The terms overdrive and distortion are often used interchangeably. Afterall, they both create a gritty, dirty tone as opposed to a clean guitar sound. But overdrive and distortion are two different things. The way they came about are also different. How you use them, in terms of genres and feel, will differ. Overdrive vs distortion.
You may have come across different guitar scale lengths and wondered what that’s all about. Some guitars appear to have the same amount of frets, but the listed scale length differs between them. So naturally some guitars have smaller frets, but then how does that affect the pitch? Most guitar specs will list the scale
If you love to practice to music without other musicians physically there, a Bluetooth guitar amp is perfect for that. If you hate lugging around effects pedals but love having effects, generally you’ll find Bluetooth amps that come with a range of effects onboard. While you may be worried that only mini amps come with
If you’re into DIY projects and a guitarist, building your own acoustic guitar can be a great experience. It also gives you the option of fully customizing your guitar from the color and finish, down to all the hardware. But sourcing and cutting and sanding the wood adds a lot of time and extra effort
In the guitar world, there are plenty of headless guitars to be purchased. Yet, most guitarists still prefer the traditional guitar, and there are still far more traditional guitars on the market. By that, I mean a guitar with a headstock. But headless guitars are gaining popularity for various reasons. You may very well already
Gone are the days when you needed to go into a studio and pay expensive rates to record your music. Technology has become affordable and accessible enough that you can do that from the comfort of your own home. With a bit of practice and a good ear, you can produce high quality recordings to
Whether you’ve started a band or want to record music, you need a microphone. Good microphones will reproduce your voice well with minimal noise. Plus, a handy case for carrying the microphone to gigs in would be great. I’ll be going through the best microphone for singing in every budget. Not everyone can afford a
Suspended chords have a delicious dissonance about them. They instantly turn a basic chord progression into something a little more interesting. Whether you use CSus2 in place of C or Cm, or resolve to either of those, it’s an easy way to add some complexity to your songs. Best of all, CSus2 is actually an
The G6 chord is one of those that are actually quite easy in its most basic shape, but adds that little something to the music. One of the songs that I’m most familiar with using G6 is Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Biskit. They use it throughout the song. As you’ll see, there are a
If you’re on a budget, the Squier Affinity Stratocaster may have caught your eye. It’s definitely true that in many cases, if you wanted a Fender but needed a more budget-friendly guitar, Squier is the way to go. After all, Fender acquired them in the 60s. So let’s check out the Squier Affinity Stratocaster series
You may have thought of the wood that guitars are made from only in terms of how to store and care for your guitar, or in terms of aesthetics. But did you know that wood actually has quite a bit of influence over the sound of acoustic guitars and hollow-body electrics? That’s why we call
Six-string guitars are everywhere. These are standard guitars and most people learn to play on one of these and some never stray. Then I’m sure you’ve seen the 12-string guitars. The acoustic 12-strings usually have a full, crisp sound. If you’re here asking how many strings does a guitar have, clearly you know there are
Are you building your own guitar? Are you upgrading or repairing your current guitar? Or perhaps you want to buy a new guitar, but just don’t know which pickups will work best for you. There are other pickups than just humbuckers and single coil pickups. I’ll explain a bit about the other type too. But
The Bm chord is one of those chords that I found a little daunting in the beginning. At the time, I only knew of the open chord and the barre chord in the seventh fret. When I first learned how to play barre chords, I could play only in barre chords and only in open
Gone are the days when you had to buy a guitar tuner. Sure, they’re pretty helpful. If you go onstage regularly, those clip on tuners come in pretty handy for when you just quickly need to tune in between songs. You want to be sure your guitar is perfectly in tune when you’re recording, and
Whether it’s because you like to jam a little too loud for your neighbors’ taste or whether you want to keep noise out to record, soundproof curtains may be a viable option. But if you’ve been shopping around, you may have noticed that there are different types and you may have seen that they aren’t
