Learning a musical instrument is one of the best things you can ever do to enhance your happiness, intelligence and creativity. Amazing evidence has been surfacing in recent years about how music lessons not only sharpen your mind but can help reduce depression and improve your overall self-esteem. That's because musical ability draws from both sides of the brain, since it is both an emotional and analytical activity. Music can also be a rewarding career, but even as a hobby it's much more productive than watching television. Here are some instruments to consider for music lessons.
Guitar
Out of all the string instruments, guitar is certainly the most popular and has lasted for centuries. Music lessons for acoustic guitar will inspire you entertain friends and strangers at parties. It's the perfect portable instrument that doesn't require electricity, which allows you to take it anywhere. It's also a wonderful instrument to sing along with. Once you learn a handful of basic chords, you can learn to play and sing hundreds of songs. It's also a convenient tool for songwriting.
Not many other instruments are as versatile as an acoustic guitar, which can be used as either a lead instrument for melodies or a background instrument for rhythmic chord progressions. Electric guitar is also an instrument that adds imaginative techniques to your playing, but requires extra gear, such as an amplifier, cables and effects units. Once you take music lessons for acoustic guitar, you can quickly accelerate at electric guitar.
Piano
The widest range of frequencies among acoustic instruments can be found on a standard piano, which is a simple instrument to understand because the notes are laid out on a linear keyboard. It does take many music lessons to be proficient at piano, which is also true of most instruments. You don't have to learn classical pieces to be considered brilliant on piano. Like guitar, it's a great instrument for accompaniment to singing and a tool for writing songs.
Music lessons for piano will prove valuable for learning the synthesizer as well. It's the same progression of notes, but a synthesizer gives you many more variables to play with, such as adding electronic beats, altering sounds and adding effects.
Bass
A bass can be acoustic or electric and is important for adding deep tones to music. Learning the bass is essentially learning how to be creative with root notes to chord progressions, which gives music a fuller, more powerful sound. It's the bassist's job to act as the glue that holds rhythm and melody together. The bass works with the drums to form the rhythm section of music while accenting notes that help define a song's melodic structure. Music lessons for bass put you at the core of understanding a full arrangement.
Drums
The beat of music is driven by the drummer, who needs to be the clock of a band. Even though drums are typically not a solo instrument, there are many times in every musical genre when a drummer gets to shine. Music lessons for drums will help your sense of timing, as it can strengthen the foundation of music, especially for dancing. In many ways drums are the key instrument in defining a genre.
Harmonica
The harmonica is an excellent instrument for traveling because it fits in your pocket. Even though you can't sing and play harmonica at the same time it's a fine instrument for mixing with guitar and adding solos. Music lessons for a harmonica are really not that hard to learn while the instrument adds fullness and variety to music, especially for traditional songs.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
For Love Of The Guitar
So now that I gave you a background about why I started playing the guitar, I am going to take you through exactly how I learned. I will go through step by step my techniques, struggles, and successes. I know I can relate to the beginner guitar players out there, so I hope I can inspire you "newbies" to keep going.
In the beginning: The first three months
Plucking the strings
The first thing I did was hold a guitar pick and pluck each one of the six strings. Then I would hit every other string back and forth repeatedly until I drove my soon to be wife insane. I'm actually shocked she still married me after hearing a less than rhythmic "dunnnn... dunnnn... dunnnn" for five straight hours.
One of the first things I did was figure out an easy way to remember the string names. If you are a beginner guitar player, you should do the same. I memorized them by saying to myself "Eat All Day Get Big easy." (Get it? For beginners, E, A, D, G, B, and e are the notes of the open strings from top to bottom, 6th to 1st strings)
Plucking my first notes
Now instead of hitting the strings open, I moved on to different notes across the fret board. Experiencing the initial pain of pressing my fingertips onto steel strings and making contact with the neck of the guitar would prove to be an adventure. In the beginning I thought there was no way I would ever condition my fingers to be able to play notes clearly. It felt so uncomfortable, but I didn't give up. After creating some pretty nasty calluses on my finger tips, I kept playing those notes, albeit very slowly, out of rhythm, and sometimes muffled. Our Director of Music, David Vance talks about the frustrations of learning the guitar, check them out while you are here!
