u/ObviousDepartment744

I used to tour with three of the same guitar. One for standard tuning one for drop d and a backup.

Especially if you play in dramatically different tunings or have a floating bridge it’s almost necessary to have different guitars for different tunings.

Currently i jsut do studio stuff these days and I have 5 guitars. Two in standard (different pickup cinfigs) 1 down 1/2 step. 1 in C standard and the other in Nashville tuning.

Typically i jsut use my electric unplugged. Or I’ll use my computer with an amp sim.

Amp 100%

For younger kids, that’s always a challenge but the main thing is to jsut have fun. Keep it simple. Break eveything down to an easier form. For example, if you jsut use the G B and high E string you can play a G major chord and C Major chord using 1 finger and an E minor chord with no fingers.

Then focus more on rhythm than notes. Strumming a G chord is more fun than flubbing transitions for a younger kid. Also don’t be afraid to make the common mistakes with them. It’s discouraging to younger kids to see perfection all the time so if you say “okay, let’s try this transition it’s really tough.” And you mess up with them, it shows them it’s okay to make mistakes. This is for the like 8 and under crowd, you can’t make smothers in front of older kids haha.

For older students always have a plan, but be open to letting them guide a little bit. Instead of asking “is there anything you’d like to learn?” (That makes it sound like you don’t know what you’re doing and haven’t planned for the lesson) ask “what have you been working on, did any questions come up since our last lesson?” This shows that you’re interested in what they are doing and that you can taylor the lesson to their current interests. Since a lot of older students will also kind of go in their own path of exploration this also encourages that.

If they shrug and say “nothing” then go to the lesson you had planned for that day.

Yeah it’s a much more nuanced situation than many people were gemming it out to be.

I've been teaching for 20+ years and honestly teaching kids under 10 is very challenging. Especially if the parent is in the room because the teacher will never be viewed as the actual authority in the room. As a father myself I 1000% understand why the parent would want to be in the room, but it does present challenges. If the teacher isn't overly experienced, its quite possible he was nervous as well.

Its one challenge to get a student, of any age, to get on board with actually learning and absorbing the information. Its another challenge to learn how to deal with/manage/respectfully handle the parent at the same time. Many parents, just like many students, can have wild expectations of what can and can't be accomplished in a lesson and many teachers project this behavior on to all parents so they try to get something for the student to work on, or get accomplished in the first lesson to show progress of some sort.

I'm clearly playing devil's advocate here, and if I'm trying to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt, then he was most likely feeling some kind of pressure to get your kid to play something and flat out missed the mark by not demonstrating it first. But, 99/100 regardless of if they teacher demonstrates exactly how to hold the guitar, the student never gets it right.

Now, to play your advocate here. Its not like there is a certificate anyone needs to earn in order to be a guitar teacher, you just have to wake up one day and say you're a guitar teacher. For every one good teacher out there, there's probably a few hundred not so good ones, so its very possible this teacher is just inexperienced and still figuring it out.

In any light, I'd give the teacher you have a few more lessons to see how it goes, but also don't feel like you need to be committed to a teacher you feel isn't a good fit for your kid.

I can't say I agree with starting an 8 year old out on an E Minor chord though. Its easy enough by older beginner standards, but its a tricky one for younger kids to play.

I once forgot drum sticks. At a gig on a lake, hours from a music store. I played the set with long plastic tubes for blowing bubbles. Haha. Half way through an audience member brought me a pair of sticks. Haha.

First, you should just get familiar with the equipment in the room. Its not the best experience in the world trying to get anything done while also trying to figure out how the equipment and software are working.

You want to make a scratch track, just make sure to have the arrangement down and make sure you're playing isn't a distraction from the metronome. Nothing worse than drumming to a scratch track that's all over the place. Its nice to be able to drum to the music knowing its in time as opposed to ignoring the music and focussing 100% on the click.

If you're going to send it to a drummer to work on, have a few options available for them. First, make sure your tempo is correct, and any time/tempo changes are clearly marked in a note. It's also nice to export/render the click track from your session on an independent track, just in case there is any issues with clocks aligning. (there shouldn't be, but it can happen.) Also a basic mix of whatever instruments/vocals you put on the scratch track, and if you want to go wild you could include stems as well so the drummer can make their own mix,

Well, technically it would be a harmony yea. If it sounds good or not, that's up to you I suppose.

