There are a lot of different amplifiers out there with a lot of different options. This article will give you a great starting point to get your amp to give you that sound that you’re looking for.

Know The Basics Of Your Amplifier

Start off by understanding your amp – what type of tones is it designed get? Is it a high-gain metal amp? Great for clean tones? Blues-style grit? Does it have 2-band (treble and bass) or 3-band (treble, mids, and bass) equalization (EQ)?

Does your amp have 1 channel, 2 channels, or more? These will often be labeled something like Rhythm and Lead, Clean and Crunch, or simply Channel 1 and Channel 2.

How To Add Dirt To Your Sound

Let’s get started dialing in that great tone. First, turn down your volume and gain knobs to zero and all of your EQ knobs (bass, treble, mids, tone, presence) to noon.

To dial in the right amount of crunch, if your amp has just one channel you’ll need to adjust using the volume and gain knobs.

There are two approaches here. One way is to use the gain knob to get the breakup where you like it and use the volume knob to adjust the level of volume. Or you can turn up the volume knob and use the gain to adjust for volume. Be sure to turn up slowly the knob you are using for volume. Test both methods to see which texture you like better. Be sure to not use more gain than needed, use the absolute minimum.

This is easier if you have a master volume knob, as you can use your gain and volume knobs as tone shapers and use the master for volume.

If you have more than one channel on your amplifier, adjust the volume and gain knobs using the methods above for each so you can use one channel for rhythm and one for lead. If you only have one channel on your amp, adjust the gain higher for a lead tone, then roll back the volume knob on your guitar for a cleaner rhythm tone.

Find The Sweet Spot

You don’t want a sound that’s too muddy or overly harsh. Here’s how to avoid that.

With each EQ knob starting at noon, one at a time, turn each knob all the way to the left, then rotate right and left slowly until you find the point where the sound “opens up”. For example, if you’re adjusting the treble knob, it may sound dark or muffled when turned to the left. As you turn it to the right there will be point where you hear a small but noticeable jump to a brighter tone. This is the sweet spot. Do this for each EQ band knob.

Once you go through each knob and have settings in the ballpark of where you like them, use “subtractive EQ” – adjusting out the harshness of treble or muddiness of bass for example. Mids and presence, (if your amp has those controls) can be used to really shape the tone once bass and treble are set close to their final positions.

Now that you’ve dialed in a sound that you like, go back through each step and make adjustments as needed to dial in that perfect guitar and amplifier tone.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to guitar amps. Use your ear in combination with the above steps and you’ll find a tone for blues and rock that you love!

About The Author:

Ryan Popovic is a professional music instructor providing guitar lessons in Minneapolis – St Paul, MN. He is a member of an elite world-wide music teaching mentorship program, the Music Teachers National Association, and the Minnesota Music Teachers Association. He teaches primarily blues, rock, and metal guitar. Ryan teaches all ages and skill levels.

The post How To Get The Best Rock Or Blues Guitar Tone Out Of Your Amp appeared first on Gitarrenunterricht Zuerich | lernen E-Gitarre zu spielen.

Have you ever wondered why some people make way faster progress at something that most? Me too!

I used to think they were just gifted in whatever it was they excelled at because I was told that as a kid. However, I couldn’t quite make sense of that explanation. Plus, it seems like these “gifted” individuals are getting younger and younger by the year.

It’s Just Human Nature and Science

Having spent the better part of 40 years studying and trying to uncover the “great” secret of natural ability and talent, it’s become clear the answer has been with us all along. All humans are wired to achieve two general goals: 1) to overcome fear and 2) to achieve happiness. That’s it. No matter how complex we make life, it always boils down to these two goals. That’s the human nature element.

Now for the Science element. Every time something new is learned we must make sure our brain is in the correct gear for maximum progress. You must be saying, “That’s obvious, Einstein, but how do we actually get into the proper gear?”

We’ve all experienced this magical gear at some point in life. We become completely engrossed in what we’re doing and lose track of time. Or experienced that rush of endorphins as something that was difficult instantly became doable and almost easy. These feelings are associated with the achieving happiness goal mentioned above. This is why we play video games, drive fast cars or jump out of perfectly good planes. Instant happiness, baby!

However, the chemistry involved has a very nasty kick when it comes to maintaining that instant happiness or staying in the proper gear for maximum progress.

What goes up must always come down…

After the rush of feel-good chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins has run its course the brain and body need time to rest and recover. But who actually does that? I’m guilty of jumping right back onto the feel-good train, for sure! The odd thing is I can almost never get back to the place I had previously been. Talk about frustrating!

The Often Overlooked Mental State for Continual Progress

So here is the critical element most people (my past self included) miss. Once this element is added into the mix every learning experience has the opportunity to be amazing.

That often missed element is recovery… Think about it like this, there is almost no activity that doesn’t require a period of rest and recovery. Working. Lifting weights. Running. Hanging out with Aunt Fran… You get the idea.

However, when we are on the happy train and learning something, how often do we stop and allow our body and mind to rest? Ouch! This sets up a vicious cycle because we start out achieving bliss and want nothing more than to keep it going only we can’t get there.

Enter life goal number 2 – overcoming fear… I remember sleepless nights in high school trying to stay in or recapture my happy place after crushing a great session of guitar practice. I now know I was afraid I would never get back to the level I had reached. Desperately trying to overcome that fear robbed me of the recovery time my brain and body needed to replenish and eventually get back to the happy zone. What a horrifying cycle!!

