SongGet.com

The internet is a truly wonderful resource. It is often said, but still very true, that young people today don’t know how lucky they are to have easy access to the worlds knowledge on the internet.

I’ve been playing guitar for well over thirty years having started out with the classic Bert Weedon’s ‘Play in a Day’ book, way back in the 1970’s. I couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I would avidly watch the fingers of every guitarist I could, trying to pick up playing techniques, riffs and licks.

Modern technology has revolutionised the way that people learn to play the guitar. Tuition DVDs, for example, can be played repeatedly, unlike face to face guitar lessons. And the internet provides an ideal platform for the presentation of guitar tutorials.

There are an abundance of guitar teaching websites but my favourite place for guitar tutorials is Youtube. You can find instructional videos on everything from choosing guitars to making your own electric guitar. There are videos for every level of learner from beginner through to old guys like me who want to learn a few new tunes and techniques.

Learning new licks, techniques and tunes from Youtube has become one of my favoured pass times. If the weather is bad then you will generally find me learning a new tune or two from Youtube. I can safely say that I have learned more from the internet over the past five years than I learned from books and from watching other guitarists in the preceding twenty years.

Another useful feature is that the system is interactive. When I find a video that I like I will always make it one of my favourites and maybe drop the performer a comment to say thanks. Also, I like to ask the odd question and invariably the person who created the video will respond with an answer. It’s a bit like having every online guitarist in the world available as a personal guitar playing consultant.

These days I find myself feeling a little bit envious of the young people learning guitar with all these great resources available to them. I like to fantasise that if I had been learning to play using all of these excellent resources who knows, I might have become the next Eric Clapton.

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There are mixed feelings in the guitaring community about signature models -they are customized for another person, not you, and cost a lot more because of the name on them. Here are just some of the metal signature guitar model that are available.

Dimebag Darrells razorback range from Dean guitars. Instead of just the one guitar the man has a whole range of 33 guitars dedicated to his honor. The Pantera guitarist died tragically in 2004, and since then Dean have supplied us with a whole range of Dimebag guitars, shaped as flying Vs or Explorers. When the guitar was made will determine which pickups you get in it -either the ‘Dimebuckers’ in the newer models, or ‘EMG’s in the older ones. If your after a Dean just choose with pickups you like better and then go for which guitar looks good to you. If Dimebag was your hero, this is the range to look at prices range from the ‘dimeblade’ at £219 to the ‘rebel razorback’ at £3500 -so choose wisely.

The BC Rich Kerry King (Slayer) range. Also having more than one signature guitar is Slayer Guitarist Kerry King. Available as either a flying V or Explorer shaped guitar as well, painted with tribal designs to match his head tattoos, these guitars look as mean as their owner, but how do they sound? These guitars will give you the guitar tone needed to do songs such as ‘Angel of death’ and ‘Dead skin mask’ justice.  With BC Rich’s special pickups to, you can see that some thought has gone into these guitars.

Jackson guitars Demolition model. Created with help from Phil Demell of Machine head, this guitar is truly a beast to be reckoned with. A classic flying V shaped guitar with EMG pickups, this guitar is going to rip your head off the minute you plug it in. Expensive, but to say at the least, if you have that kind of money I suggest you buy you now -those that don’t, sell your organs online to get the money.

Looking for electric guitars? Or maybe you prefer acoustic guitars? See these guys.

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If you’ve decided that you want to take up the guitar, but prefer to live in the engine room of any band by playing the bass, then you are obviously a lover of rhythm, rumble, and live musical atmosphere. The bass guitar, together with the drums, forms the rhythm section of a band and so it will be important to develop a good sense of timing and beat.Choosing the correct instrument is important, as is practicing in order to become an accomplished bassist.

Iconic bass guitars like the Fender Precision not only drove many a jazz, rock and surf band but became as recognisable as the screaming lead instruments.  Unlike lead guitars, where most novices are advised to start out with an acoustic, prospective bass players will probably go straight to a four sting electric bass guitar. Some great brands for starters include Washburn, Squier and Epiphone. These companies produce guitars that look good and play great for the price. Fretless, acoustic and five-string basses each have their own type of sounds and can be very powerful and sonorous, but they are very hard to learn compared with the four string electric bass. Most tutorial books or CDs for beginners are written for the four-string fretted bass.

You can buy a cheap, second hand bass guitar.  Most used equipment drops in price over the years and can offer better quality and sound for the same price as a new bass if you are lucky.Many other used instruments have poor sound quality and setup with unreasonably high action, or simply do not hold tune correctly.  Always check a used instrument for damage, and play it (or have someone else play it) before buying it.   The time and effort you would have to put into carefully selecting a used bass guitar is substantial, and it’s probably safer to look at some of the quite reasonably priced electric guitars and bass starter packages from well known brand names.

The Behringer bass guitar pack for example includes the guitar and a dedicated bass guitar amplifier, padded gig bag, cable, an adjustable strap and picks. The Ibanez GSR190J four -string Bass guitar pack also includes a 10 watt amplifier and accessories at a very affordable price.Or you could move straight to Squier Precision bass guitars.They are the worlds best-selling bass thanks to their excellent value. They feel good, sound good and fit any bass player on a budget.

Whichever route you take, always try before you buy.  Most guitar shops will let you plug in and play around with any instrument so you can see if you like how it sounds, looks, and feels in your hands. Do not buy something second hand without playing it first unless it comes from a reputable dealer and has some sort of return policy. There are very reputable and well established Internet-based music stores that can generally offer better prices than high street retail but be very cautious about buying instruments on internet sites such as eBay.Bring someone along who is an experienced bassist and get them to play any instruments you are considering buying.

