Guitar For Kids

What's a good age for kids to begin learning to play guitar. It depends on their maturity level, and their ability to focus on whatever they're doing for a period of time.
That sounds like an obvious answer. But every kid is different.
You are about to make an investment on musical equipment, and either lessons or some kind of guitar course. Guitars aren't like band instruments which you can rent, then return. So, understandably, you want to be as sure as you can about it.
You can never be totally sure if your child will stick with it. Playing a real guitar is nothing at all like playing "Guitar Hero", but if your child does happen to play that game, and enjoys it, and spends a lot of time with it, that shows focus ability.
Anything that your child does that shows a "stick-to-it-ness" (I just made that word up) shows your child has the ability to focus.
But you know how kids are. There are no guarantees.
Another thing to look at is if your child has friends who play guitar, or any other instrument for that matter. This creates a kind of positive peer pressure for your child.
But age? I've met some 5 year-old's that were more "mature" than some 9 year-olds I've met. Mozart was a musical prodigy by the age of 3 and was learning the harpsichord and the violin.
The bottom line is that you know your child better than anyone else. As long as you understand that there is no way to predict whether or not your child will stick with it.

James Emery Vigh is an independent film maker and author of guitar courses for kids and adults. His current project uses animation AMD live footage to teach the guitar to kids.

DJing With Records Versus CDs

Many people who are aspiring DJs are making the difficult decision of whether to use vinyl records on a turntable or to DJ with CDs on a CDJ-type CD players. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. Most good clubs that you might DJ at have the ability to play both CDs and vinyl and you can bring whichever you prefer.

Playing vinyl is considered the most authentic approach to DJing. The art of DJing was born on turntables and most old school DJs would never consider doing anything else. The downsides are the turntables are delicate and expensive mechanical objects. Records themselves are also rather fragile and expensive to buy.

DJing with CDs is probably the most common approach these days. They are most commonly played with CDJ decks made by Pioneer or similar products sold by competing companies. These are special CD players that are designed to emulate the ability of a turntable to adjust the speed of a track and to move within a track as easily as possible in order to queue up your songs and match the beat of two overlapping songs.

One of the main benefits of playing off of CDs is the ability to download music from the Internet. This gives you easy access to a much broader selection of music than you would be able to easily get on vinyl, even if you live in a large city with a lot of record stores. Most CD DJs burn their own CDs with all of their favorite tracks. If a CD gets scratched, broken or lost, they can simply burn a new copy very quickly and cheaply.

Avoid Boring Guitar Lessons

Many people that started to learn how to play the guitar left it after short period of time. One of the most common reasons was not that they did not make any progress but they simply did not enjoy it.

It is well known that when people are not enjoying what they are doing they will find ways to avoid it. This is also the case in guitar learning so the best way to continue the learning is simply to enjoy it and not treat this as another day job. Learning how to play the guitar should be fun and not something dull.

Since practice is a very important part of learning to play the guitar, it is critical to treat the practice time as fun time and not something which is a dull necessity. Putting this thought into our minds will help us while repeating the same exercise again and again. We must know that doing this that way will make us better players and enable us to progress to play as many songs as we want. It is like athletes, that practice over and over again and doing that because they like what they are doing so much and the end result is driving them to success.

Since good practice is an hour per day, practicing should be considered as a punishment or a chore that any player must do in order to get better. Practice should be treated as fun, "WOW, I' going to play the guitar for an hour, let's enjoy this". This is the thought that the student must have and while doing that, the actual practice will be exciting.

But it is not only about the state of mind. A good guitar course or a teacher can also help a lot in addressing the mindset of the student. Good guitar course will encourage the player, provide interesting and varying exercises, shift between chords, notes, ear training and other guitar learning material. In one hour of training many aspects of playing can be covered so when the student finish the practice, he knows one more song, few more chords, his finger moves are much faster and these are only few examples of achievements that the student can have.

It is also important to set the goals for each such practice session since setting the right expectations and more important, meeting them at the end of the session will give a feeling of accomplishment to the student and encourage him to do the next practice.

