Good news to all Filipino Alternative rock fans out there! American Alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins is coming in Manila on August 7, 2012 for their Oceania Global Tour.
This big event will be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The band has been in the music industry since 1988.
Some of their greatest songs are 1979, Tonight, Tonight, Today, bullet with butterfly wings, and many more. I hope they will visit Cebu next time because I'm pretty sure there are many hungry fans craving to see them here in Cebu.
Anyway for those who have time and money of course, this is now your chance to see Smashing Pumpkins play live.
Blues Scales are one of the most important things that a blues guitar player must learn.
Its easy to memorize the blues scale but the real problem here is how to apply those scales, create blues licks and play blues in a more musical way.
You see, you can play the whole blues scale but may not get that bluesy sound.
Do you know the reason why?
It is becuase you need to have a combination of several notes on the blues scale and not just playing the whole scale. Proper blues techniques are essential in order to play the blues scales in a more musical way. Blues techniques such as; string bending, slide, vibrato, phrasing, Orchestration, and many more, helps create that bluesy feel.
"You want to learn blues guitar scales (or blues in general) fast and easy?
You Need A Teacher!"
The best way to learn blues scales and the techniques above fast and easy, is to get a blues guitar teacher. Getting a guitar teacher is quite expensive. If you can't afford to get one, your best bet is to go for Online Blues Guitar Lessons.
Online Guitar Lessons vs. a Guitar Teacher
Online guitar tutorials are less expensive compared to hiring a guitar teacher. You can get an online guitar lessons for as low as $14.95(monthly subscription). What's great with online tutorials is that it offers Easy access and convenience. It's online so you can watch it through your computer in the comfort of your home.
You can also access it anytime and anywhere in the world as long as you have internet connection. Convenient because you can download the videos in your local Hard drive and watched it over and over again until you fully undesrtand the lesson.
Unlike with a guitar teacher that you need to set a schedule and in most cases you really need to visit his shop. However, the good thing of getting a guitar teacher is that, you can talk to him personally and he can guide you while you are actually doing the lessons.
But if you value more convenience and savings, then you go for an Guitar lessons online.
GuitarTricks.com is one of the great online guitar tutorial websites today. I've been a student of guitartricks and I must say that their doing a great job in producing quality guitar lessons especially in Blues. Another good website is JamPlay.com. I've read great reviews about jamplay, though I never try it personally. I recommend that you check this websites too.
Can I get free Online Blues Guitar Lessons?
There are lot of blues guitar lessons in youtube but most of them are crappy, poor quality videos created unprofessionally. But what if I tell you that you can get premium blues guitar lessons videos and blues scales tab from guitartricks.com for FREE? This sounds great, isn't it?
YES! You read it right! You can download Premium blues lessons from guitartricks.com that's worth $14.95(monthly subscription), absolutely for FREE. To know more about this, please visit this post Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free?
Alright! I hope this post helps you in your long journey of learning to play the Blues. They said that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". And I think your first step is to learn the blues scales.
Memorizing the blues scales is not enough. You need to apply blues guitar techniques to play the blues like B.B. King. And to learn those techniques, you need to get a Blues Guitar Lesson.
But, you might say - I don't want to spend money for a guitar Lesson, can I get it for free? Well congratulation! You have come in the right place because in this post I will share to you How to Download Blues Guitar Lessons for FREE.
Master the blues scales like B.B King
It’s easy to find free guitar lessons on the web these day's. There are a lot of websites available out there that will teach you beginner to advance guitar techniques for free. And if you love to watch videos rather than reading articles, YouTube is absolutely for free. However, the problem with free stuff is that most of the time it's low quality and maybe that's one of the reason why their giving it for free.
But what if I tell you that you can get FREE blues guitar lessons with high quality content and in high definition videos? This sounds great, right?
Have you ever heard about GuitarTricks.com? If you do, most probably you already know that it's a paid guitar tutorial website. I first stumbled with guitar tricks almost 4 years ago but I never had interest on them because I don't want to pay $14.95 for monthly subscription.
