Getting geared up.

After all my posts I am sure that you are ready to start spicing up your life with the power of music but before we get there, there is just one thing left to do. Yes, you guessed it. Getting the instrument. Getting a new guitar is not as easy as one would think. There is a lot of consideration to done when choosing a guitar. The shape and colour of the guitar are just minute details that come into consideration when purchasing a guitar.

Another point to remember when purchasing a guitar is that one does not purchase just a guitar alone. There is also the amplifiers, the guitar toner, the string polishing kit and many other tiny components that would make be used to improve the quality of the guitar.

The sound that is produced by the guitar is the most important point when purchasing a guitar. In my experience, after playing the guitar these few months and by doing some research I have found out that usually acoustic guitars with a deeper tone produce a more soothing and calm texture in music compared to sharper guitars. Sadly, guitars with a deeper tone usually means that it would be more expensive.

One of the acoustic guitars I would recommend is the Alvarez Yairi DYM95C semi-acoustic guitar. This guitar sounds nice whether plugged in or not. It also has a Fishmen Aura pickup which makes it sound very lovely when plugged into an amp. It's design is rather simple and it looks like almost every other guitar out there so it loses points on originality but buying a guitar is not about the looks but about the sound it is able to produce.

Alvarez Yairi Masterworks DYM95C guitar

Here are the specs of the guitar

• Cutaway Dreadnought Body Style
• Solid Rosewood Back/Sides
• Solid Spruce Top
• Ebony Fingerboard
• 12th Fret Diagonal Fingerboard Inlay
• "Ebony, Direct Coupled" Bridge
• Ivory Multi Body Binding
• Rosette Abalone Soundhole
• Gold Die-cast Tuning Machines
• Natural Tinted Finish
• Custom Fishman Aura Electronics

I would recommend this guitar if you have quite a bit of cash lying around because it is a very good guitar. Don't believe me? Well don't take my advice on it. Listen to a pro. Mr. Paul. Listen to the sound of the guitar and you will see why I like it a lot. XD

Electric guitars have a wider variety. Electric guitars depend a lot on its effects which is extremely expensive for a good set. There are two kinds of effect boxes. The first is the effect pedals and the second is the effects board. Usually electric guitaristslike to use individual effect pedals because the quality is much better when compared to the effects board but one has to be quite wealthy to be able to purchase a good guitar, amplifier, and individual effects.

Individual effect pedals


Effects board

Some of you might be wondering how the guitarists are able to press those buttons while they are playing their guitar. Well the answer is simple. They use their legs. XD. The effects are not a must but if you want your electric guitar to distinguish itself from other normal acoustic guitars, then effects are a must. One of the electric guitars I would recommend is the Ibanez RG2550 Prestige.

This guitar has class. It has a somewhat gothic look to it but the sound it produces is nice. If you had the money to get this guitar, I would seriously advice you to get it. Here is a picture for you to see it's beauty.

Ibanez RG2550 Prestige guitar

Here are the specs of the guitar:

• Neck: 5pc Wizard Prestige neck
• Neck Type: Wizard Prestige
• Body: Basswood body
• Frets: Jumbo frets
• Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood
• Inlay: Wedge sharktooth
• Bridge: Edge Zero bridge w/ZPS3
• NeckPU: DiMarzio IBZ neck pu
• MiddlePU: DiMarzio IBZ mid pu
• BridgePU: DiMarzio IBZ bridge pu
• HW Color: CK

*pu stands for pickup. XD

Here is a video for you to gauge for yourselves the quality of this guitar.

Not bad right. XD. Truly an art of craftsmanship. It is totally worth the price.

As for the bass guitar, one of the nicest basses that I have ever seen and heard is the Yamaha RBXA2 bass guitar. It is a 4-stringed, sleek, modern and light bass guitar. Usually bass guitars weight a lot but this bass is extremely light compared to any other bass guitar in the market. It also has a nice tone and a good sustain to it. It comes in two sleek colours. Jet black and White/Aircraft grey. It also has a very modern look to it which makes you feel like a futuristic rockstar.

