Picking a Pick: Plectrums & you

With so much choice of plectrums out in the market it can be very confusing for first time buyers.

What most experienced pick-buyers look for are:

• grip
• shape
• thickness
• graphic

Grip is fairly important. Especially for beginners as there are many times when your plectrum will ping out of your grip and across the room, into the body of an acoustic guitar, or (my personal favorite experience) down the top of an embarrassed female band member.

Many plectrums with graphics on are often smooth and without grip, though that’s not always the case, so it is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Grip on plectrums can come in different forms. Some have grooves and ridges, some have a fine texture, others have just the brand name embossed on it to create grip. It’s definitely worth playing around with different kinds to feel how well they keep in your grip while in a musical instrument store.

Shape and thickness are generally down to personal preference that gets built up over time with playing. As a general rule of thumb thinner picks are more beneficial for those that favour soft strumming, whereas thicker plectrums give more control to a more advanced plucker.

The Jim Dunlop USA Nylon plectrums range their colours according to the thickness. The lighter the colour, the thinner the pick, inversely the darker the plectrum the thicker the pick. Black being 1mm thickness.

Graphics on plectrums, as you are probably aware, make no real difference to how plucking or strumming strings sound. Graphics on plectrums can range from skulls to fairies to lightning to rainbows.

Don’t be afraid to play around in-store with whatever plectrums are available!

Image Source: Wikimedia

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The Power of Simple Scales

Learning scales is a fantasic way to create melodies. Below is an example, with tab, of a scale. The C major scale to be precise.

It doesn’t look like much but if you play around with the order of these notes or play some of the notes more than once (or even not at all) you can make a melody in that key.

Here’s an example of that idea. It’s a familiar tune that I invite you to play along to.

 

Notice that this entire melody only uses the notes in the C major scale illustrated at the top.

Play around with the scale and see what you come out with. If you don’t like it, try another. If you do like it see what else you can do. Invite a fellow musician over and see if you can harmonise. And most importantly: Have fun!

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Guitar Hero: Enemy or Ally?

Guitar Hero has often been dismissed by many a guitar player as dumbing down actual guitar playing. Claims like “It’s not like playing a real guitar.” and suggestions such as “You do know you’re not actually playing that song, right?” are often batted around on forums and in YouTube comments. But is that really the case?

Guitar Hero, as well as imitations and improvements such as Frets on Fire and Rock Band, are great tools in helping any musician practice one of the most crucial elements of music and composition. Rhythm and Timing.

When teaching guitar I have often been told that getting to grips with strumming in rhythm is a difficult task. The only real suggestions I had were to “keep practicing”, or “pat rhythms to songs on your lap to ‘feel’ it more naturally”. But now I can truly recommend Guitar Hero style games.

Unless you’re using a hand controller for playing the game (which makes the game more of a whack-a-mole kind of deal) playing the guitar-style controller comfortably sets your posture into guitar-playing stance ready to strum like the heroes of rock!

Another massive aid Guitar Hero style games can give to the beginner guitarist is the practice needed for left hand / right hand independence.

Quit hating Guitar Hero style games and go play with your mates with the knowledge that it’s good practice for the real thing!

Treat yourself.

Image from xkcd.com A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

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Tab is your friend

I cannot stress how much gutar tab (or tabulature) can help in learning guitar.

If you have no idea what I mean by guitar tab, let me give you a link to wikipedia’s article on the subject.

Here it is, though don’t get too excited. It’s quite a comprehensive and in depth article.

Simply put, tab is a clearer way of reading what note(s) to play than a classical musical score on a stave and also shows what number fret to hold on which string.

To get started I recommend going through About.com’s How to read Guitar Tab tutorial.

Once you’re up to scratch on how to read tab what’s stopping you from playing all your favourite tunes?! There’s plenty of sites that display tab to help you learn songs from Abba to ZZ Top.

Just type your favourite song followed by ‘tab’ into google and hey presto!

Get stuck in!

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Fresh Guitar 101 - Easy Chords To Start You Off

So, you’ve just bought a guitar but have no idea where to start?

Allow me to suggest a few simple chords that are tried and tested so much that their relation to each other has been the backbone of many much loved pop songs since the sixties.

Learning a few easy chords is one of the best way to get over that frustration of holding the guitar and not knowing what to do with it! So give these a try.

Simply put, these chords are E, A and D.

Reasons to learn these chords:

• Relatively easy to remember.
• They do not require difficult stretches.
• These chords sound in-key with each other.

Guitar Image Source: Wikimedia

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