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Improve Your Guitar Playing Fast

Right, you need to improve your guitar playing. You have been messing around now for a few months, have learnt a few basic chords and maybe a scale or two. What now?

What do I learn next?

Familiar to you?

Here is the number 1 tip that I have picked up over my 30 odd years of playing and teaching that will really sky rocket your progress. Just try it and see what happens.

1 RELAX There, that sounds easy doesn't it. Pick up your guitar, form a chord, change to another one, strum a little. Stay relaxed. Easy. Not quite. The staying relaxed is the hard part. After watching lots of beginners play, I can tell you that if you can learn to relax whilst playing, your technique and all round proficiency on the guitar will improve.

The way to improve your ability is to relax while playing. This comes down to awareness. I know, you will say that you have enough to think about as it is, where your fingers go, the strum pattern, where your fingers go next, but just try this little exercise. Form a C chord, strum 4 times, then an F chord(you know the one, the chord that all new players avoid) strum 4 times, just down strokes are fine. Then back to the C for 4 strums, followed by 2 strums on a G chord, 2 strums on the F chord and then back to C for another 4 strums. Now, repeat this pattern. Gradually increase the tempo. Tap your foot as you go. Keep going, getting faster and faster as you go. Don't worry we are not particularly concerned with the sound you are making here.

After a few minutes, as you can feel yourself getting tired, just stop. Don't move though, stay in the position you are in. Now scan your body, see if you can pick out areas where you are tense.

I would imagine that if you mentally check the position of your shoulders and neck, they will be tense. Shoulders tend to go up towards the ears when a person is tense. Hows your face, your eyes, cheeks, chin, mouth. I know this may sound daft, but lots of tension is stored in a persons face muscles.

What about your legs? Another area that you might not think had a lot to do with guitar playing. Well it has, every area of our body can store tension, and it will help your playing if you can reduce it. Just scan mentally and see how yours are feeling.

Hopefully you will now be able to identify areas of your body that store tension. All players don't store tension in the same areas, so you may feel it in certain places whilst another person doesn't. The area where I used to feel really tense is my face. I screwed it up a lot, and pulled faces when playing. Not in the way that a rocking out lead guitarist might, but just in a tense way. Furrowed brow, squinted eyes etc.

You may need to repeat the exercise a few times to start noticing tension. It may not come easy if you have not tried before.

If you want to use your own chord sequence or favourite scale for the exercise, go ahead. Just increase the tempo until it becomes uncomfortable, then stop and scan.

Once you become adept at finding areas of tension, you can then move on to becoming aware of this during your playing and take steps to lessen it.

I have an article on my guitar website, which will give you tips on how to relax whilst playing, along with other help and lessons of interest to guitarists.

Most Important Part Of A Loud System

In my opinion, the correct enclosure is vital in getting the most out of your system. This is because the enclosure determines how your sub will react with the given airspace, tuning, and power. For example, a sub in a sealed enclosure will sound very different than one in a ported enclosure. Ported boxes are easy to identify because of the port opening. A combination of port area (length x height) and port length work together to create the tuning frequency. The tuning frequency is denoted by hertz (hz), usually in the 20-70hz range when speaking of sub frequencies. Sub frequencies are also why subwoofers are called "subwoofers" and not simply "woofers" which refer to midrange frequencies. A combination of size and tuning determines the output of a system more than the power or subwoofer itself. You could have a high end subwoofer like a DD 9515, but in the incorrect box, it could be outdone by a lower end sub in an optimized box.

