Play Guitar Now

NAMM 2007 One More Day

2007-01-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

I saw almost everything that I wanted to see on Friday. I'm back just to see the Gibson room.

Steinberger is part of Gibson.

This is the Les Paul designed to fund the rebuilding of New Orleans. The Saints just lost to the Bears...

Check out all the goodies!

Maybe they won't even know if one was missing...

Epiphone Casino

Valley Arts guitars are part of Gibson, too.

This one looks pricy.

The card says "Please Do Not Handle". Fine, be that way!

ES-335

Check out the finish on this.

Close up of the bridge.

And she's buying a stairway to...

Wait, the low E on the 6th string is off the bridge!

Might as well stop by the Fender room again. Maybe I missed something on Friday.

Get some basses in there for a change.

Fender Custom Shop guitars.

Nice looking Tele.

Gretsch acoustic guitars.

Stevie Ray model.

That's it for me. See you next year!

NAMM 2007

2007-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Here I go again. Back to the NAMM show.
It looks the same from the outside as last year.

First up is the PRS booth. This is the 513 model. It has 13 different sounds made up of 5 single coil pickups.

More PRS guitars.

And more...

Moving on to the Peavey booth. That's Hartley Peavey in the middle. Yes, the big boss.

Some Peavey guitars.

I don't think anyone but Gary Hoey himself will be using these.

A $40,000.00 Martin guitar.

And $600.00 Martin guitar.

This guy had this ring on his right hand that controled the effect pedals.

These are the pedals.

First pointless guitar that I saw today.

Dean guitars...

Dean bike...

And Dean girls!

Be careful that looks very sharp.

Michael Angelo Batio's four neck guitar. This is insane.

Nice looking guitar, but I don't remember who makes it.

Heritage guitars

Mountain of Mesa Boogie.

Travel size guitars. Notice the tuning pegs in the body.

Paul Stanley from Kiss... without makeups.

Ugly looking Parker guitar.

Cool looking Parker guitar.

I don't remeber the name of this guitar maker but the rep was nice enough to thank me for taking the picture.

I have found the Ibanez booth. Wait a minute... how many strings are there on this?

It's an eight string!

Steve Vai's 7 string looks normal compared to the above.

Nice looking Ibanez.

This bridge looks very advanced.

George Benson model

Steve Vai's JEM 20th Anniversary model.

This Ibanez looks like a PRS.

Hey, that Jet King! I just got one myself in natural finish. They had discontinued this model but I guess they are bringing it back. Excellent guitar.

Ibanez Artcore guitars.

John Scofield model

Dan Electro guitars.

Will Ray from the Hellecasters at the G&L booth.

Sharp looking Yamaha guitar.

Frank Gambale at the Yamaha booth.

ESP guitar. Thre were many more guitars with cool finishes, but too many people were standing in line around the booth for autographs from someone I didn't know.

Schecter booth.

Monster guitars from Schecter.

First Act guitars. These guys made a lot of money selling cheap wind instruments at Wal Mart and Costco before starting up the custom guitar division.

They were suing some music stores that were passing out flyers calling First Act's wind instruments "ISO" or "Instrument Shaped Objects". I don't what came out of that.

Wall of Orange amps

Shiny Pearl drum set

This is the coolest drum set I've ever seen. Too bad I don't remember which booth this was... It's one of the big ones.

Fun looking guitar cases.

Inside the Boss effects room. Businessmen and rockers trying out the latest gears.

They made the famous Fender amp into a pedal.

This little four-track was the coolest thing here. I've got to get myself one of these.

Another famous Fender amp turned into a pedal.

I think this is the amp that Stevie Ray Vaughan was using. Yes, he was using a Fender BASS amp.

Taylor guitars had a room of their own on the 2nd floor.

Inside of one of Talors electric / acoustic guitars.

And finally, I'm in the Fender room. It's my favorite room. I know they won't disappoint me.

This is not bad...

But it's nothing compare to the last years walls of different colored Strats. That was cool.

I see that the Hello Kitty line is expanding.

Eddie is busy again trying to compensate for the lack of new recordings.

This is NOT his old guitar. This is BRAND NEW. They made a replica of his famous so called "Frankenstein" guitar.

Check out the rust on the pickups! Someone spent a long, long, long time on this. Fender is going to have these available for purchase. I wonder how much it's gonna be. Probably over $10,000.00....

These NEW looking EVH guitars are list priced over $3,000.00 and they didn't have to go through the troubles of making them look all beat up.

Some Jackson guitars. This is still in the Fender room.

Randy Rhodes models... I think.

More Jacksons

And more Jacksons

Why would you want to play a guitar like this?

Oh, yeah! Gretsch! Still in the Fender room.

I love the way they look.

And the way they sound.

Now, this is different. I'm not sure that I like it.

A quick peek at the Digitech room.

Warren Haynes was signing away in front of the Gibson room, but I couldn't get in since I didn't have a Buyer badge. They won't let meaningless people like me in until Sunday... I'm not mad. I'll be back!

That's Mike Garson who played with David Bowie. He was playing jazz standards with a trio. They played Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo A La Turk. Very nice!!!

Wall of Marshals! No Yngwie this time...

Duesenberg guitars

Benedetto jazz guitars

Cool guitars from Burn

Zemaitis guitars

I've never heard of these guys, but I like their guitars.

You've got to love these funky shaped guitars!

Well, that about does it for today. I shall return on Sunday!

Check out my pictures from NAMM 2006!

NAMM Show 2006 Day 1

NAMM Show 2006 Day 3

NAMM Show 2006 Day 4

Loop Station

2006-11-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

Check out my new toy!

