Hot Music & Instruments How-Tos
How To: Make high-quality home music recordings on a shoestring budget
If you're a musician, but can't cover the cost of an expensive recording studio to get your song onto a playable media, then this video is what you need. It will show you how to make your own high-quality home music recording studio on a shoestring budget! If you're trying to get the attention of big music record labels, you need some hgih-quality sounds, but you don't need the high-quality costs! The setup is pretty simple— a microphone, MP3 player, sound mixer, headphones and a good-quality...
How To: Get a similar solo tone like in "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin on Guitar
Jimmy Page had a very specific twangy, high pitched, whiny tone that he used in the recording of "Whole Lotta Love" and a couple of other very recognizable songs during their solo and interlude sections. If you've ever wondered how to get a similar tone check out this video on some amp settings and different pick up positions to get you a similar tone.
How To: Bust better rhymes when you freestyle and keep your flows goin' buck wild
Freestyle rapping is one of the most impressive feats of verbal acuity that a person can perform. If you want to get into the rap game or just like rapping with friends or to pass the time (it's great for waiting for things) watch this video for tips on how to flow better and never get caught without a rhyme.
How To: Use the CAGED system on the guitar
The CAGED system is the road map of your guitar, it teaches you how to play any shape for any chord on any point on the neck of the guitar. This system does require you to be able to at least be able to bar anywhere on the neck with your finger. In this video you will learn the entire CAGED system and how to apply it to your playing.
How To: Apply the CAGED system with arpeggios
So you've gotten down the CAGED system, fantastic! You're on your way to be a master of your fretboard! But if you're not sure what else you can do with the CAGED system, try the lesson in this video. You will learn how to arpeggiate your chords in the CAGED system up and down the neck, which if sped up, could be a really awesome lead up for a solo!
How To: Apply the CAGED system over minor chords
The CAGED system is an amazing way of organizing the fretboard to allow you to find any chord on any place of the neck and instantly have a shape to play on, a scale, a triad and even an arpeggio. In this video you learn how to apply the method with minor chords as opposed to major chords.
How To: Play "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals on an acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Animals song on your own guitar, watch this video tu...
How To: Play basic arpeggios on the guitar
Learning how to play and connect arpeggios is the beginning of getting into not only creating interesting and fresh melodies but also sweep picking! It's very simple to do, you just need to know the formula for the different types of arpeggios out there. In this video you will learn what an arpeggio is and also how to play a few basic arpeggios!
How To: Play "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor on an acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Survivor song on your own guitar, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Play "Wild Thing" by the Troggs on an acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of the Troggs' "Wild Thing"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Troggs song on your own guitar, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Play "American Woman" by the Guess Who on an acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of the Guess Who's "American Woman"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Guess Who song on your own guitar, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Play "Money" by Pink Floyd on an acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of Pink Floyd's "Money"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Pink Floyd song on your own guitar, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Play "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream on the acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Cream song on your own guitar, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Play "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones on the acoustic guitar
Want to play an unplugged version of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction"? See how it's done with this free video guitar lesson, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords in tab notation. While this tutorial is geared toward those who already have some knowledge of the guitar, players of all skill level should be able to follow along given adequate time and effort. For more information, and to get started playing this Rolling Stones song on your own guitar, watch this video...
How To: Find octave centers on the guitar
Octaves are a cool way of spicing up your solos either by adding in the ocatve note after playing the lower note, or, in the way that George Benson and other great Jazz artists have made famous, playing full octave type power chords that allow you to play all sorts of melodies on the guitar. In this video you will learn how to find octave centers and begin to build your own melodies, solos and rhythm patterns!
How To: Do sweep picking and connect arpeggios on the guitar
Sweep picking is that thing them younguns are into these days, trying to become the next Steve Vai or Eric Johnson, and you have to admit, it is pretty cool if you can use it right. (like anything in guitar and music in general) If you'd like to learn the basics check out this video on how to do basic sweep picking over a I, IV, V progression and connect the arpeggios together!
