Gear : Ibanez rg550

As long as we know it we are searching for the ultimate baddest metal guitar. Too bad we poor musicians don't have a lot of money so here is the solution : The Ibanez Rg550.

Originally from 1987 de Rg series made its entry into the Ibanez series. It were the middle-class guitars for the people that thought that the jem was too expensive or the lowerclass guitars were too cheezy.

The guitar bodies are made out of basswood and the standard pickups are the S2, S1 and v8. It has a superwizard neck which makes it a dream to play

Later they come up with some anniversary models of the rg550. Colors in Yellow, Red, and black
the budget version of the rg550 is the rg350 that is available in the colors Yellow, black and white but with other pickups.

How to : Get in a band !

Who wouldn't like it, playing in front of real people playing some real badass rock.
well, how do you manage to get in a band ?

- Get to know people; make friends with musicians, they know other musicians and eventually you know enough people that you can even start your own band or...

- Take a look at the internet, there are lots of sites where you can post the instrument that you play and the skill level you have, eventually you will get asked by someone who's searching.

- Youtube ! It's a great way to show your skills, not only for youtube visiters but also on social networking sites for grabbing some attention.

Last but not least, go to a club/school/local band practise and start asking around if people are needed in a band.

Good Luck !

Howto : Beginners Sweep Picking Guide

Today we are going to take a look at Sweep Picking, yeah. Always wanted
to play those die hard arpeggios from Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert ?
Here is my guide that helped me to get those 6 string monster arpeggios :

- The first thing that you need to remember is patience and starting out really slow, First
slow it down and if you feel you can play it 5 times clean it is time to speed it up.

-Now we need some excercise to do, first lets take a look at a website that guided me when I was sweep picking the first time : http://www.insaneguitar.com/mc/sweeping.html
This site is really a good source for starters. Just start with the 3 string ones and build it up.

- If you have managed to do some 3 strings and maybe 4 strings it's time to make it interesting with a song.
for example a good song is the intro of "hangar 18" by Megadeth.  Also try the big sweep in the middle of "Canon Rock" by Jerry C

-By the time you've reached this step you allready have practiced and can go out to grab some kick ass guitarpart with arpeggios, slow it down with guitarpro and play with it, remember when you practice to do it clean so not with the heavy black satanic metal preset on your amp.

Questions and help can be posted here, When I find new information on the web about Sweep picking, I will make sure to post it in here ;)

Rock on !

Howto : Get Guitar Motivation !

We all have been there, the time that the guitar doesn't seem to appeal you for a while, Though you
played all those years guitar, some days can be frustrating, So....

How to motivate yourself to pick up the guitar again.

step 1 : Go to a concert of a kickass band, It can be any band. They will show you the
love you had for your guitar.

step 2: Listen to music that you normally wouldn't listen, and I don't mean Lady Gaga or something but the same genre as you normally would listen , only other band for a fresh inspirational mind.

step 3 : Get your ass over to youtube to watch some extreme guitar videos ( seriously, no dragonforce )

step 4 : When you finally made it to pick up the guitar again , go find some people or a band to play with , this makes it even more fun . You can set goals for the future.

And rock harder then before !

Howto : Guitarpro

Today we are going to take a look at Guitarpro,  Most of you must have seen it on those tablature sites like ultimate-guitar.com, the guitarpro and powertab files, but what are these files and how can they help you in becoming a guitar god ?

Guitarpro is a paid program, just like Powertab players/editors. The best free tablature player is tuxguitar, only downside to that is that it only plays midi ( just like guitarpro 5 and lower ), Guitarpro 6 can emulate real sounds from guitars. so It sounds even better.

these tablature players are a  backingtrack and tablature player in one, So you sync your guitar with the music, It's very fun to use and it has some very cool tools where are going to take a look at.

- metronome : good thing for everyplayer, you can slo-down or hyper-speed your songs for effective learning
-Tuning : You can change tuning in the file, so you don't have to retune your guitar, the tracks play the same tuning as you
-layers : every instrument has a different layer that you can delete/add. This makes that you can also play with just the bass guitar or the drums.

here is the link for tuxguitar : http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/

Once you get the hang of it , You can't live without it anymore :'D