Forming my first chords
Once I got bored with playing individual notes and "do re mi fa so la ti" all day, I wanted to move onto playing chords. I would soon learn how difficult it is to play a series of notes at the same time without that annoying muffling sound. If you are just beginning, don't get discouraged. Just play the chords over and over and you'll get better, I guarantee it. Put a metronome on and every time it "beeps", play the chord. Then, over time, increase the speed of the "beeps" on the metronome. Practicing with a metronome is one of the most important things you will ever do when learning the guitar. I wish I had started practicing with one sooner, even though I was told from a friend that I should. I guess I didn't know any better so I figured it wasn't that important (stupid me). I started with the D Major Chord, then moved on to the C Major, and then all the other basic major and minor chords. The G Major was the worst! That one took forever, but eventually I got it - and you will too. Repetition!!!
Once I could play some simple chords, I learned how to strum. Brushing the pick against the all strings at once was a beautiful sound (after I finally got it to ring out without muffling any of the notes). I remember strumming the G Major chord and thinking, wow, I just made music. I know that sounds lame, but you have start somewhere, right? I started with all down strokes, then down and up strokes, then mixed them up for more difficult strumming patterns. This is very awkward at first, so if you are a beginner take your time and be patient, it will come.
In the beginning: The first three months
Plucking the strings
The first thing I did was hold a guitar pick and pluck each one of the six strings. Then I would hit every other string back and forth repeatedly until I drove my soon to be wife insane. I'm actually shocked she still married me after hearing a less than rhythmic "dunnnn... dunnnn... dunnnn" for five straight hours.
One of the first things I did was figure out an easy way to remember the string names. If you are a beginner guitar player, you should do the same. I memorized them by saying to myself "Eat All Day Get Big easy." (Get it? For beginners, E, A, D, G, B, and e are the notes of the open strings from top to bottom, 6th to 1st strings)
Plucking my first notes
Now instead of hitting the strings open, I moved on to different notes across the fret board. Experiencing the initial pain of pressing my fingertips onto steel strings and making contact with the neck of the guitar would prove to be an adventure. In the beginning I thought there was no way I would ever condition my fingers to be able to play notes clearly. It felt so uncomfortable, but I didn't give up. After creating some pretty nasty calluses on my finger tips, I kept playing those notes, albeit very slowly, out of rhythm, and sometimes muffled. Our Director of Music, David Vance talks about the frustrations of learning the guitar, check them out while you are here!
Forming my first chords
Once I got bored with playing individual notes and "do re mi fa so la ti" all day, I wanted to move onto playing chords. I would soon learn how difficult it is to play a series of notes at the same time without that annoying muffling sound. If you are just beginning, don't get discouraged. Just play the chords over and over and you'll get better, I guarantee it. Put a metronome on and every time it "beeps", play the chord. Then, over time, increase the speed of the "beeps" on the metronome. Practicing with a metronome is one of the most important things you will ever do when learning the guitar. I wish I had started practicing with one sooner, even though I was told from a friend that I should. I guess I didn't know any better so I figured it wasn't that important (stupid me). I started with the D Major Chord, then moved on to the C Major, and then all the other basic major and minor chords. The G Major was the worst! That one took forever, but eventually I got it - and you will too. Repetition!!!
Once I could play some simple chords, I learned how to strum. Brushing the pick against the all strings at once was a beautiful sound (after I finally got it to ring out without muffling any of the notes). I remember strumming the G Major chord and thinking, wow, I just made music. I know that sounds lame, but you have start somewhere, right? I started with all down strokes, then down and up strokes, then mixed them up for more difficult strumming patterns. This is very awkward at first, so if you are a beginner take your time and be patient, it will come.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
What You Must Know Before You Record Your Songs
Today I want to help you decide when you are ready to record your songs and what you must know before you book a session in a recording studio. At some point every singer either wants to or is required to record and there are some common mistakes and misconceptions about the recording process including cost and how to make sure you come out with a great recording. With such an abundance of home equipment, small home studios as well as larger ones, it can be confusing as to what you need and when you need it. How do you know how many hours you need? Or what a reasonable cost is? Take a look below at 3 key areas that if you take them on board will make your recording experience one to remember in a good way!
