Soon after, I came across a different style of finger pick, sold under the name Pro-Pik. The idea of this design is to try to emulate the fingernail, rather than make a metal finger pad. On Ebay, I found an auction for some similar picks, made by a company called Dadi, 3 finger picks in stainless steel for £3.49 + P&P – the bid went in, the payment made and they were on their way.

The first thing you notice is that, when they arrive, they need adjustment, to fit your fingers – as they come, the rings would just about fit an 8-year-old, which is a good job, because an 8-year-old is not going to be strong enough to adjust the ring size. There is a good thickness of stainless steel to be bent to fit your fingers. All in all, a well made product.

So, how do they play? I was, frankly, amazed at the difference they made – it was almost like playing without a pick. The “arch” of the steel “nail” allows plenty of space, for the finger pad to contact the string, before the metal “nail” produces the sound. These fingerpicks give you the same timing and tactile control as when you normally use only your fingers. They also allow you to judge the weight of the strike much more accurately. Playing with Dadis fingerpicks is very close to playing without any pick at all, with the point of strike very close to the tip of the finger.

I’d recommend this type of fingerpick to anyone who plays with fingerpicks. The time it takes to get used to them is going to be longer for those who are used to traditional fingerpicks, because it’s making a lot of what you’ve had to get used to redundant. Those who use bare fingers will notice less and find them easy to adapt to.

Sadly, there’s only one way – practice, but there are exercises that will help you. This is an exercise that came to me whilst I was trying to master a particular chord change. I still use it regularly, both to work on a new chord and as a general chord changing exercise.

Firstly, it is important to realize that this is not meant to be musical – you’re learning how to change from one chord to another, not invent chord progressions. You can strum one chord as often as you like (it doesn’t matter if you strum it five times or five hundred – it’s not important) and you can use whatever strum pattern you prefer. One word of advice, though, don’t make it complicated, you have other things to think about.

The key to making this work is being able to imprint an image of the next chord change, in your mind, before you actually carry it out. Let’s call the chord that you’re trying to master, the “target” chord.

Start off by fingering the target chord and begin strumming. You can strum at any speed and use any pattern that is comfortable for you. To start with, I’d strongly recommend a simple down-strum at about 60 beats-per-minute. Continue to strum, whilst, at the same time, creating an image in your mind of an “A” chord – see where each finger is placed on the fretboard. Concentrate on that image and “see”, in your mind’s eye, the movement of your fingers, from the target chord to the “A” chord – and, all the time, continuing to strum the target chord. Once you have that little “film” firmly imprinted into your mind, make the change on the fretboard, to the A chord – don’t stop strumming and don’t worry if you fluff the change (if the images are strong enough, you probably won’t, though).

I find that, if I burst the bubble and look at the fretboard, it doesn’t work. As long as the image is there, in my mind, I can make the change, without actually having to watch myself physically do it.

Now that you’re strumming an A chord, it’s time to think of going back to the target chord. So, create the image of your fingers on the fretboard, in the shape of the target chord – really burn the image into your mind. See yourself, mentally, changing from the A to the target chord – the stronger the image, the better the chance that you’ll get it right. When you’re ready, make the change.

At about this point, you begin to start appreciating a slow, simple strum pattern (I did say you’d have other things to think about, didn’t I?)!

OK, we’re back at the target chord, now it’s time to go somewhere else – this time, we’ll go to a “B” chord. An open B is not the easiest chord to fret, so I usually use a B7. Go through the same routine as before – image thoroughly burnt into your mind, mentally see the fingers moving from the target to the B(7). When you’re really confident, that you’ve got it fixed in your mind, do it on the fretboard, for real. After that, we’ll use the same routine to go back, from the B(7), to the target chord.

Go throught the same procedure with the C, D, E, F and G chords.

No matter what the target chord, that you’re wanting to get to grips with is, the sequence is the same:

• Target to A and back
• Target to B(7) and back
• Target to C and back
• Target to D and back
• Target to E and back
• Target to F and back
• Target to G and back
• Target to A and back and so on…

Obviously, there’s no point in including the target itself in the sequence. If, for example, the target is D, then going from D to the target (D) and back to D is not going to do anything for you.

If you want to use other chords, such as sevenths and minor chords, that’s fine. You could change it to:

“Target, A7, target, B7, target, C7, target, D7, target, E7, target, F7, target, G7, target, etc….. ”

or

“Target, Am, target, Bm, target, Cm, target, Dm, target, Em, target, Fm, target, Gm, target, etc……”.

You can (and should) also use barre chords (if you’ve progressed to playing them) as part of your routine. Ultimately you’ll want to include every chord you know into your routine. And to continually add the new ones in as you master them.

Just to recap, the key to this routine is the strength of the image that you create, in your mind. The stronger the image, the better the chord change. You can even use this in learning/playing songs. Once you have the technique of creating the chord images, you’ll find a general improvement in your chord changes. There will come a time, though, when the image and the chord change are both simultaneous and automatic. At this point, you really only need to do the exercise to refresh your muscle memory.

Maybe this can help you as much as it has helped me – this was how I tackled with my demons, the C and the F chords.

This article started life as a stand-alone piece. However, Oleg Twerdov presented a similar piece, before mine was finished, so I offer this as another look at the same idea.

First of all, I’d just like to say that it is not a replacement for theory. It will not teach you the names of notes in scales or chords. It just offers you a way of using theory without too much thought.

Let’s start by looking at a major scale in intervals, just as Oleg did- WWHWWWH or TTSTTTS. We can translate this, directly, into frets, each one being a semi- or half-tone apart from it’s nearest neighbour. Looking at the major scale this way, gives us 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret, 2 frets, 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret.

Looking at it cumulatively, we have 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12. So, the intervals are:

These numbers are important, so I’ll repeat them 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12.

Although what I show here is based on standard tuning, it is easily adaptable to other tunings, as it only requires that you know the number of frets between each string. In standard tuning, the guitar is tuned to perfect fourths (with apologies to the G string, which insists upon being a major third).

What, though, is the relevance of the numbers? They represent the number of frets from the root to the corresponding scale degree – and, knowing that, I can work out any scale position, without even having to know the name of the note I started from.

By applying the offset (in terms of the number of frets) to the starting position (the root), you can build a major scale anywhere on the fretboard with no trouble, at all.

Right, let’s do just that. Let’s arrange a major scale on the fretboard, without even knowing the name of a single note. To make things easy, we’ll start with a note on the low E (6th) string – I’ll use the 5th fret (I’ve called it 6/5 – 6 th string/5 th fret). Right, we have our root note. Where do we find the 2nd degree? Two frets up from the root (just like in the table), so 6th string 7th fret (the scale so far – 6/5, 6/7).

