Q&A: Do I need to know how to read music to play guitar?

Fortunately, I can answer that question with one word, no. When people want to take up learning an instrument they often think that they will need to learn to read music notation itself. Not when it comes to guitar. Guitarists are a crafty bunch, they’ve gotten around the need to read standard musical notation. However, if you’re striving to be a multi-instrumentalist, it probably wouldn’t hurt. But, if you’re just wanting to play guitar all you need to know how to read and understand are two things – chord diagrams/charts and guitar tablature.

CHORD DIAGRAMS

Most people have seen a chord diagram or chart. It looks like a bunch of little boxes with numbers placed on them. Something like this:

What you have there is a representation of a guitar neck in a diagrammatic form. You’ll find that it has six vertical lines and often six (sometimes more, sometimes less) horizontal lines. Those vertical lines represent the strings on a standard six string guitar.

The horizontal lines represent the frets of the guitar. The numbers will be placed on the vertical lines and numbered. Those numbers correspond to the fingers on your hand with “1″ being your index finger and “4″ being your pinkie.

You’ll also find some kind of crazy tic-tac-toe thing going on above the box with some Xs and Os for some diagrams. Those are more than just letters there, they’re symbols. The “X” means that string is not struck when strumming that chord – the string is silent. The “O” means that string is struck and rings out but you don’t put your fingers on it, it’s an “open” string.

Sound pretty simple? It is once you understand what everything represents. Same thing for guitar tablature.

GUITAR TABLATURE

Guitar tab is a bit more involved then chord diagrams. However, similar principles are at work. When you look at tab you’ll see a bunch of lines with numbers and other little symbols all over them. Well these lines, just as the vertical ones on the chord diagram represent the strings on the guitar – go ahead and count them, they’re is six of them (most of the time, sometimes you’ll see seven for those lively seven string guitar lovers).

With tab, however, the numbers don’t correspond to your fingers, they correspond to the frets on the guitar. So, if you have a number 2 on the fifth string (the second from the bottom) that means you put a finger on the second fret of the fifth string.

E|——————–|
B|——————–|
G|——————–|
D|——————–|
A|–2—————–|
E|——————–|

That fifth string is the “A” string but when you put your finger on the second fret it changes the note to a “B”. But that’s stuff we can talk about later.

Sometimes you’ll see two numbers right above each other on different strings such as maybe another 2 right above the first one. Now you have a 2 on the fifth string and a 2 on the fourth.

E|——————-|
B|——————-|
G|——————-|
D|–2—————-|
A|–2—————-|
E|——————-|

That would be the tab representation of a chord, a B suspended 4th if we just play those two strings but it becomes the more familiar E minor when the other strings are incorporated by strumming them open. Again, this is some stuff for another blog. So I won’t melt your brain with that stuff right now.

So how would a tab look that represents an E minor chord? Like this:

E|–0—————-|
B|–0—————-|
G|–0—————-|
D|–2—————-|
A|–2—————-|
E|–0—————-|

Those zeros mean that the string is played but it’s an open string. You may also find tab paired with chord diagrams at the top of the tab page too.

GUITAR TAB ACQUISITION

I know I’ve only covered the very basic idea of tab and diagrams but some of you may be intrepid and wish to start playing around with chords and tab already. Well the internet is a wonderful resource and if you look hard enough you can probably find a tab for just about any song. Most often you’ll see tab present in ASCII. ASCII actually stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a collection of characters and symbols that look like it was made by a computer from the 70s. Most often now you’ll see people use it to create pictures with the symbols ASCII art. However, guitars will use it to create simple tabs, just as I did above in the tab for the E minor.

One problem with most of the ASCII tab you find online is that it’s someone’s interpretation of that song and may not be completely accurate. The most accurate tabs you’ll find come in the official tablature books and in guitar magazines. These were usually created by professionals which consulted with the writers of the songs. But don’t discount the regular Joes online just yet! Most of them are pretty darn close to the actual thing and will give you a good idea of how to play the songs you want.

Occasionally you’ll find tab in a downloadable file and it will be labeled as possibly “powertab” or “gp/gpro”. Those are special files for specific guitar tablature notation software – PowerTab and Guitar Pro. PowerTab is free to download. Guitar Pro needs to be purchased but you can download a demo version.

Along these lines I’ll mention a resource I like to use which has worked out pretty well – www.songsterr.com. This website has taken Guitar Pro tabs and integrated them the software and presented them online for anyone to check out. They have quite a collection too. You can play the song in time (although it’s a MIDI kinda sound) to get a feel for how the song should be played – just like if you downloaded Guitar Pro or PowerTab.