But recently, I found a little trick on how to download guitar lessons from Guitar tricks for free. I was completely blown away when I discover this because these are premium high quality guitar lesson videos and their just giving it for free. What I really like are the tutorials for several popular blues songs and dissecting the styles of some of the greatest blues artists ever lived.
Aside from videos, you can also download blues scales tab and blues chords. And i'm sharing this to you because I know this will help you to play the blues scales in a more musical way and will jumpstart your blues guitar playing.
Who The Heck is Guitar tricks?
Just to give you a little background about Guitar tricks. They are one of the oldest guitar lesson web sites on the web. For over 10 years, they've been providing quality video guitar lessons, tutorials with tabs and notation, guitar tips and tricks, awesome tools like metronome and online guitar tuner, the interactive forums, and a lot more.
They have 46 instructors all over the world that specializes in different guitar styles. No matter what is your skill level or what style of music you’re interested in, acoustic, classical, blues, rock, metal, you name it, guitar tricks got something to teach you.
Now that you have checked the quality of the video which you can get inside guitartricks.com, let me ask you - do you like what you see? If you do, follow the steps on this video below.
Steps on how to download Blues Guitar Lessons from guitartricks.com:
We don't know how long this free trial will exist, so download those guitar lessons NOW while they're still available, and make the most of your blues scales.
In this article I will show you how to download Metal Guitar lessons. These are premium guitar lesson videos and most of them are in High-definition so the quality is really superb. Normally the value of this online guitar lessons is $14.95 and that's monthly subscription. But the good news is that you can download these lessons for FREE in a legal process.
YES! You heard it right it’s absolutely free. When I first heard this, I was totally surprised because I know these are quality guitar lessons and their giving it for free. And that's just awesome.
Now, let me explain this. The way it works is that you sign up for guitartricks 14 day free trial guitar lessons online. You need to have a credit card or a PayPal account to subscribe. UPDATE - If you don't have a credit or PayPal you can try Unionbank Eon - Credit Card Alternative. Unfortunately, this option is only available if you live in the Philippines. Within those 14 days you will be able to access all of their guitar lessons and download videos as well as guitar tabs of those lessons.
Your credit card or PayPal account will not be charge for the first 14 days. Only when the 14 days is over, that’s the time guitartricks will start charging you $14.95 as monthly subscription. But if you don't want to spend money, you are free to cancel your subscription anytime within 14 days. Perhaps you cancel it on your 13th day, it’s really up to you. Of course on that span of time, you could have downloaded a lot of videos already.
Aside from Heavy metal guitar lessons (or metal in general), there are also other musical style to choose from such as acoustic, jazz, classical, country, rock, blues and many more.
So! Let's get started. You have two options here, either you watch the video, OR follow the steps right down below. Either way, it will take you to the process of downloading the guitar lesson videos. But I highly recommend that you watch the video because it's easier to follow when you see the actual pages.
9 Easy Steps To Download Free Metal Guitar Lessons
Step 1. Sign up for guitartricks 14 day free trial guitar lessons. Click this link 14-day Free Trial. You need to enter your username, password, and email address.
Step 2. Set up your payment details, credit card or PayPal (Watch the video above for detailed instruction).
Step 3. Check your email inbox and look for an email from support@guitartricks.com with a subject "Welcome to Guitar Tricks Full Access". Open that email and click on the first link like shown in the image below.
Step 4. This window will open. Log in to your account using the username and password that you have entered in step 1.
Step 5. Once you have logged-in, this page will open. In the left side, click on "Metal".
Step 6. This page will open. Click on "Metal Master List".
Step 7. Another page will open where you will see the list of metal guitar lessons. Choose the lesson you want to download. Let’s see you want to learn shredding, so click on "Essential Shred Licks".
Step 8. Another page will open. Click "Begin Tutorial".
Step 9. This page will open. Select the topic you want to download. Let's say you want to download the "shred standard" lesson. Click on it, then click download, and the download will start.