However, because of the construction of the guitar fretboard, I can also find the same tone one string higher on the A string. Because there are 5 frets difference between the E and the A, I can take the interval away and get the number of frets LOWER on the A string – (Base + 2 frets)-5 (difference in frets between strings) = Base-3 frets, but 1 string higher. We started on the 5th fret of the low E, so the other position is 1 string higher – the A string – and 3 frets lower (5 – 3 = 2nd fret), so 5/2 (instead of 6/7, which is exactly the same pitch).

The third is 4 frets up from the root (in this case, the 5th fret) – 6/9 – but no-one is going to stretch 4 frets voluntarily. We should, therefore, look one string higher – Root+4 frets (3rd interval) -5 (frets difference between the strings) = 1 string higher and 1 fret lower (5/4). Our sequence, so far, looks like this – 6/5, 6/7, 5/4 (I could also have used 6/5, 5/2, 5/4).

The 4th degree is 5 frets up from the root, but if no-one is going to stretch 4 frets, they’re not going attempt 5, so we have to, again, go to the next string – Root+5 frets (4th interval) -5 frets difference between the strings = same fret, but one string higher. (6/5, 6/7, 5/4, 5/5).

The 5th is 7 frets up from the root. So, Root+7-5 (frets to next string) = 2. So the 5th degree is on the next higher string and 2 frets higher than the root note. – (6/5, 6/7, 5/4, 5/5, 5/7).

Rather than go through each calculation, let’s just jump to the octave. This is 12 frets higher than the root, so we have to factor in more than 1 string (each being 5 frets difference), i.e. Root+12-5=7, which is still too much of a stretch, so we have to take the jump to the next string and deduct another 5 frets from the answer: Root+12-5-5 = 2. So, we have to go 2 strings higher (5 + 5) and up 2 frets. – I’ve filled in the other notes in the major scale and you get this – (6/5, 6/7, 5/4, 5/5, 5/7, 4/4, 4/6, 4/7 – play it, it’s the A major scale).

One thing that I have not yet included, in the calculation, is the G string. Don’t panic, it’s no problem. Whenever you cross the G to B string (or vice versa), you have to calculate 4 frets between strings, rather than 5. Instead of 2 strings being 5 + 5, you have to calculate 5 + 4 and find the remaining frets. So an octave is 12 – 5 – 4 = 3 – two strings and three frets higher. Why don’t you fill the major scale, that I started, all the way up to the high E string, taking care not to forget the dastardly G-B divide!

OK, here’s a table showing all the positions:

s = string, f= fret. 0= same, so 0s = same string

The column “G/B” denotes the difference, wherever the interval spans the G-B divide.

The method also allows you to work backwards – but instead of calculating from the root as 0, you call it 12. Going from the root to the 7th (found 11 frets up from the root): 12-11=1, so the 7th is 1 fret lower than the root. The calculation of moving from string to string doesn’t change. Let’s say I want to find the 4 th degree of the scale, but on a lower string than the one I’m on. For argument’s sake, we’ll assume that we’re on the root note and to make the calculation easy, at 4/7 (4 th string/7 th fret). The 4 th degree is 5 frets up from the root, so 12 (rather than 0) – 5 = 7, so 7 frets lower than my current position. I can deduct 5, to bring me one string lower: 7-5=2. I still have 2 frets left so I have to go those 2 frets lower, which takes me from the 7 th fret to the 5 th on the next lower string to where we started, so I land on 5/5.

It doesn’t stop there. Just think, you have a major chord and want to play a 7th. If you don’t know the actual fingering, you have to first work out the 7th degree of the scale that you’re in, drop it by one semitone and find that note on the fretboard.

I’ll give you another way. The 7th is 11 frets up (or 2 strings and 1 fret) from the root. A 7th chord needs a flat 7th (one semitone lower than a normal 7th or an “11b” – normal 7th is 11 frets up from the root), so we need 2 strings up and 0 frets up (0-5-5+10). I know my root note, so I can find the flat 7th 2 strings higher at the same fret. As long as it isn’t the only occurrence of a triad note (R, iii, V), I only need to fret that string at the same fret as the root note and I have a 7th chord. Alternatively, I can use the reverse calculation. A 7th is one fret lower than the root, so a flat 7th is going to be 2 frets lower. I look for a note 2 frets lower than any root, other than the bass root note. It all, of course, needs to be modified, if the G-B problem arises.

Let’s build a C7. Here is our starting point, the Cmajor chord – x32010. I need the root, two strings higher, same fret. The root is on the 5th string at the 3rd fret, so I need 3rd string, 3rd fret – yep, a classical C7. From the other standpoint – there is a root note on the B string, at the 1st fret. The method says 10 up or 2 down, but 10 up is idiocy and 2 down is somewhere the wrong side of the nut – what to do? The open B string is tuned to the same note as the 4th fret of the G string, so let’s start there. The 1st fret B string is the same as 5th fret G string, which gives us: 5-2=3, 3rd string 3rd fret.

Take a Gmajor – 320003. I want a G7. So I look at the note 2 strings higher than the base root note (low E, 3rd fret), the D string – which is, unfortunately, the only occurrence of a D (5th degree) in the chord. I, then, look at another root (high E, 3rd fret) and drop 2 frets, to the 1st fret. Here is a G7 chord. This, by the way, is also 10 frets up from the root note on the 3rd string 0 fret (G): Root+10-4 (we’re crossing the G-B) -5 (B to E) =1 (1st fret, 1st string).

Once you have this in your mind, it is easy to translate any interval to the fretboard. You want a power chord? It’s made up of the root and the 5th, which is 7 frets higher than the root. Pick the root and look one string higher and 2 frets up (3, if you’re lumbered with the G-B problem). Same applies to the octave – (12 frets – 5 – 5 = 2), 2 strings higher and 2 frets ( 12 -5 – 4 = 3 for the G-B) up.

Once you have a reasonable grasp of the numbers, you can short-cut your way around the scales. How far is a 6th from a 3rd? A 6th is 9 frets up and a 3rd is 4, so the distance is 5 frets. How far is a 2nd from a flat 7th? A 7th is 11 frets up, so flatted it’s at 10. A 2nd is 2 frets up, giving us 10-2 = 8.

We can now use this knowledge to look more closely at some other scales.

The Major Scale.

What can I say? – WWHWWWH or TTSTTTS. I’ve told you how to build this.