Be rehearsed and prepared
Decide why you are going into the studio. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Is it for experience, for a demo, a more professional calling card, a competition or audition requirement? With all the home recording equipment available today unless you personally know how to create a quality sound you will be shooting yourself in the foot by cutting corners. Those that get on show they are committed to working with those who have a proven track record in creating a good product.
You get what you pay for
Personally I think that applies at any stage. Whatever you do on the cheap shows up cheap. That doesn't mean hiring Abbey Road when you are a complete beginner. Many people actually do not know what a good recorded sound is. Having started my career in a recording studio, it's easy for my ear to discern, muddy backing track sounds, out of alignment vocals, bad drum sounds, no separation of instrumentation - the list goes on. It can be like buying a car, there's so much about the product we are buying we don't know so checking the credentials of the person recording you is more important than the equipment they are working with.
Be aware of the process
We are often naive about the amount of work that goes into creating a great recording. The singer needs to know their stuff well and be able to focus in an environment where there is no audience but create the feeling that they are singing to one. If using backing tracks they must be high quality WAV files not mp3 or mp4. The singer must be warmed up and prepared to sing several sections over and over again if needed. If using musicians allow several days not simply a few hours for the recording process and understand that most of the technical side to create your recording goes on after you have sung and played. The producer needs sometimes several hours if not days to finalize the product and mix it depending on how involved it is.
Be rehearsed and prepared
Decide why you are going into the studio. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Is it for experience, for a demo, a more professional calling card, a competition or audition requirement? With all the home recording equipment available today unless you personally know how to create a quality sound you will be shooting yourself in the foot by cutting corners. Those that get on show they are committed to working with those who have a proven track record in creating a good product.
You get what you pay for
Personally I think that applies at any stage. Whatever you do on the cheap shows up cheap. That doesn't mean hiring Abbey Road when you are a complete beginner. Many people actually do not know what a good recorded sound is. Having started my career in a recording studio, it's easy for my ear to discern, muddy backing track sounds, out of alignment vocals, bad drum sounds, no separation of instrumentation - the list goes on. It can be like buying a car, there's so much about the product we are buying we don't know so checking the credentials of the person recording you is more important than the equipment they are working with.
Be aware of the process
We are often naive about the amount of work that goes into creating a great recording. The singer needs to know their stuff well and be able to focus in an environment where there is no audience but create the feeling that they are singing to one. If using backing tracks they must be high quality WAV files not mp3 or mp4. The singer must be warmed up and prepared to sing several sections over and over again if needed. If using musicians allow several days not simply a few hours for the recording process and understand that most of the technical side to create your recording goes on after you have sung and played. The producer needs sometimes several hours if not days to finalize the product and mix it depending on how involved it is.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Overview Guitar Picking
As guitarists, picking is something that we're pretty much all going to be called upon or required to do, at least at some point. While there are many, many different methods of picking, both finger style and pick style, a strong picking technique is necessary to them all. We're going to take a look at some basic tenets of pick style playing here, and give a sort of overview of different things to look out for and ideas to keep in mind (most of which are usually overlooked by most guitarists), so that we can make our overall picking technique as efficient and effective as possible.
Relaxation is key to the entire process of guitar playing, and there are few areas of technique where this is more immediately relevant and noticeable than our picking attack. We want to be relaxed, not stressed, but this concept is often misunderstood, especially by less experienced players, and the misunderstanding is unintentionally promoted by many guitar teachers and methods.
Yes, we want to be relaxed. No, we don't want to be comatose. Any physical action requires a degree of tension within the body: this is how we move and do things. Instead of trying to remove all tension from the body, what we are really going for is a lack of stiffness, and being "forced" with our movements. Understanding where to apply more tension, and where to remain loose is a critical element to building effective picking technique.