It is crucial to give the student actual achievements all the time. Make the student play first song even after the first lesson. Teach the student one more song each time you meet. Make sure that the song you are teaching is something that the student likes (known song, right type of music). Teaching songs that the student doesn't like simply because it is part of the course materials will not help. Make sure it is an easy one so the student will not feel frustrated after the first lesson. That way the student will feel the actual and immediate results of his training and he will be encouraged from the fact that real progress can be achieved all the time.

One of the things that frustrate many guitar players (especially the younger ones) is the need to learn how to read music and tabs. There are many other ways and alternatives now such as playing form listening, quick reading and sight reading. Try to find the best way for you. If you can actually relate to learning music or have the proper background then this is probably the best way for you but it must not be the only possible way.

You Can Do With an Electric Guitar

Did you know that you can make your electric guitar sound like a banjo? How about an angry elephant? There are tons of fun things that you can do with an electric guitar. Some of them are more commonly used techniques such as alternate tunings, bending strings, pinch harmonics, feedback, and long legato runs among other things.

First, The Banjo. This one is pretty simple but it may take some trial and error. All you have to do is put a rag under the strings between the pickups so that it just slightly touches them. The trial and error comes in finding the right thickness of rag to use and exactly how to place it. I do it with a guitar polish rag folded over a couple of times. If the rag touches the strings too much, you may have to cut it down some. Don't do this with your good polish rag. Use an old sock or something if you have to. Another thing that will make it sound more like a banjo is playing a bluegrass or country style lick. Oh the fun things you can do with a guitar!

Second, the angry elephant. This one requires that you have a Floyd Rose style tremolo system on your electric guitar. Here's the steps to sounding like a mad elephant.

1. Turn your volume knob on the guitar all the way down.
2. Play a natural harmonic on the seventh fret of the high E, B, and G strings letting them ring together.
3. While your volume is still turned down, do a whammy bar dive with your FRETTING hand.
4. Next you're going to let the bar come back up as you fade your volume knob back up also.
5. After the bar comes back up and the volume is turned up, you quickly dive back down and turn the volume back down also.

There you have it! An angry elephant sound with your electric guitar! It will take some practice but as soon as you start hearing it, you'll be able to adjust it to make it sound even better.

These are just a few of the many fun things that you can do with an electric guitar. Have fun and don't be afraid to try some wacky things. Somebody thought to put a rag under their strings and play. What will you think of?

I have been a private guitar instructor for over 10 years in the Philadelphia area and Erie, PA and have played the guitar for over 20. I have successfully taught hundreds of people ranging from 5 years old to 80 years old. I have taught many styles of music and I have helped a lot of people develop a love of the guitar.

Private guitar instruction is the best way to go but it can be expensive and the quality of the instructors varies greatly. For those who live in small towns there may not be any. If you can't take lessons from me or another good guitar instructor, I suggest that you try one of these guitar systems. Here are my top recommendations for beginners and intermediate level players.

The Songwriting Secret

Songwriting is a simple process once you know how to do it. Most songs follows some basic songwriting rules. But the most important thing for me is -- to be playful and enjoy what I'm doing. Does it feel good? And if it breaks a so-called rule. So be it.

What is great songwriting? What is a great song? If you take note of the art world, many of the artists we now call great were not even appreciated in their time. Some were even starving, but continued to paint. It was for themselves that they painted, not following any rule or standards set by someone else.

I like to take that approach in my writing. I attempt to always be genuine and honest in my songs and not write what I think will sell. I like to think that if you write honestly from your heart, there are those who will want to hear it.

Anyone can learn how to write songs

Anyone can learn how to write songs, if they sincerely want to. It is a skill that you develop and like anything else, you get better the more you do it. Just start and allow it to develop. Don't demand to be good from the outset.

Everything comes easiest when you are inspired. I try to never force myself to do anything, but if it needs to be done -- as in a deadline -- then I go about seeing how I can inspire myself to feel like doing it.