The Minor Scales

Relative Minor – WHWWHWW

Flattens the 3rd, 6th and 7th. Easy. The sequence becomes, 0, 2, 3 (was 4, but flat, becomes 3), 5, 7, 8 (was 9, but flats to 8), 10 (was 11, but flats to 10), 12. (0,2,3,5,7,8,10,12)

Harmonic Minor – WHWWHW#H

It’s the same as the relative minor, except that the 7 th isn’t flat, which gives rise to a 3 fret gap between the 6 th and the 7 th (which I’ve shown as W#). Otherwise, it’s the relative minor – (0,2,3,5,7,8,11,12)

Melodic Minor (up) – WHWWWWH

This is the same as the major scale, but with only the 3 rd flattened, so (0,2,3,5,7,9,11,12).

Melodic Minor (down) – WHWWHW#H

Is exactly the same as the relative minor scale. (0,2,3,5,7,8,10,12)

The Major Pentatonic – WW(H+W)W(W+H)

This is the same as the major scale, with the 4th and 7th degress removed, so instead of 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, the major pentatonic consists of 0, 2, 4, 7, 9, 12

The Minor Pentatonic

This is the same as the relative minor scale, with the 2nd and 6th degress removed, so instead of 0,2,3,5,7,8,10,12, the minor pentatonic consists of 0,3,5,7,10,12

The Modes.

Ever thought of learning the mode box patterns – after you’ve learnt the major, minor, pentatonic and God knows what other patterns, of course. No need.

Modes are just major scales, which start at different positions. Take the Mixolydian, starting at the 5th degree (7 frets up – the “base fret offset”). Just modify the calculation to deduct the base fret offset – so the root of the mixolydian is the position in the major scale minus the offset (7-7=0), the 2nd degree of the Mixo mode is really the 6th degree of the major scale, but knowing the base fret offset (7) and knowing that the 6th degree of the major scale is 9 frets up, we get 9-7=2. the second position is 2 frets higher than the “root” of our mixo scale. The 3rd is at 11 on the major scale, so 11-7=4, which is probably best one string higher, but 1 fret down (just as in the major scale layout). Next comes the 4th, which is the octave of the base major scale, but we call it 12, rather than 0, because it is the octave and not the root of the original scale: 12-7= 5, which goes on the next string, same fret. The 5th of the mixo (the 2nd of the major scale) is at 14 (octave+2), so 14-7=7 – applying the original calculation, we get 1 string and 2 frets higher.

Mixolydian mode:

You can build any mode at any starting position, without even having to memorise a single box pattern.

Whether building major scales or modes, you end up with the same patterns on the fretboard as the box patterns found in any book, but this method gives you the ability to build a scale, even if your memory is not that good and you haven’t played the pattern for several months. In fact, the more you use this method, the easier it will become to build the box patterns.

One drawback of box patterns, is that they are boxes. You learn 5, effectively, separate entities. Bringing them together and using them as one large network of notes is difficult, once you’ve learnt them separately. Another problem is that most people (and I include myself) learn the boxes as they are presented on paper, almost invariably starting with the “1st pattern” at the 6th string, 5th fret – and find that changing to play the same box somewhere else on the neck is a mental challenge. This method takes you away from building box patterns and into building scales. Try building a run from the A on the low E to the higher reaches of the high E, using box patterns. You’re going to traverse at least 2, if not 3. By selectively changing strings, you can build runs, as long as you like, on one or several strings, just by adding the necessary number of frets to your last position. This is another point – as you get better with the fret intervals, you start to think also in terms of intervals between positions, within the scale (iii – IV is 1 fret in the major scale, etc.). It is, however, the number of frets from the root, which is important – it gives you the frame of reference from which to work – the root of the scale.

Although Helgi Briem has been promoting the use of intervals for, certainly, as long as I’ve been a member of GN, this only recently hit me – it was one of those “light going on” moments. Since then I’ve found building scales much easier than with a scale chart. I’m seeing why frets are played, where they are and what relevance that position has to the rest of the scale, even if it hasn’t registered what the names of the notes are. Give it a try – it really doesn’t take long to grasp.

For those of you who say that you are lousy at maths, here’s another method – left foot is the root note, right foot is the octave and your 10 fingers (and thumbs) are the positions in between – there’s absolutely no reason NOT to give it a try now, is there? ;))

This CD is unusual in so many respects, that it’s difficult to know where to start. In fact, it’s not even simply a CD, it is primarily a Super Audio CD (SACD), which includes tracks playable on a normal CD player.

The music is purely instrumental and played on two acoustic guitars – and that’s the next surprise. They manage to create all sorts of sounds that bear little or no resemblance to the kind of sounds you would normally expect from a guitar. To further compound matters, they use absolutely no electronics to help create these effects.

Furthermore, the recordings are all one-off originals – no overdubbing (that’s right – two guitars, nothing else) and no editing – just a single take. They are at pains to ensure that the music they put onto record is also the music that they can offer a live audience.

I think you’ll agree the background to the album is a bit “off-the-wall”- but what’s the music like?

This is definitely a listener’s CD, it won’t make you get up and dance and it won’t rock you to sleep. It’s the kind of music you put on when you get home from work, sit down, put the CD on the player (turn up the volume) and block out the world. To label it easy listening is not giving the musicians the credit they deserve, although it is easy to listen to. It’s music that has intricacies you’ll only appreciate by listening – and you’ll hear new ones every time you play it. You’ll hear sounds that you’d swear could come from anything but a guitar and certainly not just two of them.

Each of the separate pieces on the CD has it’s own identity – there’s a hook, a riff, that easily identifies the piece. The music meanders in and out of the hook, taking you off to new territory and, then, bringing you back to “safe ground”, almost like a song’s verses and chorus. I’ll not detail each track – you can go to Windminister / Bootsmann and hear an excerpt from each of them, for yourself.

Were there any disappointments? Apart from not having an SACD player, I could only bemoan what I felt to be a lack of atmosphere (the SACD could hold the key). I agree that this could well be my equipment (or my ears), but I think it’s a general weakness of digital technology (Oh, why couldn’t they have released this on 33rpm vinyl?). I’m going to have to see these guys in a live concert to be able to finally judge that one.

Apart from that small peeve, it’s a really good album of intelligent music, from two guys who obviously enjoy playing together. Bootsmann is a very worthy addition to any CD collection. Did the brave move pay off? In a word, yes.

