CAA's Guitar Center: Discussion and Help For All Players

[Strafe]

Ugh. Browser fail. lost my post.

Well, have fun with Electric. I like it a lot more than acoustic, but that's partly because I'm a tone freak. I love Pickups, pedals, effects, and amps. I have as much fun messing with the sound of my electric guitar as much as I do playing it, which explains why my gear knowledge is so disproportionate to my skill level.

But speaking of sound, and I guess also a lot of playability, does anyone else besides me ever think about guitar picks? They have a lot more affect on your playing than you think. Like the shape, material, thickness really can change things. What kind of picks does everyone use? And do you ever do weird things like I do?

For example, I mainly use .73 mm Dunlop Ultex Sharps and coat the tip in graphite. These picks are probably the best picks I've ever used. Ever. They wear down really slowly, are extremely fast, and have a smooth, but precise attack. The graphite makes it even faster. Great picks for everything from Acoustic Strumming to alternate picking, and a great sound too. For jazz I use Dunlop Jazztone 208s, which are super thick, and sound super dark and warm. Dramatic difference just in thickness. I also use a standard tortex thick pick and take a razor to scratch it up. That way, you can sound like The Edge from U2. I also use Coins sometimes, like Brian May or Billy Gibbons. But it's really hard to play with circles that don't have tips. And there was that time I played guitar with my house keys. It sounded great until I broke a string.

I'm sure most of you will say you don't care about the picks you use, but I think you would be surprised at how much of a difference it can make. They're pretty cheap, so experimenting doesn't cost that much either. I do highly recommend those Ultex Sharp picks though. I think they can make anyone sound better instantly. Buy a pack when you get the chance. It's only $3. (I am not affiliated with or sponsored by Dunlop... at least not yet)

[Dr.Faust]

I use .73 Tortex picks. It lets me sweep a lot easer. I can use just about any tortex pick except the super skinney ones.

[TGJesusfreak]

I find that a medium pick is best for me. It has the bounce needed for quick motions up and down scales etc... I'm not really sure what kind of picks I have. They just work for me haha

Also I'm learning Fur Elise by Beethoven. It's my first classical piece. and I'm doing pretty well. Anyone have any other good clasical songs? Anyone wanna post a tutorial for some of them? XD

[Sapphy]

I think my picks are all medium, too. I don't pay attention to the brand though...

[Htom Sirveaux]

I find that a medium pick is best for me. It has the bounce needed for quick motions up and down scales etc... I'm not really sure what kind of picks I have. They just work for me haha

Also I'm learning Fur Elise by Beethoven. It's my first classical piece. and I'm doing pretty well. Anyone have any other good clasical songs? Anyone wanna post a tutorial for some of them? XD

Moonlight Sonata (A minor). My favorite classical piece. Fingerpicking isn't really my thing, so I've never been able to get very far into it. Seems to be worked out pretty accurately, though.

[Scarecrow]

I need to pick up guitar again. I bought a nice Cordoba earlier this year. I love the classical acoustic guitars and really like that style so that's what I started learning to play. I played it everyday for about 3 weeks practicing technique and then I got bored and haven't really picked it up since.

I need to though. My dream is to be able to play Blind Guardian's The Bard Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ENRy5-pNc) on it as well as Frogs Theme from Chrono Trigger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQT0uiAlTQ). It's a really nice hobby though it's just I don't have a lot going on aside from work so I always feel I should be doing something more exciting than learning guitar (hard to stay motivated... and that goes for everything, not just guitar)

[Strafe]

T_T. What could be more exciting than learning guitar? <_< lol. jk. Yeah.

So I just went to Cordoba's site... and I dunno about the intro page. It's sort of beating into my head that I should be playing a Cordoba because it's the romantic thing to do and it'll get me chicks while I look really metro.

Joking aside, they look like solid classical guitars... but I have no clue when it comes to classical guitar, so we will defer to you about the subject then.

Wow. Quite the diverse bunch we have now. Me, a number of Acoustic worship players, a rhythm worship player, A neoclassical shredder with an acoustic, a few bassists, A humbly insane girl with a PRS, and now a full on classical dude.

