Here are the four reasons why the guitar
has been the dominant instrument in
popular music over the last 50 years:
• Guitars look cool.
• Guitars sound cool.
• Guitars are easy to carry.
• Even a novice can get a halfway decent
sound out of a guitar.
Getting a fully decent sound out of a gui
Both sites have useful tutorials with incredi
bly thorough links (Guitar Notes’ color
coded list is particularly mind-boggling).
To get the most out of online guitar
instruction, you should learn to read tabla
ture (tab for short), a type of musical dia
gram that indicates notes by their position
on a fretboard. If all you want is to be able
to play the chords, there’s no point in learn
tar takes a lot ot work, and a
good teacher can be a big
help. And there are plenty
teachers—virtual ones—on
the Internet.
Of course there's no
shortage of sites trying to
Hggg
ing the difference between
a G and C clef. Tab won't
tell you how long a note
lasts though, so unless you
already know the song, it’s
not that much of a help.
Some sites will give you
ben you siutt. i nere are
also plenty of sites that sell individual
instruction. But you don’t have to spend a
cent. Many top-notch sites, featuring nota
tion, audio files and video clips, are com
pletely free.
Two places for 6-string wisdom are
Harmony Central (harmony-central.com)
and Guitar Notes (guitarnotes.com), both
with a wide range of info on musical subjects.
scales, chords and tips, and
others will show you how to play songs, but
rarely do the twain meet. Lots of sites can
tell you what the chords to “Satisfaction”
are, but you’ll have to go somewhere else
to learn how to finger those chords. So
browse around for complementary sites. •
For more info about learning to play guitar and other
instruments online, go to steamtunnels.net and
search using keyword “guitar."
Deftones and Incubus
12/3-Tampa, FL: USF Sundome
12/5-New Orleans, LA: State
Palace Theater
12/7-St. Louis, MO: Fox Theatre
12/8-St. Paul, MN: Roy Wilkins Theater
12/14-Portland, OR: Roseland Theater
12/15-San Francisco, CA: Cow Palace
12/16 and 12/17-Universal City, CA:
Universal Amphitheater
Barenaked ladies
11/29-Portland, ME: Cumberland
Civic Center
12/2-Buffalo, NY: HSBC Arena
12/4—Indianapolis, IN: Conseco
Fieldhouse
12/5-Milwaukee, Wl: Bradley Center
12/6-Auburn Hills, Ml: Palace of
Auburn Hills
12/31 -Boston, MA: Fleet Center
Ben Harper
11 /20—Asheville, NC: Asheville
Civic Center
12/26 and 12/27-Aspen, CO:
Wheeler Opera House
moe
12/1 -St. Louis, MO: The Pageant
12/2-Chicago, IL: Vic Theater
Links to Guitar Instruction Sites
harmony-central.com
guitarnotes.com
whoienote.com ,:v|j activeguitar.com
www.guitarists.net
guitar-masters.com
visionmusic.com
guitar4u.com
oiga.net
12/5—Cincinnati, OH: Bogart’s
12/6-Ann Arbor, Ml: Michigan Theater
12/7-Cleveland, OH: Odeon Theater
12/8 and 12/9-Washington, D.C.: '
9:30 Club
Paul Simon
11 /24-Chicago, IL: Auditorium Theater
12/1-Boston, MA: Orpheum Theater
12/7, 12/8, 12/9-New York, NY:
Beacon Theater
Dixie Chicks
11 /27—Bakersfield, CA: Centennial Garden
and Convention Center
12/1 -Houston, TX: Compaq Center
4 steamtunnels.net