Without getting too far into the weeds, here's the basic stuff to know.

CPU: Main things to look for is core/thread count and clock speed. More cores, more processes the CPU can do at a time, you don't typically need a ton of cores for gaming, I think 6 to 8 is still pretty decent. For clock speed, the simple answer is more = better.

CPU Cooler: This cools the CPU. Some CPU's come with basic coolers that can be very effective. Just buy a Thermalright Peerless Assassin and save yourself the time. haha. Its very affordable and performs on par with coolers much more expensive.

RAM: More = better, but more is very expensive. More Speed doesn't always equate to better, depends on CPU. General rule of thumb, two smaller sticks is usually better than one larger stick. So having two 8 gigs sticks is better than a single 16 gig stick. 4 sticks can actually be less effective and 3 sticks is right out. Always get matching sticks of RAM to be safe. In the long run, most people will never notice the effect of RAM unless they run out, so I usually prioritize quantity over speed. If you are faced with buying two 8Gig sticks at a super fast speed or two slower 16Gig sticks, i'd get the two 16 Gigs sticks.

Motherboard: It connects everything together. Primary thing to look for is its i/o ports to make sure it has enough for your needs. USB ports on the back are the obvious choice, but also the "headers" for connecting to the USB ports on the front of your case.

GPU: Processes the Graphics in a gaming computer. A GPU is not a Graphics Card, a GPU is processor within a Graphics Card. For most people, difference in Graphics Cards with the same GPU is minimal in terms of performance, but sometimes a more expensive option will have quieter fans, or some other quality of life aspect. If you look up 9070xt GPU prices, you'll see Graphics Cards containing that GPU ranging from like $800 to $1500. Performance wise, most people will not notice a difference between the two. Keep in mind the length of a the Graphics Card in relation to the available space in your case.

Storage: Simply put, more = better. In a gaming setting, you will never notice the transfer rate differences of a modern storage device. M.2 form factor SSD's are the most common and easiest to install so I suggest them, especially as your primary boot drive. (they are the ones that look like a stick of gum) Though having a 2.5" SSD can be a less expensive option to have as a second storage drive if need be. Storage is expensive now, though I do suggest getting at least 1TB if you plan on playing modern AAA games.

Case: They come in all shapes and sizes and generally their primary selling point is aesthetics, you do want to make sure it can fit the motherboard and GPU you choose. Like I talked about in the Motherboard section, be aware of the front panel ports on it and make sure it aligns with what your motherboard offers. If your motherboard has a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 header on it, but your case only supports USB 2 on its front ports, it'll still work but you will not get the performance you're paying for with the motherboard. Honestly most people don't need a port that fast on the front of their computer, but it is typically the port you use external drives on for transferring data so if you find yourself transferring large files a lot, it might be important to you.

Fans: Cases have fans for intake and exhausting air. This air flow helps to keep the components cool. There are many videos out there on the "optimal" way to set these. Case fans is a whole rabbit hole of its own haha.

PSU: This is the power supply. This one box supplies power to the CPU, Motherboard, GPU, and any other component you may have in your computer. DO NOT SKIMP on your PSU. Inevitably your budget will run out and you'll look to shave a few bucks off the price of your build, do not cut corners on your PSU. They are very important, a poorly designed one can literally destroy your computer. Ideally, the wattage your PSU can put out will be around 60 to 80% of the maximum draw your system needs. It'll still work at higher capacity, but when it has to work less, it stays cooler. This not only promotes a longer lifespan for your PSU but also prevents it form adding heat the inside of your PC since it usually sits right under the Graphics Card.

www.pcpartpicker.com is a great website to help you make sure that you're picking parts that are compatible, and to do some basic price comparisons.

Depends on the teacher, and depends on the student. I've been teaching for 20+ years, I do not enjoy web based lessons. I'll do them if necessary, but they just aren't rewarding to me really. Though I have a friend who's been teaching just as long as I have and he loves doing online lessons. They just fit his personality, and his life better.

Same thing for students. Some love them, some hate them.

I find this is mostly isolated to online communities. Go be a part of a local music scene and build relationships with people who are all striving to help build a thriving, welcoming, local scene.

I find having real life positive interactions does a good job of counteracting the constant negativity found in too many places online. Not saying all local scenes are positive places, some are toxic af, but ya know.

Unless you're actively using the wah while tuning, it won't be an issue. So put those in whatever order fits your board the best.