Yamaha RBXA2 guitar

For all the bass players out there, including myself, PLEASE get it. Currently the price in singapore is around $900+ and can be found in plaza singapura on the sixth floor. It truly is a revolutionary guitar. The first of it's kind. Here are some of the specs of this amazing guitar:

• Construction: bolt on
• Scale Length: 34’’ (864mm)
• Fingerboard: Rosewood / 24 frets
• Radius: 10’’ (250mm)
• Body: A.I.R. Body
• Neck: Maple
• Tuners: Diecast
• Bridge: A.I.R. Mounting
• System Bridge
• Pickups: Single
• Controls: Front Volume,
• Rear Volume,
• Master Tone
• PU’s Colours : Front/Green,
• Rear/Blue
• The brightness of the indicator gains in conjunction with volume

Here is a video review by Ed Friedland. Listen to his review but more importantly the sound of the guitar.

Time to jazz up.

Before we proceed any further, here are more advanced chords that would help a guitarist to move to a higher level. Yes, they may be tougher and you most probably would have to spend a lot more time practising these chords than you did for the last chords I gave but, no one said learning the guitar would be easy right? If I was able to do it, so can you. XD.

You might have noticed that these chords look almost the same as the previous chords. Well in actual fact they are the same keys. What are keys you might ask. A key is a note in music. There are 12 keys in music theory. C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B. The keys are the same but they are different in variation. In other words, they sound as if they are the same family but with a slight difference in tune. This variation is called 'sevenths'. These can be identified by the number 7 beside the chord.

In this day and age, guitarists tend to use more sevenths and ninths because it produces a nicer sound compared to the previous chords given. With that being said, one might wonder what would be the point of memorising the previous chords. Well the answer is elementary. Variation is a very strong tool when it comes to playing songs. One could spice up the songs by changing between different variations of the same chord. Don't believe me? Well try it for yourself. XD.

With that being said, here are even more chords for you. Believe me, it is worth the patience. XD. These chords below are a few of the many jazz chords available. Why jazz? Well in my opinion, jazz is my favourite type of music. I would even go so far as to say it is the type of music with the most class and style. Why you might ask. Well, take a look at the chords on the video and you will know why.

jazz chords.

Here is another video to show you what jazz is all about and what you can do with a guitar. Prepare to be astounded. The guy in the video makes it look simple but believe me when I say it is anything but simple. It takes a great mind to not only compose but to also play such a song. Truly one of the best jazz guitarists in the world today. Mr. Joe Pass.

How was that? Amazing right. Well practice on those jazz chords more and soon you will be able to spice up any song. Try it for yourself. Take any song and replace the existing chords with jazz chords and you would see that old song in a new light. XD. Though it might not sound as nice when compared to playing the song on a saxophone, it still has the harmonious flow when played on the guitar. For those of you who do not know what a saxophone is, then here is a picture to enlighten you.

Saxophone

Another classic jazz instrument which also happens to be my second favourite instrument besides the guitar. Technology has become so advanced that modern guitars are able to mimic the sound of a saxophone, though not completely the same but close likeness to the original. Don't believe me? Well check this out.

Cool right? Imagine the endless possibilities one could do with a saxophone effect on a guitar. Soon a whole band could be replaced witha group of guitarists. How awesome would that be? XD. Well thats all I have for this post. Hope you enjoyed. XD

Wonders of the guitar.

Are you feeling tired of playing the guitar? Are you finding the guitar to be a painful experience? Are your fingers starting to blister and tear? Are you finding chords to be a pain in the butt because of all the memorising and applying? Are your fingers getting cramped due to the consistent depressing of the strings? Well, do not throw in the towel yet. Let me share something that has been an inspiration for myself to continue strutting forward. I have a videos for all three types of guitars which I believe would help you stir your passion in this wonderful instrument.

For the cool electric guitarist,

For the sentimental acoustic guitarist,


And lastly, for the jazzy bassist.

All awesome pieces of music right? Do you now understand why I said the guitar is one of the most awe-inspiring, romantic and also cool instrument ever created? Do you feel that you have the sudden urge to pick up the guitar that you put down just awhile ago? Do you feel the sudden spike in passion towards the guitar? Do you have the sudden euphoria due to the fact that with enough practice, one day you might be able to play something like that? That is what I felt when I saw those clips and hopefully I would be able to play something in that caliber. XD

Anyway, back to the reality of being an amateur guitarist. Now that we have learnt some basic chords, lets learn some strumming techniques but before we get to learning how to strum one must understand first the meaning of a strum.

Strumming is actually the brushing of one's finger over the strings of a string instrument, namely the guitar. Guitarists use either their finger or a pick to strum. What we first have to understand is that the theory behind strumming is that it runs on what is called a 'bar' which usually consists of 8 beats. This is counted as one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and. Sounds confusing? Well it is. I faced this problem too but fortunately for you, I have already cracked this mystery so you guys get to understand it easy. 'How am I going to explain it to you', you might ask? Well the answer is easy. Video XD.

