MusicMyLife

 We all know that we have two types of guitars (mainly) in this world: The Electric Guitar and the Acoustic Guitar. Which one do you prefer playing? I was at my guitar class a few months ago, and I asked one of the teachers of the music school (we are all friendly) which guitar he had. He told me he only had an acoustic. Yet he played the electric when he was teaching. That got me thinking. I am personally the type of person who loves playing the acoustic guitar. At home, 98% of the time that I practice, I use the acoustic guitar. Why is that? I just prefer the acoustic guitar because it not only sounds (according to me) way better than the electric guitar, but also has thicker strings (10 gauge) which makes my fingers stronger. So the next time I play the electric, I'm like the incredible hulk! Amazing... Jokes apart, the electric guitar is much easier to play. Not only are the strings thinner and more stretchable, but you get an amazing sound. In addition to that...

Okay, we have been covering the topics of "What a musician needs to know" - my blogpost from a few weeks back - a lot on this blog. I will finish the remaining two topics, but first let's take a break. Apart from what a musician needs to know, there are many people out there, who want to learn guitar. I am on this Google + (as Fluedix) community for guitarists, and I came across this post where a guy or girl wanted to start learning guitar. Many people left suggestions in the comments, first one being "learn drums". That could really be a downer. Anyway, this is for all of you who haven't started learning guitar and want to learn the guitar: 1)Waste not, want not : If you have an acoustic guitar at home already, no matter how dirty it is, clean it and use it. Remember, it is what you play, not what you play it with. A true guitarist can make the worst guitar sound beautiful. Also, don't make unnecessary additions to your guitar.  2)Make it Soft: No n...

Now, we all know that there are a lot of music genres in the world. We can study them all, but that will take a lot of time. If one has the time, then studying them all would be great, but this post is for whoever doesn't have that much time. We are going to study some of the most popular music forms, and some famous bands which play that genre, so you have some new knowledge. After reading this post, you shall be able to answer any person who asks you about a particular genre. Since we are studying the most common ones, it's unlikely to be asked any other form, except if you're talking to an advanced musician who has been in the industry for quite a few years. HIP-HOP : By some, this is regarded as the most famous music genre in the world. However, others disagree. Surprisingly, many people who listen to hip hop music don't know it's hip hop, they just know the artist and listen to their music. Either way, hip hop is a rhythmic type of music. It involves all ...

So I guess it's time to get over my Trinity examination (if you don't know already, check my previous post) and talk about music again. Today I will be explaining to you how Arpeggios and Chord Families work.  Arpeggio s Let's start from scratch. What is Arpeggios? It did sound a bit weird to me when I heard it for the first time. So I'm not going to state any definition here. An easier way to explain what arpeggios is, I believe, to tell you how it is done.  Take your guitar in your hand and hold a chord. For now, let's try the A chord.  Now that you've done that, pluck any string, followed by another, followed by another, in any order and time, as long as it sounds good and covers a bar. While you're plucking your strings, (remember, one at a time) you will hold the A chord. You just played arpeggios.  Now that you got an idea of how it's done, let's move on to understand why it is played. Now again, remember that out here I will st...

Today was the day I was waiting for since a year. It was finally time to show my skills to an examiner from the United Kingdom. I was not nervous, I don't know why. It was just another exam for me. The examiner did not look any different from the other Trinity examiners. I was giving the Trinity Rock and Pop guitar examination - Grade 5. I entered the building where the exam was to be held more than half an hour early, with the intention to warm up on the guitar. I met a friend there, who was also waiting to be called in. Sure enough, just a few minutes after I came he was called in. He was giving the Grade 6. I showed the assistant waiting in the same room as me my hall ticket and photo ID. Then I removed my guitar to practice. It was only 15:10, whereas my exam was to be conducted at 15:38.  After I moved my hands a few times across the fret-board playing a number of scales, I thought it would be better if I removed everything I needed for the exam out of my bag and keep it...

Now, we all are aware of what a scale is. We play scales mainly because the notes in the scale sound good when played one after the other during a solo, and anything which is outside the scale sounds odd or as others would call it, "bad". A PENTATONIC SCALE The first thing we have to understand, before we go into a pentatonic minor scale, is what a pentatonic scale is. If you break up the word into two parts, 'penta' means five, and 'tonic' means notes. So if your teacher makes you play a pentatonic scale, it will not sound like a normal major scale we play.  Where are such scales used? A pentatonic scale may be used in blues, rock and pop music. I personally, love this scale and I love to use it in almost every key. I don't dislike other scales or anything, but pentatonic scales are one of my favourites. A PENTATONIC MINOR SCALE A pentatonic minor scale is basically a pentatonic scale played in a minor key. For example, a minor pentatonic...

This is going to be an interesting topic. One of my favourites, actually. Let's get started. Now, what you need to understand is a musical note is nothing but a sound representing a pitch. One can say that it is a pitch itself. The base musical notes are sung in different ways in different countries. However, the most popular way of singing them is in "Do-Re-Mi-Fa..." Like I said earlier, in other countries different letters are used for representing the different sound or pitch.                             OCTAVE Octaves are extremely easy to understand. You may have to read twice, but you will understand. It is really not that difficult. So an octave is generally a series of eight notes, where one note may be half or twice the frequency of the other. Now in case you read the above twice and still didn't understand, I will further explain the sentence.  C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Examine the abo...