(Oh right, LadyRushia is not the only female in the thread! Thanks Sapphy! We almost got drowned out by the testosterone before you showed up. XD)

In other news, I'm heading over to guitar center tomorrow, since my Dad's buying some stuff and they have a labor day sale. I don't care much for the guys at guitar center, since they can be pretty mean, but they're nice if you actually buy something from them. Money Grubbers these days... They got really mad when I asked to try out their $4000 Les Paul... I don't even like Les Pauls.

[Sapphy]

What could be more exciting than learning guitar?

Not much. Except playing worship music for people, that's pretty awesome. lol

Wow. Quite the diverse bunch we have now. Me, a number of Acoustic worship players, a rhythm worship player, A neoclassical shredder with an acoustic, a few bassists, A humbly insane girl with a PRS, and now a full on classical dude.

(Oh right, LadyRushia is not the only female in the thread! Thanks Sapphy! We almost got drowned out by the testosterone before you showed up. XD)

Rofl. Glad to help xD
And you're right, that's quite the diverse bunch. Which I find completely awesome x)

[LadyRushia]

Heheh, yeah the cool thing about guitar is that there are so many different kinds and styles for people to get into. Have you guys seen this video of Erik Mongrain? The technique is called air tapping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbndgwfG22k

I want to learn it. I can do it a little bit on my electric, but it's much harder on my acoustic. Looking into this is what led me to discover F major chord tuning, though, which I love messing around in.

Also, I was playing around with my amp and set the tremolo to go really fast. I ended up with some cool sounds which I might record soon and put on my blog for kicks.

[Strafe]

Nono, correction, worship music for God. lol. My pastor always gets on me about how I say things. Worship is unto God alone, and if it ever is for other people, then it's just a show. I know you didn't mean it that way, but the way you word things can be important. When I lead worship for the Church... which is only like once a year on a special occasion because no one else in the youth group can play instruments, my Pastor makes me pray so much more than practice. The pray to practice ratio is like... 5:1 since it's all about the heart of worship, and so little about the talent. Though God will certainly use talent if the heart is right.

My friend did that once with a guitar on his lap. He covered the song from August Rush... Which is funny because he sucks at everything except air tapping... lol. It's cool though. Like a combination between guitar and piano.

I really have no idea what to do with tremolo other than make a racket. I have a really nice tremolo on my amp, supposedly, but I have no idea how to use it, so I just turn it off most of the time... Although once in a while, it's nice for feedback and noise effects when I turn on all my pedals and cascade gain stages so my guitar gives off harmonic resonance at the slightest touch... but nothing musical with it... I'm interested in your sounds now. Send us a link to it!

[Dr.Faust]

Watching your lagato vid strafe and practing Feathery Wings by Voltaire sence my flute is broken. Its really helping my speed and pull offs

[Warrior4Christ]

This is me the other day, excited about my new pedals, pretending that I can play guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb44BIE1H-I

Its pretty thumbs down. Especially when I botch Cliffs of Dover pretty bad and end up improvising and trying to act cool when I stop. LOL. But its me trying to: Be Jazzy, Be Funky, Be The Edge, Be Eric Johnson, Be a Shredder, and failing at all of the above.

Dude. You're way more talented than you give yourself credit for. If you've only been playing 3.5 years, you're doing heaps well. None of it sounded bad to me (granted, I don't really know the songs).
Very nice amp too - those Voxes are great. Impressive pedal set for only playing a handful of years. Big Muffs supposedly work with basses too, but it's a bit too hardcore for me. I've just ordered my own distortion pedal tonight though..

And don't worry, there's hope in the guitar world for women. Orianthi's incredible. She's pretty mainstream now so I'm sure alot of people know her. But when I first heard her a couple years ago, she was shredding the face off of every person in the room. There is no such thing as gender gap.

Just a bit of trivia - she comes from my city, and I drive past her old school every day to work... She's impressive.

[Sapphy]

Went back and read the posts before I got here...

Actually, that brings up an interesting point of discussion: How does everyone practice Guitar? Like what do you do to get better? And now I'm really curious as to what you did, LadyRushia, to get that good. Maybe I should take lessons.

[...]

Then my favorite thing to do is put my ipod on shuffle and blast it over the surround sound and crank my amp to it. I only do this when my parents aren't home, but they're never home, so its the best thing ever. Really helps with learning how to go deaf and get Tinnitus when you're a kid... I mean playing in rhythm with a backing band. I'll play whatever comes up, Switchfoot, Joe Satriani, U2, Van Halen, Arcade Fire, Hendrix, AC/DC, Dir En Grey. I don't know how to actually play the song, but I improvise along. Helps with Key recognition and typical chord progressions, also picking up stuff by ear. I recommend doing it if you don't care about hearing sounds when you're thirty and you don't live within 100 feet of other houses.

