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New iPhone Six-String App

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iPhone has just released this really neat phone App that seems like a lot of fun and it’s much more challenging that damn Guitar Hero game!

This phone application tests a person’s finger dexterity as well as developing better hand eye co-ordination. The practical applications that this App, for both guitar players or non guitar players, is actually very impressive if you look at it from a therapeutic point of view.

This phone App can be used for people who might have had damaged nerve endings in their fingers, developed carpal tunnel or have recently suffered from a stroke. Think about it for a second here folks. It certainly can help the brain relearn finger functions and also provides proper finger exercises to help rebuild their strength! It’s fairly cheap and for a non guitar player it can give them a far better idea of how an actual guitar works.

I’ve never tried this thing out because I don’t have an iPhone but it makes sense to me. I’ll bring this to attention of my neurosurgeon or physiotherapy friends at work and inquire what they think about it!

Check out this link to see what I am talking about!

Keep on Jammin’





Acoustic Guitar magazine is 20 years old

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The Acoustic Guitar magazine is celebrating 20 years of service to all those die hard acoustic guitarists out there everywhere!

I’ve always found some great topics and intriguing issues in this magazine. The way the articles are phrased makes them simple to understand and the writers don’t talk down to you. I find this magazine to be unmatched and highly recommend it to any level of guitarist.

I’ve picked up some real nice little riffs and chord progressions in it that I find myself using without even realizing it! The website is just fabulous! If you have an online subscription, the guitar videos will help you become not only a much better guitarist, but a well rounded musician as well. I can’t say enough about the guys and girls that work there.

Acoustic Guitar’s 20th anniversary issue has what they consider to be the top 240 essential albums from the past 20 years. Some are from albums/guitarist that are familiar and some musicians that are very obscure to most, but in the end will help you expand your playing styles in new and exciting directions.

The anniversary installment, January’s issue, covers some great guitar and gear innovations over the past 20 years. Products like the Trace acoustic TA-100, the Kyser Quick Change capo (I’ve got one and I NEVER leave home with out one in my case), the Fishman Acoustic Matrix piezo pickup, tons of guitars and pedals. It also has a real nice article about how guitar making technology has helped change the sound of modern instruments.

Acoustic Guitar 20th Anniversary collector’s edition is out and I highly recommend that you pick this one up for either yourself or a guitarist that you know.

Keep on Jammin’ Acoustic Guitar!

Vocal Pedals for added texture to your Vocals

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Pedals that help enrich your voice is a good thing when you are both the performer and sound engineer. Some music venues that you may play in either have superior or inferior sound systems so this type of pedal might be an easy way to balance out your sound pitch and tone. Some musicians, traditionalists and critics alike tend to view this as way of electronically doping your vocals. Either way this is a great asset to take advantage of as a way to polish up your vocal tone.

I’ve seen these things on web sites and in music stores in the past but I only found it as a passing fancy that didn’t keep my attention up. These were the first generation modules that appeared to be only gimmicks. The end result made your voice appear too digital and fake. Today’s voice pedals seem to be much more advanced in my ways.

The products out there now offer control of your pitch, warmth of tone and even have the capability to harmonize and remember phrasings in real time!

A couple of great guitar friends of mine named John Ball and Eddie Myers, both from Brantford, had guitar harmonizers. They sounded neat at fist listen to but the didn’t have a realistic colour to them. The harmonizing guitars that the pedals made developed a distant feel to them, as if they were on a separate track hidden in the background. We didn’t even think of putting a microphone through them at the time but the results would more then likely be the same.

Here is an example, from the company no less but I think you get a not bad overview of what can do, of the Correct and Create by TC Helicon are all programmable.

So you tell me, what do you think about it? Have you owned this or similar products like this and what were the pros and cons of them!

Check out the pricing on the links below

The TC Helicon Correct

The TC Helicon Create

Keep on Jammin’

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