What's cool is that I can play this real time with no need to play along with pre-recorded tracks.

String Bending

2006-10-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

Work your right middle finger in the following bending exercise. The 1st half is in A and 2nd half is in B. Pentatonic minor scales using 1st and 2nd diagrams. Click for bigger image.

I noticed that the 3rd triplet of each measure should have an eighth rest in the middle, but you get the idea.

Power Chords

2006-09-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that you've heard of "power chords". They are very frequently used in rock and metal music. They are built on two notes, 1st and 5th degree of a major scale.

Above is E power chord. It is often called "E5". For those of you familiar with music theory, I know that there are #'s on F and G in the key of E major. I'm trying to make it simple, so please don't be picky. Anyway, here's an exercise using some power chords. Click for bigger image.

Take a listen.

Alternate Picking

2006-09-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

This is an exercise for alternate picking. You've got to pick down then up and down and up and down then up, you get the idea. Make sure to use all four left hand fingers (no thumb). Yes, pinky too! I've written this out until the 7th fret, but you should go up to 12th fret. Click for bigger image.

You should start slow...

Pick it up a little bit...

Then test your limit!

Make sure that you are picking all the notes. No hammer-ons or pull-offs. I guarantee you that if you do this for 30 minutes a day for two weeks, you will be an excellent picker.

I'm Still Here

2006-08-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks for noticing that I've been gone.

Blues Rock Riffs

2006-07-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Have fun with some easy blues rock riffs.

Finding Keys

2006-06-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

Time for ear training. Here is a simple sounding shuffle blues track. Can you find out what key it's in? Use the pentatonic minor scale.
Ex. 1

When you are trying to find out the key of a song, you have to just start randomly playing some notes and listen for notes that sound good. Like this.

Ex. 2 What about this?

You just know when you are in a wrong key, because it just sounds wrong!!!

Some songs can be played with minor pentatonic scale...

And major pentatonic scale.

Ex. 3 Your on your own on this one. This can only be played in major.

Spam Control

2006-06-01T01:40:00.000-07:00

Man, I just wasted a lot of time trying to delete comments left by some advertising company or something. I'm not going to spend more time to delete them all, but there are many more left.... I had to install this word verification feature and the spams stopped. I hope you don't mind.

Play Faster

2006-05-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

Time to work on your picking technique. Try this little lick here.

Now try playing along with this. It's 100 BPM. BPM stands for Beats Per Minute, it's how you measure how fast or slow a piece of music is supposed to be played at.
BPM=100

Now a little bit faster.
BPM=120

That's right, it gets faster.
BPM=140

And faster....
BPM=160

And faster...
BPM=180

Are you still there?
BPM=200

Oops, my drum machine only goes up to 250BPM!
BPM=240

That's alright, I can play twice as fast with 140BPM! Here we go!
BPM=280

Man, that's pretty fast. I don't think I can go on much longer...
BPM=320

Anybody still there?
BPM=360

Fine, this is my limit. I give up!
BPM=400

Well, you get the idea. Get yourself a metronome and practice playing something at a speed that you can handle. Then pick up the pace little by little until you can't handle it. Now you know your limit! Keep rockin'!

Electric Guitar Review

2006-05-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I got a cool write-up on this great blog site that reviews guitars and guitar stuffs called Electric Guitar Review. He's got a lot of nice guitars on there including this great looking Gretsch 12 string, so make sure to check them out.

It's a great feeling to know that there are people out there who appreciate what you do!

Basic Notes Reading

2006-05-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Notes on the 1st string. Open is E, 1st fret is F and 3rd fret is G.

One more exercise on the 1st string.

Notes on the 2nd string. Open is B, 1st fret is C and 3rd fret is D.

Name this tune!

Movable Chord Shapes

2006-05-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Time to exercise your brain instead of your fingers! Check out the chart below. All major chords are built with the root (1), the 3rd and the 5th of any given major scale. When you lower the 3rd by a half step, you've got a minor chord.

When you add a flat 7th to a major chord, it turns into a 7th chord. And finally, when you add a flat 7th to a minor chord, yes, it's a minor 7th chord!

So here is a major chord that you all are familiar with, I hope...

Lower the 3rd by a half step, and you've got a minor chord.

Add a flat 7th to a major chord, easier yet, lower the root (1 or 8) by a whole step and you've got a 7th chord.

Likewise, you can lower the root by a whole step from a minor chord and here is minor 7th chord.

These chords are movable, so you can play them anywhere on the guitar neck. If you want to play some F chords, just find out where the F is on the 6th string. F happens to be on the first fret of the 6th string, so now you can play F, Fm, F7 and Fm7 chords just by playing all the chords above on the first fret.

If you want to play these chords in B, play them on the 7th fret because that's where the B is on the 6th string.

You can do the same with the chords with the roots on the 5th string using the following diagrams. Same idea different strings.

Major

Minor

7th

Minor 7th

Have fun!

Jam Track in A

2006-05-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something you could play along with using the A pentatonic minor scale.

Arpeggio

2006-05-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

Arpeggio is a term used when you play notes in a chord one by one rather than all together at the same time. It is a very common technique used in rhythm guitar playing. It is extremely important that all the notes ring out and in order for you to be able to do that, you need to make sure that your left hand fingers are only touching the strings that they are supposed to be holding down. Use your fingertips! Check out this exercise. Click on it for a bigger image.

Here is another example of what you can do with same chord progression.

You can come up with your own variation of which strings to pick in what order as long as you are not playing too many or too few notes.

