Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
That's what led Gibson Guitar to team with Legacy Learning Systems — both are Nashville-based companies — to come up with a Gibson smart-phone app (short for application), first for the iPhone and this past week for the fast-growing Android mobile-phone operating system.
With the app called Gibson Learn and Master Guitar, beginners can teach themselves how to play the instrument with lessons on their smart phones. There are other resources on the app, as well, including a metronome and a guitar tuning aid — not to mention a direct link to Gibson's website.
The app was the idea of Legacy Learning Systems, whose main business is creating and producing compact disc- and DVD-based training programs, including one for the guitar.
Although the company already had a guitar course, founder and chief executive Gabriel Smith approached Gibson about an iPhone app that would feature Gibson guitars and tie in with a new Legacy guitar course.
"Gibson makes world-class instruments. and we make world-class instrument training," Smith said. "For them, we expose their brand to students as they're learning. For us, Gibson helps us put our brand in front of a lot more people."
The app is free, and available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and a variety of phones running the Android system. Those include the new 4G models from Sprint (the HTC EVO and Samsung Epic 4G) and the Motorola Droid X sold by Verizon Wireless, among others.
Free lessons are limited
On the EVO, the app opens a menu of options, including the beginner lessons in high-def video with instruction by the course's author, Steve Krenz.The free lessons are limited, however, and intended to direct the serious student to Legacy's two regular
guitar courses, Smith said, The standard course, $149, has 10 DVDs and five CDs; the expanded course, $249, has 20 DVDs and five CDs.
Guitar World Lick of the Day delivers a new and challenging lick to subscribers every day, with a one-of-a-kind feature set that enables guitar players of all skill levels to learn licks in a variety of styles.
Lick of the Day’s features include:
- High quality videos of Guitar World’s instructors and guitar celebrities, such as Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani, Gus G., and Phil Collen, demonstrating licks in a wide range of styles -- Rock, Metal, Blues, Country, Jazz and more
- Timeless celebrity videos from the Guitar World Vault
- Standard and tab music notation for each lick that scroll in sync with videos on iPad
- Practice mode with settings that control music notation tempo, looping, audio synthesis, a metronome and more
- Dynamic fretboard that shows finger positions synchronized with the scrolling music notation (lefties can invert the fretboard)
- Performance notes written by Guitar World instructors
- “Star” your favorite licks to find them later easily, and sort licks by genre and difficulty
- Download licks to any iOS devices that you own -- iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
Scott Roth, a principal with Agile Partners, shared, “We’re really pleased with the music instruction experience that we were able to create on iOS devices with Lick of the Day. Guitar players of all skill levels can download a new lick every day, watch the video whenever they have a few minutes, and practice right along with the scrolling music notation on their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. In particular, Lick of the Day takes full advantage of the responsiveness, larger screen, and user interface elements of iPad," added Roth. "On the large, high-resolution display, we render bright, crisp music notation that scrolls in sync with the accompanying instructional video. And with a single tap, the user can toggle the notation between standard and tablature format."
Guitar World Lick of the Day is a free app that comes with five sample licks, and is available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
One-, three- and six-month subscriptions can be easily purchased from within the app to receive a new and challenging lick every day, seven days a week. A one-month subscription is available for only $4.99, a three-month subscription for $12.99, and a six-month subscription for $19.99.
For more information, visit http://LickoftheDayApp.com.
About Guitar World
Guitar World has been the world's most popular guitar magazine for over 30 years. Its unrivalled content provides a passionate audience of guitar enthusiasts with top-flight coverage of their favorite artists, from rock titans like Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page to contemporary stars like the White Stripes' Jack White. Professionals and beginners alike turn to Guitar World for broad-ranging interviews that cover technique, instruments and lifestyles, as well as Guitar World’s famously thorough guitar transcriptions. Guitar World’s website, GuitarWorld.com, is packed with exclusive guitar lessons, interviews, forums and more. Guitar World’s immensely popular line of guitar instructional DVDs, Legends issues, and other special products can be purchased at www.guitarworld.com/store.
About Agile Partners
Agile Partners Technologies, LLC is a leading developer of applications for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Agile Partners’ apps include the highly acclaimed GuitarToolkit and 2010 Apple Design Award winner TabToolkit. Founded in 2002, Agile Partners has locations in New York and Chicago. For more information, visit http://agilepartners.com.
Chords
- The extra intervals afforded by the new bass string provide access to an exclusive new harmonic dimension. Here are some tasty new voices, extensions, inversions and substitutions to get the juices flowing. These examples are almost entirely diatonic to the chord scale of C- only the Ab dim7, E7b9, E aug and Bdim7 being non-diatonic substitutions.Note: Tune your 7th string to A for these examples.
Here’s a tip: Take a chord with a 5A string root, and simply relocate the root onto the 7A. Dropping the bass an octave in this way can have a profound effect on a chord.
Scales & Arpeggios
- Scales & arpeggios dive deeper on the 7string. Tuned to an A, the 7th string offers up 7 new pitches below the regular 6string axe. This puts its lowest note at the same frequency as the 3A string of a Bass. The major scale and tonic triad arpeggio below are included to facilitate this understanding. Play a regular 6string C major scale or arpeggio followed by the example and you’ll get the idea.
- Tip: Creating and learning variations on these shapes is highly recommended. Likewise, converting these templates into other types (e.g. the scale could be transformed into its modes and the pentatonic variants. Equally, the arpeggio could be extended to a 7th or 9th for example or converted into a minor, diminished, augmented, suspended… you might even decide to invert it.
- In addition, the new string (I use a 58 gauge) has its own unique timbre, at once both full and rich. Try taking a tired old melody off the 6E string and playing it note-for-note on 7A. The pitches may be the same but there is a rich depth courtesy of the thicker gauge.
Technique
- The 7A requires a delicate and precise touch to avoid unintentional sharpening of the note and/or fret-buzz. For this reason, it is advised not to have too low an action and always fret the notes right next to the fretwire.
- Bear in mind though, that it is an extra string not an extra finger. Once you have integrated the 7th into your existing approach it becomes just like the other 6. Use it or abuse it as you see fit.
- Here’s a cool technique that lends itself to the 7 string. Try using both hands on the strings to get a Chord/Bass interplay going. Tap the descending bass line with one hand, and hammer the ascending chord fragments with the other. This exercise is also a nifty slice of counterpoint.
Miscellaneous
- A word about the darker side….if you are seeking a tight clear tone for your metal riffage, solid state amps are the way to go. Despite being a valve & valvestate aficionado for clean tones, I find that when the power-type chord riffs come out to play, the solid state amps do tend to give the crispest tone. Take an RG1527 and run it through a Marshall AVT50 and a Marshall MGDFX50. Dial up a scooped mid tone, turn the gains to max and start to palm mute. You’ll notice the solid state amp (MGDFX) gives a crisper, denser chug. In this regard I can also recommend 15inch speakers (perhaps in combination with a pair of 12s) to really bring out the bottom end. Either way, be sure to check your speakers adequately cover the 55hz low end of the 7string.
- Like speakers, microphones also have a frequency threshold to be aware of. Make sure you have it covered.
