Playing Guitar Online

Hello world!

dspyn — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:06:32 +0000

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Being Famous

dspyn — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:24:55 +0000

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String

dspyn — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:43:20 +0000

A normal guitar has six strings, each of which has a different size and note value. In standard tuning, the bottom string (also the skinniest and highest sounding) is an E note. This is also known as the 1st string. The 2nd string up (a little bit thicker and lower sounding) is a B note. The 3rd string up is a G note, 4th is a D, 5th is an A, and the 6th string (thickest, lowest sounding, and closest to your body) is also an E note. When in tune, playing the 1st and the 6th strings open should produce the same note, albeit at different pitches. Mnemonic devices can help you remember the order of the strings: For example, from top to bottom: Eat All Day Get Big Easy. Or come up with your own.

Guitar Pick "Plectrum"

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:55:54 +0000

A guitar pick is a type of plectrum designed for use on a guitar. Over time people have made picks of various materials, including plastic, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, andstone. They most often take the shape of an acute isosceles triangle with the two equal corners very rounded and the third corner rounded to a lesser extent. This shape is, however, merely one of many used by manufacturers.

Styles

Pick shapes started with guitarists filing down bone, shell, wood, cuttlebone, metal, amber, stone or ivory to get the desired shape. Most of today’s classic guitar pick shapes were created by the company that made the first plastic pick in 1922, D’Andrea Picks. The plastic pick was an idea that Luigi, and his young son Tony, Sr., had after purchasing a few sheets of the tortoise shell-like celluloid from a street vendor. It appeared very similar to the real tortoise shell picks the guitarists used in their Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Most users of picks are familiar with the most popular shape, the 351, which is merely the rounding off of the top of heart, which was a popular pick shape early on. The rounded triangle is the 346 and the small jazz pick, the 358. All these numbers represent the numbers the Luigi & Tony D’Andrea assigned to each of their new “creations” at the request of the guitarists they serviced. Soon after, they requested their names be imprinted on them. D’Andrea Picks was the first company to create custom pick imprinting in 1938, allowing customers to order imprinting up to 12 block letters. One of the first to make the player imprint popular was guitarist Nick Lucas in the early 1930 s.
Many picks have some form of imprint on them from simple manufacturer logos to completely customized artist picks bearing the imprinted signature or bandlogo of the musician. Probably the most famous and easily recognizable name on a pick is the logo of Fender Guitars. One of the early “mass distributors” of customized guitar picks was Rick Nielsen of the rock band Cheap Trick. Rick was known to toss out hundreds of customized picks over the course of a single concert.[1] These artist picks have become more popular over the last few decades to the point it’s somewhat rare to find a famous artist who doesn’t use a custom pick. As the technology for printing improved over the years, so did the variety and quality of the imprints. What began as simple block lettering has evolved into multi-color and highly-detailed graphics. Steve Clayton was the first pick manufacture to create multi-colored imprinting for guitar picks. Shortly thereafter, the Clayton facility started offering multi-colored picks over the Internet. With such a wide variety available, people began collecting guitar picks as a full-fledged hobby. There is even a global network for collectors to trade their picks called PickNET that sprang up in 1994. Custom picks are available at concerts as the musicians frequently toss used picks out to the audience. Some artists even sell their picks through their websites or fanclubs.

Slide guitar, Bottleneck Guitar

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:34:31 +0000

Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide is in reference to the sliding motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides, which were the necks of glass bottles. Instead of altering the pitch of the strings in the normal manner (by pressing the string against frets), a slide is placed upon the string to vary its vibrating length, and pitch. This slide can then be moved along the string without lifting, creating continuous transitions in pitch.
Slide guitar is most often played (assuming a right-handed player and guitar):
With the guitar in the normal position, using a slide called a bottleneck on one of the fingers of the left hand; this is known as bottleneck guitar.
With the guitar held horizontally, with the belly uppermost and the bass strings toward the player, and using a slide called a steel held in the left hand; this is known as steel guitar.
Slides may be used on any guitar, but slides generally and steels in particular are often used on instruments specifically made to be played in this manner. These include:
-All steel guitars.
-Many (perhaps most) resonator guitars, particularly Dobros and their descendants.
-Lap slide guitars, particularly Weissenborns and their descendants.

