Classical guitar

Guitar composition and musical creativity - are we creative by nature.
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog category
Are we creative by nature?

Guitar composition is something that I believe anyone can (and should) do. But some think that they don’t “have it”. I’d like to address here the idea of musical creativity from different perspectives.

When we do simple things, like writing a comment on Facebook, we’re creating a string of words that perhaps never put together in that specific way. 

This is a creative act and it can occur everywhere in our everyday life. It’s similar to an idea by the bassist/author Victor Wooten that when we use language to say something – we improvise. 

The “Four C Model”

In the psychology literature, there’s something called the “Four C Model” which differentiates between levels of creativity. The first level is called “mini-c” and it’s about novel and personally meaningful interpretations of experiences, actions and events. 

It means, for example, that when you played a few notes on the guitar as a beginner, you may have experienced a feeling you created something that is new and different to you. 

According to this concept, “mini-c” inherently exists in a learning process which we can then foster and nurtured, so we can move on to the next levels of creativity. 

Creativity from a biological perspective

But psychology can’t provide definitive proof for our creative nature. So perhaps we can get evidence from a biological perspective. This quote describes it nicely: 

“One of the defining features of humanity is the ability to be creative. This ability is exhibited throughout human society and is a fundamental force in the development of humankind. However, the concept of creativity itself is shrouded in imprecision and subjectivity, making it difficult to address from a scientific perspective. One approach to the rational study of creativity in humans is to consider it from an evolutionary perspective, aiming to identify related behaviours in other species that can be studied without the cloud of human subjectivity that the word creativity entails.” (Wiggins, 2015; doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0099).

I’d add that it’s also very difficult to compare creativity levels between people. What are the parameters and who decides them? 

That’s why the term creativity can be open to interpretation and tricky to measure scientifically. Although there are efforts to research specific aspects of it.

My conclusion and guitar composition

We still need more research to understand creativity. But despite its subjectivity, it seems that there’s a wide agreement that being creative is an essential part of being human, even if it’s on a very basic level. 

It happens when we learn something new – and we begin our learning process as babies and even in the womb.

The cool thing? This long post is a result of a comment I got from a different post. This is a chain reaction of inspiration and creation, and you can choose to be part of it. 

To be more creative is your choice, whether you believe it’s in your nature or not. How? Commenting to this post is one simple way 😉 

Learning guitar for the sake of enhancing your creativity is another. And I’m trying my best to promote it through my guitar composition group where I share free resources and videos: Solo Guitar Composition Artistry Group 🙂👍🎸

I also opened a new venture called The Art of Guitar Composition Academy. This new programme will give you a holistic overview of music as an art form. We will explore all the elements of music in a practical way and experiment with compositional tools that will help you through every stage of the creative process.

To learn more about it and to see if it’s the right thing for you, schedule a guitar chat with me – https://www.udiguitar.com/contact-udiguitar/

May 22, 2023

A robot AI is a guitarist - CREATIVE GUITAR PROMPTS for songwriting composition and improvisation
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog category  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
5 Creative Guitar Prompts to Improvise and Compose New Music

Looking for creative guitar prompts?

The word “prompts” became common these days because of chatGPT and other AI apps. But instead of outsourcing intelligence, how about using and upgrading NI? 

The good things about NI are that its creative capacity is unlimited, it can search for the most updated information on the web, and can even connect and have meaningful chats with humans. 🙃

NI can also create beautiful music by using the smart algorithms of MI and mainly because of its extraordinary emotional expression capabilities. 

So here are 5 creative guitar prompts you can challenge your mind with to improvise, write songs and compose new musical creations…

  1. Write the next release of your favourite musician.
  2. Your middle two strings broke. Use the other four to write a song.
  3. Compose a monophonic guitar piece.
  4. Write a soundtrack to the last video on your phone.
  5. Play a famous guitar riff but with different notes.
CREATIVE GUITAR PROMPTS for songwriting composition and improvisation
5 creative guitar prompts

It’d be great to hear your variations on these creative guitar prompts! Would you like to share your attempts on my Electric Fingerstyle Improvisation Guitar Group on Facebook?