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So, your obsessed with guitars to an almost unhealthy point – there the first and last thing you think about during the day. Every time you dont play you get shakes and you’ve stopped eating because food money needs to go towards buying your guitar’ve sto. But you want to now have a go at building your own axe -so just what do you have to consider when making one?

• The expense of building it. This wont be cheap -think about the prices of the good wood for the guitar, then the prices of the electronics if building an electric and then the paint job. Then there is the tools you are going to need for the job, cutting out the bodies shape is going to require specialist tools.
• Practice. If you’ve never held wood cutting tools before, practice is really something you should be considering. Your not going to be good at this straight away, and you dont really wanna to start on expensive wood, and make a mistake that cant be fixed. So by practicing on cheaper wood will save you time and if you make a mistake, its all part of the learning experience. When you start cutting the body and doing all of the woodwork, you’ll be glad you took the time to perfect this stage.
• Wiring. Mainly a concern for the electric guitar builders, because once the woodwork is done your going to have to deal with the electrics. Electrocution can be a risk here, so making sure the wiring has been done correctly is vital. Always have a qualified electrician take alook at your work before you put it into the guitar just to be sure.

These are just a few things to consider, but if thats too much work you can always just buy electric guitars from these guys.

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Here are details on three of the greatest piano players/composers known to grace the keys.

Ludwig Van Beethoven. Famous more for the fact he composed, Beethoven wrote and performed music while being deaf in his later 20s with the use of a sound rod to feel the vibrations. Born at the end of 1770, Beethoven followed in the family tradition of music by working at some point in the court of the Elector of Cologne. Beethoven moved to Vienna to study counterpoint and violin in 1792, a move that was funded by the Elector. His loss of hearing started in 1796, and is believed to be the result of lead poisoning, as lead was used a lot in life back then before it was known as being poisonous. His work has been divided into three sections -early,middle and late periods. The early period lasted until 1806, the middle period went from 1803 to 1814 and the later period went from 1815 until his death.

Wolfgang Mozart. Mozart was born in 1756 and composed over six hundred pieces and is regarded as one of the best composers of classical music. Mozart was considered a child prodigy, playing to royalty and composing from the age of five, and was employed as a court musician at seventeen in Salzburg. When he visited Vienna is decided to stay there and this is the city where he became famous, but not rich by any means. He died of what is believed to be Rheumatic fever in 1791, and rumour has it he was dictating music on his deathbed.

Bach. Bach was born in Germany in March 1685 and was a composer and organist, influential in the Baroque period and helping to bring the period to maturity. Bach was more famous as an organist rather than a composer during his lifetime, which his talent was only credited when he was rediscovered in the 19th century. He was orphaned at ten years old and was sent to live with his brother, who was an organist. It is from his brother that Bach received more instruction on playing, and became fluent on the Clavicord. Two Bach’s children from his first marriage were influential in the Rococo style that later followed Barquoe: Wilhem and Carl. He was hired by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen as his court’s director of music, during this time Bach lost his wife in 1720 and remarried a year later. Bach was appointed as the Cantor of Thomasschule in 1723, which was a position he held up until his death after eye surgery in 1750.

Inspired by grand pianos, and want to know where to buy pianos and electric guitars?

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Metal has a huge string of guitar players who completely destroy and own the stage as though nothing else mattered. Lets talk about three guitarists who influenced the sound of heavy metal, and how they still impact on the genre even today.

• Randy Rhoads. Known more for his work with Ozzy Osbourne, rather than his earlier work with LA band Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads helped bring classical playing into metal. Randy Rhoads was instrumental in the writing of Ozzy classics ‘Crazy train,’ and ‘Dee’. Randy’s classical influence and background can be seen on the first two solo Ozzy albums which he played on. 1980’s ‘Blizzard of Oz’ album and 1981’s ‘diary of a madmen’. It is much discussed what Rhoads would’ve done after that, it is widely thought he would’ve gone on to further down the classical route and was looking to study at UCLA. The specialist guitars that Jackson had made for him are extremely popular with metal guitar players. Rhoads lost his life in a plane crash in 1982 and guitar playing and character has been paid tribute to numerous times throughout the years.
• Chuck Schulidner. Main songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of pioneering metal band ‘Death’. Although hailed as the father of ‘death metal’, it was a term the man himself didn’t agree with. Chuck had a great impact of the playing and sound of modern extreme metal. Death’s first release, ’scream bloody gore’, could be said as setting the tone for death metal, but each album featured not only different line ups, but changes in song writing and direction. Death release a further 4 albums with the band, ‘Human, ‘Spiritual healing’,'Symbolic’ and ‘The sound of perseverance’ before folding Death to play guitar for ‘Control denied’, which released ‘The fragile art of existance’ in 1999. Chuck Schulidner died in 2001 after a long standing battle with brain cancer, which had seen the metal community rally round to try and raise funds for his operations.
• ‘Dimebag’ Darrell. The guitar player of Pantera and Damageplan, who also played guitar for the ‘rebel meets rebel’ project. Pantera started life in 1981 as a glam metal band in Texas, but adopted a heavier, more groove laden approach for the 1989 album ‘Cowboys from hell’. Their next album 1992’s ‘Vulgar display of power’ was the band breakthrough album, featuring the songs ‘this love’,'walk’, and ‘a new level’. Next album ‘Far beyond driven’ jumped to the top of the US charts on its release, proving at the time that metal was still ‘alive’. Pantera brought out 2 more albums before a breakdown in communication split the band into two camps, never reconciling before the guitarists death. Dimebag was tragically shot while performing onstage with Damageplan in December 2004, which saw the metal community grieve as a collective once again.

Inspired to get playing some electric guitars? Come to these guys to get a great deal on guitars

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