Maximum Number Of Download Per Day
You are only allowed to download 15 metal guitar lesson videos per day. But that’s okay. Because 15 videos per day times 14 days, you will be able to download a total of 210 videos and that’s for free. For me that’s already a BIG advantage in my end.
Aside from videos you can also download the tabs of the guitar lessons. They also have jamtracks where you will be able to play a backing track and you can practice riffs along with it. But this is not downloadable.
How To Sign Up If I don’t Have A Credit Card Or PayPal?
If you don't have credit card or PayPal account and you’re from the Philippines, I have another way for you. Just send me an email to john.rockosphere@gmail.com and I will send you the instruction on how to sign up without using credit card or PayPal. However, if you are from US or other countries, sorry I don't have other options for you as of this moment.
How To Cancel My Subscription?
Now if you want to cancel your subscription, it's pretty simple. Go at the top of the page of your guitar tricks account and click on the button "Account". When you are already on your account, look for "cancel Billing" then click on it. That's simple!
If you have questions or having issues in downloading the videos, please leave a comment right down below and I'll be happy to address them. You may also send an email to john.rockosphere@gmail.com. And in order for me to response in a timely manner, please put in the subject Metal Guitar Lessons.
Axl Rose vs Kurt Cobain conflict has been debated for quite a long time. Who started the fight? Who started it all? As an avid Nirvana fan, I got curious of this matter so I did a research. I dug up the internet and found so many stories about it. There are different versions of the story behind Kurt Cobain vs. Axl Rose, and this story that I'm about to share to you is just one version among them. I choose this version because this is the most common and many believed that this holds the true story.
Axl Rose vs Kurt Cobain
An Invitation That Was Rejected
It all started with a rejection. In an interview with Dave Grohl (nirvana's drummer, now Foo Fighters lead vocalist) he said that, at the start Axl Rose was a big fan of Nirvana especially the Album Nevermind. Because Axl admires Nirvana, he wanted them to open for Guns N Roses and Metallica concert tour.
So Axl contacted Kurt Cobain to invite Nirvana to play with them on the concert. Kurt got pissed off because Axl keep calling him nonstop. "Fuck, Axl Rose won't stop calling me.!" - Kurt Cobain's line.
Nirvana never had an interest of playing with guns n roses for some reason. So literally Nirvana REJECTED the invitation of Guns n Roses to play with them. Kurt didn't like to play with Axl Rose and started saying bad things about Axl during band interviews. And then Axl fight back and said bad things to Kurt too. The conflict worsened. Until the MTV Music Awards of 1992, where both bands where invited. During the event, Axl had a really bad mode and it happen that Axl and his body guards passed by where Courtney love and Kurt are sitting. Courtney jokingly yelled at Axl, "Axl will you be the godfather of our child". Axl got pissed off and told them "you better shut up bitch' then look at Kurt and scream “you better keep you wife shut or I will take you to the pavement". The intensity builds up between the two bands. The Kurt Cobain Axl Rose became nirvana vs. guns n roses fight. And Duff McKagan(Guns bassist) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana's bassist) had almost got into a fist fight. From there the war between the two bands went on and on. Personally, I'm a big fun of Nirvana and based on the story above, apparently Nirvana started the war. But I don't really care if they started it or not, that was a long time ago and Kurt has been long dead. But the reason why I bought this up because up to this moment many Guns and Nirvana fans are still debating like crazy on this issue. These are some of the lines you would read in forums, which sounds really crazy. "Axl is awesome and the only best thing Kurt Cobain ever did was die" "Kurt is much better composer than Axl" "Glam is superior to grunge" "Axl is gay"
I cannot blame the fans for being loyal to their idols but I think this topic is not worth debating anymore. I believe it was just a minor misunderstanding but because they're still young and aggressive during that time, so the situation got worse. In fact, not so long ago the bassists Duff McKagan(Guns) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) had exchange apologies to each other and are very good friends now. I think the same thing would happen to Axl and Kurt if Cobain is still alive today. There's no point of arguing which of the two bands is better because in the heart and mind of a fan he knows who’s better. If you ask a Nirvana fan, 99% he would say that Nirvana is better than Guns. On the other hand, a Guns n Roses fan would always say that Guns is superior to Nirvana. The judgments are being sabotaged based on the personal perception of the fans and not the technicality side of the artists. The topic is like a maze with no exit so I think it's time to quite, stop arguing and respect each other instead. Now, tell me how you feel about this crazy Axl Rose vs. Kurt Cobain thing?
