Myth: You should learn on an acoustic guitar.
Reality: It’s better to start on an electric guitar because it’s easier to play, has lighter strings, lower action, and a smaller neck. It’s also more interesting for younger players as you can add effects to keep people interested.

Myth: The best way to ‘get’ a famous player’s sound is buy a pedal that has player presets.
Reality: Although some multi effects DO have some famous presets, it is far better to learn the correct technique to make the sound rather than trying to copy it. Generally, the sound made by famous players comes from their fingers, their talent, guitar, and amp. Rarely do these guys use digital effects to create their sounds

Myth: You have to have a big amp to get a big sound
Reality: Some of the most huge sounds that have been recorded have been done with smaller amps10 -20 watt, tube cranked up loud. Many famous bands have stacks of amps on stage that are empty of speakers and a small amp hidden behind the stack that is mic’d up into the PA system. Some players are also using digital recreations (POD, Digitech) of their amps in the studio but most purist players still use a real amp and analogue pedals.

Myth: You should use lots of ‘string wrap or turns’ around the machine (tuning) head to get stable tuning.
Reality: Although B.B. King does use this method, a better way is to have about 3  ‘turns’ of string on the machine head and about 3-4 turns on the higher strings. However, the best way is to have NO turns of string at all and instead use locking machine heads such as spertzel or grover machine heads where the string is literally locked into place without any string wrap.

Myth: Single coil pick-ups sound the best but they are too noisy.
Reality: While this may be true, there are many ways around this problem. The best way is to use hum cancelling single coil pickups such as “fender noiseless.” The other way is to put a “dummy load” pickup in the guitar i.e. a pick up that is wired in the guitar (sometimes under the scratch plate of a strat guitar) but does not produce any sound, it just cancels the hum and noise.

Myth: Cheap cables are just as good as expensive ones and I save money.
Reality: It is way better to buy a good quality cable that has, quite often, a good guarantee. It will last longer and there will be a big difference quality, which will produce better sounds. It's no use having a great setup but low quality cable. Its like buying a Ferrari and putting re-tread tires on it. Get the best cable out there. Quite often you end up buying one good cable instead of cheap ones every 6 months, making this a much cheaper long term investment.

Myth: There is nothing you can do about strings rusting and losing their tone so may as well buy cheap ones or no name brands.
Reality: There are several ways to make your strings last longer. The simplest method is to always clean your strings after playing with a lint free cloth such as a handkerchief and use a string product such as finger ease or fast fret, which coats the string with a protective chemical.

Products that coat strings in teflon help prevent string corrosion and tone loss. These strings are three times more expensive but they do, in my experience last eight times longer and rarely break as often as regular strings.

There are a lot of myths about learning to use the guitar. Hopefully this article convinced you they aren’t right and you can play on a new or used guitars, acoustic or electric and still have a good time with the guitar.

When changing your strings, leave enough slack to esnure 3-5 turns. Do no not use too many turns or wraps as this leads to tuning instability and constant string stretching. Make sure you stretch the new strings with care when you get them. Keep pulling and streching the guitar string while you are connected to your tuner. Remember that nylon strings will always take a great deal of stretching to remain in tune.

There are many great products that can make chaning strings easy. Two good ones are the Spertzel or Grover locking machine heads. They require no turns or wraps at all as they lock the string into the machine head.

A good idea on electric guitars with tremelo bridges such Floyd Rose types and also on Gibson style ‘tune o matic’ bridges is to change the strings one at a time. This stops the tremolo from going out of adjustment and from falling off the guitar.

Always keep your new strings as clean as possible by wiping them down after each playing and using string life products such as Fast Fret or Finger Ease before and after each playing session. It makes a HUGE difference on the life of your strings and length of a good string tone. You can greatly extend string life by also using strings brands such as Elixir strings, which add about 8 times to the life of strings. These strings are about three times more expensive than regular strings.

A essential tool to have is an all in one string crank or winder or string cutter and bridge pin remover such as those made by Planet Waves or similar.