If you’re anything like me, you tend to beat yourself up. You may also have felt like you don’t quite fit into this world. It can make you feel lost and whether it’s in your head or reality, you often feel unwelcome. In many cases, that leads to looking down on yourself and wishing you
If you’ve been learning to play lead or classical guitar, chances are you’ve been introduced to scales. While they can become boring, they really are the basics of music. Now you want to play rhythm guitar and need to know what chords are in the scale. It’s not as simple as just taking all the
Sure, you could vibrato manually using your fingers. But a whammy bar looks cool and gets the job done in a fun way. Whammy bars, aka tremolo bars, aka vibrato bars are classic. They aren’t as popular these days as they were in decades past, but they’re still pretty awesome. We’ve got a list to
So, you’re looking to buy an acoustic guitar. You’ve seen some of the best ones that are priced in the thousands of dollars. You want an amazing guitar, but don’t want to or can’t fork out that kind of money. The good news is that there are so many great guitars out there that are
Starting your guitar journey is exciting. But buying everything you need one at a time can be tedious and time-consuming. A beginner electric guitar kit is so convenient. Some even come with the smaller accessories like guitar picks too. But there are so many options and it can be pretty confusing when it comes to
If you love a warm airy acoustic tone that works well whether plugged or unplugged, a semi-hollow guitar is the way to go. That’s not to say you can’t add some distortion. Originally designed for jazz music, they’ve become popular for a range of genres including rock, metal, pop, blues, country, any genre that uses
Buying a new guitar is always exciting, whether it’s your first or another one you’re adding to your collection. But it can be especially confusing if you don’t know which type of guitar to get. Or maybe you’re just curious about the difference. Dreadnoughts are very popular, you see them everywhere. But then so are
Mini guitar amps, also known as practice amps, are very useful. They’re highly portable and take up less space than a regular amp. Of course, if you do gigs, a regular amp is best, although there are ways to get around that. But for traveling and playing at home, a mini amp works just fine.
The melodic minor scale is an interesting scale and not only because it’s one of three different minor scales. It has such an interesting sound to it thanks to the raised sixth and seventh intervals. But not just that, you don’t play it the same way down as you play it up, at least in
The cost of instruments and lessons are what often holds people back from getting into music. And electric guitars can be especially expensive compared to acoustic guitars. But thankfully, there are cheap guitars and plenty of free online resources here on Beginner Guitar HQ to help you learn to play guitar. Having said that, you
Among the wide selection of guitar accessories, the one that is probably the most famous is the trusty capo. As with today’s saturated guitar market, there is a colossal number of options to choose from and it can be a rather confusing task sorting the good from the bad. With this guide, we hope to
If you like to travel with your guitar a hard case is a good thing to have. It provides a lot more peace of mind if your guitar has to get stored in the cargo section of the plane or if you’re packing your vehicle full of stuff for a camping trip. If you’ve moved
You can’t go wrong with a dynamic microphone. They’re generally more affordable, ruggedly built, require no power source, and often have great sound quality. They’re good for gigs, they’re good for recording, all-rounders really. But finding a good quality microphone is still important. Today we’re looking at the best dynamic microphone for every budget. What
Getting to know the guitar fretboard notes opens a lot of musical doors, especially paired with a bit of music theory. I say this because you’ll see things that you didn’t know were possible, or just get ideas that you hadn’t thought of before. A lot of guitarists get by with no knowledge of music
If anything like me, you hate wires. If you’re a musician and/or speaker that likes to use the whole stage or go into your audience, wires are annoying. You need to make sure you aren’t getting tangled or tripping (no one wants to face plant in public), you can only move so far, it just
Working off of tabs is perfectly fine, but if you want to level up a bit or you’ve developed an interest in classical guitar, sheet music is a good thing to learn. It’s not that you only find classic guitar pieces in guitar sheet music, you do find it in tabs too. But this is
In this article we will explore some most commonly used shapes for E minor scale. But before that it is necessary to learn the basics of how a minor scale is built so that you can create your own shapes in the future to save a whole lot of time. Also there is a section
