How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: Dealing with intonation

Intonation is tricky to deal with while tuning your guitar. This is the authors way of addressing intonation. "Play the open string. With the note still ringing in your mind or displayed on a tuner, play the fretted note at the 12th fret. The two notes should be the same-a perfect octave" (Erlewine 115). He references " playing a fretted note at the 12th fret", that means playing an open string, ensuring it is in tune, and on that string press down the 12th fret and play the same string. The note should be exactly the same. The 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 12th frets are commonly marked on guitars with a white dot on the neck.




















That is a quick way to get to that 12th fret. If your intonation isn't set, (The note is not the same on the open string and 12th fret) there are a couple of options of what you can do to fix that issue.

 1. Ensure that the frets are level and the strings have a clear path through the neck. If that is your issue, going to a professional is your best bet.
2. If your strings are new, stretch them out before you install them.
3. If your problem persists, once again, a professional is the best way to go.

Intonation is tough to deal with but it is very relevant while playing the higher notes on your instrument. Has anybody had to deal with intonation on any instruments besides guitar? I would be interested to hear what you had to do. 

How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: Stringing a guitar

When I first thought of re-stringing a guitar I was kind of intimated by the task, I didn't want to mess up the guitar somehow but the strings were wearing down and I knew it was time to replace them. Once again, I used my friends Fender to accomplish this. Cleaning the fret-board was a perfect opportunity to take off the strings to replace them. Once I had completed cleaning the guitar, it was time to re-string. Restringing a Fender guitar is a little bit tricky, you cannot cut the strings close to the tremolo bridge, or the string will be lost inside, and you will have to spend time fishing it out.

If you have cut the strings correctly, the neck should look like this. You then have to thread the strings through the tremolo bridge and up into the neck of the guitar where the strings are wrapped around the pegs.

 On one of the last rotations around the peg, make sure to tuck the string underneath itself, so it doesn't slide out while you're playing. "This extra string length creates enough winds around the post to force the string down close to the peg head... If you use too many winds, you're inviting the string to stretch and the tuning will slip" (Erlewine 11). Leave about a quarter of an inch excess of the string, then cut the string. Repeat that for each of the 5 following strings until you are finished. 

How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: Cleaning the fretboard

Cleaning the fret-board of the guitar is a very simple task and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. "In the absence of deionized water, substitute warm water. Again, user this sparingly on a clean rag" (Erlewine 18).  To accomplish this, I had to first take the strings off of the guitar. I used my friends Fender for this objective. I unscrewed the back cabinet of the guitar and cut the strings out and pulled them from the guitar. I then took a slightly damp rag and wiped down each fret individually until each fret was clean. 

I wiped the rag in a circular motion to ensure that the entire fret was clean. I was surprised to see how much residue I had removed from the guitar by the time I had finished. This build up is very bad to have on a guitar because it messes up the sound. It adds a static-like noise which is not wanted while playing. 

How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: Changing Knobs

When I went to the music store to pick out my guitar I wanted something cool, something that I could personalize and make my own while also sounding great. I settled on a black Les Paul, I thought black would be a good color because it can contrast well with other colors. Looking on Amazon, I decided to buy some knobs with a green and blue marbled look. Knobs are found on the lower part of the body of the guitar and control the volume and tone outputs to an amp. They are an easy way to adjust your sound quickly without having to fumble around with your amp while you are playing. Removing the stock knobs that came with my guitar was very simple, and took under five minutes to complete. "A rag tucked under the knob, then twisted, becomes a useful knob puller" (Erlewine 39).

These are the knobs that I had purchased, sitting on my floor before putting them on my guitar.

I am using a rag to help pull the knob away from the guitar, very little force is needed to complete this.

That is a close up view of the new knobs on my guitar.

How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: Alternate Guitar Tuning: DADGAD

I have recently started playing guitar, starting back up with the acoustic I got when I was younger and never got around to playing then quickly I set my eyes on an electric Les Paul. I have never done anything out of the ordinary with guitar, nothing like Tom Morello playing his guitar with the audio cable even to Mark Knopflers advanced finger picking. I have decided to start my guitar journey off simple with changing my tuning. The standard form of tuning a guitar starting with the bottom string and working your way upwards is EBGDAE."This method of tuning was described in the Guild of American Luthiers data sheets..." (Erlewine 116). This is the standard form of tuning because it has the most versatility when it comes to playing triads and having an open range of sound.

This an example of what standard tuning sounds like on an acoustic guitar. Its very melodic and has more of an upbeat sound. 

