Tag: guitar

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.

  • 5 Rising Artists on Soundfly Right Now

    5 Rising Artists on Soundfly Right Now

    We are not Spotify, nor are we Bandcamp, so people don’t typically come to Soundfly to hunt for their next favorite artist. But that all might change once you hear the incredible music that these Soundfly Alumni are making! Come hang out in our humble Brooklyn office any day of the week, and you’ll find us jamming out…

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  • Learn to Play Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, and Joni Mitchell in Open E

    Learn to Play Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, and Joni Mitchell in Open E

    In Soundfly’s new multi-module course, Alternate Tunings for the Creative Guitarist, we’ve started the series off with an introduction to one of the most popular alternate guitar tunings for songwriters, Open D. In this tuning, you can strum all the strings openly, without touching any frets, to play a brilliant D major chord. And that’s…

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  • How to Play the Guitar Without Looking

    How to Play the Guitar Without Looking

    Tired of constantly glancing down at the fretboard during your solos? Having trouble singing while you play? Maybe you’re just out to emulate all your favorite blues musicians, like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, or Sonny Terry (also blind)… none of whom could even see their guitar, let alone the fretboard! But for…

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  • Les Paul, Pirate of the Airwaves?

    Les Paul, Pirate of the Airwaves?

    Lester William Polsfuss, the given name of guitar-maker Les Paul, was a legend. His technological innovations, as a result of a sheer addiction to tinkering, were vast. They include multi-track recording, overdubbing (which he famously called “sound on sound“), tape delay, reverb, phase effects, and “the log,” more commonly known as the solid-body electric guitar.…

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  • Is There Such a Thing as a “Single Instrument Virtue”?

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. A few weeks ago, I was on tour with Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band in support of the band Heron Oblivion. When I learned that…

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  • My Bass Odyssey: What 4, 5, and 6-String Basses Did for My Sound

    My Bass Odyssey: What 4, 5, and 6-String Basses Did for My Sound

    Though I believe wholeheartedly that your tone is mostly in your fingers, the choices you make as a musician on gear, style, and technique will go a long way in shaping your sound. One option that’s pretty unique to bassists, though, is how many strings they want under their hands (sure a guitarist can go…

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  • Discover Alternate Tunings with Led Zeppelin’s Classic Guitar Riffs

    The consensus amongst musicians seems to be unanimous: Led Zeppelin has written and performed some of the most high-intensity rock and roll music ever. Yet beneath the fuzzed out, thunderous madness of Valhalla and Middle Earth typically associated with rock’s golden gods, there is a wealth of musical ingenuity and innovation waiting to be uncovered by…

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  • Overcoming “The Blues Rut” and Expanding Your Guitar Creativity

    Overcoming “The Blues Rut” and Expanding Your Guitar Creativity

    There’s a very good reason why the pentatonic scale is so generally pleasing, applicable, and capable of making neck hairs stand on end: It’s something humans have been perfecting for a long time, and can be found in cultures all over the world. As a guitarist, I’ve often wondered whether the guitar was in some ways…

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  • The Ins and Outs of Recording Your Guitar “Direct In”

    The Ins and Outs of Recording Your Guitar “Direct In”

    Cranky neighbors. A dearth of suitable space to stack amps. A shortage of cash. There are any number of obvious and legitimate reasons for learning to record your electric guitar tracks direct in. When you get this skill down pat, you’ll find the approach delivers a great deal of speed and flexibility without compromising too much on…

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  • The Basics of the Minor Pentatonic Scale for Guitar

    The Basics of the Minor Pentatonic Scale for Guitar

    By Kathy Dickson If you have been a guitarist for any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard about scales and how you need to know them. But let’s face it, the sheer number of scales to learn can be overwhelming. They smack of theory and are boring to play, right? In truth, scales are…

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