Play Guitar Like a Pro with the Ultimate Learning Kit

Many people want to play the guitar well, but lack the knowledge or the skills how… Now you can take the benefit of 14 years experience and apply it to your guitar learning to speed the rate of your learning and increase your guitar playing skills much faster than ever before.

Discover the benefits of Jamorama – the Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit which includes:
Learn to Play Guitar with Jamorama – The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit which includes books for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players.
“GuitEarIt” – an ear training game that develops your ear to recognize all 36 major, minor, and seventh cords.
“Jayde Musica Pro” – a game created to help you read music that is both fun and will increase the speed of your music reading immensely!
Access to hundreds of recorded song files which explain how to play over 50 popular songs! Amaze your friends!
And much more…
Skip the ineffective methods that don’t deliver results, and let Ben and the team teach you how to slash your frustrations and learn to play songs your friends will love to hear.

More Details Visit:
http://tinyurl.com/c75ftx

Team Method Guitar

Finally, someone has come up with a better way to learn to play the guitar! In fact it’s such a simple concept that it’s amazing that someone hasn’t done this until now.

Team Method Guitar is a guitar course put together and taught by a team of guitar experts. They have specialists for acoustic, lead, theory and many more areas. By using a team approach the guitar player learns a variety of methods and styles and doesn’t pick up bad habits or any one particular style.

Team method Guitar is also a MASSIVE course. There are six books with almost 500 pages of information, 10 DVDs and CDs with video lessons and play along jam tracks, several mini courses covering playing by ear and acoustic guitar, and several software games to speed learning.

You shouldn’t confuse Team method Guitar with other guitar sites that offer lessons and tips from different teachers. TMG is definitely a GUITAR COURSE, not just random tips and tricks.

Perhaps the most impressive thing among some very impressive features of this course is that Team Method Guitar offers students live support. In fact you can talk online with the actual team members who helped put the course together. In this day of impersonal internet marketing this personal touch is in itself amazing.

Team Method Guitar is the Rolls Royce of guitar courses. It’s hard to imagine anything that these guys have left out. About the only negative is that being the top end of the market means that this course isn’t cheap, but you certainly get your money’s worth, and if money is an issue they also offer a less-expensive downloadable version.

If you are serious about learning to play guitar then you really must consider Team Method Guitar. In my opinion it’s a “10”.

Click here for more details: Team Method Guitar

Rocket Piano – the Ultimate Piano Learning Kit

If you are learning the piano, either as a beginner or as a slightly more advanced player, you can appreciate how frustrating it is learning the skills and techniques without seeing any noticeable results. The time and effort that many put into exercises don’t seem to be reflected in their standard of playing. There also seems to be a frustration in the lack of quality information on the market.

The Piano Guy and the team at Rocket Piano have bucked the trend with the latest developments to the Rocket Piano brand. They have had considerable success with their 3 book series, Learn to Play the Piano with Rocket Piano – the Ultimate Piano Learning Kit. Given the positive feedback from the success of this package, the team decided to develop the product further, and have come up with a package that is unrivalled in terms of quality and its comprehensive nature. This package truly does enable piano students to accelerate their learning, and includes an impressive array of features.

In addition to the quality information in the glossy 3 book series, the team at Rocket Piano has included hundreds of sound files that explain how to play, so you can hear what your playing is supposed to sound like. The songs are broken down into pieces, which enables the student to learn each piece before they are ready to tackle the whole song. Being able to play these songs will amaze friends and acquaintances alike, and this is made easy through the hundreds of lines of music included for your benefit.

In addition to this, the team have spent hours developing exclusive educational computer games to develop your skills in reading and training your ear to transcribe music. The pro version of Jayde Musica is now available as a free bonus as well as Perfect Your Pitch Pro, a program that is designed to give the student the ability to tune their ear to recognize notes and transcribe songs from the radio. Both of these programs are very well made and presented, and most of all are easy and fun to play.

As well as this, when you purchase the package, you get two additional free bonus books. The first is “Advanced Learning Techniques for Piano”. This book introduces the idea of mental visualization, which is a powerful tool in speeding up your rate of learning. Mental visualization uses the same pathways inside your brain other than the fact you are not performing the activity physically. The second bonus book, “How to tune your piano” solves the problem with tuning pianos, and introduces the reader to the most effective way of tuning a piano.

