Learning To Use The Whammy Bar

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By chris

There are just some techniques that a beginner isn’t going to be able to execute with a guitar that the professionals can perform with ease. Using the whammy bar is one of these advanced guitar techniques that guitarists should only approach once they have a solid understanding of the fundamentals.

Properly known as a tremolo arm, the whammy bar was introduced in the 1950s. There are a number of popular designs produced by the major manufacturers but the whammy bar was first developed by Fender and released with the original Stratocaster. Since then, legends like Jimi Hendrix and Eddy Van Halen have made the whammy bar a major part of their personal sound. For this reason, a lot of beginning guitarists want to emulate their favorite guitar legend and dive right in to using the whammy bar. This is a mistake however, and it’s important to take it slow when learning how to use it.

The whammy bar requires quite a bit of attention and coordination to use effectively so it’s probably best for advanced or intermediate guitarists. It produces a vibrato effect by temporarily changing the tension of the strings on an electric guitar. Once you’ve inserted the whammy bar into the body of the guitar, it’s possible to produce a higher pitch by pointing the whammy bar toward the bottom of the guitar and gently pressing down on the bar.

To produce a lower pitch, simply point the bar up toward the headstock and press down. This is done while playing a note (and sustaining it) or while playing a chord. This type of sound effect was first used in Blues and Jazz but has made its way more prominently into modern Rock music.

You have to be more vigilant to your guitar’s needs when you’re using a whammy bar because it causes the guitar to go out of tune more quickly than it would otherwise. Once you’ve mastered the basics, beginning to use a whammy bar can add some variety to your sound. It’s one of the more advanced guitar techniques that you don’t need to learn right away but it will improve your sound and allow you to put your own spin on classic chords and songs.

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JamPlay Review

I recently got a chance to try out JamPlay, and I am thoroughly impressed by the site. For those who haven’t heard of it yet, JamPlay is a guitar membership site that offers high quality video guitar lessons with a variety of instructors. The site hosts a wide variety of content (more than 20,000 minutes worth) and you’ll find all the lessons you need to learn and master the guitar. Let me go into some of the pros and cons of the site in this JamPlay review.

JamPlay divides its lessons into three phases. Phase 1 is for beginners while intermediate and advanced guitar learners may want to jump in at Phase 2 and 3. Phase 2 focuses more on specific genres and styles of guitar while Phase 3 is centered around learning to play actual songs. In Phase 1 you will the guitar basics and fundamentals. The lessons start of assuming that you have no previous experience, so absolute beginners can start off here. After the first couple of lessons, you will understand how the guitar works, and how to play your guitar properly. Once you’ve advanced past the very basics, you’ll then start learning other beginning guitar essentials including proper posture, basic chords, strumming techniques, scales and much more. All in all, the beginner lessons do an excellent job of setting you up for the future phases.

Each of the video lessons are filmed in HD, so the quality is excellent. Most lessons are around 40 minutes in length and are divided into chapters for easy navigation. If you ever want to repeat any part of a lesson, it is quite easy to move back and forth. The lessons also include useful supplementary material that you can review after each lesson, and there is a place for you keep your own notes to refer to at a future time. You can also manually track your own progress on each lesson. This integrates with the Progress Report feature of the site which tells you at a glance which lessons you’ve started, mastered, and still need to work on. This is a nice way to make sure you stay disciplined with your guitar learning.

One unique aspect of the JamPlay site is that the instructors have filmed their own sets of lessons independently. Since everyone’s learning style is different, it is great to have to choice to find a teacher who’s teaching style is compatible with your way of learning. I recommend before start out, to browse through the first couple of lessons from each teacher and find the instructor that appeals to you the most. It is also possible to mix and match and if that works well for you. JamPlay has an impressive stable of 30 experienced guitar instructors. A few of them have over 30 years of guitar teaching experience so they definitely know how to teach you properly.

The other part of what makes JamPlay unique are its social networking features. You can make your own profile, share your interests like favorite bands and make new friends on the site. By participating in the JamPlay community, you will feel a lot more involved and will help your motivation for learning. The site also includes a very active forum, where you can get answers to your questions or just plain hang out. There’s also a daily webcam sessions with a particular JamPlay teacher which allows you to interact with the instructor over streaming video in a group chat environment. This is a really fun feature that I don’t think any other site offers.

Compared to a similar guitar membership site like Guitar Tricks, JamPlay does cost a little more per month ($19.95 to $14.95). However, the monthly fee is still quite modest, compared to what you would pay for private guitar lessons. Another downside with JamPlay is that you have the be online with a good broadband connection to enjoy the best possible experience. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to download the videos to your computer for offline viewing.