So what about you adventurous folks who want to write your own compositions? There’s a great online resource that I’d recommend to you and all other guitarists – JGuitar. This site has a bunch of great resources to help any guitarist out. They have a chord namer, chord calculator, chord dictionary, scale dictionary, harmonizer and a bunch more. Have you ever come up with a rhythm and need to find a decent scale that will work with it? Well, their harmonizer can help. Did you find a chord that sounds great but don’t know what it’s called? Then the chord namer is your best bet.

However, if you just look you can find all kinds of great learning resources from specialized websites to videos on YouTube. These can all help a great deal but they are truly no substitute for the guidance of an experienced teacher. Many people can learn stuff from the internet and books but as any self taught guitarist will tell you, that path can take so very much longer and you can develop some bad habits that may take a long time to get rid of. Having a professional teacher will allow you to not only learn quickly but they can be there to guide you and help you steer clear of some of the common pitfalls aspiring guitarists may fall into. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for an experienced hand.

With that said, I hope you can start off with a great deal of information from this blog and from the websites too. But if you happen to be in the Cuero/Victoria or surrounding areas, stop by downtown Cuero and ask about guitar lessons – they’re cheap and you’ll definitely learn a lot because you’ll have an instructor with decades of experience and knowledge.

August Feature: Cort Guitars

Each month I’m going to feature a brand that we carry and give you a bit of information about them. There are so many brands out there – some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. Some of those brands make great products, some don’t – but that’s what we’re here for is to tell you which ones do make good products. At Progression Music we have a vested interest in the satisfaction of our customers and we won’t sell a product that we feel is sub-standard. In the past we have tried many different brands and some we no longer carry due to them not meeting our idea of what we think a quality instrument should be. However, all that’s for a different blog!

This month, or what’s left of it, I’ll be talking about Cort guitars. Cort is a South Korean guitar manufacturer that’s been around since the 60′s. Their parent company is the Cor-Tek corporation. They not only manufacture Cort guitars but they also serve as an OEM manufacturer for other guitar brands, most notably – Schecter, ESP, G&L and Ibanez.

Wait, I hear you there in the back row…what’s OEM stand for? Well, I’ll tell ya. OEM most often stands for “original equipment manufacturer”. That is, Cort makes the guitars and then the other company slaps their logo on it. Now this doesn’t mean that they do it for their entire line of guitars. Cort usually handles the lower to intermediate grade guitars. For all you out there that have a standard RG series Ibanez you probably paid under $300 for, it was probably made by Cort or the Samick corporation.

Cort makes a wide array of guitars including electrics, acoustics, acoustic-electrics and basses. If you’re curious about some of the Cort guitars, check of August’s edition of Guitar Player magazine which features several items of Cort gear!

One popular line of guitars is Cort’s EVL series sporting a very gothic look with all black finishes and even occult symbols on the knobs and fret inlays.

Others, however, may be attracted to the likes of the Cort X-6VPR with its snakeskin body and shiny fangs at the 12th fret.

Cort also carries other models of electrics including hollow bodies some classic body styles like the V and Explorer types.

Let’s not forget their acoustics. Cort’s Earth series has long been a popular line of affordable and high quality acoustic guitars of the standard dreadnought type. However, Cort also has classicals, acoustic electrics and they also produce Parkwood which are primarily sold through Guitar Center. However, the real diamond in the rough as far as Cort produced acoustics go are Kansas guitars. Kansas is a brand that some people look at and see they are found sometimes in online catalogs for companies like Target. However, Target also carries Fender and Gibson – these are usually the lower end guitars and some come in starter packs. They are priced low to appeal to shoppers looking for a low price and something easy to pick up. Many are not musicians or even hobbyists but mostly family members buying for children and teen beginners – which is a largest portion of that market.

Kansas however, do have some great quality instruments. I personally was extremely impressed by a Kansas acoustic-electric we had in the store. The guitar was a slim-line body with a nice cutaway. It felt great to hold and it was easy to navigate the fretboard. Also, the sound produced by the instrument was great and comparable to the Takamines and Fenders we had at the time.

Wait, what? Yes, you there in the back again. Oh, you’re only impressed if the brand is endorsed by artists you know? Okay, I guess I can understand that although I don’t think the quality of a guitar is necessarily reflected by the number of popular musicians that endorse them but hey, I’ll tell ya who plays Cort anyway.