Capo

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:22:51 +0000

A capo tasto (from Italian capo, “head” and tasto, “tie or fret”), or simply capo, is a device used for shortening the strings, and hence raising the pitch, of a stringed instrument such as a guitar, mandolin or banjo. The term was used first by G.B. Doni in his Annotazioni of 1640, although usage of the capo likely began earlier in the 17th-century.[1]
There are several different styles of capo available, utilizing a range of mechanisms, but most use a rubber-covered bar to hold down the strings, fastened with a strip of elastic or nylon, a cam-operated metal clamp, or another device. Alternative terms are capo d’astro and capodastro, also Italian.
A simple version can be made with a pencil and a rubber band. Lay the pencil across the strings at the desired fret, and holding it in place by wrapping the rubber band around both ends and underneath the fretboard. [A pencil with flat surfaces works much better than a round one].

A makeshift guitar capo
Capos are used to change the key and pitch of the open strings of a guitar without having to adjust the strings with the tuning keys. The pitch of fretted notes does not change; only the open, unfretted strings are affected. It should be noted that the capo is placed as close to the fret as possible; some practitioners recommend placing the modern clamp-style capos directly on the fret, rather than behind it.
With 12-string guitars a capo used to be necessary to play in tune with a six-string because manufacturers would strongly recommend that the instrument not be tuned above a tone below standard guitar tuning to reduce stresses on the neck. Modern 12-strings can be tuned up to pitch with ultra light gauge strings, but many players still prefer to tune a tone lower and use a capo to play in tune with six-string or bass guitars.

A Shubb capo which uses a lever operated over-centre locking action clamp
Because of the different techniques and chord voicings available in different keys, the same piece may sound very different played in D or played in C with a capo at the second fret (at the same actual pitch). Additionally, the timbre of the strings changes as the scale length is shortened, suggesting other short-scaled stringed instruments such as the mandolin. Therefore the use of a capo is as much a matter of artistic expression as of technical expediency.
The use of a capo also obviates the need to learn a song in several different keys if accompanying singers sing at different pitches.
For guitar playing, some styles such as flamenco, Irish traditional music, British and American folk music make extensive use of the capo, while it is used very rarely, if at all, in other styles such as classical and jazz playing. Many Rock & Roll musicians who are influenced by Folk and Blues, such as Richard Thompson, Ry Cooder, Steve Earle, and others, also use the capo. In many cases, they have extended its use past the traditional purpose of changing the key, and broken new ground, employing it in new ways.
Variations in the design of capos allow a range of advantages to players. A capo with two rollers, one over the neck and one under, facilitates quick key changes in the middle of tunes or sets. This is a particular advantage in playing Irish music on the guitar, as it enables the player to move quickly between keys without sacrificing drone strings. Clamp-style capos fitted from the side of the neck (as distinct from those which encircle it) can be placed so as to leave one or two strings open. This gives some of the advantages of variant tunings (such as a capoed dropped D), without requiring a change in fingering of chords above the capo. Steve Earle uses a Kyser Loqo clamp-style capo at the second fret, leaving the 6th (low E) string open, to create the effect of Drop D tuning on his song “Ellis Unit One” from the Dead Man Walking movie soundtrack. Capos with fine adjustment of the clamping force have the advantage of being less likely to upset the tuning of the instrument.
One of the newer developments in capo design is the partial capo, which allows individual control over which strings are clamped. In theory this puts a vast number of variant sounds at the player’s disposal, without changing the tuning of the instrument. In practice it is most often placed either on the 2nd fret of the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings (producing the effect of DADGAD tuning raised two semitones), or on the 2nd fret of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings (open A major). Again, this requires no change of fingering above the capo. A little experimentation with the two methods of producing variant tunings (partial capo or actual retuning) will show that each has its own advantages. There are many companies making partial capos, among them Kyser, Shubb, Woody’s G Band, Transpo Products, and the Third Hand Capo Company.
Guitarist Dominic Frasca uses unusual single string “mini capos” attached by drilling through the neck of his customized 10-string guitar. These are similar to the single-string “capos” many Eastern instruments use, which look like nails driven down into the fingerboard; the string is hooked under the head of the “nail” when one wants to capo it. This is often done during the performance of a musical piece, so that the “tuning” at the end of the piece can be quite different from the one used at the start.
The five-string banjo, with its short fifth string, poses a particular problem for using the capo. For many years now it has been possible to buy a specialised fifth-string capo, consisting of a narrow metal strip fixed to the side of the neck of the instrument, with a sliding stopper for the string. Other options are to use model railroad spikes to hold the string down at higher frets or simply to retune the string to fit with the pitch of the other strings with the capo applied.
Capos have been used on many other stringed instruments, including mandolins and their relatives, the mandola and Greek bouzouki, and 4-string banjos. There is a special two-piece capo available for the square-necked Dobro, or resonator guitar, which does not contact the neck, but clamps above and below the strings themselves.

