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Care and maintenance can sometimes seem secondary to playing, but if you want to continue playing for a long time, then it’s absolutely vital. We have assembled some of the best tips to keep your guitar in tip-top condition. By following these steps, you will find that the guitar will last as long as you want it to! Keeping your guitar in the best possible condition is paramount to enjoying the full life and playability of your instrument.

·    After Practicing
The deterioration of the strings is a common problem amongst guitarists. If the strings start to rust, then they become very rough and have a higher propensity of cutting into your fingers. To prevent this, make sure that as soon as you have finished practicing take a soft cloth and clean the strings. A guitarist with cut fingers is not going to play as well, so it is important to make sure that the strings of your guitar do not get to this stage.

This is a very simple action, but it will get rid of all the oil, dirt and sweat that can accumulate on the strings. Before you re-case your guitar, you might want to think about applying a thin layer of string conditioner – these solutions are relatively inexpensive (a good one will cost less than ten US dollars) and they do a great job of preventing the oxidization of the strings that causes them to rust.

·    Clean the fretboard
The next time you change your strings, take a look at the fretboards and clean them with a damp cloth. As well as the strings, there can often be an accumulation of dirt and grease around the fretboards. If unchecked, this can damage the sound of the guitar, and eventually the integrity of the instrument.

·    Care for your body!
A lot of people neglect the body of the guitar as they focus too much on the strings and the fretboard. Whilst these do need a lot of attention, paying a bit of attention to the body of your guitar will prolong its life by a large factor. All you need to do is polish it regularly with a lint-free cloth. Make sure you use only guitar-specific polishes – some of the more widely available household polishes are more likely to be abrasive and cause some serious damage.

·    Storage
For ideal conditions, you should be looking at storing your guitar at around 50% humidity and a temperature of around 25 degrees C. Your guitar is a very sensitive instrument, and is extremely sensitive to the environment in which it is stored. Wood is a porous substance, which means it can absorb moisture. Whilst most guitars are tolerant to a range of temperatures, excessive moisture will cause swelling which in turn causes the wood to warp and affects the overall sound.

·    Scratches
It seems an obvious thing to say, but I have seen so many people make this mistake! Before you begin to play, make sure you remove all jewellery and other accoutrements that might scratch your instrument. Obviously, rings and bracelets could do this, but I have seen many people scratch or damage their instruments through simple things like belt buckles or the buttons on their jeans!

Guitar maintenance is not rocket science, and by treating your guitar with the respect that it deserves, you will prolong the lifespan of your guitar. For the majority of the time, simply by applying common sense you will get better rewards out of playing it.

Copyright 2009 Liam Gibson

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Jamorama has been around a while, since 2004 in fact, so if you have been looking to learn how to play guitar online then you’ve probably already stumbled across it..Ben Edwards and his team of professional Guitarists have designed a course that claims to have you up and playing in only five minutes.But is all this just marketing hype, or does it actually deliver?

There are more detailed Jamorama Review here

Surely something so reasonably priced can’t be that good? Well, I was keen to find out.

Credit card in hand if clicked on the Jamorama website, (the only place you can actually order the course. Many of the Jamorama ads found online raise the question ofr whether Jamorama is a scam – well you have no reason to be concerned, it isnt..The order process is safe and secure (it is handled by clickbank, a respected online agency for merchants selling digital products), so no need to be worried about your credit card details falling into the wrong hands. Add to this the knowledge that Jamorama offers a 60 day money back guarantee and there is really no need to be concerned.

With my order processed I was immediately given access to the Jamorama Course material. As expected they came in ebook format (2 of them actually, once for beginners and one for more advanced guitarists). The material is well structured and consists of 252 pages.  The student has her hand held and is taken through 148 video examples and exercises. The simplicity of the lessons means that the they are straightforward enough for the beginner to pick up. You should very quickly move from identifying the various components of the guitar, and establishing recomended posture through to the more advanced guitar playing techniques and tablature skills.