Prompt the Promt

Then I thought, what if you write “creative guitar prompts” as a prompt into an AI app? I did, and chatGPT gave me these 10 ideas:

  1. Play a piece in a different time signature, such as 7/8 or 5/4.
  2. Write a song that tells a story, and create a guitar riff to go along with it.
  3. Try playing a piece of music in a different genre, such as rock music played with a classical fingerstyle approach.
  4. Use alternate tunings, such as Drop D or Open G, to create a unique sound.
  5. Incorporate percussive elements, such as slapping and tapping, into your playing.
  6. Create a medley of your favourite songs, blending them together into one piece.
  7. Write a piece using only one chord, exploring the different melody and rhythm possibilities.
  8. Play a piece in reverse, starting with the last chord and working your way backwards.
  9. Experiment with different guitar effects, such as reverb, delay, or distortion, to create new sounds.
  10. Improvise a piece based on a specific emotion, such as joy, sadness, or anger.

I asked it to regenerate and got 10 more creative guitar prompts, and some are quite similar and variations to the first 10.

  1. Write a song using only three chords
  2. Create a soundscape by playing with different textures and effects pedals
  3. Write a piece in a different time signature than you are used to
  4. Use a specific emotion as inspiration for your playing
  5. Write a piece in the style of a genre or artist you admire, but put your own spin on it
  6. Experiment with alternate tunings
  7. Write a song with a narrative structure, like a story
  8. Improvise a solo over a chord progression you’ve never played before
  9. Collaborate with another musician and write a piece together
  10. Create a medley of different songs, seamlessly blending them together.

But this time, it also added an important closing sentence. “Remember, these prompts are meant to inspire and challenge you, not limit you. Feel free to interpret them in your own way and let your creativity guide your playing.”

Conclusion

This was a great experiment, which I believe proves my initial point. AI is based on common knowledge and on the information we know so far. It cannot yet generate ideas that haven’t been thought of. When I thought of producing 5 prompts of my own, I wanted to come up with new ideas and skipped the ones the chatGPT suggested. I thought they were a bit obvious and predictable.

For example, writing the next release of your favourite musician is an idea I for from the visual arts, to draw the next painting by Picasso and so on.

The conclusion is: feel free to experiment with all of these 25 creative guitar prompts. And here’s another challenge: create your own prompts!

February 15, 2023

Musical expression on the guitar - Guitarist Gary Moore RIP
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  Music  ·  The Guitar Blog category  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
How to enhance musical expression in your guitar playing

For improvisation, songwriting, and composition on the guitar in particular, these five ideas can help you be more expressive

The idea for this “musical expression on the guitar” article began with an answer I gave to a question in a guitar Facebook group. The question was along the lines of “How do you improvise on the guitar in a more musical way?”

My reply was: “The key is to develop your inner voice and ear and make it a whole-body experience, which is more than just “thinking” with your fingers. It’s about connecting all the different elements and components of a musical experience.”

Then, as I gave the question some more thought (and discussed it in my group “Guitar Songwriting & Composition“) I became aware of its problematic wording. What does “more musical” mean? The intent behind the original question was probably “how to be more expressive on the guitar” or “how to play the guitar with more musical expression.”

So I thought I’d break down my answer into five effective concepts that help me and my guitar students. 

Five Ways to Improve Musical Expression on the Guitar

1) Get Up, Stand Up

Most of us sit while playing the guitar. But standing up can already make a big difference. You can then move more freely by, for example, swaying your hips and gesturing with your hands and head. This also helps with getting into the rhythm and immersing yourself in your playing. This is what I meant by making it a whole-body experience. It’s like the difference between practising and performing. When you stand up, it can feel like a live gig, even if the crowd is the furniture around you. Also, sitting too much is not very healthy.

  • If you play classical / flamenco guitar, you can still move while sitting. But you can also try to stand and rest your foot on a high stool.

2) Sing

Using your voice—either your inner or actual voice—can help a lot with being more expressive on the guitar. For example, when you “scat” (sing what you play at the same time), your playing can sound more human. In other words, you will use speech-like phrases. It’s because when we speak, we say a few words, pause or take a breath, and say a few more words, and so on. When you do that with the guitar, the result can be similar. You’ll play and sing a few notes on the guitar, breathe and rest, then play and sing a few more notes, and so on.

  • If that’s tricky, you can also play something and then sing it. The other way around can also work, sing something and then play it. 

