Spark Your Creativity

1. Read Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis

A rabbit sits in a cardboard box and uses his imagination to transform it into a race car, a mountain, a robot. The lesson? "Anything can be anything," Anna says.

2. Go outside

Nature informs most of Anna's designs: "A pinecone, a caterpillar, some gnarled gourds from a pumpkin patch—the natural world is full of bizarre, beautiful stuff."




3. Start a collection

Curating your own little exhibit of similar objects makes you more attuned to what's special about each one. "Try to figure out why the designers made the choices they did, and you'll get a peek into their creative process," Anna says. "I collect toothbrushes. They have to do something very specific—and it's not a very exciting something—but their simplicity is an opportunity for imaginative design."

7 Ways to Spark Your Creativity4. Touch stuff

Everywhere Anna goes, she picks up objects she sees. "I get acquainted with a thing's thing-ness. I experience it with my hands, not just my eyes."

5. Travel solo

"Once in a while, go somewhere alone," says Anna. "It's much easier to experience everything around you and to cover lots of ground. I decided to be a designer at the top of the Antoni Gaudí cathedral in Barcelona, because I was so moved by the architecture." But you don't necessarily have to cross an ocean. "You can get inspired by traveling practically anywhere, as long as you're open to what you see."

6. Go analog

"Don't check your e-mail when you're creating," Anna says. "Nothing earth-shattering is going to happen in an hour or two."

7. Grab every opportunity

Hosting a group of friends? Make party favors. Received a gift? Write a handwritten note. "If you're having dinner at home tonight," Anna says, "why not make something you never made before?"




Show Us Your Creativity! Get out your camera and sketch pad and share your imaginative output.

Groovy Goodies

First I'd like to thank the many folks who already listed in this blog. Meanwhile, I just got off the phone yesterday with a dude who bought one of our products. Funny story... I'll tell you in a sec.

...As well as to Blue Star Music Camp, which gives children a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience. It's a really neat thing we get to do each year around Christmas time.

To make it worth you're while to dig out your card, I've put together some killer guitar lessons, including videos, chord charts, tabs...

from Google

It's fun to learn, and you can even impress your friends and family. Regardless of whether you choose to participate or not, I'll still be serving up groovy goodies on my blog every day.

Let's get the party started!

If you didn't already grab this, check out the new course. Please take a few minutes to do it RIGHT NOW while it's hot in your mind..

But go easy on the eggnog! - :-)

Gypsy Jazz Lesson

I'd like to share a lesson with you today that you can learn in a few minutes.

First, thanks if you already ordered Acoustic Enlightenment.

Here's another sample... This is the gypsy jazz style. Waayyy different from what most people think of as "jazz".

If anything, it's more gypsy. lol...

Its a preview from Jimmy's course and I think a great example of how easy and cool these lessons are. Ok, so the lesson is on the blog, which is here: Gypsy Jazz Lesson and you can read more about the DVDs and get your copy here.

Have a GREAT weekend and happy playing.
All the best...

FCDB
Your dedicated guitar instructor

Download Adobe Illustrator CS3 Portable

Adobe Illustrator CS3 is a vector graphics application which is very good. The most famous rival of it all is CorelDraw. But, the weakness of CorelDraw in my opinion, is the difficulty of maintaining consistency of color, whether viewed on screen, with a printed, or when you have to move from one computer to another. With this program, you can get -in my opinion- the most accurate colors.

As excellent editing program, it is also characterized by the ability to create and design illustrations, this version is totaly portable does not consume many resources on your computer...






With a full range of drawing and painting tools, and controls for typography, Adobe Illustrator is a package or tool we can use for images that allows users to create great technical illustrations, graphics, sophisticated vector artwork in any medium.


Download Adobe Illustrator CS3 Portable Edition (81.84 MB) here!

Steve Vai Acoustic Enlightenment

Here's 7 reasons you should be excited because
Steve Vai's new guitar course Acoustic Enlightenment is coming out (today or tomorrow) depending on when you get this.

