Freeway Music — Columbia, SC’s Premier Music School

The door opens and, before a mother and her young daughter can turn the corner, I can see the top of a cardboard box (AKA case) containing a new guitar from Christmas. The child is a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. After a short greeting, the mom proudly opens the triangular cardboard case revealing the instrument that “Santa” brought for Christmas. She grabs the small, pink guitar by the neck, holds it up proudly, and asks with a smile, “What do you think?” My heart sinks, as I know that this instrument will surely be counterproductive for her learning. I can’t really blame a parent for their lack of education when buying an instrument, but this happens way too often. So, in this blog entry, I am posting a few reasons why parents should consider doing their homework and buying their kids a quality instrument from the outset.

1. Challenging to Play

Many cheap department store brands have certain characteristics that make them harder to play. For example, the fret edges may not be smooth, causing it to hurt one’s hands when sliding down to play chords. Another common occurrence is for the guitar to have high “action.” Action is how high the strings are from the neck. The higher the action, the harder it is to play. The problem with most cheaper guitars is that the action is playable closer to the nut (which is near the headstock), but it’s nearly impossible to fret a chord past the seventh fret. So, parents are required to spend money getting the guitar “set up” or getting the fret edges sanded down. This extra expenditure makes that “affordable” guitar not as affordable. More importantly, it makes the process of learning harder than it has to be.

2. Easily Breaks

I’ve seen it all: tuners coming apart, input jacks breaking, bad wiring in pickups, saddles coming unglued, and more. Cha-Ching… Before you know it, it costs more to repair your guitar than what you paid for it. Your guitar spends more time in repair than it does in the lesson room. Save yourself some time and money and invest in a decent instrument from the beginning from a reputable local store. You’ll have less chance of it breaking and you’ll be able to take it to the same place to have it serviced when necessary.

3. Attitude

“But I don’t want to spend too much money if I am not sure they are gonna stick to it.” Sound familiar? Would you drive your child around in a cheap car seat that has bad ratings, could break easier, making it more probable to fail? Of course not! This attitude sets the tone of the guitar lessons. You are basically saying “I don’t have faith in this and I’m not willing to invest in it.” Not to mention, if you sign up your kid for lessons and buy them a guitar because they said they wanted to do it, then make them follow through. Worst case scenario is that you sell the guitar. Students are more likely to succeed if they start on a decent instrument and have supportive parents. That’s a fact. I’ve seen it over and over again.

The bottom line is this: you get what you pay for. A little extra money spent upfront will get you a better instrument with less headaches and repairs. Students can play it more easily and they will be more inspired; thus, they will learn faster. This investment will make the money you spend on guitar lessons more worthwhile. The attitude starts at the top. Next time you are considering buying an instrument for your child, consider these things and make sure that you are buying a decent guitar for lessons.

You may also be interested in:

Buying Your First Acoustic
Buying Your First Electric
Shopping Local
Electric or Acoustic

Recently, one of our Freeway Music rock band classes was opening up for a band from Nashville called Dedsa. They were great guys that watched and supported every student. They complimented what we were doing with our students. One thing really stood out though. The manager said, “I really love that you are teaching you students stage etiquette!” It never really occurred to me to focus on that. I just shared it with our music students as practical advice. So, here are a few things that could improve your performance etiquette.

1. Give Props
Always give props to the bands that have played before you and the ones that will play after you, even if the bands don’t return the favor. It’s important to have the reputation of being supportive. Sometimes people didn’t catch the name of the last band. It also encourages your friends who came to see your band to stick around and check out the next band. Almost always, the other band will return the favor and give you props to their fans. Also, give props to the venue and its workers.

2. Listen
Whether headlining or opening, get out there and listen to the other bands, even if just for one song. Don’t be the “diva” band that is too good to get out and listen to the opener. At the same time, don’t be the band who plays and rolls. A music community needs to support each other. The bar for the level of support should start at the top with the musicians who are actually playing. Don’t set it low; lead by example!

