Guitar

Back in the mid-2000s, I fell in love with the idea of a Fender Telecaster with a B-Bender, but I didn't want to have someone put a B-Bender in an existing Tele for a couple of reasons (cost, heavily modifying a stock guitar, etc.). Fender made the American Nashville B-Bender Telecaster, but it was out of my price range at the time and then they discontinued it. BUT THEN they brought it back in 2011!

This is the second post in a series of tutorials to help my kid learn some of the more technical aspects to recording and music production. After recently buying him a PreSonus TubePRE preamp, I realized he may not know exactly how to use it.

I was recently talking to my kid about recording and the topic of signal flow came up. We were discussing options with regard to how to record guitar: direct into the interface with software amps and effects, through the pedalboard and then into the interface with software amps, and through the pedalboard into the amp and then mic'd and into the interface.

I've recently published a new project called Flash Chord (at FlashChord.com) which is a web-based tool for practicing chords, scales, and arpeggios against an endless stream of randomized chords.

I often find myself in discussions with friends about effects pedal order for guitar and bass. Now that my kid has started playing guitar and is getting into pedals, I realized that I didn't have a good go-to resource for the topic. I decided to write my own article on the subject, not because I have something fundamentally different to say than other people, but because I think I have a better way of presenting the information.

I love guitar effects pedals. Oh mah science, do I love guitar pedals. I love 'em! Give me more! It's a bit of an addiction. I've had a lot, I still have a lot, and I want more. Pedals, pedals, PEDALS! I think you're starting to see the picture here: pedals = good. :)

This is the story of my latest guitar effects pedalboard build, including the successes and failures.

When I was 17, my jazz choir teacher introduced me to the Jim Dunlop Jazz III guitar pick (in black, incidentally). From then on, I was hooked. When I wasn't strumming or swinging my whole arm for Texas bluesy goodness, I had a black or red Jazz III in my hand. It was especially great for jazz as I could hybrid pick for comping...that was before I even know what hybrid picking was.

Fast forward a nearly a decade and a half.

This is intended to be a living document, so check back often for new tips and tricks to help your guitar playing. These appear in no particular order.

Use a metronome when you practice. This helps establish consistent timing, accuracy, and synchronization between your left and right hands. Your playing will improve much faster by using a metronome. You can also build up speed by slowly increasing the tempo in small increments such as 8bpm at a time.

Learning to speed pick can be quite difficult. Many guitarists do it different ways from circular picking to stiffening their arm and wrist. I recommend trying to keep your arm and wrist as loose as possible and let the movement come from the wrist. Try to minimize the range of motion.

Illustrated in A Major

The Shape 3 Major Scale is an alternate moveable root-6 (meaning that the 6th string contains the root of the scale) major scale. This example is illustrated in A major and should be practiced in all available positions.