The first technique you need to understand is learning how to breathe properly. In order for you to sound right, you need to be breathing from your diaphragm. Try to think of this exercise as breathing from the pit of your stomach. Watch your stomach when you take a deep breath and breathe in. It will move outwards. Once you breath outwards, it will move back into its original position. If you can practice learning to breathe properly, you will be able to develop the correct breathing habits one needs in order to sing efficiently.

The next thing to master when learning to sing is being able to control your soft palate. For those of you reading this article and do not know what I am on about… Your soft palate is the little bit in the back of your mouth that hangs by itself. Stand closely in front of your mirror in your bathroom and you will see it when you open your mouth wide, now move your palate so it will allow more air to come in and out of your throat. If you can achieve this, it will allow you to create vocal notes that sound a lot better and it will not strain your throat in the process.

By doing these two techniques, you will fast-track your singing capabilities. You should practice them a few times a day to get the hang of it. Good luck learning to sing and use these methods each day.

Read more here on the best online singing lessons

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I took Online Piano lessons for a couple years as a child so I can read sheet music OK. I have sheet music books for artists like Tori Amos, Jack’s Mannequin, Ben Folds, and The Dresden Dolls and can learn to play most songs with a lot of practice. But a lot of songs I want to learn I can only find chords to from sites like ultimate-guitar. Some songs are pretty easy to figure out and play along to, but with others I really struggle. If the chord is an A, I usually play two A keys with the left hand and the chord with the right hand. But this doesn’t always go too good with the song. Any helpful tips/ideas for learning songs when I just have the chords? Thanks!

Answer:

Just try to think of different ways to rearrange the chord in your head – instead of always doing octaves with your left hand, you can do 5ths, just the root note, and so on. Try different inversions and arpeggiations of chord tones. Mix these techniques up and you’ve already got hundreds of different comping styles.

It’s all about those inversions! Also, adding tensions to chords will make them sound more interesting and complex; for example, if the song is in C major, and you’re playing a C major chord, add a 9 to it (D) to make it sound richer, without changing the function of the chord or the tonic sound that you need.

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Hi people! Just wanted to ask about the string gauges, I watched this: YouTube video (skip to 0:40) and it explained about what strings to get. I went to a shop to buy strings and the guy said “What guitar is it for?” So my question is are there strings for certain brands of guitar or can you use any string gauge on any guitar. (Any electric I might add)

I would recommend 9’s or 10’s for a Strat style guitar (longer scale length) and 10’s or 11’s or maybe even 12’s for a Les Paul style guitar (shorter scale length).

The lighter the string gauge you use, the lower the tension at pitch. Lower tension means that the string vibrates over a larger area, which means it expends its energy faster than a string at higher tension. Lighter strings are more prone to give you fret buzz, and do not sustain as long as heavier strings. There is also a loss in some of your low-mids, having some perceive them as “tinny” sounding.

However, they are easier to bend, and they put less tension on the neck, some slight upsides.

Heavier strings are also better for down-tuning

Everyone has a preference when it comes to string gauges. I have customers play 12-56’s at standard and love them, I have another that drops 8-38’s to the point that it’s like playing rubber bands – but that’s just what he likes.

Each gauge has its ups and downs, and each brand wraps their strings a little bit differently (i.e. an Ernie Ball 42 may not be at the same tension at pitch as a D’addario 42 is) so there is plenty to be explored. Try a couple different sizes and brands here and there and eventually you’ll find something that you absolutely can’t live without.

*It should be noted that when changing string gauge, you run a chance of bowing your neck (and, if you have one, putting too much tension on your tremolo). These are simple adjustments, but they should be made by a professional. If you notice the strings are getting too high off the fretboard, they are too low and the strings are hitting fret tops, or if your tremolo (if you have one) is pulling up too far (it should be nearly flush with the guitar top) you should take your guitar in to a local shop with a repairman to show you how to adjust it.

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Hello.

I’m in my early 20’s and have always loved the piano and guitar, unfortunately throughout my childhood and adolescent years I was always chasing girls  and never took music lessons.

Now I am older I don’t really care about girls and really like learning new things and have finally decided to take on a musical instrument, because piano’s are very expensive I thought guitar would be a brilliant (also, a relative recently gave me one as well which makes life easier).

My main questions are:

• If I’m looking to self teach where are the best places to look and to learn online?
• I don’t really want to take up lessons as I don’t have a lot of money so how much slower will it be to self teach?
• I plan to practice a few hours each week with half hour or so slots here and there, is this going to be enough? (I’m aware this is quite an ambiguous question)

I think that’s everything, apart from thanks for any help you have to offer :).

Answer:

First you came to the right place for information on online guitar lessons and online piano lessons.

Generally I like to say that the rate of your progression will be correlated to your motivation to practice and obtain your goals, regardless of if you have a teacher or are completely self-taught. Your motivation to improve will ultimately be the determining factor for how much you end up learning over a course of time.

That being said, if you are planning to self-teach (I went this route as well for at least my first 4-5 years on the guitar), you have to learn to be efficient with your learning process. I can say that taking the initiative to post here is already a good step on your way to accomplishing this. Furthermore, it’d be a good idea to clearly outline your goals for what you want to accomplish and set out some kind of reasonable timeline; for example if you have a favorite band or style of music you want to learn how to play you can set out a goal as simple as “I want to be able to play X song by the end of the year”. And as long as you make it a priority to progress towards said goal each and every time you pick up your instrument you will be making good progress at becoming a guitar player. I guess the take away here is that you want to have directed practices and you don’t want to have idle practices where you’re not really improving or working to improve on anything.