Getting Started

There is no set formula for writing. Everyone who's a successful writer has their own system that works for them. It is not necessarily the right system for you. You will see similarities between people's systems. Find something that appeals to you and work it, with time you will add you own little quirks and eventually end up with your own little system.

I don't even use the same system on every song! What I do is just play! One day it may be lyrics I'm playing with, another day it may be chords, another day a little riff. More often than not for me -- it's lyrics. But the best thing is just start fooling around and don't judge what you're doing. If you play around long enough, you almost always come up with something. It may just be the beginning of a song or it may an entire song. It varies, song to song.

In the beginning, you may find that you don't come up with anything in your sessions. That's all part of getting started. Just play and have fun and don't be attached to the outcome.

If you play guitar for instance, try a new tuning you've never tried before. I did that and came up with a song in the morning. I was so inspired I played all night. Didn't really write anything down. Just played and played and it all just came together by morning. Didn't hurt that I was also trying out a brand new, beautiful guitar, which I did buy!

Getting inspired by other writers is also a great thing. You can go to concerts of your hero writer or join a local club, or go to an open stage. I found that very talented people inspired me and even when I heard someone not so developed -- funny they all made me want to run home and write.

So, if there is one secret to songwriting, above all others -- I say it's "be playful" and don't take it so seriously. After all, does the world really need another song. Write for yourself and have fun. The rest will come with time.

Gail Karen (G.K.) Eckert is a vocalist, musician, songwriter and teacher. She founded Musikhaus Studio of Creativity in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1987 and continues to guide students through the crucial steps of learning songwriting. She believes that anyone can learn to write, given the proper guidance and encouragement. She also believes that writing your music your way is not only a fun past time but is also crucial to self expression and well being.

Connect Your Electric Guitar to a Combo Amp

Before you do this you will need an Electric Guitar, a Combo Amplifier and a quarter inch to quarter inch patch cable.

1. If the power cable is not already attached to the back of the amp then connect the female end of the power cable into the back of the Amp. After you are sure the power cable is connected to the Amp - connect the power cable of the Amp into the wall.

2. Look for the input for the quarter to quarter inch patch cord on your electric guitar. The Les Paul guitars have this located on the edge of the guitar near the hooks for the straps and the Stratocasters usually have this located on the front panel of the guitar near the volume and tone knobs. Once you have located the input for the patch cord, plug the one end of the patch cord into your electric guitar.

3. Then look for the input for the quarter to quarter inch patch cord on your amp. This should be either on the top panel of the amp or on the front of the amp. Once you have located it plug the other end of the patch cord into your amp.

4. Make sure that the Volume knob or knobs on your guitar are at 0. Also make sure that the Volume and Gain knobs on your amp are at 0. If you don't do this before turning on your amp you are going to get some nasty feedback when you turn on your Amp.

5. If you amp came with a footswitch then look for the input of the footswitch on the back of your amp and plug it in. The footswitch lets you toggle on and off the effects such as distortion and reverb. If your amp didn't come with a footswitch don't worry about it and continue with step 6.

6. Once you have plugged everything in and made sure all switches and knobs are turned to 0. Locate the power switch for your Amp. The power switch is usually located on the front or top panel of your amp near the volume knobs or on the back of the Amp near the power cable. Once you have located it switch your Amp on.

7. Now we get to the fun part. Strum your guitar whilst gently turning the volume knob on your guitar as well as the volume and gain knobs on your amplifier. Play around a bit until you find the volume of sound that suits you. After you have done this continue strumming your guitar while you gently play around with the low, mid and high knobs (EQ) on your amp and the tone knobs on your guitar until you find the sound quality you are looking for.

8. Now for some more fun. Check to see if your amp has added features such as reverb and distortion. If your amp has these features then look for the switches or buttons that turn these on and the knobs to control their intensity. Once you have located them make sure that the effects are set at 0 before switching them on. You don't want any nasty feedback. Again, strum your guitar while playing around with these effects so you can acquaint yourself with the different sounds. If you have a footswitch play around with that too.