3. Never Assume
Don’t assume anything, but be clear and communicate in advance. This applies to sharing gear, set time, sound check, the money breakdown, etc. Always iron out all details before the gig happens.

4. Sound Check
I could probably write a whole blog on soundcheck alone. Follow these three P’s: be punctual, prepared, and polite. Come to the venue on time or early. Have all the gear you need there and ready to move on stage. Cooperate with the sound guy and let him run the show. Whatever you do, don’t noodle incessantly or try to showcase your skills to the bar. Testing your gear for tone and volume is one thing, but everyone hates a “noodler.”

5. Moving Gear
If you aren’t a rockstar touring with roadies, don’t act like it. When you are finished, get your gear off stage as quickly as possible, as to help the other band get on. I like to offer to help bands move their gear on and off, whether I am opening or headlining; however, never assume that someone wants help. Some people are weird about other people touching or moving their stuff. It also can come off as though you are pressuring or rushing a band to get on or off stage. So, always ask!

6. Don’t Abuse Perks
If a place gives you one guest member per band, don’t try to stretch it or sneak people in. It’s their policy and they have a business to run. Again, don’t act like a rockstar when you aren’t. This applies to anything such as beverages or food. Don’t try to use your tab for friends or abuse how many beverages your or your band are drinking, as to leave none for the other band or band members.

7. Market Your Show
Blast the event on social media. Email your contacts and let them know about the event. Text everyone that you think might want to come. Put out posters. In general, just get the word out. It WILL make a HUGE difference. The club/venue owners will notice.

8. Be Cool
This sounds simple, but it’s so easy to screw this one up. Simply, be cool to other bands, the venue employees, fans, etc. Develop relationships with them. You will be surprised how this helps the future of your career.

9. Be Positive on Stage
It’s a blessing to be able to play and a blessing to share that with others. If that’s not your attitude, you are in the wrong business…move on! Whether or not you enjoy a gig is entirely up to you! Your energy will bleed over into your bandmates and the crowd. I’m always more impressed with guys that play for two people who give it their all, than a guy who plays for thousands and is half-hearted.

10. Do NOT Overreact to Mistakes
Mistakes WILL happen…so how will you react? The best players are “professional mistake cover-uppers.” Learn to take your mistake and make it seem intentional. Use the moments as opportunities for genius. It’s like drawing a three when you wanted to draw a 9. Turn it into a 9! When it happens, let it roll and think forward. NEVER reflect on it and think backwards. Typically, people will react more to your reaction of a mistake, than the actual mistake itself.

I hope these principles sink into you and that you will apply them to your next performance. You have a large responsibility to set the standard and make performances a better experience for everyone.

Check out my blog on Sound Check Etiquette

Matt Nelson’s Wisdom

My friend referred me to a guy named Matt Nelson that lived in Columbia, SC who used to hang with jazz legends. He said I should spend some time with him. So, I got his number and gave him a call. I drove over to his house near the airport. It was such an amazing time! Apparently, Matt was friends with two of jazz’s greatest guitar players, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. He even showed me Grant Green’s autobiography, where Grant mentioned Matt. Matt shared stories from meeting Wes Montgomery at a local jam to running into Charlie Parker at a candy store. He spun record after record, and shared so many great jazz artists with me.

Then, it came to play.

We went it to his music room where he had an array of beautiful and expensive guitars.

He generously placed a Benedetto in my hands and asked me to play. So, I launched off into a Thelonious Monk jazz blues song called “Blue Monk”. I was walking the bass line, while Comping the chords in between. Just as I thought I was doing a good job, he stopped me and said, “no, no, no…you are doing it all wrong!”. I was super confused. I thought I was playing it right. He said, “You need to be tapping your foot on 2 and 4.” I was tapping my foot on each quarter beat, which is what I thought you were supposed to do. Then, he demonstrated and asked me to try it.