How Intentional Rest and Recovery Can Make You a Learning Machine

Here’s how I have maintained continual progress in almost every learning situation I’ve faced as an adult:

1. Being very aware of when I’ve entered into a happy zone while learning something. Knowing this means I can take specific actions to protect the progress I’ve made. Gaining control of the learning process is HUGE!
2. Stopping before the chemicals where off. The natural tendency is to keep achieving happiness for as long as possible. However, stopping before the cycle ends gives our brain enough time to memorize what progress and continual improvement feel like. Waiting until the crash only leaves our mind in a tired, beaten down state. This is not what the brain should be memorizing.
3. After stopping and while still in the happy zone, take time to celebrate your progress and INTENTIONALLY give yourself permission to rest and recovery. How long should this recovery cycle last? It’s different for everyone, but I would suggest starting with a day and then gradually shortening the cycle until you learn where your current threshold is. Sometimes just being aware of the need for recovery will allow your body and mind to shorten the cycle on a subconscious level because they want to work for you, not against you.

Take away:

While this article didn’t specifically address becoming a better musician, my hope is understanding these foundational ideas will improve all areas of life. Until next time, stay focused, stay consistent, and expect the best from yourself.  

About the author: Ty Morgan is a professional guitarist in the Phoenix, Arizona area. He also owns and operates one of the premier guitar education academies in the area. If you’re searching for rock/blues guitar lessons in Mesa, AZ  and ready to discover the science of learning and mastering guitar be sure to contact Ty!

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A slash chord means a chord placed over a certain bass note that is not the root of the chord.  The symbol F/G, for example, means an F chord with a g note in the bass.  As you will see, this is really a type of G chord, whereas let’s say F/C, which is an F chord with c in the bass, is really a 2^nd inversion F chord. 

The distinction lies in whether or not the note after the slash is in the chord or not.  You must know how to construct major and minor scales in all 12 keys in order to be able to understand this.  Let’s take the key of E:

An E chord is said to be in “root position” because the e note, the root of the chord is the lowest note, or “in the bass.”  If the chord is E/G#, that’s considered “first inversion” and E/B is “second inversion.”  For triads (3-note chords) there are only 3 inversions – root position plus first and second inversions. 

In 7^th chords, such as:

…you could see E/D# which is “third inversion.”  The note d# is the major 7^th of the key is in the bass, so the overall effect is turning the chord into an Emaj7 chord with the 7^th in the bass.

There are slash chords whose roots are not in the chord.  If you saw E/A, that is really an Amaj9 chord.  Why?  Because the notes of an E triad are e, g# and b as we saw earlier.  But now that the note a is the root, these notes become the 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th (respectively) in the key of A.  So you really have to know your music theory.  It would make no sense to call E/A an E chord with the 4^th in the bass.  It doesn’t sound like an E chord anymore anyway. 

To summarize:  when the note in the bass of the slash chord is in the chord (or changes it to a different chord with the same root as we saw in the case of Emaj7), it is in an inversion.  When it is outside of that, the bass note becomes the root from which the other notes are to be analyzed. 

Going back to our example of E/A, why might a chart use this symbol instead of “Amaj9.”  Well, if you noticed, the intervals we came up with did not include the 3^rd of the A chord, namely c#.  So really the exact name of the chord would be “Amaj9 (no 3^rd)” or “Amaj7sus2.”  To me, “E/A” is a lot simpler and more user friendly.

Sometimes certain symbols are used because the composer doesn’t want certain notes to be used.  If the chord was “G9sus,” whose intervals are 1, 4, 5, b7, 9, or the notes g, c, d, f, a,  an instrumentalist can choose, especially on guitar where we tend to leave certain notes out for convenience, to play the d note or not.  Unlike the other notes in the chord, the d note doesn’t do much to ‘define’ the chord.  You’ll hear what I mean if you play the following:

The symbol for this chord is F/G.  The notes are g, f, a, and c, and there is no d.  However if the composer wanted to make sure you played the d  he or she might write Dm7/G.  Let’s take a look at some possibilities for this voicing:

The first voicing is not very common, but the other two are.  The middle one is very common but the note a is left out.  This is because the 5^th is commonly left out of more advanced guitar voicings.  If it were just Dm7 on its own, the a note would hardly be missed, and in this case not playing it is not a big deal, but if you wanted to hear the 9^th of the chord, you would have to play it like this:

To add to the potential confusion, this chord could also be called F6/G, or as we saw, G9sus.  The point is to really study your music theory and know what the underlying function of a slash chord is so you can make decisions on what voicings you can comfortably grab in a realistic playing situation, even if it means leaving certain notes out. 

Here is a very important point about what voicings to choose when it comes to slash chords:  if you are playing with a good, strong bass player, you can leave out the note after the slash chord.  In the example above, if the bassist is playing a g note solidly, then you can just play Dm7 and the overall tonality is achieved easily.  It even sounds better most of the time when the guitarist is not clogging up the sound with low bass notes in slash chords.  Experiment with this by playing a low g note into your looper and playing a Dm7 on the upper or middle strings, or even above the 12^th fret.  The separation between the two registers adds a nice bit of space.

In another article we will explore common slash chords and how they function harmonically.  For now, simply determine whether the note in the bass is in the chord before the slash.  If it is, treat it as an inversion (or ignore it completely if it’s too inconvenient to play on the fly).  If it isn’t, and there is a good bass player, leave the bass note out and just play the chord before the slash.  If there isn’t a bassist, try to determine the intervals implied and decide on a convenient voicing that might leave certain intervals out.

About the Author:  Dennis Winge is a pro guitarist and educator living in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.  For guitar lessons in Newfield, NY be sure to check out his school. 

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