Blue Note Records

2006-05-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

Blue Note Records has been putting out great jazz recordings since the 1950's. Many great classic jazz giants from John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Clifford Brown, Bill Evans to modern day jazz masters like Wynton Marsalis, Norah Jones, Medeski, Martin & Woods, Charlie Hunter all have recorded great music for Blue Note.

I've been listening to a lot of this album lately.

Its master tape was discovered last year at the Library of Congress where it's been sitting on the shelf since 1958 when it was recorded. It is the only live recording available of Monk and Coltrane performing together outside of very low quality live recording made by Coltrane's wife on a tape recorder at New York's Five Spot also in 1958. Before this CD was released, I've read a lot of hypes and reviews about it and it lives up to all of it. It's smoking! When you say ROCK MUSIC, it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and it's the same with JAZZ in my opinion, but this is the kind of jazz that I like.

As far as Blue Note Records, I also recommend Hank Mobley's Soul Station. Look! I even found you a link for Blue Note CD Sales at the Tower Records!

Funky Rhythm

2006-05-02T23:41:00.001-07:00

I've been slacking off lately... Check out this funky groove.

You can play some E minor rhythm lick like this. I'll work on the written music later. Maybe not...

Slide Up

2006-04-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

Once you learn all 5 diagrams for the pentatonic scales, you need to be able to move from one diagram to another freely and not be stuck playing the same one all the time. You can practice sliding up to different diagrams.

The above example starts off in the 5th diagram, takes you to everyone's favorite 1st diagram and then up to the 2nd diagram.

Hammer On

2006-04-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

One of the basic techniques in legato playing is hammer on. You pick one note and let the left hand fingers "hammer on" other frets to make the notes come out. The following is an exercise that you can do to build up some strength in your left hand fingers. Click on it for a bigger image.

After the 2nd, 4th and 5th fret, go up to 3rd, 5th and 6th fret, then keep going up.

It should sound like this. I only went up to the 9th fret, but you should go higher.

Try playing it faster when you are comfortable at the slower speed.

You should take a rest if your arm muscles start getting sore. Think of it as work out for playing guitar better! When you become a famous rock star, you can pick yourself up one of these.

Gibson Custom Shop 1957 Les Paul Custom 3 Pickup VOS Electric Guitar Ebony

Walking Bass

2006-04-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

Jazz it up!

Palm Mute

2006-04-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

Palm mute is a technique where the lower part of your picking hand's palm mutes the strings at the bridge. It produces semi-muffled sound. You'll know what I mean when you hear the following exercise. You don't want to mute too much because then you won't be able to hear the pitches. It is an essential part of daily life of a rock or metal guitar player. Click on it to get the bigger image.

Did you really think I was about to let you go without hearing one of my solos?

Play Guitar Now!!!

Whole Tone Scale

2006-04-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

Whole tone scale is a cool sounding scale based on whole tones (duh?). Basically, if you play 1st string open, 2nd fret, 4th fret, 6th fret, 8th fret, 10th fret then 12th fret, you just played the E whole tone scale. All the notes are two frets apart. In the following example, I played the E whole tone scale using only the 2nd and the 3rd strings. That's right only those two strings. I just played those strings on all the odd numbered frets from the 1st to the 21st. Check it out.

Here is a little example of a whole tone lick that I use a lot. It just keeps going up two frets on those 2nd and 3rd strings! Click on it to get a bigger image.

You can experiment yourself with the background track.

It might not sound so cool if you ONLY used this scale when you take a solo, but if you throw it in there and mixed it up with more traditional pentatonic scale based stuff, it can sound exciting.

Easy Strumming Patterns

2006-04-05T23:22:00.000-07:00

Try them out on some songs you know. Who am I kidding? This is some boring stuff, I know... I've been kind of busy, but I promise you more exciting stuff in the near future.

Diatonic Triads

2006-03-29T23:46:00.000-08:00

Everybody LOVES music theory! Not really... But once you understand how it works, it's like a puzzle where all the pieces fit together to make a perfect picture.

Today's post is about Diatonic Triads which means chords built with three notes in a certain key. In the key of C major, these are the diatonic triads.

Make sure to click on it to see a bigger image. The first chord, C major triad (you can simply call this chord "C" if you are not trying to sound like you know what you are talking about) is built with C, E and G which are the root, the 3rd and the 5th respectably. Just count up from C to G. C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, F is 4 and G is 5. When we built triads based on all of the notes in the key of C major, what you get is the above. If you were to randomly play these chords in any order, you can make a song as long as you are starting with C chord and ending with C chord. If you don't know any of the chords above, please visit my brand new site at Guitar Chords Now and look for them.

Check out this chord progression in C. If it sounds familiar, that's because you've heard it somewhere before. I can't tell you what it's from because of copyright issues... Notice that all the chords used are the ones you saw above.

Have fun with key of G and F while you're at it.

Play guitar now!

Bending Exercises in Am

2006-03-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

Click for a bigger picture

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

Ex. 1 & 2 played at the same time

Repeat After Me

2006-03-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a little something that I recorded for those of you trying to learn pentatonic minor licks. Use C pentatonic minor scale. If you don't know what that is, check out the G pentatonic minor scale and move the lowest note (root) to 8th fret of the 6th string, which is C. Try to repeat what I play. You may not get it in the beginning, but you'll get the hang of it after a while.

While playback, I noticed that I goofed on the third one... I'm too lazy to fix it so please deal with it. Play guitar now!!!