"Open tunings such as DADGAD... sound much more pleasant on guitar..." (Erlewine 119). The tuning is called DADGAD because instead of the top and bottom strings being tuned to E like the standard form, it is tuned down to D. A similar ting occurs for the B string, being tuned to A. The author refers to an open tuning, open tuning is when a chord, such as D can be played on a single string, instead of using multiple. Legendary rockers such as Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones use open tuning, making chords easier to play and complex progressions simpler. 

That is the DADGAD tuning demonstrated on a electric Les Paul guitar.  The DADGAD tuning is used in typically folk and Gaelic music. 

                                         

That is the song Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, played by guitarist Jimmy Page, the open tuning gives the riff a somber, more mellow feel. What songs would you guys be interested in hearing me play as I progress through the process of playing and modifying my guitar? I am open to hearing suggestions and willing to hear feedback.

Playing more Chords and Revisiting Chord Change

Hello everyone! For my last blog post, I'll be playing "complicated chords" and returning to chord changing. Even till this day I still struggle from chord changing but after reading a tip from the book, it helped me much more.

"To play a Dm chord, place your middle finger on the second-fret space of the third string and your ring finger on the third-fret of the second string. Then reach up with your index finger to place it on the first-fret space of the first string" (DuBrock 38). At first, playing this chord wasn't as difficult to do, but as I tried to play other chords with it, I was having trouble with the chord changing. Going from a G chord to a Dm chord is not easy, it becomes confusing on where I should place my fingers on the guitar strings and fret.

But as I kept reading through the book, I found a solution to my problem. "Remember that you can change your chord a little early, and strum though the open strings while you're doing that. That open-stringed strum goes by so quickly that it's hardly noticeable, and guitarists of all levels do this all the time" (DuBrock 42). This tip from the book actually helps me a lot and is good to keep in mind. From this tip my transition from the Dm chord to the G chord or any chord is improving. Keeping this method as a habit of mine might help me grow more in the future as a guitarist.

"To play an F7 chord, place your ring finger on the third-fret space of the fourth string and your middle finger on the second-fret space of the third string. Then add your pinky finger to the fourth-fret space of the second string and your index finger to the first-fret space of the first string" (DuBrock 84). In my opinion and as a beginner, this was the hardest chord I've played so far. This chord requires my fingers to stretch really far from each other which was hard for my small fingers to do and was pretty painful to do. In the book, Andrew informs to slowly strum through this chord to get used to it, but if i was still struggling, i would have to readjust my fingers position on the fret board (DuBrock 85).

Which chord looks the hardest to play by looking at the pictures? F7 or Dm?

DuBrock, Andrew. Play Acoustic Guitar in Minutes. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2014. Print.

Getting Started with Fingerpicking

Hello everyone! For mu fourth blog post, I'll be learning how to finger-pick! I have always struggled with finger-picking my guitar, I would have trouble with which finger should pluck a specific string and how to transition quickly between chords and strings.

As I was reading through the chapter of finger-picking, I couldn't understand what it was explaining to me and I couldn't seem to follow with my guitar. Finger-picking the guitar is one of my weaknesses, whenever I'm told to finger-pick I would always have a difficult time.

The first part of the lesson was easy to follow, I was learning a simple and easy finger-picking pattern. This pattern only had the use of 4 strings and 3 basic chords, Em, A, and D. There was only one problem that I had encountered but as i continued to repeat the steps, and I finally got it. This is a cheesy phrase but, practice makes perfect!

With that pattern I was only using two fingers, but as the chapter went on, i had to add more fingers which made it really difficult for me. "We'll use our middle finger to pluck the second string. Let's start by plucking that string by plucking that string once a measure while we fret an E7 chord" (DuBrock 128). The first pattern made me have to use only my thumb and index finger, which i was comfortable with but I had to add the middle finger. I am not used to plucking with the middle finger so it was really hard for me to do the next pattern. I would get confused on where to place my fingers and which string to pluck because of how uncomfortable it was for me. My goal for the next blog post is to be able to finger-pick without having any trouble with my fingers.

Imagine yourself as a guitarist and being a beginner, would you also have trouble fingerpicking your guitar?

DuBrock, Andrew. Play Acoustic Guitar in Minutes. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2014. Print.

Syncopated Strumming

Hello everyone! For my third blog post, I'll be learning how to do syncopated strumming! Syncopated strumming is a type of trick to make our strums more funky and will also allow us to create other patterns.

