In my opinion, for the beginning guitarist, an acoustic guitar makes more sense than the
electric variety. This is because of two things: The first is that, when playing an electric guitar through an amplifier, it can be fairly difficult for a beginner to make a nice clean sound. This means that technique will suffer and it can also be frustrating for the novice player. In addition, apart from the amplification problems just mentioned, electric guitars use light strings, which are generally easier to play than an acoustic. This means that if you firstly learn on an electric instrument and then decided to swap to an acoustic (and to really become proficient on the instrument, you
should learn how to play a lot of types of music on both varieties of guitar) it can be fairly difficult.

Clearly a beginner won’t need an excessively expensive guitar — the impressive sound quality from a high-end instrument will probably be lost on a beginner. However, it’s very important not to buy a cheap model; a cheap guitar can be very aggravating when the beginner is trying to make a good sound. They can also be hard to play, and if the instrument is too hard at first, many beginners will simply give up. As a general rule, try to buy one that doesn’t completely break the bank, but is at least on the higher end of your budget.

So a good guitar for a beginner really depends on the person it’s for. Always ensure that the guitar is a suitable size. For most adults this means that it should be a standard adult-sized guitar. However, if you’re buying an instrument for a child, you should look into smaller child-sized instruments [there are half size and three-quarter size guitars available].

Just as an additional tip, if you are a beginner, make sure you buy an electronic tuner. As your ear develops, you’ll no longer need this for tuning the guitar, but at first, before you can tune from ear it’s important to use this device to make sure the guitar is always well tuned; otherwise you’ll fall into bad habits and won’t be able to properly recognize notes.

Band logo design is not that different from regular logo design. Both of these graphic design jobs are executed in the same manner; a clear symbol that properly represents the essence of the band, a proper font for the band’s name, or a combination of both. As the artist hired to undertake this task, you will have to figure out how to effectively sum up the band’s name, genre, and essence in that one little picture, and it has to be unique while being easily readable. Maybe once the band achieves international fame, you can butcher the logo into something completely indecipherable that only the fans will recognize. But until that point, make sure people can read the band name.

If you can’t think of a good original symbol to use, there’s no shame in using an existing symbol with a little design tweaking. For example, a fantasy rock band that called Jupiter could use the planetary symbol that looks like a curved number four and make it look as if it’s made out of chrome and surrounded by stars. These symbols are not copyrighted because they are typically universal, so use these if you have to.

Also like regular logo design, you have to use proper artistic elements in the design of a band’s logo, because it may be the logo that makes or breaks their dreams of stardom. That being said, if you’re designing an identity for a death metal band, you probably should not use delicate cursive fonts, soft edges and subdued colors. Who would take a metal band seriously with that kind of logo representing them?

They are of course famous for their brand of rock music (think “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Something In The Way). However, they performed several of their own acoustic songs and covers. One of the stand-out covers they performed was an acoustic cover of Lead Belly’s version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.”

If you don’t know who Lead Belly (wikipedia.org) is: His real name was Huddie William Ledbetter, and he was a folk singer and songwriter during the first half of the 20th century He led somewhat of an interesting life, being sent to prison and a chain-gang, from which he was able to escape. His music was no doubt influenced by his intense life experiences.

“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (also known as “In The Pines” and “Black Girl”) was recorded several times by “Lead Belly” decades before Nirvana covered it. The song wasn’t actually written by Lead Belly, and is a traditional American Folk song from the 1800s. However, Lead Belly’s version differs slightly in musicality to various other versions from around that time. The song has been performed by dozens of musicians over many years – notably Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and The Grateful Dead.

Nirvana started playing the song in the early ’90s after Cobain was introduced to the track by Mark Lanegan. Probably the most famous version of this acoustic cover was on Nirvana’s performance on MTV Unplugged from 1993. This version also appears on the band’s MTV Unplugged album. Another version of the track (a solo home demo of Cobain) is available in the boxset “With The Lights Out”.

How long it takes before you should change the strings varies – it really depends on how often and for how long you play, and how discerning you are when it comes to the tone. A professional will often change their strings once a week. However, if you’re a play-at-home amateur, you can afford to change them much less often.

All brands of string are different, so it’s really down to personal preference as to which type you should use. I’ve tried dozens of different types, brands and gauges. I now almost exclusively use a RotoSound Phosphor Bronze (gauge 11 or 12) on my acoustic guitar. However, this isn’t a recommendation; it’s just what works for me. If you’re a beginner, you should try a few different brands to see what you like.

There are two main types of acoustic guitar string to look at when you’re buying new strings:

• Bronze Wound strings are commonly used by many players. They’re good for professionals who need a very bright sound initially. However, they lose much of their brightness quickly, so need to be changed often to keep a good quality of sound.
• Phosphor Bronze strings are made very similarly to standard bronze string, but with the addition of phosphor. The phosphor gives the sound a slightly warmer tone and also extends the life of the sting (well the life of the bright sound with the string).

With an electric guitar, the types are:

• Nickel Plated strings, which contain a steel core, with nickel plated steel wrapped around it. This is the most often used electric guitar string, and is a good place to start when trying new strings.
• Pure Nickel strings are made of a steel core with pure Nickel wrapped around it.
• Stainless Steel – Exactly as you’d expect: This is simply a string made of stainless steel.

It was a great song when Nine Inch Nails performed it. Perhaps it’s just something about Johnny Cash that intensifies a song, but his interpretation really is beautifully haunting. The track was released right at the end of his life – after suffering for years from autonomic neuropathy, which was brought on by diabetes, Cash was hospitalized in 1998 with pneumonia. This spate of illness damaged his lungs, and his next two albums were of an entirely sombre note. “Hurt” being the stand-out track from “American IV: The Man Comes Around”.

If you want to learn more about Cash’s (extraordinarily interesting) life, Wikipedia as usual has an in-depth amount of information. (Just as an unrelated aside, Wikipedia is currently in the middle of its annual fund-raising. They’re not supported by ads or any other corporate means and rely on donations to support the site. I’ve already made my donation this year, and I absolutely encourage anyone who can spare a few $s to support this great resource.)

Performing a tribute album is always a risky undertaking, but this is not the usual tribute album.  Nils Lofgren and Neil Young performed together for years, and Lofgren was involved during the production of many of Young’s greatest songs.  Lofgren’s voice and playing style is very similar in tone and technique to the originals; however, it’s Lofgren’s own personality that really changes the music and makes the covers unique.  What makes the whole album even more special is that most of the songs were performed alone by Lofgren, on his guitar or piano, in his own house.

As mentioned, I think the stand-out track is the classic “Like A Hurricane”, but I thoroughly recommend listening to the whole album.

So what are the greatest acoustic covers, and who performed the best versions?  Should a cover be true to the original, or should it be an interpretation (something else entirely).

I don’t want the site to become a list of my favourite tracks…  I encourage you to comment on the posts, make recommendations to other readers, and contact me if you have any suggestions or would like to see anything on the site.

Although I’d like the content on the site to be perfect, we all occasionally make mistakes.  So, in view of this, if you see an error, please do contact me or make a comment on the post where you noticed the mistake.  Comments need to be moderated before they appear on the site, but I’ll aim to approve them within 24 hours.

I’ll soon be introducing a forum and functionality to post your own reviews and embed YouTube videos.  For now, if you have an acoustic cover you’ve performed yourself that’s on YouTube or your own website, contact me – if it meets quality standards, I’ll feature it on the site.