Guitar Tuning Online offers a lot of benefits to guitar players especially to beginners. Two major advantages are Easy access and Economical. Easy access because you can access it fast and easy through the internet. Economical because it's a free tool.
There are a lot of online guitar tuners today and it's just a matter of finding which one is the best. I'm sure you don't want to waste your time on those crappy online guitar tuners. You want to get the best online guitar tuner out there and you deserved only the best.
In this article, we will going to look at top 3 online guitar tuners:
gieson.com
proguitartuner.com
JamPlay.com
I know there are other free online guitar tuners in the web but these 3 are the ones that I think may help you in large scales.
Let’s start with gieson.com guitar tuner. One of the most popular and trusted site when it comes to guitar tuning online. It's pretty accurate, very user friendly, and offers different kinds of tuning such as standard tuning, Open G, Drop D, C6, D minor, and a lot more. The downside is that you can only tune by ear.
The way it works is just like tuning your guitar with a keyboard and you need hearing skill to do this which is not really friendly for beginners.
The second one is the guitar tuner online from proguitartuner.com. It has a vintage look user interface which makes it pretty cool. Just like gieson tuner, it offers different kinds of tunings.
But the good thing in proguitartuner is that you don't need your ear to tune your guitar. What you need is a microphone. The way is works is you pluck the guitar string near to your computer and the built-in mic of you pc will receive the tune and the tuner will display the note of that string.
You can find the detailed instruction on how to use this online guitar tuner on their website.
The last but not the least is the online guitar tuner at JamPlay.com. Just like proguitartuner and gieson guitar tuner, it also allows you to have different kind of tuning like standard tuning, Open G, Drop D, and all that stuff.
But what's really makes jamplay unique is that it is a sort of combination of the two mentioned online tuners. It would let you tune by ear OR tune using a microphone which they also called digital tuner. So you have two options, tune by ear or digital tuner using a microphone.
Also works as electric or as acoustic guitar tuner. The guys behind Jamplay guitar tuner really did a good job in providing solution to the problems of guitar players. They made guitar tuning online so much convenient and easy. Whether you are a complete beginner or advance guitarist, this one might work great for you.
Talking about jamplay, If you are interested to fast track you guitar learning, you might want check their online guitar lesson which is great for any level (beginner, intermediate, and advance).
Online Guitar lesson
Another thing that really makes Jamplay an awesome guitar tuner is its user interface. Very convenient and easy to operate. You would instantly know the current note you are playing and the frequency of that note.
I can say that JamPlay is the Best free online guitar tuner in the web today.
Why JamPlay Is The Best Guitar Tuner Online?
What’s best for me may not be best for you. For me jamplay is the best. Why? Because I have used it personally and I found out that it really works for me. That's me and my own point of view.
Will it also work for you?
Maybe, maybe not! In order to figured that out is to try the 3 guitar tuners (even other online guitar tuner) and find out what really best for you.
It's up to you to decide what's the best guitar tuner online. My job here is to just recommend what's works for me but I'm not saying that you should use this. You are free to try other guitar tuning online tools and see if it will work for you.
When I was learning the guitar, I haven't heard about Acoustic Guitar Tuner then. I was in second year high school when I first tried to play the guitar. No guitar teacher, No mentor, whatsoever. With a little help of a music magazine and chords illustration on it, I learn to play the guitar by myself.
Acoustic Guitar Tuner
Guitar tuning was one of my biggest problems. My neighbor knows to tune the guitar but I'm just too shy to ask him a favor. So I just figured it out by myself. I was frustrated and about to give up until one day I found a guide on acoustic guitar tuning. But even if I have the guide, still it is a very time wasting and painful process since no one is telling me if I'm doing it the right way.
