As guitarists, as musicians, we’re always looking for ways to better ourselves. And yet we often miss two simple, yet astonishingly effective (not to mention fun), opportunities to learn.

So if you have a sort of cosmic list of “rules to live by,” I would make certain these two items were close to, if not at, the top:

Never Turn Down The Opportunity to Hear Live Music

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people would rather sit at home and practice or sit at their computers instead of going out to see a local band.
Not only does this get you out of the house (always a good thing), but seeing people who have managed to put together an act, whether as a solo singer/songwriter or as a band, can you inspire you to play.

Gary Fletcher shares guitar tips and lessons at his blog Not Playing Guitar.

Here's a post about a technique from Software Engineering that can help you organize your guitar practice to get the most out of the skills you learn. When I'm not playing guitar I work as a software engineer to pay the rent. I was recently reading about the new features of a developer tool I use when I came across the passage below (edited slightly to make it appropriate to this context) that gave me an idea to improve my guitar practice.

What then is the theme of the new version? Rather than trying to find some way to yet again radically increase the power of the tool, we decided to spend a cycle on making what we already have work better with the other stuff in our programming platform. Now actually "works the way you'd expect it to" is not really a theme that gets people excited, but sometimes you've got to stop running forward at full speed and take some time to fix the existing stuff that is annoying a lot of people.

Now playing guitar induces G.A.S. as we all know, but even at the early stages in your guitar career you are not immune to it. If you teach you guitarists the most asked questions are:

• What is the best guitar?
• What is the best amp?
• Which effects are best?
• Are tube amps really better than modellers?
• ......

You can imagine the rest of the questions. The reason for these questions is also easily found, we tend to look for easy answers, don't we? Other people might wonder: What is the best tennis racket, what is the best car, etc.

The cold hard truth however is as always: there is no best, period.

Do not get me wrong however, there is good and bad here. There are guitars out there that are total crap and that will make you play worse and these are not necessarily the cheapest guitars.

Herb Smith is a guitar soloist who's a veteran in the music business.  I personally fell in love with his playing when I heard his luscious rendition of Tango #3 (by Jose Ferrar) over at his Jazzmatrix site.  Spanish classics, jazz masters, contemporary guitar styles, Herb plays it all and lives to write about it.  Check out his Guitar Performance and Instruction blog here.  

"The guitar is the easiest instrument to play poorly." — Andres Segovia

This is my first posting for Jemsite so I feel like I should introduce myself and make a confession of sorts.   I've been a guitar player for nearly 40 years. I started teaching in the '70s. My motto: Want a real guitar teacher? Hire one with gray hair.

I am old enough to have seen the original Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" tour. I was in the front row.

I am old enough to have seen Andres Segovia perform several times. I once had a seat on stage at the Kennedy Center for one of his concerts. The last time I saw him he was 88 years old and had a six-year old son. Right then and there I said, "that's what I want to do."

A while back I was asked to write up a short, entertaining list for a music blog called 10 Things You Wish You Knew About Guitars (Before You Bought One.)  So what better way to get the real dish on the subject then to ask Jemsite members of course! They were the ones that really knew the answers.  So I went on the Jemsite forum, of course, and started a thread--hoping the community would help me out.

And they responded...in an overwhelming way! I got more answers then I knew what to do with and so, unfortunately I couldn't possibly use them all.  This was supposed to be a list of 10--so I added the 10--and 5 honorable mentions and yet still have more answers then I know what to do with.

Unfortunately due to the blog creator's time constraints, the blog has since closed down.  Fortunately for us, we have the perfect place to include that list--right here on our very own blog! So without further adieu, I present the best answers for the burning regret we've all had on our minds: 10 Things You Wish You Knew About Guitars (Before You Bought One) from our very own vast and highly opinionated Jemsite community!

Brendan Delumpa is a professional web engineer by day, but his alter ego is GoofyDawg, a singer/ songwriter, webmaster of GuitarGear.org, and self-styled guitar gear freak-o-maniac!

Last week, I was perusing guitars at the local shop near work. I was on a mission to check out Telecasters and Telecaster-like guitars, as I’ve been thinking about adding a Tele to my small collection of guitars. I tried several; some solid-body models, some semi-hollow. They all had great tone, and each had their own unique character. Then I longingly looked over at a G & L Comanche hanging on the rack, and thought to myself, Man, I’d just love to have one of those, but they’re out of my price range. I picked it up anyway, plugged it into an amp, and savored the sweet, rich textures that I’ve come to love with that guitar. After a few minutes, I sadly shook my head, unplugged the guitar, and started putting it back on the rack.

Then I looked at the price, and almost pissed myself. The tag read $799.00! How could that be? A basic Comanche normally sells for $1600! Did G & L guitars become so popular that they decided to drop the price? Then reason took over and I realized that G & L must’ve done the same thing PRS did: They used an overseas production company to provide high-quality, yet more affordable models. This was borne out once I called a sales guy over and he confirmed what I was thinking and said that what I just played was a Tribute Series Comanche, made from the same materials (though different hardware) as the original, but constructed in Korea.