Guitar accessories

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:09:36 +0000

Though a guitar may be played on its own, there are a variety of common accessories used for holding and playing the guitar.

Capotasto, Capo
A capo (short for capotasto) is used to change the pitch of open strings. Capos are clipped onto the fret board with the aid of spring tension, or in some models, elastic tension. To raise the guitar’s pitch by one semitone, the player would clip the capo onto the fret board just below the first fret. Their use allows a player to play in different keys without having to change the chord formations they use. Because of the ease with which they allow guitar players to change keys, they are sometimes referred to as “cheaters” or the “hillbilly crutch.” Classical performers are known to use them to enable modern instruments to match the pitch of historical instruments such as the renaissance lute.

Slide Guitar
A slide, (neck of a bottle, knife blade or round metal bar) used in blues and rock to create a glissando or ‘Hawaiian’ effect. The necks of bottles were often used in blues and country music. Modern slides are constructed of glass, plastic, ceramic, chrome, brass or steel, depending on the weight and tone desired. An instrument that is played exclusively in this manner, (using a metal bar) is called a steel guitar or pedal steel. Slide guitar playing to this day is very popular in blues music and country music. Some slide players use a so called Dobro guitar.
Some performers that have become famous for playing slide are Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Ry Cooder, George Harrison, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Duane Allman, Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher, and George Thorogood.

Plectrum

A “guitar pick” or “plectrum” is a small piece of hard material which is generally held between the thumb and first finger of the picking hand and is used to “pick” the strings. Though most classical players pick solely with their finger nails, the “pick” is often used for electric and some acoustic guitars. Though today they are mainly plastic, variations do exist, such as bone, wood, steel or tortoise shell. Tortoise shell was the most commonly used material in the early days of pick making but as tortoises became more and more endangered, the practice of using their shells for picks or anything else was banned. Tortoise shell picks are often coveted for a supposedly superior tone and ease of use.

Picks come in many shapes and sizes. Picks vary from the small jazz pick to the large bass pick. The thickness of the pick often determines its use. A thinner pick (between .2 and .5 mm) is usually used for strumming or rhythm playing, whereas thicker picks (between .7 and 1.5+ mm) are usually used for single-note lines or lead playing. The distinctive guitar sound of Billy Gibbons is attributed to using a quarter or peso as a pick. Similarly, Brian May is known to use a sixpence coin as a pick. David Persons is known for using old credit cards, cut to the correct size, as plectrum.
Thumb picks and finger picks that attach to the finger tips are sometimes employed in finger-picking styles.

Guitar Tuning

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:03:40 +0000

(Indonesian as called tune gitar, tuning gitar)

aThe guitar is a transposing instrument. Its pitch sounds one octave lower than it is notated on a score.

A variety of different tunings may be used. The most common tuning, known as “Standard Tuning,” has the strings tuned from a low E, to a high E, traversing a two octave range – EADGBE.

