Welcome to Guitar Almanac.com
I believe that all art is at its core an exploration of what is possible.
When you have an idea, or a concept or a feeling in your mind and you have no verbal way of expressing it clearly then that strange ambiguous language of art can come to your aid.
Even though there is no inherent verbal element to music it should be noted that there is an extensive and sophisticated vocabulary. There are grammatical nuances to be adhered to and broken.
This is where the bridge between yourself and what you are trying to create is built.
This to me is best illustrated by the struggle I go through when I try to draw portraits.
When I sit down to draw a face from a photo or a person sitting for me, I have a very clear Idea of how I would like the drawing to turn out. Naturally my hope is that the work will at least have some resemblance to the person whom I am drawing. The success or failure of that endeavor turns on my understanding of the person’s facial characteristics and my own self discipline.
The part of my mind which recognizes the success when the drawing is finished already has everything it needs to let me know when I have “finished” my drawing.
That’s not the thing which will ultimately hold me back. The thing that will hold me back is my command of my craft.
I’ve watched spell bound as far betters artists than myself spun wonderful things seemingly without effort, while attending art school. It wasn’t that their eyes were better or their hands were more dexterous. It always came down to the command of their craft. The mountain of hours devoted to the understanding of their method of expression. The effort invested in learning the vocabulary of their art.
The graphic arts share this dependency with music.
As we develop as musicians we must develop a command of the vocabulary. Even when we are playing music written by others that command underpins and fortifies what we do. Those hours spent running up and down scales pay off as our hands begin to understand the mechanics of a new phrase or riff. Our understanding of a the relationships between scale and chord within a key operates as a creative boundary within which we can roam freely without undermining the tone of the music we’re playing against.
The understanding of the structure and fundamentals creates extraordinary comfort and immediacy in our music.
This is the wellspring of creativity.
The guitar has provided us with amazing shortcuts to this end. For instance, once you learn the main pattern for the minor pentatonic and the two extra notes which overlay the scale to produce the natural minor scale, your suddenly have all the mechanical skill to play the major and minor pentatonic scales in any key. Many professional musicians have built their careers on much, much less.
Here a picture of that scale:
Since western music is only made up of 12 notes (including sharps and flats) you are only learning a 12 fret pattern over 6 strings. This pattern can be very easily broken down into 5 sub patterns which can be connected as your begin to get comfortable. The 12 fret pattern is then repeated over the entire fretboard.
Helping you to understand your musical toolbox is but one of the purposes of this site.
The other is to help you understand the possibilities and variations within the instrument itself.
The electric guitar is a fascinating instrument to study, especially since so many developments have occurred in a short span of time. Perhaps no other instrument can boast such a meteoric rise to popularity from it’s inception to its dominance in the music of the last century. Millions of musicians in every country find the electric guitar a mode of self-expression, social enjoyment, and for many, a lucrative profession. From its early uses with country music to its present use in nearly all forms of music, the electric guitar expresses much of the powerful intensity of modern day life.
The development of this extraordinary instrument can be is traced from early scientific experiments and home-made devices down to present electronics. This site at it’s height intends to be a encyclopedia of the components and characteristics of the many guitars which are being built in the world today. We will try to help explain how these guitars are designed as they are and how they work. The reader also will learn which types of strings to use and how to extend their life, why his guitar can be hard to tune, and how it can be made easier to play.
The mysterious realm of guitar electronics is revealed in the examination of the components made by all the major guitar-making companies. Amplifiers, speakers and sound embellishment devices are examined as they relate to the needs of the electric guitar player.
Lastly, but surely not the least, in photographs, schematic drawings and text, the construction of two of the most popular electric guitars-the hollow body and solid body electric guitars-is presented step-by-step for those persons desiring to make their own guitar.
It is my hope that professional musicians, instrument builders, as well as those persons with a casual interest in the guitar. will find in this site a wealth of information.
I look forward to the site being a complete compendium of guitar knowledge. Sadly this will be impossibility. The great thing about the instrument is that is is still being invented, changed and modified. Guitarists and luthiers are still pushing the limits of the instrument. The great joy in exploring this topic is that it never resolves to a satisfying finish. There is always some new innovation around the corner.
We are looking forward to sharing this journey with you!
