Guitar Articles

December 16 2014

2014 - best of iTunes - music, books, apps, movies

2014 has been a good year for music. Ben Howard, Taylor Swift Foo Fighters, Sam Smith, The War On Drugs, Eric Church, Jungle, are some of the top picks on iTunes.

I have collecte ...

» 2014 - best of iTunes - music, books, apps, movies

November 26 2014

Easy Songs & Chords for Teaching Kids to Play the Guitar

Teaching kids to play the guitar might seem like a difficult and stressful task to undertake, but it doesn?t have to be! The key to successfully teaching kids how to master ...

» Easy Songs & Chords for Teaching Kids to Play the Guitar

November 07 2014

Oh! Susannah on Clarinet & Guitar - Amalia & Robert

Amalia loves to play music, and she is definitely a natural - picks up melodies really fast.

She has been taking piano lessons for a while, but recently switched to the Cl ...

» Oh! Susannah on Clarinet and Guitar

November 03 2014

BIAS Desktop Review - guitar amp plugin

The BIAS Desktop plugin from Positive Grid is a very nice tool for your digital audio workstation. It is provided in AU, VST, RTAS and AAX formats for Mac and PC as applicable.

You can ...

» BIAS Desktop Review - guitar amp plugin

October 31 2014

Amalias Halloween Song

I wrote this little melody last year, and I almost forgot about it. I figured it would be fun little piece to finish about this time of year!

It's actually a really fun chord progression to improvise over. ...

» Amalias Halloween Song

October 17 2014

John Mayer no longer a Fender Artist

So, what happened? John Mayer has tweeted two messages which seem to indicate that his relationship with Fender is over.

The famous artist recently wrote to his 588,000+ followers on Twitter: ...

» John Mayer no longer a Fender Artist

October 11 2014

Targeting chord tones on guitar

Focusing on chord tones as you play lead guitar is very important. Chord tones are the notes from the chord you are playing over, and knowing which they are for each chord in the progression is extremely ...

» Targeting chord tones on guitar

September 26 2014

Tohpati Tribal Dance Review

Tribal Dance is Indonesian guitarist Tohpati's third album for Moonjune Records. He is joined by bass guitarist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Chad Wackerman for an impressive album of progressive jazz rock and ...

» Tohpati Tribal Dance Review

August 28 2014

Limited Edition American Standard Stratocaster Channel Bound

I just noticed this on Fender's website. These models have colours I adore. Aren't they just beautiful? I look forward to a chance to try one out some day.

Notice that ...

» Limited Edition American Standard Stratocaster Channel Bound

August 26 2014

Last Chapter of Dreaming

THE NEW MARBIN'S ALBUM "THE THIRD SET" IS AVAILABLE NOW ON MOONJUNE RECORDS!

THE BUSIEST HARDWORKING LIVE BAND IN THE USA!

For more info, go to the direct link: ht ...

» Marbin - Last Chapter of Dreaming

July 18 2014

Johnny Winter Passed Away

We have lost another blues legend, the blues rock giant Johnny Winter died in his hotel room in Switzerland on July 16t 2014. He was 70 years old.

He was playing his heart out until the end, and had ...

» Johnny Winter Passed Away

July 15 2014

Line 6 AMPLIFi FX100 Review

The Line 6 AMPLIFi FX100 is a small but powerful floor board, using the AMPLIFi technology. It provides a quick and fun way to get a great tone.

The tone matching feature is quite useful. You can dial up ...

» Line 6 AMPLIFi FX100 Review

July 03 2014

How To Know Where To Play a Guitar Lick

Someone asked me how to count in a song, to know exactly where to start a lick. Truth is, you need to forget about counting. You need to always know where you are in the progression, but counting j ...

» How To Know Where To Play a Guitar Lick

July 03 2014

The Best Compressor Pedal

I've never used compressor pedals much, but that has now changed. This is my favourite compressor pedal. It makes my tube amps really come alive at any volume, and it's especially awesome for the wonderful sem ...

» The best compressor pedal

July 01 2014

V-Picks Review

Here are some of my V-Picks in action. My favourite V-Picks are the blue and dark red ones - the Jalapeno and the Red Rocker. I also like the white/pink/glow-in-the-dark ones.

