As a guitar player, I’ve always been fascinated by the different sounds and tones that can be achieved. Guitar pedals allow a single guitarist to make an amazing amount of adjustments to their sound. Whether it’s a distortion pedal for heavy metal riffs or a delay pedal for atmospheric sounds, these small devices can completely […]
Neck relief on a guitar is the bend in a guitar neck between the head and body of your guitar. This bow maintains the height between the fretboard and the strings. The truss rod is a metal bar set in a channel in the neck that counteracts and maintains the correct bow. When I first […]
In casual conversations with new acquaintances once the fact that I’m a guitar teacher comes up there are a few common questions. Maybe the most popular is: “How long does it take to learn guitar?” Boy, do I wish there was a simple answer. So why is there no clear-cut answer? There are many factors […]
You might call them pedals, stompboxes, effects units, or effects pedals. Whatever you call them, the different types of guitar pedals on the market today influence a lot of the sounds and effects that electric guitarists are producing these days. While pedals have been around almost as long as the electric guitar, advances in technology […]
One of the first things you learn as a beginner guitar player is that fretting the strings hurts. Your body will naturally start to build guitar calluses on the tips of your fingers to counteract this and protect the thinner skin. Guitar calluses are not a bad thing. In fact, they are a sign of […]
Guitar amp settings is part art, part science, and part pulling out your hair as you try to get your output sounding the way you want it to! It does get easier when you know the ins and outs, though. This article walks you through what each setting does, how to change it on your […]
Physically, the Guitar vs Piano debate seems pretty simple. After all, the guitar is smaller and has fewer notes, while the piano is larger. If that seems like an obvious decision, then think again! The small size of the guitar means players have to be fast and nimble; their fingers are constantly on a new […]
I’ve always thought that one of the reasons that acoustic guitars are more popular for new musicians is that you only needed a guitar. The electric guitar requires a few more pieces. The best guitar and amp packages solve this problem by giving you everything you need in one nice electric guitar starter kit! Most […]
Like most things worth doing, playing the banjo takes practice. To help you with that, this article walks through some basic clawhammer banjo exercises to get you started and help you focus during your practice time! In this article, we aren’t going to focus too much on what a clawhammer banjo is, or Scruggs Style […]
If the guitar is the most popular instrument in America, the Banjo might be the most iconic. Modern bluegrass is one of the few styles of music that arguably started here, and the best and most famous banjo players are the ones that brought it to mainstream America. While bluegrass and Scruggs Style banjo exploded […]