End of the Road to King of the Blues

2006-03-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

I didn't make it.... I played well and I was pretty sure that I was going to make it since there was only one other guy that I thought sounded good. The judges were going to choose two players, so I thought it was going to be me and this older guy. Instead, they picked the older guy and this younger guy who didn't have too much chops but somewhat of a good feel. His technique wasn't there at all but I guess they liked his facial expressions and his "stage presence". I should've prepared some ketchup and puked it out for show. I was pretty pissed off, so I didn't ask the judges about the scores or what not but it sure was very disappointing and embarrassing. I would've been ok with it if I thought the players who got picked were better than me, but life goes on...

Road to King of the Blues 3

2006-03-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

Four more days to Guitar Center King of the Blues Competition. I narrowed it down to four choices of backing tracks and I have installed a secret weapon to my set up.

Oops, not so secret anymore...

Second Line Blues

This one is an A minor blues. It's not as inspired as the take I recorded last time.

Rockin Blues with Back Beat

Happy sounding blues in G. I like the feel.

Slow Shuffle Blues

Took me a couple of seconds to figure out the key. I mainly used B pentatonic minor scale. There are a couple of really good spots on this one.

16th Note Swing Funky Cool Shuffle Blues tk1

I handled the intro much better than last time. This one is in G. I'm going back & forth between major and minor. G is a good key to play on the guitar except when I play higher frets. 20th through 22nd frets are harder to play than some keys.

16th Note Swing Funky Cool Shuffle Blues tk2

It sounds a little better than the first take.

I have to focus on making everything I play meaningful. I didn't warm up before I recorded these, so it sounds like I'm doing warm ups as I recorded these. Some inspired moments here and there, but I should probably slow down more often. There are spots that I took some risks and landed on my feet and hopefully same thing will happen on Tuesday. I'll listen to players going before me and see how much risk I should be taking. But if you don't take chances, what fun is playing the guitar?

Check out my previous recorded practices at

Road to King of the Blues 1

Road to King of the Blues 2

D Major Scales

2006-03-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

Four examples of how you can take a solo over Em to A chord progression using D major scale. Em and A can be ii and V chords in the key of D major. Mistakes are left in there just for fun!

Rhythm Guitar Only

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4

This is D pentatonic major scale. It has the same shape as the 1st diagram of G pentatonic minor scale but it starts on 7th fret and the root is on different place.

Add two notes (F# & G), and it turns into D major scale. Not D "pentatonic major" scale, but D "major" scale.

Hard Rock Riff in G

2006-03-15T00:41:00.000-08:00

I had a request this past week to put more rock stuff, so here it is.

Below is the notation and tab for the main riff that starts the tune. It's based on G pentatonic minor scale with a couple of passing tones. Make sure to click on it to get the bigger picture. I just noticed that the rhythm is a little off on the last bar, but I'm sure you'll get the idea. I'm just going to keep pounding you with G minor pentatonic scale until somebody says something about it! Play guitar now!!!

Keith Jarrett at the Disney Concert Hall

2006-03-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

I know the name of this blog is Play GUITAR Now, but I have to write about a jazz PIANIST this time... I just came back from Keith Jarrett's solo piano concert at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He was phenomenal! I've seen some big names in jazz in action such as Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Pat Martino and McCoy Tyner, but this guy was something else. It's a very commonly used phrase to describe exceptional musicians in action, but the piano truly was an extension of his body. He is famous for walking up to a piano without any preconceived songs or structure and start playing whatever it might be that comes to him, and I am not sure if that's what he was doing tonight, but it sure sounded great. He played some standards in the encores, but it was mainly very modern sounding sometimes abstract music. It made me feel like I was listening to the most advanced music of its time at its cutting edge. This must be how audience felt when they heard Beethoven's 9th symphony at its premier. The audience loved him and kept asking for encores. He came back three or four times to do encores. It is a very good feeling to know that somebody special like that is being appreciated by many people. PLAY PIANO NOW!

Tribute to Singer -Songwriters

2006-03-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I'll be paying tribute to singer-songwriters who made some deep impressions on me. These people write the songs they sing on their own. First, there is Bob Dylan. A lot of you might think of him as that old guy who mumbles when he sings in that nasal voice. And you are right, that's him now. I'm not too crazy about the way he sings now either, but his lyrics are amazing. His albums from early 60's through mid 70's like Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blood on the Tracks are masterpieces of folk and rock music. Visions of Johanna is my favorite, check out the live acoustic version from the Biograph box set. It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding) is also excellent. His songs makes me feel like most of the songs I hear on the radio are so cheap and meaningless. What I love about his songs is that every time you listen to the songs, you can interpret the lyrics in different ways.

David Bowie went through a lot of changes during his career that spans almost 40 years, but I love his songs from the 70's the most. My favorite albums are Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Station to Station. His 1969 Space Oddity is one of my all time favorite songs ever. They should've chosen better 30 seconds as sample though... He skillfully and tastefully incorporated diminished chords, half-diminished chords and augmented chords in his songwriting. He's definitely not the first one to use those chords in rock music, the Beatles had done it well, but I love how he puts songs together with unusual chord sequences. It sounds fresh. His lyrics can be as abstract as Dylan's and he writes less about everyday life. Chord progression for Life on Mars? gave me the chills when I first learned it.

Joni Mitchell started out as a folk singer in the late 60's. Some of her early classic albums are Blue and Court and Spark. She tunes her guitars her own way when she wirtes songs. She's worked with some first class jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Jaco Pastorius throughout her career and some of her albums after mid 70's are heavily influenced by jazz music. Her Grammy winning Turbulent Indigo from 1994 has many great moments, and the song The Magdelene Laundries digs deep.

