Tone Knobs

Tone Knobs

Electric Guitar lesson

Learn Electric Guitar Lesson - How to Create Melodies and Riffs to Your Guitar Playing

Learn Phrasing

Phrasing is just like you are delivering a speech. You know when to pause or raising your voice and to soften it. In guitar playing it is just the same. It's all about the feelings and emotions. How you communicate to your audience and how you deliver your message to them. That's what guitar playing is all about.

Create melodies and riffs

When playing the scales in ascending and descending order always try to create melodies for example, pick three notes over the scale and play it twice in triplets and then move over into the next notes. You can also use hammer on and pull off. Be creative and learn new rhythmic pattern within the scale. This will make the scale more interesting and it will add a great motivation to your playing.

Do some phrasing whenever you play chord progression. You can also include slides, hammer on and pull offs. The three low strings E, A and D are great for creating heavy riffs together with palm muting. You can combine down picking with alternate picking, playing it with an open string and power chords will definitely a killer.

Beginner Electric Guitar Lesson - 6 Steps to Get the Perfect Tone on Your Amplifier

With this beginner electric guitar lesson, we're going to talk about finding that perfect tone on your amplifier that will match your instrument and your sound. Apart from buying a guitar and choosing the amplifier, the tone that you create with those elements can make or break your sound.

Too often you hear guitarists that either lose all the definition in their lead riffs from heavy-intensive sounds or guys that bust open your ears from piercing highs. We can try to avoid damaging your listeners by using these 6 simple steps to find that tone "sweet spot" on your guitar's amplifier.

1. Think about the genres you want to play. The first filter you need to run your tone concepts through is the genre that you'll choose to play. For example, country-style guitars use more high and low tones while less mid range for more twang in the sound. Pop rock guitars like an even balance between the frequencies and maybe a tiny boost to the mid-range.

2. Turn your Low, Mid, and High tone knobs to zero. When you're determining just about anything with music, the first thing you should do is start with a clean slate. An important part of this beginner electric guitar lesson is not being afraid to start over with your sound because it's not all that complicated to get it back or make it even better.

3. Strum a chord. Let that tone ring true so you can really understand what it means to have a blank tone. After you hear what a dead tone sounds like, you're more likely to appreciate the tone that you create in comparison.

4. While striking single notes and chords, slowly raise and lower the Low tone knob. This is where you attempt to find your first sweet spot on the amplifier. If you continue to strike your lowest string while increasing the low tone, you'll hear the bass of the sound gradually swell. When you feel that you've hit the perfect amount, just stop.

5. Repeat step four, but with the Mid and High tone knobs. Do the same thing as the previous step in this beginner electric guitar lesson and you'll notice things starting to really come together. Make sure to continuously listen to the tone of different strings. Try to achieve a very round and balanced tone that represents all frequencies.

6. Do some final tweaking. If you need to, turn a couple of the knobs just a bit more to see what you can accomplish. At this point, you probably have a pretty good tone that might only need minor adjustments.

Let's talk about guitar distortion before we wrap things up.

Deciding on the perfect guitar distortion is whole other can of worms that should really be approached with some thought. It's a very integral part of your overall tone and can be saved for another discussion.

At this point, work diligently on finding the best distortion and tone with the steps in this beginner electric guitar lesson, and if you've exhausted all combinations, then it may be time to acquire other methods to change your tone with pedals or rack items.

Electric Guitar Lesson - Are You Good Enough To Be In A Band?

A common goal that crops up all the time when I'm teaching guitar is the goal of joining the band. And let's face it...it's a great goal. Being in a band will help you learn many musical skills that you just can't learn by yourself. Not to mention it's a fantastic way to stay motivated with your own guitar practice.

But here's the thing. Often guitarists are waiting to get "good enough" before they join a band. They want to get to a certain level of playing before they take the steps needed to be part of a band. Can you see some a problem with that?

On the surface it might appear sensible to "fully-prepare" yourself. But for many guitarists, delaying being in a band is a form of procrastination. And I feel that this procrastination is often caused by fear or self-esteem issues.

You Get Good Enough By Doing

Often guitar players don't realize that the way you get good enough to be in a band is to join or form a band. The truth is that you don't really learn how to be in a band until you join one. It's like riding a bike. You don't start really learning to ride a bike until you start practicing riding a bike!

The really cool thing is that being in a band will give you real-life feedback as to what you need to work on. You'll find out weaknesses that you never knew you had! And this helps you to grow as a musician and guitarist.

For Example: When I had been playing about 2 years I joined a speed metal band which was playing a combination of covers and originals. Once I joined I realized that I just didn't have the chops to play some of the songs. (We were playing some covers by Slayer, which at the time were way beyond me).

So what did I do? I practiced my butt off. And the great thing is that within a few months I was able to play all the songs that I needed to learn. And I doubt I would have progressed so quickly if I were just practicing in my room.

Some Simple Steps To Take

If you still feel that you're not good enough yet, then how about doing these steps...

Step 1: Define Good.

Have you actually defined what "good enough" is? If not, you need to do that now...otherwise you could procrastinate forever. For Example: Maybe you could say to yourself when you can play five songs from start to finish you are good enough. Make a commitment to yourself that once you learn the songs, you will start looking for a band to join.

Step 2: Start Jamming

I recommend starting to jam with other musicians ASAP. The cool thing about jams is that they are very low pressure. And because of this you can gain valuable experience playing with other musicians in a relaxed environment. Another good thing about jamming is that you'll realize that absolutely everyone is a work in progress. What I mean is that everyone has things about their playing that they need to improve. No one is perfect.

Step 3: Look For Music Performance Courses.

If you live in a big city there are bound to be some music performance courses. These are usually run by experienced musicians, and are designed to give people real-life experience of playing in a band. These sorts of courses are a fantastic way to build confidence.

Electric Guitar Lesson - Are You Good Enough To Be In A Band?

common goal that crops up all the time when I'm teaching guitar is the goal of joining the band. And let's face it…it's a great goal. Being in a band will help you learn many musical skills that you just can't learn by yourself. Not to mention it's a fantastic way to stay motivated with your own guitar practice.

But here's the thing. Often guitarists are waiting to get "good enough" before they join a band. They want to get to a certain level of playing before they take the steps needed to be part of a band. Can you see some a problem with that?

On the surface it might appear sensible to "fully-prepare" yourself. But for many guitarists, delaying being in a band is a form of procrastination. And I feel that this procrastination is often caused by fear or self-esteem issues.

You Get Good Enough By Doing

Often guitar players don't realize that the way you get good enough to be in a band is to join or form a band. The truth is that you don't really learn how to be in a band until you join one. It's like riding a bike. You don't start really learning to ride a bike until you start practicing riding a bike!

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Electric Guitar lesson

the knobs on my sg are high?

ok, my volume and tone knobs on my samick sg are really high (as in far out on the screw and away from the body) how do i make them closer to the body?
i fixed it thanks

There is probably a small set screw that you should loosen with an allen wrench. Push the know on it and tighten the set screw. If there is no set screw, try just pushing them on.