0.2 Handy tools for the guitar (2018) Blog addon entry (Part 1)

Hello Steemians and fellow travelers,

I recently uploaded a Dtube video about handy tools for a guitars, which can be found here:

I'll add some extra information in assist of the video. Let's go deeper in the tools available!
I'm not sponsored or endorsed by any of the brands mentioned in this article.

Let's start with the guitar picks!
When you start playing your guitar you need something to control your strings.
Of course you can use your fingers, but especially for beginning guitar players this might be more difficult and might even hurt. While it is true that you learn more from things that are difficult and not easy, let's prioritise making sound from the guitar an easy way first.

Guitar players hands in the first week learning chords

There are a lot of different picks available. Different colors, different thickness, different shapes and different materials. What I normally give as rule of thumb, is to use thinner picks when you're mainly play chords and thick picks for more controlled melodies and scales playing.

Thin picks gives you a more balanced sound in chords, because they sound softer and gives your chord more definition. Thick picks gives you more control and volume when playing single notes on guitar.

Off course it's always your own preference and you can always use different sizes and shapes whenever you want. But when you first start, this is a good way to learn the difference and usage of your guitar picks. This makes it easier to play guitar in certain situations, at least until you got your steel fingers.

This is not how to use a capo!

Let's head on to the Capo!
The capo on a guitar has the task to make the notes on the neck of a guitar higher. Every fret on the neck where you're putting your capo, raises the note with an half note. So when your 6th thickest string is an E without a capo, it will be an F when you put the capo on the first fret and a F# when you put it on the second. This way you can keep playing the same chord shapes but at the same time you raise the note value.
(The note names will also be raised in chords, the similar E major becomes F major then F# major, although you can keep your fingers like you are playing an E major )

Here you see what happens to a chord when using a capo

You might say the capo takes over the job from the nut of the guitar (look at parts of a guitar for more info).
You always want to play after the capo when playing regular music and not before it.

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!

Unless you're a tuner fish!

The next thing we're talking about are tuners. A tuner is used to keep your strings in tune.
It will show you the note values (A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, and G#/Ab) and how far you are from this note by a needle showing you the distance to a certain note. This will keep your strings in tune, so that when you are tuned in standard tuning (E, A, D, G, B, E) it's not out of standard tuning (E# A D F B E for example)

There are a lot of different tuner systems but they all do the same thing. Showing you if you are in tune! There are some difference between them though.

• Clip-on tuners.
  These tuners can be clipped on to a guitars headstock, are normally a little smaller then the normal tuners and can be equipped with not only a mic, but can also work on vibrations. The tuners with vibrations are great for tuning in loud area's and for acoustic guitars, because they will not be effected by background sound but will recognize the notes by the string vibrations.
  
• Chromatic and non-chromatic tuners.
  The main difference between chromatic tuners and non-chromatic tuners are that chromatic means that the tuner also shows you the semi-tones (the half-steps as sharps and flats of a note and sometimes even note-frequency) and the non-chromatic only shows you how close you are to the E, A, D, G, B, E notes (standard tuning).
  
• Pedal tuners
  These are tuners which are build in a pedal for your pedal-board. The cool thing is, when they are part of your pedal-board (a collection of pedals with all kinds of different functionalities and effects) you always got one with you and because they use the direct input of your guitar cable they are very precise. They often have a brighter display so you can also see them while you are doing your performances in bad lighting.
  
• Polyphonic tuners
  A new development in guitar tuners are the polyphonic tuners with which you can strum all your open strings and it will recognize which strings are out of tune for you. This makes it a very fast and convenient tuner.
  
• Strobe tuners
  These tuners are among the most precise tuners available. They not only show you the note, but also the note frequency and use a disk-like interface to show you how close you are to the position of your note. The strobe display will show you through movement of the disk how close you are to the note. Are you further away from your note, the disk moves clockwise or counter clockwise. When you are spot-on the disk will stop moving.
• Websites
  Now you can tune your guitar through certain websites which use you mic on your webcam or computer, very handy when you don't have a tuner around while practicing in your room.
  
• Mobile applications
  Welcome to the modern times! As we are living in an age of rapid technological developments, so does our tuners!
  Mobile applications offers you a precise, compact way to tune your guitar. No matter what kind of smart-phone you have, they're available for android devices, iPhone or windows phone.

Examples? (Hey, insert company name, contact me to get your name mentioned here and see your sales go through the roof!)
I personally use an app called DaTuner for my android phone. It let me adjust just about everything I want, from frequencies, to which instruments to tune, and the overall tuning I want to use.

Some tuners come with an build-in metronome in them.

Get everywhere on time with your own metro-gnome!

Bad puns aside, it's important that you play in time! You normally ride on the tempo of the drummer playing, but this isn't always that easy, especially when you got a drummer with a lot of variations in it's drumming or when your ear isn't that well trained in recognizing when you are on the beat.

One way to train this is, when you're practicing, to use a metronome. A metronome is a small device which, by a click or beep, let you know where the beat is. When locking in that beat and staying on it, you will keep playing in time. A metronome can be adjusted to a slow or a fast beat and with some you can even setup an accent to a certain beat.
When you always practice with a metronome, you will eventually notice that your natural metronome (The metronome in your head) will develop, making you more able to play to a certain beat when there is no metronome around.

This is a example of a mechanical metronome, you set the time when the needle is centered to a tempo mentioned on the back and it will keep ticking in time

This is an example of a digital metronome, it does the same as the mechanical metronome but is often smaller and electronic, you enter the tempo and it will beep in the inserted time. A lot of these give you the option to add an accent on a certain beat.

This is the end of part 1, part 2 coming soon! All about slides, the gripmaster (A pornstars best friend), important guitar pedals and more!

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