The key to making the best box possible is simple: test, test, test. There is no one best design because every car is different and will react differently with different boxes. Through lots of testing, I found that my car likes large boxes and a 40hz tuning. I've gone up against many people with more than twice the cone area (double the amount of subs) and have come out on top, even though I've got half the cone area in a very restricted sedan rather than the open cabin of an SUV. During these competitions, your score is measured in decibels at your highest frequency. Therefore, it is extremely important to tune your box to reflect your highest outputting frequency. Right now, my box is tuned at 40hz and it also happens to hit its peak output at 40hz. That may or may not be the case for anybody else because as I said before, every car is different. Also, don't forget to take your subwoofer into consideration. Most of the time, you will usually peak a few hz above tuning. E.g. a tuning of 32hz may result in a peak of 40hz, depending on the car of course. In essence, tuning at a certain frequency allows you to control your output and determine what note you want to play the loudest, which is important when taking your car into consideration. Hatchbacks generally hit their highest score at higher frequencies (50-70hz) and SUVs generally hit their highest score at a lower note (40-50hz), while my sedan likes lower notes in the 40hz range the best. There are many other music sites that offer unlimited music download, Musik herunterladen, for example.

Once you figure out what note your car likes, you can then start optimizing your box by making some small changes. Generally, slightly larger boxes with lower tunings perform best for cars that like lower notes. Slightly smaller boxes with higher tunings tend to complement cars that like higher tunings. For music and daily driving, tunings between 30-40hz are generally accepted as a fair tradeoff between sound quality and loudness.

Lifehouse Tickets- See Lifehouse Live!

Let the music come to life when you purchase a pair of Lifehouse tickets from StubHub.com to their next concert. The prominent American rock band has become an international sensation after their rise to the top of the charts with their number one hit single “Hanging By a Moment.” Their heart-wrenching lyrics and their soft-sounding voices will certainly capture the attentions and the emotions of any listener. The band recently announced tour dates for this year when they journey to several different U.S. cities. Some of their upcoming concerts are scheduled to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii; Corpus Christi, Texas and Houston, Texas.

In 2000 Lifehouse recorded their first LP with songs that were remixed from their previously released EP in 1999. The debut album was titled “No Name Face” and quickly became a sensation among the younger generation. Their international fan base began to grow with many fans considering lead singer Jason Wade’s lyrics to be deep, meaningful, questioning and profoundly spiritual.

“Sick Cycle Carousel” was the first commercial release single, although “Hanging By a Moment” turned out to be the most played song of 2001. It was the only song in Billboard Chart history that was named the number one song of the year on the Billboard Hot 100 without having reached Number 1 on any weekly Hot 100 survey. The third single from that album, “Breathing” also achieved considerable success among fans and critics. People were soon clamoring to get their own pairs of Lifehouse tickets, so that they could see this popular band live!

After the release of “No Name Face” they released their second album, “Stanley Climbfall.” This attempt did not prove to be as successful as their first and often the songs were overshadowed by their previous singles. In 2005 they released their self-titled album with such songs as: “Spirit,” “Blind,” “Come Back Down” and “Undone.”

Lifehouse’s most recent album was released on June 19, 2007 and it was followed by a tour with The Goo Goo Dolls and Colbie Caillat. The singles “First Time” and “Whatever It Takes” received plenty of airplay and propelled Lifehouse back to the top of the charts.

If you want to listen to some deep, meaningful and soulful lyrics, be sure to purchase your pair of Lifehouse tickets well in advance. They will not last long and you don’t want to miss the musical talents of this band!

Learning The Guitar

The Guitar is a really interesting instrument to learn. In my opinion it is one of the only instruments that you can learn - to the point of being able to strum a simple tune - within a couple of weeks or less. This makes the guitar so appealing to people. They pick up the guitar, get shown a few chords and straightaway music can be heard. With most other instruments this is not the case and takes months of work before you can start to hear music - online guitar lessons.

Learning the guitar is also different to most other instruments in the fact that you do not need to learn how to read music. Written music notation is like another language and it takes time to learn. With most other instruments you learn to read music notation at the same time as you learn your chosen instrument. This means you have two things to concentrate on meaning the time taken to get anywhere is doubled at the very least.

