recording your self as you play will help you gain confidence. Beginners focus on their hands. When you record yourself you can concentrate on listenting. You’ll know exactly where you need more work.

Theory & Technique : Study scales & more advanced chords. Learn and practice arpeggios, slides, pull-offs, finger-picking, hammers and other techniques.

Fretboard :  Memorize the notes on your fretboard if you plan on soloing.

Ear Training : Try to learn and identify chords, notes,  intervals, rhythms, and other basic elements used in music. Ear training is especially important to those who wish to play and sing.

Improvisation : It’s time to put all of what you learned together. Practice your techniqies and play sounds you’ve learned. Make your own chords and use scales to write your own songs.

Daily Practice Schedule:

Playing the guitar takes time but the efforts are worth it. You really want to succed? You should play at least one hour every day.  Here is a schedule to help you out.

1. 10 min. Warm Ups
2. 15 min. Theory (scales, chords…)
3. 10 min. Ear training
4. 15 min. guitar techniques (alternate picking, tapping…)
5. 10 min. Improvisation

Guitar playing is like any thing else. I will leave you with a quote from Abraham Lincoln:“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”

Play, play and then play some more!

Major Pentatonic

A major pentatonic scale consists of the 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 5th - 6th notes of a major scale. The following shows an example of G major pentatonic scale.

w=whole step and h=half step

Exercises

Here are some exersis to practice your major and minor pentatonic scales. Download the PDF documents and print them out. You can also play along with the music ninja, the audio is also for download. Have fun and keep practicing.

The music ninja contains two tracks, click next to hear the second scales.

Minor pentatonic scale exercises printable PDF

Minor Pentatonic audio (MP3)

Major pentatonic scale exercises printable PDF

Major pentatonic audio (MP3)

This month the prize goes to ….drum roll…What About Brazil! Visit this fine blog to read about Brazil and renewable energy. Thanks for visiting my blog and do subscribe to my feed to get all the latest news, tips and contest from Electric Guitar Today.

The Month of December is for sharing and rejoicing. I promise full of goodies for you little guitar monsters out there. Drop a comment if you have any thing to request.

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) was developed by Steinberg to permit musicians to create a  complete studio with software. It is an interface for integrating synthesizers, effects plugins and audio editors with hard-disk recording. Before attempting to run any thing you should read  about the free ASIO plugin if you don’t know what it’s for. You need this plugin if you are going to manipulate sound. 

What Do I Need To Be Able To Use VST Instruments?

The first thing you need is a VST compatible host application. A VST host is an application or a program that is designed to  run VST-compatible plugins. The plugins let you manipulate sound in real-time. They can be effects or virtual instruments  you can find free samplers and equalizers. Popular VST Hosts include Steinberg Cubase, Ableton Live, Sonar and VSTi Host turns a Mac into a stand alone synthesizer. A freeware I know of is, VST Host and it includes a virtual keyboard while with others you’ll need to hook up your keyboard.

Another thing you will need is lots of CPU. The sounds are created in real time using processing power from your computer. The more notes you play the more calculations and more CPU is needed. This is not a rule but in general you should add the minimum specifications by your sequencer and the VST Instrument.

How Do I Install VST Instruments?

Once your VST host is installed all you do is drag a dll into it’s interface or depending on your software you might have to place it in your plugins folder. Instructions comes with your software.

If you want to play with VST instruments for free I found this neat tutorial to build a kick drum with free plugins. It’s a step by step tutorial with images and annotations. It will get you started if your new with VST Hosts. I had lots of fun with my drum.

Remember to download Audacity, it’s free and you’ll be able to record and edit your work like a pro.

The Problem

We brought the guitar to a music store which sells instruments and gives music lesson. We thought they where competent since the store has been in business for quite some time. I was way off. Music stores are music stores. They sell new instruments and change strings they are not the best place to take old guitars for reparations.

What Should Have Set Off An Alarm Where:

#1 two music guys couldn’t find the proper tuning keys on the rack and where searching like blind men. I walked up, had a look and grabbed a pack and asked, “Isn’t this what we need?” They blushed and where like yes that’s exactly what you need….Can’t find your own stuff?!?!?

#2 Thunder paid to have these guys install the keys because they said it would be done for the end of the afternoon and he wanted the job done for yesterday. They did not even have the decency to call. Thunder went to see what’s up with his guitar. They told him the guy did not have time to fix it until Tuesday! That’s bad because Thunder has guitar lessons on Mondays. So he asked for a refund and brought the guitar and keys home so he could do it himself.

#3 When he got home he saw he had the wrong tuning keys and that the store had lost a part of his guitar! He went back and asked to talk to the repair man. The repair dude said it wasn’t him cause he hadn’t even open the case….When in fact he had because the string on the broken key had been unwound!!!!!!

#4 We learned that if Thunder would not have gone to get his guitar the cretin would have drilled extra holes in the headstock to put the new keys in. That would be awful nd the old holes would be visible! Scrap the look of our Aria Pro II Thor sound ts-300 MATSUMOKU for 16$ machine heads?!?! I thought they where all freaing nuts! Since when do you drill holes in someone else’s stuff before even asking?!?!