Negative Competitiveness is the sort that drives people to strange lengths to be “better” than those around them or deride others because they are not “as good” as someone else (I have a T-Shirt that my wife gave – hopefully in jest – which reads “I like winning – but not half as much as seeing you lose”). It is a divisive and destructive energy that puts a wedge between artists, striving for, basically, the same thing – betterment

You only have to read the Guitar Noise forums to see what I perceive as a form of (third-party) negative competitiveness – “Clapton (to simply use a name as an example) is way better than Guitarist Y and if you don’t agree with me, then both you and Guitarist Y”. This is a discussion that no one is going to win, because music is, by it’s very nature, subjective – what A likes, B may not and C may not like what B does and appreciates some of what A likes to listen to. As soon as negative competitiveness creeps in, A suddenly thinks that what B and C like to listen to is rubbish, B thinks the same about A and C, whilst C looks down in disgust at what A and B think is the bee’s knees. Looking more closely, we see that the negativity is no longer about music, but, rather, the taste of the people involved. There’s no longer subjectivity or objectivity; there’s emotion and personality. Personality gives way and it becomes a clash of egos and the music becomes purely incidental, nothing more than a justification for the locking of horns.

Positive Competitiveness, on the other hand, is what causes people to strive to be better – “Clapton’s music is fantastic, one day I want to be making music as good as that”. It creates a positive feeling of not yet having reached one’s own limits – the feeling that there is still improvement to be made and the ability is there to achieve it. It, also, leaves plenty of room for one’s own individuality and creativity, as well as the inclusion of other musicians into the wish list – “I like the way Kirk Hammett does this” or “John Lennon made great use of that in his music”.

Without this sort of attitude, music would sink into a morass of conformity and blandness and creativity would wither and die because no one would have any incentive to do anything different. We would still be playing lutes, lyres and heaven knows what else. Positive competitiveness is what drives people like Chuck Berry to bring different styles of music together in a completely new form. There was never any desire to gloat on how much better he was than the musicians that he played with, just to learn everything he could from them and then add his own creativity to take music somewhere it had never been before. He was competing more with himself than with his contemporaries. I’m sure that many of the originators of new styles of music have done the same. In positive competition, music is never the loser. In fact, there is no loser. Everybody gains. It is the followers that cause the problem, claiming someone to be the “new Clapton” or “new whomever.” By doing so, they have set a target and there are bodies to be climbed over on the way to reaching that target.

Positive Competitiveness can also be used to channel a person’s energies to their own betterment, by showing them that they have the potential and can fulfill it by practice, going to a teacher, jamming, etc, etc. They are competing against themselves, striving for the goals they have set for themselves and gaining confidence along the way to tackle new challenges. The reverse is true of negative competitiveness – it destroys the will to learn and to improve (“why should I, I’m a crap player – I’ll never be as good as my teacher and he never misses an opportunity to tell me so.” or “He’s useless – he can’t sweep pick hemidemisemiquavers at 300bpm”)

Writing this short piece has drawn me to the conclusion that the negativity in competitiveness is always destructive and very ego-related – the subject matter is pretty much incidental against the size of the egos on parade (so size really does matter!). Positive competition is, in my opinion, primarily concerned with the subject matter at hand rather than the personalities (or should that be egos?) involved, in fact, there is often only one personality involved – you. It is you that is striving to improve your music and become your kind of musician. By “stealing” from other musicians, you are not putting yourself into competition with them, but rather paying them a great compliment, whilst taking one more step to achieving your goals.

A final thought: how often do you hear the best guitarists putting down other guitarists? On the contrary, they are more than happy to spread their wisdom to any guitarist – good, bad or indifferent. And the negativity? Could it be from the “Wannabe but can’t” brigade?

Here endeth the rant.

So here goes:

Plectra/Plectrums

Unfortunately, offering concrete advice on plectrum selection is very difficult, there is probably no piece of a guitarist’s equipment which is quite as subjective as his plectrum. Everyone has fairly concrete ideas about what sound his guitar should have, what strings he should use, etc., but nothing has quite the wide variety of options as the humble plectrum – ask 20 guitarists what they use and you are likely to get 20 different answers. The options of material, shape and thickness are almost endless. To keep this article within reason, I have decided to confine myself to normal plectra and ignore things like finger-picks, for the time being – maybe another article at a later date.

For beginners, it is important to stress that there are no hard and fast rules with regard to plectrum selection, it is purely a matter of taste what you use. Some prefer thin plectra, some thick, some medium, some swear by Tortex, some by real tortoiseshell. If it feels right and plays well for you, it is a good pick – for you.

There are, however, some tips which may help the new guitarist to decide which plectrum to choose. In fact, I take back what I just wrote, there is one hard rule in choosing a plectrum (see, even I can’t make my mind up) – buy as many different ones as you can afford and try them all out.You never know, in there may be your non plus ultra, your dream plectrum – no matter who it’s made by, what it’s made of or how thick it is, if you think it’s the bee’s knees, then it is. But, then again, who knows, there may be one out there that is better than your current favourite and you will never know until you find it.

I’ll list the various factors which contribute to choosing a plectrum and let you make the choice which you prefer to use:

Thickness

The thickness of the pick has an effect both on the sound produced and on it’s playability.

A thin plectrum (anything less than about 0.4mm is regarded as “thin”) is mostly what beginners start out with. It will make strumming chords relatively easy, because of the flexibility of the material. On the other hand, many guitarists say that playing a lead riff with such a thin plectrum is difficult because it doesn’t give the control of a thicker plectrum (although there are long-standing professional guitarists who use nothing else but thin plectra – see what I mean about personal choice?). A thin plectrum will tend to give the sound a slightly sharp edge to it, no matter what material is used. Depending on the type of music you are playing, this may or may not be a good thing.

Medium plectra (from 0.4 up to about 1mm) are possibly the most widely used of all. They offer enough rigidity to maintain good control during lead sequences, but also enough flexibility to not make strumming chords difficult. The sharp edge to the sound, produced by a thin plectrum is reduced and a slight softness (or roundness) is heard. How much noticeable this softness is depends on the material used for the plectrum and tortoiseshell, for example, will be softer and rounder in tone than a carbon fibre mixture or metal, for instance.

Once you get above 1mm, all plectra seem to be rated as heavy and come as thick as 3mm or more (although the playing tip is very little thicker than a medium plectrum). They give excellent control over lead passages, but suffer in the rhythm category. The big fat 3mm picks seem to be loved primarily in the jazz world.