We were on our 7th song in the set when the rhythm guitarist broke a guitar strong. About 60 seconds later I myself break a string. No problem, I think I will get my spare Gibson SG, be playing again in 45 secs. I looked around. No SG- my rhythm player grabbed it for himself, too lazy to change a string on his guitar!!! Ok, so I think I will very quickly change my own string with the help of our stage roadie. Another 20 seconds goes by. Old mate breaks another string on MY spare used guitar. The drum and bass extension solos, singer doing a bit of improvisation over the top, no problem until bass player blows his A string. As many of you would know most AC/.DC songs are in A. He switches to the E string 5th fret- not as nice a sound but it’s cool enough in an emergency. I thought were were going to be fine until the drummer broke his snare skin!!!! This can’t be happening!! Just can’t be happening!! Apollo 13 didn’t have this much coincidental bad luck!!! By now my string is replaced so we have a 3 string bass, one guitar, a singer looking remotely pissed off and looking for a rock to hide under, and a drummer gesticulating widely for help with his snare but the show goes on. Old mate rhythm player is back on deck and the bass player is going to play 3 strings for at least the next 2 songs until, the roadie goes to truck and get the spare bass (not often bass players break guitar strings!!).

Lastly, the snare skin had been replaced. We start up exactly in the spot where we first lost a string and continue as if nothing happened. Never break the song, just pile on the improvisation in the middle section because the show must goes on!!! Ironically, we were playing a song about hell.”

I know you all are thing we should have changed the strings before the gig!’ Truth was we changed our strings every night, bass strings every 6 gigs!!! We all bought our strings from one supplier and we just got a faulty batch. 

The moral is always have spare strings closely accessible, a spare guitar where possible, drummer, at least a spare snare skin or maybe a spare snare drum and also spare kick drum skin and a singer who can remain calm when all hell breaks loose around him!!

Because the show must go on!!

Contracts are just advances of money given to you that need to be paid back. If it doesn’t sell to expectation you still have to pay the money back somehow. Music companies are a business and they are there to make money not lose it. It is no different than going to a bank and getting a loan to market your music your self, except the recording companies have the methods to make the product sell, get airplay and distribute the product throughout the country or even the world. Recording companies loan you the money to make the music and get their money back by distributing it.  Typically artists make a small fraction on CDs- most of the money comes through merchandise and tours.

If you can get a recording company to get behind your music, that’s good. But beware of recording companies who try to influence and change your sound, often to the point of rewriting your songs and even changing members of your band or, worse still forcing you to record songs made by other peoples.

Here are some horror stories that can happen to musicians who get signed and think they are on their way to fill stadiums around the world.

Getting shelved!
A band gets signed; get some money advanced for recording. The songs are recorded and completed but the record company ‘shelves’ your act and you never sees the light of day but you can’t take your product anywhere else because you are already signed. Often you can’t even play live gigs without giving a % of your performance fee to the record company. This happened to Billy Joel who waited his five year contract out playing in piano bars.

The song gets changed.
After you write a song, the company usually comes in with their own producer and rewrites your work.” You started to make a hard rock album and you end up with a rap album with all your instruments removed and samples replacing them.  You thought you were Metallica only to end up like Jack Johnson. Then you have to go and promote something you really hate and your product is no longer recognizable.

Where did all the money go?
Beware the big advance of money, to make and promote your music. If it doesn’t sell you will have to pay the money back, with interest, just like the banks. How do you pay the record company back? Live gigs, touring, radio shows, shopping centres etc for the next ten years.  How do all those artists who make millions of dollars end up bankrupt? All the bills they didn’t know they had to pay. While they had a lot of fun, their money was overspent.

Where did my band go?
Quite often musical differences between band members and record companies are solved by replacing any member of the band who doesn’t agree with them. The company will try to get work for artists and players who are already signed. Quite often you will find all your guitar player’s work re-recorded by the studio guy or producer to fit in with the label’s sound or smooth over tensions within the band.

I thought I was a musician not a pop star.
Increasingly recording companies are trying to “cross media” any act in anyway they can. They will market you anyway they can, and they will get you to do things to increase your and their exposure any way they can. The company may make you do commericals or appear on American Idol. Most recording companies are part of large corporations. Most musicians have a short shelf life so companies want to maximize their profit now before the public listens to the next big thing. (We’ve all heard of the sophomore slump!)