There are many other sontwriters worth mentioning that I adore like the Beatles (not just Lennon & McCartney, but George Harrison wrote some amazing stuff), Sting and Lou Reed from Velvet Underground, but maybe some other time.

Solo Licks in G

2006-03-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

These are some exercises that you can play over the Rock in G from the previous post. They are all based on 1st diagram of pentatonic minor scale in G. Ex.1 uses "pull-off" technique where you pick only the first note of the pair of slured notes. You have to slightly pluck the string with your left hand fingers as you pull them off. For Ex.2, use your ring finger to bend the 3rd string up. You have to bend that note C into D.

Lick in G Ex.1

Lick in G Ex.2

Some more licks. They use triplets where you divide one beat into three notes.

Triplets Lick in G Ex.1

Triplets Lick in G Ex.2

Make sure that you click on the music notation to view the bigger picture. I don't think you can see otherwise! And PLAY GUITAR NOW!

Rock in G

2006-03-06T23:36:00.000-08:00

This is a very typical rock riff in the key of G. Its chord progression is based on 12 bar blues. I'm sure that you've heard something like this somewhere. Make sure to click on the music notes so that you can see it better.

Road to King of the Blues 2

2006-03-03T22:12:00.000-08:00

I recorded my practice again for the Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. The first round is coming up on March 21.

16th Note Swing Funky Cool Shuffle Blues (What a name....)

It's got a good feel, but I think I should've played the major 3rd more instead of the minor 3rd. I think I can make this work. It's all about the feel that you can groove to.

Big Band Blues

Nice laid back feel, but it's a little too tame for my taste.

Chicago Blues

Very standard sounding tune. Pretty boring to play to.

Cool Shuffle Blues

Typical Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of shuffle. I think a lot of people will choose this one. I'm staying away from it.

Jazz Swing Blues

If I had the time and the patience to figure out all those cool chords in this, it should sound pretty interesting playing over them, but I'm too lazy and there are plenty of other tunes to choose from here.

Laid Down Blues

This one is a possible choice, but I'd rather choose something with more upbeat and funky feel.

Minor Baby Blues

I don't enjoy playing this one, but I think I sound pretty good playing it. It's a kind of tune that if you happen to be "ON", you will be able to play some inspired stuff, but if you are not, then it will sound boring.

Rockin' Blues with Back Beat

This one is fun to play. I love the funky groove. It's definitely one of top candidates for the competition.

Second Line Blues

This is a evil sounding blues and I like it a lot. I like what I played at the end after around the 3 minutes mark until the end. It may be little too crazy for the judges. Who knows...

Slow Shuffle Blues

I recorded this last time and I still like it a lot, but I'm kind of getting sick of it since I played it too much.

Stone Blues

It's got that Rolling Stones feel as the title suggests. It's little too laid back for me. I feel like an old man playing this one.

After I narrow down the choices, I have to work on what to do with the intro. I sound horrible on most of the tunes starting out. I was reading the rules for the contest and they will be judging the contestants on stage presence along with technique and originality. I'd better work out some crazy moves shooting fire works from the top of the guitar neck or something. If anybody had a chance to listen to all of these, I would really appreciate your feedback about which one I should go with. Always, PLAY GUITAR NOW!

Tribute to Shredders

2006-02-25T22:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to spend some time writing about those who shred. These are the people that made me want to put the guitar down forever from time to time because I didn't think I could ever do what they do. I haven't been listening to their new stuff for several years, but I still like the stuff that I used to listen to.

First, there is Joe Satriani. This guy is so good. A couple of my favorites are Flying in a Blue Dream and Memories. His legatos are so smooth and flawless. I've seen him live and he does it live too! Stuff that I've heard from him are pretty straight forward arena rock (without vocal) kind of stuff. Actually, he did sing but not so well. But it doesn't matter because he make the guitar sing. From what I've read about his more recent stuff, I understand that he's done some techno rock kind of stuff too.

Steve Vai is another one who seem to be able to do anything and everything on the electric guitar. Compare to Satriani, Steve Vai's music is not so straight forward. He uses scales and modes that are not commonly used in rock music. I used to listen to his album Passion & Warfare all day long and For the Love of God and Erotic Nightmares from it are highly recommended.

Nuno Betterncourt is the most band oriented shredder of them all. He is not known for instrumental guitar music. He was able to tastefully mix up super technical solo and rhythm guitar playing with commercially successful music with his band Extreme. I am sure that you have heard More Than Words if you listened to popular music in the 90's. Their 2nd album Pornograffitti is a hard rock masterpiece and the guitar solo from Get Funk Out contains this impossible lick that has sweep picking and tapping all rolled in one.

Yngwie Malmsteen is the shredder that started it all. While masters like Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhodes already were tearing up the rock scene with their godly fretwork in the early 80's, when Yngwie came out with all cylinders full blasting in 1984, he change the world of guitar playing. Heavily influenced by Baroque composer J.S. Bach and classical violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini, he made harmonic minor scales, diminished triads and sweep picking must learn tools for a whole generation of six stringers. Any album that he's ever done contains at least two or three guitar solos worth mentioning, so I don't know which ones to recommend. I must admit that sometimes I find myself fastforwarding through the songs only to listen to his solos....

If your are a rock guitar player who haven't heard any of these shredders, do yourself a favor and pick up some CD's from these guitar masters. You can spend 99 cents per song on iTunes too. You won't regret it. There are many others that I should have mentioned like Steve Morse, John Petrucci from Dream Theater and Eric Johnson, but I've got to go to sleep. Don't forget to PLAY GUITAR NOW!

