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GuitarToolkit is a collection of essential guitar utilities for your iPhone and 2nd generation iPod touch. All for just US $9.99. Includes an amazingly accurate tuner and a library of over 500,000 chords. One of the highest rated application in the Apps Store.

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Check out this delay pedal!  Will fit nicely on your pedal board and won’t break the bank.  With 9 fully-programmable presets, you can set-up all your songs with their own unique delay setting and drastically reduce the tap-dancing and tweaking during a performance.  The TC Electronic ND-1 has the sound quality and a lot of the functionality of a rack-mount without the hefty price tag.

Technorati Tags: electric guitar lesson, lead guitar lessons, rock guitar lesson

This mini electric guitar lesson is just a brief explanation of why I use the pick I use.  Guitar picks are numerous and so are the opinions that go along with the selection of each one.  There are many different reasons why a guitarist use the pick they do, some are more thought through than other.  I believe it just comes down to what is going to make you comfortable and ultimately play up to the best of your ablilty.

For me, when it comes to electric guitar, I enthusiastically use the Dunlop Jazz III XL Stiffo.  Although the Dunop Jazz III XL Standard (Red) is the same just slightly thinner, to me the thickness difference between the two is insignificant in all aspects except when it comes to durability.  I find that the point on the Stiffo stays sharper a little bit longer, and that saves me money.I like a smaller pick with a point on it.  This gives me the attack and precision I need without the extra useless mass that comes with standard picks.  To me the more standard style of picks is too rounded at the point and doesn’t provide me with accuracy I prefer, especially when playing fast.  There is a smaller version of this pick called the
Dunlop Jazz III, but I found this to be a bit small for my liking.  Also the XL Stiffo pick’s edges are sharp enough to create good friction when doing a string scratch, which is important if you predominantly play a rock ‘n roll style.

Hope you found this electric guitar lesson helpful.  I’ll be posting video to demonstrate this as well.

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electricguitarlesson.org

This electric guitar lesson has to do with guitar amp placement on stage. If you are like most guitarists, you have your amp onstage. Although I do see a trending towards amps being put offstage, this still doesn’t seem to be the norm as of yet. I will address offstage amps in a later lesson, but for now we will talk about onstage guitar amps.

I have a peavey classic 50 212 combo amp which fits nicely onstage with little fuss. Years ago I decided to customize my amp by carefully installing a pair of Fender tilt-back legs, which work nicely. For those of you who are wondering why I didn’t just get an amp stand, at the time, price was the biggest factor. To be completely honest, I also didn’t want the hassle of lugging another piece of gear around. But I digress. So as you can guess, I like my amp to be facing up at me with it positioned so I am getting the most direct sound possible. This gives me the most accurate perception of my sound with as little tonal-coloring as possible. This is very important.

Let’s say your amp sits flat on the stage and is about 5 feet away from you. Well, all your direct sound is below your knees. This causes natural filtering, effectively creating a high-cut (or low-pass) filter. Your tone seems too dark or maybe your amp isn’t loud enough. So you crank it up a few notches, this helps a little but your tone is still too dark. So you add a little bit of highs, or maybe some presence. Sounds acceptable to you, so you’re happy. Here’s what you just accomplished.

First, by turning up your amp, it is probably louder than it needs to be. Now don’t get me wrong, I like it loud. But ultimately I want it to sound the best it can sound out in the house, in other words, I want it efficiently loud. I want it to be as loud as I need it and not a decibel more. Why? For several reasons. I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem of creating overbearing stage volume and undesired feedback (not the good kind that we guitarists like). Stage volume is great for on stage, but to an audience it sounds extremely muddy, very little clarity. If your stage volume is competing with the house volume, this will result in a poor mix and makes life very difficult for the sound engineer. Now you are also making life difficult for the rest of the band, especially the vocalists. So they will probably all ask for their monitors to be turned up which only perpetuates the stage volume problem. Also, the sound engineer will probably turn you down in the house to compensate for your loud stage volume. This is only going to affect your tone in a negative way.

Speaking of tone. Remember that you cranked up the highs so your amp wouldn’t sound so dark on stage. Sounds fine to you, but now that microphone that is placed right in front of your amp is getting a significantly different sound than you are. So in the house, your tone now sounds thin or brittle. The sound engineer can fix that right? Well, maybe. But why wouldn’t you want his source to be the most accurate representation of your tone the way you like it. Then all he has to do is a few tweaks to compensate for the house system and the room acoustics. You don’t want him creating your sound, you want him optimizing it for the listening environment.