The music industry is more interested in the business than the music. Try to go independent if you can, market yourself on the web at sites like Axebay and build your own presence in the world by networking in its guitar forums. The more success you have the beginning the more bargaining power you have to get what you want. If you do get an offer, get a good lawyer. You don’t want to waste five years in piano bars.

For anyone determined to teach himself how to play the violin, there is one thing that needs to be asked before taking the plunge. How serious are you about doing it? Is your passion for the instrument strong or just something that is on the spur of the moment? A natural love for music is also necessary. It helps to increase tenfold the enjoyment of pursuing your musical education. Dealing with any obstacles will be less difficult if your passion and love for what you do is strong as it pushes you on.

While it is admirable to be self taught, do not exempt the fact that some form of sharing and learning from others would be necessary during your journey. Look for other violin players and learn from each other. You could learn faster by understand what others have gone through. Inculcate their experiences in your own lessons and progression might result quicker. Do not neglect other resources such as picking up a learn violin dvd to gather more insight from other professionals.

Students who have professional guidance can expect encouragement from their teachers. But for one who pursues the self teaching route, self discipline becomes increasingly important in achieving their goals. You must not shirk your responsibilities with regards to violin practice and more effort might be required compared to one who has a personal coach. You also need to examine your progress regularly so that areas of improvement can be determined and worked on.

Many self taught musicians neglect classical musical theory. Not only is it difficult to do so on your own, but it takes many hours of work to understand and memorize them. But it helps to make you a better violinist. It is also really necessary to know musical theory in order to become a better violin player as there is no alternative theory system for the instrument. There are many violin lessons online that can provide help in this area and you should turn to them for extra knowledge.

At the end of the day, whether you are enrolled in a music school or choose the self taught path, becoming proficient in the violin requires all your attention to detail, dedication, passion and commitment. By being persistent and cultivating your strengths in these areas, there are no boundaries to your development as a violinist. The journey will be long but fruitful till the end.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The melody comes from a song called Lonesome Fiddle Blues.  Charlie raised the song an octave and put words to the melody.  The Devil Went Down to Georgia Reached number three on the Billboard hot 100.  It’s the top all-time seller for songs with the state in the name. 

Here’s the plot.  The devil goes to Georgia to look for some souls.  He’ll make a deal.  He happens upon a young fiddler named Johnny, to whom he offers one of these deals.  It takes the form of a fiddle contest.  Johnny gets a golden fiddle if he wins.  The assumption is that the fiddle is worth a fortune.  If the devil wins, however, Johnny loses his soul.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The devil goes first, and he’s a hard act to follow.  Demons come from hell to help him put on a rock ‘n roll extravaganza.  Johnny may be in trouble.  Johnny’s work with a simple fiddle is even better.  Both Johnny and the Devil agree.  The devil hands over the Golden fiddle.  Johnny teases is the devil, telling him he’s open for a rematch at any time.  In the original version of the song, son of a gun was replaced by a more colorful phrase.

There have been countless remakes and parodies of the song.  There’s a Spanish version called “El Diablo bajo a Georgia”.  The cartoon Futurama features a contest between the main characters and the robot Devil.  The humans cheat by attacking the robot Devil with the Golden fiddle.  There’s a very clever music video of the song on Youtube titled “Primus – The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.  The story is well animated.  There was even a sequel by Charlie Daniels.  It was called “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia”.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The Devil Went Down to Georgia  is a song that people sing.  Give it a try, you’ll know why the title has a ring.

Riders In The Sky

The Riders in the Sky distinguish themselves not only by their artistic skills but also by the high education level of the group members: Ranger Doug has a Master degree in literature, Too Slim in Wildlife Management and Woody Paul a PhD in theoretical plasma Physics. {If that is not an impressive array of diplomas, then what is?That really  is great academic education!} Even so, Riders in the Sky built personal professional lives not many other groups had the chance to accomplish; in their twenty-five year history, they have taken part to more than 300 television shows, 5,200 live performances, 200 radio acts and marked more than 700 Grand Ole Opry participations, not to mention the making of the three TV series in which they appeared. Add thirty albums to the list and you get the summary of a lifetime dedicated to art.