Personally, I like my tuner to be on all the time, so I use the oh so controversial "tuner output" on my volume pedal. This way I can do quick tuning checks mid song if need be and my tuner isn't ever actually in my direct signal chain, its just constantly being fed a dry signal from my guitar since that particular volume pedal (I use two) is first in my signal chain. (I don't use a wah anymore, when I did my wah was first in the chain)

First, establish if you want long term or short term storage. SSD's are great for shorter term storage devices that you're going to use often. HDD (aka "hard drives" aka "spinner drives" aka "mechanical drivers") are not as fast as SSD's but they are more reliable for long term storage and properly "backup" situations.

For me, I converted and old PC into a NAS with two 4TB HDD's spinner drives for long term storage. I have them setup in RAID 1, so while I have 8TB of storage, everything is saved as a redundancy in case one drive fails. So I have 4TB of usable storage, seems to be fine for now. I'll typically only archive a project for a year or two depending on my personal feelings about it haha. These are mostly just folders uploaded by Date. At the beginning of each month, I take all the finished projects from the previous month, put them into one folder, name the folder by the year and month the projects were saved (2026 - OCT) then I'll assess how much storage space is left and see if I need to get rid of anything.

Then I have a few external drive options, I've found it to be the most useful to only buy internal drives, then purchase housings for them. This way, if I ever want/need to use one as an internal drive on a computer I can, and if the USB port ever fails I can just buy a new housing. I'm generally very careful with my stuff, but accidents happen.

Currently I have 3 external drives. All are 1TB. First one has my sample libraries in it. The other two are more current projects I'm working on. One for Reaper projects the other for Pro Tools projects. The file organization goes as follows:

• Sessions
• Artst/Client
• Date and Title of Project
• Session Template
• Songs organized by Title

My Sample library is relatively small, i primarily only use drum one shots and they are just organized by Drum. So theres a Kick, Snare, Tom, Cymbals folder. Within those folders I've done some organization but not enough to be really useful, I just kind of know where the ones I like are haha.

You’re at a normal spot. You’re at the first REAL hurdle of playing. Let me put some perspective on this for you. If you’ve been truly playing for hours every single day foe 2 years, that means you’ve put in somewhere between 700 and a 1000ish hours right. (Assuming by hours you mean 2 to 3 hours)

That’s usually about the time a player “wakes up” as I like to call it. Somewhere between the 1000 and 1500 hour mark students often become acutely aware of what they can’t do. Up until then they e focused mainly on improving and experiencing a level of improvement within reasonable time frames.

You’re at the point where any talent you had can’t help anymore. This is where it truly becomes a challenge and you’re going to need to learn to improve in a more methodical way. I remember being so frustrated at that point, I felt I should be better than I was, I felt like I was just stuck.

This is kind of like graduating high school and deciding what you want to be. Do you want to go to college? If so, study what? Enter the work force, and do what? You have time to experience a lot of things but you jsut have to pick one and go for it. I’d suggest picking a technique that many of your favorite players do, and make that a primary focus for a few months. Then reassess. I tend to start people on alternate picking or economy picking. Being methodical with their approach and stressing accuracy and timing as much as possible.

You can get through it, but that’s just the game now. A series of plateaus, and the better you get the longer the plateaus can feel. But you jsut keep working at it. Find the joy in the process more than the result and the results will come.

Any time based effect can cause a change in the pitch. Overdrives and distortions can accentuate harmonics to the point that the tuner can get confused about what note is actually being played.

Managing the noise of your rig isn’t the tuner’s job.

I use anywhere from 0 racks to 3. Jsut depends on on the situation. The music comes first, the tools for creating and expression are chosen as needed.

Sometimes it’s fun to play with 3 up 2 down. Sometimes I just have a floor tom or maybe 3 floor toms and no racks. I like being flexible in all things music. It’s just an approach I’ve always taken.

In the end all that matters is you being able to express the music in your head through your instrument. If that requires 5 rack toms so be it. If it requires 1 or event zero racks, great.

Think of it like a traditional language. You don't learn grammar before you learn to speak/ You have a basic vocabulary and at least some basic understanding of how the language works.

Music theory is the same. Think of it like grammar studies not the dictionary.

There are some great piano methods that incorporate theory into them, the Piano Adventures series is good, I believe they have a specific set called "Accelerated Piano Adventures" or something to that effect. Each level has a handful of books including theory, performance, technique etc.