For a more details read this Jamorama Review

Bonuses
As if all that wasn’t enough the team at Jamorama just seem to want to keep on giving. Bundled with your purchase of Jamorama itself you also get access to some very good bonuses:

* The pro version of Jayde Musica (interactive software to teach you how to read music)
* GuitEarIt! (more doftware designed to improve your ability to recognise chords from their sound alone).
* Jamorama Metronome – designed to aid your timing, speed and control
* Guitar Tuner Pro Software and an Ebook called ‘How to tune your guitar
* 30 Days Free Access to songpond

Conclusion
I have to say I am very impressed with the wealth of information contained within the Jamorama Guitar Learning Course, especially when I consider the price (only $39.95, which is less than you would pay for a couple of lessons with a qualified teacher). It is outstanding value for money. With two ebooks some excellent bonuses as well as access to the Jamorama Forum where you can pose questions to other guitarists, Jamorama is all you will need to start playing guitar.

Beginner/Intermediate Guitarists will undoubtedly get the most benefic from this course.
By the time you have completed it you are unlikely to be actually paying as well as Eric Clapton, but you should have a firm grasp of the skills required to get you there.

There are more detailed Jamorama Review here

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I was not even 10 years old when I knew I had to play guitar.The Beatles, Clapton and Segovia were the people that inspired me most.

The guitar was a mysterious instrument and I wanted to play one. I cared about nothing except how to learn guitar.

I learned mostly from friends and records, yes records, remember them?.At that time online learning did not exist at all. The amount of information accessible to you today is unbelievable . Sometimes, however when you have so much knowledge it is easy to stray off course from your initial objective.It can be difficult but you need a course of action, a plan, a system of learning to play guitar.

With all of the info out there it can be foolish to pay 50 dollars an hour for someone to show you how to tune a guitar or what the strings are named and so forth. If you want to study at 2 a.m. with your online course you can do that. Not too many teachers would appreciate a call at 2 in the morning. State of the art videos are included and you can really see the teachers hands and picking motion.

When I started to learn guitar I had a big desire and I learned from many different sources. You may not be able to learn all by yourself so easily. Luckily there is no reason to work so hard as so much of the basics all the way to great guitar playing are in online courses. I know you will try to learn a lot on your own. I hope you will try some folk guitar books as all guitar starts with basic strums and easy fingering coupled with familiar songs we all know.

A teacher can be  a critical component of your learning in any genre, be it singing or learning to play piano or guitar. Sadly, the teacher can also be not a right fit for you as well.  If your teacher is classically trained he may not know much about rock and roll. You can spend a whole lot of money on teachers so I would recommend, at least at first to try an online program which is about the cost of a couple of lessons. You can get a lot of mileage from it and you will know what to do next.

At first learning how to play guitar is  perplexing . The keyboard of the piano is straightforward, easy to see and comprehend but the guitar is not so. On the guitar, the same chord can be played in different positions with no relation to each other. While just starting, all of this in combination with left and right hand techniques as well as tab and different tunings and it can very quickly become overwhelming.

You have many avenues to explore so go out and do it today; learn guitar for life.

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Even though you’re not a guitar player, I’m pretty sure you know at least one musical scale, and I’m also betting it’s the C Major scale. The film The Sound of Music made famous the “do-re-mi” song that actually translates to a C Major scale (for complete beginners, the notes for a C Major scale are C-D-E-F-G-A-B).

But if your goal is to be a rocking lead guitarist, there’s a type of scale that you definitely must know, and that is the pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scales are the foundation for most rock and blues solos, and it’s important that you know how to make them.

Simply put, pentatonic scales have one major difference with normal scales: while normal scales have seven notes, pentatonic scales have only five (the term penta- means ‘five’). Other than that, there’s basically no difference. But how would I know which notes are in the pentatonic scales?