Watch these two short videos about guitar scatting:

Guitar scatting part 1
Guitar scatting part 2

3) Listen to the Music

Playing the guitar expressively is not just about playing one phrase, the next one, and then another. Instead, think about it as a conversation between you and the guitar. It’s bi-directional. So after playing a phrase, listen to what you’ve just played before automatically playing the next one. Ask yourself, “Where does this phrase want to go?” This way, your phrases will stimulate you to respond and create other related phrases. 

  • This concept is particularly crucial when playing with other live musicians. The ability to listen to those around you is probably the most important aspect of music expression and creation. 

4) Surprise Yourself

If you “think” too much with your fingers, your playing might sound too mechanical. For example, it can happen when you play over a scale you know automatically, like the pentatonic minor scale. Especially when repeating previously practised exercises, like scale sequences. It can be much more exciting to improvise and come up with new note combinations you’ve never tried before. 

  • To break the patterns, pay attention to how you play. Are you mostly using the same order of fingers? Mix it up.

5) Silent Notes

We tend to focus too much on what notes to play. But it’s equally (or even more) important to focus on how we play these notes. For instance, adding interesting dynamics and tone can be much more expressive than a constant stream of notes. This way, you can repeat the same phrase while diversifying it by playing with other elements of music. 

  • Learning the power of the elements of music also helps with finding your sound and your own style on the guitar. It can make your music and your playing more unique and original. 

Musical Expression on the guitar – Summary

To sum up, to play the guitar with more musical expression, think about it as a whole-body experience by standing and moving your body, singing, listening to your playing, surprising yourself with new note combinations, and focusing on other elements of music.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article! Comment below. Also, if you’ve implemented these concepts, it’d be great to hear how they helped you!

After Note

While working on demonstrating these ideas in a video, a new guitar tune came out. So instead of a video that explains and shows these concepts, here’s that tune that I came up with. I thought it was important because ultimately, the idea of musical expression on the guitar is about creating new music that excites you. Need help applying these principles to your music? Let’s have a guitar chat!

https://youtu.be/O_oVVk7Fp60

Photo of Gary Moore: Jan Reif

Did you like this article about musical expression on the guitar? Comment below

January 24, 2023

creative guitar mindset for guitarists
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog category  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
5 easy ways to adopt a creative guitar mindset

Why guitarists focus more on the technical side of guitar playing while struggling with the creative aspect + 5 easy and proven ways to enhance your creativity on the guitar

Creative guitar mindset: why do we need it? It may be trivial, but I think it’s important to stress the impact that our mindset has on our guitar playing and music creation. Out of the different types, I’m going to focus here on the creative mindset, which is fundamental for music as a creative art form.

Although this is quite a simple concept, I don’t think that many guitarists think this way. But I can understand why. One of the reasons is related to the way we begin learning guitar. The first thing we do is treat guitar playing as a physical activity. It’s understandable because controlling our fingers to do something they’ve never done before is a challenge. We weren’t born to play the guitar. 

So our initial focus is to see the guitar as a tool for finger exercises. This way, we might get the wrong impression that this is what the guitar is about. We may adopt a sports-like mindset, believing that we should focus primarily on techniques. This is heightened when we want to sound like the great, technically incredible shred guitarists.

Guitarist’s creative mindset

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against honing our technical skills on the guitar. But my guitar philosophy is that music is about conveying emotions, and the guitar is the best tool to achieve that. So in a creative mindset, guitar skills are meant to help us express the music we hear in our heads to create meaningful songs and compositions. This is my definition of a creative mindset in this context. A more general definition can be “think like an artist”. 

“Arts and crafts” is a good analogy for these two types of mindsets (sports and creative). “Arts” represents the artistic and creative side of music, and “crafts” is the technical and craftsmanship part of playing music. Each one relies on the other and complements it. To convey our emotions on the guitar, we need to be able to execute them well. To give meaning to our finger movements and guitar skills, we need emotional content. So there’s some balance we can maintain between the “arts and crafts”. 

There’s no shortage of resources for improving technical guitar skills, but it seems that guitar lessons on creativity are scarce. I can understand why. It’s much more difficult to teach guitar creativity! But because this is my true passion and purpose in life, I’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and energy finding ways to teach guitarists to be more creative and expressive. I’ve learned it from my guitar teachers, researched it academically, and tested it in the real world on myself, my fellow musicians, and my guitar students. 

After discussing the importance of adopting a creative mindset on the guitar, let’s go over ways of achieving it.