So, I did, and I immediately felt a difference. It was way groovier! From that point forward, I began tapping my foot on two and four for a lot tunes, making them way groovier. I’m just thankful that I was able to spend time with Matt Nelson, because I my groove was forever changed that day. If you aren’t tapping your foot on two and four ever, go try it. It will blow your mind!

There are so many dynamics that shape a musician such as: practice, playing, writing, etc. Perhaps the thing that was most critical to my personal development was my failures. I learned from and was motivated by failures more than anything I’ve ever done with music. So, I would like to share a few failures with you that made me a better musician. Hopefully, you too can learn a little something from my failures. Maybe you can embrace the failures that are certain to come in your musical journey and learn how to churn them into positive energy.

Getting Stomped by “Donna Lee”

If you have ever followed jazz, you are aware of Charlie Parker. You are also probably aware that his heads are very challenging melodies to play. I just started working on a tune called “Donna Lee.” It was the toughest head I learned up to that point in my playing. One night, I headed over to an open jazz jam here in Columbia, SC. I sat in to play and the band counted off the tune at a murderous tempo. I hung in there for the melody, as then it came time for the solo…and I got crazy lost. The bass player was annoyingly yelling out chord changes to me.

Finally, I stopped playing at what I thought was the end of the form, but quickly realized I wasn’t sure of anything. So, the bass player and drummer crushed their solos. Then, they looked at me to start the head again. Thank God the bass player clued me in on where to come in again. We finished the song, and I haven’t played with those players since…hopefully, they will let that one slide from their memories…HAHA. I threw myself into a fire and “Donna Lee” roasted me.

I learned a lot about my playing, however. I realized I didn’t know the form as well as I once thought. I needed to practice the tune at various tempos and I needed to understand the overall format of jazz improv. So, naturally I went home and shedded that tune like crazy. Had I not had my butt kicked, I never would have pushed myself so hard. So, throw yourself into the fire. It can inspire you to get better if you have the right attitude.

Check out Part 2: Comping…What’s That?

1. Per Pattern Licks
One of the beautiful things about playing guitar is that you can play the same scale many different ways, creating a lot of various fingerings. Thus, each pattern has different possibilities. You should write several licks for each specific pattern.

2. Pattern Connection Licks
I encourage my guitar students to practice connecting the patterns together on each string. Some guitar players get lost when using a connection they aren’t familiar with. To reinforce this concept, write several licks pattern-to-pattern.

3. Bends
This is one of every guitar player’s favorites. Don’t just write licks with bends, but try to be creative with how you use them. Use the bend, release, and adjacent notes to come up with some really original bend licks. Use 1/2, whole, 1 1/2 step bends etc. You can even bend from notes that are not in the scale.

4. Hammering and Pulling
Write licks focused on just hammering, just pulling, and a combination thereof. Don’t forget to hammer the string below you also.

5. Slides
How creative can you be with slides?

6. Single String Scales
Practice playing the scale on each string from the root note. Become familiar with the intervals. Then, write licks that go up and down one string.

7. Use Open Strings
Open strings can be great pedal tones. There is an open string that works in almost every key. If it’s not in key, it can be a chromatic note that you can use as a passing tone. An open string can be placed above or below a single string scale, or you can pull off to it.

8. Confining Notes Per String
Only allow yourself to play one note per string for pentatonic scales and two notes per string for diatonic scales. It forces you to play with more intervals and gives you a new “pattern” to solo with.

9. Scalar and Interval Patterns
Try playing the scales in various patterns of 3, 4, 5, etc. Also, try to play them in intervals of 3, 4, 5, etc. The lick possibilities here are endless.

10. Double Stops
Practice playing the scales two notes at a time. Write various licks using double stops.

11. Tapping
This is not just the 80s kind of tapping here. You can trace arpeggios, add a high note you can’t reach, or a quick flare of a lick in the middle of a solo. Use tapping to augment your style and write some licks.