Syncopation means to accent weak beats. DuBrock says "The strongest beats happen on beats 1 and 3, so if you highlight beats 2 and 4, you're already playing a syncopated pattern" (DuBrock 26). At first I was confused about syncopated strumming. I didn't really follow up on when to strum stronger and when to strum without any power (weak strums). But looking at the measure makes me understand a little bit more about syncopated strumming because I am a visual learner.

The thing that is hard about syncopation strumming is keeping up with the rhythm. "Like many syncopated strums, the last example is pretty tricky pattern to get a handle on. Remember to play with a metronome and slow it down to where you can play the strum pattern. Then, gradually increase the metronome's speed until you can play it comfortably at a moderate tempo" (DuBrock 28). Being synced with the rhythm is the most important thing when playing the guitar. But even though i had a hard time keeping up with the rhythm, I still managed to do this trick. I just need to practice more and maybe I'll be a decent guitar player! :)

If you were/are a guitarist, would you ace at syncing with rhythm?

DuBrock, Andrew. Play Acoustic Guitar in Minutes. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2014. Print.

Switching Between Chords

Hello everyone! For this blog post, I will be learning how to switch between chords with my guitar. I've been playing the guitar for about 3 years and still have trouble switching from certain chords such as the E chord back to the D chord. But reading this part of the book helped me to switch in between chords.

"One trick that's good to know is that you can't possibly move your fretting hand exactly at the same time as your picking hand strums. That means you'll need to get that fretting hand in place before the strum. So, any time after you count beat "four," you can start moving those fretting fingers into place for the next chord" (DuBrock 11). Since I usually had trouble switching between chords, this trick helped me by telling me what beat to change from a chord to another. In the book it was teaching me how to switch from an A chord to a D chord. It was sort of challenging at first but the tip Andrew gave helped me.

D chord

A chord

"If you use the first A chord fingering shown, notice how your ring finger frets notes on the second string for both the A and D chord; it holds down the second fret for the A chord and the third fret for the D chord. You can use this finger as a guide by leaving it on the string when you switch chords" (DuBrock 11). This tip is important to know because it gave me a sense on how to transition from the A chord to the D chord without having trouble on where to place my fingers on the fret board of the guitar. The tip of using guide fingers can help me a lot because the only fingers I am lifting when I'm switching to another chord, are the fingers that doesn't use the same string as the previous chord. But the guide finger can slide to any fret if the previous chord uses the same string as the chord I am going to transition to.

"Remember that you can slow down the tempo until you're able to make the switch in rhythm" (DuBrock 11). This tip is also important to have in mind because when I play to fast and try to switch to a different chord i tend to mess up by having my fingers on the wrong fret or string. It is always a good thing to start slow and to slowly work my way on strumming in different speeds to be able to strum at the right rhythm without any mistakes.

After reading this section of the book I made sure to count beats while strumming to properly switch chords, use the tip of using guiding fingers to make it easier to transition to other chords and to play in my own pace to switch from a chord to another without going off the rhythm of a song.

Since I had some hardships while playing/learning the guitar, would you also have the same hardships I have went through?

Should You Play with a Plectrum?

For my last post, I decided to figure out whether it was really best for me to play guitar using a plectrum (guitar pick). Up until this point, I had been going back and forth between playing guitar using just my thumb and using a plectrum. "Lead and Rhythm Guitar styles (electric and acoustic) are normally played with a plectrum. So, if you play a steel-strung guitar and want to joining a group or and at some stage, you should learn to use one" (Evans 49). The guitar that I own has a mixture of nylon and steel strings, so I made sure to take this tip into account. I also plan on playing guitar at large family gatherings that my family often has because many of my cousins and I are really interested in music and play various instruments. Currently, I am using a plectrum that I got at the EMP in Seattle way back when I was in elementary school and it seems to be doing the job just fine. "Hold the plectrum fairly firmly between the right thumb and 1st finger, as shown below" (Evans 49). I had never really researched how to properly hold a plectrum, so before reading this part of the book, I realized my grip was kind of wrong.

How to properly hold a plectrum

I have found that from now on, I will most likely use a plectrum because I find it easier to strum all the strings and I also feel that when I strum using my thumb, the sound is not very loud and a bit muffled.

With this being my last blog post, I just wanted to say that I genuinely enjoyed bettering my skills at guitar. I feel as if this book has greatly guided me in how to properly do things like strumming and playing chords. In the future, I will definitely continue to play guitar and be the best I can at it.

If you could play any instrument, what would you play and why?

Thank you all for following along with all of my blog posts!

Changing Chords

Hello again! Now that I have bettered my skills at playing basic chords, I decided to try transitioning from one chord to the other. I have tried to do this before and to be honest, it's a lot harder than it looks.

