True interest in playing guitar comes from a burning desire to be what your heroes are. Its a blind passion. But, before you even pick up a guitar, you must first ask yourself these questions: Do I listen to music differently than my friends who don’t play guitar? when it comes to listening to music, do I see myself being able to not only play all of the guitar parts, but be able to play all of the guitar parts on stage? Do I see myself playing guitar above anything else under GOD?

If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, chances are you have what it takes to become a serious guitarist. Now, you should pick up your guitar, and if the burning passion’s there, never put it down. Never let it go. By now, you should know that playing guitar is much more than just something that you do, You are a musician, and that’s not just something that you do, its who you are. So be proud, not just anybody can say their a musician. Your an artist, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Now that you’ve figured out that you are a serious guitarist, you should now set out to be the best guitarist that you can possibly be. You are about to set out on a lifelong journey. a very fulfilling journey of mastering your craft.

So what do I do first? You might ask. You get lessons, buy books on learning guitar, video tape your heroes every time their on television, and then study them, whatever it takes to increase your skill as a guitarist. You should keep in mind that no matter what, if the passion is there, you will learn. So don’t worry if you can’t afford lessons, or afford books on learning guitar, if you have the undying desire and burning passion with or without help. No matter if the odds are in your favor or if the odds are stacked against you.

How do I know? Well, since me and my brother were old enough to remember, we’ve had a very close kinship, and a great understanding of music. But, unfortunately, our family was very poor. We were twelve before we got a guitar to create on. Our parents couldn’t afford guitar lessons, so what we did was got our friends that were learning to play at the same time, and borrow their books on guitar, and then we would watch as they played the way their teachers taught them to play. We practiced night and day. We very rarely played outside like other kids. We never learned to swim because we played guitar all the time, we didn’t go swimming. But, because we sacrificed so much for our craft, it wasn’t long before our skill was unparalleled by our peers and we were teaching our friends teachers. We were showing guitarists twice or three times our age who were playing guitar before we were even born. We didn’t have a guitar teacher, yet by the time we were the age of fifteen, we were the teachers. When we played talent shows at our high school, we were the talk of the school and very respected.

Now, I’m not saying by any means that you have to do to become a great guitarist. I’m just saying that this is how me and my twin brother learned. You should take your own path. Your path is always the best path to take.

Well, that’s it. As always, I hope you found this article both informative and entertaining. May GOD bless you always, and in always.

Larry Ford runs a website providing information for guitars. You can find it at
http://www.guitarsforever.info/

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Yowza! Did you hear that hideous noise? It sounded like a combination of nails on a chalkboard, a cat in a dryer, and a baby wailing at the top of his lungs. Do you have any idea of what made that awful sound? As a long-time musician, I think I may have the answer for you. It’s a guitarist fiddling for the first time with his new amp.

Before I bought my first amp, I wouldn’t have thought that a human could produce such a horribly wretched sound. But, now I know better. In the process of finding the perfect settings for your guitar and amp, you are sure to discover all kinds of disagreeable screeches and squeals, shrieks and screams. And, believe it or not, these unpleasant and often other-worldly sounds are all part of the learning experience.

I’ve often been asked to give beginners online advice on how to dial in their amps and guitar settings. For a number of reasons, this is no easy task. As you know, the experience of sound is totally subjective. What I may like, you may not. This said, it’s hard to give definitive advice about guitar and amp settings.

So much is involved in getting the sound just right for your tastes-including the room you’re playing in, the gauge of your strings, the guitar you’re jamming on, and the type of amp itself. All of these come together to create a playground for experimentation: a place where you can twist this knob here and turn that knob there and, before you know it, you’re a musical stylist, an expert in designing the perfect sound.

I can, however, offer a few general tips that might help out as you begin playing with your amp.

1. Always start with your dials pointing to 12 o’clock and twist and turn from there. 12 o’clock will give you the baseline to work from and you can let your ears tell you what does and doesn’t work from there.
2. No matter how many other bells and whistles your amp has, you’re almost always looking at a four basic areas you’ll be most interested in learning how to manipulate:
• Treble
  Adjusting this setting will affect the amount of high end in your sound. If you go big with treble, you’ll end up with a very sharp and crisp sound. However, if you go too big, you’ll likely end up with a harsh sound.
• Middle
  The mids can be the most important setting to your overall sound. Adjusting these settings can really impact the overall character of your sound. Low settings can give you the classic rock-n-roll sound, while higher mids will take you down the honky-tonk, bluesy path. Play around with the mids to really see how much change you can create in your sound with the simple twist of a knob!
• Bass
  If you like that deep, booming sound, you’ll definitely want to go fat on your bass. On smaller amps, however, you might not be able to get the full effect of the bass simply because of their size. But, no matter how you like it, be sure to see how the bass and treble can work with one another to create your ideal sound.
• EQ / Filter / Tone/ Contour
  They’re called by different names on various amps, but they all do the basically the same thing: adjust all of your basic settings (e.g., treble, mids, and bass) with one knob. If you want to find out what the maker of your amp considers “correct” settings, play with these knobs to hear how your treble, mids, and bass all can work together for radically differing results.
3. If you’ve got a valve (tube) amp, be sure to:
• always replace the whole set when even just one tube blows
• never move your amp while it’s still hot
• be extra careful that you line up he pins in each tube perfectly with their corresponding holes on the amp
4. To make sure you keep your amp in top condition, be sure to:
• keep your amp in a dry location
• always use the best quality leads (guitar, speaker, microphone, and effects)
• always have your amp serviced by a capable technician