It takes time to get to know your electric guitar and how to best use all its functions. The more you play around and practice the better you will become. Have fun and Rock on!

Music in Human Life

Music is one of the greatest creations of human kind in the course of history. It is creativity in a pure and undiluted form and format. Music plays a vital role in our daily life. It is a way of expressing our feelings and emotions. Music is a way to escape life, which gives us relief in pain and helps us to reduce the stress of the daily routine. It helps us to calm down, an even excites us in the moment of joy. Moreover, it enriches the mind and gives us self confidence.

Music surrounds our lives at different moments of lives, whether we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. Different kinds of music are appropriate for different occasions. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joys of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day. Music has a very powerful therapeutic effect on the human psyche. It has always been part of our association with specific emotions, and those emotions themselves have given rise to great music.

The origins of Indian music can be traced back to the chanting of the Sama Veda nearly 4,000 years ago. The primacy of the voice, and the association of musical sound with prayer, were thus established early in the history of Indian music. Today, music is available for us in different forms and the choice for music varies from person to person just as the reading choices vary from one another. There is folk music, classical music, devotional music, instrumental, jazz, rock music, pop music, hindi movie songs and many more.

In the modern world, Music has gained an honourable designation of 'HEALING WITHOUT MEDICINE'. Doctors feel that music therapy has been helping them in treating many people with problems like dementia, dyslexia depression and trauma." Many children with learning disability and poor co-ordination have been able to learn, and respond to set pieces of music. Many people with genetic disability have found a new light in the form of music.

Dance critic Ashish Khokar cites an experiment as proof: "Music is produced from sound, and sound affects our sense perception in many ways. Even fish in an aquarium were once made to listen to different kinds of music and it was found that their movements corresponded with the beat of the music. Mind you, fish do not hear, they only felt the vibrations of the sound through water. So you can imagine what a profound effect sound and music might have on the human mind."

Anand Avinash, founder of the Neuro Linguistic Consciousness workshop who has researched music therapy says,"the mystics and saints from ancient to modern times have shown how music can kindle the higher centers of the mind and enhance quality of life." Mantras, or chants used in the West, repeated monotonously, help the mind to achieve a sense of balance. A combination of the sounds in Sanskrit mantras produce certain positive vibrations and elevate the mind to a higher lever of consciousness.

We all know that meditation cleanses the system of its negative energies and vibrations. And music is a powerful aid to meditation. In many meditation workshops, music is used to make people more aware of their moods and feelings. People are made to lie down and empty their minds and then listen to the music which is systematically changed so that they can fit through different emotions and state of consciousness.

Many people also believe that any music you respond to positively will work for you, regardless of its content. Thus, even pop music might work wonders for you.

Music affects all of us in some way or the other. It also is the most common interest of many people. People who love music, listen to it while traveling, reading, meditation, walking, some even have soft music while working in their busy routine. It helps them to relax and escape from the stress of our day-to-day lives. It can transport us to another time or place and it is a great feeling of seeing or doing or experiencing something different. People have special music corner for themselves and some people give importance to listening in silence and some people love to read with light music and even some people love listening to music before sleeping. Many people love listening to music in bathroom because they feel it is one of the few rooms in the home where privacy is routinely respected. Some people also love to sing in the bathroom and are called 'bathroom singers'. Music has now become a part of our life as it serves different purposes for each one of us.

• It serves as an entertainment tool. For instance, in an occasion or event, music plays a vital role that makes the event to be lively for the people. Similarly, it creates cordial relationship among the people.
• Moreover, it serves as a tool for corrective measure. Music tell the people on the habit that is uncultured so that such behavior can be for better. Furthermore, it is an agent that is used to educate people. Music can easily convey message to the friends and enemies.
• It serves as tool for settling dispute between two or more people. It often helps to put an end to disagreements after listening to related meaningful songs. Music is played for the group to show harmony among them.
• Music also serves as a source of income to human life. It is a profession of particular classes of people like lyricist, playback singers, music directors, musicians, musical instrument players, djs etc.
• Lastly, music serves as a message or symbol that indicates the occurrence that is going on in a particular place or event. For instance, If bad occurrence happen in a particular place the type of music played their will show the audience or listens what happened in that event. The type of music played will justify to the listeners what actually going on there.