I hope you have a better understanding of how strumming works now. There are many types of strumming. One of it was the one shown in the video. I call it up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down or (U,D,U,D,U,D,U,D). A few other examples of strumming which I find useful are:

slow-song-type strumming.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
D U U D U U D 0

rock-type strumming
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
D D D D D D D D

up-beat-type strumming
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
D 0 D 0 U U D U

sentimental-type strumming
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
D 0 D 0 U U U D

*0 means do not play.

There are many other types of strumming which you will notice when you see other guitarists play their instruments, but these are the basic strumming patterns that would suffice. Keep practising these strumming patterns and in time you will start to invent your own strumming patterns.

Learning basic chords.

Okay, the first order of business is to learn how to play chords right? Well some of the basic chords are shown below. This chords would enable a person to be able to play simple songs. XD. Though the songs might be simple, it does not mean it would not sound nice.

Sounds simple right? Well you are wrong. For beginners, just gripping the chords alone would be a huge challenge. Believe me. I tried. Took me a week or so to get the gripping right. 'What would this chords enable one to play' you might ask. Well, you could play something like this.

And if you want to play that awesome song which you have just heard then here are the chords and the lyrics to go with it.

Verse:
E 
Over the mountains and the sea 
G#
Your river runs with love for me, 
F#                    A
And I will open up my heart,
            B            E 
And let the Healer set me free. 

E
Im happy to be in the truth, 
G#
And I will daily lift my hands, 
F#                    
For i will always sing,
A                 B
Of when Your love came down.

Chorus:
E           B
I could sing of Your love forever
C#          A     B
I could sing of Your love forever
E                          B            C
I could sing of Your love forever
C#          A     B
I could sing of Your love forever 

Bridge:
F#      E/A 
Oh I feel like dancing
C#        G#
It's foolishness I know
F#                 E/A
But when the world has seen the Light
            B
They will dance with joy like we're dancing now...

There you go. If you managed to play that song then you have just learnt a song that uses only basic chords and I am very sure that it sounded as nice to you as it was to me. XD. Do not worry if what you have just played does not sound exactly like the original. That just means that more practice is in order. It is as the saying goes, 'practice makes perfect'. XD

So you think you know guitars?

So you think you know all there is to a guitar? Well you would be surprised at how wrong you are. Most people would associate the guitar to the electric guitars that you would normally see in contemporary bands. In actual fact,the guitar originated from certain stringed instruments such as the tanbur, setar and the sitar that were found in central Asia and India almost 4000 years ago. Bet you didn't know that.

Anyway, more about the modern acoustic guitars. The acoustic guitar is quieter than other instruments commonly found in bands and orchestras so when playing within such groups it is often externally amplified. Many acoustic guitars available today feature a variety of pickups which enable the player to amplify and modify the raw guitar sound. Though in my opinion, I find that acoustic guitars without pickups sound better when compared to those with pickups. Of course this is my opinion and if you happen to think otherwise, please do not be offended. XD

Some of you might be wondering what pickups are. No, they are not those trucks that come to tow away your broken down car. A pickup is actually a device that acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be amplified and recorded. Sounds confusing? Well, in lay-mans terms, it is a device that amplifies the sound of the guitar. XD. There are a few kinds though. There are the electric guitar pickups which are mainly for electric guitars, the built-in acoustic guitar pickups which are built into the acoustic guitars and there are the external acoustic guitar pickups which are placed at the center of the guitar.

Back to the guitar. A normal acoustic guitar would look something like this. Acoustic guitars come in various colours, shapes and also sizes but this is one of the most common types of acoustic guitar you would be able to find in any musical instrument stall.

Acoustic guitar

Another fact that you all might not have known is that there is such a thing as a left-handed guitar as well as a right-handed guitar. A common mistake is that a right-handed person would hold the neck of the guitar with his right hand. That is wrong. The dominant hand is usually used to pluck and strum the guitar because plucking and strumming actually require more dexterity, finesse and skills when compared to the other hand which has the menial task of gripping and depressing the strings. This is another mistake that people would normally make and thanks to this post, you would not be one of those people. XD.

Okay, it is now time for you all to take a tour of the guitar. Sit back, relax and read. XD

'Thats a lot of parts' you say? Well it is. XD. Let me give you all a brief explaination to all these parts.

