Acoustic or Electric Guitar? Which is Better?

I'm gonna give a short answer now and tell you that it is better to buy BOTH, owning an acoustic and electric guitar will give you a broader field to expand your playing skills. Of course, not every one has a deep pocket and music preference also plays a big factor.

Do you like to play loud and fast riffs with plenty of distortion? No doubt electric is the one for you. But take note that in buying a guitar, one must not consider the quality and yes, a quality instrument costs much more than hammy down ones but, consider this as an investment, keep in mind that good ones lasts from 5-20 years depending on how much you care and maintain the instrument. It's different from owning the latest smartphone where there is a "better" one out in the market every few months.

Fender, Les Paul, Jackson, Ibanez all this names have been the stellar brands for many years now, and for a good reason! So next time you visit your local instrument shop, keep an eye out for these babies.

More of A Classical Type

If you want a more mellow tune, acoustic is the way to go. Acoustic guitars are has two types, the nylon and the steel strings. The latter is used on more classical tunes and does not commonly use picks, instead, you use "finger picking" in which you use all five of your right hand fingers to produce heart melting musical pieces. A good example is "Romanza"

I bet that triggered a lot of childhood memories

Steeley Willy

Steel stringed guitars are more commonly used to play your favorite songs, using simple chords. You can also do awesome leads if you go this route since most steel string guitars have smaller frets compared to classical's. Some even have up to 22 frets. From oldies to the latest pop songs, definitely recommended to newbies and those who wants to serenade their girlfriends. Heh

Some examples are:




http://chordsworld.com/bruno-mars-moonshine-chords/

Some are easy while some requires a bit more practice. But one thing I can assure you, whichever path you choose, playing the guitar is a wonderful experience. Don't rush, in time YOU will be the one to explore the vast realm of this majestic instrument. One thing I recommend is to give classical guitar a try, especially if you hit a roadblock, this is great to learn more technical stuffs to incorporate on your chosen genre.

Go from zero to hero and learn the latest songs on guitar, visit chordsworld.com

7 Ways To Help You Use A Guitar Pick

Using a pick is essential if you want to become a better and meaner guitarist. Why? Playing fast notes aren't possible without the help of a guitar pick. Generally, you would want to use a larger and thinner one if you will be using it to play simple chords, and smaller, thicker ones for playing fast songs with lots of riffs.

Angle It

Slightly angle your pick when doing fast solos, this greatly lessens that tension and recoil between the string and the edge of your pick, therefore making it easier to play VERY fast.

Practice

Learn a few songs out of your comfort zone while using a pick, this will definitely help you get used to holding that piece of plastic. One song that I can recommend is Bruno Mars' new single called Young Girls, get the chords at: http://chordsworld.com/bruno-mars-young-girls-chords/ usually, it takes a minimum of 2 weeks to get used to it.

Use Your Wrist

If you want to strum or do a lead properly, be sure to use your wrist not your arms, why? Using your whole arm will tire you more and it will sound robotic. Remember to relax your whole arm.

Gentle Grip

Don't squish your pick like you are trying to pop a pimple, instead hold it kinda "loosely" but, be careful because holding it to softly will sometimes make you drop the pick. Imagine playing in front of thousands of crowds and all of a sudden, you dropped your pick off the stage and you are going to do a killer lead in 10 seconds? Sends shivers down my spine every time... Which brings us to.

Spare Picks

Always carry a spare pick in case of emergencies, trust me, your non-guitar oriented audiences will never understand why you can't play Van Halen's Eruption without a guitar pick, that's why it is important to carry at least 2 or 3 pieces. You can get a headstock pick holder which will solve all your problems. This will also reduce the amount of picks that you lose.

Scales

Practice using different scales, this is a guaranteed way to get used to this. A good one and easy is the A Minor Pentatonic scale. Google it and you will find out, patience is the key on this one so don't give up easily! This will also enhance your overall guitar playing for sure.

Shiny vs Matte

With my experience, I find it best to use matte styled picks, shiny ones tend to break easily and get jagged edges in just a couple of playing time. It also has awesome grip compared to plastic. Next time your at a guitar store keep your eyes peeled for this matte styled picks.

What NOT To Do

Never buy steel or stainless picks, these are just for decoration and will severely damage your strings. Also, when you notice that the edges of the pick is kinda bumpy, then that is the perfect time to replace it with a new one. Also, don't always do a pick scrape, it may sound cool especially on electric guitar but it damages your pick with just a single go, so unless you have a bunch of these lying around then it's best to use your left hand.

Those are the simple do's and don't. Start using a pick as soon as possible, you'll thank yourself later for doing so ;)

4 Tips to Make Guitar Playing More Enjoyable

Don't you just love playing the guitar? Whether it be a simple 3 chord progression song or you shredding the living daylight out of that maple wood fret board, knowing how to play guitar is really fun and kinda separates you from the "normal Joe."

In this post, which is also the first one on this blog (yay), we are going to highlight various ways/exercises you  that you could implement in your playing routines that will definitely help you become a better guitarist in the long run.

Ease Up on Your Thumb

This one is aimed for newbies but a lot of intermediate players still make this mistake, when playing, especially chords, relax your left thumb, never put more force on your thumb than your fingers, the moment that you do this, all kinds of mistakes will follow. Practice centering your thumb directly at the center of the chord formation that you are trying to do on your other fingers. One thing to get this right is to practice playing different songs, the more songs you can play, the more you are exposed to different chord patterns. Visit here, it's the site that I use to learn new ones. The owner is my friend but if he wasn't I'd still use it.

Proper Posture

Now we all know that proper posture + rock and roll really doesn't match but trust me, looking cool but suffering from terminal back pains in the NEAR future is not worth it. It's better you practice sitting up straight. One thing I do is to still use my strap even if I'm sitting, it gives myself some kind of assurance that whatever I do, the guitar will not fall from my lap and damage it while I sit and sob at the horror that engulfs my eyes... Ok, we a went little bit far on that. But trust me, wearing a strap while sitting down makes it more comfortable to sit up straight.

Use A Pick!

No matter how you like to avoid it, there will come a time where you will be the one to willingly use it, but it's still better to start now. Using a pick is very beneficial, for example, you want to learn a really cool guitar solo, but find it very fast to do with your right hand fingers, a pick can give you the ample speed to achieve that. Not only that, some songs are made to be played with a pick.

Maintenance

Whether it is just a hobby, it is important to note that, taking care of your guitar is very important, a well-maintained instrument could last for 15-20 years and still produce pristine quality sounds. But if you just leave your guitar inside your closet after playing and open it once every two weeks then I'm afraid it's days are numbered. A properly maintained instrument is always clean from dust, never dropped from high places, always apply a string solution or alcohol on a piece of cotton while rubbing it on the strings after playing, this will enhance the string's durability and you could use it for more than two months without rusting or having a string snap. Remember, if the strings are rusty, change it immediately, playing with a rusty set of string could hurt your fingers or damage the surface of the frets and fret board. Not to mention that it is almost impossible to properly tune a string consumed by rust.

We hope that we helped you with this topic. Drop by a comment sometime and let us know what you think! More tips will published soon. Hope that you visit again soon. Thank you!