12 Bar Blues

2006-02-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is the world famous 12 bar blues. There are infinite numbers of variations, but this is the most basic one. I did it in the key of G, so that you can practice that G pentatonic minor scales you've been working so hard on. Strum each chord 4 times per measure.

G Chord

C Chord

D7 Chord

Road to King of the Blues 1

2006-02-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

I've been practicing for that Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. I recorded some of my practice, so you can check them out. I picked up a CD with backing tracks that you can choose from. This one is called Slow Shuffle Blues.

This one is Slow Minor Blues.

This last one is Train Beat Blues.

I tried to sneak in a lick using whole tone scale around 2:15, but miserably failed...

I still have to polish up some spots, but I sound pretty good on these... I think. Let's see what happens.

I got into blues after listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Some hard core blues fan might not consider him blues purist and they have a valid point, but he sure can play the guitar like no other blues man.

When I was visiting San Francisco years ago, I started talking to this African-American bus driver. I told him that I play the guitar and I like to play the blues. He asked me who I was listening to, and I told him Stevie Ray Vaughan. He said, "That's not the blues he plays, that's rock n' roll. Listen to Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Now that's the BLUES!" I didn't take up on his recommendation until some years later, but I hear what he was saying. But that still doesn't change the fact that SRV got me into playing the blues. He died much too young in a helicopter crash in 1990 at the age of 45, but he brought the blues to a whole new generation of music fans and musicians.

I bet half the guitar players playing at the King of the Blues competition will be SRV clones! Am I one of them? I hope not. Remember to PLAY GUITAR NOW!

Funk

2006-02-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank dear friend notefarmer for inspiring today's post. Here is a background track that you can practice the G pentatonic minor scale.

You can do a lot with just using the first diagram of that scale. Try bending the first string Bb, second string F and third string C. Here is an example.

King of the Blues

2006-02-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

Guitar Center is hosting a guitar competition and I signed up for it. It's called Guitarmageddon, King of the Blues. The prizes are great. There are many many great players out there, so chance of me winning the whole thing is pretty slim, but if I could at least win the district competition, I will get a Gibson guitar.

Check out the link above and wish me luck!

All Five G Pentatonic Minor Scale Diagrams

2006-02-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

If you line them up like this, you will see that they are all connected.

G Pentatonic Minor Scale 5

2006-02-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

This is the last one.

Sample in Bossa Nova / Latin Jazz style.

G Pentatonic Minor Scale 4

2006-02-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

One more to go after this one.

Example in blues style.

G Pentatonic Minor Scale 3

2006-02-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is the 3rd diagram for the G pentatonic minor scale. It starts where the 2nd one left off.

Here's an example in the reggae style. I didn't play any extra notes this time.

G Pentatonic Minor Scale 2

2006-02-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

One more diagram for the G pentatonic minor scale. This one starts where the first one left off. There are three more just to give you a heads up.

Here is another solo, this time with drums and rhythm guitar, on G pentatonic minor scale. I tried so hard not to play notes not in the scale, but I've failed and stuck a couple of extra notes towards the end... I am so used to playing those extra notes, but I think you'll get the idea of what this scale sounds like.

G Pentatonic Minor Scale 1

2006-02-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Below is a diagram for G pentatonic minor scale. Pentatonic minor scales are very common in blues and rock music. It contains five notes, thus PENTA-tonic scale. G pentatonic minor scale is built with G, Bb, C, D and F. Unlike the chord diagram, you don't (can't) play all the notes at the same time. Practice playing all the notes from the 6th string 3rd fret to the 1st string 6th fret one by one.

Here are some sample licks using G pentatonic minor scale. I did play some notes that do not belong in the scale, but all three licks are based on it.

In the Beginning

2006-01-31T23:11:00.000-08:00

I was gonna do more guitar playing tips today, but I'm feeling lazy. I'll write about how I got stared playing the guitar instead.

It all happened back in the late 80's. A friend of mine let me borrow a Van Halen live video called Live Without A Net. It contained a guitar solo section about 10 minutes long where Eddie Van Halen played some of the most amazing things that I had ever heard or seen on the electric guitar or any musical instrument for that matter.

All I wanted to do was to be able to play the guitar like that and that was the beginning of the rest of my life. It takes something special to motivate a person to start doing something new and that 10 minute guitar solo was it for me. It's out on DVD now, so I should probably pick it up.

I am not too impressed with what he's been doing for the last 10 years or so, but I am forever thankful for the inspiration that he's given me.

NAMM Show 2006 Day 4

2006-01-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

I got a parking ticket yesterday for parking in a permit only area. Today, I wanted make sure that I park in the parking lot. You pay $9.00 and they make you walk so far...

Are we there yet?

You mean we have to walk to way over there?

He looks like a woman, but this guy is one of the best drummers that I've ever heard in my life. He was just trying out this drum set at this booth and the crowd started gathering because he was just rocking out so hard.

Logic Pro 7 software demo at the Apple booth.

Yes! The Gibson booth is finally open to general public.

Semi-hollow body guitars from Gibson. I don't know about that blue one...

Fancy looking Les Paul and the B.B. King model.

Gibson acoustic guitars.

I am a bigger fan of their electric guitars but these sure are nice too.

I certainly won't be complaining if somebody gave it to me as a gift.

One of my dream guitars, ES-335.

There it is! The Jimi Hendrix inspired Flying V!

That is such a cool poster. I want one of those.

Another shot of the V.

Peter Frampton model on the left and John Sykes model on the right.

People checking out Gibson acoustics. I was disappointed with the size of the showroom, but it sure was packed with good stuff. I've been seeing Gibson TV commercials lately and maybe they spent too much money in that ad and didn't have enough to get a bigger showroom at this year's NAMM.