How To: Set up the intonation on your guitar at home
As a guitar player one thing that you may find yourself running into is your guitar, over time, will start to lose its intonation, especially if you never set it up after you purchased it. You could take it to a tech to have him set it up and fix it for you, but that's expensive, and who wants to spend money when you can do it for free right!? In this video you will learn how to adjust the bridge of your guitar among other things to help get your guitar back into tune!
How To: Play the Ionian mode on the guitar
Ionian mode is the first of the modes, and in a way, is the major scale! It has the same steps as the major scale, for those of you playing from home that's whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step! In this video you will learn how to play and apply the Ionian mode on the guitar!
How To: Read sheet music on the guitar
In the studio world, and the ensemble scene, you're going to be handed ALOT of sheet music, sometimes it has only a few notes for a specific melody, and sometimes it's a whole lot of notes for the entire song. Knowing how to read these notes are important, and it can be very daunting at first, but if you practice every day anybody can read. In this video you will learn the basics of reading the notes on the staff with the note names for the treble clef.
How To: Read basic rhythms on a chart for the guitar
In almost all charts and forms of sheet music, the composer will more than likely have added rhythmic dictation to the staff, a specific rhythm that he wants you to play over the progression using the chord. In this video you will get a breakdown of basic rhythmic dictation of a quarter note, eighth note and more on top of how to read these in notation format!
How To: Create and build chords on the guitar
For beginners, you may learn a few basic chords here and there, but somewhere in your mind you must think about why do these chords sound like this, why is this an A chord and this a G chord? Well, wonder no more! In this video you will learn how the construction of a chord works, which is basically taking the root and adding a specific formula for what you're looking for. Let's say you want to build an A major chord. Well, you first have to build the triad which is the 1st note of the major ...
How To: Play inversions of triads on the guitar
As a guitar player, you will be faced with various challenges in your career, and one of those are being able to blend in with your rhythm section without stepping on anybody elses toes. One way is playing inversions of triads to give a fresh and unique sound to your rhythm and lead guitar playing. In this video you will learn about rearranging triad shapes to make inversions.
How To: Play and use the Dorian mode on Guitar
Dorian mode is the second mode of the seven modes to learn and is also, in a way, natural minor with a major sixth note of the scale instead of the minor sixth. You can use it over a minor chord progression over the four chord if it's a dominant, among other things. In this video you will learn the basic construction and use for the Dorian scale.
How To: Play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana on the guitar
Smells Like Teen Spirit is a song that defined a generation in the 90's and paved the way for alternative and hard rock music. In this video lesson you will learn the basics of playing the song, from the intro, the verse and the bridge section. He takes it slow and also displays tab during his lessons to give you a fast experience learning the songs.
How To: Understand the theory and notes on a ukulele and transfering from the guitar
If you're transferring from Guitar to Ukulele or if you're just starting with Ukulele and kind of want to understand how the notes on the fretboard, the music theory behind everything and also some techniques for remembering each of the fret letters and how to build chords.
How To: Play the Ukulele with right and left hand techniques and exercises
So you just bought your Ukulele but you have never played one before, you don't know what to do with it except make it sound like a cat being strung across..., won't go into too many details, you get the point. In this video you will learn the anatomy of the Ukulele as well as the string letters and some basic right and left hand technique to get you acquainted with your new Uke!
How To: Play bar chords on your ukulele
Getting started in ukulele, or guitar, trying to make barre chords can be extremely tough, trying to hold down all those notes and THEN trying to add extra notes, fuggetta bout it right? In this video lesson you will learn how to make barre chords effectively and be able to play them along with some extra chords to play that far up.
How To: Use a capo with your ukulele
Whether you play guitar or ukulele, or whatever instrument that actually uses a capo, being able to successfully use a capo is important for creating new sounds and new forms of amber for your chords. In this video you will learn how to use a capo to change the notes of the open strings to create new chords more easily up and down the neck.