What do you do usually?

Play the few songs I know over and over... singing along with that helps a ton. I need to learn to play stuff by ear eventually. I have a friend that can do that, but I have no idea how =P
And I need to learn scales and stuff... I know chords, but that's about it.

Oh, here's something I like doing with my acoustic guitar. If you haven't played around with alternate tunings before, do it because there are some really pretty ones out there. I like tuning my acoustic to an open F major chord, so from the low E string to the high E string it goes FACFAF. No chord forms you learn in standard tuning will work with that, but it's very easy to get really pretty melodies from it. I recorded myself playing two songs in that tuning, which you can listen to here:
http://taylorramage.blogspot.com/2010/06/acoustic-guitar-songs.html

Fun! I may have to try that.

My fave chord at the moment are 7 and major 7 chords, which is alot of what I use in the little Jazz comping thing I do at the beginning of the vid, like Gmaj7, B7, Cmaj7, Am7, Bm7 etc. And some diminished chords descending chromatically which sound nice as well. I felt a little bit Gypsy Jazz with the comping there.

I fail. xD
Those chords, if I were to play them on acoustic, would end up G, B (maybe? Don't remember that one...), C (and I'm not even sure which C chord I use), Am, Bm
Over-simplifying makes things so much easier... =P I can't hear much difference anyway.

[Strafe]

Eh... you can do that, but the chords get kind of bland and too straight, and a little boring. Plus, you would want to emphasize other notes in the chord other than the tonic, dominant and Mediant for some added character. It's just a touch of spice to the chord.

Anyways, I strung up Tarantella today. Here she is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9_M_ijFJss

[Sapphy]

Like I said, I fail =P

So, other than playing chords, what are some good things to practice?

[TGJesusfreak]

@Sappy other things to practice are:

Scales, preferably Pentatonic. It's the best scale to start with. I recomend Em pentatonic to start.

Also practice strum patterns. Using muting at the right times can make the rythm sound really awesome.

And picking/finger picking, arguably the hardest and most frustrating part of guitar playing. This is why having a pick with a good bounce and bend to it is important. Finger picking is actually quite tough. Like chords it takes muscle memory.

[Sapphy]

Alright, thanks.
I don't know any scales though...

I've worked on strum patterns a little, but still haven't figured out palm muting completely. Haven't done any sort of picking in a while.

[Strafe]

Finger picking <_< nah... I don't play anything that requires it, so I don't care to learn it. I know basic fingerstyle jazz, but that's about all I care to know. Of course, if I ever got into country, or sensitive emotional acoustic, I would. Nothing wrong with them, but I just prefer to hit the strings hard and nasty.

But while the picks I use are .73mm, the ultex material makes them really stiff and not bendy at all. They have the same bend as a heavy, 1.14mm pick. What this actually does is allow you to relax your wrist better so that you can play faster in the long run. The problem with thick picks is that the tip can be cumbersome and with a slower attack, which is why the material, combined with the sharp tip, is in my opinion the perfect pick for playing fast.

In other news, my Dad's AC4 came in the mail today, so I'm waiting for him to get home and try it out... XD Hope he likes it.

[Sapphy]

So I was messing around with my electric guitar and it seems like Bm, D, and A sound interesting together... I may try to do something with that. Although I don't really use my amp, because it sounds horrid, so I don't know how it would sound after I plugged the guitar in.
Comments?

[Strafe]

Yeah. What guitar/ amp do you use? I find that even using my first amp, a squire sidekick, I still can have fun with the trashy tones I get. Just when I don't want to plug into my big rig. In my opinion, the sidekick is one of the worst amps ever made, but I still use it because it's fun. Sort of like the way I enjoy playing crappy guitars because its a challenge to work over all of the flaws. It's a challenge to sound good with terrible tone.

I'm not much of a theorist, but here's a little help if you want it. Bm, D. A is a vi-I-V pattern, since the I chord, or key of the progression, is D. the D major scale is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, and back to D. And so the basic chords in the key of D all include D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm, and C#dim7. Respectively, these are referred to as I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, and vii°. 1, minor 2, minor 3, 4, 5, minor 6, diminished 7.