Here we go:

1. He's a real pro

Steve Vai is a PRO guitarist. Being pro means he makes a living playing guitar. Steve Vai doesn't have a day job… The only thing he does is play guitar. He gets hired to do studio gigs, go on tour, play for celebrity birthday parties and more.

He's the ultimate kind of guitar teacher. He's been and there and done that and
now he's going to pass on his best knowledge in 3 beautifully filmed high-definition DVDs.

2. He only teaches easy fun stuff, no boring scales

One of the best things about Steve is that he's not a flashy player that's trying to impress you with crazy theories and shred licks. Instead he empowers you by giving you everything you need to create beautiful sounding music on your guitar.

3. You get the tabs

Learning EVERYTHING that Steve shows you is even easier because every lick and song is broken down and tabbed out for you. Just follow along with the tabs while you watch the DVD and wowzer! You'll be learning everything in no time. No questions asked.

4. You get a variety of styles

Steve is a multi-dimentional acoustic player and he's going to open your mind up to new possibilities on the guitar. Prepare to go on an amazing journey into the wonderful world of the acoustic guitar.

5. You'll impress your family and friends

Once you learn just a couple of the cool things Steve's going to show you… You can pull out your acoustic guitar any time and impress those around you. Your friends and family will be shocked when they hear you create beautiful sounding magic with your guitar.

6. You'll get revitalized and inspired

There's nothing more energizing and revitalizing than learning some new cool stuff on the guitar. With these 3 hours of instructional material, you're going to be armed with enough new stuff to keep you pumped up for a looooong time!






7. You'll save tons over private lessons

Even if you could fly down to San Francisco and afford You could still only learn
a fraction of what he's going to teach you on the DVDs. Best of all -- you'll save a small fortune compared to private lessons.

That's what you get with Steve Vai. It takes a very special kind of guy to nail accomplish what he has. You would get some exclusive new music from Steve Vai.

So there you go…

The Art of the Riff

Someone asked me yesterday: what's the difference between a lick and a riff?

Ok, so lick vs. a riff... Well, a lick is few notes , or a short musical phrase... It usually relates to lead guitar or maybe a "fill" as part of a rhythm.

A riff is more of a musical statement on its own - usually a rhythm part, creating a main theme of a song, often using full chords or partial powerchords... Although sometimes they could be single notes. But maybe you already know all that :-)

Riffs are great to write songs with.

I like how Virtuwul divides up riffs into 2 main categories -- powerchord riffs, and single note riffs. Like he says "ITS JUST THAT SIMPLE." Try this technique -- take any scale, like a major or minor scale, and play a simple melody. Then take each note of that melody and turn it into a power chord. See what you can come up with!





Another really powerful way to learn to write your own riffs is first learn a lot of the all time classic riffs to give your bag of tricks some meat. Then you'll be READY :)

Amazing powerchord trick

This neat little twist on a powerchord will give you a new sound instantly. Most people will tell you to play a powerchord with your first finger
and your third finger...

I'm talking about a 2 note powerchord... Like for example your first finger on the low E string, 5th fret, and your ring finger on the 7th fret of the A string.

That's an "A5" powerchord. But instead, try using your pinky instead of your third finger. This gives you the flexibility of moving your first finger around, for example one fret down...

That gives you the famous "Journey Sus Chord" sound. Try it. It's amazing because its so easy to do yet gives you a whole new sound.

Rock vs. Metal

Who wins?

Metal or rock?

For me — there is no battle. Metal is just rock with a bit more distortion and attitude. And the guy that “embodies that” the most is none other than Jack Frost.

He’s like a metal god with a touch of motivational speaker. Here’s some cool lessons from him showing
you one of Van Halen’s secrets: EPIC RHYTHM SECRETS.

Rock on!

If you no longer wish to receive our messages, follow the link at the bottom of this email.

P.S. I also highly recommend his “Epic Rhythm Guitar Power” course. IT’S EPIC! lol

Sweeping Technique

No matter how sophisticated the sweeping licks that you played, but when it's came in a dark not clear tone ringing, that would make no sense.