With all of the information in this package there really is no excuse to delay learning to play your piano. The Rocket Piano team has given the reader five high quality books, two fun educational games and access to hundreds of recorded sound files that will have students playing popular songs like a professional in no time.

As an added bonus, the team at Rocket Piano has also thrown in free email consultations to customers that may have specific issues or problems that need addressing. This is of enormous benefit to students that need specific answers to their training queries.

This package is by far the most complete and fresh approach to piano playing that I have seen in a long time. I highly recommend this product because I do believe it will deliver results and have you playing popular songs like a professional using the most effective techniques. There is something here for every piano player, regardless of ability. And at the current cost, it really is worth every dollar spent!

Click here to find out more…and accelerate your piano playing today!

How to start recording music at home

It's perfectly possible to make very high quality recordings at home with today's computer technology. However, you will need to spend a fair bit of money on software, and hardware (such as high quality microphones and soundcards) in order to achieve this. BUT DON'T WORRY! It is entirely possible to make recordings at home that are very respectable in quality whilst spending only a relatively small amount of money! Even better news...it's all pretty easy to do!

I like to think of my home recording set-up like an artist's sketchbook. It's somewhere to play around with my ideas, record a few vocal takes, put down a basic bass line, some simple drums and maybe a guitar track behind it. It's then that the magic really starts. On pretty much all music software you can just copy and paste individual parts (or whole sections) around, just like you would do in a word processor. This makes it really easy to swap verses around, try a new drum beat on a different section...anything you can think of really.

Home studio software usually has a good selection of instruments built in, so you can add piano, strings, brass, synth and many more sounds to your songs. If you're an accomplished keyboard player you can play all these different parts in via a (music) keyboard. If not, you can just play the notes in on screen (and you can change them really easily if you play a wrong note).

Like I said, if you want to do this all at a really high (studio quality) level, then you'll need to think about investing some serious cash. But most software and hardware manufacturers have realised that there are loads of people like you and me out there, and have produced some really good 'Entry Level' cut down versions of their studio quality kit.

What you'll need to get started.

At the most basic level, all you need for recording at home is a microphone, a sound card and a computer running some recording software. Lets look at the hardware first.

Microphones

You can use the same microphone you would use for live shows for basic home recording (the Shure SM58 is a tried and tested classic), but you'll want to think about getting a studio quality condenser microphone if you want to record higher quality vocals.

Pop Shield

Pop shields are an inexpensive device that attaches to the mic stand, and stops loud blowing and popping noises from reaching the microphone. Singers make these noises mostly when singing 'P' and 'B' type sounds. You can make basic pop shield by stretching a pair of tights over a wire coat hanger! It won't be as good as a professional one, but it will do the job pretty well!

Sound Cards

The majority of sound cards that come with computers are not designed for use with music programs. If you try to use them for recording music the quality will be much lower and you will experience large delays which will make recording impossible. If you want to do home recording then you will need a soundcard that has been designed for this purpose.

There are several different types:-

Internal Cards - If you have a PC that has a spare internal card slot, then you can get a relatively inexpensive sound card that can be used for home music production. If you know what you are doing you can fit them yourself, but if you're in any doubt then please (for your own safety) get someone who knows what they are doing to fit it.

USB / FIREWIRE - there are some great sound cards that attach via USB / FIREWIRE. They usually cost a little bit more, but are really easy to transfer between computers if you use more than one.

Another thing to consider when you are buying a sound card is whether or not it will directly accept the signal from your microphone. It will almost certainly tell you this on the package / website where you buy it from, and may say something like 'Mic Preamp'. If it doesn't then you will need to connect it via your mixing desk.

Now lets talk about the software

On the most basic level, the software works by recording each channel of music (e.g. Vocals, Guitar, Drums etc). You can then alter the volumes of each of the different tracks, just like you would do live on a mixing desk. Each separate channel can be chopped up and moved around (just like you can copy and paste text in a word processor). This is what makes recording on computers much more powerful than old style tape recordings. Finaly you can add effects like compression, reverb and delay to individual tracks (or to the whole mix) then your track is about finished.

