Top 3 Guitar Magazines To Help You Teach Yourself Guitar

There are many different ways that you can get lessons that will help you teach yourself guitar. There are guitar magazines, dvd's, cd's, books, tablature, online membership sites, teachers and probably a dozen other methods that I haven't even thought of. One of the oldest and most popular ways is the use of guitar magazines. You can find many of these magazines at your local bookstore, grocery store or corner/convenience store. Most of them will contain lessons, gear reviews, album reviews, interviews with guitar players and some even throw in a cd or dvd that have video lessons and gear demonstrations. If you really like a particular guitar magazine, subscriptions are available at discounted yearly or more rates.

So which one is the best? Well that depends on a few things:

1. Where you are in your guitar playing? Beginner, intermediate or advanced?

2. What style of music are you into? Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues, Country etc.?

3. What do you want more of in your guitar magazine? Tabs, lessons, gear reviews?

Before you go running off to your local magazine stand to look for a magazine that's right for you, check out the following list that I have put together for you of 3 of the best guitar magazines that are available today. Please keep in mind that these are my choices of the top 3 and depending on your taste, you may think another publication is better. But at least this list will give you a head start and you don't have to thumb through every magazine on the rack.

Best Heavy Metal Guitar

There is hardly anyone who has never experienced the thrill and ecstasy generated by rock bands and rock artists. It is very common for guitarists to get associated with their favorite guitars - for instance, Jimi Hendrix and his Fender 60s reverse Headstock Stratocaster or Jimmy Page and his Gibson Les Paul Classic. Rock guitars have been evolving and continue to do so along with artists and their styles. If you are looking to buy the best heavy metal guitar, you should go for a guitar that suits your style and you are comfortable with it - there is no single "best" guitar that everyone would like.

If you are just starting to learn, you don't need an expensive guitar to begin with; you should go for an average affordable student guitar offered by an established brand. It will be simple to use and with good playability and resale value; for example, Fender's Squire Bullet.

There are several guitar makers - some are history makers, highly respected and well known; others are hardly known or just copy cats. But you should keep your requirement in mind, unless you are obsessed with some particular maker or model.

Top 20 Guitarists Of All Time - Guitar Players

It was a dark and rainy night. The courthouse clock struck midnight; a stray dog howled. It was all too beautiful when the staff of Gear Vault convened for their semi-annual secret meeting with the confines of the beloved cinder block chamber they call their "office." Their agenda? To decide the 20 most important people in guitar.

1. Jimi Hendrix

Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix's innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form. Because he was unable to read or write music, it is nothing short of remarkable that Jimi Hendrix's meteoric rise in the music took place in just four short years. His musical language continues to influence a host of modern musicians, from George Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to Jonny Lang. Hendrix was the revolutionary guitar god, enuff said!

2. Edward Van Halen

Edward Van Halen once likened his guitar playing to "falling down the stairs and landing on my feet." Eddie's had thirteen albums' worth of such happy accidents and in the process has changed the way people play, hear and think about the electric guitar. With his unorthodox technique, dare-devil whammy bar antics and fearless experimentation, Van Halen revitalized heavy guitar after it had run its course in the Seventies. Espousing an I-just-play-that's-all-I-do attitude and favoring basic gear like stock Marshalls. Peavey 5150s, homemade, slapped together guitars and simple, minimal stop box effects, Van Halen became guitar's greatest hero by becoming its unassuming anti-hero.

The Best Electric Guitars For Hard Rock

If you search in Wikipedia for the style of music heavy metal you'll find that they have listed at least 3+ dozens of subgenres. From stoner metal to symphonic black metal, there's no shortage of mystic names.

Even though I like bands across the whole spectrum, the style that I seek as a guitar player and that I will always identify myself with is hard rock. But as times goes on this seems to be a style that is slowly fading.

Hard rock doesn't require the precision that heavy metal guitar playing has, super thin necks and active pickups are not a necessity But attitude, mojo and a good distorted sound, those are the main attributes I look for in a hard rock guitar.

Easy to Play Heavy Metal Guitar Techniques For Beginners

I would recommend every aspiring guitarist who wants to play heavy metal and contemporary rock music to learn guitar shredding styles. Shredding makes your playing more dynamic and interesting. It is the right usage of different shredding techniques that makes your playing sound melodious and musical.

These are some of the contemporary rock and heavy metal guitar techniques that is the staple for a heavy metal guitarist.

* Sweep picking - is a modern guitar playing style used to play extremely rapid arpeggios across the fretboard (sometimes on all strings).

* The tapping technique - is used to play a couple or 3 notes or to play arpeggios using pure legato with no picking. Various techniques are used to perform passages with wide intervals, and to create a flowing legato sound. Some performers make complex combination of tapping and sweep picking. This increases speed by reducing the motion of the strumming hand.

Top 7 Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Guitar Tunings

There are many different guitar tunings that are used in Rock and Metal music besides standard tuning. Guitar players in these genres like to use these tunings because they give a heavier and darker sound to their music.

Some of the more popular tunings used are Dropped D, Dropped C, Dropped B, E Flat, D, C and open G. Here are the descriptions of how the strings should be tuned and some of the bands that use them.

Dropped D tuning:

E ----------1st string

B ----------2nd string

G ----------3rd string

D ----------4th string

A ----------5th string

D ----------6th string (thickest)

This tuning enables power chords to be played with a single finger on the lowest three strings and produces a dark sound with it. If you're music doesn't fit together with this dark sound, you can place a capo on the 2nd fret and can still easily play power chords.

Best Guitar Strings for Playing Heavy Metal

When it comes to guitar strings, it's definitely not a case of "one size fits all". Different guitar strings are more suited to some styles and completely inappropriate for others. No matter how hard you try, playing Lamb of God songs on nylon strings just isn't going to work.

So, what kind of strings do you need for heavy metal? As a general rule of thumb, the harder you play, the heavier strings you'll need. Heavier strings give you a louder sound and can withstand heavier strumming better than lighter gauge strings, without going out of tune. Heavier strings also give you a full bass sound, which is something you need for playing Heavy Metal.

The downside to using heavier strings is that they're a bit more difficult to use when playing lead. Heavier strings don't bend as well and are more tiring for your wrist, especially if you're just starting out, or have to play for a long session.

One of the best options is to use a hybrid set of strings. A Hybrid pack usually have heavier bass and lighter top strings. This keeps power chords sounding full on the bottom end, while the lighter top 3 make it easier to play lead.

The Best Electric Guitars For Heavy Metal

Among the many aspects of heavy metal guitar, the one that has become more refined with every generation of players is the precision with which it's played.

Black Sabbath can be said to be a band that played in a loose sort of way, but most of today metal is not like that. Think of the difference between American baseball before steroids and after and you might be in the ballpark!

So it's only fitting that guitars mainly designed for heavy metal take ergonomics very serious. Craftsmanship, attention to detail, those are things that your parents look for in furniture, and lawyers and doctors in their Les Pauls.

Heavy Metal Guitar Techniques

Attitude, being aggressive and quick are the hall mark of heavy metal music. So, the techniques that you should adapt for this form of music should be exquisite and mesmerizing. If you are keen to learn the essential heavy metal guitar techniques then you might find this article quite handy. The guitar techniques that form an important aspect in any heavy metal band are mentioned below.

Palm muting

This is the technique where the guitar strings are muffled slightly, while the strings are picked simultaneously. This technique is executed by the picking hand i.e. the right hand in most of the cases. The main trick of this technique is to slightly mute the sound of the strings for the notes to be heard faintly. Palm muting can be better executed with electric guitars. It can also be performed in the acoustic guitars but the effect will not be that rocking.