To cut the story short, I learn how to tune the guitar by ear but too much time was wasted. If only I knew about guitar tuners back then, my progress could have been on the fast track in just few months. I learn it the hard way and it doesn't mean that you will also learn that way.
Good for you, it's much easier to learn anything these days because of the internet.
Generally, there are two ways of tuning an acoustic guitar, one is tuning by ear and the other is using an electronic acoustic guitar tuner. Tuning by ear includes methods such as, Harmonics, Pitch Pipes, 5th Fret Method, Tuning Using a Keyboard or Piano. Good hearing skill is essential in order to use these methods. If you are a complete beginner, tuning by ear might be a problem.
Focus On Playing Instead Of Tuning
Please don't get me wrong, tuning your guitar is very important. Every time you pick up that guitar, first you should tune it properly before start playing. You'll just get discourage if you keep on playing and your guitar is completely out of tune.
Now you might ask why focus on playing when tuning is also a very important skills to learn. This is really getting a little bit confusing right?
But here's a simple explanation. If you are a complete beginner, don't dwell too much time on tuning your guitar. Yes! It is very important that you tune your guitar first but do it as quickly as possible so you can have more time to practice.
The more you practice, the more you develop your hearing ability. The more you play the guitar, the easier for you to learn how to tune by ear.
So How Can I Tune My Acoustic Guitar Fast And Easy?
One really good electronic guitar tuner that I can recommend is Korg AW-2G.It comes with a clip that's optimized for attaching to a guitar headstock. It’s a cable free tuner with double ball-joint allows multi-angle positioning.
Korg guitar tuners are well known to musician as very accurate tuners. It is one of the most trusted brands when it comes to acoustic guitar tuning.
If you want to receive more acoustic guitar tips and tricks or rock updates straight to your inbox, then subscribe to our list below. Just enter your Name and Email address and click "Subscribe".
Now if you don't want to spend money yet on a guitar tuner then you can opt for an online guitar tuner. Jamplay guitar tuner is one of the best out there. It's fairly accurate and it's a free Online Acoustic guitar tuner.
In my first article about How to be a metalhead, I gave you the 7 easy steps to follow to be a metalhead. In this article we're gonna focus on one of the 7 steps, which is how to dress Metal.
If you haven't read my first article, go ahead and read it first before you proceed on this article. Click this How To Be A Metalhead? Dressing like a metalhead is not easy as 123, compared to hip hop and pop fashion. You cannot simply wear the latest trend in fashion out there. You need to follow some set of rules. Metalheads has a culture of being anti-fashion and anti-commercialism. We don't want to follow the "In-thing". We just want to be different from the rest of guys in the mainstream.
How To Be A Metalhead
The Metal Look In The 70's And 80's
During the 70's and 80's, Rob Halford (Judas Priest Vocals) popularized the biker look which is more on leather jackets, black band T-shirts, belts detailed with silver, black boots, black jeans, and of course long hair.
The Metal Look In The 90's
There was a little change during the 90's. A lot of meatalheads cut their hair and they preferred short haircut instead of long hair. Short hairs with massive goatee were the metal thing during this time and of course black t shirt, black jeans and all that stuff. James Hitfield of Metallica is one great example.
Metalhead Look Today
There are 29 Heavy Metal Subgenres (Wikipedia) and today how to be a metalhead and to dress metal would depend on the subgenre that you are in. Becuase there are many heavy metal sub genre and has various style of clothing, let's just focus on this 3 Metal Sub Genre.
Trash Metal - Leather jackets, denim jackets, skinny black jeans, black boots or black leather shoes, with sleeve or sleeve less black t shirt. The common stuff was skinny jeans and black t-shirt. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal are Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax
NU Metal - Many Metalheads would insist that NU Metal is not part of Metal but let's face the truth, one of its core music component is from heavy metal. Basically it is a fusion genre which is a combination of alternative metal, grunge and hip hop. NU Metal style clothing has a touch of hip hop, like loose fit jeans, big t shirts, rubber shoes, and hats. NU Metal bands - Korn, Slipknot, many more.
