This is a story which was told me by a great musician — my teacher.

So, let me start.
This is his story but I will retell it as if it was mine.


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When you fell in love with the guitar and its sound, you probably never really thought in terms of ‘acoustic’ and ‘electric’, you just loved the way it sounded. But when you tell people that you’d like to play it and well, especially friends who have been playing forever, the first question they’ll ask is “Acoustic or Electric?, and you’re stumped! You think asking them might help, but you’ll get contradictory opinions there as well. So what exactly should help you decide which guitar you should play and why? This should give you an idea of where your heart may lie.


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About 1700, according to early records, the first working piano was developed by Bartholommeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy. It was soon called a «pianoforte» because, unlike a harpsichord, it could be played both «piano» (soft) and «forte» (loud). This technology revolutionized the musical world, from honky-tonks in Fort Worth to kindergartens in Kansas City. We call it a piano for short.

A piano's felt hammers make notes by striking wires (strings). A piano has 200-250 strings, in sets of one to three strings per note. All the strings in a set must have the same pitch, or they won't make beautiful music when the note is struck. Each key plays a different note because some strings are longer, some are shorter, some are thicker, some are thinner, some are stretched more tightly, some are stretched more loosely.

High notes are played on thin, tight, short strings, while low notes are played on thick, long strings. If the lower strings weren't thicker, they would have to be a lot, lot longer — more than 25 feet! Whether upright or grand, try to fit such a piano through the door of a radio studio. But the longer the strings, the better the piano. That's why a concert grand piano is such a big instrument. The tall upright piano has longer strings, better action and better performance than the shorter, cheaper spinet piano. The piano's pitch increases as your fingers move up the keyboard from left to right. But you probably knew that already.


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Hi everyone.

I want to share my experience about recording mp3 CD and listening to it.
There are few hints you have to know to receive the biggest amount of joy and pleasure while you're listening to it.


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Hi everyone.

Yesterday I read an article in Forbes where one very interesting fact was described.
Scientists calculated that spending 10 000 hours for developing any skill is enough to become a master.

That's why it's very important to begin as early as it's possible. Let's make some small calculations:
If you play 1 hour per day it's equal to 365 hours per year. That means for mastering your guitar you will need little bit more than 27 years. My experience shows that it's impossible to go on every day for 1 hour. Those who do so will inevitably have some additional weekends and probably won't ever play all that 10 000 hours. School, work, children, etc takes time and if you play just for yourself few hours a week is ok… But only if you play just for your own pleasure.

If you spend 3 hours a day… Then it's gonna be better. Roughly 10 years of hard work and you are the master. At least, your technique is great.
10 years is very real because most of us begin to play from school age and when we are 25-30 these 10 000 hours are already ours (wow, I'm a poet).
Many musicians have that special period of life when they played for 10 hours a day due to high volume of work, repetitions, concerts, etc. Ask any famous musicians — they will tell you the story how they woke up at 5 am, did tons of work, played for all day and night long and went to bed at 3 am to wake up after few hours.

While I was studying the very first steps of becoming a guitar player I met one guy… He was so excited about guitar that he played 8 hours per day! He came to my teacher when I was already little bit experienced and in 2 years he passed through the entire school program which children study for 11 years. He didn't play guitar before and after two years he managed to enter Paris conservatory. That was an excellent success. I didn't see him since that but after two years of that kind of playing he was already a master in my eyes. He really did play greatly.

What do I want to say…
Everyone who wants to play guitar should practice alot. But now you know that becoming a master is not just matter of luck, talent or any other special circumstances.
It's about time.

Learn 10 000 hours and you will see that you will become a master.
If my calculations are right I have done 8 000 hours already. Now I work even harder even though I don't want to become a superstar. I want to play as best as I can because guitar is not a simple instrument. It's the philosophy of life.
But that's another story.

Hello.

For a very long period of time I wanted to share my own feeling of what a music theory is and why do we need it.
So this post is about basics and application of some rules into play.

Music Theory — why do we need it?

Learning some pieces of music theory is very essential if you want to become a real musician.
Maybe you've heard some stories about people who have never studied music theory and somehow became great musicians — but don't believe them. At least all that musicians could play one instrument or maybe few — and their teachers explained them all basics — it's just inevitable. Following some rules helps to feel when music sounds right and when it sounds wrong. Sometimes it looks like maths but our world is full of maths — only take a look at nautilus or sunflower with its Fibonacci sequence embodied in their shapes.

Notes and Chords

We have twelve notes in our music. Hell knows why only twelve but not 34, but it's enough to create stunning music.
Here they are:
A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#
Looks not very friendly, right?

But let's take a look at it on a piano:

Now it look pretty simple, isn't it?
But I probably wanna ask — Why does it start with «C»?
I'm not sure about it but I gues that's because C maj is the easiest scale on Earth.
Thousands of popular hits are made on that scale ang composed from easy senquence of chords which includes notef from C maj scale.