The ears of people who would prefer listening to music with the feast melodies that touch the heart, rather than party-tone technique with a tone that sounded abysmally. People play the tapes to listen to songs and beautiful tones of the music instrument, not a finger exercise. Phrasing is the key, and the game is to clean tools.

Like people talking, too fast will be easy to lose articulation, but when mediocrity can be enjoyed like a fairy tale.



So.. play everything first gradually with slow tempo, in order to properly record the brain finger movements on the fingerboard. Practice with a metronome, because nobody wants to play with players who often escape the tempo. (Remember always to go back to basics before attempting the tricky part or something..)

After seeing the concert Strings Chamber Music EVE opening act, there is an appearance that is rather disturbing. Quartet played the difficult repertoire written by Mozart reciprocal-back tone. The violin played very fast, but the tone is played is not accurate. In the ear sounded awful, but the perform with their moving fingers is very clever.



Same thing like Yngwie Malmsteen (Not to offend or criticize the maestro), hello.. the whole world expects to him to compose a very beautiful song, not a fast sweep picking technique show-off as fast as the lightning strikes.

Blues licks using the 9th (video lesson)

Going to try to make this kind of post short and sweet. Sometimes I ramble (like last beautiful post telling you that story about Lars) and sometimes I'm just gonna send over to my guitar blog...

Like today -- I'm excited about this lesson I just recorded. I show you how Hendrix and Stevie Ray used the 9th degree of the key in combination with the standard pentatonic scale.

Dig the lesson here!

Actually, we'll have more exciting stuff too. Perhaps a webinar where you can talk live with Jimmy and me and the crew...



Enjoy today's lesson.

Thanks!

Meet Lars Ulrich

Man i think I'm still recovering from a trip I took about 2 weeks ago out to California. It was crazy times man.

First of all, we shot most of Claustin Powers 3. But we got a lot of editing to do, so I'll give you more updates later on it. We also filmed a mystery guitarist who played with one of the biggest bands of all time.

Yes, we're doing a DVD with him... More on that later also. But maybe the best part was hanging out with Jimmy Dillon when we were out there. Btw, when I say "we", I'm talking about myself and Virtuwul. He's always been in the Claustin films.

So, Jimmy invites us out to this gig he was playing. He tells me on the phone: "It's
called Bimbos, its at 365 Colombus". At least that's what I heard. The place is actually called Bimbos 365. So we ended up walking about an extra mile to get there after parking.



It was worth it... It was actually a private birthday party for a famous actor by the
name of Peter Coyote. I'm pretty impressed by the kinds of gigs that Jimmy gets to play. Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal were in attendance. We got a backstage pass. Apparently we just missed Robin Williams as he was finishing up a bit of standup.

Here's the coolest part of the story:

After the set, Virtuwul goes to the bathroom and on the way ends up meeting Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Yes, he did get a cellphone photo which I'll put on my blog shortly.



I just think the whole thing was cool, and the next day Jimmy invited us to another gig he was playing at this killer renaissance fair. It was hardcore proof in my mind
that Jimmy Dillon really is the go to guitarist on the west coast.

Tips on how to play the guitar

Music experts assert that it is how the great composers and singers stand out from the rest. When musicians learn to feel the beat, they tend to put the notes into their system and let every tone flow along with the beat of their heart.

The question now is: how do you start feeling the beat. Here are some tips to get started:

1. Internalize the beat

When you want to learn how to play the guitar you must get your emotions ready. Try to feel the beat by listening to the music and bridge a connection between your feelings and the music.

The very core of this approach is to feel the beat of the music flowing into your system.

Once you get the beat connected to your system, take hold of your guitar, and start hitting those strings. Try not to play a song that you already know. The idea is to release the feeling and let the notes flow with what you feel.

2. Play by the ear

As soon as you learn how to feel the beat, you can start playing by ear; this is when you can play the song on your guitar just by listening to it over and over again.

Historical reports show that some great musicians learn to play the instrument by using this approach, because once they start to sense the pulse of the song; they gradually pluck the notes and begin to play the song as they continue to play.