Play the Acoustic Guitar For Beginners

If you're reading this it's because you want to learn to play the acoustic guitar. This instrument has a melodic sound and the ability to provoke a great deal of emotion, in the right hands.

The Basics Of Acoustic Guitar

It doesn't matter if you have decided to learn simply because you want a hobby or if it's to try and start a band. There are many great benefits that you can get from knowing how to play.

Personally, I think that the acoustic guitar sounds better than an electric guitar. Why you ask? Well, it's because of the more natural sounds that you get from it. You can make it either loud or soft like an electric guitar, but you will always be able to hear the vocals over it and you can use the acoustic guitar for any kind of music. It's also a lot easier to move around with you seeing as though you don't need an amp to make it work.

Learning to play acoustic guitar can be a bit tricky at first, but it does get easier the more you practice. If you work at it steadily for a couple of years you will be playing like a pro.

It's really not that hard, I promise. Just follow these five basic acoustic guitar lessons:

First: Find a guitar that feels right. There are different sizes so make sure you are comfortable with the one you have. Also, it does not have to be expensive. Actually, I recommend getting a cheaper one to learn on and then get a better one later.

Second: Make a schedule. You should practice for at least a half hour to an hour (no more) at least 5 to 7 days a week. If you practice for more then an hour at a time that is when you will start to pick up bad habits.

Third: Don't try to start out playing chords right away. You need to get comfortable with holding the guitar and also learn how each string sounds. So, start out by simply holding the guitar the correct way and pluck each string up and down the guitar until you are familiar with each sound.

Fourth: Once you've gotten stringing the strings without having to look at them, move onto the neck Now you can practice playing actual notes. Make sure that you keep your left hand in the right position and listen to how each note sounds.

Fifth: Now that you have all that you can start playing chords. Start out with the easy ones first. These would be "E Minor", "A Minor", and "D Minor". Once you have these down then you can move onto the harder ones to learn.

Many people choose to take beginner acoustic guitar instruction through a private instructor, but I don't feel as though this is necessary. I'm not saying it's a bad way to go, I just think you can easily learn on your own.

The thing with private acoustic guitar lessons is they can get to be quite expensive and they take up extra time when you consider the travel time to and from the lesson.

The good thing about an instructor is they work directly with you in a one on one setting. There is one down fall though and that is some times you run into someone that is more interested in getting paid then actually helping you learn to play the acoustic guitar. Also, there is a chance that you might run into a teacher that has an excess in students and is not quite as personable as you would like them to be due to the overload of work.

Some people don't like to learn new things with an audience, regardless of the size and find it difficult to play in front of another person, especially one that is more experienced. Many prefer to learn to play in a private area where no one is around to see them,

When I first took an interest in the acoustic guitar I looked into getting an instructor, but found it to be very expensive. I mean it was $150 a month and you only got 2 lessons a week. I couldn't really justify paying that so I decided to learn on my own. On issue with this is sometimes you can't quite grasp the fundamentals without a little assistance. This is mainly because you don't know enough about the techniques or even the guitar.

The good thing is in today's society we have this handy little thing called a computer and the Internet. On there you can find some really great online acoustic guitar lessons. I used Jamorama Acoustic, which was very helpful. This is a video download course that provides you with all the material, techniques, tricks and lessons that you need in order to get started playing.

The nice thing about the online course is that it teaches you everything you need to know without having to go outside of your house to get it. Another great thing about this course is it's a one time only fee rather then a month to month one, and you fit it into your schedule instead of fitting your schedule around an instructor. This makes it much easier to stick with and you have the power of being able to rewind if you don't quite get something or even fast forward if you already know a part of the lesson.

If you are going to start playing the acoustic guitar I would definitely recommend getting a course that you can learn from home. This is a personal preference though and not everyone will think the same way. When it really comes down to it, it depends on the individual and what they are comfortable with, and how much you want to invest in learning to play the acoustic guitar.