• The 'Head' or the headstock is located at the end of the guitar neck furthest from the body. It is fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings, which in turn affects the pitch.
• The 'Nut' is a small strip of bone, plastic, stainless-steel or other medium-hard material, at the joint where the headstock meets the fretboard. Its grooves guide the strings onto the fretboard, giving consistent lateral string placement. It is one of the endpoints of the strings' vibrating length. It must be accurately cut, or it can contribute to tuning problems due to string slippage or string buzz.
• The 'Fretboard' or fingerboard is a piece of wood embedded with metal frets that comprises the top of the neck.
• The 'Frets' are metal strips (usually nickel alloy or stainless steel) embedded along the fretboard and located at exact points that divide the scale length in accordance with a specific mathematical formula. Pressing a string against a fret determines the strings' vibrating length and therefore its resultant pitch. The pitch of each consecutive fret is defined at a half-step interval on the chromatic scale. Standard classical guitars have 19 frets and electric guitars between 21 to 24 frets.
• The 'Inlays' are visual elements set into the exterior surface of a guitar. The typical locations for inlay are on the fretboard, headstock, and on acoustic guitars around the soundhole, known as the rosette. Inlays range from simple plastic dots on the fretboard to intricate works of art covering the entire exterior surface of a guitar (front and back). Some guitar players have used LEDs in the fretboard to produce a unique lighting effects onstage. How cool is that? XD.
• The 'Neck' is the part of the guitar that houses the frets, fretboard, tuners and headstock. This part of the guitar is normally made of a different type of wood from the rest of the guitar. This is because the neck has to withstand the bending effect from the tension of the strings.
• The 'Strings' of a modern guitar are constructed of metal, polymers, or animal or plant product materials. Instruments utilising "steel" strings may have strings made of alloys incorporating steel, nickel or phosphor bronze. Classical and flamenco instruments historically used gut strings, but these have been superseded by polymer materials, such as nylon and fluorocarbon materials. Bass strings for both instruments are wound rather than monofilament.
• The 'Body' is the part in the guitar where string vibrations are transmitted so that sound is produced. The sound board is typically made of tone woods such as spruce or cedar. Timbers for tone woods are chosen for both strength and ability to transfer mechanical energy from the strings to the air within the guitar body. Sound is further shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity.
• The 'Bridge'. The main purpose of the bridge on an acoustic guitar is to transfer the vibration from the strings to the soundboard, which vibrates the air inside of the guitar, thereby amplifying the sound produced by the strings.
• The 'Pickguard' which is also known as a scratchplate is usually a piece of laminated plastic or other material that protects the finish of the top of the guitar from damage due to the use of a pick or fingernails.

Phew!!! That pretty much sums it all up. XD. I hope that I did not leave out anything but if I did, then you can refer to the one place where we all know is famous for information. Wikipedia. XD. Just follow this link to find out more about the wonders of the guitar.

The reason behind the blog.

Some of you might be wondering as to why I have created this blog. Well, the answer is simple. Have you ever wondered what life would be without music? Life would be monotonous. Life would be sad. Life would not be as colourful as it is today. Music is fun to listen to but, have you ever had the passion to create music? Have you ever had the thought that maybe you could do better than what the music industry has to offer? Well, I am one of those people.

One of the musical instruments that comes to mind when the word 'music' is mentioned is the guitar. In my opinion, the guitar is the most enchanting, romantic and beautiful instrument that has ever been created and can only be rivaled by the mighty piano though each in a class of its own. Hence, I have made a decision which is to try to master the awe-inspiring guitar. This has been a goal of mine. This goal can be illustrated in my personal development plan is shown below.

My Personal Development Plan.

Specific- What I plan to achieve is to be able to play the guitar and if possible, to join a band. This will enrich and put colour to my life because without music everything seems so boring. I will also be able to use the guitar skill to serve in the worship ministry in my church which is very important to me.

Measurable- One way to measure how far I am coming along is to constantly check back on the chords and songs that I am able to play and also if I am able to keep the beat and change chords quickly. Setting a limit of learning one song a month could also act as a method of measuring my ability and my progress.

Acheivable- With enough practice and passion, I believe that I would be able to play the guitar fairly well and I might be able to join a mediocre standard band. I do not necessarily have to join a professional band because that would be quite a stretch for even intermediate guitarists let alone an amateur like me.

Relevant- This goal is relevant to me because by learning to play the guitar, I would be able to serve in the worship ministry in my church. I would also be able to play the guitar in my leisure time instead of wasting my time playing computer games which are unimportant and non-beneficial.

Time reference-