12. Sweeping
Again, this technique often gets that negative “show-off” stigma, but I use it all the time in moderation. I personally like using short sweep patterns in my licks. If you don’t know how to sweep, you won’t know if it fits your style or if you even like it. Don’t judge it if you can’t even do it.

13. Octave Displacement
Play your scale and displace the notes into different octaves. For example, if you play a major scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, maybe take the 3 and 4 higher: 1 2 10 11 5 6 7. You can change any note of a scale up or down an octave. This will certainly bring more interval licks into your playing and make your playing way more interesting.

14. Octaves
Write runs with the octave of the note attached. This is a great technique players like Wes Montgomery and George Benson use to beef up their solos.

15. Chords
Create some chords from the scales. That’s where the chords come from anyway. Practice creating chords in each pattern and harmonizing the chord patterns up the neck. This is a great way to start exploring chord soloing. Chords can really beef up your solo as well.

There are certainly more ideas, but these 15 will keep you busy for a while. Don’t forget that you can also combine any of the ideas. Imagine the possible combinations within each technique, the combinations between the 15, the scale patterns, and the types of scales. The possibilities are endless!

As I mentioned before in the previous blog, The Importance of Writing Licks, making up your own licks is imperative to becoming a unique player. Start by taking each concept and writing 15 licks per week. Then, never stop writing licks. Be prolific. Your playing will explode! Have fun!

1. Pick: There is a lot to be said about using the right pick. If you are picking fast or intricate lines, using a thicker or harder pick usually offers better results. Transversely, if you are strumming, a thinner pick can be better, especially in studio settings. Different materials produce different tones. There are various shapes, grips, tips, etc that may affect your playing greatly. Try several different kinds before settling in. Here is an article entitled How to Pick Your Pick by Premier Guitar.

2. Action: The “action” refers to how high or low your strings are, and how your guitar “plays” over all. A lot of guitar students bring a guitar into their first lesson that they have been practicing on, and the action is too high for me to even fret notes! I immediately send them to get the guitar set up by a luthier(someone who makes or repairs string instruments). Action is a preference thing, so make sure you figure out how high or low you enjoy the strings on your instrument. Having it too low can cause a guitar to buzz. I personally don’t mind a little buzz. You have to strike a balance between how low you want the strings, and the tone you are going for. Here is a link to a local luthier in Columbia: Strings Attached

3. Guitar Teacher: With so many people playing guitar, there are a lot of “guitar teachers” out their that have no business teaching anyone. Make sure you do your homework, and find someone that has a good reputation for teaching. There are a lot of great players that can’t teach a lick. Here’s a great place to look for guitar teachers: 😉 Freeway Music
Here is a great blog about: How to Pick Your Teacher

4. Technique: Playing guitar requires a lot of fine motor movements. You could be holding your hand slightly wrong, and move it just a touch to make a chord sound way better. It’s not how hard you press, but how you press the strings that counts. Not only can you adversely affect your guitar playing, but you could be on a track to injuring yourself if you are not careful.

5. Guitar: Let’s face it, there are some guitars that are just pieces of junk. I don’t have enough time to go into how many I have seen pass through my guitar lesson room. The basic rule is go to a local store that specializes in selling music instruments, not a department store that specializes in selling toys. There may be a little more investment up front, but it is totally worth it. A good guitar is crucial to making the learning experience more successful. A great store to check out here in Columbia, SC is: Sims Music

Check out our blogs on:
Buying Your First Acoustic Guitar
Buying Your First Electric Guitar

After trying to teach guitar players rhythm for many years, I have decided that it is one of the toughest subjects to tackle. Truthfully, one of the best ways to learn rhythm is to actually play rhythms and learn to feel them naturally; however, no matter how much you learn organically, you can always stretch yourself and learn different rhythms you might not have ever learned otherwise. I have compiled a multi-part series to help guitar players have an increased understanding of rhythm in order to be more creative. Today we are gonna touch on three things:

Feeling the 16th

I have found that one of the best ways to start getting an aspiring rhythm guitar player going in the right direction is to learn to subdivide 16th notes. First, start trying to feel each individual syllable of the 16th notes in each beat: 1, e, + , and a. Simply, mute/rest every other beat other then one you are working on. For example, if you are working on e, mute or rest 1, +, and a. Always tap your foot on the quarter note and count out loud. If you are having trouble understanding this exercise, talk to your music instructor. Practicing this way will internalize these subdivisions.