Guitar Learning

Whether you are starting out as a complete beginner or as an existing guitar player wanting to improve your skills, the options available to you to get some guitar teaching have never been so varied or as easily obtainable as they are today.

The almost universal access to the internet has not only produced a multitude of websites set up to present their owners as expert guitar teachers on line but has also provided a platform from which professional guitar teachers can espouse their services to a wider audience for personal guitar teaching in their own home at a particular geographic location.

There have always been a great many books about guitar teaching but these are now to a great extent being superseded by the explosion in the numbers of e-books and downloadable and web based guitar teaching courses on the market.

All these options make it very perplexing to know which style of guitar teaching will in the end be suitable for you to put your faith and indeed your money into to get the result you are looking to bring about from it.

For many people the dollar cost of the teaching will in the final analysis decide which form of delivery that guitar teaching takes rather than perhaps which style of teaching might be considered to be the most appropriate for them.

A professional guitar teacher teaching on a one to one basis will certainly provide the ultimate guitar teaching environment for the new or improving guitar player. For those lucky enough to find such a teacher locally who they can get to at a time to suite themselves and can then afford to absorb the ongoing cost of the lessons, then this is certainly the best form of guitar teaching you can have.

If you feel that the cost of this option is prohibitive or perhaps you are unable to identify such a teacher, what then?

It is not easy to develop very far with your guitar learning if all you have to guide you and encourage you is a book. To continue progressing and indeed continue enjoyment in the lessons without some form of additional stimulus would be very difficult.

So if you are not going to enjoy the guitar learning experience afforded by a personal guitar teacher but you know that to succeed in your ambition to learn and master your guitar will demand something beyond just a book or a video where do you go?

Well, maybe the answer to that question is to invest in a guitar learning experience that is available at no more than the price of perhaps a very few private guitar lessons. You could buy into a high quality multimedia and professionally produced course of guitar learning. One that puts you in control as to when, where and how much time you can commit to it but which in the end delivers the success that your efforts deserve.

Obviously the hard part is to find a course of guitar learning that truly delivers what it says on the box. To be sure that the course you invest in is going to come up to your expectation it makes sense to search out one with a proven track record of success. A system that can demonstrate with genuine testimonials that it delivers its promise, that is comprehensive in its depth and is well known within the industry. One that so believes in the success of its students that it offers a total no quibble, no question money back guarantee on its product.

The amount of choice meeting all of this criteria becomes rather limited! However one such course of guitar learning that delivers all these elements and a great deal more is the Learn & Master Guitar course available from Legacy Learning Systems. This course has been written and is hosted by well known guitarist and guitar master Steve Krenz and is a thorough guitar experience. If this course does not bring you and inspire you to your success with your guitar then dare I say, try playing the drums!

Make your Computer Using the Best Beat Making Program

Many people are realizing how convenient and unique making a beat on the computer can be. When you make a beat on the computer you can express yourself creatively without spending much money or time on setting up expensive music equipment.

If you want to make a beat on your computer then you need a good beat making program. There are a lot of different programs available today which will allow you to produce your own beats from your computer. The best program you can use will have sound banks, timelines, mixing features, and tutorials to help you hit the ground running.

Take a look at some of the basic things you are going to need out of your beat making program so you can make a beat on your computer easily and effectively.

Easy Controls: The best programs have straight forward controls you can use. The less complicated the controls the quicker you can learn how to use the program and begin making beats.

Large Sound Bank: The sound bank is important because this is what you will use to get instruments or drum sounds for your tracks. The best programs will have a large library which contains thousands of sounds you can choose from.

Easy To Use Mixing Features: An easy to sue mixer will have sliders or knobs that let you control the volume of how loud each part of your beat should be. If one of your instruments are too loud then you can use the controls to turn it down a little.

Different Effects: Using effects will add style to your beats. So it is important you use a program that will allow you to use them. The best beat making programs will allow you to add effects to various tracks.