If you are serious about learning to play the guitar and enjoy the idea of being part of a guitar learning community, you should definitely give JamPlay a serious look. At least check out the free lessons they offer on the site to see if you like it. JamPlay suitable for guitar learners of all levels, and it’s definitely a fun and enjoyable way to learn the guitar.

Visit JamPlay Website

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Holiday Guitars

Holiday Guitars is a delightful, funky and unusual treatment of traditional Christmas favorites by guitarists Gavin Lurssen and Brian Robbins and it is certain to enjoy wide appeal in the festive season.

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Your Solution For Learning Bar Chords Fast And Easily On Guitar

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By Mike Hayes | December 15, 2010

The critical point in the development for most guitarists is when
they come face to face with bar chords; I can clearly remember my
first guitar teacher making a point of the significance of
learning these chords.

The routine went like this … almost very week my instructor
would say “one day you will be ready to begin learning bar
chords”. This went on lesson after lesson, I figured I needed to
practice a whole lot more in order to be worthy of learning these
chords, there seemed to be an almost religious significance about
this particular aspect of guitar playing.

Long story short, when the day finally come (I had given up hope
of ever qualifying to play bar chords by this time) it was one of
the biggest let downs of my life; the chords were physically
difficult to play and sounded quite boring and flat compared to
the open chords I could already play, but most of all the shapes
were very confusing and hard to remember.

By now you are probably thinking, what’s the point of learning
them anyway they seem like more trouble than they are worth; good
point … as time went by I did make a few important discoveries
about learning and playing bar chords, here’s a few tips that
will make learning them a whole lot easier.

How to learn bar chords the easy way!

1. guitar set up - first things first; make certain to have your
guitar’s action (distance between the strings and the fretboard)
adjusted by a competent repair person. This one thing alone will
make bar chords so much easier to play.

Choice of string gauge also plays a large part in playability and
getting a good sound; I recommend using medium gauge strings.

For acoustic guitars:

1st = .012
2nd = .016
3rd = .024
4th = .032
5th = .042
6th = .053

For electric guitar:

1st = .009
2nd = .011
3rd = .016
4th = .024
5th = .032
6th = .042

BTW – knowing which string gauge you want for your guitar will
help the repair person set the guitar up for optimum performance.

2. Use the keynote system - I recommend using the keynote system
for learning and recalling your chord names.

There are two main types of bar chords commonly used by
guitarists (there are many types of chords played with a bar)
however the ‘E’ shape and ‘A’ shape bar chords are the most
frequently used by the majority of players.

The “E” shape chords take their name from the first and sixth
strings.

The trick is to know the names of the notes on either string;
luckily for us the names of the notes on both strings are exactly
the same!

Most players prefer working off the sixth string so here are the
names of the notes on the sixth string. (numbers on the left hand
side refer to the frets, letters refer to the names of the
notes).

0 = E

1 = F

2 = F#/Gb

3 = G

4 = G#/Ab

5 = A

6 = A#/Bb

7 = B

8 = C

9 = C#/Db

10 = D

11 = D#/Eb

12 = E

3. ‘E’ shape chords – The trick with remembering bar chords is to
relate the ‘new’ chords to something you already know, that way
you will be learning in a connected way.

Practice playing your ‘E’ major, ‘E’ minor and ‘E’ dominant
seventh chords without using your first finger. Simply replace
your first finger with your second finger, your second finger
with your third and your third with your fourth.

I’ve marked the fingers in brackets() next to their respective
strings in the chord shapes below.

E (major)

-0-
-0-
-1-(2)
-2-(4)
-2-(3)
-0-

Em (minor)

-0-
-0-
-0-
-2-(4)
-2-(3)
-0-

E7 (dominant seventh)

-0-
-0-
-1-(2)
-0-
-2-(3)
-0-

The reason for doing this is to get used to playing the chord
formations with the fingers that will be used in the bar chord
shapes, once you are competent with playing these chords using
the new fingering start moving these shapes around the guitar
fretboard.

The first finger with cover (bar) all six strings for each chord
and the chord will take it’s name from the sixth or first
string.

Summary: An ‘E’ major shape moved to the third fret will produce
a ‘G’ major chord; an ‘Em’ minor shape moved to the third fret
will produce a ‘G’ minor chord.

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Chords | 2 Comments »

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Screamingfingers Guitar Lessons

Screamingfingers Guitar E-book. Guitar lessons for the advancing guitar player!

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Pippa Hayes: Front Page of “INK 19″

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By Mike Hayes | November 21, 2010

Have you seen this yet?

Hot on the tail of a two week stint in the top ten reviews on All About Jazz Queensland jazz singer Pippa Hayes is in the news again; this time on the front page of INK 19 magazine.

Check out the album review It Had To Be You By Pippa Hayes on the Seyah Record label.

( INK 19 Magazine Music > Media > Thought : Online since 1997, this publication provides music profiles, reviews and opinion on a range of music industry topics.)

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