Guitar How-To

Archive for the ‘Guitar Tricks’ Category

If you are going somewhere on a plane and you don’t have a guitar you can come to terms with losing, then you’re better off buying a cheap one at your destination.

There are some difficulties when you travel with your guitar. Not all planes have overhead compartments large enough to take a guitar, so carrying it on board might not be practical. If you put it in the luggage you may not see it again. To make sure your guitar is safe on the aircraft you could buy a flight case but the case might be worth more than your guitar.

To start with, do not put your guitar on an aircraft without first de-tuning the strings. If your guitar is subject to any undue shocks or pressure, the pull of the strings on the neck could be the straw that breaks the guitar’s back.

Here is a video giving you the details on various guitar cases.

If you make the decision to trust the baggage compartment with your instrument, then you’d best take care of the most vulnerable point – the top of the neck. It only takes a little pressure to separate an acoustic guitar’s tuning head from the rest of the neck. Use underwear or whatever other small, soft items you have to pack around the tuner area in your case.

Another way of travelling with your guitar is to buy a specially made travel guitar like the Washburn in this video.

Finally, if you want to take your guitar on a trip with you and you can’t bring yourself to trust the baggage handlers and you don’t want to carry it onboard, you could send it by courier a day or two ahead of you. But that’s expensive.

Many learning guitar players find that their hands tense when they try to play fast. Gaining speed on the guitar is a science in itself. Quite often a guitar student will feel that he is coming along nicely with a new song until he tries to play at normal playing speed. Then mistakes start to happen.
When you play guitar at too fast a speed your strumming hand will become as hard as a rock. This will wear you out in no time. So, try to keep your hand relaxed while you attempt to play faster.
Of course, you should only be trying to play guitar fast with the help of a metronome. Once you are confident that you know a new piece, gradually increase the speed on your metronome, but stop once you feel that tension coming into your picking hand.
Another solution to the issue of guitar speed is to play less notes in your guitar solos. As you take note of your hand tensing up as you play, see it this happens as you try to play particular combinations of notes. If it you are constantly struggling at the same places in the solo, you could try examining closely how you are playing. You might need to play less notes or work out another way of alternating your up and down strokes as you move between strings.

This video also touches on using hammer-ons and pull-offs in fast lead passages . . .

Here is a news flash for many people learning how to play guitar: your bed is not the best place to practice. It may be familiar and comfortable but sitting on your bed does not make for the best guitar-supporting posture. You need to learn how to hold your guitar.

To play the guitar with minimal stress on your body, you should be sitting in a chair without arms. A stool without a back would be good. If you sit on a stool and shift your upper body forward and back you should be able to find the position where your posture can be maintained without stress. It will take some time and practice before you can play in this position without effort.

The fat part of your guitar will be resting on your right leg if you are right handed. The guitar should be a part of you when you are holding it, so have it in contact with your chest. You can have the guitar neck more or less parallel to the floor but you can adjust this a little to suit your comfort. The end result with this is that you can now work on how to play the guitar: how to hold your pick and how to finger chords.

Here is a video specifically for electric guitar players . . .

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