The pitches are as follows:

String	Scientific pitch	Helmholtz pitch	Interval from middle C	Frequency
first	E₄	e’	major third above	329.63 Hz
second	B₃	b	minor second below	246.94 Hz
third	G₃	g	perfect fourth below	196.00 Hz
fourth	D₃	d	minor seventh below	146.83 Hz
fifth	A₂	A	minor tenth below	110 Hz
sixth	E₂	E	minor thirteenth below	82.41 Hz

The table below shows pitch names found over the six strings of a guitar in standard tuning, from the nut (zero), to the twelfth fret.tune gitar,

A guitar using this tuning can tune to itself using the fact, with a single exception, that the 5th fret on one string is the same note as the next open string; that is, a 5th-fret note on the sixth string is the same note as the open fifth string. The exception is the interval between the second and third strings, in which the 4th-fret note on the third string is equivalent to the open second string.

Standard tuning has evolved to provide a good compromise between simple fingering for many chords and the ability to play common scales with minimal left hand movement. Uniquely, the guitar’s tuning allows for repeatable patterns which also facilitates the ease in which common scales can be played.^[15] There are also a variety of commonly used alternate tunings – most of which are open tunings that create entire chord voicings without fretting any strings. Many open tunings, where all of the strings are tuned to a similar note or chord, are popular for slide guitar playing. Alternate tunings are used for two main reasons: the ease of playing and the variation in tone that can be achieved.

Many guitarists use a long established, centuries-old tuning variation where the lowest string is ‘dropped’ down a whole tone. Known as

Guitar construction and components

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:25:03 +0000

General
Guitars can be constructed to meet the demands of both left and right-handed players. Traditionally the dominant hand is assigned the task of plucking or strumming the strings. For the majority of people this entails using the right hand. This is because musical expression (dynamics, tonal expression and colour etc) is largely determined by the plucking hand, while the fretting hand is assigned the lesser mechanical task of depressing and gripping the strings. This is similar to the convention of the violin family of instruments where the right hand controls the bow. A minority, however, believe that left-handed people should learn to

Electric Guitars

dspyn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:39:39 +0000

Electric guitars (called Gitar Elektrik) can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies, and produce little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups convert the vibration of the steel strings into electrical signals, which are fed to an amplifier through a cable or radio transmitter. The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices or the natural distortion of valves (vacuum tubes) in the amplifier. There are two main types of pickup, single and double coil (or humbucker), each of which can be passive or active. The electric guitar is used extensively in jazz, blues, and rock and roll, and was commercialized by Gibson in collaboration with Les Paul, and independently by Leo Fender of Fender Music. The lower fretboard action (the height of the strings from the fingerboard), lighter (thinner) strings, and its electrical amplification lend the electric guitar to some techniques which are less frequently used on acoustic guitars. These include tapping, extensive use of legato through pull-offs and hammer-ons (also known as slurs), pinch harmonics, volume swells, and use of a tremolo arm or effects pedals.

Seven-strings were popularized in the 1980s and 1990s in part due to the release of the Ibanez Universe guitar, endorsed by Steve Vai. Other artists go a step further, by using an 8 string guitar with two extra low strings. Although the most common 7-string has a low B string, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds and Rickenbacker) uses an octave G string paired with the regular G string as on a 12 string guitar, allowing him to incorporate chiming 12 string elements in standard 6 string playing. in 1982 Uli Jon Roth developed the “Sky Guitar”, with a vastly extended amount of frets, which was the first guitar to venture into the upper registers of the violin. Roth’s 7-string and 33 fret “Mighty Wing” guitar features an altogether 6-octave range.

The electric bass guitar is similar in tuning to the traditional double bass viol. Hybrids of acoustic and electric guitars are also common. There are also more exotic varieties, such as guitars with two, three,[12] or rarely four necks, all manner of alternate string arrangements, fretless fingerboards (used almost exclusively on bass guitars, meant to emulate the sound of a stand-up bass), 5.1 surround guitar, and such.

Some electric guitar and electric bass guitar models feature Piezoelectric pickups, which function as transducers to provide a sound closer to that of an acoustic guitar with the flip of a switch or knob, rather than switching guitars.