Mixing it up

This is where you can start getting creative. Now, you can pick and choose which beats you accent in each measure. For Example, you may pick 1 and + in the first beat, and e and + in the 2nd beat, etc. With 16 choices to combine in various ways, it’s amazing the rhythms you can come up with. A lot of musicians are creative with chords, melodies, and lyrics, but very few guitar players actually take the time to venture out to new territory with their rhythms. This is such an important layer of creativity and is often overlooked. Trying various rhythms is such a healthy exercise for any musician. You will feel friction and it will be very tough at first. Just remember, the friction you feel is good and necessary to make you a better rhythm player.

Passing

Once you can mix up various rhythms, try working on “holding beats over” or having longer rests and “passing the strings.” Passing the strings is an important technique as a rhythm guitar player. It helps keep your hand in a continuous rhythm and makes your playing more groovy. Generating more space in your rhythms is good practice, as guitarists’ rhythms often can be too busy.

These three ideas will get you started. Check out Rhythm Guitar Part 2 where we will discuss more ideas for improving and stretching yourself as a rhythm player. Happy strumming!

A student signs up for guitar lessons. They initially are fired up, they fizz out, and quit. How many times have you heard this story? I have witnessed it over the years, and we all have done this, or know someone who has. So the question remains: How do you maintain your enthusiasm for Music Lessons?

Practice
Let’s face it…showing up to your lesson unprepared is a drag. You feel let down, it’s frustrating for the teacher, and you have to go over the same material again, making no progress. Simply getting into the routine of practice goes a long way towards maintaining your interest. You and others will see the improvement in your playing. This growth will inspire you to practice more. The more you put in, the more you will get out.

Plug In
Find an outlet for your music. One of the things I love about Freeway Music is the performance opportunities that we offer. We have showcases, recitals, camps, rock band classes, and community outreach opportunities. These public performances give students specific goals to prepare for. Play for a school talent show, your church, with a group of friends, etc. Get plugged into your local music scene. Watch people play, join a songwriter’s guild, sit in at open mics, etc. If you aren’t plugged in and playing somewhere, it will be very hard to maintain interest.

Friends
A lot of who you become is directly related to those you associate with. One of the people that spurred me on as a kid was my friend Eric. He would come over and we would play guitar all night together. It was so great for my growth as a young musician. I have constantly challenged myself by putting myself in situations where I played with musicians that were better than me. These situations pushed me and inspired me to be a better guitar player. I have surrounded myself with people that have the same passion that I have for music…including my guitar teacher.

Find the Right Teacher
Finding the right instructor is key. An instructor should be passionate about teaching, inspiring students, presenting opportunities for students, the local music scene, and the community. Music instructors should be qualified, professional, and enthusiastic. It’s very important that you take the time to find a great instructor that fits you. A teacher can make or break a student’s learning experience. If your music teacher is not actively studying, or plugging in, you may want to consider a different teacher.

Learn Tunes
Metallica was the reason I started playing guitar…not a m7(b5). It’s different for everyone, but we all have music that inspires us. I once asked my good friend Jerry Sims for the best advice to grow as a player and he answered, “Learn a tune that you like each day.” It makes sense. If you wanted to lose weight, you should exercise. So, it makes sense that learning tunes is a great way to maintain your interest in an instrument. I have also learned over the years that each song presents a new challenge, forcing you to stretch in ways that you wouldn’t stretch ordinarily.