Material

There seems to be no end to the different materials used in making plectra. There are all sorts of plastics and natural materials, from tortoiseshell to space age metals and ceramics. Each one has it’s own character, feel and sound. Whether it is right for you or not is, unfortunately, going to be the result of trial and error. In my collection I have fake tortoise shell, nylon, carbon/nylon mix, Tortex, plastic and metal. No two sound exactly the same.

One of the nice things of, particularly, man-made materials is that they slide easily over the strings and produce little resistance (which can produce an unpleasant sawing or scraping sound). The same property is also one of it’s greatest weaknesses – it moves as easily around in your fingers as it does over the strings and keeping control over the plectrum is often a major problem (particularly for beginners, who have yet to master the finesse of “as little pressure as possible, but as much pressure as necessary”). One of the easiest ways, that I have found, of stopping the plectrum revolving in your fingers is to drill a couple of small holes where your fingers grip, although you can buy plectra with holes already drilled through them. There are also commercial products like the romatically named “Gorilla Snot”, which also stop slipping.

The consensus of opinion seems to be that, begnners should start with something in medium thickness. The material is irrelevant, but it’s, perhaps, wise to start with plectra that are readily available and cheap – they are usually that way because they are popular. Dunlops seem to be available almost as widely as Coca-Cola and, judging by the posts on GN, the plectrum of choice for many guitarists.

As you get a little more experienced, why not try something with a different sound, like a coin. The American quarter makes a nice plectrum as does an old English Shilling with it’s milled edge. In fact, there is a whole market selling plectra made out of sometimes pretty odd materials. You can buy them made of semi precious stones, wood (with some very exotic looking grains), old cymbals, silver and glass, the list is almost endless. It’s just one of those things that makes buying plectra so much fun – you’ll never run out of something new to add to your collection.

Shape

This is another “no-holds-barred” area of plectrum design. Everyone wants to prove that “his” shape is better than everybody else’s. There is every conceivable combination of angles and curves, from a circle to a triangle and everything between and beyond. You only have to look at my small collection to begin to appreciate the diversity. Don’t start off right away with weird shapes, though, get used to the “plain vanilla” teardrop-shaped plectrum first. It’s that shape because experience has proven it to be the best shape for most guitarists (OK, I know, but finger pickers shouldn’t be reading this anyway!).

Size

There is one particular size that can be called “standard” and makes up about 90% of all teardrop plectra. This is where the beginner should start – don’t start with the exotic until you have mastered the mundane.

Over and above the “standard” size, there are a number of oversized plectra and a good assortment of smaller ones, often referred to as “jazz picks”, which also seem to make up the majority of the 2mm+ thick plectra. I would not really recommend these for the beginner, certainly not until you have learned to grip the plectrum correctly. Don’t start out with anything too small, too big or too ungainly (there are some big triangular things that could almost substitute for a frisbee), you need to be able to hold it comfortably.

Conclusion

For the beginner, the middle-of-the-road, plain vanilla teardrop plectrum is the best choice to start with. Coincidentally, whilst I was writing this, there was a post on GN asking what plectra people used. As you can see from the replies, which I’ve shortened for brevity,… well, take a look for yourself…..

• Heavy.
• Medium …… Heavy is good for picking but completely sucks for strumming. Medium can do both well. Light sucks for everything.
• medium
• extra heavies
• medium
• 58mm most often, but when there’s lots of strumming involved I sometimes grab a .50mm
• .60mm
• Thin on strumming my acoustic… Medium when it involves some soloing
• medium
• medium
• extra heavy or nothing
• between .50mm and 1mm
• Jim Dunlop Jazz I, Sharkfin, Fender Heavy, Fender .46mm Thin, Pick Boy 100/70/50 (one of my favs), TeckPick – Brass & Aluminium and a Dava Control

My small collection:

Ranges from the thinnest at nothing measurable in the top left hand corner to a 3mm fatty in the top right hand corner. With the exception of the 2nd right at the top (at 2mm), all the rest come in the 0.4mm to 1mm bracket.

Korg GA-30 Guitar Tuner

Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner

There are really 2 types of tuner on the market for the guitarist – the “guitar tuner” and the “chromatic tuner”. The difference between them only really becomes apparent when you try to change to a non-standard tuning (e.g. DADGAD). The guitar tuner is designed to pick up the six notes of a guitar in standard tuning (EADGBE) and works well doing this, but has difficulty in allowing an alternate tuning, because it doesn’t recognise anything other than EADGBE. Some, such as the Korg GA-30 allow you to modify the standard pitches by up to 5 semitones higher and lower, which does let you use alternate tunings. Much more comfortable to use, however, is the chromatic tuner, which will recognise any note and tell you how sharp or flat you are tuned – you can use any alternate tuning with no problem. What a tuner cannot do is to tell you which octave the note is in and here is the basis for much confusion – try to tune an octave too high and your strings will snap, an octave too low and they will flap around like a clothes line.

For this method of tuning, the tone generator, which will produce a continuous tone at 440Hz, is important. 440Hz is the international standard frequency of Concert A, which is found at the 5th fret of the high e string.

Why the rider “open tune” in the first paragraph? The reason for this is that whilst a guitar may be fine when the open strings are in tune, it may not be when fretted notes are played. This is due to the way that the frets are laid out – it’s to do with “equal temperament”, which I won’t go into here and relates to the intonation of the guitar.

Now that we’ve got the technology out of the way, let’s get down to tuning the guitar. What state the tuning is in is irrelevant – this method will bring your guitar into standard tuning and in the correct octave!

So, first things first – check you know how to operate the tuner! Not difficult, but it does save time when tuning, if you don’t have to keep flicking through the (albeit 2 page) instruction manual. Now connect your guitar to the tuner or, if you have an acoustic, bring it close so that the inbuilt microphone can pick up the sound from you guitar.

The first step is to get one string near to being in tune – not only the right pitch but in the right octave. So, switch on the Concert A tone. Fret the high e string (the thinnest one) at the 5th fret. Now tune the guitar to the generated tone – the first string at the 5th fret should sound (at least close to) the same note as Concert A. Once you have this, you can turn off the tone and the tuner, for the moment.

You now need to bring the other 5 strings close to being in tune, by following this method:

Tune the B string (second thinnest and second from bottom) at the 5th fret to the open high e string.
Tune the G string (third from the bottom) at the 4th fret to the open B string
Tune the D string (fourth from bottom) at the 5th fret to the open G string
Tune the A string ( next to thickest string) at the 5th fret to the open D string
Tune the low E string (thickest and topmost string) at the 5th fret to the open A string.