The chords I am playing while practicing changing between them.

"Try to move all of your fingers at the same time, and change chords in one smooth movement" (Evans 44). This was pretty difficult because all of my fingers could not figure out what string and what fret to go quickly so I ended up having to place my fingers one-by-one at first. This was while I was practicing going from the C chord and D minor chord smoothly. "Change chords slowly at first, counting evenly" (Evans 44). It was important for me to keep this tip in mind because I often found myself rushing from chord to chord, thinking that I would magically be as good as someone like Ed Sheeran. However, going slowly from chord to chord definitely made a difference because it allowed me to take my time to figure out where my fingers needed to go.

C chord

D minor chord

I made sure to take my time on each chord sequence (C chord to F chord, C to D minor chord, etc.) and make sure that I could proficiently transition from chord to chord before moving onto a new chord sequence. I definitely think that I am a lot better at changing chords now because I took the time to slow down and focus on where my fingers needed to go.

Based on the chord chart in the very first picture, which chord do you think would be the most complicated to play for you?

Starting to Play Music and More Chords

Hi everyone! In this post, I'm going to begin actually playing music as well as learning more chords. I have previously played piano for about 4 years so reading music wasn't very new to me, but it was good to refresh my memory.

"Important. The lines do not refer to the strings of the guitar" (Evans 39). This was definitely important to note because it was very easy for me to automatically think that, for example, the low e note was on the second to last string on the guitar simply because the stave (the lines that the notes are written on) looked like guitar strings. When playing certain notes on the guitar, it requires you to place your fingers on the correct fret and string. For example, the low g note is simply just the third string played by itself while the low a requires you to put your second finger (pointer finger) on the third string but on the second fret (Evans 40). Once I familiarized myself with the notes, I attempted to play the song shown below. I had to start of a little slow, but after practicing it a couple times, it was actually pretty easy.

Next, I continued to learn more chords. The first chord I tried to play was the F chord, which is used in many different songs. "Two strings are pressed at the same time by the 1st finger for this chord" (Evans 42). I found that playing this chord was exactly like the F and C notes I had played earlier so it was not very difficult to figure out.

It was important for me to notice that for the F chord, it's better not to play the chord with the fifth and sixth strings, as displayed by the two X's in the diagram. After the F chord, I moved onto playing the C chord, which is commonly found in many different songs as well. The C chord required me to not strum the fifth and sixth chords, similar to the F chord, so it was easy to get the hang of it.

A Minor chord

Do you think it is more difficult to play chords where you don't strum certain strings (such as the F chord) or chords where you strum all six strings?

Starting to Play Chords and Other Helpful Practice Tips

It has definitely been a while since I last posted about improving my guitar playing skills but now that I finally have some time, I'm very excited to continue playing.

I had continued to practice strumming and playing notes every once in a while after my first post, so this time I decided to focus on actually playing chords and also learning useful practice tips. Throughout this whole time, I decided it was easiest to do things in the order they are placed in the book, rather than jumping around and thinking I already knew how to do some of it.

The first chord I attempted to learn was the C Chord. To make the C Chord, it requires three of your fingers to be on three different frets, so it is a bit of a stretch if you have smaller hands.

The book included step-by-step instructions of where to place your fingers for the c chord.

The C chord definitely was a stretch for my hands!

"When your fingers are in place, press the back of the neck with your left thumb, and play the C Chord by brushing your right thumb across the strings with a smooth, quick downward stroke" (Evans, 34). I've been experimenting whether it is better to use a guitar pick or just my thumb to strum and this time, I was using a pick. However, it's definitely necessary to stroke the strings quickly and smoothly no matter which way you strum so that all of the strings come together to create the right chord. The C Chord is a little different than some of the other chords but it was fairly easy to get the hang of it. "The C Chord sounds best if the 6th string is not played, so try to start your thumb stroke with the fifth string" (Evans, 34). I played the chord both ways, with the 6th string (the thickest string) and without and I found that the C chord did in fact sound a little better when you start off with the 5th string. After I got the hang of the C chord, I decided to move onto other chords. Luckily, there was a chart in the back of the book that showed how to play many simple chords so I tried a few of those out. Some chords were easier than others just because some of them didn't require too many fingers and you didn't really have to stretch your hand out too far. For example, the E minor chord only requires two fingers to be placed on the same fret on two strings right next to each other.