Most people who play the guitar and write songs do not simply use those tabs and musical sheets. They just try to fathom the song by playing by ear. The bottom line is that learning to play the guitar does not have to be rigid and strict or why guitar playing is not specifically exclusive for those talented in music. The instrument is available for everyone, young and old, big and small, boy and girls.

The idea is to take some time to learn the instrument. Trying to feel the beat does not happen in a snap. You have to allot adequate time to start putting the notes into your system.

The truth is that people who failed to learn guitar playing simply lacked the time and patience to do all of these things. Becoming an expert in what you do is simply having the time for it, and if you do, you will start to get the ball rolling and the notes flying in the air.

Guitar playing lesson theme

Feel the Beat - How to Get It Going

The reason why most people who try to play the guitar and are not up to snuff is that they give too easily. The problem with these people is that they tend to think that there is something wrong with them and why they simply cannot get the strings to sound right.

In reality, falling short in learning to play the guitar is not based on the capability of the person but more on the kind of style he is using. If he is trapped in a certain level of progress in guitar playing, it should likewise not be blamed on the person but on the kind of approach that he used.

When things like these happen, the only way to get going is to change the style to achieve remarkable results.

In fact, 8 out of the 10 people who were asked what made them continue learning to play the guitar, they answered that it was because they used a wonderful technique that some people take for granted. This approach is known as feeling the beat.

People who are considered experts in playing the guitar insist that the only distinction that sets a good guitarist apart from a distinguished guitarist is based on how they apply the approach feel the beat to their tune using their instrument.



The basic argument here is that trying to get things going by simply feeling the beat while you play the guitar will absolutely change your style of learning and playing the guitar. When people try to feel the beat as they play the instrument, they get to internalize the pulse of the music as it flows from the strings out to the audience.

This is probably the same reason why some people insist that music is the language of the soul. It is basically the main idea of using this kind of approach.


To be continued..

Busindre Reel

Artist: Busindre Reel
Title: Hevia Guitar Version by FZ
Filesize: 8.27 mb
Filetype: AVI

Busindre Reel - Hevia Guitar Version by FZ

Busindre Reel Tab :

Busindre Reel Intro
Busindre Reel Verse

Busindre Reel Lyrics

(Instrumental) Tú nun güelvas más a mio casa. Faciendo ruiu con les...(Instrumental)



Check this tab..

E||----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|| B||--------6---8-6-4-------6---8-6-4-|----------6-----6-------6-8-----8--|| G||--5-5-5---5-------5-5-5---5-------|--7-----7-----7---8-7-8-----8-8----|| D||----------------------------------|----8-8-----8----------------------|| A||----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|| E||----------------------------------|-----------------------------------||

If your download does not begin after approximately 5 seconds, click this direct link to check the Busindre Reel - Uploaded by SuperMegaMantus version. Thank you.

Paul Gilbert - Major Scale Fast Lick

When we talk about world of music, the octave is really divide in 12 steps, each one is called a semi-tone steps. On the keyboard or piano division is seen in the number of keys that exist within a single octave of 12 keys that consists of 7 white keys and 5 black keys.

On the guitar fingerboard, it is also seen that an octave is divided in 12 fret, one fret each step with a semi-tone or half tone, and step two frets is called a tone or a single tone.

All major scales have the distance of the semitones from 3rd to 4th (Mi to Fa) and from 7th to 8th (Si to 'Do'), so if you will play a major scale in one string then the first fret you press should have step two fret - fret two - one fret - two fret - two frets - fret two - one fret or 1-1 - ½ - 1 - 1 - 1 - ½.



In the C Major scales, patterns of this step produces a collection of tones without the sharp and flat, which means it is also only the white keys on a piano that form the C Major scales. With the same pattern scales, G Major has one sharp, F Major scales have a flat, the picture that is easier on the many sharp and flat in a tone ladder described in the next post.



Download Paul Gilbert - Fast lick using the major scale mp3

The Modern Way of Playing the Guitar

Parents always want their child to excel in life and studies have shown that letting the child learn to play an instrument helps in their development. The two most common instruments that parents let children learn are the piano and the guitar.