Give V-Picks a try and let me know wh ...

» V-Picks Review

June 28 2014

Stout Drive - Overdrive Pedal

This overdrive is powered by two vintage russian millitary MP38 transistors for silky smooth drive tones bordering on fuzz.

It's a very cool pedal, and I find the pedal works best with humbucker gui ...

» Stout Drive - Overdrive Pedal

June 13 2014

E Major Scale Diagram

To make it easy to follow the notes of the Major scale, here is a neck diagram showing you all the notes of the E Major Scale.

The indicators on the notes refer to the Intervals, or Scale Degrees. The Root n ...

» E Major Scale Diagram

June 11 2014

New Gibson ES-Les Paul Guitar

Gibson has introduced the brand new ES-Les Paul guitar. It's a marriage between the solidbody Les Paul Standard and semi-acoustic ES-335 - probably the two most famous models they have ever created. And no ...

» New Gibson ES-Les Paul Guitar

June 08 2014

Understanding Tube Amps - Review

This book by Dave Hunter provides a good insight into different kinds of tube guitar amplifiers, their differences in design and construction.

You will find many ...

» Understanding Tube Amps

May 07 2014

Toontrack Classic Amps Pack Demo

I've been playing with the Toontrack Classic Amps EZmix Pack for EZmix 2 lately, and I decided to give you a demo.

In this track, I used the Classic Amps Pack, the new EZDrummer 2 & EZKeys fr ...

» Toontrack Classic Amps Pack Demo

May 05 2014

NAMM 2014 Gear and Music Fest

I went to the NAMM show in January, and here's a late report on what I experienced.

The highlight was the music. Totally. The gear stuff you can get tired of after a while. I saw some great shows that ...

» NAMM 2014

May 01 2014

Book a hotel here

Ok, this is silly, but I have set up a site where you can book hotels through me. If you use this site to book your next stay, I may get a few peanuts in commission.

I know - it's kind of silly, but I was settin ...

» Booking a hotel

April 15 2014

Clean Water Nonprofit Partners with Taylor Guitars to Make Sweet Music

Logged Old-Growth Trees Reincarnated as Guitars to Provide Clean Water and Reforestation in Central America

April 15, 2014 - In an unprecedented part ...

» Taylor guitar from century-old Engelmann spruce

April 09 2014

Classic Amps EZmix Pack from Toontrack

Toontrack has announced the release of the Classic Amps EZmix Pack for EZmix 2.

The Classic Amps EZmix Pack presents 50 complete signal chain presets including amps, stomp boxes, speakers an ...

» Classic Amps EZmix Pack from Toontrack

March 11 2014

Epiphone Acoustic Guitar AJ-220S

If you are looking for a nice but inexpensive acoustic guitar, you will want to check out this beautiful guitar from Epiphone. Dressed in a beautiful finish, and fea ...

» Epiphone Acoustic Guitar AJ-220S Review

February 22 2014

New Jeff Beck Album

For much of Jeff Beck‘s career, recording has often appeared to take a lower priority than, say, working on vintage cars. However, he admits that his upcoming record — his first since 2010′s ‘Emotion & Commo ...

» New Jeff Beck Album

February 21 2014

Scuffham S-Gear Review

Using plugins and digital technology for guitar tone has been so-so for quite some time, in my opinion. I have used a variety of amp and effect packages from different vendors, and recently, I tried a product calle ...

» Scuffham S-Gear Review

January 28 2014

BIAS app - great iPad amp designer

BIAS is an amp modeler app for the iPad, or rather, an amp model designer. It gives you an enormous amount of options for tone and tweaking. BIAS is made by the same company (Positive Grid) t ...

» BIAS app - great iPad amp designer

December 18 2013

Badlands Guardian Face

This is pretty cool. I am only a few hours away from this amazing "face".

It looks like a face from a satellite's point of view. However, this formation in Alberta, Canada, is completely natural. It is ref ...

» Badlands Guardian Face

December 15 2013

Murilo Romano - Scream of Freedom Review

If you like progressive hard rock music with lots of skilled guitar playing, then you should check out this album.

I have listened to this album for a while now, and it rocks. There's onl ...

» Murilo Romano - Scream of Freedom Review