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Yes, if you have been following us here at The Musician’s Toolbox, you know that we frequently update this blog. However, March 15th my daughter was born! Since March, the blog has taken a back seat to fatherhood, but now that things have settled down a bit, we’re back.
Stay tuned for fresh posts and some updates about new products on the way.
Thanks for reading,
Andrew Wonacott, President
The Musician’s Toolbox
If you are reading this post, it means you’re at the very least interested in the guitar and music. This is good.
Music is a mystery. The deliberate organization of sound waves into something that can stir your soul is one of the things that’s great about being alive. Taking that music and adding lyrics is one of the highest art forms possible as a human. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach… all of those guys understood the marriage of music and words.
Think about your favorite songs, what is it that you like the most about them? The lyrics? The vibe? The music? The combination?
I challenge all of you to start writing your own songs using simple chords. All you have to do is strum a steady beat and start singing. Write down the words that come out. Then re-write them and change them, then change the chords that you play. You’ll discover a way to express how you feel, and someone just might be moved by it.
It’s not really enough to just sit around and practice playing the guitar. You gotta make music your own, learn from the artists that have touched you, and then try to do them one better. You can. So can I.
Warning: it’s addicting, takes an insane amount of work, dedication, persistence, and the ability to handle harsh criticism.
But that’s how you know it’s worth doing. Your soul needs exercise. Go write a song.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
Reading guitar TAB is easy, you just need to keep this picture in your mind:
The numbers are the frets, and the lines going across are your strings. Play the right number (fret) on the correct string, and you can’t go wrong.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
There are scores of easy songs to learn as long as you have some common chords memorized. Here’s a short list with easy down strum patterns:
1.) Boulevard Of Broken Dreams–Green Day
VERSE: Em, G, D, A strum each chord twice
CHORUS: C, G, D, Em strum each chord twice
–end of chorus is the B7 chord.
2.) Island In The Sun–Weezer
VERSE: Em, Am, D, G strum each one twice
CHORUS: same
BRIDGE: D to G (4x each), D to G again (4x each) C 4x, Am 4x, D 8x
then back to chorus.
3.) Brown Eyed Girl–Van Morrison (simple down strums, not the actual strum pattern)
VERSE: G, C, G, D strum each chord twice
Pre-Chorus: (the … “do you remember when” part) D strum 6x
CHORUS: (sha la la’s) G, C, G, D strum each chord twice.
Remember when you’re trying to switch chords, don’t stop strumming. Make your strumming hand tell your other hand what to do, NOT the other way around. You may make mistakes, and it may feel awkward, but ultimately, keeping a steady beat is more important than playing all the right notes all the time.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
Good question.
An electric guitar has pickups. They’re mounted between the end of the neck (where the frets get really really small) and the bridge, (where the strings are stretched from at the base of your guitar).
These pickups are actually electro-magnets that produce a magnetic field around your strings. (Remember, the strings are metal, right?)
So, when you pluck the string, and it vibrates up and down really fast, the metal string is creating “vibrations” in the magnetic field. It’s these vibrations that are transmitted through your pickups as a signal that goes to your amp.
This signal is very weak, but it’s there. Your amp takes that signal and force feeds it a Red Bull, Monster, And Double Shot Espresso all at the same time, and gets it full of energy, therefore making it louder.
Then that louder signal gets passed to your speaker (which is a big magnet attached to a cone), and the speaker vibrates that SAME signal from your string, only now it’s loud enough to annoy your mom, or your neighbors.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
