12-String Guitars: The History & Pros vs Cons

Like in many hobbies (or careers), guitarists are always asking themselves what new gadget or instrument they need to pick up. “Would my playing be better if I had (blank)?” or “Do I need to get one of the many 12-string guitars that better fits the music I want to play?” are examples of such questions.

These queries are magnified even more when it comes to guys who actually make music for a living. Whether it’s a country band looking to beef up their new single or a singer/songwriter who isn’t getting the sound she wants out of her guitar, there are always musicians looking to find the perfect sound.

One instrument that many guitar players toy with the idea of buying is the 12-string guitar. So what makes these so special?

Read More

Guitar Calluses: Development, Maintaining, and Helpful Tips

Learning guitar can be difficult at first, especially trying to develop guitar calluses. While perhaps not the best way to sell someone on learning to play guitar, it does happen to be true.

Aside from issues like practice time availability and cost, one of the biggest complaints that guitar newbies have is that playing guitar hurts their fingers. It would be easy to respond to this with some kind of “Man up” speech that includes the phrase “toughen up, buttercup,” but finger soreness is a real topic that needs to be addressed, especially for beginners.

Read More

How To Learn Guitar: From Getting Started to Becoming A Pro

Are you wanting to learn guitar? We’ve taught thousands of people how to play guitar in a variety of different settings. Along the way, We’ve come up with some do’s and don’t's that might prove helpful for all of you aspiring axe slingers.

The basics truths about mastering any craft apply here, but there is one big difference: guitar is a lot more awesome than any other skill or craft. We can only move forward once we agree on that fact, because, all kidding aside, playing guitar well can be a lot harder than it looks.

Read More

Best Online Tuners and Tuning Apps for Guitars

"I hold in my hand one of the world’s best online tuners. It’s fast, accurate, and easy to use," the old man said as he slowly lifted his iPhone 6s to the sky…

Okay, so maybe the iPhone is not one of the world’s best online tuners, but it’s a pretty good one. The same tiny little speaker you use to call your bestie and tell them that you’re at the mall can be used to tune those guitar strings up when you’re ready to rock some faces off!

All of the tuners mentioned below work a lot better with an acoustic guitar or amplified electric guitar, especially when there’s minimal background noise.

However, you can plug your electric (or acoustic/electric) guitar directly into your phone with an inexpensive adapter like this one from Peterson:

Read More

Learn to Play Guitar Online: Why Should You?

Learning a new instrument can be tough when you’re just starting out. There are all kinds of questions that you need answers to and you don’t always know where to go to find them. Especially, why you should learn to play guitar online?

“What kind of guitar should I buy?”

“What kind of music do I want to play?”

If you’ve decided that you want to learn how to play guitar, you need to figure out what kind of lessons you’re going to take.

Yeah, you’re going to want lessons. It may sound more rock’n’roll to teach yourself how to play, but most people can’t handle that all on their own. Even if you have a natural inclination to music, guitar lessons can only help.

Read More

Pages