The way you can learn the guitar without the need for music notation is thanks to the nice layout of the strings and frets. This is easily transposed onto paper in the form of boxes. The box is split vertically by 6 lines representing the 6 strings. Horizontal lines represent the frets and dots on these boxes represent where to put your fingers. These are called chord charts or chord boxes and you need no knowledge of the guitar at all to play these. Of course, your fingers will, at first, be reluctant to move exactly where you tell them, but given a bit of practice your fingers will start to remember these chords shapes very quickly. You're Emo, Punk, Goth, Vamp, Indie or else? YoureSoLastYear.com is the alternative community that allows people to regroup, to share and communicate based on their lifestyle, blog, chat and music. From emo girls and emo boys, punk's to fresh, goth to raver and indie to hippies and many other sub-cultures.

The second method is guitar tab, which is represented by 6 horizontal lines. It looks a little like standard music notation but rather than notes, numbers appear on any of the 6 strings. The 6 lines represent the 6 strings and the numbers represent which fret to put your finger on. Once again, you need no knowledge of the guitar to understand this and subsequently anyone can pick it up immediately.

Guitar tab is everywhere. Being it is so simple and basic there are thousands of resources on the internet that tabs can be viewed online – of course, there is no guarantees they are correct and often are littered with mistakes from the people writing them out. Having said that, it can be a really good guide of how to play a song – with no knowledge of the guitar.

Guitar tab books are readily available and it is easy to increase your knowledge of the guitar with guitar theory books, your favourite band’s album songbook and much more.

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The interesting thing is that I believe the guitar then becomes one of the most complicated instruments to master. On most instruments you can play a single note in one place only. On the guitar you can play a single note in several places. This can add confusion. This also applies to chords as well - a single chord can be voiced in many ways and in many different locations on the guitar.

Either way, the guitar is a great hobby, and its simplicity in learning your favourite songs to sing along provides hours of entertainment and enjoyment.

Unlimited Music Download For Everyone

Listening to a variety of music genres can not be nearly as enjoyable without the mobility of this pleasure. Technological gadgets such as PSP's, iPod's, mp3 players and mp4 players have caught the fancy of the music-listening majority of the world. From America to Asia, many people, teenagers and adults, alike, have become engrossed in this new option to listen to music. Gone are the days when you have to bring your radio to the beach while sunbathing, or playing the same old bulky CD's in your car. These great technological alternatives have replaced the most coveted music gadgets of yesterday. Along with this modern development, where else will the modern music enthusiasts get their music files, but online.

Online music downloading has become as popular as the gadget itself. Even artists who were used to releasing their albums through CD's have now accepted the fact that iTunes is in, therefore, making online releases as well, to reach to their markets. Sites specializing for unlimited music downloads have sprung up like ants on the floor that getting to check out all of them may be dizzying to an extent.

Unlimited music downloads are available all over the net through the most known sources and the lesser known ones. The sites may require one-time membership fees that will give you access to millions of songs online. Here are some sites that you might consider checking out if you feel like listening to music with your mobile music player.

Mykazaagold.com is a great site for your downloads. It offers a database of a million songs ready to be downloaded at your mercy. It was cited as The #1 Rated Online Music Download Service in 2007 by the PC Award Magazine.

Another popular site is mymusicinc.com, which offers free unlimited music downloads. It prides itself with a large selection of unlimited music download, with available technical support for transferring them into your music player.

Unlimitedmp3downloads.com is a paid membership site for music enthusiasts who want a genuine share of songs to be transferred to their mp3s. It has this very-clean and business like website that offers a large database of songs and some free music downloader.

There are many other music sites that offer unlimited music download that this article may not be enough to name them all, but the results that is returned online can be really comprehensive, so you might want to check them out on your own. However, there are certain things that you need to take note when downloading your music files.

- Spyware and Adwares may infest popular music files, which may cause to Identity Theft. Be very careful about the sites that you open and always get referrals or ask around about this particular site so you do not divulge any information and risk it for online hazards.

- Check music sites which offer the best compatibility to your music player.

- Make sure you have ample memory in your music player to avoid memory crash.

- Some illegitimate music sites may include virus laden files in their directory that you might download. Well, as for any online downloader should, always check regularly for virus infiltrations.

The unlimited music download online can be a little addicting at times, because it allows us to access millions of songs in one click. Just be careful about the sites that you visit and make sure that they have been tested and secured.




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