5 tips on adopting a creative mindset on the guitar

1) Embrace this daily habit

Enhancing a creative mindset is like adopting a good habit. Like any habit, daily repetition is the key to success. So you can simply allocate time every day to practising it. This kind of practice is about picking up the guitar and playing something you’ve never played before. You can improvise, jam, noodle, and explore the guitar from a new angle. Allow yourself to experiment with it. This can be even just 10 minutes a day, and you can treat it like your daily meditation or your “me time.” 

  • Choosing the right time of day and place can help with incorporating it into your routine and life. For example, I practice mainly at night time when the house is quiet while laying on the living room couch. 

2) Don’t think too much

When you practice the above daily exercise (or when playing anything on the guitar), try not to think too much or at all. Mainly, don’t judge and critique yourself by thinking “it’s not good enough”, “it’s not original enough”, or “I don’t know what I’m playing”. We are our worst critics. Being critical is a great type of thinking for other tasks, like making progress and improving our guitar skills. But from an artistic point of view, it adds an unnecessary roadblock to the creative process. So decide that you’re going to clear your mind and enter a state of flow. The great drummer Vinnie Colaiut summarised it well with his mantra: “Thought is the enemy of flow”. 

  • If you ever tried meditation, you probably know that it’s hard to stop our brain from thinking. How can you stop its main function…? But you can enter a mind-wandering state, or daydream. Anything is fine as long as you allow yourself to explore the guitar with no judgment. 

3) Shut your eyes

What can help you with the previous tips is to shut your eyes while playing. This simple act can block some distractions and disruptions in your environment. Because music is mainly an auditory experience, shutting down one of your most active senses, sight, can help. You can then focus more on the most important skill for a guitarist or musician: the ability to listen. This type of listening skill allows you to hear the potential of what you’re trying to create and immerse yourself in this creative activity. Besides, playing without looking at your fingers is a great exercise that builds trust with your fingers and the sense of touch. 

  • Other ways to decrease your sight are by playing in a dark room (I even played in caves), or covering your eyes with a blindfold (maybe you have a travel eye mask from your latest flight…).

4) Do a warm-up

It can take some time to leave your thoughts behind, find something that excites you, or enter a flow state. So when practising the daily 10 minutes, it might take five minutes or even more to get into “the zone”. The zone is that state of mind where you feel comfortable and curious to explore new things after letting go of any annoying thoughts. This way, creativity is like a muscle that you need to stretch and warm up to exploit its full potential. So be patient with yourself and allow time for things to happen (and they will happen!).

  • You can also do “normal” warm-up exercises before your 10 minutes begin. These can even lead you to a great creative session. For instance, did you know that Guns N’ Roses’ hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine” began as an exercise that Slash practised on his guitar?

5) Create a safe space

If you still struggle to get into a creative mood, it might be related to your surroundings. A safe space is a time and place where you feel secure enough to explore the unknown. It’s like the “sandbox” concept in the software development world, where you can try things out, test them, and make mistakes. So finding or creating your own safe space in an encouraging environment can help.

  • I’ve found that these safe places can occur in the context of a lesson with my guitar students. Magic happens when you have trust and are encouraged to get your creative juices flowing. I’ve witnessed many a time students creating amazing music in front of my eyes and ears

Want to get more creative guitar mindset tips?

These five creative guitar mindset tips are just a few out of many! I write about them in more depth in my guitar book.

If you’d like to know what they are and can’t wait for the book, I can show you what they are and, more importantly, how to implement them. Contact me here.

I’m a guitar teacher in north London who mainly teaches online using a unique music education platform. If you’re looking into improving your guitar songwriting and composing skills – I’d love to hear from you. Use the link above or comment below to schedule a guitar chat with me.

January 20, 2023

Music theory for guitar songwriting
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog category  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Unlock Guitar Songwriting Secrets with Easy Music Theory Methods

Music theory is a great tool for writing songs on the guitar. In this article, I’ll show 5 ways to create music that will sound good and also give tips to make your songs less common and more original

Before getting into guitar songwriting tips, I need to mention an important idea. Although music theory provides effective songwriting tools, you can ignore them all. It’s because being creative usually entails breaking the rules and finding a unique way of creating music. There’s a great quote accredited to the guitar legend Jeff Beck (RIP), who left us this week:

Guitar legend Jeff Beck - "If I don't break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I'm not doing my job properly."

“If I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly.”