At this point, it is wise to understand the effects of a non-locking tremelo/vibrato/whammy bar. The mechanism is held in equalibrium by springs, how many depending upon the gauge of the strings. Springs being springs, they stretch with tension and strings being strings, they don’t (we’ll come back to this later). As you add tension to the string, by turning the tuner, you do two things – you add to the total tension on the springs, causing them to stretch slightly and reduce some of the tension on the other strings. So, when you tune one string up, you are automatically tuning the other strings down. You will have to take this into account when fine tuning. There are locking vibratos, like the Floyd-Rose, but tuning them is explained well on the Floyd-Rose website.

The guitar should only need fine tuning now, so set the tuner up again and we’ll start with the low E (or 6th string – the fattest). When played, it should register E on the tuner and you should only have the “in-tune” LED lit. If not, the tuner will tell you what is needed. In general, tuners show whether the string is tuned flat or sharp by red (and maybe also yellow) LEDs arrayed n the minus (flat) and plus (sharp) sides of “tune”. It may also have an “analogue” meter with “moving” arm. In addition, the chromatic tuner will give you the actual note which is nearest to the one played. Indications on the minus side mean that the string is tuned flat and needs to be tightened slightly. On the plus side, the string is too tight and needs to be slackened slightly. As you turn the tuning knob, you will see the result reflected on the display of the tuner – take things nice and easy, fine tuning can be turning the knob as little as1-2 degrees. Due to the way physics works, the strings will need to be plucked regularly to keep an sound strong enough for the tuner to pick up. If you have a hard-tail (no vibrato), you can tune the string accurately. If you have a floating bridge (i.e. non-locking vibrato), it is best to tune about 10 cents sharp (+10 on the dial or a couple of LEDs on the sharp side).

Now repeat this on each of the other strings. If you have a hard-tail, tune each string accurately. If you have a floating bridge, reduce the sharpness on the 5th and 4th strings down to +5 and zero sharpness on the thinnest 3 strings. You will now have to start with the low E again and tune, this time just a couple of cents sharp, same with the A and D strings – the thinnest 3 strings (G, B, high e) should be more or less correct. Repeat again, tuning each string accurately, until all are in correct tune. Sorry, but with floating bridges this step is just down to getting closer and closer with each cycle through the strings.

If the strings are new, you will find that they stretch over a period of about 12 hours and you will have to retune. There are methods people use to reduce this, but I find that if I change strings when I’m not going to be playing any more that day, they have fully stretched by the time I come to pick up the guitar again and I just need to retune the once.

Your guitar should now be in open tune. We can check the intonation quite easily – your tuner can recognise a note but not it’s octave, which is OK for this step, even with a “guitar tuner”. Assuming the string is properly tuned open, fretting the 12th fret should give you the same note albeit one octave higher. Check each string – if they all give exactly the same note as the open string, all is well. If they differ, the guitar will need to be intonated. Most electric guitars are quite easy to intonate. Acoustics, on the other hand, are not so easy. As a beginner, I would recommend taking the guitar (irrelevant of type) into a guitar tech and have him do it. Ask him if you can watch how he does it, so that, when you feel confident enough, you can do it yourself.

As you get more experienced, you will find that you can rough tune without needing to start off using the Concert A tone.

Tip: Make use of a change of strings to clean up your guitar, particularly the parts, which are difficult to reach with strings on (e.g. fretboard)

Happy Tuning.

Recently, whilst I was looking for a tab for something completely different, I sort of fell over the tab for Auld Lang Syne, which for some unknown reason sparked the words “Chord Melody” in my brain. Well, I thought, now that the idea is there, I really have to do something about it. The tune was simple, straightforward and not spread over several octaves, which in my simple mind made it an ideal candidate for experimentation. So without further intelligent thought (a not uncommon occurrence) I sat down at my PC and started into converting the song into my idea of chord melody. The thing is, I have not been playing a year yet (discounting the first attempt 40 years ago) and I have never tried to actively take part in the construction of a piece of music in any way, shape or form, other than changing the occasional note on a piece of tab. Perhaps I was biting off a bit more than I could chew, but I would never find out until I tried.

So I did.

As I had never tried anything like this and have read very little on the subject of chord melody, it was mostly a case of flying by the seat of my pants to start with. As I progressed, I found some sort of methodology, but the first moves were definitely “suck it and see”.

My main tools were Guitar Pro 4 and the Chord Guide.Com. Guitar pro was favoured for one or two features that I found in GP before I found them in Powertab (it started out in Powertab format, got transferred to GuitarPro and, eventually back into Powertab). The ChordGuide was an invaluable aid, especially in terms of time. I could have worked all the chords out myself, but it would have taken a lot of time and distracted me from the “main event” – the chord melody, itself.

The original score consists of 33 bars in two repeating patterns, which overlap at bar 17. That is, bars 1 to the first 3/4 of bar 17 are the same as the last quarter of bar 17 to bar 33. The reason for the quarters, is that the first and last bars share a full bar (there’s a name for this, but I can’t think what it is). The tune is in 4/4 and the first bar has one crotchet (quarter note), the last bar having the remaining three beats in the form of a dotted minim (half note + quarter note). The replication makes life easier, in that I only have to work with the first 17 bars, the rest is a repeat. These are the first 7 bars of the score in its original form:

You’ll see that it is in the key of F major (one flat, finishes with an F major chord). Rightly or wrongly, I discounted it being D minor, because of the last chord, which even allowing for a Tierce de Picardie, would have been D major.

Remembering the few lines that I had read on what chord melody is about and having taken a second look at Happy Birthday, the first thing that I had do was to get the basic tune up to the top 2 strings. This is so that the highest note of each chord played is the respective note from the melody. The original was in F, based on the 4th string 3rd fret, so the first step was to raise it an octave and everything was now in the right place (more or less, but more on that subject later), with only one note down on the G string.

These are the relevant bars after raising everything by one octave. As you can see, the second note of bar 17 is the same as the first on bar 1 (in standard notation on paper, the rests would not be included) – but, hang on, the tab comes out different. This is because both GuitarPro and Powertab try to make intelligent decisions based on the surrounding notes. This may or may not help in chord melody, as you can see clearly in bars 2 and 18.

