Essence of Music

Ask the average person to describe or sketch an electric guitar and chances are they’ll come up with something that resembles either a Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul. These two guitars are imprinted on our collective consciousness for good reason. Ever since their introductions in the 1950s, the Strat and the LP have largely ruled the electric guitar roost. Both offered revolutionary improvements in both playability and sonic performance. Each is a completely different and much-copied design; their tone and playing feel completely distinct. Here’s a list of those differences: Scale length A big difference between the Stratocaster and the Les Paul is their scale length—the length of the strings measured from the nut to the bridge. The Les Paul is 24.75 inches versus the Stratocaster’s longer 25.5 inches. This has an impact on both sound and playability. A longer scale length results in more space between the frets and greater string tension making it a little more ...

Nylon String guitars vs. Steel String Acoustic So you’ve decided to start playing guitar! First of all, congratulations, you’re about to embark on a rewarding musical journey that will undoubtedly change your life for the better – yes, guitar is that good! The journey begins at deciding what type of guitar you want to start with though, a tough decision! Of course you can start with any type of guitar, whether electric, acoustic or classical, and once you’ve learned the basics you can swap between all of them at your own pace, but today we’re going to be talking about the most common starting points for guitarists; acoustic and classical guitars. But which one is right for you? The differences: The fret board The fret board of a classical guitar is a lot wider than that of an acoustic and quite often classical guitars will not have inlays along the fingerboard. Strings First of all, let’s clear something – both these guitars are in fact acoustic guitars, except one uses n...

From Hendrix to Slash, Iron Maiden to Spinal Tap - if guitar royalty has one thing in common, it's that they all bow down to the majesty of Marshall guitar amplifiers. The new range includes a 15-watt head and combo, and a 100-watt head. In between the ultra-portable and the ultra-loud sits the DSL40C. As ever, simplicity proves itself to be the backbone of great design, but that doesn't mean Marshall has skimped on features. Like the original DSL, you've got two channels, divided into Classic Gain and Ultra Gain. Each also has two separate modes, giving you four different voices to play with. The Classic Gain channel is split into clean and crunch, but by using the gain control sparingly, there's still plenty of scope to keep the clean pristine or introduce a hit of 'Plexi'- style dirt. The crunch actually covers a surprisingly wide range; there's more than enough to nail the coveted Marshall saturated crunch that the likes of AC/DC have made so i...

Good audio is critical to your learning success.  You might be a great instructional designer and create the most engaging courses possible.  But it all falls apart if the audio quality in your course is not very good. If you have the money, then getting a professional audio engineer to record your audio is the best option. However, many of us don't have a deep pocket. If you do have a limited budget (or you want to do the narration yourself) then here are some tips to help you do the best job possible. 1.  Invest in a good quality microphone When it comes to microphones, you typically get what you pay for.  A good mic is going to give you good audio quality.  This isn’t to say that you can’t make do with an inexpensive microphone. But the difference between a normal desktop microphone and a high end condenser is quite substantial. So this is not really an area you can cheap out on. 2.  Maintain a consistent environment. In an ideal worl...