How to choose a kids guitar

http://bit.ly/ Most of us readers at Gear Vault remember what age we started playing guitar and what kind of guitar we played. But many parents are stumped on which kids guitar to get their youngster. Rather then buy your child the ever so popular 'Guitar Hero' TV game system, why not persuade them to play the most popular American instrument, the guitar. Hopefully this article will shred light on a difficult decision on which kids guitar to purchase. Pictured is a kids Epiphone Flying VeeWee Rave guitar rig.

Kids Acoustic vs. Kids Electric Guitars

First of all, you have to choose between an acoustic and an electric. This can be quite simple – just show your child pictures of both and give examples of how each of them sounds, or pay attention to kind of music your child prefers. Both electric and acoustic guitars have there advantages and disadvantages.

Guitar Sizes for Kids

Smaller acoustic guitars are harder to come by than 3/4 sized kids guitars, but there is little difference in price. As a rule, 3/4 electrics and acoustics are for children from 6-11 years, and 1/2 acoustics and electrics are for children aged less than 6 years. For a more valuable investment, you can also get a 7/8 sized guitar for a 10 year old, because the child can actually grow with of the instrument.

Kids Guitar Models

The Squier "Mini" is a solid and reasonably-priced 3/4 sized guitar. Along with three-coil pickups (so the child never gets bored, even when dashing the strings ad infinitum) and a pinned non-tremolo bridge, this Strat also makes use of the “cool factor”, which you can’t keep amiss when buying stuff for children. Overall, the Mini is as close to a real sized guitar as you can get for your kid, hence Squier (though Ibanez has the GRGM21) is the only other company that manufactures quality kids guitars.

The Squier MC-1 is a 3/4-size nylon-string mini classical guitar for kids and has a great sound you wouldn’t expect for the price. The neck is considerably thinner than that of a regular acoustic, and the size is just right for kids. If you are about to send your child to music school, the alternative nylon string model MA-1 is a safe pick.

And lastly, if you have a daughter, she will love Daisy Rock which is available in blue and candy sparkle colors. The other models are contemporary and look like one would expect from a girl-guitar company; their thin necks make it easy even for smaller fingers to move around the fretboard.

But we do believe that these instruments are good kids' guitars, and all cost around or below $100 – except the blue sparkle, which makes up for it with its shininess. But take time and do some of your research to make the best decision for your kid's first guitar. They will remember it for the rest of their lives.

Best Kids Guitars

@evernote @facebook @hi5 @jaiku @myspace @orkut @picasa @plerb @smugmug @soundcloud @sugarsync @tinypic @wordpress @zooomr

Beginner Guitar Lesson - Learn Notes on Each Guitar String

http://bit.ly/ Most beginners are eager to learn chords, after all that's what songs are made of right? Unfortunately learning chords is a heck of a lot harder then it might look in a Youtube video, especially if you're just starting out. The shapes can be difficult for your fretting hand to make and strumming while switching chords is an entirely different skill of its own.

Instead of rushing off to learn chords I suggest that all beginners first learn the notes on each guitar string. After all if chords are the things songs are made from, notes are the things chords are made from.

In this short beginner guitar lesson I'm going to share with you the pattern you need to understand not only in music, but also on the guitar neck, to know what notes are where and how to find your way around. The concept is all based on some very simple musical theory found on the piano.

Full or Half Steps

Think about what a piano looks like. It has a bunch of white keys all beside each other and a few smaller black keys placed here and there. There is actually some basic logic to why those keys are placed in the particular places they show up, but first I must explain the concept of a half or whole step.

The space between the white keys on a piano is what's called a full step, while the space between a white key to one of the black keys is a half step. This translates to the guitar easily. Each fret on your guitar neck is a half step.

So what's the point of steps?

Glad you asked, full steps are what separates most of the musical notes A through F. There are only two exceptions to this rule. Between B to C there is a half step as well as between E to F. With no surprise these are the notes where the black keys show up on the piano.

Enough about piano, let's talk about the guitar neck.

Here's the breakdown of spacing between each note in terms of steps and frets.