Tips to Inspire Your Song

Every song has a story behind it. You may have had something so fantastic or something so tragic οr depressing happen in your life at some point, if so, try to remember one οf those occasions and relive the experience and emotions that you went through. This will hopefully trigger some poignant lyrics from you. It doesn't have to be a whole song or even whole verse or chorus, just note down the lines as they come to you. You can rearrange them later, and at that point you can say well I have a great line there... for example

"I can't go on without you, it hurts so much"

Now what could precede that, what led up to this feeling? How did something so good go so wrong, did you or they make a mistake? You get the idea, just start writing and it will begin to flow. Take some time to reflect on your own experiences and you may come up with something decent.

If you can't seem to be able to draw on your own experiences, see what the popular trend is with current songs that appeal to you. Listen to other eras and genres to see what has been a recurring theme throughout the years. Do this often and hearing other songs may spark some ideas and get a good melody or lyric springing to mind.

Try writing something every day, just a few lines each and every day, this will very quickly build up and give you lots of material to think about and rearrange. Don't throw any of it away! What you don't use this time may fit perfectly into your next masterpiece! It doesn't have to be perfect first time, you can keep going back and editing it regularly. You might find that you need or want to change the lyrics to fit in with the music (or vice versa). Whatever happens, don't give up - the more you practice writing songs the better you will become.

Play Guitar Fast With Chords and Scales

So you decided to learn guitar and you want to do it as fast as possible. Well, you won't be able to learn as fast as you think, but you can avoid mistakes that other people make and this will help you learn faster. There are two basic things that you need to know. These things are called chords and scales. Whatever type of music you like or want to learn to play on the guitar you will need to have some knowledge about these two things in order to be able to learn that particular style of music.

Before you start learning chords or scales you should have a few types of warm up exercises prepared. After you have some warm up exercises you can think about how much per day you want to study. Let's say you want to learn two hours per day. In one hour you should learn the basic chords and in another the basic scales. The basic chords would be the ones in the key of C and the first scale you should learn is the pentatonic scale.

After a while you will know all the basic minor and major chords and you will probably want to learn a few new chords. A new type would be seventh and ninth chords and so on. If you are also familiar with pentatonic scales you can move on to major scales. Later on you will know better what you want to learn and you will be able to structure your study plan even better.

An important trick you should know when learning scales or any other types of exercises is to use a metronome. This is the fastest way in which you can improve your technique. Let me emphasize that: if you want to improve your speed, the fastest way to do it is to practice with a metronome! You set it to a speed at which you can't play the exercise well enough, and after you are able to play it properly you just adjust the tempo and start all over again.

Electric Guitar

n this article you are about to read, you will learn how to purchase an electric guitar amp without wasting a lot of your time or money. When purchasing an one, you need to think about three things. First you need to decide what kind you want, next you need to know the configurations you need, and last you need to know what size you want it to be.

1-Decide What Type of Amplifier You Want

There are many different kinds of electric guitar amps out there. It may be difficult to walk into a store and actually make a purchase if you have no idea what kind of amp you are looking for. The four main types of amps are solid state amps, tube amps, modeling amps (or digital amps) and hybrid amps. If you are still a beginner you should probably stay away from hybrid amps.

2-Know what kind of configurations you want

Some amps come in what is called a "combo." If you don't know what this is, it is just a speaker and amplifier in one cabinet. Within the past couple of years, these kind of amps have seem to have become extremely popular. You might want to also look for amps that have "stacks".

3-The size of the amp

When we talk about the size of the amp, it is important you realize we are not talking about the actual physical size. It does not matter how big or small an amplifier is. What we are talking about is the amount of watts it has. If the amp has anything less than 50 watts it is not worth purchasing.

In the above article, you learned three things that you should look for when purchasing an electric guitar amp. This should make the process of choosing an amp much easier.

Music Teachers Resources: Making Students Love Music

When your private studio has innovative and interactive music teachers resources, you can certainly focus on developing your students’ interests in music. Through these, you can also motivate them to craft music as both their profession and passion. Teaching music can be a difficult task. It requires much time and effort; thus, makes music education more challenging, dynamic and versatile.