My next decision was where to play the chords. Not having any background, I used what knowledge I do have of music theory to help me. 4/4 time consists of 3 emphases – strong (1st beat), middle (3rd beat) and weak (2nd & 4th beats). So I decided to put the chords into the tune on each of the stronger emphases. The first and third beats of each bar were, therefore, going to be juiced up with a chord, but what chord was that going to be? Again having no background to tell me otherwise, I decided the best way would be to simply merge the melody and rhythm lines. Just so you can follow along, let me give you what became my full transcription in F:

I went about it like this, I took the note that had to be played (let’s take the second bar as an example) and found a chord voicing that terminated with that note in the highest position. So, bar 2 starts with an F at the first fret of the first string, so I, therefore, need an F chord which uses string 1 fret 1 – easy – the normal F (4/3, 3/2, 2/1, 1/1) fits perfectly. The third note is also an F at the same position, so no problem there. Oh, man, am I on a roll here!

Bar 4. GP has transcribed the notes correctly, but the tab has been moved to the B string, presumably, to make the transition, in the next bar, to the 10th fret on the high E easier. Doing this, though, makes it more difficult to put in an F chord to terminate on the 6th fret of the B string, whereas we already have the F on the 1st fret of the high E in bar 2. This is one of those “more or less” cases I spoke about earlier – there is a certain amount of this tweaking to do. But no big deal, the roll picks up speed again!

Bar 8. Roll comes to a halt. After tweaking the tab, to bring the playing position onto the high E, the first chord was easy – a straightforward A-shaped Bb barre. However, I needed to look more closely at the 3rd and 4th beats.

I needed a C7 that ended on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string, which is not going to happen, because that’s a D and C7 has no D in it, but, as David Hodge kindly pointed out to me, a C9 does. The standard fingering of a C9 (032333) plays a G on the 1st string, but as this is the V of the chord, it can be left out in a 9 chord, which is what I did.

What started as:

became:

Having got over this hurdle, the remainder of the song was relatively straight forward. The major work being to ensure that the playing position of the notes was optimised for the chords that needed to be played and for the transitions to and from that chord.

However, playing the tune via MIDI made it clear that the song was imbalanced between the meaty chords, like G and the relatively thin open F, so you will find that a number of the “heavier” chords have had the note on the low E removed. Whilst this changes the voicing from a normal chord to a slash chord, where the lowest note is not the root, it does improve the overall balance of the piece.

Once I had a first version finished, I asked David Hodge if he would be kind enough to look it over and tell me if I actually had any idea of what I had done. To my amazement, he felt that I had done a good job, but wondered why I had not transposed into G, to make use of more open chords. Suddenly overwhelmed by enthusiasm, I immediately set about transposing up a whole tone.

So, back to the drawing board, but this time, with a little bit of background to help me through. Guitar Pro showed its value again, making the transposition of the original score (prior to chord-melodising, so to speak) really easy. I changed the key signature from F (1 flat) to G (1 sharp) and raised the entire track by 2 semitones. Done! Now for the chords!

Again, it would have taken much longer for me to have worked out the chords had I not been able to count on ChordGuide.com. As expected, the same problem arose in bar 8, as in the first time through, and I had to put in a D9 rather than the D7, which the original score used. However, one thing that did come out of the transition to G was that, without having to doctor any of the voicings, I ended up with a much better balanced song than had been the case in the key of F.

So, there we have it, my first attempt at chord melody, which will almost certainly be used to dampen raise everyone’s spirits on New Year’s Eve. I have certainly learnt from the exercise and will, no doubt, be trying other tunes as and when they come into my hands. I will, however, make the effort to learn more about chord melody before embarking upon another arrangement, if only to understand what it was that I did right and why (and, of course, anything that I could do better next time).

Final thought:

For anyone who has asked the question “Why learn music theory?”, the story this article tells is why. I could never have done it without a reasonable knowledge of theory. Tools like GuitarPro and ChordGuide.com are wonderful time-savers, but do not help you to think around a problem.

Here is the final result of my labours: Auld Lang Syne, a chord melody in G.

I’ll start with an apology. This is my first attempt at writing an article for a guitar forum, or any forum, for that matter. I’m much more at home writing technical IT documents, mostly in German. So if my style seems formal and stilted, you’ll understand why.

Before we get down to brass tacks, I ought to say that I have not had the full eMedia Guitar 1 course in my hands, only the free downloadable demo lesson from it (which does include the table of contents of the full course). Also the Guitar Method 2 is not the latest version.

What does eMedia cost?

As in all walks of life, it depends where you go. I bought mine from eBay and it is not the absolute latest version. I paid $22 plus postage from US to Germany.

The retail price is a marketing $50 (also known as $49.95). The street price seems to be around $35-40.

For whom are these courses best suited?

This is, obviously, a very important question if you are being asked to pay good money for it. The way that Guitar 1 is laid out, I would say that even someone who has never had a guitar in his hands could start with these lessons. The Guitar 2 or the newer Intermediate would, I feel need some prior knowledge – eMedia says “If you already know basic chords and melodies, this is the easiest way to take your playing to the next level” and I would agree with that.

What do you get?

What you, physically, get for your money is a boxed CD. The jewel box has installation instructions inside the lid, otherwise everything is on the CD. There are no manuals or anything like that. In the box I found a freebie plectrum, which is actually pretty good, although I can’t guarantee everyone will find one.

Installing the software.

The installation is a standard Windows installation, requiring you only to decide where you want to put the installed software (a default is offered) and what features you want to install, if you don’t want to follow the standard options. It’s all very quick and painless.

What is on the CD?

In addition to the lessons, you get:

Guitar tuner

Helps you to tune your guitar. On my setup, it just won’t recognize the input from my guitar. I have the guitar playing through a headphone amp, the output from there going to the sound card microphone input on my PC. Disappointing, but it may just be my setup, rather than the tuner.

They say it also works with a microphone, but I can’t check this out, as I don’t have one. You can also play the sound of each open string to tune offline.

The tuner will, however, only allow tuning to standard pitch (EADGBE)

Recorder

Allows you to record and play back your version of the lesson.

Metronome

Allows you to set speeds from 40 to 208 beats per minute. It also has an audible tick, which can be shut off if you don’t like it.

It has alternating dots at the left and right of the metronome to show the beat. It doesn’t, however, offer any time signature beats – you can’t, for example, set 3/4 time and get bum-ti-ti-bum-ti-ti. This is a shame because such time signatures are introduced into the lessons.

Chord Dictionary

Has fingering and sound of over 900 chords. More than you can shake a stick at and certainly more than are introduced in the lessons.

You click on the chord you want to find and the function gives you three different fingerings, each of which can be played, so you can hear how it should sound.

Internet Song Guide

They list songs (on OLGA) which they feel reflect the standard that you have reached at that point in the course and which contain elements of what you have just learned. This is a nice touch – leave the schoolroom and go play some “real” music.

