Guitar Tricks Blog

Musicians of all sorts, including singers, use vibrato to help add expression to their music. Vibrato makes your notes come alive. It adds warmth and gives notes more character and longer sustain.

Normally when you fret a note, you push it straight down on the fingerboard. But when you bend a note, you pluck a fretted note (the bend's "origin" note) and push or pull the string with the fingers of your fretting hand, stretching it across the fingerboard toward the upper or lower string so that it rises in pitch and becomes another note (the "destination" note).

Here are four pieces of gear that I have used personally and consider to be gear—among a mountain of other gadgets and gizmos—that has revolutionized the way we make, and experience, music.

If you are just starting out, the open mic night will give you a chance to gain experience, try out new material, receive feedback and perhaps, if you are lucky, play a great local gig and start establishing a small fanbase. Here then are some tips on proper etiquette for a successful open mic night.

Electric guitars are made with a myriad of options, with various pickups, bridges, fret sizes, tone woods, tuners and such all having an impact on how an instrument plays and sounds. But stripping things down to the absolute basics, there are three types of electric guitars to chose from: hollow body, solid body, and semi-hollow body.

Bad habits can become ingrained and are sometimes hard to break. Correcting them as soon as they crop up, or better still, avoiding them entirely, is essential if you are to keep on track to becoming the guitarist you've set out to be. Here then are ten common mistakes many beginning guitarists (and some seasoned ones as well) make, and suggestions for how you can overcome them.

Have you ever envied someone who has the ability to listen to a piece of music once and then instantly replicate the tune on the guitar? Chances are your problems are not due to a lack of creativity, but rather an undeveloped ear.

Did you know that playing the guitar is actually good for you? The following are ten reasons why you might want to take up the guitar pronto, none of which involves fame, fortune or the sexy factor.

The guitar acclimates to its environment. Sudden variations can stress it out and cause a host of physical damage such as warping, cracking, and chemical deterioration. When it comes to the guitar and weather, the rule of thumb is not to expose your instrument to any climate conditions that throw you yourself out of whack.

The sullen, bodaciously-inked Lewis, who made a name for himself as one of heavy metal's all-time top vocalists and purveyors of angst, is trying a new genre on for size—namely, country. 

Whether you're cruising down a stretch of coastal highway to Joni Mitchell, or humming an Irish lullaby to a fussy baby, or squeezing out an extra mile or two while running to Green Day, or perusing the Sunday paper over scones and Schubert, music has a unique ability to affect how we feel. So how is it exactly that music has such a potent effect on our psyches?