Oh and I’ve been keeping up with my Guitar lessons at Next Level Guitar, going on Week 3 this Monday!

Originally found on Wimp.com. I always wondered how singers could sing so perfectly while prancing around the stage like that – I can hardly talk when I’m running around like that, let along sing. Now we know

I’m not too familiar with how live performances (especially on this scale) are set up, but I’ve heard that the singers will record a “live” set of vocals in the studio to sing along with while dancing around, so that it sounds fairly authentic, instead of blatantly sounding like they’re lip-syncing off their album CD.

I also don’t see why people complain about vocal tweaking software like Auto-Tune and Midomi…when I buy a song, I’m not paying to hear a person sing poorly, off-key, or with mistakes – I’m paying for a finished, polished product that I’ll enjoy, not something that sounds like the singer doesn’t know what they’re doing or like it was recording in somebody’s garage.

Yay for digital audio

Oh man is it gorgeous!! I LOVE the color! It’s also huge – it’s like six inches bigger than my Peavey, which apparently is a bit on the “baby” side for electric guitars, haha.

For the bass amp, Musician’s Friend was having a sale on the Ibanez IBZ15BCF amp (15w 1×6). I wasn’t too excited about the color (camouflage), but they ended me sending me the black version!

BOY does it sound good! I picked up a couple books on learning to play bass, plus a finger-exercise book, so I can get rolling on it ASAP. I’m really enjoying the Next Level Guitar tutorials as well (they have a few bass tuts too!).

Haha…

Granted, it may have been drug-fueled, but it’s pretty fun nonetheless, lol. Billie plays the guitar and does the main vocals for the band. He uses primarily uses Gibson and Fender guitars and has his own line of Gibson Les Paul Junior guitars ($1799 MSRP). He sometimes uses Gretsch guitars, as well. His Wikipedia entry states:

“Twenty of his Gibson guitars are Les Paul Junior models from the mid- to late-1950s. His Fender collection includes: Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Telecaster, a Gretsch hollowbody and his copies of ‘Blue’. He states that his favorite guitar is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he calls ‘Floyd’. He bought this guitar in 2000 just before recording their album Warning.”

That’s a pretty serious collection!

Resources:
Wikipedia Entry
Green Day Authority Profile
Green Day Band Website

This is about Nick Vujicic, an Australian who was born without any limbs – no arms, no legs. And yet, he has an amazing attitude about it and has accomplished a huge amount in his life.

If that guy can overcome his problems with a good attitude and go out and do some good in the world, then I can certainly soldier on with learning about music, haha. Putting things in perspective always makes such huge a difference when I’m struggling with problems and motivation…

I first saw these guys a few years ago on Youtube and thought what they were doing was pretty cool, although I wasn’t into guitar then. Since then, they’ve exploded online and are HUGELY successful on Youtube, ranking in the Top 20 Gurus there and having millions upon millions of views of their lessons.

Anyway, I was really excited to find their website because they have lessons in a format I love, i.e. small 10 – 15 minute chunks of tutorials with good explanations. They have a lot of nice features like picture-in-picture to show you closeups of the guitar and downloadable PDF files of associated content. Here’s their website:

http://www.nextlevelguitar.com/

They also have forums available for all kinds of guitar-related discussion. The forums require a separate account, which is free, although there is a “Premium” area for paying customers:

http://www.nextlevelguitar.com/aforum/

A couple years ago they ran into some legal trouble for showing people how to play copyrighted songs (what the heck do you think guitar teachers teach their students?? come on, entertainment industry), so you may notice that some of their songs are titled things like, “Free Guitar Lesson Inspired By Bob Marley” instead.

So as far as training goes, they start at the very basics and move you through to advanced material over the course of over 700 lessons. Holy cow! This will keep me busy for years

As far as pricing goes, they offer both online subscriptions (watch the videos on their website) or DVD hardcopies of the tutorial lessons. The pricing is extremely competitive:

* $29 a month
* $75 for 3 months ($25 per month, savings of $4 a month)
* $139 for 12 months ($11.59 per month, savings of $17.41 a month)

In my neck of the woods, guitar lessons run $20 a session, so one lesson a week would run me $80 a month. $29 sounds pretty dang good compared to that, especially since I can break it down into one lesson a day, five days a week if I want to, and get 20 lessons a month for less than 1/2 the cost of what it would be locally. Awesome!

