Thanks to Guitar Lifestyle for finding this old Eric Johnson article from Guitar World. Of note is Eric's opinion on how much your fingering decisions affect your guitar tone.

"I always sacrifice ease of execution for better tone. For example, on "Camel's Night Out" (Venus Isle), which we'll cover next month, I played the same solo using eight different fingerings until I got the tone I wanted. You can imagine how long that must have taken!"

And that's a really good point. Not just that your left hand can affect the tone, but experimenting. If you continue to practice and experiment you will find little techniques or sounds that you're partial to. As those elements continue to show up in your playing you begin developing your own style.

Last week we linked to an overview of recording on your computer. Well now Guitar Noize has a post about possibly turning those recordings in to cash. Pump Audio is a firm that licenses independent and mainly lyric free music for use in advertising, tv, radio, and web use. You retain rights to the song and make some bank. Sure, not many people aspire to be the creator of the background music for a car dealership ad or a podcast, but it's not a bad way to make money for stuff you were already doing.

It's currently Spring Break time and summer is coming up fast. Are you going on a cruise any time soon and hoping to get a little picking in while on vacation? The Acoustic Guitar Forum has a thread discussing tips on taking your guitar along with you on the cruise ship. I'd say the most important tip boils down to keeping your guitar with you during the orientation/emarbarkation time and not leaving it with the rest of your luggage that may just be left outside your door. Consider your guitar your carry on. Other than that you should have no worries and plenty of time and great settings to practice.

Generally Electric has a three part guide to taking a guitar idea you come up with and transferring it into a simple demo that you record on your computer. These directions have specifics about using Apple's Garage Band software but there are some larger principles that can be applied to anyone using a computer to record guitar.

Part 1: The Basics of Recording
Part 2: Creating Loops/Backing Tracks
Part 3: Effects and Finishing Up


An excerpt:

"Going through this process will have introduced you to the basics of recording. There’s a wealth of things to learn about recording, but remember that the music itself is the most important thing, and what we’ve covered here is all about demonstrating your musical ideas.

I find the following points useful to keep in mind:

Keep it simple: don't go overboard with multiple parts and special effects. Think of this as the musical equivalent of a sketch on the back of a napkin: just put down what you need to communicate your idea.

Get it down: don't spend too long tweaking. Get a basic beat down and record your parts over it. You can always expand and improve it later, but don't let your inspiration fade while you're programming a tambourine part.

Come back to it: when you're done, leave it alone and do something else for a while. Come back to it later with fresh ears and see how it sounds.

Don't compare: don't worry that your demo doesn't sound like a professional recording, because it's not supposed to. Remember that it's only meant to communicate an idea, and many of your favourite songs will have started life in the same way.

Experiment: if you don't know what something does, use it. The more you play around with this stuff, the more you'll learn and the better your recordings will be."

Over on FreeBassGuitarVideos.com we have free lessons on playing bass using the two finger plucking technique with your right hand as well creating a funky sound by playing slap bass. But there's a third method that we haven't covered yet. Using a pick or plectrum. If it's something you thought about head over bassguitarblog.com for their post Plectrums - To Pick or Not? It's a thoughtful post that's followed by some great commentary by the readers:

"When I play with a pick it reminds me of when I used to use a bow to play double bass (upright bass) in an orchestra. I love the feel of the give and take of the pick against the string similar to how the bow felt each time it would grip the string in the short staccato notes or when scrubbing."


photo by: cnraether