Next, you will want to make sure you are obtaining quality information and are learning the right things. Again you took the initiative to look up good resources from Toponlinelessonreviews.com, so that is already a good start. Since you are a beginner I would like to say that you should make sure to start from the foundations on guitar and music theory and work your way up slowly to the more complex ideas, techniques and concepts as you learn, sometimes some of the foundations can seem boring or unnecessary but you don’t want to skip anything, otherwise you’re just cheating yourself on what can and will become a fulfilling learning experience.

Depending on how organized you like things to be, one thing that might work for you is to plan out ahead of time what things you want to work on and learn, also you want to make sure you devote enough time to learning that thing properly. I like to break down learning new concepts into a weekly thing, where when I learn something new I spend my next few practices for that week working on that concept. This works because it gives you time for your body and mind to properly digest the information and internalize it. For example; for your first week on the instrument you may want to learn something like the major scale. After you spend that first day or two making sure you learn all the in’s and out’s of major scales – such as; its spelling, pattern in all positions, etc – make sure that you spend a few minutes during every practice afterwards to touch back on what you’ve learned and to keep it fresh in your mind.

I plan to practice a few hours each week with half hour or so slots here and there, is this going to be enough? (I’m aware this is quite an ambiguous question)

To answer this, I’ll say that the phrase “its not about quantity but quality” rings true. You don’t need to spend multiple hours every day to start your learning process on guitar. You really just need to practice and have something to learn or practice, again this goes back to my original point about avoiding “idle practices”. You want to make sure you’re not wasting your time and that you keep your practices meaningful and productive, if you find that half way through a practice you’re getting flustered or annoyed at not being able to do something or just your guitar in general, Take a break… and come back later. A lot of time you’ll find that maybe you can’t play something at the moment, but after a short break and some mental recuperation you’ll be able to come back and play it flawlessly and better than you would have before.

I’d suggest that you try to find time to pick up your instrument for at least 30 mins every day. You’ll find that this is a bare minimum to being able to gain some progress on your guitar, anything more than this and you’ll start seeing increasing returns on your time investment (so long as you aren’t over practicing and idling). Sometimes I find that if I pick up my guitar multiple times in a day for as little as 10-20 minutes each time I can actually discover and learn more than If I would have sat there for 2 hours and just played/practiced the same thing for that entire session, the idea hear is that sometimes coming back to a concept and seeing it with (re)fresh(ed) eyes[ears] can help you break through that invisible ceiling you might of found yourself constantly bumping into before.

Try out different practice routines and see what’s comfortable and works for you. Don’t forget to stay motivated and have a obtainable goal (set yourself realistic expectations) for what you want to progress too, and most importantly, don’t forget to read our jamplay review here!

Good Luck on your journey.

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This is a strong favourite of Chopin’s pieces and I wish to learn how to play it one day. How long did it take you to learn it?! I’m fascinated as to where you’d start with this beast. I know I’d have to train for years to get to the level to be able to play it.

Just looking for some insight.

Answer:
I self taught myself how to play this freshman year of college. It’s not too difficult technically if you have strong octaves. If you are looking for stuff to “train” up to that level technically, I’d suggest stuff like Chopin Etudes. Good specific chopin etudes to consider: op.10 #4, op.10 #10, op.25 #8, op.25 #9, op.25 #10

The best advice I can give you is to take it slow and be accurate. Once you play the parts (I section off the pieces I play) enough, each one should become more familiar and you can link them together for more fluidity.

Slow and steady wins the race.

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I play a lot more rhythm stuff than I do lead, so I’ve spent a lot more time on chord construction and order than I have with any scales, but I feel like I’m slowly pulling back the curtain to understand the relationship between the two. For example, I know the standard blues scale in A – what would be an example of four other (or five, if I’m not understanding the term) positions to play that in?

Ok, Knowing all the positions means, knowing the scale as it repeats across the fretboard. These are the 5 positions of C# minor pentatonic, below is an example:

When someone asks -can you play the blues scale in the 5 positions? They are asking if you know the individual notes in the 5 boxes for the scale.

For instance: Box “1” in the A Scale would start on the 5th fret or 17th fret.

Let’s take the 5th fret position. The A pentatonic starts from BOX 1 on the 5th fret move to BOX 2, then 3, and so on. Or if you go toward the nut, you go from Box 1 to Box 5. You can go up the fret board or down the fretboard and play the A pentatonic in any of those positions and it will fit musically. The Boxes are always in order. So no matter what key you play in, there is an order to the fretboard. Box 1 is always the same no matter what key you are in, same with Box 2, and so on. Here are the five positions for Minor Pentatonic. Find a song – Backing in A and play this scale from one of the two A positions on your rig.

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On a completely off-topic, but perhaps an interesting piece of trivia, the last page, the small panel on the bottom left with the order details for a Lincoln Futura kit, the Futura was a concept car built for the Worlds Fair in the 1950’s. It never went into production, and ended up in the possession of George Barris who had it stored at his shop for Ford, who never bothered to ask for it back. So it just sat in his shop in bits for years.

Later, in the 60’s, George got a call from the makers of the Batman TV show that was going to be made, asking him to create a Batmobile for it.

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