— Jeff Beck

Photo: Simon Fernandez Music Photographer

Let’s first begin by defining what music theory and guitar songwriting are.

What is music theory?

Music theory is a… theory. As such, it’s open to interpretation. So I’ll propose a working definition for this article. Music theory is a compilation of methods and ideas to organise sound and explore and understand its various possibilities to create music.

What is guitar songwriting?

This is another blurry term, and I’ll define guitar songwriting as the process of creating popular music on the guitar. I also like to use the term “guitar composing.” Composing is more related to classical music, but guitar music can be instrumental, whereas songs are usually associated with lyrics.

Here are the 5 simple methods and at the end of each method, there’s a guitar songwriting tip.

1) Diatonic Harmony

The term “diatonic” in music theory is such a great tool for songwriting. It allows you to turn the seven notes of a scale into music that will most likely sound great. It’s because these seven notes are connected by strong bonds.

You can think of it as a family. Yes, there are sometimes disagreements and tensions, but “blood is thicker than water” and there is natural love. So the seven notes are like seven family members.

One of the basic interpretations of diatonic in songwriting is “diatonic harmony,” which means chords and chord progressions based on the seven chords of a scale or key.

Let’s start with the key of C major. There are 7 notes in C major: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. From each note (also called a “degree”), we construct a related chord: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and B-.

If you choose a combination of some of these chords, you will create a chord progression, and it will likely sound good. For example, C, G, F, and Am.

Guitar songwriting tip #1:

These four chords are frequently used. So to create a less common chord progression, include some or all of the other three chords. For instance, C, B-, F, and Dm.

2) Time Symmetry

Music theory brought us the term “time signature” (also “metre”). It’s an effective way to organise beats. The most common time signature is 4/4, and because it’s so common, its synonym is a capital C. It means that music is divided into 4 beats, and these 4 beats are grouped in a block called a “bar” (or “measure”).

So if you want your chord progression to sound good, you can use symmetry. If you look around, you’ll probably notice many symmetrical items, like furniture. We humans are very much into symmetrical shapes, and the same thing applies to music.

You can create symmetry in music by allocating each chord to a 4-beat bar. For example:

| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |

Guitar songwriting tip #2:

To make your chord progression more original, break the pattern or stretch the symmetry. For example, you can create a chord progression with an odd number of bars, like:
| C / / / | G / / / | Dm / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |

3) Melodic Tones

The next music theory concept is called “chord tones”, which are simply the notes of each chord. These are great for creating melodies around a chord progression. Every basic chord consists of 3 notes (a triad), and to add a melody that sounds good, you can sing (or play with another guitar) a note or more from the same chord.

For example, chord C consists of the notes c, e, and g. If you sing or play one of these notes with the chord C, they will sound harmonious together. It’s a very simple idea… Let’s see it in action.

Chords:
| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |
Melody:
| e | d | c | c |

Guitar songwriting tip #3:

To make it more original and interesting, use non-chord tones as well. Non-chord tones can be notes from the same scale that are not part of the chord. For example:
Chords:
| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |
Melody:
| d | e | d | c |

4) Functional Harmony

Functional harmony is a music theory concept that presumes that each chord in a scale or key has a specific function. For example, the first chord is called the “tonic”. If all the chords are a family, then the tonic is considered the head of the family. It’s the first and main chord of the scale.

The tonic functions like “home”, which means that it’s the chord you usually start and end with. It’s like starting the day at home, going to work, and then coming back home to your family. This means that you can think of the other chords as “outdoors”.

In practical terms, it means that if you want to create a “homey feel”, you’re going to base a chord progression around C. For example:

| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | C / / / |

Guitar songwriting tip #4:

You can also create a chord progression that feels like the outdoors. For example:
| Dm / / / | B- / / / | Em / / / | Em / / / |

5) Final Form

What you can do with the chord progressions and melodies is arrange them in a form. We sometimes take it for granted, but various forms have been developed for centuries. In popular music, there are a few common forms.

For example, a popular form begins with two verses, a chorus, one verse, and then two choruses. In short, we can write it as AABABB. The A part is the verse, which can be one chord progression with one melody. The B part can be the chorus with different chord progressions and melodies:

A: | C | G | F | C |
A: | C | G | F | C |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |
A: | C | G | F | C |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |

Guitar songwriting tip #5:

To make your song more complex and interesting, add more sections, like a C-part, which can be another chord progression and melody. For instance: | G | Dm | B- | Am |
For guitarists, this can be our cue for the guitar solo.