So you don't actually know the major scale then. Knowing shapes and patterns are a good step toward understanding how a scale works, but doesn't give you the whole picture.

Here's the foundational concepts I teach my students. Once you have these down, it makes learning almost anything related to theory (and playing the guitar) a lot easier.

1. Intervals. Learn to identify intervals by ear, and how to play them on the guitar. When I say "learn to play" I mean in as many ways as possible, pick a string (usually low E or A) and learn to identify and play every interval from that root note.

2. Interval pattern of the major scale. Often times called the "whole step/half step" pattern. If you've done 1 correctly, this will be easy to play, its just an isolated portion of the intervals from 1. But learn to hear them in order.

3. Harmonized Major Scale. Not the harmonic major scale, that's different haha. Harmonized major scale. Learn to identify by ear, and play the three primary triads used in the major scale. (Major, Minor, Diminished) Learn to play each triad using any combination of the 6 strings. (again, really just a refinement of the process in 1 and 2. ) Your CAGED knowledge should be really helpful here.

4. Chords of and chord function of the major scale. Learn to identify the sound of the chords used in the Major Scale out to 7th. Major 7, Minor 7, Half Diminished 7, Dominant 7. Learn at least 3 different voicing options for each chord. Your CAGED knowledge will probably be helpful here as well.

5. Basics of Chord Progressions and how to identify them. Start with I IV V, If you hear a I VI V and can identify it quickly you're off to a good start. Use deductive reasoning to start with, if you hear a minor chord, then its most likely the ii, iii, or vi chord. Once you can identify a I IV V, you can use those as landmarks to identifying what minor chords are being played.

6. Playing chord progressions in any position. Pick a position, you should be able to play every chord in a key in one position.

7. Introduce Non Diatonic Chords. Borrowed Chords, Secondary Dominants and Tritone Substitutions to start with.

Get a handle on that, and you'll be in good shape, and then you should have a proper understanding of the major scale, and the foundational knowledge to learn pretty much anything in music.

It’ll probably be fine. But it’ll out a lot of tension on your neck so dropping down to the lower tunings will release that tension probably causing your action to get all out of whack. Possibly even back bowing your neck.

The value of art.

Start by brushing the rust off. Take a few weeks and tighten up that sloppiness. No need to get back to your old top speed, but you should never play sloppy, that’ll just perpetuate sloppy playing.

After that start learning anything that’ll give you a little challenge.

Odds are your musical tastes have shifted a little, you probably hear music a little differently than you used to and if that’s the case then embrace that. Until your chops come back embrace finding other ways to express yourself, and use it as a time to expand your musicality.

When you say “have a strong grip on…” whatever scale. What do you mean exactly?

There are two approaches to this. The first is the Geddy Lee (bassist/singer of Rush) approach, and probably what a majority of players do. You get the guitar part so deeply ingrained into your muscle memory that you can play it without thinking about it at all, your hands are auto pilot. You do this by playing it hundreds and hundreds of times, and as you're repeating it, start by trying to talk while playing. You can speak the lyrics to the song if you want, or try to just say gibberish. At first you'll be confined to playing homo-rhythmic ideas that line up with your hands, like if your picking hand accents, so will your voice. Keep working on trying to speak in opposition to your playing, start to feel a push and pull between the two and learn how to live within it. Ultimately, you'll "forget" you're playing guitar and you'll be able to focus on singing.

Second approach is the James Hetfield approach (Rhythm guitarists for Metallica) and that's to slow it down, and treat your entire body as one instrument. Play the song super slow, and finding how to reconcile the two different tasks of singing and playing guitar into one task. It requires knowing how to play the guitar part super slow, and knowing how the vocal fits in and around the guitar part; where the syncopation is etc.

Both work, just depends on how you want to approach it.

Price range?

But beyond that, let's get something out of the way now. A 100 watt tube amp with a master volume can be a bedroom volume practice amp just as easily as a 10 watt solid state amp.

The "practice" amp concept was helpful back in the 70s and 80s prior to master volumes becoming more common on amps. Yes, having a 100 watt Marshall from the 60s or 70s (without a master volume mod) is quite a challenge to use at bedroom volumes, but you can buy a 150 watt Mesa Boogie Road King and play at a whisper volume because it has a master volume.

Finding the form factor, sound and overall experience that's right for you is far more important IMO.