• Open Chord Lesson 1 Part 1 (E, A and D)
• Open Chord Lesson 1 Part 2 (C, F and G)

Practiced some scales from what I can remember. 

My fingers are alittle sore, but it's amazing the progress I have made in just 2 days!

• Finished reading the Beginner Guide during lunch 

It's Cristmas today and guess what I got!?  I got an ELECTRIC GUITAR!!!!!  It's awesome!!!!!!!!   I wanted one SO badly!!!!!!!!!!   YAY!   It's Red and White! It's so COOL! ~me~ (P.S. I LUV acting!)

Initial Sign-up, I am starting to learn TODAY!

• Filled out Beginner Evaluation form and submitted it to get a lesson plan.
• Read the Beginner Guide pages 1 - 7 on tuning
• Open Chord Lesson 1 Part 1 (E, A and D)

This is an article I wrote a few years ago that I thougt might be helpful to SAMi students as far as finding your sound and picking gear goes.

 

Hope you like it,

Bill 

Finding Your Sound or Tone
By Bill Scott
Edited by Bob Mckee

    No matter how important one might think it is to be the fastest and use the craziest chord voicing known to man, your tone is the gateway to success.  Why is this, you may ask?  Your sound defines you as a player.  When a person pops in a C.D you want them to be able to say I bet Joe Schmoe played guitar on this track.  When your sound is identifiable it will make other musicians want you to be a part of their projects, and it will make you recognizable to all of your fans and admirers.  If you don’t believe me think of some of the most well known guitar players to date: Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, Allen Holdsworth, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, and countless others.  These players all have a sound that has left a mark on “The Guitar” for years to come.

Step 1: Use your ears

    We’ve established that finding your sound is important, but one important thing to remember before we dive too deeply into this conversation is that “good tone” is subjective.  What I like to listen to, might not be what you're into and vice versa, so step number one is to use your own ears and judgment.   You can read every review about a particular piece of gear, but truly not know enough about that gear until you check it out for yourself.  So the number one rule in finding your sound and in music is USE YOUR EARS!!!  Music is aural, and without listening you won't make it too far.

Step 2: Only you can make you sound better

You know the saying “practice makes perfect?”  When you sit down and practice all your scales and arpeggios, and other various techniques, be very meticulous in how you play them.  I’m not talking about how clean they are, which is important, but I’m talking about quite literally how you play them.  Do you slide into notes?  Do you bend into them?  Do you play a certain exercise staccato, and others legato?  All these different techniques help to develop your own personal style.

Another piece of this process is taking these practices and making them your own.  Now that you’ve studied scales, and arpeggios and so forth you have to decide how to incorporate them into your music.  An obvious example of this is to listen to how Yngwie plays an arpeggio compared to Wes Montgomery.  When defining your sound through your playing consider your musical genre.  I am by no means telling you limit yourself stylistically, but just think about it as a starting point.

A lot of your tone is in the fingers.  A good guitar player will still sound good through a fifty dollar beat up combo amp just as a bad guitar player will still sound bad through a three thousand dollar stack.

Step 3: Choosing the right gear

As you probably know there are so many choices, and more choices than you might even know about.  I have owned so much gear over the years while searching for the perfect tone for me, and although I’m getting really close, there can always be a “better” tone.  The easiest place to start when picking out gear is to know what genre of music more or less you’re into playing or know what the players you’re into are using.  Does your favorite guitar player use a Strat with a half stack or a semi hollow with a combo amp?  Obviously these two options can provide for very different results in tone and there are a lot more than two options to sort through.  Let’s compile a basic list of what gear to consider in our quest.

Guitars- Solid Body, Hollow Body, Semi Hollow, Acoustic, or the recent modeling guitars.
Pickups- Humbucking, Single Coil
Amplifiers- Combo, Stack, Tube, Solid State, Hybrids, Modeling, Rackmount with a preamp and power amp.
Effects- Pedals, Floorboard. Rackmount
Picks- Thin, Medium, Heavy, Jazz
Cables

Each one of these pieces of gear will affect your sound.  As guitar players we tend to like to use a lot of this gear, so one guitar or amp might not be enough to satisfy our needs.  When playing Jazz you may prefer a semi hollow, and when playing rock you might prefer a solid body guitar.  My best advice in sorting through all these types of equipment is to go to a guitar store and make decisions for yourself.  No one can tell you what you like; you need to try it and hear it for yourself.  Some choices may be really easy.  For example if you’re a singer/songwriter and know you want an acoustic guitar you have ruled out all the other guitars on the list.  Once you’ve begun trying things you will quickly learn about what you like and dislike.  I also recommend trying products that you do not think will be good. There are two reasons for doing this.  One, you might be pleasantly surprised, and two, listen for what you do not like in the product.  Knowing what you don’t want also enhances your ability to know what you do want.

I would also like to comment about the last two items on the list: Picks and guitar cables.  Picks can affect your sound greatly.  Thin picks sound very percussive especially with acoustic guitars where as a heavy pick sounds meatier and provides better resistance for faster picking.  Further more you can also use obscure objects for picking to stretch the sound of your playing.  Have you ever been in a guitar store without a pick and resorted to using a coin?  In certain situations a coin can sound very cool and produce some new sounds for your playing.  Guitar cables can also have a tremendous influence on your sound.  A quality guitar cable makes for a solid connection between different pieces of gear.  If you use a mediocre cable you will achieve mediocre results.  Test out different types of cables, and if possible A/B between them.  This will help you notice immediate differences in your tone.

I want to leave you with one last point before you begin or continue your journey.  Do not spend so much time looking for gear that you neglect your playing.  I have done this more than once.  Playing is the reason we have the instrument; not buying accessories for it.  When you find a great piece of gear it can be inspiring, and that makes it important, but playing ability is most important when you’re searching for the best sound.
 

Hi,

Today is Tuesday Dec. 12, 2006

I've always loved music, and having just gotten back into music after an 18 or so year break from playing professional drums to embark on my aviation career, my wife got me into a Pop/Rock cover tune band. I'm currently playing drums for a local band in Cincinnati.

 Now, that I'm full swing back into the music scene. I decided to do something I've always wanted to do. I'm going to learn how to play guitar (hopefully). I have a four year degree in music performance, focusing on Jazz. I majored in percussion and minored on the piano. I've never played guitar and I thought this would be as good a time as any.

 Anyway, I'm having fun. I just started today with this online lesson thing, and think it might just be the ticket to learning this elusive instrument.  I'll keep a journal of my progression here.

Today, I learned my first three open chords, and am now working on the fingering exercises from lesson #1. I think my fingertips are going to fall off! 

Just starting out and the frustration can be overwhelming. It's like that dream when someone or something is chasing you and you try to run your hardest but you gain no distance or speed. I find motivation in watching people play live and just tell myself that I can play like that someday, I just have to keep at it and it will come. I imagine myself playing really well and then I pick the guitar up and give a few hours of practice. I'm trying.... keep on trying...

This is Charlotte the General Manager of Learn Music, Inc. If you have any questions regarding billing or technical questions, please feel free to e-mail me so that I can assist you. Charlotte@samashmusicinstitute.com Enjoy the site/school and happy playing!! Thanks, Charlotte Napolitano