How Long Should I Practice?

One question I often hear is how long should I play for when I practice?

Well, it all depends on how long you have!  I'm have a full time job, family and other interests outside of guitar (I know, who'd have thought!)  I try and play as much as I can.  Sometimes that means 10 minutes where i can run a few scales then strum out a song or two or maybe just work on a riff that i'm perfecting.

Either way, have fun with it!

iPhone Guitar Apps

I previously posted on a guitar app for my iPhone called GigBaby! I guess like most bloggers I am into tech as well as guitar so it's a natural progression for me, well in my mind it is anyway.

GigBaby is a four track recorder right in your pocket.  It allows you to use the built in Rhythms in the background on a track and lay down whatever you like, whenever you want.  I used it at home to put down some Rhythm guitar while I was trying to master Santana's Black Magic Woman.

It was as easy as sit down, pick a beat, fire up track one to record and off you go.  It'll count you in for four beats as well which was handy.

It will also allow you to download the tracks to you MAC, but I'm a pc so didn't test that out.  All in all, I'd say that for under $2.00AUD it's well worth it.  A great recording app for those who want to tinker around with recording without spending any real money.

I had a lot of fun with it!

New Vampire Weekend Single Horchata FREE

I love free music.

I am always on the lookout for some legal downloads.  I'm a subscriber to Australian Rolling Stone magazine and have had 30 or more tracks given to me by some great bands for nothing.

The latest band I like to join in is Vampire Weekend.  They are giving away the first single Horchata from their upcoming Contra.  Its due for release on the 11th and 12th of January 2010 for the UK and US.  Not sure about when I'll see it down under but hey, I got a freebie so I'm happy.

Click on the link to the above to visit their site and either subscribe to their emails or click this link to get it without giving away your email.

Now, where are those headphones...

Chord Types and Shapes - Category A Shapes

Category A shape chords, or category 1 shape - whatever you're preference is - are chords where the root note is on the low E string.  Let's use a common one; G.

Below is a picture of a G chord in the Category A shape.  The great thing about these is that they stay the same no matter where you move them to on the fretboard.  Shift it up two frets and you're playing an A, back to the first fret and it becomes an F.  Scoot the whole thing up to the 8th fret and you're playing C.  Easy right?

The fingering is normally to bar all six strings with you're first finger, second finger up one fret on the G string, and you're third and fourth fingers on the A and D strings.  Think of it as an E chord in the open position but using you're index finger for what would be the open strings.

I'll show you some more shapes in the up coming weeks, let me know if you would like to see one in particular.

Most importantly, have fun with it!

FREE Guitars!

That's right kids, who doesn't want a free guitar right?

Well, the 30 seconds from Mars guys are giving are 30 guitars in 30 days.  They're Michael Kelly guitars which I've never played but they look great.  Michael if you ever read this tweet me on how I can 'borrow' one for a while ok?!  How do you enter?  Click the link and tweet about it.  Yep, all you have to do is use the web app to send a tweet from your twitter account and you're in the running.

Have fun with it guys, and good luck!

Break It Down

I went on holidays!  yep, beautiful Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise.  Only problem was, no guitar for 8 days straight.  I really will have to invest in a road case for my Maton.

My guitar teacher also went on holidays so it's been almost two months since my last lesson.  Before he went away he gave me the sheet music for part of Eric Clapton's Crossroads.  It's a classic blues track but it's really fast.  I mean REALLY fast.

So we broke it down.  yep, I spent the first week working on just the first 8 bars.  Once I had that down pretty well, I moved on to the next four (they were even more complex than the first 8!).

It's a great way to learn complex stuff, or anything that's pushing you're limits a bit.  It does take some patience but is well worth it.  Try it and let me know if you think it helped.  I'd love to hear some of the songs you gave it a shot on and how you went.

Most importantly, have fun with it!

iPhone Guitar Apps

Today I downloaded what looks like will be a great app for my iPhone and guitar playing.

It's called Gigbaby! and it was a little over 1.00 Australian.  For this you get a four track recorder, metronome, a bunch of rhythms to play along with and a whole lot more.

I thought it was a pretty good deal for like a dollar.  I'm going to play around with it over the weekend properly and see what it's like.

If any of you out there have used it let me know what you think, or if you can recommend some others that'd be great too.

But most importantly, have fun with it!!