Some of the notable musicians that play Cort instruments include:

Mathias Jabs of the Scorpions
Tommy Bolan
T.M. Stevens
Neil Zaza
Joe Beck
Matt Murphy
Billy Cox

….and many others.

Next time you’re considering a new guitar, give the Cort lines a look, you may like what ya see.

That’s it for this month’s feature folks. I’ll see you next month, which is a whole week away, when I’ll talk about Samick’s Greg Bennett guitars.

Why Should I Shop With You? Reasons for Grabbing Gear Locally

Let’s face it, inventory-wise mom and pop stores like ours can’t compete with the big online boys like Musician’s Friend and Music123 or the juggernauts like Guitar Center. HOWEVER, there may be more advantages to shopping with a small, local music store than you think! Check this out.

1. Prices – Yeah, it’s about saving a buck when ya can in present times especially. We’re not gonna lie, the big online folks have great prices but don’t count us out just yet. You’ll never see us selling ANYTHING at retail price – never. I’ll give you an example – we carry AXL guitars and so does Musician’s Friend but we have the same prices they do, no lie! BUT, with us, you don’t have to pay shipping and handling, you can have that guitar right then and there! Not to mention you don’t have to wait up to TWO WEEKS to get your instrument.

Also, we have a supplier from which we can get name brand gear for really low prices! We can get Fender, Ovation, Ibanez, Takamine and others for prices below even what you can find online! No joke, just come in the store and take a look for yourself! AND, some brands they don’t even carry – Try and find an Olympia guitar on Musician’s Friend’s website…it’s not there!

And one more thing, coming this fall we are looking to offer in store financing! That’s right, you want that $500 guitar but only have $100…no problem! If you can put that $100 down and afford a small monthly payment then you’ll be able to walk out the door with that guitar! We don’t offer this service just yet but keep checking with us! It’ll be here soon.

2. Service – I could go on about the one on one customer service and personalized treatment each person gets when they walk in the door – definitely something you can’t get online or even at a music megastore – but I’ll focus on something a little more practical for you folks – things you can’t get online.

When you buy an instrument online and a part breaks, what do you do? Well for those lucky few of you with tech skills and the tools – no problem. But for all the others you’ll need repairs. IF your instrument is under warranty you could ship it to the manufacturer or go through the process of finding an approved repair shop but may even pay out of your own pocket for not just the repair but shipping and handling and may even get charged service fees! Anyone who was tried to get warranty covered repairs can understand the pain that it can be. Well, we have a solution for you…stop by our shop.

Why? You ask. Well, some of the instruments we carry we are an approved repair and service center – yep, we sure are! And if your instrument isn’t under a warranty anymore, no problem! We offer a wide variety of services and repairs for way under the price you’d pay at many other places. From simple restring and tunes to more complicated electronic and woodwork – we have you covered! We can take care of guitars, amps, and band instruments and many others!

3. We Listen – Unlike the corporate giants and the big online stores who have highly paid executives with marketing degrees and have no music experience whatsoever, we a Progression Music have decades of music experience from recording to playing live and just jamming. Our business depends on you, our customers and so when you talk, we listen! We want to know what you like and don’t like, what you think would help us so we can offer you better services and products. And unlike the music giants you’ll speak directly to the owners and operators and not some representative in a customer service department or some contractor rep from an independent company who read from scripts and only know you from the info on their screen. Your opinion with us does count and we’ll never put you on hold with some crappy elevator music for nearly an hour while we “speak to our manager” – none of that with us at all!

We’re with you because we’re part of the community here. We grew up, went to school and raised a family here. We’re not some person sitting in a cubicle in another country blandly spewing corporate policies at you – we’re your neighbors!

So, next time you think the best way to go is to jump online and grab what you want, take a second to stop and thing about the information you’ve been given here. I’m sure you’ll be much happier if you run on down to downtown Cuero!

Progression Music Invades Cyberspace!

Hello there one and all! With this post we are proud to announce the beginning of the official Progression Music blog! This blog will be the best place to check on the latest news, events and happenings of Progression Music and all we’re associated with! Not only can you get information here on this blog but you can find us at our home web site progressionmusic.net! There’ll you’ll find information about the store, the products we carry, the services we offer and how to find the store in real life and in cyberspace! Also be sure to find our Facebook page as well and click on the Like button! We also have a Myspace too!

Don’t forget to check back here or on find the link to the blog on the Progression Music home web site to find out the latest developments with us!