Learning how to play the guitar in years past and now isn't that different. The first thing needed is to obtain one; if there is already an instrument available then learning can begin. If one needs to purchase one, then going to the music store with somebody who is familiar with guitars will really helping the selection

The most important thing to know before playing any musical instrument was learning how to read the notes, but today this is not considered to be enough. The person needs to listen as he is playing to know whether or not he is producing the correct notes.



In the past, an instructor had to be found before lessons could begin; but now a person can simply start by learning from friends and then practicing. After some time, the assistance of a professional can help advance your knowledge of playing the guitar.

There are also books that teach a person how to play the guitar. By reading and studying the latest techniques of the popular musicians, one will be able to learn a trick or two when playing.

The internet can also help improve one's skill with the guitar. There are many websites available that give tips from a beginner's stage to the more advanced lessons.

Instructional videos are also available. Some were produced by rock stars and each of these individuals have or use a different technique.

The best technique that can be used to check your progress is by playing the guitar at the same time as the same song is playing in the background. That way, if you are playing off key, adjustments can be made until it is perfected.

Technology and the publication of books have really helped change the way people can learn how to play the guitar. With the many options available, anyone who has the desire can start at any age and at any time. But learning the basics first before moving on to other things is essential.



Guitar playing should be fun. It is not just about learning how to play the instrument but enjoying it as well. Not everyone is born to do play it well. So if after some time, it's really not working for you, then giving it up for another musical instrument might be the answer.

Types of Guitar

Guitars are the most common instruments played by many music lovers of all ages. Even kids can easily learn to play the guitar. Choosing the right guitar is very easy. There are many types of guitars that can go along with any kind of music. All a guitar player needs to do is identify the kind of music he prefers to know which type of guitar is best for him.

The following are the most common types of guitars.

Classical Guitars

Classical guitars are the father of all guitars. They have been used for many genres and all kinds of music. Classical guitars come with nylon strings which give the guitar a unique and colorful sound. The sizes of classical guitars have been standard for many years. Classical guitars that are of the finest quality are made with spruce or cedar tops. The guitar is able to produce various sounds even with the use of fingernails.

Electric Guitars

Electric guitars are the next most common guitar especially in the 20th century. Electric guitars are known as the main attraction of rock music. These guitars have been famous since rock music was introduced and blend very well with jazz, pop and even blues music. The main difference between other guitars and electric guitars is that they are played with amplifiers because they are unable to produce sound without amplification.



Steel Guitars

Steel guitars acquired their name because they are literally made of steel. These types of guitars are played horizontally. A guitar player may place the guitar across his knees or legs or on a stand. The pedal steels of these guitars are the ones responsible for their unique sounds.

Bass Guitars

Bass guitars are similar to electric guitars. However, there are also variations in these guitars such as the acoustic bass guitars. Although bass guitars fall under the family of guitars, the sounds they produce are very distinctive and separate from any other guitar. The reason is that bass guitars usually have four strings unlike standard guitars that have six to twelve strings.



Many other guitars may be found on the market. There are also the archtop guitars, twelve strings guitars, solid body guitars and the resonator guitars. All these types of guitars produce different kinds of music that can satisfy the taste of many music lovers. All a person has to do is identify his taste for music to be able to decide which guitar is perfect for him and his music.

Yngwie Malmsteen's Arpeggio

Guitar playing technique - Arpeggio

Besides the sweep picking technique, the almighty Yngwie Malmsteen still has a myriad of guitar techniques that support the way he play the guitar. Arpeggio is one of them. It is always being intensively practiced because each guitarist would have a reliable crazy magnifique styles that make it the special features.

Arpeggio is a not formed on the cord divided. Lies in the clarity of the cord notes individually. So.. whenever you are going to play a Arpeggio note, it should be clearly and individually, not as I quoted at the same thing with cord strumming or something.

This is the main attraction by Yngwie himself, because the sound characters with this kind of style.. it is very very interesting stuff to learn. No wonder if Yngwie used to play and enter every guitar arpeggio technique on his masterpiece ever. Arpeggio has been a daily meal and a special feature of the style of play and in songwriting.