Be Realistic
My friend Sue is an amazing singer/songwriter. I was feeling uninspired once, and I asked her what I should do. She gave me a harsh reality check. Sometimes you are trucking along and you hit a wall. Then, you pick yourself up and go again. She said that the passion never leaves and you will always go again. Even if you are doing everything possible to stay inspired, you will go through ups and downs. You will continue upward, though. Just make sure that you have realistic expectations, and don’t let a downswing keep you heading down!

If you aren’t maintaining that fire for studying music and continuing your pursuit of musical growth, look within. Are you practicing? Are you plugged into something that will make you grow? Have you surrounded yourself with people that will support, challenge, and inspire you? Have you gotten away from the spark that got you inspired in the first place? Be real with yourself, answer these questions, and weather the natural ups and downs. Then, you will have a much smoother musical journey. Good Luck!

We briefly touched on this benefit of music in a previous post 5 Benefits of Music Lessons and we will delve into that a little more here.

In doing some research on this subject, I found out something really cool.

Drum roll please….

Music is INSANELY good for your brain. (No pun intended.)

But seriously, the fact that something so fun/creative is as good for you as school is? WHAT? Not that it negates the need for a good education, but I was really happy to know that I’ve been doing my brain a huge favor by choosing to have music be such a vital part of my life.

Let’s start with some basic science…for those of you who like evidence to back things up. If you don’t care to hear the science, feel free to skip to the next paragraph for some incredible stats on the effects of music on the brain (we all love some good stats). 10 different parts of our brain process music, and I will spare the names as they are complicated. The point is, music stimulates our brain in multiple areas, the majority even, not just one small part.
A simple explanation would be this, about half of those areas of the brain have to do with the effects of LISTENING to music. Music can help shape our emotions, identify feelings, help predict our personalities, and even help us be better drivers (when not too loud, of course). The other half has to do with what PLAYING music does to our brain, which is the main focus of this post.

Playing, teaching, learning/listening to music does the following:
Improves motor and reasoning skills, i.e. better performance on tests, school work, analysis of visual information, etc.

Increases visual attention.

Makes exercise more efficient/even more frequent.

Fights Dyslexia

Increases lifelong memory skills

…I could go on, but it seems that scientists who have dedicated their lives to these studies say it a tad bit better than I do. P.S. Read them all if you can, b/c we obviously picked the coolest ones. 😀

“Adults who receive formal music instruction as children have more robust brainstem
responses to sound than peers who never participate in music lessons and that the
magnitude of the response correlates with how recently training ceased. These results
suggest that neural changes accompanying musical training during childhood are
retained in adulthood.”
— Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2012). A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is
Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood, Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (34)
11510. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012

“Young Children who take music lessons show different brain development and
improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive
musical training. Musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is
correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial
processing, mathematics, and IQ.”
— Dr. Laurel Trainor, Prof. of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior at
McMaster University, 2006
Stanford University research has found

“Stanford University research has found for the first time that musical training improves
how the brain processes the spoken word, a finding that researchers say could lead to
improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading
problems… ‘Especially for children … who aren’t good at rapid auditory processing and
are high-risk for becoming poor readers, they may especially benefit from musical
training.’”
— From “Playing music can be good for your brain,” SF Chronicle, November 17,
2005 (article on recent Stanford research study linking music and language)

“Learning and performing music actually exercise the brain – not merely by developing
specific music skills, but also by strengthening the synapses between brain cells…What
is important is not how well a student plays but rather the simultaneous engagement of
senses, muscles, and intellect. Brain scans taken during musical performances show
that virtually the entire cerebral cortex is active while musicians are playing. Can you
think of better exercise for the mind/brain? In short, making music actively engages the
brain synapses, and there is good reason to believe that it increases the brain’s capacity
by increasing the strengths of connections among neurons.”
— From “The Music in Our Minds,” Educational Leadership, Vol. 56, #3; Norman
M. Weinberger

Nearly 100% of past winners in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in
Math, Science, and Technology (for high School students) play one or more musical
instruments. This led the Siemens Foundation to host a recital at Carnegie Hall in 2004,
featuring some of these young people. After which a panel of experts debated the
nature of the apparent science/music link.
— The Midland Chemist (American Chemical Society) Vol. 42, No.1, Feb. 2005

