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Liven Up Your Gig with Roland Electronic Drum Set

August 18th, 2010

Every musician knows that it takes several instruments to make a band work: a guitar or two (or more), a bass guitar, maybe a keyboard, and of course, a drum set. And every drummer knows that having a drum set worth playing is a sometimes difficult thing to achieve. Not only does a drum set take a lot of work, tuning the individual drum heads, buying all the add-on pieces like extra cymbals, floor toms, and such, not to mention all the hardware to support it, but it also takes up a lot of room. In fact, most professional drum sets take up more room for storage and transportation than all the other instruments combined!

Well, this is where electronic drum sets come in. Electronic drum sets are far more versatile than regular drums. They are also definitely more light weight! Electronic sets are often seen as being somewhat ‘fake’ sounding, but nothing could be further from the truth. The technology of sound reproduction has come a very long way since the invention of early ‘drum machine’ type sounds.
Roland V series electronic drum sets are some of the best on the market today. Roland produces these drums in a variety of sizes.

One of the largest is the TD-20XK V-Pro series, which comes equipped with a TD-20X Percussion Sound Module (delivering sound quality every bit as realistic as what you’d hear from a ‘regular’ drum set) which can change the tone of the various drum pads and cymbals with the push of a few buttons, five different V-Pad drum pads (in three different sizes), one V-Kick bass drum, a hi-hat, and three cymbals (two crashes and one ride), with a very sleek-looking chrome drum rack to hold it all together. There are also many other different sizes and options, for whatever your budgetary needs happen to be. All of these different sets are also MIDI compatible, making recording your drum tracks easy and hassle-free.

If you are a drummer who is tired of lugging around a monstrous amount of hardware every time you have a show or practice session to get to, you really can’t go wrong with a Roland electronic drum set!

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How I found my left handed guitar

August 5th, 2010

Many people have trouble when it comes to buying a left handed guitar, fortunately when I started looking for mine; I knew exactly what I needed to do. The internet has made it far easier than ever before to find left handed guitars, the days of having to make do with a guitar built for a right handed person are gone.

This article is designed to help you find a great left handed guitar; all you need to do is follow these 3 simple tips. Firstly, it’s far better to buy your instrument online, you can get up to 50% off the recommended retail price in some cases which allows you to pickup some great quality cheap guitars over the internet. Online music stores also offer a wider variety of guitars than your local guitar shop; in fact you’d be lucky if you found a guitar store with more than 10 different models of left handed guitars.

Following this you need to find out what type of guitar will meet your requirements, a left handed electric guitar is suited for players who want to play rock music and need a bit of distortion in their playing. Count yourself lucky if you fall into this category, there are more varieties of left handed electrics than any other type, they’re cheaper as well. If you’re not into distortion then you may be best off looking at a left handed acoustic guitar, even though there aren’t quite as many varieties you can still find some quality acoustics out there.

After you’ve made a list of a couple of guitars you’re interested in its time to compare prices, you can do this by using any price comparison website. I just use the ‘Shopping’ tab in Google, it works for me and allows me to sort all the online retailers offering my instrument I want by price.

That’s it folks, if you follow these tips I can’t see how you can struggle to find the right left handed guitar for you. I wish good luck to all you lefties out there who have been struggling to play with guitars made for right handed people, rock on!

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The Easy way to memorize the Bass Guitar Neck

August 3rd, 2010

For those of you who are just stating to play the bass guitar and have not fully memorized the entire bass neck yet, do not get discouraged because it s lot easier than you think. You shouldn’t look at it as a hard task to accomplish but instead as a very easy task that is simple. Once you have the bass neck memorized, then you’ll be bale to lay with ease and pretty much play any song you want. That is the key! If you have the entire bass guitar neck memorized, then you’ll be able to play just about every song. Here are the steps to follow in order to get all the noted of the bass guitar neck embedded in your head.

Step 1: First get out a piece of paper and make a quick drawing of you bass guitar neck. It doesn’t matter of you have a Yamaha bass guitar to a Fender Bass neck; they’re all the same. If you play the stand up bass you can follow the same steps as your looking at your double neck bass. So first take out your bass guitar and lay it face down on its backs the bass neck is pointed up word you. Then make a wick diagram on the bass neck on the piece of paper and leave all the freest black. This way we can fill them in as we go and you can have a nice visual representation on the all the notes on the bass neck. Once you have the diagram completed, start filling in the notes as they are on the actual bass.

Start with the thickest string within is the “E” string. The first fret will be F because there is no # between E and F (Only a 1/2 step). Then after F you will move up one fret to F#. After F# you will move to G (which will be on the 3rd fret). After G you move up one to G#. Then you move up to A. Then to A#, to B then to C (1/2 step) then to C#, then to D then to D# and up to the 12th fret on E again (1 octave higher than the open E string) Then after the E string, depending on hew long you bass neck is, you will just repeat these steps.

Next we will do the A string. The first fret will be A#. Then move to the second fret to B. Then up one fret to C (1/2 step) on the 3rd fret. Then move up one fret to C# and then to D. Then move up to the 6th fret at D#, then to E, then to F (1/2 step) the to F#, then G, then to G# and then to A not he 12th fret.

Next is the D string. Star with the fired fret of D#. Then move up one to E. Then move up one to F (1/2 step), then to F#, the G, to G#, to A, to A# to B to C (1/2 step) to D ton the 12th fret.

And last we have the G-string, the thinnest of them all. We will start will the first fret on the G-string as G# then to A, to A# to B to C (1/2 step) then to D, to D# to E to F (1/2 step) to F# to G on the 12th.

That’ sit. Once you have the diagram completely filled out you can begin to memorize the notes and have your entire bass neck memorized in no time. Then when someone asked you to play a certain note on the E string, you’ll have no problem finding it quickly and you’ll be ale to jam out on you bass cabinet and head with ease and funkiness!

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Choose The Best Ibanez S Series Guitar

July 31st, 2010

Ibanez has been making the S series (Saber) since 1987 and the model has been a very popular one among tens of thousands of musicians worldwide ever since. It’s very versatile and has a great warm to mid range tone without adding any aftermarket pickups or effects pedals to the setup. It’s great for those needed an all around guitar that can be used for many different genres of music.

Before choosing which Ibanez S series guitar is for you, a thorough research session of available models and sub-models is necessary. I on the other hand, have done a lot of the legwork for you.

The S series all come standard with a solid, yet thinner, mahogany body. A lot of other brands of guitar with mahogany bodies tend to be a little thicker and have a really nice, warm tone. The S series still has that rich, warm tone but because of the selected mahogany that’s used, they are able to be thinner and lighter. Some sub-models come with maple or poplar caps. These give a little more of a brighter overtone but the biggest appeal is the grain that shows beautifully through the finish.

Neck construction is normally 3 or 5 piece construction and consists of maple and most times walnut. The laminate design in these wizard necks allows them to be a lot thinner because of the added strength. Wizard necks on the S series are 24 frets and because of the thin design, you are able to reach those upper frets with relative ease.

The INF series pickups from Ibanez are the stock choice here and I have to say, they sound really great in this guitar with the combination of mahogany and maple. Most of the S series models of guitar instruments come standard with two humbuckers but a couple sub-models have a extra single coil in the center position. If you like a warm yet punchy sound, then you will love the INF pickups. The center single coil has a nice bright tone that fits nice with the warmness of the bridge and neck pickups when selected.

For $500 to $700 you can have yourself one great sounding and looking guitar from Ibanez. The quality of craftsmanship from the company just keeps getting better and better. This same model of guitar from another company could cost upwards of $1000 or more, so shop wisely and pay attention to the important details.

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