Many guitarist thinks that playing guitar is always identical to Arpeggio sweep picking techniques. Picking game sweep with a blend of techniques arpeggio technique would be unreliable. Yngwie organize, before making a sweep picking arpeggio tones, make sure the first passage on each string must be really accurate. If not, the arpeggio is not clearly audible and fracture-fracture.

So, it is important to play arpeggio is a way of one by one each of the notes. In order to produce a perfect arpeggio tone, after quoting the tone, do not let the previous note was still audible sustain and mix with the following tones.



Get practice to break the cords of which you know the breakdown tone first, start slowly. Having memorized the tone and not to be played, try with a slightly faster tempo, more quickly, more and more until your fingers move as a reflex.

John Petrucci - Legato Lesson

One big important objective for the exercise of music is to be able to play music with the "beautiful" sense of... aargghhh... what?!?! So.. For that, we tried to show some examples on how to play the correct and precise legato.

Legato is a technique to play the music by connecting notes to one another, without interruption (the nots tied together). On the principle of legato playing, students must maintain the sound previously with relaxed and without releasing the fingers on piano keys. This was repeated on subsequent presses keys. When a key is pressed next, then the keys must be released earlier, but cultivated an uninterrupted sound.

The important thing is that although previously suspended because the finger must remain on the keys, the previous motion should not be hampered. So tried to your fingers remain relaxed and use the optimal movement, accompanied by wrist and arm as one unit.

Imagine if it was all played on a guitar string:)

Watch the video to get the real impression on how John did it..





John Petrucci - Legato Lesson Download to mp3

Paul Gilbert - Legato Pentatonic

Areas that can be explored further in the dynamics of discussion is how we make this concept of legato technique. There are many examples of players who are exceptional legato master for this kind of concept in the context of these dynamics, such as Paul Gilbert, Ritchie Kotzen, etc.

They have set the tone in such a way that the sound level of the dynamics of their type of picking is higher one level with the ability of the sound of hammer-ons and pull-offs it.

If you try figure it out, the result will indeed vary influenced by how large the gain and overdrive that you use, and the level of the most difficult is to do it flat on a clean mode setting..



Probably most of us are not going to play legato technique exclusively, but with this mastery of technique will be very useful to add variety in our game, and add effects that flow every notation in our solo track.. For a more extreme level, please check virtuoso legato: Paul Gilbert in a legato approach that I brought to you all here. If we listen to his solo track, it is almost impossible to tell which notes that his pick, and which in the hammer: D

Transcribe every notes for video below..

--8-5---5-8-----5----
------8-----5-8------
---------------------
---------------------
---------------------
--------------------- etc...

Paul Gilbert's fast lick

Paul Gilbert proved himself still productive despite the years is quite busy with the project Mr. Big reunion tour circuit. Beginning this August, he released his latest album, entitled Fuzz Universe. This album is a solo album to-8 or, more specifically is instrumental albums to his-3.

Paul seems to keep showing back style of playing guitar which he used to show both as a solo guitarist, as well as the guitarist of Racer-X or Mr. Big. There are a number of works that can be listened to, especially if you are a fan of the music style of guitar shredder.

It may be practically as a song that summarizes the figure of Paul into a piece of music. In this song he played quite a lot of techniques like alternate picking flagship to open strings.

But forget about this new album for a moment. Today I am going to show you this tablature that I transcribed by my own from his video.. (you guys can see this on Youtube).




First thing first, abstract art have share some of its unique beauty when it comes to art. I like abstract art because it is mysterious, and I think Paul with his guitar lick is so unbelievably abstract.

Second of all.. Watch him out carefully when his left hand take over to the open string (take away from the string) to get the whole idea of this type of lick! If you can go (with the slow open string tempo), than you are not ready for the fast one just like what he did on the video.

So.. Here is the tab..

----5------------------
------8-7-5---5-7-8----
------------7----------
-----------------------
-----------------------
-----------------------