This is why you want your head (ears) in the most direct path of your amp’s speakers. That way it is only as loud as you really need it to be, and like I said earlier, you hear your tone as accurately as possible with the least amount of unwanted coloring as possible. Now speaking of your ears and direct path. The best way for you to hear something (especially when its loud and constant) is from directly in front of you. If you have the amp behind you, the design of your ears is actually filtering the highs, a similiar result to having the amp flat on the stage. The amp is also throwing sound out towards the audience and is now competing with the house system. How about off to the side of the stage. This causes ear-fatigue and can cause hearing damage. The sound is constantly bombarding that one ear and overtime (much like a shotgun) will have a negative affect on the hearing in that one ear. Having your amp as directly in front of you as possible will distribute the sound evenly to both your ears. Also, the natural turning of your head left and right gives each ear a small yet significant break when being exposed to high decibel levels.

So give this electric guitar lesson technique a try and see if it doesn’t improve your onstage experience and ultimately improve your playing. The rest of the band and especially the sound engineer will thank you as well.

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I’ve been a guitarist for over 20 years and an audio engineer for 15 of those. I’ve worked in the studio and in the live environment. But today I want to focus on the live aspect. I have the unique ability of being well-experienced behind the stage, in front of the stage, and on the stage. I’ve experienced every emotion possible mixed with every personality possible. It’s a very intense environment and it doesn’t take much to upset this very delicate balance. There are a lot of perfectionists striving to be perfect, and of course never completely achieving it, especially in their own mind. This can lead to frustrations and a tendency to project these feelings on others. So when something goes wrong that is out of our control, we can tend to overreact.

I’m directing this at guitarists, only because I am one and that is who my website is for, but this can and usually does apply to any musician. We are in a position of authority with a very complex composition of insecurity and ego. These three elements (among many others) when not kept in check, make for a deadly combination. The audio engineer(s) are usually the easiest target of this concoction, mainly because (in our mind) their presence is to solely serve our every sound reinforcement need. Now I’m not disputing that they are there to serve and that includes serving us, but the scope of their serving is often minimized by our narrow focus. If we are able to consciously initiate a positive symbiotic-serving relationship; then we have just created the power of one team truly working in harmony, rather than two teams attempting to work together. This requires mutual respect and trust, not to mention an understanding that mistakes and problems will arise.

Now if an audio engineer feels under-appreciated, disrespected, or is made to feel insignificant; they are more likely to entertain the temptation to succumb to a highly unmotivated pursuit of excellence in the service they are providing. This is devastating to the goals of all interested parties, it is as detrimental as any unmotivated guitarist or other musician in the band. So you can see why it is imperative that this be avoided at all cost. All it takes is a good rapport and a genuine relationship. Respect the audio engineer for what they do, chances are they are as passionate about music as you are. In fact, many of them are musicians themselves. Don’t be afraid to ask them for input regarding the music, you may be surprised at what you hear.

Now if it sounds like I am putting the lion-share of the responsibility for harmony on the shoulders of the musicians, well I am. As musicians, we are among the foremost experts on harmony; and that expertise is applicable to all applications of harmony. We are also in a position of power (albeit more perceived than most realize); and to whom much is given, much is required. That being said, I believe we are to focus on serving those who serve us; and with every bit as much passion as we serve up the harmony that is the music we create.

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The electric guitar lesson areas will cover from the very basics of a young child just starting out, all the way to the semi-pro/professional gigging guitarists, playing various size venues, multiple times a week.  I’ll lay down the foundations of good guitar playing and give you tips to avoid forming bad habits.  If you’re a non-musically inclined parent of a very young budding guitar player, don’t “fret” (pun intended).  I’ll explain things in a simple way so that you can help cultivate their gift until they are old enough to start learning on their own.

Being a professional audio engineer of 15 years, I’ll also discuss all the ins and outs of guitar sound reinforcement and recording, and give you the inside scoop of how to work harmoniously with your technical support team.  This will ensure the most creative, productive and pleasant experience for everyone.  Being a good guitarist is more than just being a good player.  You can be the best player around; but if you play a gig and the monitors are bad, the house sound is bad, and you have no rapport, or a bad rapport with your technical team; then it is going to be a long and disappointing event for everyone.  Having a good relationship with the technical staff will enable you to resolve problems that arise in an efficient and most effective way.

I’ll also rely on you to post comments and questions regarding all the material I post.  This site can only really work if it is a truly collective effort.

But I digress.  As you can see, we have a lot to cover and I need to get started posting lots of content.  So please be patient in the beginning, and before long we will get this site rockin’ and rollin’ along.

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