Playing the guitar might just seem like you just have to strum a few strings for a while and then you'll be as good as people like Ed Sheeran, but that's not actually very accurate. In the book, they provided a variety of helpful practice tips that are basically essential if you want to properly play the guitar. "If you can, practise every day for at least 20 minutes. Regular daily practice is far better than trying to play for several hours once or twice a week" (Evans, 37). I thought that this tip was really important to remember because before I had purchased this book, I attempted to self-teach myself and I ended up practicing guitar for hours only a few times a week. When doing this, it really just resulted in me getting tired and discouraged of playing anymore. I am definitely going to start practicing almost everyday for smaller periods of time because it will be much more efficient. Another good tip that I learned is to be patient. "Make sure you can play each piece smoothly at the right speed before going on to the next tune. However, try to learn something new every week, even if it is a simple tune or a couple of chords" (Evans, 37). This is a useful tip for anyone trying to play any instrument, because I know I get discouraged and rush through things since I just end up wanting to be really good at guitar right away. However, I've realized that it takes time to really get good at it and it won't happen unless I put in the effort to do so. I feel as if I'm continuing to learn a lot about playing guitar with the help of this great book.

Going back to what I said about experimenting with different methods of strumming, do you think it is best to use a guitar pick or just your thumb to strum? Why?

My First Attempt at Guitar: The Basics- Tuning, Strumming, Playing Notes

Music has always been a huge part of my life. Whether it's listening to music or actually making music, I enjoy it all. Since the age of 8, I've enjoyed playing instruments like the piano and drums. However, it was not until I reached age 13 when I decided I wanted to give guitar a try, partly because of the influence that guitar players like Niall Horan of One Direction or Ed Sheeran had on me. This led to me pitching all the money I had at the time to buy a fairly nice guitar. Two years later, I still have not come close to mastering the guitar. That is why I decided for this project to focus on trying my best at playing guitar, using the book How to Play Guitar: Everything You Need to Know To Play The Guitar by Roger Evans.

My Fender acoustic guitar

First of all, I had to start off by tuning my guitar. I had a bit of an advantage because I own a digital tuner, so it will tell me right away whether I've tuned the strings to the right notes or not. However, tuning proved to be harder than i thought. I would focus on one of the strings and turn the tuning peg back and forth, trying to get the right note but I would have no luck. Luckily, the book had some helpful hints of how to tune correctly. "If the string you are tuning seems to be more and more out of tune, you are going the wrong way. Turn the tuning peg the other way and see if the string gets closer to being in tune. If in doubt, always slacken rather than tighten strings to avoid straining them or the guitar" (Evans, 30). After applying these tips, I found that I could tune the guitar strings with ease if I just took the time to figure out if I was very close to the note or far off. I was then able to tune all six of the guitar strings quickly and easily.

My guitar has six tuning pegs that you twist in order to tune the strings to the correct notes.

The digital tuner I use lets me know if I have tuned a string to the right note by turning green.

Next, I attempted to properly strum the guitar before playing any notes. I had previously thought that to strum a guitar, all you needed to do was to basically just stroke the strings with your fingers. I couldn't have been more wrong, as strumming a guitar requires the right technique. To start off, your thumb needs to be relaxed on the 6th (the very top) string. "The fingers should be slightly curved and hang at right-angles to the strings, just behind the soundhole" (Evans, 20). It may sound unnecessary to make sure your fingers are at the proper angles and position, but I found that it made it one thousand times easier to strum the guitar if I followed what the book explained. Once I had my hand positioned correctly, I practiced strumming each string a few times so that I was comfortable with the guitar.

When strumming, your fingers should be just behind the soundhole (the location of the soundhole is pretty self-explanatory).

My thumb is straight while the rest of my fingers stayed away from the strings.

 To end my first proper attempt at guitar, I decided to try and play a couple notes. It is easier to start of playing basic notes because they only require you to put one finger on a fret at a time, unlike playing chords, where you need multiple fingers on frets at a time. I chose to play a song that I knew so that I could tell if I was playing it correctly. That song ended up being Ode to Joy by Beethoven. In my opinion, I think I did pretty well playing this song, considering this was basically the first time I had actually played a full guitar song.

The basic notes I learned on the first (thinnest) string and second (second thinnest) string.

Overall, I think I did great at my first official try at playing guitar. I'm looking forward to moving on to more complicated things like playing chords and playing more songs. Although this is only the beginning, I'm proud of how much I have learned and mastered so far. Don't expect me to be strumming out Thinking Out Loud for a couple more years though...

Question:
If you were to try out guitar like I am, what do you think would be the most difficult thing to attempt based on the three things I tried (tuning, strumming, or playing notes) and why?
Let me know in the comments below!