Ideally, a music teacher must have these objectives in mind:

• to offer a custom-made and challenging program for his musically-inclined pupils to maximize their music potential;
• to provide a holistic music education through listening, performing (solo and group) and composing skills; and,
• To realize that everyone has such potentials to understand, express and create music.

Effective music teachers have such resources that can really encourage students to attend classes regularly, motivate them to participate and cooperate, and most of all, inspire them to love music. Many music teachers resources are readily available via the Internet. In just a matter of a few clicks, you can learn how to enhance your teaching strategies pertaining to music education.

There are various music teachers resources that can definitely be used as your motivating factors in teaching music to a vast number of students with different personalities, demands, needs and desires. Here is my comprehensive list:

• Cooperative learning. It is an instructional paradigm in which teams of students work on structured tasks such as homework assignments, laboratory experiments, or design projects. It is being administered under conditions that meet five criteria: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of collaborative skills, and regular self-assessment of team functioning.

Many studies have shown that when correctly implemented, cooperative learning improves many aspects like information acquisition and retention, higher-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence. In here, it seeks to foster some benefits from the freedom of individual and collaborative learning.

• Opportunities. It can be an advantage if an enhanced curriculum is made to unleash students’ musical skills and talents. They must be given such chance to perform and compete – be it solo or as a group, representing their school in music-related activities as well as various competitions.

• Exposure. Also, just like opportunities, exposure can be of great help to become more interested. Familiarity and awareness to several music scenes can actually make them look forward to the next musical sessions. They can attend concerts, recitals or band rehearsals. Visiting some professional or conventional recording studios can be fun and exciting ways of learning music while exposing them to the real world.

With all these innovative and effective music teachers resources and strategies, I am so certain that you could meet your academic goals and visions. Good luck and happy teaching!

Creative Music Teachers Resources: Effective Ways to Motivation

Most music teachers consider teaching music to their dear students both their profession and passion. Most of them have the heart for arts and music – making each student love learning music and music as a whole. With this kind of outlook and disposition in teaching music, the inspired and motivated music teacher tends to begin his search for consistent improvement in his teaching strategies as well as his effort for personal and professional growth.

Indeed, there is a wide variety of creative music teachers resources that students can certainly enjoy and get excited working on with. According to studies, the integration of audio and video recording in music education has been an effective technique to catch the attention and grab the interest of the learners. This is believed to be an effective tool in raising the level of interest and motivation among music learners.

Current practice in music teaching favors a practical and a hands-on approach in emphasizing performance and composition. The use of recorded music as a teaching resource has tended to take a back seat. However, recordings are the predominant vehicle of musical experience today. As the students are expert listeners to recorded sound, major developments in the access to and presentation of recorded music are opening up new educational possibilities to most of them.

Targeted to be implemented in most music classrooms, the production and engineering aspects of recorded sound to online music libraries and teachers’ experiences of using recordings in the classroom have been randomly practiced and taken into consideration.

When a classroom setting has a relaxed atmosphere, informal learning may take place yet anxiety, tension and pressure would neither rule the learning situation. Hence, when there is relaxed supervision with no teachers behind the desk, the students would be more eager and interested to learn music. Students may also work in groups – giving them more chances of friendship and peer support. In this case, cooperative learning is found effective. The music teacher may encourage the students choose various musical instruments of their choice and eventually master such.

After they finish recording, they may organize or set-up a short play or a mini-concert to show their rendition of songs and other performances. These activities can heighten the learning process as they get too excited in meeting their objectives and getting high grades. These can also help them boost enough self-confidence and self-esteem. Through these music teachers’ resources, the music teacher tends to meet most of his objectives all at the same time.

These creative techniques in music education intend to motivate the learners from different ages and with different lifestyles. So start your quest to amazingly creative music teachers resources now. Be inspired to share your knowledge as well as the joys of music to your students. Make them realize that learning music is fun so they have to do it all by heart. Happy teaching!