Let’s take that C Major scale. The notes for that would be C-D-E-F-G-A-B. If you take away the fourth note and the seventh note, you would be left with C-D-E-G-A. And that’s basically just how you make a pentatonic major scale: you take out the fourth and seventh notes of a major scale! So if ever you have a song that uses a C chord, you can play a solo on your guitar but NOT play F and B chords. The pentatonic major scale is a foundation of modern rock, and Jimi Hendrix is known to use the pentatonic major scale a lot.

The pentatonic minor scale is also created a bit differently. For a pentatonic minor scale, of course you would need a minor scale to begin with. Let’s take the A Minor scale for example. The notes for that would be A-B-C-D-E-F-G. For the pentatonic minor, however, you would need to take out the second and sixth notes, leaving you with A-C-D-E-G. The pentatonic minor scale is greatly used in various blues solo progressions.

A final observation: did you notice that the notes for the C pentatonic major scale are the same for the A minor pentatonic scale? That’s a strange connection of pentatonic major and minor scales. Basically the notes of a pentatonic major scale for a given key are the same for a pentatonic minor for a key three steps down, but your root notes are different of course.

It may take a bit of practice for you to master pentatonic major and minor scales, but once you do perfect them you’re basically on the way to a better understanding of guitar soloing for blues or rock. And a final word: pentatonic scales have less notes, so they’re easier to remember and play! So go ahead and play!

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Okay, I’m sure you’ve gotten an argument with your buddies at some point, comparing who you think are the top 10 guitar players of all time. We’ve all been there, but here’s the thing that few realize. Rock and Roll isn’t competition, it’s not about who’s better at this or that. Plus, there are so many musical genres, that to compare let’s say a metal master and a blues king doesn’t really work all that well. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.

When all is said and done, there’s still many guitarists that most people consider to be the best, and every time these types of lists come up, you will typically find their names are mentioned. These guitar players are arguably the most skilled at a specific technique, or are the most influential guitarists to other aspiring musicians, and that’s why they appear on my top 10 guitar players list.

In my opinion, this is the top 10 list of the most influential guitar players:

1. Jimi Hendrix
Enough said? Jimi Hendrix is almost always at the top of every “top guitarists” list! He turned the electric guitar into musicl science, playing around with sounds never before dreamed of on the electric guitar. Hendrix’s style of raw, fuzzy, feedback-y sound is instantly recognizable, and he has been the influence for very many younger guitarists. His stage presence is also electrifying and powerful. “Purple Haze” and “All Along the Watchtower” set the foundation for a towering monument of rock that stands to this day.

2. Jimmy Page
Another Jimmy! The Led Zeppelin guitar master has been very influential to a lot of rockers nowadays, and his guitar licks are legendary and instantly recognizable. His solo of “Heartbreaker” is immortal, and “Black Dog” and “Stairway to Heaven” are unshakable rock classics. And no one else I know has ever had a guitar solo using a violin bow? That’s from “Dazed and Confused”,

3. BB King
When you say blues, everything all boils down to its master and ambassador: BB King. He paved the way for the newer generation of blues players, from Eric Clapton to John Mayer. BB King’s powerful bending and vibrato are classic blues techniques, still used today. Also, his guitar is also legendary – who else names their guitar Lucille?

4. Chuck Berry
You know that four-note riff that always reminds you of 50’s rock n’ roll? That came from Chuck Berry. Modern rock n’ roll wouldn’t be possible without the awesomeness that is “Johnny B. Goode”!

5. Keith Richards
Keith Richards is a member of one of the longest-lasting, most influential active rock bands The Rolling Stones. Don’t tell me you aren’t aware of that memorable distortion-filled three-note riff from “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”! For all the hits the Stones put out that became foundations of other hit songs, Keith Richards also deserves a spot on the top 10 guitarists list.

6. Kirk Hammett
Metal was changed forever once Metallca arrived on the scene. Kirk Hammett rewrote hard rock history with the pounding solos of “Master of Puppets” and, arguably their most popular song, “Enter Sandman”.