How To: Play a Delta Blues style progression on a resonator guitar
If you're looking to get into slide guitar, the place to start is in the Delta, the deep south, with artists like Son House, Robert Johnson, and Bukka White. You can find their music on the Library of Congress' website as it is all open to the public now. In this video you will learn how to play some basic Delta Blues with some finger picking techniques, slide techniques, a standard I IV V progression, and more.
How To: Create your own podcast and publish it
Podcasting is a great way of doing your own form of radio broadcasting, among other forms of other recorded media from the comfort of your own home! But, you don't need to have an iPod to do it or listen to it (a common myth). In this video you will learn what a podcast is, how to create one, publish it and then get subscribers!
HowTo: Cremate Yourself into a Vinyl Record
Think you're a music lover? Then arrange to offer up your remains as the final sacrifice to the Gods of Rock. A UK company called And Vinyly offers music fans an interesting post-death "alternative": have your ashes pressed into a vinyl recording of your favorite song, or opt for a personalized recording of your last will and testament.
How To: Remix vinyl and create your own track with turntables
If you're looking to getting into DJing on turntables, the first thing you should learn is how to remix songs live to create your own just using a couple turntables. In this video you will learn how to do a live remix using vinyl with various mixes already on the 12" vinyl.
How To: Practice head voice octave slides (sirens) to strengthen your singing voice
In this two-part singing lesson, Kevin Richards will teach you about octave slides, sometimes called octave sirens, which are vocal drills that well help increase the range of your head voice and strengthen the transition between chest and head registers. This vocal exercise can be done anytime, anywhere. There's no need for a piano or audio scale.
How To: Remove vocal breaks from your singing voice
Vocal breaks are a serious problem for singers just starting out. For those of you new to singing, Kevin Richards offers some advice on how to avoid vocal breaks.
How To: Use your falsetto singing voice or your head voice
There's a lot of heated debate about the difference between head voice and falsetto, and Kevin Richards is here to clear things up for you. In the fist video, he quickly talks about the difference between the two, along with a few examples. In the second video, he expands upon his explanation and serves up even more examples of falsetto versus head voice. If you're just beginning singing, then you definitely need to know that they're not the same.
How To: Recognize and resolve voice register breaks when singing
One of the main problems that haunts beginning singers are voice register breaks. Why does you voice break? And how do you prevent it? Well, in this singing lesson, Kevin Richards shares his knowledge on the reasons behind voice resister breaks and serves up some possible solutions for you.
How To: Do warm up and warm down exercises for your singing voice
Kevin Richards gives a you a great lesson on warming up your singing voice. What should you do to warm up your voice? How often? How long? Well, it all depends on the type of person and how much you have spoken throughout the day. These tips for warming up (and warming down) your voice are definitely helpful, like warming up from the top of the scale, down.
How To: Play the Blues scale and other licks in the right hand on the Piano
As a musician, whether it be Piano, Guitar, Bass, vocals, what have you, learning the Blues is incredibly important to not only being a better musician, but also to passing on the heritage of American music in general and keeping it alive! In this fantastic lesson you learn how to play the Blues scale, licks and some right hand technique to get you started!
How To: Play power chords with open strings on the guitar
As Guitar players, the goal is to be a member of the band when you have to be, and when it's your time shine, you go for it full force! But during those times that you have to hold back and hang with the rhythm section give the idea of open string power chords on your guitar during your rhythm guitar sections to add a feel that will definitely bring out any section of a song (although you might want to consider waiting until the chorus to open up like this.)
How To: Play two signature Blues licks on the guitar
Sure, you can play minor pentatonic over the Blues all day and probably almost get away with it in a live setting. But if you want to play like the greats, you've gotta learn their licks! In this video you will learn two signature Blues licks that almost every player knows, that you can play over any sort of dominant or major slow blues progression.