In the end, you have to know this one rule of amps: there is no right or wrong way to set it up. If you like what you hear, you’ve done a great job. If you don’t like what you hear, remember the settings and the sound and don’t dial those in again. Experiment, experiment, experiment and have fun!

Jon Butt is the publisher of Musical Instruments Guide , a free resource dedicated to all things musical. From electric guitars to drum sets, tubas to bagpipes, and every musical accessory in-between, the Musical Instruments Guide is packed full of informative articles, find top-rated musical instruments and online merchants

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I get lots of e-mail inquiries on my website as to why I consider my system, Guitar-eze, to be so much simpler than virtually all the other guitar methods out there. The reason is - Guitar-eze is based on the well-known but highly under-utilized, and under-appreciated, open-D tuning.

That’s right - the guitar tuning that so many greats used and built upon, from Robert Johnson (open-E some of the time, but the exactly the same thing, a whole toner higher throughout), Keith Richards (Street Fighting Man, Jumpin’ Jack Flash unthinkable any other way), Joni Mitchell (with her jazzy, ringing open-string inflections), and so many more. Open-D can be much more than a one-off alternate tuning, as so often characterized, even from renowned instructors and players, in the method books and websites . Here’s a little clarification on just one amazing aspect of open-D guitar tuning.

One of the great advantages of open-D tuning is its “visual” aspect. For anyone with event a limited background musical theory, this can be a real eye-opener when learning guitar. Speaking from personal experience (as an aspiring guitarist with a moderate understanding of theory i.e. what chords and triads were), it became the point when the light bulb came on for me. In standard guitar tuning E A D G B E, the starting open chord is generally not usable (a permutation of an A11 or some such). The only way to build chords from that starting point is to utilize various finger-fret combinations, so as to create note groupings that sound the chords you want to play. Not only is the mastering of often tricky and unnatural finger positions a major stumbling block, especially for absolute beginners, the actual finger positions “mean” nothing. You can’t tell from a E-chord or an A-chord (first position) why they are what they are. Contrast this with open-D tuning, D A D F# A D. Even with no finger to fret, you can “see” the chord as you look down your strings. The four highest D F# A D are the triad for a D major chord (octave doubled).

What and advantage this is! Permutations are as simple as adding one finger to any one string, to any fret higher than the root note. For instance, staying in our open-D for the moment: Add your first finger to the first fret on the A string (makes it an A#). You’ve just created a D-augmented (D+), a modification universal up the whole of the fretboard. Move that same finger up one more fret on the same string - you’ve create a D6; again, a modification that can be used up and down the fretboard of the guitar.

For anyone with even just a rudimentary understanding of the rudiments, the logic should be highly appealing. Now, you’re no longer memorizing chord positions, without understanding what the relationships are. You’re seeing the relationships right at your fingertips.

For the experimenters out there - go nuts! Add one finger to any string starting at any position on the guitar (i.e. a one-finger major barre chord, which is what open-D gives you up and down the neck of your guitar), and you’ve discovered a new chord - check any theory book and it’ll tell you the name of the chord you’ve just created by making that modification. It’s an endless supply of new chords. Of course, it’s expandable to more than one finger, too.

By trying different combinations off the basic starting point of a major chord, you’ll hit some beauties and, of course, come clunkers. But what a way to hear and “see” how chords are structured and built. Also, because you have repeated strings in open-D (three Ds, and two As), you can try modifications on the repeat strings and see how the texture of the chord changes with the pitch of the note you’ve changed.

My book focuses on open-D as a starting point to guitar versus standard tuning. The above example is what I refer to as the system’s “versatility”. It’s something you simply cannot glean as simply when your starting point on the guitar is E A D G B E. I make the point that the system is great for either end of the guitarist spectrum (whether newbie, frustrated, or advanced) - whether you are theory-based or an ear-experimenter, open-D is much more than just a folkie alternate tuning for one song. It can be a stand-alone playing style (as I’ve done for twenty-plus years), or a viable alternative to add to your existing arsenal.

Frank Foxx is a semi-professional guitar player and part-time guitar teacher who plays exclusively in the tuning of open-D. He has written a guitar method book, extolling the virtues of what he considers to be the most versatile and easiest of all guitar tunings, entitled Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing the Guitar. His website is http://www.easierguitar.com. He keeps a blog at http://open-d.blogspot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.

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