A to B = Whole Step or 2 Frets
B to C =  Half step or 1 Fret
C to D = Whole Step or 2 Frets
D to E = Whole Step or 2 Frets
E to F =  Half step or 1 Fret
F to G = Whole Step or 2 Frets
G to A = Whole Step or 2 Frets

Armed with this information we can now start on any open string (E, A, D, G, B, E) and move upwards to the next note, and the next and so on following the pattern listed above.

Let's do an example

Start with your open Low E string, or 6th string if we're going by numbers. Plucked open of course it plays an E note so what is the next note to be played on this string? It's an F note, so using our list above we can see that E to F is a half step or 1 fret. Place your first finger on the 1st fret of the 6th string and pluck it, that's an F.

Let's do another

What comes after F is a G note. The spacing between F to G is a whole step, or 2 frets. So sliding up the neck to the 3rd fret on the low E or 6th string is a G. Moving up one more we go from G to A (remember musical notes don't go past G there's no H note). The spacing again is a whole step so that's 2 frets again. Sliding up to the 5th fret on the low E string is an A note, which just happens to be the same note as the 5th string below the low E (there's another pattern to learn there but that's for another lesson).

Using these patterns you can start from any open string and move upwards to find where the major notes exist. I suggest you watch the lesson video below which will give more examples and a review of what we talked about in this post and then grab your own guitar and give it a try.

Beginner Guitar Lesson - Learning the Notes on Each Guitar String

Interested in more beginner guitar tips? Have you considered trying a guitar lessons dvd? You can get the same great instruction as from a private instructor from the comfort of you own own. Learn to play guitar at home, on your own time line. @evernote @facebook @hi5 @jaiku @myspace @orkut @picasa @plerb @smugmug @soundcloud @sugarsync @tinypic @wordpress @zooomr

Intro to Major Chords E major and G Major Chord Lesson

http://bit.ly/ Learning chords is the most exciting part of learning guitar I think. After all it's the reason you first picked up a guitar right? So you could play chords to learn songs.

Today I'm going to teach you two major chords, the E and G chords. The G chord can be one of the more challenging chords to play as a beginner, so if you are having trouble with it off the start don't be discouraged just give it some time and practice you'll get it.

Note about Guitar Tab and Fingers

Tab is a kind of guitar notation. It consists of 6 lines which each correspond to a string on the guitar. Numbers are used to show which frets are supposed to be played and on which strings. A zero over a string means you play that string open and an X over the string means you don't strum that string at all.

Also in case this is your first introduction to guitar chords when we talk about finger numbers we're counting from the thumb to the pinky. So your first finger is your index and your fourth finger is your pinky.

E Chord

E – 0 --
B – 0 --
G – 1 --
D – 2 --
A – 2 --
E – 0 --

To play the E chord you use your first 3 fingers. Your second finger is placed on the 2nd fret of the A string. Your third finger is placed on the 2nd fret of the D string and your third first finger is used on the 1st fret of the G string. Strum all six strings at once.

The video below gives more explanation on the shape, fingering etc.

G Chord

E – 3 --
B – 0 --
G – 0 --
D – 0 --
A – 2 --
E – 3 --

To play the G chord you place your second finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string. Your first finger on the 2nd fret of the A string and your third finger on the 3rd fret of the high E string. Again you strum all six strings for the G chord. This chord can be a tough one to make when first starting out and your fingers aren't used to stretching this way.

A few Practice Tips

Focus on playing the chords well on their own first before you trying changing between them while strumming. Practice making the shape with your fingers then releasing and making it again this will build some muscle memory in your fingers. Always practice slow and then add speed, technique comes first then comes speed.

Watch the video below for more insight into these two major chords as well as some practice exercises for you to try.





Interested in learning more beginner guitar chords and techniques? Consider using a beginner guitar dvd to learn from home on your own terms and time. DVD and online lessons are less expensive then private lessons and let you learn as much or as little as you want.

@evernote @facebook @hi5 @jaiku @myspace @orkut @picasa @plerb @smugmug @soundcloud @sugarsync @tinypic @wordpress @zooomr