Dr. James Catterall of UCLA has analyzed the school records of 25,000 students as
they moved from grade 8 to grade 10. He found that students who studied music and
the arts had higher grades, scored better on standardized tests, had better attendance
records and were more active in community affairs than other students. He also found
that students from poorer families who studied the arts improved overall school
performance more rapidly than all other students.
— From Catterall, UCLA, Fall 1997

Though it’s crucial to invest in math, science and engineering, as the president outlined
in his recent State of the Union address, there are other fields that hold more
promise…Prefer a more artistic career? Our economy is poised to create new forms of
entertainment, from rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop to film and video games. Indeed, over the
next 10 years, jobs in art, music, culture and entertainment will grow twice as many as
jobs in engineering will.
— From “A search for jobs in some of the wrong places,” USA Today, February
12, 2006; Richard Florida

The moral of the story is this, if you enjoy music, play it, listen to it, whatever. No matter how well you do, no matter how advanced you are, the sheer activity that it produces in the brain will make you smarter, improve your self confidence, and increase your memory among other great things. And that you won’t be the one that forgets anyone’s birthday, anniversary, etc.

Go get em’ you musical genius, you.

It’s close to the holiday season and a lot of people will be purchasing their first electric guitar. Here are some things to consider:

Pickups
A lot of a guitar’s tone come from the pickups. Humbuckers have a more rocking sound, and Single Coil pickups are better for bluesy and clean tones. There are other pickups like P-90’s and more. A guitar could have 2 humbuckers, one humbucker and a single coil, 3 single coils, etc. The best way to figure out which pickups and configuration you like is to see what the guitar student’s favorite players or bands use. For example, Slash plays a Les Paul with humbuckers.

Bridge
There are fixed bridges and floating bridges. A fixed bridge cannot move, while a floating bridge moves up and down to stretch the strings. This changes the pitch higher and lower. This is fun, but can leave your guitar out of tune. I personally don’t use it a lot. I generally recommend beginner guitar students to get a fixed bridge to avoid tuning troubles, and to make it easier to tune down for songs.

Package
Don’t forget you can’t just buy an electric guitar. You need at least an amp and a cable. Most guitar companies have a beginner guitar package that includes: amp, cable, gig bag, picks, strings, a strap, and maybe even an instructional DVD. Most all of these packages are similar in quality, but I have found that the Ibanez packages have been very consistent and are a decent quality. If you don’t buy a beginner package, at least include the essential accessories in your purchase.

Brand
I certainly have a preference in brand, but when you are buying a beginner guitar they are all very similar. I always tell guitar students and parents to avoid department stores. First of all, the ones found in department stores are typically cheap. Go to a real music store. Also, you will get better service when things go wrong…and trust me, they just might. You can’t really go wrong with any of your major brands such as: Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, etc. They all have expensive models and cheaper models. They are sometimes under a different name. For Example, Fender uses Squire, and Gibson uses Epiphone. Also, the brand may be dictated by the kind of guitar that would best match a band, player, or style a student likes.

Action
Make sure you hold and feel a guitar before you buy it! It’s much better to buy local. The action refers to how high or low the strings are to the neck. Make sure that the guitar is playable. You don’t want the strings to high because it will be very arduous for the student to play. At the same time, you don’t want it so low that the strings are very buzzy and dead. Make sure there are no dead spots on the guitar. If you can’t test it out, ask an employee to help you out, or bring someone experienced with you. Any reputable music store should be able to test that out for you, and be willing to fix it before it goes out the door. For that matter, most stores will set it up for you for a certain amount of time for free beyond the purchase.

There are many things to consider when buying an electric guitar, but this will get you in the neighborhood. Make sure you find that brand, style and pickups that work you. Buy it a reputable music store, check the action, and grab any accessories you may need. Good Luck!

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