The Cm7 guitar chord, like all minor seventh chords, has that beautiful jazzy sound. It’s not to say that minor seventh chords are only present in jazz although you’ll find them there a lot. They just fit in with jazz so well. But you’ll find them in pop, rock, blues, etc. Any time a little
Personally, I like the key of E. I like the chords in it and it’s a comfortable key for me to sing in. If you’re a beginner, some of the chords may be a little harder, but there are plenty of ways to play chords that may be easier. In any case, it’s nothing that
Scales, it’s a word you’ll always hear in connection with improving your playing. But they can be so boring, especially when you’re running through them over and over and over. You don’t need to torture yourself like that. Learn the D major scale, play it to warm up and improve your hearing, and then use
When you’re faced with all the cables in a store or online, it can be a bit daunting. I mean there are different lengths so that’s easy enough. What else could there be? Well, not all cables are made equal. I came across this revelation at college in the live sound and electronics classes. Before
When it comes to recommendations for hardware and accessories to buy for your guitar, DI boxes haven’t been at the top of the list. So it’s not surprising to go “huh?” if you hear someone mention one for the first time. The first time I heard about DI boxes, I was in college and we
Transposing chords is a necessary skill to accommodate a singer’s vocal range. Especially on the fly. We can’t always get the music printed in a different key and it’s not always appropriate to use your phone, tablet, or laptop. So while it’s all good to use the transpose buttons on Ultimate Guitar or one of
Guitars mounted on the walls look great. It’s both practical and visual art. Whether you’re looking to display your guitar/s, create more space in the room, or have kids, clumsy adults, or pets that put your guitar in certain danger, using a guitar wall mount is how you make this happen. But you don’t want
Ah, the C7 chord. It’s full of tension, but in a beautiful way. It’s jazzy, but it fits into the blues, rock, pop, and so many other genres. This chord, like all other dominant seventh chords, is versatile and injects flavor into chord progressions that have become a little stale. It’s true, the C7 guitar
How hard is it to learn guitar? This is a question that a lot of people ask. It can be daunting to learn a new instrument and you want to know if you have the time and energy to sink into the process. This is definitely a consideration when you need to buy a guitar
The Dm7 guitar chord is one of those that I feel is gentle with a jazzy flavor. Of course, as with all seventh chords, D minor seventh is used to introduce some tension, add some spice to the mix, and works well in turnarounds. Sounds a bit contradictory to my earlier impression of it being
Want to learn guitar without a teacher? While I used to have a piano teacher and currently have a violin teacher, I taught myself to play guitar for the most part. When I say, for the most part, I mean that a friend of a family friend showed me how to play A and D.
Amazing Grace is one of the most popular hymns in the world. Most people will know it when they hear it, and may even know the words whether they’re Christian or not. Many musicians like this hymn because of the beautiful melody that can be simple or has as a few bells and whistles added.
So many songs are written in major keys, especially in pop music. So when you hear one in a minor key, it’s quite noticeable. Even if you don’t know exactly what it is, you can just hear and feel that there’s something different. Often these songs in a minor key are some of the most
If you’ve watched a lot of people play guitar, you’re pretty likely to have come across at least some of them using a capo. This is an accessory that is not only affordable, but something I strongly recommend you add to your arsenal. Perhaps you already have one, but you’re not quite sure how to
The E minor pentatonic scale, like all the other pentatonic scales, is very versatile. It’s very common in blues music, but you’ll find it in just about any genre. The word pentatonic, denotes five notes. That’s all a pentatonic scale is. You may be wondering how a scale with only five notes can be that
Learning guitar is exciting and fun. But it can also be confusing and frustrating, especially if you’re trying to play chords or riffs above your skill level. If you’re learning on your own, it can also be hard to know where to get started. And of course, it’s all good and well to learn chords,
Today, I’m going to introduce you to the G major scale. I’m going to be honest. Many guitarists, particularly in the first while that they start playing scales, end up getting bored, frustrated, and even annoyed. I mean, a scale in and of itself is kind of boring. But they are something that all guitar