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Category Archives: Guitar
4 Ways to Boost Your Pick Technique: Get Control!
Your pick technique may be your weakest skill. It’s great that you know all the chords. Having a grasp of notes and scales is handy but your rhythm and arpeggios fall apart. You may be missing one or more of these techniques and losing control of your pick. Once you have chosen your pick, let’s […]
How to choose a pick: A simple guide
How to choose a pick, like everything, depends on several things: Style of music Type of guitar String Gauge Your style of playing You can use finger picks, finger nails or flat picks. For now, let’s concentrate on flatpicks and tackle the others at another time. I use any of the above depending on the […]
Should I mic or go direct?
Mic or go direct is a good question and the answer is not a simple one. Is this live or for recording? What sound are you trying to capture? What do you consider is part of your signal chain? Acoustic or electric guitar? So many questions… Let’s get started. I answered a post on the […]
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Gear, Guitar, Technique
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-tag-links">Tagged</span> condenser mic, direct recording, mic, mike
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Budget guitars: They need love, too!
You might start looking at budget guitars if you are just beginning to learn how to play or even just thinking about it. I hesitate to call them “cheap” guitars as those in the bottom price range have become quite good! Let’s explore this a little bit. There was a hilarious series of articles in […]
How to learn music by ear: Missing opportunities?
You may be missing valuable opportunities to learn music by ear if you are using a tuner and if you are avoiding singing along with the notes you are playing.
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Encouragement, Guitar, Technique
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-tag-links">Tagged</span> Guitar, tuning
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When to change your strings: A few hints
When do you change your strings? My older brother brought his guitar along when he visited my wife and I last year. When I picked it up to play it, the strings felt like they were a year old. He lives several states away; so, we don’t get to see each other often but he […]
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Guitar, Maintenance
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-tag-links">Tagged</span> strings
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It’s all about the tone, man
I have a friend name Tony whose email address starts with: The Tone. He sings for The Shades of Blue Orchestra which is a local swing orchestra and he does have “the tone”. If you enjoy the classic vocals of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett, you will love this band. But we’re not […]
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Guitar, Technique
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-tag-links">Tagged</span> fingerstyle, flat pick, guitar tone, rhythm guitar
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Chord charts and lead sheets: A How To Guide
If you play with a church group or the occasional amateur band, you will use chord charts. Jazz bands use charts and The Real Book is a famous compendium of standard charts. My band, The Regeneration Jazz Band, draws from this volume regularly. Most chord charts are rather simple and created on the fly. I […]
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Documentation, Guitar
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Let’s try a little fingerpicking
A fellow guitarist and I were talking the other day. I mentioned that my fingerpicking is a kind of pseudo classical style thing I developed early on in my playing. He could tell I was clearly dogging my technique and offered this encouragement: “Anything that gets the job done is acceptable.” Just because I did […]
A little amp leaves a big impression
In my last blog post, I wrote about Charlie Daniels recent passing. I also mentioned how I saw him in concert. There is a detail I did not mention about that experience that made me look at my rig in a whole new way. The band played on an enormous stage in an arena and […]
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Gear, Guitar
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-tag-links">Tagged</span> Blues Jr, Blues Junior, Fender Twin, Marshall, Polytone, Twin Reverb
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