It was very cool to see that TV ad though. When is the last time you saw a TV commercial for any musical instruments?

More Les Paul's and SG's.

Moving on to the Yamaha guitar booth. I didn't take too many pictures here on Thursday, so here you go.

A nice looking Yamaha Pacifica.

A couple of Yamaha AES series.

Yamaha bass guitars.

Our speed finger metal dude at the Aria guitar booth brought me back to the 80's with his shredding licks with no apologies.

Girls at the Coffin Cases booth. You should see some of their ads in music industry mags.

This guy was the best bass player at the NAMM this year. I don't remember what booth he was playing at but he had some serious chops and grooves.

My beloved Eddie trying to make more money with this pedal from Dunlop. I wanted to try it to see if it is really better than the regular phaser, but this guy just kept trying out the pedals, so I left.

This guitar player at the Kustom guitar amp booth was playing bass lines, chords and melody at the same time. Scary stuff.

D'Angelico guitar demo guy was extremely smooth. Country and jazzy feel tunes played very well. Made me stop and listen.

Pro Tools demo person.

Gibson bus parked outside.

See you next year!

NAMM Show 2006 Day 3

2006-01-21T19:31:00.000-08:00

Here we go with the 3rd day of NAMM 2006. I couldn't make it yesterday...

It's a nice day out in Southern California as you can see.

G. System guitar effects pedal from T.C. Electronic. I wanted to try it but all the demos were taken... Maybe tomorrow.

Cartoon finish Peavey guitar.

Leather finish Peavey Guitar.

Buckethead signing autographs at the Peavey booth. That's Bootsy Collins looking back in green outfit.

Jack Daniel's guitars from Peavey.

I'm back at the PRS booth.

One more PRS.

Former Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti signing away at the PRS booth.

Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue signing away at the Ovation booth.

Slayer guitarist Kerry King at some guitar string booth.

Nuno Bettencourt at the Dean Markley booth. I guess all the stars come out on Saturday.

Canadian guitar maker Larrivee.

Adrian Blew.

Stepping out for some fresh air.

John Lennon Songwirting Contest bus.

Smokers getting some FRESH air.

approaching the Yamaha showrooms.

One of Yamaha's showrooms. This one was boring.

Yamaha Alto Sax.

String instruments.

Brass.

Yamaha Silent strings.

Sharp looking Yamaha digital piano.

Huge grand piano.

That's enough for Yamaha. It seems like they always have pretty much the same stuff and setup year after year. Yet they are so successful, so it's working for them I guess...

Godin guitars.

Some dude showing off.

Nice looking grand piano.

Back at the Fender showroom.

I came back here just to take this picture.

Benedetto jazz guitars at the Fender showroom.

This guy was jamming away.

John Mayer with hot girl friend of his.

Gibson didn't open its showroom to non-dealers until 5:00pm. They told me that it'll be open all day tomorrow, so I'll just come back...

What's Kiefer Sutherland doing at the NAMM show?

New Jimi Hendrix inspired Gibson guitar. I wonder if the actual instrument is inside the showroom.

Line 6 guitars and amps. Their showroom only had a few things on display.

Canvas guitar.

Billy Sheehan at a booth I don't remember.

Joe Satriani at the Ibanez booth.

Dave Mustaine of Megadeth.

Interesting looking acoustic bass.

Some funky looking guitars.

Look, a double neck acoustic guitar. Wait a minute...

How are you supposed to play this?

Moollon guitar pedals. I guess they like silver.

Roland showroom. They usually have famous musicians performing in concerts.

I've never heard of this guy, but he sure knew what he was doing. I looked at the performance schedule but I didn't recognize any names...

Demo guy in the Boss pedal showroom answering questions.

People trying out Boss effect pedals. I spent some time hooked up to the headphones myself.

So this is the world's finest piano? Yeah, right...

So many pianos, no customers.

Demo guy at the Digitech booth.

That's George Benson on the right!

Rain Song guitars.

I think they are made of some special fiber material instead of wood. I don't know what difference it makes in sound. I didn't bother to try it out.

Hi there, bunny!

Here is an ugly guitar that would break really easily.

My first guitar ever was a Giannini. I still have it. It needs to get fixed since the neck is coming off from the body. I love that guitar for its sentimental value.

Babicz acoustic guitars. Notice how the strings go way past the bridge. I should've tried it out but I didn't...

I forgot the name of this brand, but I know the Ventures use these. I think it's got a hip shape.

And off course, there the Neck Socks. That's right. The Neck Socks!

I know you! You're that "Red Head Step Child"!!

This guy's name tag actually said, Elvis.

I can't believe that someone had the guts to do this. That is so wrong!

I don't think I took any pictures of violins yet. So, here it is. Enjoy it.

These are guitar strings. Yeah, give me a set of pink guitar strings!!

NAMM Show 2006 Day 1

2006-01-20T01:13:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking off last couple of days and I'm gonna continue to slack off by writing about NAMM show in Anaheim, California.

I had no idea that there were so many different finishes for Strats.

And more Strats....

Had enough?

Fender now owns Gretsch.

I've got get myself one of these...

Can anybody loan me... Better yet, give me a couple of thousand dollars?

Fender also owns Charvel who makes the Eddie Van Halen guitars!

List priced at $3,299.99, they are certainly overpriced, but then again, Eddie's not making music lately, so I'm sure he has to make money somehow...

After all, my favorite at the Fender showroom had to be the Hello Kitty guitar! Yes, Hello Kitty guitar is coming to your local music store!