The Real Solution

After a few calls and Internet searchers I found plenty of vintage guitar repair places and parts. So do your home work before accepting a reparation. Call and visit different places. Remember it’s not because a store is large and sells many items that they are experience and qualified!!!! Those guys IO talked about should work in a Zellers or something.

The place I chose to bring my guitar is an hour and a half drive from my home but well worth the wait. I leave you with this picture of Thunder’S poor broken baby.

Many people use strings with a gauge .009 for the 1^st string, and .042 for the 6^th string. These strings are sometimes referred to as super slinky or super-light. These strings are easier to fret and bend. Some Strong fretters and aggressive pickers will prefer a heavier set of strings like .012 to .054 it’s only a matter of preference. Strings are cheap so you should pick up a couple of packs and experiment.

Popular strings

Ernie Ball and D’Addario are wide spread and very commonly used for rock and other types of guitar styles.

Jazz player favor Thomastik-Infeld, D’Addario, Elixir flatwound and roundwound strings with a gauge of .012 - 0.054-inch diameter.

Pure Blues electric guitar strings from DR Strings for you guessed it, blues.

Punk Rock players like dean Markley 10-52, Ernie ball regular slinky, .10 and .11 gauge is common.

But again these are just some people’s preference as you play and develop your style and ear you will come to know what strings you prefer. You have some tips to share for helping beginners pick the right guitar strings? Drop a comment, we’d love to hear you.

Download MuseScore

1. Cross Platform (Linux and Windows) and GNU GPL
2. WYSIWYG editing
3. Wizard Setup funtions
4. UNLIMITED number of staves
5. 4 voices (or parts) per staff
6. Easy and fast note entry with mouse, keyboard or MIDI (Note: Windows users, I’ve talked to the people at MuseScore and the MIDI entry will be available very soon!)
7. Import and export Music XML
8. Automatic note head positioning
9. DRUM NOTATION INCLUDED!!!
10. Cross Staff beaming ability
11. Unlimited time and key changes
12. Pickup note measure supported
13. Slur editing
14. Unlimited Lyrics
15. Unlimited Chord names
16. Grace Notes
17. Part extraction
18. Plugins are supported!
19. Midi/XML/PNG Export
20. Mixer function
21. Soundfont capable
22. Partial interpretation of Expressions and repeats

Free Online Electric Guitar Lessons

Asio4All Plugin: Audio Stream Input/Output is a computer sound card driver for recording professional quality audio on your computer. No hissing and click sounds are produces because the sound from what ever you plug in goes to the sound card directly. Windows does not process the sound back and forth to different components. Read more about this fantastic ASIO plugin here.

Audacity: Is the best free audio capturing and editing software

Tape PLayer: with head phone jack or RCA output jacks

Cable: To plug tape player to computer

or

3.5 male to 3.5 male stereo connector or auxiliary input cable (RCA)

Mini twin jack (if using Acc cable)

Connect Tape Player To PC

First I installed the Asio4All plugin. It works on all sound cards and what it does is send the audio directly to the sound card without processing it back and forth in your pc. The audio recorded is the same quality as the tape.

I have a cheap tape player with only a head phone jack. I connected the black 3.5 male to male cable in the tapes headphone jack. I connected the other end in my PC’s line in jack. Please note that if you use the mic jack it will sound horrible and could cause damage to your sound card.

The process is the same for those using RCA cables except they need to use a twin type jack in the line-in of your computer for obvious reasons (two plug, one hole).

Audacity Set Up

• In the top menu of Audacity click  “Edit” and scroll down to “Preferences”.
• In Playback devices make sure not to select “Microsoft SoundMapper” select “Real Tech something…”

Recording Digital Audio

Test the sound first. Press play on the tape player and the sound should come out of your PC’s speakers crystal clear. When you are ready to record click the red “record” button.

When you have tapped what you want click “stop”, the yellow square. Click “File” and “Export as Wav”.

Exporting As MP3

If you plan on burning your file to a cd as mp3 for playback on all your cd players read the following carefully to avoid head aches. Audacity in  its self does not export as mp3’s. Do do so you need to download LAME MP3 Encoder.

Unzip LAME and save the file “lame_enc.dll” where you will (I put it in the c/prgram files/audacity folder). When you launch Audacity and use the “Export as MP3″ command for the first time, Audacity will ask you where the lame_enc.dll is saved. Then you are all set to export as mp3’s ready to be burned.

Burn your files to cd and you have a cd that can playback MP3 compatible player only.

Please note if you want to be able to play the cd any where including your car export as a wav file or  a ogg vorbis and burn it using “audio CD” in Nero. I like Ogg Vorbis because it makes nice small files.

You can use the same techniques for vinyls, 8–tracks. You simply need to have the matching cable for your music players. Voila!

Free Online Electric Guitar Lessons