7. Carlos Santana
If you want to talk about instantly recognizable tone, there’s the undisputed King master of Latin-infused rock, Carlos Santana. Before he started collaborating with other musicians, he was a Latin-rhythm purist, improvising with solos that are full of passion and spiritual meaning. Before hits like “Smooth”, there were the soaring, sustained instrumental solos of “Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Child)” and the like.

8. Kurt Cobain
The misunderstood genius, Kurt Cobain pretty much ended the era of 80’s “glam” metal in a totally unique way. He favored simple, heavy tunes instead of hair metal’s theatric style, and it reflected better the angst of the time. His most memorable contribution to rock and roll was the original anthem of misunderstood generations, the four-chord monster “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

9. The Edge
While a lot of guitar players think of skill as playing millions of notes at blazing speed, The Edge is known for actually playing short, spare, repetitive solos. But he and his rolling delay effects created the most passionate, most anthemic rock songs in history, from “Bad” to “Where The Streets Have No Name”. With the Edge at the lead, it’s hard not to scream in triumph.

10. Eric Clapton
A true son of the blues, Eric Clapton had influences in rock, creating classics like “Layla” with his early band Derek and the Dominoes, and progressing to one of the most recognizable blues guitarists, from “Bell Bottom Blues” to his heartbreaking “Tears In Heaven”.

I know for a fact that most people will have a much different list of top ten guitar players than mine, but that’s the effect of growing up with varying musical backgrounds. There are countless talented guitarists from many different genres to choose from. Whoever you decide to pick as your top 10 guitarists says a lot about your favorite styles, as well as your personality as a guitarist. Until then, just keep roking and rolling!

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Yes you can be the king of the party or someone who is adored by music lovers or, the list goes on. You can play exceptional music through the strumming of your guitar. And people would scream out “Encore!” That would be really nice isn’t it? Do you like the idea? Well, read on as this article shows you some of the most exciting and fulfilling advantages when you have learned to master the techniques and chords in the world of guitar music.

Advantage #1

Playing a guitar enhances your brain to work and to initiate such signals that commands your hands on mentally memorizing where to put your finger on a particular fret, pressing on the right chord and engaging in the proper manner of strumming.

Advantage #2

The pleasure of gratification is satisfied. Thus, your self-confidence is making its way through your personality. A psychological book once said, that man has to satisfy basic needs to be able to advance to the highest level which is the self-realization. Something like that.

Advantage #3

The fact is that a guitar is one of the most convenient instruments there is. You can’t bring your drums wherever you go. It would be exhausting on your part to carry a drum set around your campus and constantly beat it. It can cause so much distraction. Whereas if you have been a full pledged guitarist your whole life, you could play music where you can.

Advantage #4

Being able to take your guitar everywhere, might as well earn something from it. A talent like that would eventually be discovered. Playing along the streets of downtown is not really the idea but if you consider it, then yes, you could try. You could ask some of your friends to back you up.

Advantage #5

You, yourself, is a unique individual. Out of ten people only one becomes a pure musician. And by some luck, that person is a guitarist. Or can be someone with ultra musical talent who can play not only the guitar but many different instruments and even some percussion ones. Some say it is taught but real talent comes from within. It is that spirit within you that makes you distinct.

Advantage #6

Nobody can call you a guitarist with no specific talent. Yes, you could fail all of your tests and miss every graded recitation during school hours but when those various parties come, you are the star. Even an A+ won’t come close to the recognition you can achieve from being an accomplished artist.

Advantage #7

You are the “it” guy. Everyone can hate you or mess you up. But the moment you have learned to become a master in your own craft, everyone will recognize how good you are. Even those who never or didn’t know you will find an effort to. People will love you for the talent that you are.

More advantages are viewed just by playing the guitar. Playing is one thing but mastering is another. So if you are still struggling to play such tunes, don’t give up that dream. Even though it’s just a hobby or past time, who knows, with such skill, it could take you to new heights. Something brighter. Something more intense. Something close to Hollywood.

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