Moving on to the Ibanez booth, these are their artist series jazz guitars. From the top, Pat Metheny model, John Scofield model and George Benson models.

A close up of one of Steve Vai models.

More of Vai guitars. Man, that Satriani dude sure is hairy!

Little Stevie now has his own acoustic guitar as well.

A puzzle finished guitar from Ibanez.

Ibanez guitar designed by that guy who designed "Alien".

Moving on to the Yellow Submarine guitar from ESP.

George Lynch model form ESP.

For those of you not familiar with the NAMM show, it is not only for guitars. They have pianos....

Drums...

Microphones...
Trumpets...

Accordions.... Well, you get the idea.

Marshall stacks plugged in and ready to go. Wait, a minute....

That's Yngwie Malmsteen! It seems that Diet Pepsi is not really working out for him. Who cares, he shreds!

PRS guitars. They are soooooo nice.

More PRS.

The guy on the left with grey hair and glasses. His name is Paul Reed Smith. I wonder what he does for this company?

Ok Paul, I'll take one of those. Can I write you a check for it?

Coming up on the Dean booth.

What the....

How are we supposed to play this thing? Oh, they don't even want you touching it.

Dean Girls and a lucky guy.

More Dean guitars.

Hello again. I swear, I'm not following you!

Yamaha has a whole first floor at the Marriott Hotel across the street, but they also have a separate booth for guitar, bass, and drums for rockers.

Those are nice looking guitars.

This one looks like an iPod.

I don't know if it does something special, but it sure looks cool.

Ernie Ball / Music Man.

Peavey.

Mesa / Boogie Amps. Oh, yeah!

Parker guitars.

More Parker guitars.

Washburn's N6. Nuno should've stuck with N4. The pick guard doesn't do it for me on this new one. Heck, what do I know, he shreds....

Martin Guitars.

Felix trying to close the sale.

Back of a $100,000.00 Martin guitar. That's right. $100,000.00!

I don't remember what company makes these, but they are very colorful.

I don't remember who these guys are either, but it's pretty happening.

Another nameless beauty.

Oh, no! That one's on fire!

I think this one was called Goldfish. Just a wild guess.

Zemaitis guitar. Looks expensive and the name sounds even more expensive.

German guitar maker, Dusenburg.

More from Dusenburg guitar.

Funky basses from the unknown part 1.

Funky basses from the unknown part 2.

Funky basses from the unknown part 3.

Funky basses from the unknown part 4.

Mother of all funky basses from the unknown. What do you mean you can't play a barre chord on the 7th fret?

Rickenbacker guitar.

Rickenbacker red. Their guitars would be half the price if it weren't for the Beatles. Damn it, John!

Left-handed Rick bass.

Cool looking and sounding pedals from Zvex. Only reason I remember their name is because they had a free sample CD-Rom. Smart idea, guys.

More pedals from Zvex.

Some Spanish guitar maker. I don't dare talk to them anymore because when I asked one of them if I could try out their guitar a few years ago, this guy told me, "No".

More nice guitars from stuck up Spaniards.

Bluegrass jam session.

That's it for Day 1. I won't make it for Day 2, but I'm planning on being there again for Days 3 & 4. More pictures coming up!

G Major Chord

2006-01-16T23:42:00.000-08:00

Here is the G major chord. You have to play all six strings and make sure that all the notes are ringing out just like with the C major chord.

When you are comfortable playing both C and G major chords, practice switching between the two chords. At a very slow pace that you can handle, strum C major chord eight times then switch to G major chord eight times. Keep repeating this until you can make the switch without any delay between the two chords. You should slow it down if you are having too much trouble changing chords in time.

Most people have a tendency to stop strumming with the right hand until the fingers on the left hand find all of the notes that they are supposed to be holding down. Keep your right hand going even if your left hand can't catch up in the beginning. This will force your left hand to move faster.

C Major Chord & How to Read the Chord Diagram

2006-01-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

This is the chord diagram for the C major chord. Numbers in the circles represent the left hand fingers that are to be used to push the strings down. 1 is for the index, 2 is for the middle finger, 3 is for the ring finger and although you don't need it to play this particular chord, 4 is for the pinky.

X at the top means that you don't play that string, and O means you play it. You obviously have to play all other strings because if you are not gonna need play them, I'm not gonna ask you to put fingers on them!

Make sure that your left hand finger tips push down the strings at about 90 degrees angle and place your finger tips to the left of the frets as close to them as possible without being right on top of the frets.

Play the 5 strings from the 5th to the 1st in a downward motion. Can you hear ALL 5 NOTES ring out? If not, make sure that all fingers are touching only the string that it is supposed to be pushing down. If your ring finger is touching the 4th string, you won't be able to hear any sound coming out from the 4th string. Likewise, if your index is touching the 1st or the 3rd string, you won't be able to hear those notes either.

Keep strumming away until you get a good sounding chord with all 5 strings ringing out . . . or if your fingers are hurting, take a break and realize that your left hand finger tips are about to go through some difficult time until they start generating some thicker skin! There really is nothing you can do but to keep playing for a month or so until you notice those fingertips getting harder and harder.

Notes on the Open Guitar Strings

2006-01-15T20:56:00.000-08:00

Notes on the open strings on the guitar are E, A, D, G, B, E from low to high.

The vertical lines represent the strings on the guitar with the one on the far left being the 6th string and one on the far right being the 1st string.

The horizontal lines represent the frets on the guitar. The bold line at the top represent the nut which lifts the strings on top of the fingerboard. The second horizontal line from the top represent the first fret.