The Lessons – General Structure

The pages are all built from a number of elements.

Mouth Button – to add the instructor’s comments to the lesson on this page.

Video Button – to illustrate the lesson with a short video.

Speaker Button – to play an audio track to demonstrate how an example should be played.

Record Button – allows you to record your interpretation of the lesson and play it back.

Arrow Buttons – to page back and forth though the lessons.

You will, of course, not find every element on every page, only where it makes sense.

The Lessons – Introduction

The introduction covers all aspects of getting yourself prepared to play, from the parts of a guitar through stringing and tuning your instrument to explaining how to read the charts and tablature.

Emedia uses a slightly non-standard form of tablature, which tries to bridge the void between standard notation and “standard” tablature. It adds the timing of standard notation to the ease of tablature.

This type of notation is very effective on simple pieces of music, where single notes are being played. The picture starts to become crowded, though, when there are lots of triplets and harmonies/chords (particularly barre chords) and it detracts somewhat from the simplicity of standard tablature. Look at the second diagram on the left of the screen-shot and imagine the half note being a G chord. With that reservation, I found it very useful, especially as I am trying to wean myself off tab and learn standard notation. If you don’t like tab, you can always switch to standard notation

Each point in the introduction is described in a clear and concise manner. As with the rest of the course (and all such courses for that matter), if the explanation is insufficient, there is nowhere you can look for more detailed explanation and the help function only covers information on how the program functions work, not the lessons.

The introduction contains really quite basic stuff, which even a raw beginner could understand. This is fine for the Guitar 1, but I would expect that the player that is taking the Guitar 2 or Intermediate would certainly know most, if not all, of what is there.

On the other hand, it does lay down the ground rules for the rest of the course and sets a flat playing field for everyone. If you can’t get past the introduction, you have no right going any further.

The Lessons – Learning!

The actual content of the version that I have contains the following lessons:

Chapter 1 – Teaches you all about fancying up plain old notes, with hammer-ons, pull-offs, trills, vibrato, slides and bends.

Chapter 2 – Introduces examples of music in which the student can put the things learned in Chapter 1 to use. It finishes with a few songs on OLGA that they think a student that has got this far should be able to play.

Chapter 3 – explains barre chords and demonstrates using the E and A shaped barre chords. Again, these new talents are put to use in examples of (well-known) songs, such as All Along The Watchtower (Dylan, not Hendrix). Some fairly simple strumming patterns are used in the exercises. This again ends with a list of songs on OLGA.

Chapter 4 – expands on chords and introduces various strumming styles, e.g. rock, blues, country and bass strum. Each style is illustrated with a piece of music, including a couple of variations on “All Along The Watchtower”. More links to OLGA round off rhythm guitar.

Chapter 5 – takes you into fingerpicking. This is rather adventurous as they attempt to cover styles ranging from pop (Dreamboat Annie) to classical (Romanza). Again finishing with a selection from OLGA.

In addition, there are two appendices which cover background to the lessons.

Appendix A – explains the basics of musical theory, such as music notation, time signatures, etc..

Appendix B – explains the basics of scales and modes.

The newer Intermediate version now covers more theory than the Guitar 2 and includes such things as the circle of fifths.

What do I think of eMedia guitar courses?

Getting started is a doddle. The installation takes care of itself and you are ready to go in a couple of minutes. I have Windows 2000, so I didn’t even need to reboot the system. You must remember that you need to have the CD in the drive from which you installed the software to run it. I set up a virtual CD drive on my hard disk and tried to run it from there, but the program stolidly refused to look anywhere but the original CD drive. I couldn’t find any way to change it, either. After reloading from the virtual CD everything worked fine.

Everything is very well structured and laid out. The command bar allows you to roam around the course by searching for a lesson, a song or a technique. For those determined to use standard notation, there is a choice between using that or tablature and you can swap as and when you like.

Each chapter is broken up into lessons. Guitar 1 has 10 chapters and 155 lessons, Guitar 2 has 5 chapters and 59 lessons. Each lesson is designed to teach you one and only one method. Each page within that lesson is designed to make a small but significant point. There is no clutter, no overcrowding – just enough to get the point of the page across and give the student a success without tears. Having spent years making technical presentations to prospective customers, I was struck by the similarity of the lesson to the layout of a well-constructed presentation.

Every example of music – even a hammer-on or pull-off – has an audio accompaniment. You are never left guessing what the example should sound like. Most are played quite slowly to emphasize the point. Some of the more advanced examples have sound clips in two speeds – slow and (nearly) normal, so that you can learn on the slow clip and improve with the faster one.

Some of the lessons also come with short video clips, to emphasize the point of the lesson. They are, for the most part, short and well thought out.

It may be my sound card, but I found that the sound-track to the video clips was not synchronized with the images, which is quite irritating.

Wherever there is a piece of music for the student to learn, there is a tracking facility. The note that is being played is highlighted in red, enabling you to easily follow the music.

As with the video, I did experience a small peculiarity – the audio tracking rarely shows the note that is currently being played. This is not too worrying when a slow, simple tune is being played, but anything medium speed with a few triplets and you lose position very quickly. Again it may just be my set-up.

Each chapter has a specific goal and these are achieved with ease. You can progress at your own speed, so if you are stuck on one point, you can stay there until you are satisfied that you have it down pat. The hurdles are set very low by eMedia – no lesson requires you to make any major leaps – I can’t see anyone being stuck for so long that they either lose patience or, worse still, enthusiasm.

Also offered is a function to print out a page, which can be very useful for practicing the tunes, as most of them span two or three pages. Each screen page takes up a little less than half an A4 page.

Using the Mouth Button generally brings a second or two of the instructor’s voice and offers little to the actual lesson – in my mind, the function could have been better solved by bringing up a new window with more detailed text information in it.

The new version also offers an interactive fretboard, which shows the fingering of chords, etc. that are being played.

My Conclusion

If you are new to guitar playing and you don’t want to start with a teacher right away, then eMedia could be the way to go. You will very quickly grasp the basics of playing a guitar and be able to take relatively uncomplicated tabs and play them. The structure makes it very easy for the student to get success – it may be small, but it is still an achievement and that is very important for confidence.

What it will NOT make you is an Eric Clapton or a Peter Frampton, but neither will any such course. It will, however, accelerate the need for you to get a guitar teacher!

By the way, I am in no way affiliated to eMedia and this review is totally unsolicited. If, however, eMedia should feel the need to send me any of their other courses (particularly the Blues Guitar Legends), I would be more than happy to give them the once over. ;-))