We should avoid excess tension and stiffness in the back, shoulder, elbow, and throughout the arm down through the wrist and hand, but maintain the necessary degree of tension or pressure between the parts of the thumb and hand that grip the pick. Something that I often repeat to students is "Pay attention to your body and what it's telling you", because you will know if you're too tense and feel "locked" in any particular area, but if you don't pay attention to these signals, you won't notice them as much, and likely won't do anything to fix the problem, either.
Another obvious way to tell if you're gripping the pick too tightly and using excess tension is to really be aware of the quality of sound coming from your pick, not just whether or not you're playing the "right" notes. This is something I see a lot of with not only beginning guitarists, but also with more experienced players as well. Part of it comes from what I call the "Old Guy" school of guitar playing (no offense to old guys intended), which basically amounts to playing most everything really "hard" and loud, which is not only unnecessary, but also undesirable.
If you want more volume, grip the pick a bit tighter. If you want less volume, loosen up on your grip. It's really pretty simple, yet many of us take a sort of universal approach here, and the result is that most everything played sounds pretty much the same.
Practice picking a single note repeatedly with varying degrees of tension in your pick grip, and really notice the difference in sound and how the pick feels between your thumb and finger(s). This helps immensely by developing greater awareness and essentially forces you to pay attention to seemingly "smaller" aspects of your playing that usually go unnoticed. If it feels too tight or tense, it probably is, and will probably sound like it, too. Listen to what your body is telling you.
The type of pick and the angle at which the pick attacks the strings are important as well, although it's not so much what you use as it is how you're using it. Generally speaking, a heavier, thicker pick will give you a more controlled and dynamically rich sound, but it's not a good idea to simply rely on a particular pick's material or thickness when working with a good picking technique.
If you don't work with the pick itself in areas like dynamic shading and overall control, you'll always be limited by your technique, and limited to whatever inherent qualities are found within your pick.
Practice playing more lightly and softy with a heavier pick, and work on playing more aggressively and with greater volume when using a lighter pick. This helps develop solid, fundamental picking technique and awareness, rather than just grabbing something and hitting the strings while hoping for the best, based on your chosen pick.
One question many, if not most, guitarists have is whether their picking movement should come primarily from the wrist, or the elbow. While there are different opinions on this (some with very sound reasoning, and others based on impractical and unrealistic ideas about playing) my personal view favors picking mostly from the wrist, while letting the elbow guide or propel your movement from one string grouping to the next.
I find that this naturally reduces unnecessary tension while keeping your picking movement small, as the primary point of movement (the wrist) is closer to the strings than the elbow, and allows for less accumulation of tension between muscle groups.
I remember reading several years ago that GIT (the Guitar Institute of Technology) did a study that showed picking speed is slightly optimized when picking from the elbow, but I've found that most students are too tight and tense when deliberately trying to pick from the elbow without much use of the wrist.
In the end, what's most important is finding something that works for you personally, then drilling that again and again until it becomes automatic. We don't want to change our picking attack too much when we're developing our technique, because chances are good that we'll never stick with anything long enough to make it effective. Find what works for you and stick with it.
Economy of movement is a big part of an effective picking technique, and this basically means that we don't move any more than necessary to produce the desired result. Keep your movements small, and over time, they'll be far more clean and precise than if you were to exaggerate them and lose focus and accuracy. Speed is a byproduct of accuracy, so by focusing specifically on accurate movements and attack, we're better suited to build increasing levels of speed as we go along, and the we'll retain that accuracy even at much faster tempos.
Pay attention to your movements and the sound you're producing, relax, and notice any areas of excess tension. Work with these areas intentionally, and you'll find that they become more automatic as your playing becomes more fluid, precise, and enjoyable.
Relaxation is key to the entire process of guitar playing, and there are few areas of technique where this is more immediately relevant and noticeable than our picking attack. We want to be relaxed, not stressed, but this concept is often misunderstood, especially by less experienced players, and the misunderstanding is unintentionally promoted by many guitar teachers and methods.
