Guitar Noise

Playing with others doesn’t limit you to working with guitar players. There are musicians of all sorts out there and you never know who you might meet. GN staffer Dan Lasley details his experiences playing (as well as arranging the logistics) with a full horn section.

Believe it or not, the world of music can be very dangerous! Particularly to one’s ears. Dan Lasley brings us some important tips on how to be proactive in safeguarding your hearing.

Here’s a great piece for beginners trying to get a handle on this confusing subject. And Paul Ortiz has gone above and beyond, providing some truly excellent MP3s to illustrate Dan’s lesson. Kudos to both of these guys!

Dan shares with us his love of the fretless bass guitar. He explains the difference no frets make and offers some reasons why you might want to go fretless.

Many people have asked about playing chords on the bass, so here is a discussion on how chords are built up from notes, and how they apply to the bass.

This lesson looks at the basslines from Riders on the Storm and Radar Love. We’re going to see how to use open strings to your advantage.

In honor of the joy of guitar, columnist Dan Lasley shares with us some of his favorite things about the world of music.

Let’s look at how you go about putting together talent showcases and bigger jams. It can get pretty crazy if you don’t take care of the proper preparation.

Outdoor gigs can be fun. What does it take to put on a show in your very own back yard. Let’s look at some of the crucial and not so obvious points to cover.

A primer on bass amps for beginners. Here’s what you need to know when you look for something a little bigger than your first practice amp.

We’re going to review the importance of rehearsals and getting the most from your practice time. Here are some general suggestions you can adapt for your band.

While one hour of gigging may be as important for a bass player as 10 hours of practice, it is still important to know all your notes and scales.

To handle any situation in a band, you know to know how to play many different styles of music.

There are so many things that go into making a bass guitar. Here is a starter article for novice bass players looking to buy a bass guitar.

How do you make a boring bassline fun to play? Here are a few more tools for creating your own basslines.

There are many ways to get different sounding tones out of your bass. This article covers some of the simple things you can do to change your sound.

A beginner’s bass lesson on Horse With No Name. This lesson accompanies our easy songs for beginners guitar lesson for the same song.

This beginner bass lesson analyzes and discusses a few fun basslines and riffs found in rock music.

Our sound Q & A continues with ideas for miking drums as well as setting up to play in a church.

How do you know what to play when you only know the chords? This lesson shows you some ways to come up with basslines that sound close enough to the original.