Jun
16
Posted by Steven, under Guitars, The World of Music · RSS ·
NEWS.
Hey all! This weekend has been Download festival up at Donnington Park - I didn’t go, but it sounds like rather an eventful.. event. It’s rumoured to be a heaven for rock/metal fans - towering Marshall amps, nights of eardrum-battering noise, and a world-class lineup of bands.
For starters, Kid Rock was forced to cancel his set as he was rushed to hospital to be treated for dehydration literally minutes before he was due to hit the stage. Shame. Rock legends The Wildhearts also got themselves into a spot of bother after frontman Ginger complained about the lack of bottles being flung towards the stage, which resulted in more bottles being thrown - but when some idiot threw a knife, the band were pulled offstage to keep everyone healthy and safe.
Unlikely headline choice Lostprophets closed the weekend, with a set of radio-friendly pop-rock which apparently went down rather well. The Welshmen announced that after almost four years, they are considering a new album. Nice.
Been inspired to plug in & rock out after this years Download festival? Click here for the best choices in electric guitar tuition.
CHART.
Whoever said Coldplay have lost their touch. Their latest album “Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends” has sold 302,000 copies since Thursday, going straight to the top of the UK charts in just 4 days and making it one of the fastest selling records in history.
HYPE.
And here begins a future tradition. The HYPE BAND - a weekly band to watch. We’ll be giving you a brief background and a link to the band’s myspace so you can check them out, hopefully like them, and check them out on tour.
This week’s band is a Brighton based band called ThisCity. After meeting at a tattoo convention back in ‘06, they spent their first 18 months up until this time last year on the pub/bar circuit playing their unique brand of hardcore meets indie-pop. Then Fierce Panda records picked them up for a single release, bringing exposure to a national audience and positive reviews from the likes of NME, Rocksound, and a quote to sum it all up from a small publication called The Guardian; who simply said “This City Can’t Fail.” After receiving extensive play on Radio 1, the boys are now on tour with the likes of Biffy Clyro and Rival Schools, and sharing festival stages with Sigur Ros, Patrick Wolfe, and The Mars Volta. Things are looking awesome - check out www.myspace.com/thiscitymusic to hear and see the band do what they do best.
That’s all ’til tomorrow.
Have a good one.
May
28
Posted by Richard, under Guitars · RSS ·
One of the sad truths about the guitar is that it will require regular tuning - a nightmare for any non musically-experienced novice-player.
So lets fill you in so you have all you need to know musically if you are a little unsure by having a look at our guide to Note and Pitch
OK?
lets start…
Standard tuning
The most common tuning method is referred to as “standard tuning” and don’t worry, generally speaking (for a beginner) there is ONE right tuning. This is E,A,D,g,b,e (lowest to highest pitch, thickest string to thinnest string). The jumps are to the nearest note of that name, so not an octave and a bit or more.
How to tune
There are two methods of tuning used, having a reference pitch or having an electronic tuner.
- Tuning to a reference pitch
A reference pitch allows you to tune the guitar by comparing the pitch of your guitar to a pitch that is almost guaranteed to be what it should be, such as a note from another tuned instrument, a tuning fork, a pitch pipe.
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Example
Our guitar is 100% out of tune! Luckily we have a tuner, hurrah. The Qwick Tune Guitar Professor has an electronic pitch pipe function which rings out at the pitches of all 6 strings of the guitar. So after turning on the pitch pipe we select the Tone function and it will ring out at the Low E as default. Using this pitch we can mimic it with our 6th string (called the E string). When done we can now change the reference pitch to the next string (A) and repeat the procedure. You may only need to tune one string to the correct pitch and do the rest by tuning the remaining strings relative to that one. We will have a look at how to do this later in the blog.
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- Tuning with an electronic tuner
The electronic tuner is the beginner’s best friend; the electronic tuner can hear your guitar and will tell you if you are flat or sharp of your desired note. Two forms of input are microphone and cable so if you are using an acoustic or classical without a pre amp don’t fret.
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Example
Once again our guitar is completely out of tune, Qwik Tune Guitar Professor to the rescue! The Qwik Tune Guitar Professor also has the electronic tuner function. After turning the tuner on select the tune function, now play the 6th string, if the string is tuned to roughly the right pitch an E should appear on the screen with the needle (and LEDs) displaying how close to perfect E it is. Fine tune the string until the needle appears in the middle and the green LED stays. If the string is significantly out of tune the note on screen may not be E, if it IS out of tune it is more likely than not to be lower in pitch (i.e. D or C). In this case you must tighten the string until the note name becomes E, then it becomes a matter of fine tuning it - as before.
Caution!
If the note appearing is F or G for when tuning an E string be careful, you may be sharper than E. Don’t risk breaking a string - If unsure de-tune the string and start again, better safe than sorry.
—–
Hope this helps.
Good Luck - Rich’
May
28
Posted by Richard, under Pianos · RSS ·
Here is the very basics for those in doubt…
Octaves
There are 12 notes repeated over and over in a cycle, these cover an Octave distance. So… the note C found in the next cycle is an Octave higher, similarly - C in the previous cycle is an Octave lower.
The cycle of notes goes from A through to G and starts again on A.
Up and Down in pitch
Going up in pitch means you go up in the note name (C > D), going down in pitch means you go down in the note name (D > C).
Flats and Sharps
There are 7 natural notes (c,d,e,f,g,a,b) and yet 12 notes in an octave, so where are the other 5 notes you may be wondering. They’re found inbetween the natural notes in the form of Flats and Sharps. A Flat is lower in pitch than the natural note equivevent whereas a Sharp is higher. Therefore inbetween A-B we can find A Sharp and B Flat, both of which sound the same. Just to say, all but two pairs of notes have Flats and Sharps - B-C and E-F are both directly linked with no intermediate notes.