  • Last tip: Even better, create your form and organise your music in a way that feels right to you.

What did you think about these guitar songwriting tips and methods? Comment Below.

If you’d like to advance your guitar songwriting skills – get in touch! I am a guitar teacher in north London and also have an online guitar school.

January 13, 2023

creative guitar - udiguitar - udi glaser
The Guitar Blog category
What Is A Good Guitar Playing Technique? Inspiring Story

What is a good guitar playing technique? One that makes your playing more unique.

It’s about finding different ways of using your fingers, like these harmonics I play in the video, inspired by Alan Gogoll.

Gogoll suffered a hand injury and managed to turn the obstacle into an opportunity by using his left hand to play harmonics.

This is a truly inspiring story.

Watch my take on Gogoll’s technique:

Grab your FREE guitar GUIDES:

  1. Fretboard Navigation Tricks – Navigate between the notes with confidence and ease.
  2. Write your first song on the guitar and apply the 3 pillars of music.
    Click here – https://stan.store/udiguitar
July 14, 2022

Guitar Blog - music philosophy and creativity - Udi Glaser
The Guitar Blog

This guitar blog is dedicated to music creativity, philosophy and psychology, with interviews, articles, and practical tips and lessons for guitarists​

Contact me here if you’d like to contribute as a guest blogger. Enjoy reading and please comment and share!

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Guitar composition and musical creativity - are we creative by nature.
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October 4, 2018

classical guitar books
Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Classical Guitar Study Books

Click on the photos to purchase them directly from amazon:

Aural

1a) Trinity College London – Aural Tests Book 1 – Initial Grade to Grade 5 (2017):

1b) Trinity College London – Aural Tests Book 2 – Grades 6 to 8 (2017):

Scales & Exercises

2a) Trinity College London – Guitar & Plectrum Guitar Scales & Exercises – Initial Grade – Grade 5 (from 2016):

2b) Trinity College London – Guitar & Plectrum Guitar Scales, Arpeggios & Studies – Grades 6 to 8 (From 2016):

Guitar Exam Pieces Grades

3) Trinity College London – Guitar Exam Pieces Grades – Initial to 8 (2016-2019):

February 9, 2017

guitar books
Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitar Books

This is a short list of essential and classical guitar books (from Amazon) that I grew up on and teach from:

1) For acoustic guitar

Eric Clapton – Unplugged

There’s also a deluxe version with more songs that just came out a few years ago:

2) For electric guitar

Joe Satriani – Surfing with the Alien

3) For classical guitar

The Library of Guitar Classics

February 7, 2017

The guitar blog, online guitar lessons
Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitar Accessories: Essential Pack

I searched Amazon for quality guitar accessories at a good price and came up with this essential pack which will be enough for beginners. Click on the images to purchase it directly from amazon:

1) Capo

The following Capo will do its job. Some cost around £20 but they’re not very different. It can work easily with any type of guitar.

2) Guitar stand

This simple guitar stand is very useful and can easily be folded.

3) Guitar footstool (or footrest)

A guitar footstool is essential for classical guitarists, but not only.

4) Music stand 

A music stand is another essential accessory for classical guitarists, but useful to all guitarists.

5) Guitar plectrum (or pick)

Undoubtedly Jazz III picks are my personal favourite. Their small, thick and last forever. A pack of 12 at this good price is just enough.

6) Guitar strap

After buying your picks, this strap holds them for you. Great idea!

7) Slide

Jim Dunlop’s Steel Slides are great. For beginners there’s no need to buy slides made of glass – they’ll break and your heart will break too…

8) Guitar tuner

Korg’s tuners are known to be a bit more precise. There are pricier Korg tuners but this one can do what it’s supposed to do.

9) Electric guitar strings 

Super Slinky are my favourite electric guitar strings. A more competitive option is to buy [eafl id=430 name=”amazon” text=”3 sets of strings”].

10) Acoustic guitar strings 

Elixir (11 gauge) are my favourite acoustic guitar strings (steel).

11) Classical guitar strings 

D’Addario Pro-Arté (normal tension) are my favourite classical guitar strings (nylon).

12) String winder and cutter

A winder saves a lot of time when you need to quickly change your guitar strings with less fuss and a cutter will get rid of those annoying (and sometimes dangerous) loose ends.

May 25, 2016

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