I've always used software from a company called Steinberg. It's very powerful software and it's pretty easy to understand. Steinberg produces a very high quality studio program called Cubase 4. They also produce a cut down version for the home user called Cubase 4 Essential, and another piece of software aimed at total beginners called Sequel. There are several other companies that also make great quality, affordable software for home recording.

Once you've got the basics set up, you just need to get recording, and try out new things. Make sure you read the user manual to get full benefit out of these powerful pieces of software.

Good luck, and above all, enjoy your music!

About the Author

Gemma King is a Professional Singer, Songwriter, Vocal Coach and artist Consultant. She regularly writes for her newsletter which is a must read for all singers.

Find her book 'How To Become A Singer', available on her website now.

Singers! Why should you write original music?

Most singers have one major problem when starting out in the music industry... 'How do I get myself noticed?'. Yes, there are plenty of other singers out there, and often it's not enough just to be a better singer than them. But having a great voice is a fantastic start.
So, you're nearly there! The next thing that you can do as a singer to set yourself apart from other singers is to perform some great original music! Original music is the best thing you can do as a performer. But how do you get original music?

There are three ways to get original music:-
1. Write your own songs.
2. Co-write songs with other musicians.
3. Find songwriters who are not also performers. (There are plenty of songwriters around on the internet).

So first let's clear up some common questions I regularly get emailed to me about song writing!

Do I need to be able to read / write music in order to write songs?

Of course you don't... There are plenty of singers and songwriters around who haven't got the first idea about how to read music, let alone write it. As long as you can record it down in some way (a Dictaphone will do) then you've got all the equipment you need.

Remember, music existed long before people developed systems to write it down. It was even more recently that people developed 'Music Theory' as a way of explaining how music works. In fact I can pretty much guarantee you know LOADS of music theory, just having listened to music. I think everyone who has a interest in music should take the time to look at a basic Music Theory book especially songwriters, as you'll find that learning a little bit about how music works will help you enormously with basic things like song structure and working out what chords go with which notes.

Do I need to be able to play an instrument in order to write songs?

As a singer you already play one of the best instruments you can possibly own. Using your voice to work out tunes is by far the easiest way of writing music.

The other really common instruments that are used by singers / songwriters are the guitar and the piano (or electronic keyboard). If you can get access to one of these instruments they that can be a great start (I'm sure you know someone with an old guitar you could borrow). You don't have to learn how to play these instruments at a performance standard, just use them as a tool to help you develop your ideas.

So how do I start writing music?

Music is so diverse that there is no way anyone could actually tell you how to write a song. In this series of articles we will be discussing topics such as 'What elements make up a great song', and 'Get inspired to write lyrics'. These articles, and many more are available by signing up to my free singers newsletter, a must read whether your an amateur or a pro!

You'll most likely write some pretty bad tunes when you start out. Everyone does. That's ok, don't get disheartened. With practice and inspiration, hopefully, you'll start writing some music that you're happy to play to people.

Just keep trying, and above all, enjoy making music.

About the Author

Gemma King is a Professional Singer, Songwriter, Vocal Coach and Artist Consultant. She regularly writes for her newsletter which is a must read for both amateur and professional singers alike.

Gemma has also written a book on 'How To Become A Singer' which is available on her website now.