This does not include transpositions, and key changes within the song, or modulations to the transposed key. But within in this framework, you can use common progressions such as the I-V-vi-IV, or D, A, Bm, G in the key of D. Other common ones are vi-V-IV: Bm, A, G; the reverse of that, IV-V-vi, G, A, Bm; Maybe vi-ii-V-I, Bm, Em, A, D.

Just a few examples. But this is one of the simpler methods in playing around with chord progressions. These aren't the only chords in the key by any means. It can get much more complex beyond this.

[Sapphy]

My guitar is a Fender Starcaster. My amp... not sure. It says SP-10 on it.... came with the guitar. Tiny little thing that sounds like crap.

So you think those chords would work okay then? I never was very good at music theory... :S

[TGJesusfreak]

Yeah finger picking is really fun though. So you can play stuff like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnqpOFcBiMM
(this guy is possibly the best guitar player of all time. Eric Johnson ftw. XD)

And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9BUlFoTTcw
This guy is awesome too. This is the version I'm learning to play right now. XD

[Strafe]

Lol. That's what I have, the SP-10. Also called the sidekick. I had so much fun with it when I first started... Although the first guitar/ amp setup I've ever played was my Dad's $2000 PRS into his nice Fender Deluxe. But Now and that I have my AC15, I still plug in my Strat to the SP-10 in my room and just play around for a while. It's sounds really bad, but its just fun making it sound good with what I play.

But it's highly recommended to practice Electric Guitar with an amp, since you do need to hear what you really sound like. The signal that comes out from the speakers is different from the acoustic sounds from an Electric. And is just louder to begin with. It doesn't sound that bad on the clean channel when you put both the treble and bass on 7.

The AC4 half stack, however, is one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard under $500. Actually, maybe even $1000. My Dad played it today. It's really simple, but the natural overdrive on that thing is Incredible. Real class A, EL84 break up. I highly highly highly recommend it to anyone. It comes with a head and a 12" celestion, and it can get loud enough to play a club sized gig. But that's the point. It sounds incredible at low volumes. and it's about $300. Anyone looking for a really nice tube amp, look that one up.

[Sapphy]

The AC4 half stack, however, is one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard under $500. Actually, maybe even $1000. My Dad played it today. It's really simple, but the natural overdrive on that thing is Incredible. Real class A, EL84 break up. I highly highly highly recommend it to anyone. It comes with a head and a 12" celestion, and it can get loud enough to play a club sized gig. But that's the point. It sounds incredible at low volumes. and it's about $300. Anyone looking for a really nice tube amp, look that one up.

I will have to remember that one.

I do plug my guitar in the amp when I go for my lessons, but I figured it didn't do much good to use my amp since it sounds nothing like an electric guitar should

[LadyRushia]

Theory aside, if a chord progression or a note sounds good, then it works. Generally, it's pretty easy to hear the difference between what sounds good and what sounds bad. Just messing around and finding things out will help.

Don't get me wrong. Theory is incredibly useful and having someone there to teach it to you is better than having to learn it on your own. What Strafe posted is a good starting point for seeing how things generally come together.

[Sapphy]

Alright, thanks. Playing random things until I find something seems easier to me than trying to learn theory, but I didn't know if there were any rules I should be aware of.

I did learn a bit of theory when I took piano lessons, but not with songwriting in mind. I just did it because I had to.

[Syreth]

Username: Syreth
Guitar Experience: I've been playing for 11 years, with about 6 months of lessons. For about the same amount of time, though probably closer to 10 years, I've been leading worship, or involved in worship teams at my church through playing electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and bass (I've been playing piano and drums as well). About five or six years ago I memorized every mode in standard tuning, which was probably the best thing I've ever done for myself. It's made soloing much easier and has increased my chord knowledge significantly.
Style: Anything at all
Gear: Yamaha Acoustic, Ibanez Electric (not much into guitar models and specs, just playing), and a Peavey Bandit 112 that's currently MIA (lent to a friend to see it never returned... whoops)
Future gear: Something that's professional grade
Favorite Guitarist(s): My brother, who nearly majored in classical guitar performance... lol
Dream Gear: See future gear. Something awesome.
Last thing you were playing: Warrior by Secret and Whisper
Other/ About me: I've never cared much for gear and specs. I've always purchased instruments (whenever I've had the extra funds to do so, which has been rare) based completely on how they sound and feel to me, rather than on specs. I've only dabbled in songwriting, though I think that's probably one of my stronger areas as a musician, but I think most of my musical ability is in how easily I can learn new music and retain what I've learned, which is probably thanks to leading worship for all those years. Leading worship is wonderful, but one day, I would like to write enough material to perform locally and cut an album.