Yes, we want to be relaxed. No, we don't want to be comatose. Any physical action requires a degree of tension within the body: this is how we move and do things. Instead of trying to remove all tension from the body, what we are really going for is a lack of stiffness, and being "forced" with our movements. Understanding where to apply more tension, and where to remain loose is a critical element to building effective picking technique.
We should avoid excess tension and stiffness in the back, shoulder, elbow, and throughout the arm down through the wrist and hand, but maintain the necessary degree of tension or pressure between the parts of the thumb and hand that grip the pick. Something that I often repeat to students is "Pay attention to your body and what it's telling you", because you will know if you're too tense and feel "locked" in any particular area, but if you don't pay attention to these signals, you won't notice them as much, and likely won't do anything to fix the problem, either.
Another obvious way to tell if you're gripping the pick too tightly and using excess tension is to really be aware of the quality of sound coming from your pick, not just whether or not you're playing the "right" notes. This is something I see a lot of with not only beginning guitarists, but also with more experienced players as well. Part of it comes from what I call the "Old Guy" school of guitar playing (no offense to old guys intended), which basically amounts to playing most everything really "hard" and loud, which is not only unnecessary, but also undesirable.
If you want more volume, grip the pick a bit tighter. If you want less volume, loosen up on your grip. It's really pretty simple, yet many of us take a sort of universal approach here, and the result is that most everything played sounds pretty much the same.
Practice picking a single note repeatedly with varying degrees of tension in your pick grip, and really notice the difference in sound and how the pick feels between your thumb and finger(s). This helps immensely by developing greater awareness and essentially forces you to pay attention to seemingly "smaller" aspects of your playing that usually go unnoticed. If it feels too tight or tense, it probably is, and will probably sound like it, too. Listen to what your body is telling you.
The type of pick and the angle at which the pick attacks the strings are important as well, although it's not so much what you use as it is how you're using it. Generally speaking, a heavier, thicker pick will give you a more controlled and dynamically rich sound, but it's not a good idea to simply rely on a particular pick's material or thickness when working with a good picking technique.
If you don't work with the pick itself in areas like dynamic shading and overall control, you'll always be limited by your technique, and limited to whatever inherent qualities are found within your pick.
Practice playing more lightly and softy with a heavier pick, and work on playing more aggressively and with greater volume when using a lighter pick. This helps develop solid, fundamental picking technique and awareness, rather than just grabbing something and hitting the strings while hoping for the best, based on your chosen pick.
One question many, if not most, guitarists have is whether their picking movement should come primarily from the wrist, or the elbow. While there are different opinions on this (some with very sound reasoning, and others based on impractical and unrealistic ideas about playing) my personal view favors picking mostly from the wrist, while letting the elbow guide or propel your movement from one string grouping to the next.
I find that this naturally reduces unnecessary tension while keeping your picking movement small, as the primary point of movement (the wrist) is closer to the strings than the elbow, and allows for less accumulation of tension between muscle groups.
I remember reading several years ago that GIT (the Guitar Institute of Technology) did a study that showed picking speed is slightly optimized when picking from the elbow, but I've found that most students are too tight and tense when deliberately trying to pick from the elbow without much use of the wrist.
In the end, what's most important is finding something that works for you personally, then drilling that again and again until it becomes automatic. We don't want to change our picking attack too much when we're developing our technique, because chances are good that we'll never stick with anything long enough to make it effective. Find what works for you and stick with it.
Economy of movement is a big part of an effective picking technique, and this basically means that we don't move any more than necessary to produce the desired result. Keep your movements small, and over time, they'll be far more clean and precise than if you were to exaggerate them and lose focus and accuracy. Speed is a byproduct of accuracy, so by focusing specifically on accurate movements and attack, we're better suited to build increasing levels of speed as we go along, and the we'll retain that accuracy even at much faster tempos.
Pay attention to your movements and the sound you're producing, relax, and notice any areas of excess tension. Work with these areas intentionally, and you'll find that they become more automatic as your playing becomes more fluid, precise, and enjoyable.
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