Purchase links: (you can pay with Paypal or with a Credit Card)

* These are not affiliate links and I’m not associated with NLG, I’m just linking directly to the website for your convenience

Subscriptions:
Click here for the Online Subscription registration page
Click here for a free 3-day full-access trial to the online tutorials

DVD Sets:
Click here for the Guitar Instruction DVD Sets (complete listing)
NLG 1-4 DVD Set (8 hours of training) – $99
NLG 5-8 DVD Set (8 hours of training + Bar Chords Made Easy) – $129
NLG 9-12 DVD Set (over 8 hours of training) – $129
Value Bundle of DVD Sets 1-12 (over 24 hours of training) – $229
Blues Rock 4 DVD Set – $99

There are also over 30 “Learn to Play” DVD Song tutorials available for $25 each. You can buy 26 of the DVDs in a bundle for $199 (70% off). They’re also running a special on individual Song tutorials on DVD for $9 with free shipping.

I’m currently signed up for the free 3-day trial and honestly, I’ve never found any kind of guitar lessons – anywhere – better than this. I’ve been looking online daily for the past 2 weeks and there’s just nothing that compares to this. I’m excited to get started!

The player here is Zack Kim, a Korean guitarist, who plays using a technique called “free hands.” It’s pretty wild stuff! Here’s a few more samples to listen to, he’s a pretty talented guy:

Tetris theme
Fly Me to the Moon
Super Mario theme
Canon in D

Resources:
Personal Blog
Youtube Channel
Wikipedia Entry

http://www.harlanhogan.com/portaboothArticle.shtml

The basic idea is to use a collapsible storage box and some special acoustic foam to create a quiet environment regardless of where you’re recording. This is great for a hotel or your bedroom, where you’re limited on space but want good-quality vocal recordings.

Harlan actually sells a pre-made kit for $129 (or $149 with a compression sack to shrink down the size while transporting). I priced out the cost of the acoustic foam and the rest of the parts to make it and it’s pretty much a wash – I’d say just buy the kit from him, since the cost of doing it yourself versus having a ready-made (i.e. perfect!) kit is more or less the same.

Be warned if you decide to DIY: don’t go with cheap foam! I read through a number of reviews and DIY projects like this, and they all say the same thing – if you use cheap foam, you’re not going to get good results (which is the whole point of the project). You have to use the (expensive) acoustic foam to get stellar results!

Jake Ludington posted a good video tutorial on Youtube: (click here for the associated article with product links)

As far as mics go, you have endless options. Jake likes the Blue Snowball USB mic ($75), which is pretty good for doing vocals. I used to have one with a Blue shockmount and a pop filter. It’s pretty dang awesome for vocals, especially for stuff like voiceovers and doing your own podcasts, but be warned – it’s HUGE! Only slightly smaller than a softball! The included tripod is pretty lame too, not as stable as I’d like (I got a cheap desk-mount boom arm off eBay for it instead).

Currently I’m using a Zoom H2 ($155) because it records to an SD card (no USB cord required) and it’s a lot more versatile (my first love is filming, so I use it a lot for digital video projects).

If you’ve got a laptop or some sort of recorder with a mic input jack and need something cheap, then check out the Audio-Technica ATR-35S lav mic. This mic has an absolutely incredible sound for only $20! It’s discontinued now, but plenty of places still sell it. I have a pair that I use for recording interviews with my camcorder – they’re just fabulous!

Harlan likes the ever-popular Sennheiser MKH-416 (P48) shotgun mic ($1,200). This mic is commonly used in television and film for recording vocals, as well as for doing voiceovers.

Anyway, for about $130 (or $150 if you buy the kit with the shrink bag), you can have a pretty awesome little portable recording booth that goes anywhere with you! I plan on buying one of Harlan’s kits in the future when I get more into vocals, so I’ll be sure to post a review (with some sample recordings!) when I do!