[Strafe]

cool cool dude. Welcome to the thread. Not to bash on specs, since it's good to know what you like so that you don't go into a store and get stuck trying everything from a flying V to a Jazz Box trying to find what sounds and feels good to you. It's just that my knowledge is obsessive. <_< I have fun with it though. But all I really need to know is that the best guitar I've ever played was my Dad's PRS since he set the action super low, so really, the only guitar I'll be able to live with is a PRS.

And you memorized modes like Dorian, Phrygian, etc? Is it really memorized? The way I see it is if you know a few major scale boxes, you know all of the diatonic modes already. From there it's just figuring which box to use for which root note. But it's like a major scale basically. Root note I- Ionian, ii- Dorian, iii-Phrygian, IV-Lydian, V- Mixolydian, vi- Aeolian, vii- Locrian. Plagal Gregorian modes and minor modes... well... that's nice that you know them too... they're very weird though. Not sure where you'd use them. I learned the Chromatic Hypolydian, and I still never used it once. Maybe I'll cut a riff out of it or something.

I listened to your myspace link down there. Really cool song man. Incredible drummer on Spark. Now I'm all inspired to start recording again. When my laptop gets back, I think I'll install Live again and scrap together a few demos.

[Sapphy]

Hopefully I'll be able to get a good amp soon.... I asked the guy that's been teaching me guitar what would be a good one to get, and he wrote a couple things down for me. I'm waiting for my friend to message me back, because he said something before about having an amp I could have, so if he still has that I think I'm going to see about buying it from him.

[Syreth]

cool cool dude. Welcome to the thread. Not to bash on specs, since it's good to know what you like so that you don't go into a store and get stuck trying everything from a flying V to a Jazz Box trying to find what sounds and feels good to you. It's just that my knowledge is obsessive. <_< I have fun with it though. But all I really need to know is that the best guitar I've ever played was my Dad's PRS since he set the action super low, so really, the only guitar I'll be able to live with is a PRS.

Ahh yeah, I don't mean to say that I look down on those are that into specs. Sometimes, however, it's pretty clear that obsession with specs takes preeminence over actually being able to play the instrument with some people, though that's more of a hit to their credibility as musicians than something I actively disapprove.

I totally agree that it's good to know what you want before you go looking for new gear. The way that I shop for guitars is pretty organic, though. When I look through guitar racks, I have an idea of what I've played and not liked, and if I see something new, I try it out to see if I like it. But there's no way I would buy a guitar without playing it first.

Your Dad's PRS sounds nice. I love guitars that have low action that aren't super touchy about fret buzz.

And you memorized modes like Dorian, Phrygian, etc? Is it really memorized? The way I see it is if you know a few major scale boxes, you know all of the diatonic modes already. From there it's just figuring which box to use for which root note. But it's like a major scale basically. Root note I- Ionian, ii- Dorian, iii-Phrygian, IV-Lydian, V- Mixolydian, vi- Aeolian, vii- Locrian. Plagal Gregorian modes and minor modes... well... that's nice that you know them too... they're very weird though. Not sure where you'd use them. I learned the Chromatic Hypolydian, and I still never used it once. Maybe I'll cut a riff out of it or something.

Nice. It sounds like you know more modes than I do. I've only memorized the major scale box modes. I probably should go into working on the other modes as well, but the ones you mentioned are the ones I've found the most useful in terms of soloing and chording.

I listened to your myspace link down there. Really cool song man. Incredible drummer on Spark. Now I'm all inspired to start recording again. When my laptop gets back, I think I'll install Live again and scrap together a few demos.

Well, thanks. Glad you liked it. The drums have always been a little tricky for us to record. On Spark, I played an electric drum set, which was simple in terms of set up, but not very flexible since we didn't have enough equipment to segregate the set into separate tracks. That's why the set is so quiet, and the mix is pretty top-heavy.

Looking forward to hearing your demos.