Tips, tools, and resources for guitar players and aspiring guitarists alike. Featuring articles on the gear, artists, and techniques you should know about to take your playing to the next level.
It’s unlikely you’ll find any rip-roaring country instrumentals making waves in these modern times. But in the 1950s and ’60s, fast-picking country guitar players were all over television and influenced guitarists of all genres. Though rooted in blues, jazz, and swing, country guitar is mysteriously singular in many of its techniques and approaches. It’s difficult to…
Welcome to 6String Minutes. In this segment, we’ll uncover the truth about Japanese “lawsuit” guitars imported to the United States from the mid-1970s on. Gear hunters and enthusiasts around the world all claim to have seen them, but the true story may shock you.* (* If you happen to be plugged into an ungrounded amplifier and…
“I got my first real six-string. Bought it at the five and dime. Played it ’til my fingers bled. Was the summer of ’69.” – Bryan Adams Whether you’re thinking about hunkering down and buying your first guitar or looking to upgrade from the $199 Strat pack that your grandma gave you for Christmas to…
Over the last two years, Soundfly’s courses have become a crystal ball, letting us see into the future of who we’ll all be listening to as new waves of artists and bands float up to the forefront. We hear it time and time again from artists: In order to make it, musicians today need to…
Pedals! Despite the wide range of effects they produce, individually, they’re typically pretty straightforward devices. But as soon as you begin to assemble a chain of pedals, complicating factors seem to mount up exponentially. The inconvenient reality is that the more complex the system of pedals, the more helpful it becomes to have some basic…
If you’re still wondering what to wrap up inside a box this holiday season, maybe your list could use a bit of outside the box thinking. We can help with that! Here’s a list of our favorite bizarre musical gifts for the loved ones in your life who deserve something a bit special this year! (If you…
Welcome to the second installment of How Successful Musicians Practice. If you’re just joining us now, take a minute to peruse the practice regimes of some seriously successful percussionists here. To recap, I see there being four kinds of practice goals a musician works towards over the course of their career: practicing to learn an instrument and gain…
Happy holidays, dear Flypaper readers and Soundfly students! If you’re anything like me, that is, a chronically dissatisfied gear nerd, this is the time of year when many manufacturers and distributers offer great deals on their products, upon which we must pounce like the bargain-savvy consumers that we are. Heck, it’s our right as Americans! This year,…
Welcome to the latest edition of Song Kitchen! Well aren’t you in for a treat, because today we’re gonna be heading down to the City of Angels, the Big Orange, Tinseltown, that’s right — Los Angeles! This city is Americana through and through, home to some of the greatest music ever recorded. We’re here visiting the resident…
It’s easy to romanticize the lives of famous musicians. From larger-than-life rock stars to groundbreaking pioneers of sound, and dazzling technical virtuosos, we look up to our musical heroes and strive to live and create the same way that they do. But no one is free from the potential disasters that lurk around every corner.…