Using Guitar Backing Tracks To Master Guitar Solos by Eugene W

Join us as we examine the ways you can master guitar solos by using backing tracks for guitarists. We will look into how using guitar backing tracks can be a huge asset in honing your skills as a guitarist as well as helping you to master lead guitar playing.
A lot of guitar players spend their time trying to find the secret, the easy solution or the single trick to mastering their skills and being able to play really awesome guitar solos. Serious guitarists will spend hours practicing, honing their skills, and searching and scouring the Internet for any lessons that might help them achieve the perfection in their technique. Others may research endless on the type of pickups, the different tones or guitar effects review to take their sound to the next level. Practice is the key to mastery and enjoying your practice sessions is the answer to keeping the focus and commitment for guitar practicing. There is hope for these individuals, in the form of guitar backing tracks.
Backing tracks for guitarists are a crucial tool that can be very beneficial in achieving mastery of the ever elusive lead guitar solo. It also serves as a great and fun way to practice your guitar. Guitar backing tracks can help you to become a well-rounded guitarist and help to put into practice your musical knowledge.
One of the biggest benefits of using guitar backing tracks to master guitar solos is how they help you learn scales. Doing endless practice drills to learn your scales can sometimes be excruciatingly boring and dull, but when you practice along to backing tracks for guitarists, it's like playing live with a rocking band. This will help you to not only memorize the scales, but to understand how they actually work into the structure of a song as well.
Another factor that is extremely important in learning to master guitar solos is the fine art of improvisation. Backing tracks for guitarists provide the student with a live band to back them up while they piece together a blazing hot solo right there on the spot. This also allows you to place a solo anywhere in the song, or to improvise for the full length of the guitar backing tracks. These backing tracks make improvisation practice a whole lot more productive and fun. These backing tracks for guitarists are available from retailers such as Planet of Rock.
Another important part of mastering guitar solos is playing with clarity and great tone. There are a lot of different factors and gear that play into achieving a soulful, great-sounding tone during your solo, but one of the greatest factors is how well you actually play. The tone is in your fingers. Professional Guitar backing tracks can help you to achieve great tone by helping you to hone your own ability to play well and by greatly improving the technique with which you play. What better way to practice then to jam with a virtual live band. Hearing another guitar behind you, and how well it sounds and how clear it is can be very beneficial to helping you achieve a greater depth of clarity in your own playing.

About the Author
E Walker is the founder of Planet of Rock Music Studios. Listen to samples of Free Guitar Backing Tracks at Planet of Rock today. Find out how they can bring your skills to the next level. Jam to over 1000 professional tracks. You are just One Click Away!

Playing by Ear for Guitarists - Learn How To Play By Ear by Eugene W

Join us as we take a look at what it takes to learn to play the guitar by ear and some practical tips that you can use to improve your skills and fine tune your ear.
There are a lot of different ways of learning how to play guitar, and all of them are important and crucial for the mastery of the instrument. Most people learn to play by using sheet music, or tablature, and this is definitely a necessary skill to learn for growth and development. There is something that a lot of guitarists may not take the time to learn, and that is playing the guitar by ear.
It's very important to develop a good ear, along with learning how to read music. Learning to play by ear will give you a greater depth of understanding about guitar and how music sounds, and will also help you to identify chords and scales you hear musicians using without needing the sheet music for that particular piece.
In order to begin learning how to play the guitar by ear, you need to have a basic knowledge and understanding of music. This doesn't mean that you have to be a master at reading sheet music, but that you should understand some of the basics of music theory. Some basic knowledge about chords, chord progressions, and how chords and scales work together will be very helpful in learning how to play the guitar by ear.
Another important skill you'll need to develop when learning to play the guitar by ear is patience. Learning to play by ear can be very difficult and time consuming; it requires a lot of practice. In order to perfect your sound, you'll have to repeatedly play the same chords, riffs, and solos time after time. This may seem tedious at times, but the results are well worth the effort you put into practicing.
One of the greatest resources available to help you fine tune your ear is to play along with your favorite CDs. Dig out some of your favorite albums and begin to learn how to play the songs you like on those CDs. One of the greatest ways to learn is to mimic the guitar legends you idolize. By playing along and trying to copy their sound, you'll grow in your technique and also sharpen your ear. Another fun way is to jam along to guitar backing tracks available from retailers such as Planet of Rock
Learning how to play guitar by ear has a lot of benefits that can help you grow as a musician. It enables you to develop a much deeper understanding of how to play, as well as how music fits together. You would be able to pick up a song within 5 minutes, just by listening to it! Playing by ear also helps you out tremendously if you should happen to join a band and play with other guitarists.

About the Author
E Walker is contributes regular to guitar publications worldwide. He is the founder of Planet of Rock. See how Guitar Backing Tracks makes guitar practice more enjoyable! Jam to over 1000 professional tracks including 100s of Blues Guitar Backing Tracks