Black Metal - Common theme of black metal is anti-Christianity so they are portraying satanic ideology and images. Black metal fans usually wears make up, long hair, leather wrist band with silver spikes on it, belts detailed with silver, black leather jackets, black boots, black jeans, Sleeveless black shirt. Black metal bands are Venom,
Mayhem and Darkthrone.
There is also another metal subgenre called Unblack Metal which is the opposite of Black Metal and its main theme is Pro-Christianity. Famous unblack bands are Horde, Antestor, and Crimson Moonlight.
The Common Gear in Metal
Though there are a lot of metal genre and ways of how to be a metalhead, but one common thing in all subgenre is black t shirt. So if you are going to a metal concert and not sure what to wear, just grab that black t shirt in your closet and your good to go. Just remember that metal is not about fashion but PASSION.
It doesn’t matter if you really look metal yet do not understand, appreciate, and respect metal. The thing here is that don't pretend. Just be who you are and don't wear those stuff if you are not comfortable or else you'll be labeled as a poser.
By the way if you want to receive rock updates straight to your email inbox, then subscribe to our list. Enter your name and email address below and click "Subscribe".
I'm sure there are other style of dressing metal that I haven't covered here but more or less this is the basic foundation on metal clothing which part of the process on how to be a metalhead.
There are many old guitar hands who insist not to use an electronic acoustic guitar tuner and that the only way to tune a guitar is to do it by ear.But, for a beginner, that can be a problem.
For most people new to guitar playing, tuning by ear is a skill that hasn't been developed yet. Ear tuning is a skill that can take years of practice to develop, and hone to a skillful level. For that reason, among others, an acoustic guitar tuner is one of the first accessories a new player should buy. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that learning to play the guitar can sometimes be frustrating enough without having to worry about learning to tune your instrument by ear.
Investing in a good tuner will save you a lot of frustration and a lot of time. Time that could be used more profitably learning to play your instrument.
Choosing your electronic acoustic guitar tuner will be determined more by price , I think, because there are so many styles and price ranges to choose from. You can find a free Online Acoustic Guitar Tuner, although, with these you still must depend upon your ear to tune correctly.
You can even find a free acoustic guitar tuner download, but again, that only lets you hear the notes for each string and you still have to tune by ear. There are several moderately priced tuners to choose from which will do the job quickly and accurately, saving you time and frustration.
As with most purchases, you'll need to do some research, especially in the lower price ranges, to ensure the quality and to determine if that particular tuner is capable of doing what you need.
Electronic Tuners
Probably, the two most popular types of acoustic guitar tuners today are the electronic tuner and the clip on tuner. Electronic acoustic guitar tuner, usually digital, are small tuners that incorporate a highly sensitive microphone to pick up sound when a string is plucked.
A digital pointer will indicate left or right of 90 degrees to indicate which way the string needs to be tuned, with the pointer at 90 degrees indicating that the string is in tune. These tuners will vary greatly in price and quality. Prices can range from $10 or less and up to several hundred dollars.
Some will have features such as pitch pipe features, digital metronomes and others depending upon brand and price, but, for $30 to $40 you will be able to find a very good tuner that will fit your needs.
Clip On Tuners
Another type of acoustic guitar tuner that is very popular is the clip on type. This small tuner is just clipped onto the guitar, usually on the headstock, and tunes by picking up vibrations when a string is played. They are not affected by any noise around them since they do not use an integrated microphone to pick up the sound of a played string.
For that reason, they are very popular with bands during gigs and tuning sessions. These also can vary greatly in price, but a good, accurate clip on tuner can be found in the $30 to $50 range. Of course, you can spend a lot more than I have described here if you want, but, for the beginner and the recreational player the tuners in these price ranges will be more than adequate.
Summing Up
Back in the day, tuning by ear, using a tuning fork or using pitch pipes were about the only options, but, using a good electronic tuner gives very accurate results, and is much less time consuming and frustrating. That's why, in my opinion, the first accessory the beginning guitarist should buy is a good electronic acoustic guitar tuner.