Riders In The Sky

Other activities of Riders in the Sky include the appearance in CBS morning shows on Saturdays from 1991 to 1992 as well as dozens of winter holiday events organized for television purposes. As for their music, Riders in the Sky remain authentic and faithful to the cowboy and Western songs they perform. Music and comedy often combine in their shows in some of great parody sows. The old American spirit is addressed with respect and wit, according to the values consecrated by tradition.

Riders In The Sky

The tours and general agenda of the Riders in the Sky are posted on the web page of the group for fans to consult. You can also consult the group’s biography and check with their awesome hall of fame. After all, Riders in the Sky did win the title of Entertainers of the Years seven times as well as Traditional Group of the Year and Traditional Album of the Year on multiple occasions too. These being said, it goes without saying why Billboard magazine calls them a major chapter in the history of American music.

Nina Sky

Before hitting the charts, the girls from Nina Sky worked as DJs and tried to work their own sound under the guidance of two musical producers, Elijah Wells and Lionel Bermingham, known as the Jettsonz. Through this connection, Nina Sky released their first single Move Ya Body that thrilled listeners by the Caribbean rhythms with some R&B beats. The demo version of the song was very much to the liking of a division president from Universal Records, and things started to go smoothly for Nina Sky.

Nina Sky

Move Ya Body remains the song to have opened many doors for Nina Sky but they needed to move further on with their musical career. Music promotion became a priority, and they concentrated all their attention in this direction particularly, with their efforts rewarded by the increased response to reggaeton music on both sides of the Atlantic. At the end of 2007, Nina Sky finished their business relation with Universal Records and signed with J Records, for an album the release of which has been postponed. In the meantime Nina Sky made various remixes of other hits like J. Holiday’s Bed or Cassidy’s  My Drink n My 2 Steps

Nina Sky

Nina Sky’s songs deal with all sorts of there is bitterness, mistrust, lost friendship but joy too. On the other hand the beat of their music is vivid with serious R&B tonalities that don’t get unnoticed on the dance floor Nina Sky even participated to the writing of the famous Betty Wright’s song You Deserve for which they also collaborated as guest vocalists. Nina Sky has lots of things to prove after only two albums, plenty remixes and some sparkling collaborations. Will change style or go for the same beat? We’re waiting to see.

Now 7 seasons later and it’s bigger than ever. It’s a very coveted time slot for advertisers to get their products in since it’s audience runs the gamut from teens to grandmas.Sadly I may be breaking my general prohibition on the show. I can’t even pry my girlfriend away from the TV when the show is on, and once I start watching something I generally have a hard time stopping.

I love see watching the beginning shows for the awful performances of wanna be idols. By this time around those people who sound horrible on the show must just be looking for their 15 minutes of fame. There are a few really talented people on this season including Michael Castro and Casey Carlson.

Although I do think there have been a lot of talented people who have been discovered on the show, I feel the premise of the show kind of sucks. Many many talented artists out there work hard everyday to get the big one and have no hope of ever getting a contract, but these “idols” seem to have it served on a silver spoon.Almost everyone who has ever won the show is a bum now, except Kelly Clarkson from season 1. But this could be it, my season to fall in love with this natural phenomena, I just hope it doesn’t cut into my sleep too much.

Well the truth is, there’s no real reason for a recreational guitar player to learn to read music, and this has sprung a bunch of guitar lesson products that teach you how to read guitar tabs fast.

In this article I’m going to help you select online guitar lessons on reading guitar tabs that will have you playing your favorite songs in no time.

Don’t Complicate It

Many guitar lesson products are meant to replace an individual guitar instructor. While these courses contain a huge amount of information, a lot of it isn’t required if all you want to do is learn to read guitar tabs.

A digital product like Jamorama will help you with the basics if you’re a complete beginner and then work into lessons on reading guitar tabs.

Before buying any product whether it’s a dvd, digital product or online membership I suggest you take some time to read a few guitar lesson reviews. Since it’s tough to know exactly what a product is going to be like until your pay for it, you’re best line of defense from getting ripped off is reading other peoples reviews of a product.

Find all your Favorite Tunes

Once you’ve mastered the basics of how to read guitar tablature you can take your new found knowledge and start to learn your favorite songs from the radio. The best place to start is your favorite search engine. Simple do a search for the song or band name and add tab to the end. You’ll be greated with a list of hundreds of different tab sites on the net.