Take a look at the picture and try to play these notes together:
C-E-G — that is C chord
A-C-E — that is Am chord
F-A-C — that is F chord
G-B-D — that is G chord

C, Am, F, G — sounds good, isn't it?
C, F, G, C — not bad also.

Most of the songs are basing on that simple chords.
Try to play that 4 chords with left hand and use your right hand to play any white keys — they will all sound good. That's because you play chords from C scale in left hand and notes from the same scale in right. Together they sound harmoniously.

So every scale consist of notes which can be taken together to create chords. When you play chords and notes from one scale your music will be right.

I think that's enough for today. Next time I'm going to tell you more about scales and their patterns.
But for now — C scale is perfect to begin with. So you better try and hear it.

Good luck!

Some of the most respected musicians in rock music history — Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee and Sting, to name a few — are bass guitarists. The bass guitar provides the foundation upon which the rest of the band builds a song, and if the bassist is having a bad day, the entire band can suffer because of it. If you are a bass guitarist, do not underestimate your importance; your hard work and diligence can turn more good shows and recording sessions into great ones.


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The Most Important: Humidity and Temperature

Every acoustic guitar is made of thin wood which is easily affected by temperature and humidity.
Too high or too low humidity can badly damage your guitar. AT big guitar factories very strick rules are applied for all places where guitars are kept and produced. For example — Martin keeps its factory at a constant 45-55 percent humidity and 72-77 degrees Fahrenheit (22-25 degrees Celsium). So I won't recommend you to keep your guitar in a very dry or very humid place. Don't keep it near battery, avoid changes of temperature or exposures to cold — it can cause small cracks in the finish. Maybe you have noticed that guitar exposed to cold even for a small period of time gets out of tune. Thin wood of guitars is very tender and easily affected by such usual things.

Keeping your guitar in high temperature or humidity can cause permanent damage — glue loses its properties and even can cause the bridge to pull off.

If you plan to take your guitar with you to any place use a special case for it. Good, soft case is more than enough — most of good cases are very soft and will protect your guitar from rain, snow, wind, dust and envious looks of others. It's more than enough unless you plan to fly by airplane and guitar will be kept in a really hard conditions for some period of time (only imagine your guitar in a luggage compartment surrounded by tons of suitcases and bags, and many airplanes have the temperature there the same as outboard during the flight).

If the guitar was exposed to freezing temperatures, let it warm to room temperature while still in its case. This lets it come up to room temperature more slowly, decreasing the possibility of wood and finish cracks.

When guitar is not in use for a long period of time it's also good to keep it in its case. Don't forget to loosen strings little bit. But do it only if you really plan not to play for a long period of time — loosening and tighting your strings there and back too often will ruin their sound.


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Greetings!
I've read a good advice here about choosing the right guitar and yesterday I bought a new Vintage V900N.

In a few words: It's amazing.

And I want to give a small review for those who is interested in acoustic guitars for 300$-400$.
It's going to be a small story so don't blame me if something goes wrong because this is my first review.

I begin.

It was an early morning of a very usual wednesday.
I woke up, had my usual breakfast and gone for work. I work in a music shop and that day we were going to have some new guitars arrived. Even though I work in such place I'm not a good musician. I play little bit of everything, but not perfect, really. Many years spent in music school were quickly forgotten as soon as I graduated and now I just like to play time to time for myself.

So I entered the shop and looked how two guys are unveiling guitars from paper package. There were many of them — classic, acoustic, electric, bass… But one guitar caught my attention. I moved to it among piles of paper and took it in my hands. Pretty heavy, it was cool and felt like early autumn. Don't know why, but I felt it like that. Light wooden body with dark rosewood binding looked attractive so I found a tuner and tuned it (yes, it's still easier for me to use tuning devices rather tune guitar by year. But that's not a sin!). So I tuned it and took few chords.

What a sound it was!
I never thought I could be enticed by a guitar.
There was something seductive in its sound. Something that resonated with my body and I felt every note like it was me who was played not the guitar. With my eyes widely open I played and played, and nothing could force me to stop.


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A good teacher is like a candle — it consumes itself to light the way for others.

If you seriously want to play guitar or any other musical instrument you have to find a good teacher.
Of course, there are lots of materials on the web which can be learned alone without any help — but believe me, learning with an experienced teacher is much more exciting, interesting and brings more result in less time.

How to find a teacher?

— First of all ask your friends, especially if someone plays any musical instrument. That doesn't guarantee that a teacher will be perfect but at least it will be a person you can trust.

— Go to the music shop. Guitars, pianos and other drums are usually beaing sold by musicians who can play these instruments. They may probably share some contacts with you or even become your teacher.

— If still no one is found you can visit a local music school — and ask if someone of teachers gives private lessons. Such people are usually very conservative, prefer tons of music theory and will probably use notes rather than tablatures — but a bit of communication can solve that situation. I taught my teacher how to read tablatures and he was very excited about that.

— If you live in a place where no schools, music shops or friends can be found — open a newspaper or search the web. You don't even realize how many musicians are looking for a student.


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